The Skinny April 2009

.CO.UK

ISSUE 43•APRIL 2009• • FREE

IN THE LOOP WITH ARMANDO IANNUCCI MODESELEKTOR KEEP US GUESSING CELEBRATING RECORD STORE DAY A NEW ERA: BEHAVIOUR AT THE ARCHES

THE PRODIGY "WE DON'T GIVE A SHIT IF WE'RE NUMBER ONE"

MUSIC | FILM | CLUBS | THEATRE | GAMES | BOOKS | EVENTS | ART | FASHION | LISTINGS

? s i s cri what crisis? low prices.

The best entertainment titles at the same old Business as usual at Fopp. arctic monkeys whatever people say...

oasis dig out your soul

£4

£3

last shadow puppets age of the understatement

elliott smith elliott smith

£3

£4

martha wainwright i know you’re married but...

u2 war remastered

£5

£4

franz ferdinand franz ferdinand

£3

gossip standing in the way of control

£3

city of god dvd

control dvd

red road dvd

£3

£3

£3

joe strummer future is unwritten dvd

garth marenghi’s darkplace dvd

totally bill hicks dvd

red curtain trilogy 3 dvd

£3

£4

£3

£6

cds & dvds from £3 books from £2 blu ray from £9

tales from earthsea 2 dvd

£4

get to fopp

edinburgh rose street

glasgow union street + byres road

? s i s cri what crisis? low prices.

The best entertainment titles at the same old Business as usual at Fopp. arctic monkeys whatever people say...

oasis dig out your soul

£4

£3

last shadow puppets age of the understatement

elliott smith elliott smith

£3

£4

martha wainwright i know you’re married but...

u2 war remastered

£5

£4

franz ferdinand franz ferdinand

£3

gossip standing in the way of control

£3

city of god dvd

control dvd

red road dvd

£3

£3

£3

joe strummer future is unwritten dvd

garth marenghi’s darkplace dvd

totally bill hicks dvd

red curtain trilogy 3 dvd

£3

£4

£3

£6

cds & dvds from £3 books from £2 blu ray from £9

tales from earthsea 2 dvd

£4

get to fopp

edinburgh rose street

glasgow union street + byres road

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Jim Noir

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Lloyd Cole Saturday 02 May Glasgow ABC

THE touring production of Waiting for Godot, that comes to the Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Theatre this month and stars Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Simon Callow, is going to be shit. I know this may seem a little pre-emptive, for sure I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen it yet, but sometimes you just know, you know?

I mean, you can get a hunch of it from some of the pre tour publicity. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We're making it in the furnace of art" Simon Callow rather ridiculously said on the Today programme. Good one.

But, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty much a factual certainty too. Plainly, these are actors with nothing to lose: in the later stages of their careers, they have all played enough by way of highly-accomplished roles, and made enough money, for this performance to make very little difference to their enduring reputations or comfort levels.

This matters especially with Waiting for Godot, a play that was, at its time, highly uncertain and experimental in form, and remains a work fundamentally concerned with proximity to the edge. For all that not much happens during the play, there is the pervading threat that if the characters leave the stage undefined outsiders will beat them up and throw them in a ditch; and the psychologically far-out ramblings the protagonists exchange betray humanity at a fairly desperate stage.

Done smugly, a production of Waiting For Godot wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t approach representing what its actually about. And this will inevitably be a smug production.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be meaner still, and state that these actors are all skilled enough to act as if there is something at stake, even when thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not. Some folks will be tricked by this.

My strong sense is that the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;furnace of artâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Callow refers to is very specifically this arena of delusion: experienced professionals rehearsing themselves to a level of seeming relevance. Hard work, undoubtedly, but almost the exact opposite of what the actor seems to be trying to refer to.

Waiting for Godot was the text that really got me as a teenager and made me realise thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more to art than a good story, an appealing image, or a moving tune. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got good jokes, and interesting ideas, it can be as entertaining as anything (and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m taking â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;jokesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in about the broadest possible definition here: a clever drumbeat can be just as much a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;jokeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as a wisecrack). So

my before-the-event bitterness comes from a sense of protectiveness. And sure enough, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got my ticket.

The last thing I want to do is come across all jaded though, so it makes sense to point to something genuinely exciting by way of contrast. A desire for the challenging has been one of the defining characteristics of Jackie Wylieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tenure so far as Artistic Director at The Arches. She takes a further step in that direction this month, with the debut of the rebranded Arches Theatre Festival, Behaviour. Our full length preview is on page 28.

For those who value these things, how to retain your valuable bruised exposure throughout an artistic career is an undeniable challenge. This month we have an extended word with one of the most high-profile of edgy performers of recent years: Keith Flint of The Prodigy (from page 10).

Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very articulate and honest about the tough times the band have been through, but there is a slight inconsistency there. While he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hold many fond memories from the time that followed the release of the hugely successful The Fat of the Land album, he goes on to say that his favourite Prodigy album is Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, the album that immediately followed this period. My own critical judgement aside, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interesting that Flint can make this statement without necessarily spotting the link: that good work came after bad experiences (thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no reason why he should; even the most committed makers can be excused some will to happiness).

But this story is in keeping with the old idea of art coming from, if not suffering, then strife or discomfort.

Evidence from all fields of creative practice suggests that there is an intensity that must be maintained to create the best work, and that this intensity in turn either takes its own toll or can feed from (under the right circumstances) tough times.

And, whether Flint realises exactly how or why theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve come the route they have, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no denying that The Prodigy have got the records and the performances under their belt to make their history worth studying.

Even more to the point, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re worth catching live, and here in Scotland weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re lucky enough to have two chances to over the next few months, as theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re playing the SECC this month, and the best-line-up-yet (Daft Punk glory excepted) RockNess in June. Everybody in the placeâ&#x20AC;Ś rupert@theskinny.co..uk

THE SKINNY April 2009 Issue 43, April 2009 Š Radge Media Ltd. Let us know what you think: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, The Drill Hall, 30-38 Dalmeny St, Edinburgh, EH6 8RG The Skinny is Scotland's largest entertainment & listings magazine, and offers a wide range of advertising packages and affordable ways to promote your business. Get in touch to find out more.

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Printed by Mortons Print Limited, Horncastle

Publisher Editorial

Editor Online & Music editor Clubs editor Heads Up editor Deviance editor Theatre editor Film editor DVD editor Comedy editor Books editor Games editor Art & Showcase editor Food & Drink editor Aberdeen editor

Production

Creative director Production editor Subeditors

ABC: 32,487 1/7/08 - 31/12/09

Sales

0871 220 0260 www.seetickets.com

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I^X`Zi HXdiaVcY/ 6g\naZ Hi <aVh\dl! GdhZ Hi :Y^cWjg\] G^ee^c\ GZXdgYh#

4 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

Editorial

Enterprise manager Sales executives

Research

Listings editor Club listings

Sophie Kyle Rupert Thomson Dave Kerr Chris Duncan Erin McEIlhinney Nine Gareth K. Vile Gail Tolley Michael Gillespie Lizzie Cass-Maran Keir Hind Josh Wilson Rosamund West Ruth Marsh Jaco Justice

Matt MacLeod David Lemm Euan Ferguson Paul Greenwood Paul Mitchell Gillian Watson

Lara Moloney Francesca Howard Larissa Moran Becca Pottinger Andrew Cooke

Contents

DF CONCERTS PRESENTS…DF CONCERTS PRESENTS…DF CONCERTS PRESENTS…

COVER FEATURE

THE PRODIGY Slap yer biatch up AND start a fire.

Dave Kerr talked to The Prodigy and they went to number one in the same week. Bo!

GLASGOW BARROWLAND

» 10

6 8 14 18 20 22 26 27 28 31 32 34 53 59

+

SUNDAY 26TH APRIL

Glasgow Barrowland

Showcase

Jenny Soep draws you while you sing. Well, more famous people than me or you but it's the live drawing that counts.

Thursday 16th April

Heads Up

He's blue, she's white, some of them are red and green? Beltane, doh!

PLUS get some proper chemical action at the Science Festival.

Fashion

More girls in their pants! Cute frills and candy colours abound. PLUS our new fashion team come up with things you might think are fashiony.

Food & Drink

I want Bouvrage, dahling! That's Bou-Ver-AHHHge, and you can keep the hangover.

Deviance

A monologue or a threesome, your call. Oh, and Slutty's gone on holiday :(

New Album Out Now

KRISTINHERSH

+ CHRISTOPHER REES + BEERJACKET (GLAS & EDIN ONLY)

glasgow king tuts

GLASGOW ABC2 SUNDAY 10TH MAY

monday 18th may

aberdeen lemon tree

EDINBURGH CABARET VOLTAIRE

tuesday 19th may

FRI 17TH APRIL

edinburgh cabaret voltaire

+ AMAZING BABY (GLASGOW ONLY) + CHEW LiPS (EDINBURGH & GLASGOW)

wednesday 20th may

GLASGOW KING TUTS

SAT 18TH APRIL

Film

Armando Iannucci tells us about his new release, In the Loop, while Catriona McInnes tells us about her powerful short I'm in Away from Here.

Games

Get those Light Sabres dusted off for an oldie revisited, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Books

Benjamin Zephaniah and an Aye Write! round up.

Theatre

On your best behaviour at the Arches, or go your own way with Blood Brothers (left)

Comedy

GLASGOW ORAN MOR SATURDAY 2ND MAY

GLASGOW ABC2 SAT 2ND MAY

+ JERSEY BUDD

GLASGOW KING TUTS

GLASGOW ABC2 SUNDAY 5TH APRIL GLASGOW QMU Monday 18th May

Andrew Maxwell, in case you've been living under a rock for the best part of a decade, is a comedian.

TUESDAY 19TH MAY WEDNESDAY 20TH MAY

+ THE BLACK SPIDERS + WINNEBAGO DEAL

Art

Have a wee tasty experiment. Go on. Dare you.

Music

GLASGOW THE GARAGE MONDAY 6TH APRIL

It's record store day this month. Buy your favourite music store owner a present. We've also got Pearl Jam and Camera Obscura, left.

Clubs

Modeselektor love Glasgow, Noiseporn want your mix-tapes, and Japanese Popstars (left) look forward to Death Disco.

Listings

Things to do, places to go, stuff to see (like HEALTH, left). Get off your arse.

+ ANDREW MORGAN GLASGOW ABC2

THURSDAY 21ST MAY

GLASGOW CLASSIC GRAND FRI 24TH APRIL Debut Album ‘INNERPARTYSYSTEM’ Out Now www.innerpartysystem.com www.myspace.com/innerpartysystem

TICKETS 24HRS 08444 999 990 • www.ticketmaster.co.uk • www.gigsinscotland.com

IN PERSON GLASGOW Tickets Scotland, EDINBURGH Tickets Scotland, Ripping, DUNDEE Grouchos & all Ticketmaster Ticket Centres.

APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 5

Showcase Jenny Soep

Jenny Soep is an 'Illustrator'. Well, SHE thinks she is, but the Association of Illustrators once said 'well, it's not really illustration is it?'

She says it's got words, it's evocative, it's an illustration of the live event, affected by the live event.

Soep has had the great fortune to draw many great gigs and events: at T in the Park (she was sponsored

by Scottish Water to draw at the Futures Stage, but snuck out at one point to go draw Brian Wilson in his Pet Sounds tent - she gave the pic

to Brian, and doesn't have a copy because she was so emotionally overcome); both Connect festivals (highlights - Bjork - one of the pictures of Bjork has got a massive wine stain incorporated, care of some anonymous audience member); Ballads of the Book at the Tramway, Arches Live and Arches Theatre Festival, Projector Animation Festival, StAnza Poetry Festival, not forgetting the World Porridge Making Championships. Last year the Scotsman commissioned Jenny to

6 THE SKINNY April 2009

draw their live debate on the current situation for the arts in Scotland, with the picture being featured in the weekend paper.

Occasionally Jenny gets to collaborate with an animator who projects live footage and animation of her drawings during live gigs. This is always exciting.

So Jenny Soep might not be thought of as a 'regular' illustrator, but drawing live is her thing, and she's definitely one to watch in the future.

Upcoming Events

Find out more

Drawing David Byrne Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 31 Mar

www.jennysoep.blogspot.com for constant updates.

Solo Show Sketching the Scene featuring the best gigs Soep's drawn. Grand Multimedia Opening Wednesday 29 Apr 6pm onwards Mono, 10 King St, Glasgow, G1 5QP Hinterland Featured 'Documentary Drawer' Glasgow, 30 Apr - 1 May

Also www.jennysoep.com which includes drawings of Arab Strap, Ballads of the Book and Uncle John and Whitelock.

APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 7

Heads Up

Summer Loving

Gutter Talk

Magners Glasgow Comedy Festival

The hills are alive with the sound of drumming...

BEATRICE AND MARIA

GAVIN DILLON

JANET AND STEVEN

CLAIRE LANIGAN

CRAIG STOBO

JAMES and Kirsteen

GAVIN DILLON

JANET AND STEVEN

WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELLED FROM TONIGHT?

WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELLED FROM TONIGHT?

My house – in the West End.

O’Neills in George Square, but really from Penrith.

BEATRICE AND MARIA WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELLED FROM TONIGHT?

Beatrice: Göttingen in Germany, I’m just about to start at university.

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SEE IN 2009?

Neil Hodgins

On 30 April every year, around three hundred performers and up to fifteen thousand punters climb Calton Hill for the Beltane Fire Festival. Athletic hippies in nothing but red paint and thongs make human pyramids, fire dancers spin their toys hypnotically, and drummers beat out mad rhythms at length... but, er, why does this all happen?

Beltane is an ancient pagan festival welcoming the arrival of summer and what happens on the hill now builds freely on old rituals, and has been doing so since its revival 21 years ago. At the centre is the coming of the May Queen - embodiment of spring and femininity - and her male counterpart the Green Man, the same guy all those pubs are named after. So far, so traditional, and taken straight out of recorded folklore; but records being patchy, and paganism being a living tradition, large sections of the BFS event are newly interpreted each year. The resulting hybrid of old and new works as both a powerful ritual and a piece of spectacularly entertaining theatre.

Beltane also attracts a massively diverse group of volunteers; a lot of the appeal lies in the community that's grown up around the festival, the skills learnt and the inhibitions overcome. Previous participants quote similar stories of the amazing natural high felt after the performance has finished, the eclectic mix of people they’ve had the chance to meet, and the confidence gained through kicking the ass out of unexpected challenges. Oh, and there’s the legendary all-night afterparty too… open to performers only, of course.

It’s the biggest fire festival in the world, it’s cheap as chips, and it’s right on your doorstep.

The BFS are still in desperate need of stewards and torch-bearers, without which the event simply can't happen. It's a minimal time commitment, and you'll have a front-row seat for all the proceedings.

Contact volunteers@beltane.org for more info. A longer version of this article can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk.

Previews Edinburgh International Science Festival Various venues, Apr 4 - 18 2009

It’s time to unleash your inner scientist and get cultured: the Edinburgh International Science Festival is here to expand our minds and teach us about wonders we never even knew existed. There’s a strong - and applaudable bent towards children’s events, but with 170 events in 26 venues, there are more than a few opportunities for the more mature of us to participate.

ASIMO - Advanced Step In Innovative Mobility - is the result of 22 years of persistent research by those clever chaps at Honda and will be appearing at the McEwan Hall for a series of events on 4 and 5 April (tickets are a measly £2.50). Apparently the world’s most advanced humanoid robot, he can recognise people, shake hands and even dance, which puts him ahead of a significant chunk of humanity already.

The one-not-to-miss however, is the appearance by Australian performance artist Stelarc. Interested in how our bodies interact with technology, he’s grafted an extra ear onto his left arm; when electronically augmented, the ear will become internet enabled, allowing people in other places to listen to what his ear is, er, listening to.

And then of course, there are the masses of lectures - Richard Dawkins, Pixar Animation - workshops, tours, heaps of kids’ stuff that you wish was for adults, a sleepover at the zoo, oh and the History of the Vibrator.

Science has never been so sexy. [Katy Hutcheson] A longer version of this article can be found at www.theskinny.co.uk. www.sciencefestival.co.uk

8 THE SKINNY April 2009

B: Oh, Billy Connolly! And he’s from Glasgow hooray!

IF YOU WERE A COMIC WHAT WOULD YOUR SHOW BE CALLED?

M: You should call it “Catching Bees”.

B: That was my nickname at school.

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU LIKE TO TOUCH ON THE TROUSERS?

B: Mario Barth – he’s a German comedian I love.

HAVE YOU EVER LAUGHED SO HARD YOU’VE PEED YOURSELF?

B: Um, no! But I have almost suffocated from laughing at the Quatsch Comedy Club in Berlin. There was a whole night of different comics and I couldn’t breath because I was laughing too much!

CLAIRE LANIGAN WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELLED FROM TONIGHT?

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SEE IN 2009?

Eddie Izzard.

IF YOU WERE A COMIC WHAT WOULD YOUR SHOW BE CALLED?

Ummm... Big Willy!

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU LIKE TO TOUCH ON THE TROUSERS?

Eddie Izzard again.

HAVE YOU EVER LAUGHED SO HARD YOU’VE PEED YOURSELF?

Probably at my mum when I was a kid – mums just being themselves are funny.

CRAIG STOBO WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELLED FROM TONIGHT?

Oh miles – from Shawlands!

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SEE IN 2009?

Easy. Peter Sellars, Spike Milligan, Michael Bentine and Harry Seacombe – introduced by Peter Cook.

Strathblane in Stirlingshire.

IF YOU WERE A COMIC WHAT WOULD YOUR SHOW BE CALLED?

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SEE IN 2009?

My name would be Emperor Stretch – that’s a nickname I used to have. I reckon the show would just be called ‘What the Fuck Is Going On?’

Lets see... Dara O’Briain, Reginald D Hunter, Paul Merton.

IF YOU WERE A COMIC WHAT WOULD YOU BE CALLED?

Smokie Murray.

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU LIKE TO TOUCH ON THE TROUSERS?

J: Rob Brydon, oh yes!

S: Les Dawson and Ken Dodd.

IF YOU WERE A COMIC WHAT WOULD YOUR SHOW BE CALLED?

S: I’d just call it ‘Piss Off!’ WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU LIKE TO TOUCH ON THE TROUSERS?

J: I’ve given Russell Brand a bit of a fondle – well, I gave him a hug.

HAVE YOU EVER LAUGHED SO HARD YOU’VE PEED YOURSELF?

J: When Steven was lighting his farts – this is so embarrassing! – I did let some out.

JAMES MACKAY AND KIRSTEEN McKEOWN WHERE HAVE YOU TRAVELLED FROM TONIGHT?

Both: The pub – in Motherwell.

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SEE IN 2009?

J: Michael McIntyre is great.

K: Jimmy Carr.

IF YOU WERE A COMIC WHAT WOULD YOUR SHOW BE CALLED?

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU LIKE TO TOUCH ON THE TROUSERS?

J: Keepy Uppy.

Lucy Porter – she’s lovely. And Sarah Silverman.

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU LIKE TO TOUCH ON THE TROUSERS?

Andrew Maxwell!

HAVE YOU EVER LAUGHED SO HARD YOU’VE PEED YOURSELF?

HAVE YOU EVER LAUGHED SO HARD YOU’VE PEED YOURSELF?

With my comedy group ‘Franz Kafka’s Big Band’: when we’re in rehearsal we have lots of red wine and just piss ourselves laughing.

Paul Merton’s Improv group – I got close to peeing when I saw them.

WHICH COMEDIAN WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO SEE IN 2009?

J: Jo Brand definitely.

K: Russell Brand.

HAVE YOU EVER LAUGHED SO HARD YOU’VE PEED YOURSELF?

K: No – close though – Peter Kay made me fall off the couch.

Also on... April More exciting events on this month: Vanishing Point launch their new play Interiors at the Traverse on 3 April, stopping at Macrobert in Stirling on 15th and the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen on 17th... Renowned photographer and video artist Phil Collins has a new exhibition opening at the Tramway on 17 April, featuring the world won’t listen, a film

of Smiths fans around the world performing their favourite tracks of the band’s in karaoke fashion... Music at the Brewhouse bring their free-flowing club event Cabaret Baby to the Queens Hall on 15 April... Extreme rock climber Tim Emmett visits Eden Court in Inverness on 22 April to chat about his amazing experiences and the 14th Glasgow Art Fair takes place in George Square from 23-26 April...

Submit at www.hownottocook.co.uk

WED 9 + THU 9 APRIL

THE CHOLMONDELEYS + THE FEATHERSTONEHAUGHS PRESENT

DANCING ON YOUR GRAVE A hilarious and unsettling evening of undead cabaret from the world-famous troupe. ���� THE GUARDIAN

‘Killingly Funny’ THE HERALD This project invites 1000 people to give their advice of how NOT to cook. Collective Gallery is asking you to share your experiences.

Anyone can contribute.

The first 1000 contributions will be published.

The deadline for contributions is 1st May, 2009.

Everyone whose contribution is included will receive a free limited edition copy, a treasure for your kitchen.

22 – 28 Cockburn Street Edinburgh EH1 1NY ++44 (0)131 220 1260 mail@collectivegallery.net www.collectivegallery.net

WED 15 - SAT 18 APRIL REDCAPE THEATRE PRESENT

THE IDIOT COLONY

A stunning and moving piece of visual theatre which won a 2008 Edinburgh Fringe First Award. ����� METRO ����� THE LIST ���� THE SCOTSMAN ���� THE HERALD

FRI 24 - SUN 26 APRIL CHOI-IN THEATRE PRESENTS

THE ANGEL AND THE WOODCUTTER Internationally acclaimed performance from Korea blending choreography, movement and puppetry. ���� THE SUNDAY TIMES ���� THE GUARDIAN

WED 29 APRIL - SAT 9 MAY

‘A small bombshell’

TRON THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS

BLISS + MUD

���� THE GUARDIAN ON BLISS

A stripped back double-bill celebrating dazzling and imaginative writing from North America.

‘Beautiful and Painful’ VILLAGE VOICE ON MUD

2 Plays For The Price Of One!

www.tron.co.uk

BOX OFFICE 0141 552 4267 BAR + CAFE 0141 552 8587 TRON THEATRE LTD IS A SCOTTISH REGISTERED CHARITY, NO: SCO12081

April 2009

THE SKINNY 9

Generation

Terrorists From underground ‘toy town techno’ pioneers to worldwide electro punk sensations, it seems The Prodigy are standing on the precipice of doing it all over again – Keith Flint tells Dave Kerr why the pop charts are still for suckers, even if they are at the top Photos: Paul Dugdale

“It was the frenetic, edgy, excitement of the early demos.

It wasn’t about hit records or the potential to cross over...” – Nick Halkes, XL Records The Prodigy are an anomaly, a recurring tornado and an impermeable smudge on the face of British youth culture. Quite how the Essex trio has become a global phenomenon on their own terms – transcending ‘toy town techno’ to morph into the modern embodiment of punk - while engaging the youth with albums like their recent fifth, Invaders Must Die, beggars belief. But don’t call them a throwback; this has been the cycle for almost two decades. “I know, that seems impossible,” admits Keith Flint when reminded of the fact. But there’ll be no fireworks going off round his manor when the band rings in that landmark anniversary next year. ”I don’t celebrate anything and I don’t give a shit if I’m number one,” he shrugs, “I really only look to the next show. The funny thing is when you say 20 years. I remember people saying ‘oh, well, you might get a year out if it. Just enjoy it,.’ but I’m still living that year.”

He says that, but the sound of a fist knocking on wood betrays Flint’s gung ho mentality, and the new album is number one. Invaders Must Die is a work of primal brilliance, made marvellous by an abrasive sound that jars before seeping surely under the skin.

However rather than going the way of the man with the polomint monocle in The Mighty Boosh, The Prodigy have fused elements of the past and the future to make a record that can stand tall alongside their most daring. But the road back to the top wasn’t exactly gravy…

The last LP, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned was relatively overlooked, but the

10 THE SKINNY April 2009

first three Prodigy records each defined three very different eras in their own way. This could be a dangerous question to ask at this point, but do you think album number five can carry the same weight?

"When you’ve written tracks like Firestarter, albums as big as Fat of the Land and even Jilted Generation – I mean, people just weren’t expecting those, they came from nowhere - I think this one’s going to shake people up. I think it’s going to show that a band can be around for a long time but still cater to a contemporary crowd as much as the people that were into it in the first place. But that’s not on my agenda when I’m in the studio. The only thing that’s on my agenda is: ‘Does this suck? Am I excited about taking this on stage?”

With foreign policy being what it is, the title of the new record could be misconstrued as something far more xenophobic than I’m sure it’s intended to be. But in paranoid times, it’s almost commendably un-PC. Does it take on any particular meaning in your own head?

“For me, personally, when the band went through a bad time and it was on its arse a bit, well, you realise that when something’s successful, no one does anything to pick things up and give it an energy. And this is friends, people very close to the band. Me and Liam went through bad times and people would take time to say ‘oh, you know that Keith’s working with this person’, or ‘you know that Liam’s in the studio working with these guys today’ rather than invite us both out for a meal and get us chatting. All those people - and maybe even some of the paranoia bred in that environment – that’s what the invaders are. It’s people getting up in your shit that just shouldn’t be there.”

April 2009

THE SKINNY 11

Presumably you’re talking about the period between Fat of the Land and Always Outnumbered? Did outside forces complicate relationships within the band?

“Yeah, exactly. And when people talk release date to release date, it’s a massive amount of time, but of course we toured a lot. I don’t know the exact time but there was a year, year and a half where we didn’t talk…it wasn’t a great time to be quite honest.”

I remember reading some years ago that Liam was struggling with writer’s block after knocking one out of the park with Fat of the Land, is that the same period you’re referring to?

“That’s it. We knew that from going into the studio and hearing something fresh every day to suddenly hearing nothing, it was writer’s block. I think it was a bit of complacency; everything was going really well and somehow it all culminated into one big pressure cooker. As time went on we wondered whether we were writing Fat of the Land 2. And that’s not something any of us wanted to do. Coming straight out of such a big album to try and write something fresh... it was really hard. You can run so far away from something in an attempt to not replicate it, but then you might run so far away that you’re in no man’s land. That period wasn’t a great time for us but I really believe that coming out of so much shit has made us put the effort into writing a great album.”

When did this record begin to take shape?

“Knowing what it was like to be on the inside of something so intense and so pressured, we just decided: right, we’ve got this studio, we’ll go in there and keep it pressure free. If we’ve got an idea, let’s not talk it through and go ‘is it really us, should we be doing that?’ We get it down, put it to one side and move on with something else. The mic was always set up so you could put down an idea instead of trying to sing it into Liam’s ear over the top of a loop. A lot of those vocal ideas made it to the album, but everything became a part of the library as we moved on.”

“The first sessions were free and easy but then it became too free and easy and too much of a party studio to be quite honest (laughs). As much as it was nice to have people coming in and not be such a closed shop – like the Prodigy is – we suddenly realised the elements that worked best together were the three elements of the band. Get that right and everything else will follow. You can spend as much time explaining to other people why you didn’t do that in the traditional way, why you didn’t write about social issues, or why you didn’t need big key changes, but we know that as second nature.”

12 THE SKINNY April 2009

I’m the Trouble Starter!

Whether flipping the bird at The Man or standing their ground against hip-hop royalty, The Prodigy are no strangers to controversy.

Darren Carle looks back at five of their most incendiary moments, Molotov cocktail in hand.

ALWAYS TELL YOUR MUMMY BEFORE YOU GO OFF SOMEWHERE

1. Out of Space may be their more enduring rave anthem, but it was the public information sampling debut single Charly that catapulted The Prodigy from the underground dance scene and into the top ten. Clearly, sampling a conscientious cartoon cat then alluding his name to drug slang was always going to raise eyebrows.

Unsurprisingly, the ‘yoof’ loved it to the point that several other acts shamelessly tried to cash in on the ‘kiddy rave’ sub-genre. Urban Hype and Smart E’s, we’re looking at you.

TWO FINGERS, MY FRIENDS

2. With their 1994 swansong Dos Dedos Mis Amigos, Pop Will Eat Itself dramatically overhauled their good-time, slightly goofy image in favour of an overtly political, industrial sound. The Prodigy, also keen to reinvent themselves, found common ground with The Poppies over the proposed Criminal Justice Bill. The resulting collaboration, Their Law, raised a lofty two-fingers to the rave-quashing, freedom-restrictions of the act, and brought the band to a whole new audience.

PANIC

3. When questions are raised in the Houses of Parliament, you know you’re on to something.

Such was the hysterical, knee-jerk response to Firestarter in 1996. Although the song’s lyrical content was questioned, it was more the dramatic image-overhaul of dancer-turnedfrontman Keith Flint that had middle Britain spluttering on its tea time crumpets. A maniacal stare, some demented head-shaking and a haircut from Hades all conspired to give the band their first number one single, from which they went on to conquer America. That, Robbie Williams, is how you do it.

ILL COMMUNICATION

4. By 1998, The Prodigy were no strangers to courting controversy, but no one expected them to be checked by the scurrilous Beastie Boys. Ahead of a stage-sharing slot at Reading, a sanctimonious, not to mention hypocritical, Ad Rock asked that the band drop the contentious Smack My Bitch Up from their set. On-stage, MC Maxim made their stance on the issue unequivocal: “I do what the fuck I want!” he railed to the crowd. Overnight the Prodge went from peddlers of violence against women to crusaders of free speech.

NEVER OUTGUNNED

5. As if inciting domestic abuse wasn’t enough, Jonas Akerlund’s accompanying video to Smack My Bitch Up proceeded to tick the boxes of all kinds of wrong. Wanton drug and alcohol abuse, grand theft auto, indiscriminate bar fights, sex, nudity and copious amounts of vomiting were all squeezed into a five-minute snapshot of the mother of all benders. Then there was THAT twist. Best music video ever anyone?

This still very much feels like a party album with a conscience though. You’re not ramming any issues down anyone’s throat, sure, but Invaders has a beating heart…

“It’s not disposable, you’re absolutely right. It does have heart, and I think that’s the beauty of The Prodigy’s music and its vibe; that somehow it does mean something and it is real. When you see it live, you know it’s certainly not some try-hard manufactured bullshit. It’s hard to put your finger on; it’s a sum of all three parts. It’s not a prog rock album – fuck, nor will it ever be – but it’s certainly got a journey to it as well.”

We won’t dwell on this, but much was made of yours and Maxim’s absence from the last record.

That’s all history here though, do you feel your influence on this album?

"I certainly was involved with the album throughout in the respect that I was in the studio every day that I could be, bar headspace breaks et cetera. I remember saying to Liam: ‘Listen, man, we own the sound, however far back we go in our history. We don’t have to ask for permission to use it. That’s essentially what we’re about. So when we put together Warrior’s Dance, I said to Liam: ‘Forget the album, forget what it should be and don’t worry about that, let’s just write this track to take live.’ And that’s what we did; we know what the live environment should offer and that’s what we wrote for. I think that was quite a springboard.

Then again, it wasn’t about producing a revival album, or just a retro album. Without a doubt, it had to sound contemporary.”

That must be a little easier when you have groups like Justice, who borrow some of their menace from the Prodigy’s palette I think.

“Maybe so; I mean Liam’s a massive fan of Justice but I’m not. I even said to Liam the other day: ‘Fuckin’ hell, do I just not move forward?’ I mean, Run with the Wolves, Take Me to the Hospital - those tracks are still very much what I’m about; full on, abrasive. When it comes to the band we all carry an attitude and it’s not like anyone’s mellowed out, by far. But they’re my kind of tracks: that’s what I like. Hopefully people get inspired by the band, but I would never be down with a direct copy of the Prodigy, because it’s just, well: Why? What a waste of their time. But it’s nice when new bands check you and say that you’re an influence, that’s massive respect.”

"I remember people saying ‘oh, well, you might get a year out if it. Just enjoy it,.’ but I’m still living that year."

I think there are a few bands who use that influence tastefully now, but then it’s fair to say there was a glut of bands around ten years ago – and even further back, from Smart E’s to Audiobullys - who were more unashamed copyists of the sound and the attitude.

“Yeah, it’s definitely more tasteful now. But do you know what it was back then? I think people saw us come out of the rave scene and thought ‘look, see how fucking easy it is – you just write a couple of rave tracks and jump out there’. They really didn’t realise that the band has a lot more to it than that.”

Festival season is approaching and The Prodigy has certainly done its time on the circuit. By fitting into bills that otherwise share nothing in common, you’ve become a fairly amorphous fixture...

“I know, it’s brilliant!”

But with the new record going back to a more dance-oriented groove, can you see a difference in the way you’ll play, say, Download compared with RockNess this summer?

“You may add Their Law and take out Out of Space, for instance. You may do that, but very rarely. Usually, throughout the year we get a set that’s working absolutely perfectly and it just becomes clockwork.

We find that we can take that from one environment to the other, and we certainly don’t pander to each environment to fit in, so to speak, and I know you’re not saying that. I think we’re very confident in the fact that we can turn up as The Prodigy and be The Prodigy at ease with those two festivals.”

You played some warm-up dates with the new material last December, how do you feel those went down, particularly the Glasgow show?

“For a start it was fucking super hot, I tell you. And I loved it. Gigs like that remind you of why you do it – I need no second invite to walk onstage and perform with the band. That’s just what I love, and they’re going to have to drag me off there one day, I’m afraid.

Someone’s going to say ‘listen, man, you’re too old’ and I’m going to be like ‘no way!’ But, if I’m being honest, there’d be nothing sadder than getting up there and feeling like you’d been punched out in the first round.”

Which album gives you the greatest buzz to listen back to? ”I’ve always liked Always Outnumbered, I love it. I laugh to myself that it was overlooked to a great extent.

I think to myself that maybe kids at the moment - who aren’t caught up in the politics of me and Maxim not being on the album, how long it took and all the things that surrounded that album - if they plug into the Prodigy today, maybe listening to Omen on TV, and they go on to iTunes and see Always Outnumbered, I think they’d get it.”

With all you’ve endured and celebrated as a band, what has been the Prodigy’s finest hour?

“This album, because it’s the most recent thing that’s happening, that’s why. When we did the Their Law retrospective album and looked back at the things we’d done and places we’d gone - the countries we’d played that had never had bands like us – they’re some great achievements. But to be quite honest, I think Invaders is our finest work. Shit, I sound like fucking Pink Floyd!”

The Prodigy play SECC, Glasgow on 7 April and headline RockNess Festival, Dores on 14 June. www.theprodigy.com

Break & Enter With the strength of Liam Howlett’s bedroom-born endeavours, The Prodigy were never going to stay on the shelf for long. But it had to start somewhere, and if you want to get to the heart of what makes a good band great, then why not ask the man who signed them? Dave Kerr grabs a word with Nick Halkes, founder of XL Records.

Where and when did it all begin – how did you first encounter The Prodigy and what were the qualities that compelled you to sign them?

“Basically, Liam called me up at XL and said ‘hi, I’m a DJ with a rap act called Cut 2 Kill, I’ve made some of my own music and I’m just wondering if you’ve got any time for me to come down and play it to you?’ It was one of those ones where I could’ve said ‘well, you can sling it in the post’ or whatever, but I just thought ‘fair enough, why not? I’m sure I can spare 10 minutes to have a listen.’ A few days later he came down with a demo tape, and it was a tape in those days – a cassette – with a handful of tracks on it, four early bits.

“It wasn’t that I heard music that made me go ‘wow – this is gonna be massive, these are major crossover hits here,’ because they were cuts like Android, Everybody in the Place; it was just early, underground-aimed, breakbeat driven club music, but I liked the dynamic of it. I asked Liam a few questions, the usual stuff: ‘hey, how do you see things developing for the act?’ To which he replied, ‘oh, well I’d like to take it live, I’ve got a few mates that might become part of a band.’ I thought that sounded like a good idea, showed a bit of vision above and beyond making tracks for the sake of it. I played the stuff to

myself over the next day or two and pretty swiftly called Liam back. I said ‘yeah mate, if you’re up for it I’m up for it as well, I’d like to sign you.’ It was a very simple deal to do and we were off and running.”

Why do you think people keep queuing up for more?

“I think people like the way that the band set their own rules. I think it’s very attractive, the way that they don’t chase success in the traditional manner and they never have done. Even scrolling way back, the band got offered the chance to be on Top of the Pops around the time of the Everybody in the Place single and we pretty much knew it would go to number one if they did it. But the band’s view was: ‘We don’t really like the show and we don’t particularly like a lot of the acts that end up on Top of the Pops, so, nah’. Obviously, knowing that you may well have a number one if you’re going on Top of the Pops would probably be the sort of thing that the vast majority of acts would jump at. But, again, they chose to set their own rules rather than follow the course that most others take. That’s what’s at the heart of their enduring success. Musically too, there’s still something very special going on with The Prodigy.”

April 2009

THE SKINNY 13

Fashion

Vive La Revolucion!

“I personally think that many charity fashion shows lack pizzazz so we tried to incorporate dance, music, lighting - everything you saw tonight - to create more of a spectacle for the audience.”

Revolting in the name of charity was what was being called for at the Edinburgh Charity Fashion Show held at The Corn Exchange last month.

The show began in dramatic fashion with a revolutionary speech bellowing from an old-fashioned gramophone centre stage with sombre images of models flashing up on large screens holding red flags, interspersed by images of a matriarch that I was later told represented a dictator.

ECFS Chairman, Joni Mackay explained: “Revolution was perhaps a risky theme for us to take but we felt we could get across the message we wanted to.

“I personally think that many charity fashion shows lack pizzazz so we tried to incorporate dance, music, lighting - everything you saw tonight - to create more of a spectacle for the audience.”

An evening of contrasts unfolded before the eyes starting with delicate floral prints from Nicole Farhi followed by leather and wool statement 21st Century kilts by Edinburgh’s own Howie Nicholsby. The Britpop explosion of Blur’s Boys & Girls provided a fitting soundtrack for the male models to work the kilt combos with cheeky charm while the girls accompanied gracefully in tartan corsets and wet-look leggings

by Anta.

Similar to Farhi, Daks presented floral prints, tulip skirts and playsuits teamed with gladiator-style shoe boots and concealed platform patents providing more edge. Jaeger also teamed patents with floating maxi dresses and a monochrome, hound tooth mac.

The models began to ooze confidence as they paraded collections by Betty Jackson and Walker Slater, working oversized patent bags with hot pants and nerd-style glasses with dishevelled locks.

Mary Mary London’s delightful array of frills and femininity brought the first half of the show to a climatic close with candy striped swing dresses and ruffled shirts with floral sashes tied in delicate bows.

Commenting on the ECFS, designer Mary ForestierWalker said: “There was a fantastic response to my collection so I’m really pleased. The models worked my clothes and looked like they really enjoyed wearing them which for a designer is a really lovely thing to see.

“I would definitely get involved again, firstly for the

Heriot-Watt Fashion show A new generation of designers from HeriotWatt University in Galashiels are being touted as style stars of the future. We speak to some of the brightest ahead of the students' Edinburgh fashion show this month.

Jodi McCann’s gothic tinged collection is already making waves in the fashion world. The 21 year old from Fife embellishes vintage lace with chains and leather to create pieces that remain decidedly feminine, despite the tough nature of some of the materials. “I was inspired by the work of the mechanical puppeteer, Eduard Bersudsky, after seeing his contribution to the Millennium Clock in the National Museum of Scotland. I wanted my collection to reflect the restriction we face in everyday life, as we try to conform to the expectations imposed by other people,” she says.

The work of Katy Bell pays homage to Scotland, and in particular to the Highlands where she grew up. Making use of wool alongside ethically sourced deer and reindeer fur, the collection is an eclectic mixture of traditional knitwear alongside more extravagant accessories, including fur hoods and thigh high leg warmers. “I wanted the pieces to reflect the Scottish countryside. I’ve used only natural materials that can be found in Scotland. The only exception is the reindeer fur, but as they were once native to this country I think it works,” she says.

Gillian Ramsay’s unisex denim collection was inspired by photos of her grandfather in the 1950s. “All the clothes he was wearing were these really classic. If you saw a guy wearing them today they wouldn’t look dated,” she explains. Each piece features intricate detailing that you won’t find on most jeans: laser cut patterns and military-inspired stripes. The androgynous cut is softened by silk linings and reversible pieces. “I’d really like to have my own denim line in the future. There’s a misconception that to be successful in fashion you have to be in London, but Scotland has produced some really amazing designers in the last few years.” [Kate Smail]

Katy Bell Jack Waddington

The students will be showcasing their work in Edinburgh on 3 April at Mansfield Traquair on Broughton Street. For tickets call 0131 451 3242.

Gillian Ramsay Jack Waddington

Eddie Fisher

charitable reasons. My company is totally fair trade, everything is manufactured and sourced in England, so I’m very much a British brand and helping British charities is really important to me.”

The second half of the show revealed further sweet treats in ladies’ fashion with an empowering range of lingerie by Boudiche and Bora Aksu’s chiffon and organza dresses in dusky pinks and violets worn with bejewelled tights.

Stuart McKirdy’s label, I Found This On The Street provided some further quirkiness with axes and luchador masks worn alongside preppy polos.

It could be easy to forget that ECFS is run entirely by students due to its almost flawless choreography and content, all in the name of charity. Long live this revolution! [Emma McDonald]

Nice handbag...

Edinburgh-based designer Katherine Emtage is showcasing her designs at Concrete Wardrobe on Broughton Street next month. Her collection explores the textural and sculptural possibilities of tweed, transforming it from a traditional material redolent of country pursuits in order to use it in contemporary designs for urban living. She explains, “I want people to appreciate tweed as a modern fabric. It’s light, versatile, water-resistant and durable, with a fantastic range of colours and patterns.”

Elegant bags that are solid enought to weather the Scottish winter? We like. [Rosamund West] Available from Concrete Wardrobe, 50A Broughton St, Edinburgh www.kattysbags.com

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April 2009

THE SKINNY 15

Fashion

I must I must Improve my...

wardrobe Clockwise from top left: Sofie wears blue/red corset £350, straw headpiece £120, vintage bag £90. Catrina wears pink/gold corset £250, vintage silk blouse £80. Sofie wears red shorts £50.

All from Joyce Paton's new collection of corsets and headpieces; available exclusively from her shop 8 East Terrace, South Queensferry, Edinburgh, EH30 9HS. www.joycepaton.com Styling Ian Tod www.Iantod.com Photography Hamish Campbell www.hcampbellphotography.co.uk Hair & Make Up Jak Morgan using MAC and Frederic Fekkai www.jakmorgan.com Models Sofie and Catrina Appolinari

16 THE SKINNY April 2009

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April 2009

THE SKINNY 17

FOOD & DRINK

Scottish Drinking Without the Poison With the threat of a rise in alcohol prices looming, Ruth Marsh checks out some boozefree alternatives from Scotland without, astonishingly, having one sip of Irn Bru.

Alternative: That’s all very well, but I’d quite like to get the party off with a bit of a swing: If you like the taste of this, try Colonsay’s IPA. Similarly nice-looking, in a hefty full-pint bottle, this micro-brew from the Hebrides is a light but headily performed ale with a lychee taste that screams summer.

Williams Brothers Kyte Soda Ah, we’re only onto the second round and we’re already (technically) cheating. Alloa-based Williams Brothers (the chaps behind Fraoch, one of Scotland’s most enduring real ales) have turned their skills to a new range of Kyte Gourmet Sodas. Still very much ‘for adults’, these admittedly have a low alcohol content but, given that the government plans are to introduce a price per unit, at under 1% abv that’ll amount to pennies.

Brewed with malted barley and Fairtrade sugar, they come in four flavours - Ginger, Strawberry, Tayberry and Gooseberry. The Ginger has a real fiery kick that’ll give your throat a wake-up call and makes for a great local alternative to a Luscombe Ginger Beer, but it’s the Tayberry that’s the real find. Cultivated in Scotland in the sixties (beating those Sitkas by a whole decade), the large sweet fruit is a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry and, in soda form, it’s a doozy. Completely lacking in the cloying, roofof-your-mouth-coating feel you get from too much pop, this is an off-dry, slightly spiced mouthful with a quirky fruit-and-grain taste that bears repeat drinking and will merrily see you through the night.

Alternative: That’s nice, but I’m stuck in the corner with someone showing me endless YouTube videos of bears falling onto trampolines on their iPhone and I really need something a bit stronger: Sticking with Williams Bros, why not crack open their Roisin beer which uses those same Tayberries to create a drier alternative to Belgian-style fruit beers.

Bouvrage Moving away from those foreign interlopers and curious hybrids, Bouvrage is a drink that packs a whopping 1lb of fresh (not concentrated) Scottish raspberries into each 75cl bottle. Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, Bouvrage was ahead of the pack in recognising demand for a civilised, food-friendly soft drink that could complement rather than overwhelm what was on the plate. It’s slightly sparkling rather than rampantly fizzy, meaning no bubbles-up-the-nose-whilst-trying-to-flirt social mortification and, like the Kyte, the berry taste is understatedly sweet, evoking hedgerows and picnics rather than a vile approximation of ‘natural’ flavour courtesy of a lab. Honestly, the addition of gin didn’t once cross my mind.

The website touts its potential health giving properties (anti-stress, anti-bacterial, anti-cancer and, of course, anti-morning after) and, more recently, a Blaeberry version using fruit from the Arctic forests of Finland has been launched.

ON the streets of Scotland, the phrase ‘juice’ applies, in the main, to a nuclear orange fizz which offers unsurpassed hangover relief when glugged out a frosty glass bottle, outside the corner shop. I recommend buying it from my old Southside newsagent, who used to practise his French on me (I can’t speak a word) and once suggested I shouldn’t walk so quietly into his shop as ‘I could have raped him’.

What mainstream Scottish juice doesn’t do (to confirm: we are talking about Irn Bru here) is contribute towards your five-a-day or provide a remotely tempting alternative to the hard stuff. But now that plans are afoot (by the SNP and Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson) to charge a minimum price for alcohol, it may be worth our while to look beyond the Bru for a softer alternative. Arguments rage on both sides as to the merits and motivations of such a move: some dub it a tax built on snobbery to pry the Diamond White out of the hands of the dependent, or say it will penalise the ‘moderate drinker’ who pops a couple of bottles of Rioja into their weekly basket; others acknowledge the fact that maybe intervention is required when a Heineken costs less than a

18 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

Highland Spring, and that many publicans welcome a law that would mean stay-at-home drinking and a pint at the local have a more comparative price.

At the time of writing, questions were being raised by the EU, amongst other organisations, as to the legality of such price fixing. Regardless of whether the movement is passed, The Skinny has taste tested some of Scotland’s more artisan booze-free alternatives which may or may not be kinder to your wallet, but will definitely give your liver a holiday.

Zacharry’s Spruce Pressé Now this is the antithesis of an e number and corn syrup-packed can. The tips of young spruce leaves (from organically certified trees near Moffat in Dumfriesshire) are mixed with spring water and lemon juice to create Spruce Pressé. The Sitka Spruce is a native of Alaska, where it has long been put to both culinary and therapeutic use; planted in the seventies by the family behind Zacharry’s, the by-products of this Scottish offshoot are being turned into everything from Spruce Chocolates to Spruce & Verbena Tea, as well as face creams and incense.

Their pressé was the first product they rolled out, and it’s packaged as a dinner table alternative to wine -a 750ml glass bottle with an eyecatchingly eco-cute label. Dubbed ‘a taste of the forest’, it lives up to its tagline - subtle, green and fresh rather than floral, and with a slightly herbal aftertaste that, once you adjust to its uniqueness, is really very pleasant (despite the stuff having a colour that can unfortunately only conjure up the word ‘sample’). A friendly leaflet around its neck suggests adding fresh mint, ice, strawberries and (although this is neither in the spirit of detox nor debt clearance) champagne. ‘It’s a bit like stone soup’ my father-in-law grumbles in the background, and he may have a point, but as a conversation starter (organic shoot juice beats Jacob’s Creek) on a hot barbeque day, it’s definitely worth a try.

Alternative: OK, my taxi’s going to be forty minutes and if I hear The Killers one more time, I’m going to go postal. I need oblivion: Oh, let’s just throw all pretence of good behaviour out of the window then and go for an Orkney Brewery’s Skull Splitter - in the news themselves recently after The Portman Group deemed the brand ‘too aggressive’. Ignoring the scapegoat attitude of blaming alcohol-fuelled rampages on smallscale island micro-breweries as opposed to, say, international conglomerates focused on quantity rather than quality, this 8.5% rich red beer smacks of figs, vanilla, chocolate and all manner of deliciousness, so much so that you won’t mind that it may, if the law keeps moving in its current way, have cost you the same as a Toyota Prius.

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E�rly twe�ks h�ve �lre�dy t�ken pl�ce - the l�vish elements of the online men� h�ve dis�ppe�red b�t � more b�sic version is still well-worded �nd �ppe�lin�. A �eo�r�phic sc�tterin� of �lob�l c�isine is �v�il�ble �nd we be��n in Brit�in with ‘Bones’ – � simple, s�tisfyin� st�rter of ro�sted beef bones complete with their �nct�o�s m�rrow, � sh�rd of to�st, �nd � s�ls� verde v�ri�nt on the side. The so�thern E�rope�n offerin� of b�ked chorizo with t�le��io �nd sprin� onions co�ldn’t keep �p, the over-thin chorizo looked like it h�d been bo��ht re�dy sliced. This hit �nd miss n�t�re of the me�l contin�ed with the m�ins: � speci�l of lemon sole served with � cre�m s��ce �nd two sm�ll p�ff p�stry crescents w�s well cooked b�t the ve�et�ble �ccomp�niments did not sit h�ppily – ‘Mediterr�ne�n ve�et�bles’ t�rned o�t to be pl�in c�rrots �nd ‘cr�shed pot�toes with s�ls� verde’ c�me �ncr�shed with b�t � few �reen flecks. No s�ch problem with the desserts - both or�n�e polent� c�ke with ice cre�m �nd homem�de yo�h�rt with winter fr�its �nd biscotti left q�ite �n impression, �nd with �n e�rthy espresso the me�l w�s ro�nded off �dmir�bly.

Tony provides �ood v�l�e – yo� c�n �et � bottle of wine for ��� �nd three co�rses �re ���, b�t in so doin� he is w�din� into � crowded m�rket. S�ccess is diffic�lt to predict, b�t the eponymo�s ‘bi� n�me’ �t the helm will cert�inly help. [B�rn�by Se�born] 3 COURSES FOR TWO WITH WINE £58.

BULLEIT BOURBON®

AD LIB

2 BYRES ROAD GLASGOW, G11 5JY TEL: 0141 337 1145

In � ple�sin� two-fin�ered s�l�te to the credit cr�nch, Gl�s�ow’s mini-ch�in of so�l food e�teries Ad Lib h�s opened � third br�nch, � West End comp�nion to its two city centre ven�es.

More of � rest��r�nt-style interior th�n the booths�nd-beers form�t of its other inc�rn�tions, the men� �t the Byres Ro�d o�tpost still sticks to the s�me USP of feel�ood US st�ples- think thick, fish-p�cked j�mb�l�y�, deep fried h�sh p�ppies �nd col� br�ised sp�re ribs.

I kicked off with � skewer of popcorn shrimp, fo�r f�t pr�wns on the ri�ht side of �re�sy �nd �iven the ill�sion of he�lthiness by � tin�lin� c�c�mber �nd lime s�ls�. Over the t�ble, my other h�lf’s mini keb�bs of chicken were nicely se�red b�t their �ccomp�nyin� tom�to dip w�s � little w�tery �nd �ninspirin�.

Not to worry, �s she tri�mphed with her m�in co�rse.

From the l�r�e speci�ls bl�ckbo�rd, her whole se� b�ss w�s � monster from the deep, floppin� off either side of the pl�te �nd st�ffed with eno��h chorizo �nd

sweet red pepper to r�n � t�p�s b�r for � weekend.

S�rro�nded by h�sh pot�toes �nd � bi� �reen s�l�d, the mo�nt�ino�s pl�tef�l c�me in �t �nder � tenner m�kin� it � ridic�lo�s b�r��in. My choice of � li�htly spiced �nd tender sl�b of So�thern fried chicken to m�ke Colonel S�nders bl�sh w�s �nother serio�s belly-ple�ser, so�sed in � chipotle �r�vy �nd topped with � pile of sn�ke be�ns �nd okr�, which were cr�nchy eno��h to �void the dre�ded slimy l�dyfin�ers c�rse.

P�ddin� w�s completely �nnecess�ry �nd yet, somehow, we m�n��ed to sh�re � toffee bo�rbon w�ffle s�nd�e, cont�inin� �ll of the l�tter s�ndwiched between decent v�nill� ice cre�m, �n enjoy�bly childish end to dinner.

Ad Lib is the l�test in � lon� line of e�teries to t�ke over this site - its most recent inc�rn�tion w�s �s P�cific Rim f�sion joint North of Bondi. I sincerely hope it doesn’t f�ll fo�l of the c�rse - this is honest, well-priced food (the noon-�pm h�lf price b�r�ers sho�ld brin� in the st�dent �nd shoppin� crowd) th�t deserves to exp�nd its f�nb�se to the West End. [R�th M�rsh] 3 COURSES FOR TWO WITH WINE £50.

Alre�dy pop�l�r with b�rtenders in the know, B�lleit Bo�rbon h�s � smoky-smooth t�ste �nd stylish p�ck��in� which h�s m�de it � m�st-h�ve for every drinks c�binet.

A tr�e blend of t�ste, q��lity �nd herit��e, B�lleit Bo�rbon is still inspired by the hi�h rye content recipe, pioneered by A���st�s B�lleit in ����’s Kent�cky. A�ed for no less th�n six ye�rs, B�lleit Bo�rbon is f�ll fl�vo�red with hints of v�nill� �nd honey, �nd there’s no fe�r of th�t cl�ssic whiskey b�rn. Try it on the rocks or simply �dd some col� or �in�er �le for � lon�er refreshin� t�stin� drink.

For � ch�nce to win one of five bottles of B�lleit, j�st �nswer the simple q�estion below. If yo�’re not � l�cky winner yo� c�n pick �p � bottle from yo�r loc�l ret�iler, or why not enjoy � �l�ss of B�lleit with friends?

How lon� is B�lleit Bo�rbon ��ed for?

A) � minim�m of fo�r ye�rs B) � minim�m of five ye�rs C) � minim�m of six ye�rs Enter online �t theskinny.co.�k/competitions by �� April ���� for yo�r ch�nce to win.

Yo� m�st be over �� to enter.

Re��l�r Skinny T&Cs �pply, �v�il�ble on req�est.

The BULLEIT BOURBON word �nd �ssoci�ted lo�os �re tr�de m�rks of B�lleit Distillin� Comp�ny. © B�lleit Distillin� Comp�ny ����

WWW.THEBUNKERBAR.COM

April 2009

THE SKINNY 19

Food & Drink

Restaurant & Bar Reviews

DEVIANCE

Three's a crowd THE GREEN ROOM VENUE

Sex columnist Phoebe Henderson finds her latest challenge slightly awkward ...

GOES LIVE! THU 2ND AD-LIB: LIVE ELECTRONICA, HOUSE, TECHNO. LIVE MUSIC FROM STANLEY ODD & NORTH ATLANTIC OSCILLATION FOLLOWED BY DJS JOHN TINSLEY & JACK GIBSON. 10PM - 3AM £3 ENTRY FRI 3RD CREATIVE INDUSTRIES:

RESIDENTS SPECIAL FROM STEPHEN BROWN AND WOLFJAZZ SPINNING ALL THAT IS GOOD IN TECHNO! 11PM - 3AM £5 ENTRY.

SAT 4TH JAM THE BOX ARE GOING LIVE!

SUN 5TH TASTE: FISHER & PRICE TAKE TO THE DECKS TO SHOW US WHAT HOUSE MUSIC IS ALL ABOUT AT EDINBURGH’S FAVOURITE SUNDAY NIGHT OUT! 11PM - 3AM £5 MEMBERS/£6 ENTRY. FRI 10TH DIRT: THE UNSTOPPABLE DIRT ARE JOINED BY MORPHAMISH (AUDIODACITY) AND AMELDRUM (COALITION), FOR A RADICAL MIX OF ELECTRO, TECHNO, B-MORE, GHETTO AND HIP HOP. ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTE! 11PM - 3AM FREE B4 12 £4 AFTER.

SAT 11TH

SUBSTANCE ARE BACK TO MAKE IT UP TO YOU ALL WITH MAYBE THEIR BEST LINE UP YET! SUGAR EXPERIMENT STATION, BETTER KNOWN AS NEIL LANDSTRUMM & TOBIAS SCHMIDT, AND TIM £10 ENTRY 10:30PM - 3AM WRIGHT AKA TUBE JERK ALL DOING LIVE PA!

FRI 17TH RIDDIM TUFFA SOUND: SPECIAL GUESTS, HUNT THEM CREW, JOIN ADHAM, EMMINENCE, JAMMIN J & MANIA FOR REGGAE, DUBSTEP & JUNGLE GEMS. INNA’ FINEST STYLE! 11PM - 3AM £4 B4 11:30PM £6 AFTER.

SAT 18TH THE FOUNDATION: THE B-BOY EXTRAVAGANZA THAT IS THE FOUNDATION ARE PARTYING LIVE THIS MONTH! LIVE HIP-HOP SETS FEATURING MCS. BEATBOXING AND OF COURSE, BREAKDANCING. 11PM - 3AM £5 ENTRY.

FRI

24TH MODERN LOVERS: RETRO STEREO WITH CRAIG JAMIESON! A FAB & FUNKY MIX OF FUNK, SOUL, MOTOWN AND GARAGE PUNK WHOSE SPECIAL GUESTS HAVE INCLUDED GLASVEGAS, TEENAGE FANCLUB AND BELLE & SEBASTIEN. 11PM - 3AM £5 ENTRY.

SAT 25TH NOISTEEZ STRIKES BACK! DNB GALAXY LEAD BY AMAZING AUTONOME (INSURREKT, ERAW) LIVE PA, BREAK PLANET FEAT. DR PIYAYO (ELECTRODELIA, MADRID) HIP-HOP WORLD HOSTED BY JEE4CE FT BBURG (PROPHET RECORDS, SOLID STEEL) 10:30PM - 3AM £5 B411:30/£7 AFTER.

SUN 26TH GBH WITH ZERO TOLERANCE MAG. INTENSE UK DEATH METAL ACTS; AN EVENT FOCUSED ON MUSICAL BRUTALITY. DOORS 7PM £5 ENTRY FEAT. INGESTED (MANCHESTER), DYSCARNATE (LONDON), NEUROMA (LIVERPOOL), CEREBRAL BORE (GLASGOW), VISCERAL DEITY (GLASGOW) AND BONESAW (ABERDEEN).

THU 30TH OXJAM: HIP-HOPE: EDINBURGH’S HIP-HOP SCENE CENE GATHER FOR A NIGHT OF LIVE EMCEEING, TURNTABLISM, BBOYING, OYING, BEATBOXING & GRAF VISUALS. RUFFTONE, NASTY P, JINX, MAD HAT, AT AT, NORTHERN EXPOSURE & RANDOM ASPEKTS - EDINBURGH’S FINEST ST ACTS RIPPING IT UP IN THE NAME OF CHARITY. 10PM - 3AM £3 ENTRY

LIVE MUSIC INFO: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEGRV WWW.THEGRV.COM // 37 GUTHRIE STREET EDINBURGH // 0131 220 2987 20 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

ALISDAIR BOYCE

WITH THE HIGH LINES, THE 10:04’S AND LEWIS GIBSON & THE MIDAS TOUCH, AS WELL AS A STELLAR MIX OF DISCO, ELECTROFUNK, HIP-HOP, NEW WAVE & SOUL FROM THE JAM THE BOX RESIDENTS. 7PM - 3AM £4 ENTRY

DO I fancy women? One of the many questions I asked myself before embarking on this particular challenge. The answer is, I’m not sure. I can appreciate a beautiful woman, even to the point of becoming smitten, but I can’t say I’ve ever fantasised about ripping her clothes off in the way I’ve imagined many, many men, from Jared Leto to Eddie Izzard. And if I was going to throw myself into a threesome, surely it’d be better if I actually wanted to shag both parties?

When I was 16 I kissed a girl at school. I mean really kissed. We were completely pissed, however, and unfortunately the whole school found out, labelling us with a ‘lesbo’ tag that I didn’t shake off until years later. There was part of me that secretly loved the fact that my sexuality was ambiguous, that it pissed off the girls and intrigued the boys. A couple of years later I developed a crush on a female colleague; Irish and rather beautiful but as straight as my unfortunate hair, and my feelings weren’t reciprocated. Probably just as well as I hear she’s now a heroin addict with a record for GBH. What I do believe is that attraction is something you have no control over, and even though I class myself as straight I’m open to the possibility that I may enjoy being with women too; if I was completely straight maybe I wouldn’t even entertain the idea.

Jeremy had participated in a threesome and seemed keen enough to help me with my first. When I say keen, I mean he nodded. The guy is so laid-back I sometimes poke him in the face to make sure he’s still alive.

“So what was it like when you did it? Was it good?”

“It was okay, nothing spectacular though. Bit of a let down actually. It always felt like someone was waiting their turn and unless everyone is totally into it, it’s a bit pointless. I did get to shag two women though.”

“So if it wasn’t great why do it again with me?”

“Didn’t you hear me? I get to shag two women.” Fair enough.

I didn’t get a chance to ponder this for too long before I got the phonecall: “I’ve found us a girl. You up for it?”

“It’s 1.30 in the morning, I’m in bed. I have big hair.”

“Don’t bother getting dressed then. We’ll be there in an hour.”

Yes, cool as a cucumber, Jeremy had been to a party, met a girl and somehow convinced her to have a threesome. Just like that. Oh shit. I could have killed him, and did in fact plan his demise as I quickly showered, brushed my teeth, hid my pyjamas and stuck some undies on. What the hell was he thinking? Who the fuck was he bringing? If he brings a monster, they’re both leaving.

Why didn’t I say no? I still hadn’t quite made my mind up about the whole ‘girl on girl’ dilemma I’d been having, and now the decision had apparently been

taken out of my hands. I would have liked to have at least had a peek first.

An hour later the doorbell rang and in came Jeremy and Simone, looking very pleased with themselves and slightly pissed. She wasn’t a monster: dark hair, tiny compared to me, and pretty. Kinda like a little dolly.

To say that the next few minutes were uncomfortable would be an understatement and I think I even offered them tea, but we soon made it through to the bedroom and the kissing started, which was a perfect excuse not to talk anymore.

Jeremy and I kissed, Jeremy then kissed Simone, and then Simone and I kissed. Which was very very nice.

Nicer than kissing Jeremy in fact. I didn’t tell him that.

The whole thing was a bit of a blur after that. There was lots of touching and more kissing, hands were everywhere but I do remember lots of questions firing in and out of my mind: Would they rather I wasn’t here? Does he prefer her body to mine? Should I have shaved it all off ?

As we all got completely naked, I forgot about my insecurities and actually started to enjoy it. Maybe I was into girls? Maybe this could be the start of something new? And as I went down on Simone, my questions were answered with a resounding “NO”, like a big booming, Brian Blessed voice from above.

The kissing was great, feeling her body was amazing, but as soon as I went south it didn’t feel right. I can’t explain it but I didn’t enjoy it. I felt like a fumbling teenager who’d never been near a vagina and didn’t have a clue where anything was. Sounds odd now when I think about it: I have a vagina and an in-depth working knowledge of where all the good parts are, but with someone else’s right there in front of me, I didn’t have a clue.

They left shortly afterwards (again, I offered tea; what the hell is wrong with me?) and then I cringed for about an hour while smoking 400 cigarettes and stopping occasionally to put my face in my hands and make a whining noise.

Another challenge complete, and the verdict?

Scary, completely out of my comfort zone, and I can understand why Jeremy found his previous experience a bit of a letdown. It felt slightly contrived, and my lack of experience with women made me feel like an idiot and surprisingly insecure. So unless I get a Cunnilingus for Dummies handbook pretty soon, I can’t see me rushing to do it again. Maybe it’d be easier with two guys - I certainly know my way around a man, but would I feel in control? There’s only one way to find out I guess ...

SEE MORE OF PHOEBE’S ARTICLES IN THE DEVIANCE SECTION ON-LINE AT WWW.THESKINNY.CO.UK PHOEBEHENDERSON.BLOGSPOT.COM SLUTTY MCWHORE IS ON HOLIDAY

deviance

Look Mummy, I’m Dancing

Gareth K Vile is seduced by the stage version of Vanessa Van Durme's autobiography

Very often, radical theatre takes commonplace stories and subjects them to a relentless deconstruction, exposing hidden assumptions and suggesting new understandings. Vanessa Van Durme, born a boy in 1948, arrives in Glasgow with a performance that is radical in content, but uses the traditional format of the monologue.

“The way I do it is very very simple: I don’t have props, make-up, costumes, nothing,” says Vanessa.

Rather than aiming for the spectacular, she uses intimacy to reveal her quest for happiness. “I am so near to the audience and I tell them my story honestly.

One and a half hours. There are scenes, I play different roles, I play my mother, I play my father, I play myself as a little boy.”

Vanessa is “the first Belgian transsexual”. Look Mummy, I’m Dancing is a sincere distillation of her book that chronicles her experiences when, she notes, “in my day, transsexuals: we were freaks.” It has been performed across Europe and in America, in four languages, receiving ovations in France.

Soft-spoken and utterly charming, Vanessa has a very clear vision of her intention. “The monologue is also asking the public: please try to understand someone

who is slightly different. You don’t have to understand me - but at least try! And try to accept me.” However, she is not making broad statements. This is a personal tale, noting cultural changes as they affect her life.

She eschews the stereotype of the dramatic and tortured individual, through having a precise understanding of her own motivations. “I also want to say to the public that I was someone looking for my identity, not my sexuality.” Common assumptions about sex change are set aside. “Transsexuality has nothing to do with sex. And I found my identity a long time ago: I am a happy, happy, very happy person. I was not homosexual - of course, I like men, but for me, two men was not something I want!”

The monologue uses her experiences to reflect on the positive shifts in social attitudes towards transsexuals. “I had my operation in Morocco in 1975. I was lucky that I was very good-looking and feminine: people forgive you a lot if you are good-looking! But there were others who had a lot of problems. I had problems but, thank God, they are over now.”

Vanessa delights in the changes within society which make sex change operations more compassionate. “We had to go to Morocco because it was the only clinic

Topics: a Survey Every month, about two minutes before deadline, I appeal to my little corner of the internet to help me find something to write about this time round. Then I reject all their perfectly good ideas because I don’t have enough energy or knowledge or time or gin to do what they suggest. But there’s no sense in all that effort going unrewarded, so this month, I give you a shortlist of what my imaginary internet friends would like me to write about.

“Kissing techniques,” says Charley Fucking Stone: “is there such a thing as ‘kissing

outside of America. And thank God, the doctor there was a wizard - unbelievable technique.”

She remembers the difficulty of actually getting an operation in the 1970’s. “Nowadays, it is so common.

But it was not so common in 1975. Then, you had to go to that little maternity hospital - can you imagine?

From what I remember it was down some back alley.

You went over there without phoning, without e-mail.

So you arrived there, and had a talk with the agent, to discuss with her for maybe an hour. She was asking a lot of money. But the doctor was a very charming man.

And I had my operation the same day I arrived. Can you imagine?

“Everything has changed,” she continues. “My city, Ghent, has become a world centre for transsexuals, the hospital is very well-known and the doctor is my neighbour here! A small world! Now, everything is paid, there is a psychiatrist for two years - everything is arranged, thank God - your identity card is changed.”

It is this tension, between the fierce prejudice of the recent past and the more humane present, that makes Vanessa’s monologue so vital. Her calmness, her sense of delight and humanity allow her to communicate her ideas charmingly and directly. Throughout our

conversation, her enthusiasm is evident, along with her regard for other people.

Perhaps most surprisingly, her inspiration came not from herself. “The play is, first of all, a tribute to my parents, because when I was writing the play I was thinking about them. What was it to have a child like me in the sixties? The word transsexuality didn’t exist.

What was it for these hard-working people who were so nice - I had lovely parents - what did they think? I don’t know.”

The interest and sympathy that she shows for her parents is echoed in her sensitive response to those who might not be willing to understand her. Vanessa does not deny the prejudices and distaste that she suffered, yet is able to offer kindness and consideration in return. Look Mummy, I’m Dancing is a performance tour de force, a plea for toleration, a proclamation of the individual’s right to self-determination that never gets lost in self-righteous anger or succumbs to frustration. It hits hard, it challenges. However, even as a monologue, it is the start of a fertile dialogue Fri 17 & Sat 18 April 7.45pm £10 / £6 Tramway, Glasgow

Skinny Selections: April like a girl’?” (She thinks there is. Despite conducting extensive research, I draw no conclusions, but perhaps I’m just tediously egalitarian in outlook.) “Queer invisibility in het-looking relationships?” suggests Lindsay. “Oh wait, that’s my own hang-up.

Oh well.” It was my hang-up too, but now I’m single so I just sort of get on with it.

“Fisting,” says Charlotte Cooper: straight and to the point. “Sexuality in places you’ve been to and how lucky we are here and we should be grateful to our robot overlords for that,” says my ex-girlfriend. Katy votes for vaginoplasty, and Jess for strap-ons. Marvellous. Well, I got the words in there, folks; I hope you’re happy. /Nine

Violate

Look Mummy, I’m Dancing

4 April, The Big Joint, Glasgow

17-18 April, The Tramway, Glasgow

Mixture of social and BDSM play at Scotland’s longest running fetish club. Dress code applies. £5 www.violate.co.uk

A transsexual woman slowly but resolutely peels off her sixty-year-old skin until we find ourselves face to face with the reverse side of a soul in this stage version of Belgian artist Vanessa Van Durme’s autobiography. £10/£6

Eyes Wide Shut 4-5 April,Filmhouse, Edinburgh

Stanley Kubrick’s dreamlike erotic thriller. An arrogant doctor finds himself drawn into a mysterious and disturbing secret society. £6.30, Conc. available.

Death Disco 18 April, The Arches, Glasgow.

Whatever your pleasure, queers of all shapes and sizes can dance the night away to Japanese Popstars, Ann Liv Young and more. £14/£7

Duty Free 23 April, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh

Alan Bissett reads from his new novel Death of a Ladies Man, about an inspirational Glasgow teacher, a picture of success, but privately a vain hedonist addicted to art, drugs and sex. Also features a performance from the band Popup who appear in the novel. Free entry

April 2009

THE SKINNY 21

Film

The British are Coming!

It looks like British films are on the up and Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop is one film that everyone’s talking about. Gail Tolley caught up with the director, as well as actors Peter Capaldi and Chris Addison, to chat about the making of the film and why it seems to be hitting the right note with audiences.

“It’s not about politics, it’s really about people,” claims Armando Iannucci of In the Loop. This might seem like a surprising statement given that the film follows a group of politicians and civil servants in the build-up to an unspecified war in the Middle East.

Yet, in the style of his hit TV series The Thick of It, this political satire uses humour and some fantastically hopeless characters to tell a story that feels very human. As Iannucci explains, it’s really about a bunch of “slightly fragile people” who “get giddy at going over to Washington” and end up making the wrong decisions. In the Loop is an intelligent film that shows the absurdity of the Bush era without trivialising the consequences which we are all too aware of. It

is this that Iannucci believes to be the reason for the tremendous response the film received when it was first screened back in January.

“When we showed it in Sundance the reaction was unbelievable… I think the audience just wanted to get it out of their system. They wanted to get what had been going on in their head about the last 8 years out. I think they were just relieved to see it up in front of them and dealt with. But also there is that sense, and this is why I deliberately kept it away from being about Iraq and about Bush and made it more contemporary… that it could happen again. I think it’s quite important that we see how these things happen, it’s not to do with one person pushing a button, it’s to

Editorial Vincent Gallo, the director, actor, musician and generally controversial chap can currently be seen in the window of H&M modelling what I imagine is their Spring collection. Gallo is the only director I can think of who has directed one of the best (Buffalo ’66) and one of the worst (The Brown Bunny) films in cinema’s recent history. The latter film is known mainly for the fact that it has an unsimulated oral sex scene between Chloe Sevingy and Gallo himself. When one critic called it the worst film ever to be screened at Cannes, Gallo responded by threatening to put a hex on the critic’s colon. Bizarre? That’s just the tip

22 THE SKINNY April 2009

of the iceberg. A quick check of the artist’s website reveals that for a ‘mere’ $1 million you can purchase Gallo’s sperm to produce your own real life mini Vincent (although Gallo does seem to be ironising).

All of this makes the decision by a top dog at H&M to choose him as the face of this high street name slightly strange and somewhat amusing. Given the hoo-ha that followed the public slandering of Kate Moss a few years back after she was caught snorting cocaine (and subsequently dropped from campaigns with Chanel, Burberry and H&M) you’d have thought big brands would steer clear of controversial public figures to represent them. Still, seeing Gallo's chiselled cheek bones larger-than-life in a shop window does make bus journeys down Princes Street all the more interesting. /Gail

do with the collective atmosphere.”

But while the American reaction was very positive, Iannucci is keen to stress that they “didn’t make the film for an American market, it was a British-funded film for a UK audience”. Despite this, In the Loop has appealed to viewers on both sides of the pond. No doubt in part because of the US’ growing love affair with British satire – just think of the number of UK remakes in recent years. Another aspect that Iannucci believes is attractive to audiences is that the film is actually structured like a screwball comedy. “They were very fast, if you watch them just the pace of it is - woah! And I think people like that because it’s different to what they’re getting.”

Nowhere is the screwball element more evident than in the dialogue of the formidable spin doctor, Malcolm Tucker (the only character to be brought through from The Thick of It). Packing in the expletives and put-downs like there’s no tomorrow, Malcolm (played by the ever-talented Peter Capaldi) is one of the most riled characters ever to grace our cinema screens. The actor, who is rather unassuming in real life (although perhaps anyone would appear so in comparison to such a character as Tucker), had previously steered clear of the improvisational style of acting that was required for both The Thick of It and In the Loop. However, the experience turned out to be a world away from what he’d come into contact with in the past. “This method is quite different because the mechanics of it, the dynamics, the story, is very worked out so you know what has to happen. The hardest thing to do is to listen. You really have to listen to the other people and really believe and figure out what they’re saying and what the relationship is between what they’re saying and the story.”

Chris Addison on the other hand (who has previously established himself as a stand-up comic) was new to acting but more than used to the improvisational style. He recalls one scene with Tom Hollander

(who plays the clueless politician Simon Foster) which was particularly enjoyable to shoot. “There was one whole day that Tom Hollander and I spent together on the set that had been built of the State Department. It was just the two of us goofing around more or less, looking ridiculous, simply from a height perspective. That was great.”

Both the British and American casts seemed to have been equally intimidated by each other at the start of shooting. “They thought we’d all been to Stratford,” jokes Capaldi. Addison recalls what he describes as “unbelievable” performances by the American actors who play Chad (Zach Woods) and Eliza (Anna Chlumsky). “There was this one occasion I can remember … where he [Zach] is just goading her in the Foreign Office and the shot was set up so we were all looking down from the balcony at this. And the scene itself took 20-30 minutes to film in a single take and was relentless, back and forth, it was unbelievable. He in particular was just astonishing and I just thought, is there no end to this?” In the film we just see a few seconds of this scene but it certainly stands as an example of the calibre of the cast, with top performances not just by Capaldi and Addison but also James Gandolfini as Army Major Miller and Steve Coogan as a particularly challenging constituent member.

With all the buzz and acclaim surrounding In the Loop, are future film projects in the pipeline? “We’re going to do another series of The Thick of It later in the year” says Iannucci, “but after that I’d like my next project to be another film. I’ve always wanted to do funny films and I’ve just been waiting for the right opportunity and the right story, so I’m very pleased that that’s come together for this one.” And it looks like Armando Iannucci won’t be the only one who’s pleased, if early screenings are anything to go by, it’s audiences who’ll be thankful too. www.intheloopmovie.co.uk

Film

A Short Success Catriona McInnes’ graduation short I’m in Away from Here has been garnering attention from film festivals across the world. Gail Tolley catches up with the local filmmaker.

I meet Catriona the day after the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards where her short film I’m in Away From Here was nominated in the Best Fiction category.

She is looking very fresh-faced despite saying she feels quite the opposite. A graduate of RSAMD and more recently the Screen Academy in Edinburgh, Catriona’s background was originally in theatre and performance before she moved into writing and directing.

I’m in Away from Here, her graduation piece from the MFA in Film Practice, is a snapshot of a few hours in the life of a young man, Archie, who has Asperger’s Syndrome. The film was inspired both by her own experiences of having a brother with a language disorder and related autistic behaviours and also by an incident she saw one morning in the street.

“The lightbulb moment was when I saw a couple of guys coming along a street when I was waiting for a bus to go to work. They were two friends - one had a really pronounced limp and the other looked like this typical Ben-the-Boffin type character with thick curtains and big glasses - and they were marching down the street with such confidence. There was just something different about them, in a good way. That really inspired me and when I came back from work that day I just wrote reams and reams about these two guys and what I thought their background was and what their friendship was like.”

With its free-moving, naturalistic style there are many parts of the film which resemble a documentary – a conscious choice by Catriona who was influenced in particular by The Dardenne Brothers’ L’Enfant and also the American independent film-maker Kelly Reichardt (who we interviewed in March’s issue) both of whom adopt a similar style. Catriona is very modest about the success of I’m in Away from Here which was chosen to be part of the official selection at Venice, one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals.

“I do feel that it’s a bit flukey because it’s just one person at the end of the day who it comes down to - the chief programmer. So there is a feeling that I’ve got to just take this opportunity and really use it the best I can but still feel humble at the same time because you know that it could have been another film.” Yet to her credit the film is a confident and sensitive work, and deservedly it was chosen not only for Venice but also for the Glasgow Film Festival, and selected from a huge number of entries for the BAFTA New Talent Awards. And this month the film will be travelling even further afield, this time to the US where it will be screening at Nashville Film Festival. www.catrionamacinnes.co.uk

February film events The Filmhouse in Edinburgh is where it’s at in April. As well as seasons dedicated to Eastern Europe and films from Spain and Latin America you can also catch the Italian Film Festival which will be running from 17 April through to 27 May. Fret not, though; screenings of selected films will also be showing at the GFT (Glasgow), DCA (Dundee), Eden Court (Inverness) and the New Picture House in St. Andrews.

In particular, the festival is showcasing the work of Alida Valli, notable for her role as Anna Schmidt in Carol Reed’s The Third Man. A true classic of British noir, it’s a beautiful black-and-white thriller starring Orson Welles in an exploration of morality in post-war Vienna. At the beginning of the month there is a chance to see a selection of early Stanley Kubrick films at the DCA, including one of the critics’ favourites, Barry Lyndon, which follows the exploits of the eponymous 18th Century playboy. With its careful pacing, technical brilliance and beautiful composition, seeing it on the big screen is a must. Look out too for Kubrick’s Lolita and Eyes Wide Shut.

On 2 April the CCA in Glasgow is hosting Cryptic Nights: Onedotzero, which features innovative live action, animation and documentary shorts from Britain’s thriving indie filmmaking scene, while the GFT returns to its film roots to celebrate silent comedy with a screening of Paul Merton’s Silent Clowns on 22 April. It’s an opportunity to share the comedian’s passion for the stars of the silent era who inspired him to get into his profession. The documentary includes clips from works by Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Harold Lloyd accompanied by commentary from Merton.

The Cameo (Edinburgh) and Belmont (Aberdeen) are both offering a chance to see State of Play, including a satellite Q&A session with its director, Kevin Macdonald on 20 April. Starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck and based on the BBC series of the same name, the film is a taut thriller that follows a journalist investigating the mysterious death of a Congressman’s mistress. If you like political thrillers this one’s for you. [Gail Tolley, Becky Bartlett]

April 2009

THE SKINNY 23

Film

Film Reviews Good Director: Vicente Amorim Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker Released: April 17 2009 Certificate: 15

Religulous Director: Larry Charles Starring: Bill Maher, Steve Burg, Geert Wilders Released: April 3 2009 Certificate: 15

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Religion is the opium of society according to Karl Marx, and Bill Maher feels no differently. Venturing into the religious heartlands of America and beyond, the star of US TV’s Real Time quizzes religious leaders, politicians and the ground level followers of faith, not to gain insight into spirituality, but more to prove them wrong. Religion has been integral to comedy since the days of Aristophanes, and it’s no coincidence that most comics are either Catholic or Jewish (Maher is both). It should be hilarious, and it is, with some astonishing glimpses into the fundamentalist psyche (there are visits to a Jesus theme park and a creationist science museum) providing enough comedy gold to make a thousand sacred calves. But while Maher and Borat director Charles keep the gags flowing, there is something uncomfortably smug and self-congratulatory about the whole enterprise, though a final Milk-style speech makes its intentions clear.

[Michael Gillespie]

Flattery will get you everywhere; it even got the Nazis into power, or at least that’s how it appears in Good.

It takes only a few words of praise to persuade Viggo Mortensen’ s fuddy duddy literature professor John Halder to write a propaganda piece based on his fictional novel about euthanasia. From there it’s only a hop, skip and a “Sieg Heil!” before he’s donning an SS uniform. Good presents itself as a morality tale but never answers the question of how a “good German” could go along with the Nazi agenda. It all seems so easy and perhaps that is the point but the readiness with which Halder capitulates isn’t believable. His distress at regime change and hatred of Hitler barely registers above a look of mild discomfort.

Vicente Amorim’s direction is staid and the musical reveries of labourers and death-camp inmates only adds to the senslessness of a rather muddled film. [Marjorie Gallagher] www.goodthemovie.com

The Boat That Rocked Director: Richard Curtis Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Frost, Gemma Arterton Released: 1 April 2009 Certificate: 15

rrrr The Boat That Rocked is a labour of love; a story of friendship and fraternity set against the backdrop of the swinging sixties, with one of the greatest soundtracks ever. The music of The Kinks, Small Faces, Rolling Stones and many others is unapologetically the star of the film, telling the story, conveying emotions and replacing dialogue effortlessly. Richard Curtis pays direct homage to the industry, from the delirious screaming of Beatlemania to music videos, including a scene pulled straight out of Hendrix’s famous naked Electric Ladyland cover. The plot is minimal, but it doesn’t matter. With the impressive ensemble of actors (a tightly-wound Kenneth Branagh, the always excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman and a continual stream of the best of British) blatantly having a blast, The Boat That Rocked is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Plus, you’ll know who to blame when tie-dye comes back in style. [Becky Bartlett] www.theboatthatrocked.co.uk

More film reviews

online theskinny.co.uk

50 Dead Men Walking Director: Kari Skogland Starring: Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess, Natalie Press Released: 10 April Certificate: 15

rrr Canadian Kari Skogland’s adaptation of real-life informer Martin McGartland’s 50 Dead Men Walking returns to 1980’s Belfast, where McGartland (Sturgess) is making his way up the IRA hierarchy whilst leaking vital information to British special agent Fergus (Kingsley) that potentially could save up to 50 lives. Skogland gives a gritty, unbiased view of the Irish troubles, complete with thick Irish accents and uncompromising riot scenes between the British army and embittered locals. It’s essentially an action thriller with Sturgess demonstrating real talent despite the fact that the role doesn’t offer much motivation behind his actions. Giving the film the title of the book will make the film a harder sell, and Skogland’s approach, at times opting to show obvious scenes of the troubles, leaves Sturgess’s performance as the outstanding factor. It’s solid fare for those interested in the subject but Hunger deals with similar preoccupations and ought to be seen in preference.

[Matt Arnoldi]

La Vie Moderne Director: Raymond Depardon Starring: Released: 3 April 2009 Certificate: PG

rrrr La Vie Moderne is a simple, empathetic and illuminating documentary about members of a rural community in the Haut-Garonne region of France. Depardon’s interviews, with farmers and their families, capture far more than what we see in many documentaries.

Filmed in uninterrupted takes, the camera catches not just the subjects’ words but the silences and the small changes in facial expressions that reveal a more complex and ambiguous response beyond what is said.

These snapshot portraits are interspersed with footage from a travelling camera that winds through the lanes between farms. These images create moments of fluidity and freedom within the film, as well as showing the beauty and peacefulness of the surrounding countryside. However, the overall picture that emerges is one of people struggling to adapt to a changing industry and a world that has moved on without them.

La Vie Moderne is a eulogy to this lost way of life. [Gail Tolley]

24 THE SKINNY April 2009

FILM

DVD Reviews SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION

A LOVE TO HIDE

DEAN SPANLEY

DIRECTOR: PAUL NEWMAN STARRING: PAUL NEWMAN, HENRY FONDA, LEE REMICK RELEASED: APRIL 27 2009 CERTIFICATE: 15

DIRECTOR: CHRISTIAN FAURE STARRING: JÉRÉMIE RENIER, LOUISE MONOT, BRUNO TODESCHINI RELEASED: APRIL 13 2009 CERTIFICATE: 15

DIRECTOR: TOA FRASER STARRING: PETER O’TOOLE, JEREMY NORTHAM, SAM NEILL RELEASED: APRIL 27 2009 CERTIFICATE: U

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Last year saw the passing of one of the great film actors, Paul Newman. But while attention focused on his on work perfecting performances—and mastering marinades—not much has been written about Newman the director. This, his second effort behind the camera, is a well-crafted adaptation of Ken Kesey’s second novel. The book’s experimental nature would take a more innovative director than Newman, but thankfully, there’s still much to recommend. Despite at times an unfocused pace, the film features sterling work from Newman, Fonda and a story of Biblical proportions which follows the fractured lives of an Oregon logging family who defy the striking unions. Here we find both the solidly liberal Kesey and Newman playing a subversive game of devil’s advocate: in a year when the miner’s strike is back in the headlines, recession cripples communities, and old-fashioned manliness is back in vogue, this tale should find the audience it has been denied for so long. [Michael Gillespie]

TIS AUTUMN: THE SEARCH FOR JACKIE PARIS

In the Holocaust, the Nazi regime killed six million Jews, but less well known is that they also targeted other ethnic and societal groups thought of as ‘undesirables’, including homosexual men. A Love to Hide tells the story of Jean and Philippe, two gay men secretly in love in occupied Paris. Jean helps hide a friend, a young Jewish woman, giving her a new identity, job, and a ‘cover’ as his fiancé. The three share a close bond, but everything is threatened by Jean’s jealous brother, leading to deportation to the concentration camps.

Director Christian Faure wisely doesn’t seek to compare the suffering of the Third Reich’s victims, but instead takes a wider approach with a nuanced and intelligent script. Shockingly, the law criminalising homosexuality was upheld on liberation and many escaping the tortures of the camps were simply rearrested and moved into prisons. While grim and occasionally horribly violent, this is nonetheless a worthy and thought provoking film. [Scotty McKellar]

Every Thursday, Young Fisk grudgingly goes to see his father, Old Fisk (O’Toole, looking increasingly like that melting Nazi from Raiders of the Lost Ark every day), a maddening old git who refuses to grieve the death of his elder son in the Boer War, and whom Young Fisk secretly hopes might peg it. On one of their Thursdays out, Fisks senior and junior go to a lecture on reincarnation, where they meet the eponymous Dean Spanley. Discovering the Dean has an uncharacteristic interest in the subject and a liking for Tokay wine, Young Fisk asks him round to talk over a bottle. When the Dean takes a sniff of the Tokay, however, a strange transformation takes place, and he becomes somewhat... dogged. Based on a short story by Lord Dunsany, Dean Spaniel – sorry, Spanley - is eccentric, charming, and superbly acted. You’ve a hard heart if this doesn’t make you smile. Or perhaps you were a cat in a previous life. [Cara McGuigan]

TRANSPORTER 3

ULTRÀ

DIRECTOR: RAYMOND DE FELITTA STARRING: JACKIE PARIS, ANNE MARIE MOSS, PETER BOGDANOVICH RELEASED: APRIL 6 2009 CERTIFICATE: 15

DIRECTOR: OLIVIER MEGATON STARRING: JASON STATHAM, ROBERT KNEPPER, NATALYA RUDAKOVA RELEASED: APRIL 20 2009 CERTIFICATE: 15

DIRECTOR: RICKY TOGNAZZI STARRING: CLAUDIO AMENDOLA, RICKY MEMPHIS, GIANMARCO TOGNAZZI RELEASED: APRIL 20 2009 CERTIFICATE: 18

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‘Tis Autumn documents the singing career of 50s jazz legend Jackie Paris, and questions why he never reached the dizzying heights of fame accomplished by so many of his contemporaries. Director Raymond De Felitta’s mild obsession with the Italian-American singer-songwriter (and skilled tap dancer) began in 1991 - upon listening to one of Paris’ records on the radio - and the resulting documentary gives a colourful, at times poignant, image of this prufrockian maestro. The non-polished and grainy quality of footage connects with the subject matter - jazz itself being rather raw and unadulterated - and along with the soundtrack (spanning five decades of Paris’ collection), quite easily transports the viewer back to a time when jazz ruled the airwaves. De Felitta’s portrayal of Paris is not always flattering (his bad temper and inability to connect with people are voiced more than once), but if his main goal was trying to bring more acclaim to Paris’ music, then he has most certainly achieved that. [Zaineb Al Hassani]

After reaping the rewards as the founding father of Cinema du look, Luc Besson established himself as the 21st century Roger Corman, and has produced some of the best B movies of recent years: the Glaswegian (!) chop-socky of Unleashed, the delirious inspiring parkour fest District 13, and now this, the third in the successful franchise which turned cheeky chappie Jason Statham into an action hero, not to mention a gay icon. Transporter 3 finds Statham at the mercy of an exploding bracelet and a Ukrainian love interest whom he bonds with over a mutual culinary appreciation. Yes, it’s absolute nonsense, but that’s the whole point. Michael Julienne’s car stunts are impressive as always and Corey Yuen’s martial arts choreography is as wacky as ever. But the highlight is a bizarre reversal of True Lies, in which Statham is forced to strip for the leading lady’s pleasure, Besson stripping the genre of sexism and machismo, and creating the action equivalent of American Gigolo. Nice! [Michael Gillespie]

As if there isn’t enough reason to take heed of Ultrà’s machismo driven violence, a host of English football clubs have recently been left severely discomfited by a problem that now seems endemic, and specific, to Italy.

Football hooliganism isn’t a new topic, and this isn’t even a new movie – Ultrà was released in 1990 – but while the subject matter has lost some of its impact, it makes up for such deficiencies in its presentation. Ultrà is evocative of The Warriors by way of its tribal and urbane aesthetic, but a bleaker palate downplays any glorification. While the subplots are somewhat rudimentary, Ricky Tognazzi still manages to make the two protagonists engaging, as they are forced to choose between domestication and their fanatical loyalty to the terraces and each other. Tognazzi doesn’t pretend that Ultrà is about football; the banners and scarves are merely dressage to an otherwise fatal theatre of fluorescent, empty hate. [Ray Philp]

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APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 25

games

Videogame writing to make George Lucas proud Josh Wilson revisits a classic: 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Let’s face it, games based on films are usually rubbish. A common difficulty is that games and films by their very nature have different narrative structures, and what works in one medium doesn’t automatically work in the other...

Accordingly, those few games that are worth playing generally have one thing in common - they are given the chance to play fast and loose with the narrative, or alternatively have free reign to forge their own. One strong example of this is Butcher Bay, the Chronicles of Riddick tie-in that actually worked as a prequel to the film. Another example is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (or KotOR for short).

With KotOR, Bioware took on the mother of all movie licences and came up with not only what is probably the best role playing game (RPG) ever to grace the original XBox, but also damn near the finest Star Wars game ever made. One of the ways they did this was by realizing that the constrictive narrative of the films had been played out, and went about setting the game an Even Longer Time Ago in a Galaxy Even Further Away, and in doing so opened up a whole new universe in which to play.

At its heart KotOR is a fairly hard-core RPG based on a d20 role-playing system derived from 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragon rules. Happily however all of the technical stuff happens behind the scenes and so makes for a more accessible game than other Bioware titles such as Neverwinter Nights. For those inclined towards the geekier aspects of RPGs, there’s still plenty of customisation and specialisation available, but for those looking for a less involved experience an “auto level-up” option allowed smoother progress towards newer and better abilities.

Rather than the active battles common to Japanese RPGs, KotOR implemented a battle system that

allowed the player to pause the fight, cue up a number of actions for each controlled character and then unleash lightsabre based havoc on all and sundry. Which is undeniably fun.

It is however in the story telling department that KotOR really shines, and here Bioware created a fable worthy of their illustrious licence. Set some 4000 years before the events of A New Hope, KotOR tells the tale of a Sith armada unleashed on the Old Republic by the nefarious Darth Malak. Charged initially with protecting the Jedi fugitive Bastilla Shan, the player’s character is inexorably drawn into the wider galactic dispute and gathers together the requisite rag-tag bunch of misfits to deal with the situation.

The difference between KotOR and other games is that these incidental characters are well drawn and interesting in their own right, and one of them (the assassin droid HK-47) is quite simply one of the finest NPCs ever written.

One of the main selling points of KotOR during its development was the fact that players could choose to follow either the light side or the dark side, and that this choice, as manifested in ways as seemingly insignificant as conversation choices, would have an actual impact on the gameplay.

These differences affect things in a number of ways.

Actions taken by the player award either light side or dark side points which add up over the course of the game. With alignment having a wide range of effects on the player’s interactions with other characters, on the missions available, and even on the wider galaxy as a whole.

It is this sense of freedom and the idea that the choices you make have real ramifications that set KotOR apart from other similar games that offer

divergent paths. There’s a moment late on in the game when, if you’ve followed the path of the dark side, you get to appreciate the full ramifications of that choice in an act of complete and utter betrayal that has few parallels in any other game before or since.

Not only all of this, but KotOR also sports one of the greatest twists in the history of the video game.

For obvious reasons I won’t go into any detail, but the big reveal counts as one of the very few times I’ve ever shouted at the screen in sheer disbelief. www.bioware.com/games/knights_old_republic

Reviews Madworld Out now for PS3, £39.99

rrrrr Plot-wise, in Madworld a shadowy game show called Death Watch has taken over Jefferson Island and turned it into desolate warzone almost overnight. Murderous participants known as Killseekers roam the streets, slaughtering anyone who crosses their path. Enter Jack Cayman, a massive biker with a chip on his shoulder, a penchant for violence and a chainsaw grafted onto his arm. Jack’s out for blood, but also has an ulterior motive for participating in the game that becomes clear as you progress.

From the word go you are knee-deep in claret as each stage tasks you with racking up the biggest kill score in 30 minutes. It’s all about how inventive your kills are. Sure you could run in, chainsaw swinging, but this won’t get you the big points.

Diasgea 3 out now for wii, £39.99

rr Disgaea 3 is set in the Maritsu Evil Academy and you play Mao, son of the overlord. Mao wants to be a hero and since comic books keep telling him heroes kill overlords, it looks like a little patricide is in order.

There’s a definite ‘them and us’ feel to this game. The Disagea series of tactical RPG has a large fan base, and the game seems directed at ‘them’ rather than at anyone new.

Which means fans will be happy to find few changes to the basic engine and tactical gameplay. Anyone else won’t care.

A familiar feel is always a good thing for drawing your gamers back. There are many examples out there where

26 THE SKINNY April 2009

solid gameplay has been sacrificed for a radical change, alienating players.

One annoying thing about combat in this game, with the introduction of elevation-views on the levels, the cursor can jump from character to character like a jack rabbit causing the screen to jump too.

There are positives to Disgaea though, such as battle scenes having a myriad of options for attack, and the ability to combine characters in these actions.

Disgaea 3 seems like a handheld conversion on the PS3.

If it were merely that, the review of the handheld would have no doubt been more sparkling. The fact remains that it isn’t and for all its good points for fans there’s an absence of pretty much anything to entice new players.

[Phil Harris]

For example, you can run up to a goon, ram a tire over his head, trapping him, fire a stop sign pole through his skull, pick him up, headbutt him a few times, drop him in an oil drum, pick him up again, then impale him repeatedly on a wall of spikes. Overkill? Surely. Satisfying? Sadistically so!

So the violence is present and correct, but don’t worry, the Wii’s motion controls are superbly executed, complementing the action. Jack’s move set is easy to pull off and the camera only occasionally becomes an issue during combat in tight areas. Context-sensitive controls flash up from time to time, letting you pull off some truly brutal kills.

With a striking black and white comic book style, offset with the smatterings of blood that come with each enemy encounter, this is a game that really does stand out from the crowd and walks on the wilder side of videogames, an accomplished and thoroughly enjoyable debut from Platinum Games. [Dave Cook]

Books

Aye Write? It was...

The Aye Write! Bank of Scotland Book Festival was a great success. But how did it feel to be there? Well, Aye Write was...

…Impressive Aye Write! started off with the annual Scottish Poetry Slam Championships, an occasion mostly for laughter but with a few thought-provoking poems in there as well. I took against one of the poets whose first round entry was not spoken at all, but typed on to an overhead projector. Was that fair? Would a wild card entrant be extended that facility? Anyway, he lost. The winner recited a great poem about his Dad that was certainly the best of the night. Some poets occasionally forgot their words, which seems a bit lax, but as a whole the event was thoroughly impressive. …Informative On day two, two science based events, Ben Goldacre, doctor and writer of the Bad Science column in the Guardian, and Steve Jones, the biology writer (not the idiot presenter from E4). Goldacre appealed superbly to common sense, whether attacking homeopathy or Gillian McKeith (“or to give her her full title, Gillian McKeith”). His explanation of how an MRSA scare was created was incredible. Steve Jones’ explanation of various aspects of evolution was similarly well done, with trivia included – like his look at the Darwin £10 note that also has a hummingbird on it. This is because they were supposed by the treasury to inhabit the Galapagos islands – but they don’t. Informative indeed. …Bewildering Most things involving Alasdair Gray have the potential to be bewildering. At his event he presented two excerpts from his plays, one read by a cast of actors who hadn’t performed it before and had to read from scripts, and one read by him (he played the Devil) and his publisher. This was followed by a slightly shambolic Q&A session where no one had thought to provide the author with a moderator or tell him there were radio mikes to get handed to questioners.

Why was this all so bewildering? Because in spite of all that, it turned out to be pretty good – mild, amiable incompetence beats soulless professionalism. …Happy The Off the Page event was exactly the sort of event that festivals like Aye Write! should feature. It was a showcase for the Greater Pollok Carers Creative Writing Group, consisting of songs, poems, stories and little scenes that were acted out by the group’s participants. These are elderly people who write as a hobby, but they easily managed to entertain for an hour with their creations. And it was free, and there were tea and biscuits afterwards. All good as far as I was concerned. …Boring Unfortunately, the event launching the Days Like This anthology started badly. The chairman Marc Lambert took 15 minutes to introduce the event, and then proceeded to read his own story, which wasn’t actually picked for the anthology. A shame really, because the two other participants were very interesting – Roddy Woomble talked perceptively about his writing processes, and William Letford, one of the anthologised writers, was highly impressive, reciting his story from memory. If they’d been allowed more time this event would have been a lot better. …Outstanding Benjamin Zephaniah was introduced at his event, then stood up and talked for an hour straight, introducing his (often lengthy, always brilliant) poems and reciting them flawlessly, completely from memory – poetry slammers take note. See our interview with the man for more insight.

…Inspiring The Spanish Civil War event was excellent. The Mitchell Theatre was packed to see chairperson Willy Maley, whose father fought in the Spanish Civil War, moderate a discussion between Mike Arnot, who researches the lives of Scots who fought, Chris Dolan, who has written a biography of Scottish anarchist participant Ethel McDonald, and Daniel Jones, whose book Homage to Caledonia looks at the Scots experience in Spain (Scotland sent more volunteers to fight Franco than any other European country).

This was a fantastic event, with four opinionated, intelligent people discussing a fascinating and still relevant subject that continues to affect us today – as just one example of this, the last statue of Franco in Spain was only torn down in March 2009. Yes, last month. …Outstanding, Again.

Alan Bissett’s ‘one woman show’, where he acts out a series of monologues as Falkirk single mother Moira Bell, was one of the undoubted highlights of the festival. Bissett’s creation was so well drawn and acted that from the moment the event started you had to remind yourself it wasn’t actually Moira on stage. It was surprisingly complex as well, with Moira typically relating stories involving two or three other characters to several of her friends at once. With only one person on stage, this would seem an impossible juggling act, but it didn’t just work, it completely took the Mitchell Theatre over, with the audience laughing and crying with Moira all the way.

It should also be mentioned that James Kelman won the book award on the last day. Still, the inaugural Skinny prize for best event (that we don’t actually award) would go jointly to Benjamin Zephaniah and Alan Bissett (with the Spanish Civil War event just missing out). Fight for a ticket the next time either of those two perform! [Keir Hind]

A more detailed version of this article can be found online, with more coverage, including events featuring Ian Rankin, The Forest Cafe and Graham Swift. www.ayewrite.com

A Few Words With Benjamin Zephaniah When Wendy Miller caught up with poet Benjamin Zephaniah, she found him on typically fervent form.

He’s a middle-aged Rasta dub poet living an apparently unimpeachable existence. Why then was Benjamin Zephaniah bundled into a police car for questioning just minutes after his last Glasgow gig?

It’s difficult even to hazard a guess at this when you consider that misspent youth notwithstanding, he’s someone who doesn’t do drugs, alcohol, meat or even mobile phones.

Ashamedly the Birmingham-born writer admits his old philosophical mantra of ‘doing something illegal every day’ has been usurped by his own ‘clean-living’ tendencies, citing football, Kung Fu and forest exploration as among his interests.

Regarded in the 70s and 80s as a poet of punk disposition, or indeed a punk of poetic disposition, today he finds himself moored somewhere between controversial and contender for Britain’s next Poet Laureate, that lucrative £5 grand-a-year post due to be vacated by Andrew Motion in May. But what glittering literary attainments would it take to grant a dreadlocked Rasta immunity from

Strathclyde’s finest and their harassment? ‘’The last time I was in Glasgow I almost got arrested,’’ he laughs: ‘’I can’t even remember where I was performing. It was about four years ago. I had just finished a gig and I was in the city centre. I like to go for a stroll afterwards. I wasn’t far from my hotel when the cops turned up and put me in their car. They said: ‘We’ve had a complaint about a Rastafarian man hassling people. And we don’t get many Rastafarians around here.’ I eventually managed to convince them to let me go.’’

Middle age may have mellowed him somewhat, but there’s still a lot to get angry about, according to the man who refused an OBE in 2003, objecting to the word ‘Empire’ and its intrinsic association with slavery. When Zephaniah distils his rage into verse the end result is a message of such stark simplicity that you are almost ashamed it needed pointing out in the first place. In What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us from his collection Too Black Too Strong he asks: ‘Why is it so official That black people are so often killed without killers?’

Zephaniah has abundant frankness, and there’s ferocity in his eloquence. But these are not attributes we tend to associate with someone

rumoured to be in the running for Britain’s next Poet Laureate. Andrew Motion has said his creativity has all but dried up in the course of seeing out the ten-year tenure. Even if they’d have him Zephaniah says he couldn’t take the job. “Not when it’s so tied up with the monarchy. I couldn’t be the Queen’s Poet. A poet’s job is to criticise and to be a free agent. Perhaps if they made it People’s Laureate I might consider it. Or maybe one day if they get rid of the Queen.’’

In another life he may regard the job of Scotland’s Poet Laureate as a far more attractive prospect. Zephaniah reveals his pro-Scottish hand just as I’m about to conclude the interview. “Free up the Scottish people,’’ he says with a conviction you don’t hear much outside Scotland. “Every time I’m in Scotland I just think you’re a separate people with your own identity. The Scots call a spade a spade, they have their own sense of humour. The English are more like the Germans.

“I know you are having a referendum and I just hope the Scots have the courage to take the plunge and do it. It’s a bit like leaving home: you’ve just got to pack your things and do it, leave.”

Suitcase anyone?

Benjamin Zephaniah appeared at the Aye Write! festival. www.benjaminzephaniah.com

April 2009

THE SKINNY 27

Theatre

Their Best Behaviour Clare Sinclair catches the new mood that is moving through the underground caverns of The Arches.

Theatre is not a word that necessarily conjures up images of youth, experimentation and activity, more a sense of age and tradition; and, dare we say, sometimes an impression of stagnant ideas. For this reason alone, Jackie Wylie’s decision to rebrand the Arches Theatre Festival as ‘Behaviour’ makes a clear statement about the direction the Arches is taking under their new Artistic Director.

Wylie explains, “removing the words of theatre from the festival made me think a lot about theatre and how […] it’s about finding new ways of developing and being exciting to a young audience”; a marked difference from how theatre has traditionally been represented. “It’s about being engaged and having a dialogue within each of the works, and with the audience” Wylie also places heavy emphasis upon the space at the Arches, saying “there’s a meaning that’s embedded within the building because it’s informal. If you’re putting theatre on in a space that’s just been used for a club night, the audience are going to feel relaxed and celebratory in the way that they wouldn’t in a more traditional theatre – we’re very lucky.” These factors combine with a programme crammed with exciting and engaging performance and a cross-over between clubbing and theatre-going audiences of the Arches.

“There’s an ecology of the arts, and an ecology of clubbing […] and they bash off each other”.

These ideas of a sense of dialogue, and indeed bringing youth into the theatre, is a premise which is clearly represented through Sacha Kyle and Nic Green, the two winners of the joint National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse Theatre award for “most dangerous and brave” projects, as recognised by Wylie. Not only do these two passionate award winners have youth on their side, but they both strongly believe in dialogue between theatre, the audience and their collaborators.

Green, presenting Trilogy: Part Two – Town Bloody Hall, explains that “there’s not a lot of dialogue happening” in theatre in general. She complains that there is simply “lots of conversing”. The distinction she draws is that “actual dialogue [is] where different ideas are allowed to sit safely in the same space together, and for their difference to be celebrated”; and that this “is how we discover new things”. This is an idea which she is keen to push as part of her work, “trying to adopt the practice of having a dialogue”.

This piece, a recreation of the raucous 1971 feminist panel discussion involving most big name feminists of the 70s and Norman Mailer, provides her with the chance to look at “the role of masculinity and the male” whilst attempting to recreate “the passion of that time”. “We’ve been trying to understand what came before it [the 1971 panel] and what came after it, and why in this moment they were there together saying what they said”.

Whereas Kyle’s collaborative project The Library (an exploration into her fascination with libraries as a place of “refuge, knowledge and escape” and their link with people) extends this idea of a dialogue in the theatre, melding well with the mindset of the Arches and ‘Behaviour’ as a whole. By working in a collaborative way, they all “have to keep contact and form a dialogue back and forth, which is exciting as I don’t know what it’s going to be […] But together it’ll go somewhere”. The physical element is also strong in Kyle’s work: using 5 physical performers on that element alone creates what looks to be a piece strongly influenced by “human connection, people and relationships”. Ultimately, Kyle seeks to “get more people involved in theatre, so it’s less one-way; it challenges people and brings more people to the theatre”.

Another fascinating work, fresh from last year’s Fringe and part of a movement in Czech contemporary dance, is Dot 504’s Holdin’ Fast. Based on Milan Kundera, this ballad of sexual dependancy is a stunning explanation of how dance expresses truths about relationships and desire in a direct, moving manner.

Sensual and evocative, it captures the joy and anguish of sex: a splendid addition to the programme that echoes Wylie’s intention to capture new audiences.

The overarching idea of the Arches of today is that it is for the audience. “If you’re not doing it for them, then do it in your own room” maintains Kyle, with Wylie agreeing that Behaviour (and work at the Arches in general) should create a form of dialogue between the audience, the performer and also the space. In doing this, ‘Behaviour’ displays emerging young artists such as Kyle and Green, who look to pull in the kinds of audience the Arches want to maintain a dialogue with. Edinburgh based audiences need not fear, however: both these pieces are moving to the Traverse shortly after their Glasgow performances, which is very good ‘Behaviour’ indeed.

28 THE SKINNY April 2009

Junk Ensemble - Drinking Dust - Jump

Acts confirmed so far for Behaviour: ONTROEREND GOED, KOPERGIETERY & RICHARD JORDAN PRODUCTIONS LTD Once and For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen (Sun 12 - Mon 13 Apr)

JOHN MORAN AND HIS NEIGHBOUR SAORI

TIM CROUCH My Arm

ROB DRUMMOND SCRATCH

ANN LIV YOUNG The Bagwell In Me AL SEED

ARCHES AWARD WINNERS NIC GREEN with Town Bloody Hall SACHA KYLE with The Library (in association with Seven Things: www.seventhings.co.uk )

ANDCOMPANY&CO

www.thearches.co.uk

JUNK ENSEMBLE Drinking Dust

DOT 504 Holdin’ Fast DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON

Top 5 events

Editorial Despite my pompous assertion that I won’t see Black Watch - on the grounds that such a defining work would bias my appreciation of the National Theatre of Scotland - NTS has continued to engage even my jaded taste. Rather than channel its funding into grand showpieces, artistic director Vicky Featherstone has supported a variety of projects, capturing the breadth of Scottish theatrical imagination.

This month, the most conventional offering is Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, a welcome revival of Liz Lochead’s sharp take on history. Elsewhere, Tashi Gore and Jess Thorpe, who have proved their skill at combining complex

John Moran & Saori

innovation with entertaining community art at Transform East Renfrewshire, weaving together the many voices and stories of Barrhead. This project sees Dunterlie Dancing Feet, Burt Turner and the Sentimental Journey Cabaret Band, the Barrhead Players, the Sequence Dancing Class and the Arthurlie Social Club Bingo brought together to lend local history dramatic resonance - exactly the match between modern performance and community interest that is an increasing feature of stagecraft.

Meanwhile, John Tiffany is directing an adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s Be Near Me. Adapted by Ian McDiarmid, who also takes the central role of a confused priest, Be Near Me’s grittiness has thrilled audiences in London, and proves that the script is still a valuable basis for contemporary theatre, despite the growth of devised and improvised approaches.

The Skinny's picks for theatre across Scotland in April

Copenhagen Royal Lyceum , 17 April - 9 May, 7.30

Michael Frayn unites two heavyweights of modern physics in an unlikely but thrilling meditation on the social consequences of their science.

Lucky Box

The Angel and The Woodcutter Tron theatre,24-26 April 7.30

Another success from the Fringe, this mime mixes social realism and mythical poetry into an eloquent discussion of loss and divine love.

Traverse , Tue 7 - Sat 11 Apr 1pm

The latest from "Scotland's sexiest playwright", David Harrower.

Billy Liar

The Idiot Colony The Lemon Tree, 9 -11 April 7.30

Dundee Rep, 21–25 April 7.30

Tron Theatre, 15-18 April 7.30

Stars of the small screen dazzle in this quirky and very funny British comedy.

Moral tale that looks at the oppression of the normative.

In the spirit of Rupert's Editorial, Gareth K Vile seeks out alternative performances across the country

Theatre

Outer Limits: Dance and Physical Theatre Wed 22 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sat 25 April Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s award winning national dance company brings two fiery and passionate pieces to the stage this spring: a brand new Carmen, created for Scottish Ballet

by Richard Alston and Cheating, Lying, Stealing made for The Royal Ballet in 1998 by Ashley Page.

Also on Sale: Scottish Balletâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 40th anniversary Autumn Season 2009 tour and the winter seasonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s return of The Nutcracker.

20% discount available when booking all three shows together. Ă´ Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company and West Yorkshire Playhouse in association with Centreline UK Ltd presents

Victoriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Venizke

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A work that will endure for generationsâ&#x20AC;?

Daily Telegraph

Thu 21 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sat 23 May Adapted from Philip Pullmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s three novels into two full-length plays, Nicholas Wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stage version of His Dark Materials was a triumph when it premiered at the National Theatre in 2004.

This new production directed by Rachel Kavanaugh also promises to be a truly exciting theatrical event. Part One and Part Two can be enjoyed alone or together on the same day.

Jan Fabreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Orgy of Tolerance

As always, experimental theatre and dance are easy to find in Glasgow, as the Arches and Tramway are competing to offer the most challenging and radical work. This month, Tramway offers a couple of serious Belgian challengers: Jan Fabreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Orgy of Tolerance and Victoriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Venizke. In Edinburgh, the emphasis is more cosmopolitan and family friendly: Divine Performing Arts bring Chinese dance while Le Grand Cirque has performers from fifteen different countries in a spectacular fusion of theatricality and circus acrobatics.

Jan Fabre is strictly for the hardcore. His play The Crying Body led to calls for a French minister who attended the performance to resign. Orgy of Tolerance is a timely attack on contemporary credit card culture and what he regards as the implicit fascism of political correctness. Fabre wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just state his opposition, but express it through shocking transgression.

Fabreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concern is that under the guise of tolerance, society celebrates vulgar excess, and cunningly excludes the unacceptable by policing language. While this might chime with a conservative concern about political correctness, Fabre is unlikely to please Daily Mail readers, preferring shock tactics to expose lazy assumptions and prejudice. Expect explicit material and a purgative ferocity.

Victoria, who have worked with the National Theatre of Scotland, take on another modern obsession - celebrity. Somewhere between a satire on reality television and a meditation on the destructive power of fame, Venizke deconstructs both its subject and, from their previous works, the very conventions of the play. Imaginative and provocative, Victoria have built

an audience in Scotland, and Venizke is intelligent, loose and dynamic.

Le Grand Cirque is at the other extreme: sell-out runs in Las Vegas, a spirit of celebration and happiness and a series of impressive, individual turns. With a soundtrack of modern classics, show-stopping costumes and an integral light show, Le Grand Cirque is pure entertainment, taking traditional circus skills into the technological age. Acrobats defy death, contortionists amaze, the tone is light-hearted and the pace astonishing.

The fourth performance is another example of theatricality possibility, but moves sharply away from modernity and experimentation. It even questions the status of our own classics as genuinely old, as it harks back over five centuries. Divine Performing Arts are part of the wave of Chinese companies who are hitting Europe, and they revive an ancient dance form, bringing to life mythical tales with colourful costumes and refined technique. Driven by pounding drums, they celebrate the beauty of tradition, using movement as an accessible way to pass on their culture.

Apart from illustrating the wonderful diversity of talents that pass through the theatre, these selections seem to suggest something about the respective cultures of east and west coasts. Glasgow expands its consciousness through harsh, dramatic work, stretching the parameters of performance, creating new forms through rigorous experimentation and daring taboos. Edinburgh travels the world, bringing home the best of international work and offering alternative traditions that shed light on our own theatre.

THE ICONIC ROCK OPERA Tue 26 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sat 30 May Set in London and Brighton at the height of the Mod era, Quadrophenia is told through the eyes of Jimmy, a hedonistic style conscious teenager who sets off on a trip to Brighton in search of a place to belong and a girl to love.

This compelling coming of age story is brought to life in this original stage adaptation of the legendary album. The evocative world of sixties Britain provides a colourful backdrop to Jimmyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey.

MUSIC, LYRICS AND CONCEPT by PETE TOWNSHEND Stage adaptation by Jeff Young, John Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hara and Tom Critchley

Tickets 0131 529 6000 "KGĂ´&EEĂ´!PPLIES

Ă´.ICOLSONĂ´3TREET Ă´%DINBURGHĂ´%( Ă´ &4 4HEĂ´+ING SĂ´ANDĂ´&ESTIVALĂ´4HEATRESĂ´AREĂ´MANAGEDĂ´ BYĂ´&ESTIVALĂ´#ITYĂ´4HEATRESĂ´4RUST Ă´2EGISTEREDĂ´Ă´ #HARITYĂ´3#

Groups (8+) 0131 529 6005

www.festivaltheatre.org.uk

"KGĂ´&EEĂ´!PPLIES

April 2009

THE SKINNY 29

Theatre

Previews Blood Brothers His Majesty's Theatre until 11 April

When audiences return to see a show season after season you know you’ve got a keeper. At over 25 years old, Blood Brothers is a fully fledged West End success and its combination of strong story, social commentary and standout numbers, rather than its spectacle, has ensured this success has continued. Blood Brothers tells the story of fraternal twins separated at birth.

While it begins with a pact between the pregnant mother Mrs Johnstone and the childless Mrs Lyons she cleans for, their different backgrounds, and the subsequent choices available to each of them, have just as much impact on the consequences of this tragic story as their secret itself. The songs pack a punch as they build on the story and explore the characters’ emotional states. The haunting melody of Easy Terms magnifies the pain of giving up one’s child. Money can’t buy you love, but neither can love pay the bills, and in Mrs Johnstone’s (Maureen Nolan) world of debt collectors and borrowed time, her son is bargained away. That Guy builds on the obvious connection between the two brothers Mickey and Eddie; the irony being that either of them could have been the other but for one choice.

One problematic aspect of the show is the outdated role of the narrator: he interrupts and slows the drama down rather than lets it build naturally, and his commentaries are obvious rather than subtle. The role works well for condensing Mickey and Eddie’s teenage years, but stepping in to comment immediately after the play’s climax means there is no emotional payoff and the showstopper Tell Me It’s Not True suffers as a result. Despite this, Blood Brothers is an engaging and enjoyable production. Sean Jones (Mickey) and Simon Willmont (Eddie) have a great chemistry as the brothers. Jones is particularly good in the more challenging role of Mickey, developing from cute kid (love the horsemanship!) to depressed man, inevitably trapped by his upbringing. Blood Brothers is a musical with substance and, as such, will predictably see in another 25 years. [Susannah Radford] Caird Hall, Dundee, 14 Apr–18 Apr His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 30 Mar–11 Apr

Scottish Dance Theatre Inverness, Glasgow and Stirling until 29 April

Nicole Hepburn saw SDT at the start of their current tour, and discovered a selection of engaged, thoughtful works Scottish Dance Theatre's 2009 tour is thought-provoking and chilling, and an outstanding display of the abilities of its dancers.

The repertoire at Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Theatre opened with a new work, ‘The Long and Short of It’, choreographed and performed by Caroline Bowditch, SDT’s Dance Agent For Change and Tom Pritchard, the company’s tallest dancer. This short and witty duet is an exploration of proportion. It is a simple yet bold piece, and it sets the audience thinking about the perception of disability, proving that dance is able to address complex issues in a direct, forthright manner.

‘I Thought I Heard Someone Calling’, an in-house collaboration between director and choreographer Janet Smith and the SDT dancers, is an exploration of the possibilities of dance. Primarily looking at cohesion and separation, through movement and the grasping of costume it also becomes a fluid study of line and form. The striking

Carmen: Scottish Ballet

lighting by Bruno Poet and the effective use of a reflective dance surface enhances the structure of this visually stunning piece.

‘The Visitation’, by Norwegian choreographer Ina Christel Johannessen, is quite haunting and is ideally suited to HMT’s traditional and imposing auditorium.

With five mannequins, five ghosts and five people on stage, ‘The Visitation’ is based on the writing of Bruno Schultz. It is a truly chilling interpretation of our views on the supernatural, spanning the real and imagined, and is enhanced by a wonderfully ambient score by Norwegian composers Svarte Greiner and Elegi.

This is a fascinating programme that not only entertains but also leaves you thinking – and just a little spooked. [Nicole Hepburn] The Tour Continues. see www.theskinny.co.uk for more details.

accross scotland until 9 may

By offering Richard Allston the chance to choreograph a new version of Carmen, Scottish Ballet again are linking the modern and classical. A realistic story, concerning the fatal attraction between Don Jose and the wayward heroine, it cuts through ballet’s mythology and describes the familiar, brutal horror of unrestrained love.

Daniel Davidson is playing Don Jose. Having risen through the company, Daniel is excited by what he calls his “first great opportunity”. He acknowledges that Carmen is a populist and challenging choice: a famous score, an accessible story in a new style. “The company hasn’t done it for a while,” he points out. “It’s an interesting piece to have in the repertoire. Story ballets are quite popular.

The music is incredible, beautiful.”

Allston’s choreography is modern from process to performance. “He’s quite into collaboration,” adds Daniel.

“He’ll say, I’d like you to do something along the lines of this. You’ll do the movements and he’ll mould it, change it.

30 THE SKINNY April 2009

It’s nice when you add your own personality into work.”

Carmen offers Daniel a chance to go beyond the restraints of one-act pieces. “I like getting my teeth into a good dramatic part. Jose has the biggest change of the three leads. He starts as a well-to-do, young cheeky chappy that everyone likes; then he meets Carmen and his world falls apart. She has something that he is really attracted to - she’s a bit fiery and a bit naughty - and it gets him into a lot of trouble. He loses his job. He selfdestructs towards the end.”

Subtly, by aligning a strong story with a renowned contemporary choreographer, Scottish Ballet are bringing sophisticated modern movement into the popular consciousness, uncovering those elusive new audiences.

[Gareth K Vile] see theskinny.co.uk for full details on performances

More theatre reviews

online

theskinny.co.uk

Laughing Horse New Act of the Year: Quarter Final meadows Bar, Edinburgh, 3 and 4 April

Any artistic competition is always going to throw up arguments and heated opinions about travesties of justice.

Did Heath Ledger really deserve the posthumous Oscar?

How on earth did Rhydian not win the X Factor?

However, the acts that made it through from the early heats of this competition comprise some genuinely talented comedians with quality material and strong performances, who are well deserving of their places in the quarter finals. Those judged best on the night will progress to the semi finals in London, with the final competition winner on 17 May being awarded £1,000 in

Comedy

Previews T H E

cash and the even better promise of £1,000 in gigs, giving valuable exposure.

So go along, check it out, argue for the rest of the night as to whether the best act won. You’re guaranteed some great laughs along the way. [Lizzie Cass-Maran] The Laughing Horse New Act 2009 Quarter Finals 3 and 4 April 2009, 8:30, Meadows Bar, Edinburgh Check out theskinny.co.uk for details of a couple of acts from the earlier heats who didn’t make the cut, but we won’t have seen the last of. www.laughinghorse.co.uk

Reviews

COMEDY CLUB LIVE COMEDY

Ro Campbell: Full Power The Buff Club, 13 March

rrr

7 NIGHTS A WEEK

It’s Friday the thirteenth, so you might expect a bit of bad luck here and there. But given what happened to Ro Campbell at his Glasgow International Comedy Festival gig at the Buff Club, you could be forgiven for thinking the poor bloke had personally incurred the wrath of Beelzebub!

Between an undeservedly low turnout, a few awkward technical issues, and being saddled with a pair of obnoxious and disruptive hecklers in the front row, it was an uphill struggle for Campbell that would have sunk a less confident performer. But the Aussie trooper battled against circumstances and once he got his groove going defiantly gave a solid set about life back in Adelaide (think Royston Vasey), coming to Scotland, getting trapped in crappy jobs, and Australia’s eccentric influence on the world at large.

With a ballsy stage persona that’s a dangerous cocktail of Dylan Moran’s Bernard Black and that frazzled nutter you met at university, Campbell’s a solid bloke and funny as hell. However, you might just want to keep him away from the drinks cabinet, your younger sister or the family pet. [Scotty McKellar]

333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow

0870 600 6055 5 York Place, Edinburgh

0131 558 7272 www.thestand.co.uk

www.myspace.com/rocampbell

Andrew Maxwell Old Fruitmarket, 14 March

rrrrr

Alone on the huge stage at the Old Fruitmarket, Andrew Maxwell looks titchy at first, but soon fills up the space, chuckling into his bottle of beer as if he can’t quite believe he’s getting away with this.

Lots of well trodden comedy ground is covered here – American tourists, Scottish weather and the like, but with devilish giggles, swearing and grinning, he has a floppy haired charm and a brilliant mind for juggling the clever with the silly. From a bar stool in the middle of the stage, he shares the comedy terror of trying to make lifers and murderers laugh

rather than rape him and often seems as amused by the audience as we are of him.

The crowd were pretty frisky at times, with a regular commitee of weird hecklers at the back, but Maxwell worked hard to kick ‘em back where they belonged and keep everyone laughing, and you had to admire his skill. Despite the size of the venue, Maxwell chats easily with the audience, negotiating a mid-show break and mocking our love of teacakes. By the end we were all sorry to see his scrawny figure bound off stage. [Edward Whelan]

April 2009

THE SKINNY 31

Art

A Wee Tasty Experiment One weekend in April sees two unique events presenting alternative approaches to exhibiting art on consecutive nights in the good city of Glasgow. Rosamund West met up with the relevant masterminds to find out what to expect.

Secret Wars: Scotland v England

There are plenty of nights about that claim to bring together art and music. All too frequently this means projecting some videos behind the bands in an otherwise traditional gig, or having someone DJ in the middle of an art gallery. The worlds of art and music are so intertwined, it’s always seemed a shame that there aren’t more attempts being made to represent that synergy in physical form. A Wee Tasty’s Ryan Hays and Ross Hamilton Frew have given the matter some serious thought, and come up with a one-night-only event in Glasgow’s Stereo that promises to present a never-before-seen melange of art, performance, music and dancing. That’s the plan, anyway.

RH: There will be dancing. We’ve got a Frightened Rabbit - Andy Monaghan - DJing. Everyone knows Andy. He gets about. We’re hoping he’s going to be directing the different phases throughout the night. So it’ll start off fairly atmospheric and chilled, and by the end it’ll be fairly dirty and hardcore.

Secret Wars is fast becoming an international phenomenon, and this month sees the staging of the first match on Scottish soil. Originally touted as Scotland v Denmark, funding issues got in the way and grounded the Danish team, meaning a new, or rather auld enemy had to be sourced for the home side. The stakes have been raised as England has stepped into the ring to go head to head in an international paint-off in the grimy surrounds of GSA’s Vic Bar. Scottish ringleader Conzo told us what a Secret War actually is.

“It’s been going on since 2005 in London, started by a guy called Terry Guy, who still runs it. Him and Jimmy Crayon, who’s on the England team for this match. It’s toured all over Europe. It’s in Australia, and New York right now.

“There’s two teams, two on each team. Me and Vues for Scotland Jimmy Crayon and Teck 1 for England. They’ve done a lot of battles together. If we win it’ll be a big success.

“On the night, doors open at 9. Then the actual battle’s at about half ten, eleven. Artists are only allowed to use black paint with markers/brushes on a white background (normally a wall or board), no spray paint, no white paint so no mistakes. Sketches aren’t allowed once the battle begins and there’s an invisible line so neither artist can cross into the other team’s area without their permission.

The battle lasts ninety minutes.

“It’s a three point measuring system. There’s the crowd vote, measured by a decibel meter. And two guest judges, with art and design backgrounds. Best of three. In this case we’ll try and get judges who aren’t just Scottish!

“After that the party goes on til 3am. DJs, break dancers.

Hopefully there won’t be any riots.

If it goes well we’ll get a tournament up here, which would be 16 Scottish artists competing for a prize at the end. I see the Glasgow art scene as very limp, and Secret Wars is a Viagra pill that’s going to shoot it up and get its hands dirty and inky. “ [Rosamund West]

The event begins at 8pm on Thursday 9 April at Stereo ,Glasgow

Secret Wars: Scotland v England is in the Vic Bar, GSA, Friday 10 April from 9pm

www.aweetasty.co.uk

www.secret wars.co.uk

How did A Wee Tasty come about?

Ryan Hays: We wanted to do a show, but were sick of the hoops you have to jump through to get a space and so on. And we had this feeling that when you have an opening, it’s just one night, lots of people will turn up for that then hardly anyone comes during the actual run. Ross works at the Market Gallery, so he’s been observing.

Ross Hamilton Frew: The openings are busy, but getting people in the door for the two weeks after that’s really tough.

RH: So we decided to focus on doing an exhibition that was based around one night, and putting all our money and effort and resources into making that one night something exciting. It’s not a brand new idea.

We’ve been to nights in London, and we’ve thought “Why isn’t that happening in Glasgow?” There’s enough talented people and there’s enough great musicians. We’re hoping to make it an umbrella term for lots of different artists and performers to congregate.

If it continues on to be a regular event we can take it on to different venues, different projects. We look at things like Instal and Kill Your Timid Notion, obviously they’re on a different scale. But we’d like to do something similar to that.

How does it work?

RH: It’s from 8pm 'til 3am. We want it to be a night where the audience is directed around the space.

RHF: We’re not going to have the bands on stage, we’re going to have them scattered around to give a level playing field.

RH: It’s going to develop and change throughout the night. One of the artists, Rachel Tweedy, a textiles sculptor from Edinburgh, has been one of the first people to get to use this kind of phosphorescent

thread. She’d been building these huge 3 metre long sculptures that resemble a jelly fish or fire or something. They change colour gradually by themselves throughout the night. When you first come in you won’t be able to see them, but as the lights come down they’ll start to appear.

Some of the video artists are working in conjunction with the musicians. For example, there’s an improvisation act called Sexy Entourage, they’re used to improvising amongst themselves, but we’re throwing a video artist into the mix with them so they’ll be responding to the visuals that are projected onto them.

They’ll be trying their best to keep in time while the artist messes with their heads. We’ve got Wounded Knee too, he’s going to be playing in a long thin corridor downstairs, so everyone will have to cram in. He wanted to play because of the space actually, because of its acoustic value.

The sort of headline is John Knox Sex Club. They’re the most band-y act we’ve got. The lead singer’s almost

A quick rant I was sent a link the other day which took me to a site dedicated to mapping disused retail units across the UK that can be used as exhibition spaces.

An interesting idea, which one sculptor and Leith FM DJ called the art equivalent of couchsurfing. In the area and fancy having an exhibition? Check www.artistsandmakers.com for nearby vacancies. Unfortunately no-one’s

32 THE SKINNY April 2009

added any from Scotland yet, so if anyone has any leads please contribute. It’s nice to think that the recession can be used for good, in a way, with shows mushrooming on high streets near you, put on without the constraints of major galleries and funders.

On the subject of major galleries, or at least established galleries: I’ve been wondering why so many of them are closed on a Sunday.

I would have thought that was peak time for visitors, being for many people the only opportunity they have to go. You wouldn’t run a bar and shut it on weekend nights so the staff can have a social life, would you? No, no you wouldn’t. /Ros

like a preacher, marches up and down the stage mopping his face with a rag. Really loud and really good.

They’re writing a special set based around the book Lanark. So we’ll see how that turns out! Sean’s a bit of a lyrical genius. We’re going to have images of Alasdair Gray’s work projected over them.

And will there be dancing?

Top 5 art events THE ASSOCIATES

REPOSITION

DCA, TIL 21 JUN

PRINCES SQUARE, GLASGOW, 18 – 26 APR

A group show celebrating ten years of DCA with artists whose roots can be traced to the city. With a name “affectionately pinched” from the seminal Dundonian group (to quote the press release), it may be worth visiting for the horrendous punning alone.

SWG3 get involved in the vacant retail unit gallery idea, with a residency and exhibition by Sandy Smith.

A WEE TASTY EXPERIMENT STEREO, GLASGOW, 9 APR

A unique approach to exhibiting, with dancing.

See preview above.

LOWSALT GLASGOW SCULPTURE STUDIOS, 18 APR

Commissioned artist Will Foster and two shipping containers create a mini-retrospective of Lowsalt events in a car park.

BONELESS BOX THE EMBASSY, EDINBURGH, TIL 26 APR.

Relaunch show with an epic line up featuring previous exhibitors, committee members and emergent artists.

Hayley Tompkins: Autobuilding

Re-make 7 Barclay Terrace, Edinburgh

Inverleith House

rr

rrr The shells of old mobile phones guard the entrance and exit of Hayley Tompkins' first solo show in Scotland, transforming Inverleith House into a silent, tumbleweed eerie world, at once pre-linguistic and post-apocalyptic.

This is no place for the discussion of lunch or cacophonies of hideous MGMT ringtones, thanks. Tompkins’ approach to language makes any kind of textual address of this current collection seem an ignominy. Titled ‘Autobuilding’, semantic paradoxes are thrown up straight off the bat, positing surrealist automatism against connotations of planned, meticulously structured activity. This is the fibre of Tompkins’ practice, ‘building’ as verb rather than noun.

The work itself grapples with defining that good old-fashioned split between subject and object that necessitates a being’s entrance into language. The seven rooms of Inverleith are peppered with a modest awareness of Heidegger’s notions of the ready-to-hand, a primordial sense that everyday objects and tools are what connect us to the world. Discussing her work, Tompkins continually stresses this fascination of “the extension of hand to object” and the process of “thinking through touch”. It seems logical then that so many of the pieces would be centred on hand-held utensils, from spoons and pearlescent soap dispensers to derelict mobile phones.

‘Data’, an old school Nokia touch pad embedded in unfired clay, hangs by the entrance in place of a light switch. The automatic, almost motor-neurone actions involved in flicking a switch when you walk into a room are seconded by the subconscious choreography we adopt when we knock out text messages. In this sense the phone becomes Tompkins’ iconic symbol for our physically mediated connection and resultant isolation from the world around us. The second handset upstairs is split in two, the battery removed. Titled ‘ Tele’ - Greek for distance - the conceptual separation of being and object required for entrance into a communicative linguistic

Art

Reviews

The title of the exhibition is somewhat hammered home: the works are re-made, re-represented and re-visited from pieces the artists made at college; the space is reused, a tiny wedge-shaped room that seems chiselled out of the tenement block. However, the idea is taken slightly too far when visitors have to walk over a precariously balanced piece of mdf blocking a staircase below.

While the concept of Re-make is interesting, albeit not original, the content of the exhibition is lacking. Rosalind Thomson’s Cabinet created from found furniture looks as if she took a stroll around the city’s skips and hammered her findings together. It’s a long shot from Picasso’s Bull sculpture. The size and vulgarity of the cabinet detracts from the other work, although perhaps it is a blessing that it hides Thom War’s ‘Re-open/re-seal gaps and heights’.

Thankfullly there is merit in the more subtle works.

Damien Taylor’s Alkyd and Resin on Copper and Steel has a raw material beauty and Benjamin Hochart’s Study for a Wall Drawing has a delicate attention to detail which explores various mark-making techniques.

The exhibition is brief and rather clumsily put together.

It’s a shame that the finer, more delicate work does not stand out. As a whole it proves that while an idea can have integrity, such as working with found materials or re-visiting and re-cycling old work to create new pieces, it does not necessarily yield good results. Perhaps a few art works need to be re-worked and re-made a few more times yet. [Sophie George] Exhibition ended.

For information on upcoming shows, email remake09_edinburgh@yahoo.co.uk

order seems all the more paradoxical.

These bookends set the tone for the frustrated ghostly utterances that echo through the rest of the gallery in the form of unspoken prepositions. There is a definite sense that Tompkins utilises her work for a cathartic effect, attaching imaginary hyphens to the back of each piece in an attempt to bridge or delineate the perpetually indefinable territory between herself and the outside world. What begins as a calmly meditative, sparse collection of feminine pieces subsequently morphs into a pretty anxious, ongoing struggle to define the self against language, personal memory against historical time, and physical space against phenomenological experience.

[Rebecca Pottinger] Until 19 Apr Open Tue - Sun 10am - 5.30pm. Admission free. www.rbge.org.uk/inverleith-house

CMY: 60 K:100 eps skinny ad.indd 1

23/3/09 10:17:45

April 2009

THE SKINNY 33

MUSIC

Crystal Antlers:

People Go ‘Crystal Who?’ Even before the release of their debut album, the real Crystal Antlers have been lost in a fog of hype. Singer Jonny Bell sets the record straight to Nick Mitchell

DAN MONICK

A WORKPLACE hazard of the music writer is to over-emphasise biographical quirks. In Crystal Antlers’ case, the quirk is this: they once all worked as chimney sweeps. When I ask frontman and bassist Jonny Bell about it, he’s still willing to entertain the story: “The company I worked for was called ‘Chim Chimney,’ so we went for that whole Mary Poppins aesthetic. We wore top hats and everything.”

But, he adds wearily: “It always gets brought up but it doesn’t have much to do with our music.” Still, it’s my job to ask.

The reality of the Long Beach, California sextet’s formation was rather less romantic. “We actually met in a high school musical class. Our teacher got arrested on suspicion of child molesting, and the school didn’t have any money to hire a substitute, so we just kinda messed around. That’s when we started playing together, and then a couple of years after that we started the band.”

When I get through to Bell, Crystal Antlers are ensconced in their van en route to Manchester, on the latest leg of a journey that’s taken them from local punk nobodies to the vanguard of American rock. It’s been just a year since they unleashed their literally-titled EP, a six-track statement of intent that was produced by Mars Volta keys-man Ikey Owens, garnished with glittering reviews, and subsequently re-released in October. Looking back, Bell sees it as a stepping stone: “It helped us to get focused and Ikey taught us a lot about how everything works in the music industry. We’re still sort of transitioning from kids playing music in a garage to being a real touring band.”

And despite an endless tour that has included a pedestrian bridge in Austin, Texas, a riverboat in Lyon, France, and “a million parties anywhere you can think of”, Crystal Antlers still found time to record their debut LP. Their profile may be heading skyward, but on Tentacles they were keen to maintain the garage rock feel of the EP. “Generally what we’re trying to accomplish is a live sound,” Bell says. “I don’t think that our music is suited well to being polished, I don’t know if it really can be. So when we’re in the studio we play everything live. We usually try to get it in the first three or four takes, so

it’s as raw as possible.”

‘Raw’ is probably the simplest way of describing the Crystal Antlers sound, although critics have lumbered them with a multitude of dusty genres. To set the record straight, I run each past Bell. While he’s happy to accept the comparisons to psychedelic rock (“We use organs that are mainly used in 60s music so I think that that gives it that sound”), soul (“The one type of music that we all really enjoy”) and punk (“It’s part of it but we try to expand on that”), he is scathing about the references to prog rock. “I don’t really get that,” Bell complains. “When I think of prog rock there’s no song to it, no soul. It’s very much like white men showing off and I feel that we have songs. There’s never jamming in our songs – things are written and there’s no improvisation element to it.”

Controlled aggression; methodical mayhem; call it

Editorial Still gutted you missed the boat on Jackson tickets after sitting online for hours and falling for all that presale shite?

Me too, me too. So how about we recline, maybe don a mask in honour of the greatest MC to ever rap about Dynasty, cakes and ponytails (I'm talking aboud DOOM – review of his long-awaited 893rd-ish LP and a hundred other new releases, exclusive interviews with Nacional, P.O.S, The Rakes and the 2009 Shred Yr Face Tour alumni are on the website) and consider the potential for alternative gigging highlights this coming summer.

34 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

what you like, but it’s a style that makes for a kinetic live show. I ask Bell if it gets physically gruelling.

“When it comes to playing live we all get so into what we’re doing we somehow find the energy,” he says. “It’s hard for me not to be energetic when we’re playing. We had some shows on this tour when I got sick and lost my voice, and there were people telling me not to sing and to take it easy but I couldn’t do that. I got up there and sang every song.” Unlike the drug-fuelled, stage-trashing rockers of the 60s with whom they’re constantly compared, Crystal Antlers take their job seriously. “I try to avoid the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle as much as possible,” Bell says. “Like on this tour we got to stop at Lake Geneva, spend a day there skipping rocks on the lake. The things we like to do outside of playing music are pretty contrary to how our live show is.”

Which only leaves one last question: why the

sudden proliferation of ‘Crystal’-named bands? “My theory is that people in the music industry get so hyped and nobody knows what’s happening half the time,” Bell explains. “People go ‘Crystal who?’

They’ll be looking for our record and they’ll buy a Crystal Stilts record and then they’ll try to go to a Crystal Stilts show and they’ll end up at a Crystal Antlers show and they think that they’re seeing Crystal Castles.”

So it might actually have helped their cause? “Yeah, I think it’s helped all three bands.” With Crystal Antlers, fact is evidently stranger than fiction.

TENTACLES IS RELEASED VIA TOUCH & GO / QUARTERSTICK ON 7 APRIL. CRYSTAL ANTLERS PLAY SNEAKY PETE’S, EDINBURGH ON 18 MAY AND STEREO, GLASGOW ON 19 MAY. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/CRYSTALANTLERS

A Muso’s Top 10: Conrad Keely In the spirit of this month's 'Top 5' overload, here's the 'Top 5 Potential Musical Moments of 2009' based on irrational conjecture and convenient geography... 1) A triumphant return to Scotland by The Boss in July. 2) A fond farewell to Nine Inch Nails on Saturday night at T in the Park.

3) An ice cream, great craic and a few good bands on the beach at The Great Escape. 4) Failing the fruition of those Stone Roses and Smiths reunions rumours that do the rounds every year, let's keep it realistic and hope for, I dunno, the Soup Dragons?

5) Jackson makes off with the cash to build a new Neverland Ranch on Mars, leaving Leo Sayer to helm the residency.

Give us your predictions, both realistic and ridiculous, over on the forum at theskinny.co.uk.

Hope you enjoy this month's Music. /Dave

Before those perennial Texan hellraisers ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead swoop down on Glasgow to tout the fruits of current effort The Century of Self,, Uncle Conrad drops off ten mix-tape hits to treat your speakers to.

Remember and buy these records though, kids; Fleet Foxes' beards don't groom for free!

1. Melanie – (Lay Down) Candles in the Rain 2. Nick Drake – One of These Things First 3. White Magic – One-Note 4. Django Reinhardt – Japanese Sandman 5. Fela Kuti – Everything Scatter/Noise For Vendor Mouth 6. Knife in the Water - Careening 7. Unwound - Honourosis

8. Sean Lennon – Dead Meat 9. Fleet Foxes – Your Protector 10. Toots & The Maytals – Sweet and Dandy ...AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD PLAY ORAN MOR, GLASGOW ON 17 APRIL. MYSPACE.COM/ TRAILOFDEAD

MUSIC

Riding With the Devil With his ouija board, some broken trousers and Frank Black for an alley, Eddie Argos tells Gillian Watson about the time Art Brut took on Satan Unusual and innovative music from Scotland and beyond

Compiled by Milo McLaughlin

Pretty girls and cute animals really are the nicest things in the world – FACT. And when you combine them both, plus an utterly mad bloke, you get this month's podcast – a big furry, slightly unhinged twee-monster stomping into your life and leaving seeds in your living room carpet from which sprout smiley daffodils and the onset of spring.

No more bedroom-based melancholy, no more unhelpful unrequited love, the time to rejoice in an endearingly self-conscious fashion has come!

Camera Obscura My Maudlin Career New music from the not-so-obscure Glasgow band who make twee indie kids’ hearts flutter all across the world. It's exactly what you'd expect – self-effacingly life-affirming, rose-tinted glasses retro, and bloody lovely.

SIMON PLUNKETT

FLASHBACK to 2005: indie minnows Art Brut release debut album Bang Bang Rock & Roll, the highlight of which is Formed a Band, a shaky two-minuteodd punk rampage over the top of which the group’s singer reveals his dream to write the song “that makes Israel and Palestine get along”. Fast-forward to 2009 and Eddie Argos, Art Brut’s frontman, hasn’t quite managed to solve the conflict in the Middle East just yet; however, his band did manage to secure Frank Black as producer of their third album on a rare outing for the ex-Pixies singer behind the mixing desk.

Having had at least four years’ practice in the music business, has Argos developed a rock star nonchalance about dealing with such big names? Far from it.

“When we first arrived for the recordings I was a bit intimidated… ‘cause he’s Frank Black.”

The surreal nature of the meeting only served to heighten Argos’s anxiety. Black picked the band up at the airport in his own car, and an offer to let the awestruck Londoner take it for a spin nearly had disastrous consequences. “I can’t even drive,” admits Argos, “but I nearly said ‘yeah’.”

Despite their singer remaining the resolutely unsmooth hero who made early Art Brut tracks such as Emily Kane (the paean to a lost childhood sweetheart) so engaging, Art Brut have in fact reached a point in their career which, while it isn’t exactly a maturation, signals a movement towards refocusing their ramshackle sound.

The offspring of their by all accounts very enjoyable musical coupling with Black (“it was brilliant... he’s such a friendly, nice man”), third album Art Brut vs Satan takes all of the raw energy and scattershot brilliance of the band’s earliest work and refocuses it, heightening the impact of the record’s eleven tracks.

On this album, the London-based quintet has become confident enough to be able to record live, which Argos partly credits Black for. He describes how “loads of the album is first takes, because he just went for it and pressed record. I always thought albums were made like this, I thought bands just went in, played their songs and then left.”

According to Argos, while sessions for sophomore sideways move It’s A Bit Complicated and their

"I'VE BEEN IN BANDS SINCE I WAS 15, I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY I WOULD STOP. EVEN IF NO ONE BUYS THE RECORD." EDDIE ARGOS critically acclaimed debut were bedevilled by overproduction and time constraints respectively, “it was much better this time... this is the way you should do it: go in, record your songs, then leave”.

It’s ironic, then, that Art Brut vs Satan, the result of this spontaneous process, is such a fully realised album, one which appears at its heart to have a loose lyrical theme. It’s the idea that, while Argos’s aural alter ego is still raising hell and getting himself into a range of comic everyday scrapes, the age of responsibility is approaching fast.

The album is bookended by two of its most effective songs. The invigorating opener (and first single) Alcoholics Unanimous is a wry, peppy look at the onset of a drink problem. The LP finishes with the astonishing Mysterious Bruises, a seven-and-a-half-minute epic with a lonely, raw guitar figure circling wearily around Argos’s dazed and miserable reflections on the morning after with an effect that’s – dare I say it – deeply moving.

But while the record deals with the pathetic side to acting younger than one’s age, its more upbeat songs extol the virtues of a love of the simple things, such as on DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake (“some

things will always be great/even though I’m twentyeight”). “I do buy and read comics quite a lot, and for a while I was quite shy about it,” admits Argos, “but about a year ago I was like ‘Oh, fuck it!’”

The same resurgent confidence applies to his band, and there’s a sense that Art Brut’s newfound confidence is augmented by an us-against-the-world mentality, epitomised by the album’s title. “The rest of the bands we came up with have either split up or become massively famous. We are pretty much out by ourselves now,” says Argos. “I’m quite a strong-headed person, I don’t mind. We’ve got friends in bands, it’s just that we’re doing a very different thing.”

The question remains then as to how a band like Art Brut have always puttered along on a more or less even keel towards their third album when so many of their contemporaries have either exploded, or imploded. “I’ve been in bands since I was 15,” says Argos simply. “I can’t imagine why I would stop. Even if no one buys the record, I’m still going to be doing it. I like it.”

Frank Black has bigger ambitions for the group though: in an interview with Pitchfork, he describes how his aim going into the recording was to make rock ’n’ roll history. Argos isn’t sure. “In a band, I think you do want to believe everything you’re doing is rock ’n’ roll history – although I know it’s not, I’m not going to admit that!” he replies with remarkable candour.

So have Art Brut matured over the course of the last four years? Will their subtle change in direction see them amass ranks of serious-minded Coldplay fans as followers and collaborators in their crusade against Satan? According to Argos, the battle has already been won – over a ouija board. “Since then, I’ve broken 3 pairs of trousers,” he marvels. “If all he can do is break my trousers, I’m gonna be all right. Bring it on.” Those who dread a ‘serious’ Art Brut don’t have to worry.

Despite the accomplished new album, Eddie Argos is leading the charge against common sense, holding his trousers up around his waist as he goes.

ART BRUT VS SATAN IS RELEASED VIA COOKING VINYL ON 20 APRIL. THEY PLAY STEREO, GLASGOW ON 2 MAY.

Je Suis Animal Fortune Map Psychedelic dreamy indie pop from Oslo, with more than a hint of Stereolab. It's actually a surprisingly strident guitar-driven beast which turns into a ferocious, snarling, claws-out carnivore just when you're leaning in close to rub its tummy. Available this month as a split 7" with Wake The President from Lucky Number Nine records.

Men Diamler Black as a Cat in the Morning Does this count as twee? Perhaps it does, at least the sinister side of it, the lopsided grin of the joke gone too far, the failed attempt at being nice which ends up in tears. Men Diamler is pure mental, he sings about cats and suicide and screams "one of these days you'll feel much better". He gets up and runs about like his arse is on fire. He makes us all sing along. Thing is, we feel better right away.

Animal Magic Tricks Poor Heart A woman with flaming red hair makes a keyboard sound like crunching rocks. Her voice flutters and flounces round like a ballet dancer. Beeps intrude on our intimacy.

Rough recordings only hint at the pleasures of Animal Magic Tricks in the flesh.

Panda Su Moviegoer "The problem with myself is that I long to be someone else," sings Fife songstress Panda Su. But on this evidence, recorded with the Beta Band's Steve Mason, she's doing very nicely indeed. At one point some children cheer loudly, which is surely the height of twee, and she and Steve close the curtains and settle down with a big bag of popcorn to enjoy watching home movies from their old-school 16mm movie camera. Blissful, no?

GET THE PODCAST AT THESKINNY.CO.UK OR SUBSCRIBE VIA ITUNES

WWW.ARTBRUT.ORG.UK

APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 35

Music

Record Store Day On 18 April, thousands of independent music stores across the globe will celebrate 'Record Store Day’ with a series of special events. Paul Mitchell sounds out the initiative with Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis and Avalanche Records boss Kevin Buckle On Saturday April 18 thousands of independently owned music stores across the world will celebrate 'Record Store Day.’ Over 50 independent record shops across the UK will participate. Special events are being planned such as free in-store performances by some of the best live acts and DJs around, signing sessions, free label samplers and goodie bags as well as Record Store Day exclusive vinyl and CD releases.

The initiative promises to be fun. But with the high street in disarray and record sales careering downhill anyway, is it all the equivalent of General Custer eyeballing Chief Sitting Bull whilst simultaneously pissing against a hurricane? Kevin Buckle, founder of Scotland’s largest indie record shop, Avalanche Records, thinks it’s too early to consider the requiem for record stores, but does view the day as a timely nudge to show they’re still around. “Record Store Day is a way of reminding people what independent shops have to offer that the internet and downloads and to some extent high street chains like HMV and Fopp don’t. MySpace and iTunes have a use but what bands really want is to see their CD in their local record shop (preferably with its own header) and possibly get the chance to do an in-store.”

So what is it the independents do better than the larger chains? Geoff Travis, founder of the Rough Trade chain of record stores and the Rough Trade record label, takes the perspective that the reason these stores must survive is the sense of community they engender. “A record store is a meeting place for the exchange of music, fanzines, ideas and culture. I believe that people like to leave the house and have somewhere convivial to go where they meet kindred spirits and share some music and some life.

As record stores fall under threat, these values become all the rarer and therefore more precious than ever.”

It remains to be seen if these admirably romantic notions will be enough to save the shops in the longterm, but the feeling is this inaction is not an option.

This defiance is mirrored in the fact that this has been a collaborative effort across many disparate entities, across countries even. Will it help the independent stores compete better against the larger chains, or are they all in the same boat together? “We are in a better and a worse position depending on the situation,” says Kevin.

“Independents are still far more on the ball when it comes to differentiating between what is good and what is hype. We’ll always be ahead of the game compared to say, HMV who are the “last man standing” on the high street as far as chains go. But these chains have the power to come in with a big order and get discounts or credit not available to the smaller shops.”

Factor in the big, internet-shaped elephant in the room and it is clear that the indies have their work cut out.

Buckle remains defiant though. “Nobody doubts how hugely influential our shops can be on breaking an artist.

Fopp may have just reduced the Bon Iver album to a fiver this week but we were selling it in a special deal ahead of its release date exactly a year ago.”

Casually relaying the kind of experiences he has most days at work, Buckle references a quote attributed to Rebus author Ian Rankin on the significance of the indie retailer. “No internet shopping site can ever hope to equal the experience of browsing your favourite high street store, especially one where you’ve become a regular customer. The staff will have recommendations for you, you can chat about gigs you’ve been to or are hoping to go to, and you’ll learn all the latest gossip. All of which means it becomes about more than the shopping.”

While the sale of new CDs is a tough way to make a living as an indie, covering all bases such as second hand, vinyl, rarities and interesting merchandise should ensure that the small guys do have a viable economic future.

Buckle sums it up succinctly: “There may also be other ways of discovering music but none are as effective as getting a good recommendation from a shop. We sell albums just by playing them to customers we think will like them. If the Withered Hand album is as good as it looks like it will be we may insist customers have to buy a copy before they can leave the shop.”

36 THE SKINNY April 2009

Nick Hornby: For the Record In 1995 Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, a novel about a record store owner with a turbulent relationship history. In the book, he pretty much nailed the mindset of a music obsessive, so unsurprisingly, he was the first person we thought to ask about Record Store Day

In short, is Record Store Day a good idea?

“Oh, of course. I’m not sure what it can achieve (although it would be great if the depression caused a collapse in high-street rents, thus encouraging independent stores of all types to return). But record stores have been a vitally important part of our culture – think of all the bands and writers and tastes formed there. I don’t see anything replacing that.”

What constitutes a ‘good’ record store in your experience?

“Any record store that champions something it likes – as opposed to something that someone in an office a long way away thinks will sell – is all right with me. I want mis-spelled handwritten recommendations! I want a noticeboard advertising for a drummer! I want a second-hand section, and an assistant who looks at most people with utter indifference or even contempt!”

In keeping with the sentiments evoked in much of your writing, are record stores in danger of becoming like ‘curiosity shops’ for the nostalgic, or will there always be enough keen enthusiasts to preserve them in their current guise?

“I don’t think the keenness of enthusiasts is the problem. The problem is that there’s just no way to make a living from record stores any more. It seems to me that there were always two types of customer: the ones who wanted to own the music, and the ones who wanted to own the artefacts. I, like a lot of people, belonged to the former camp: I spent a lot of time flicking through browser racks because it was the only way of finding the music I wanted. Now there are many other ways, and I use them. In the new digital culture, there’s an online equivalent for everything there used to be... with the obligation to pay removed. And the people that run the mp3 blogs are as knowledgeable, cranky, enthusiastic and snooty as any indie record store owner.”

Left: Geoff Travis, founder of Rough Trade Amongst the bounty of vinyl swag being released especially on the day are exclusive 7 inch singles from Beck and Sonic Youth (covering each other), Tom Waits, Jay Reatard and Booker T, as well as a singles collection from The Jesus Lizard.

Rough Trade Records are releasing a compilation cassette (yes, cassette) called CO9 including tracks from Micachu, SFA, the Veils and a special secret track to be annnounced (odds are against an appearance from Duffy).

Avalanche Records will feature live in-store performances from Broken Records (Edinburgh) and The Virgins (Glasgow) plus many others. www.recordstoreday.com

How have record stores helped shape your life?

“I guess there’s an obvious way: my first novel was about a record store. It was written partly because I used to hang out in record stores a lot, and I could see that they were funny, and beautiful, and sad. I am still a novelist, fourteen years later. My whole career was built on High Fidelity, really. But more than that: I have made friends through record stores, because I met kindred spirits. And when I was in my teens, record stores taught me what to listen to, and how to listen.”

Where does the musical revolution go from here?

“The musical revolution was crushed by the jackboot heel of Simon Cowell.” www.nickhornby.net

With the forthcoming sixth annual alt.folk hootenanny on his mind - the first of the great annual festivals in our book - Fence Records founder King Creosote recollects his 'Top 5' Classic Homegame Moments.

The Homegame is the Fence collective’s annual spring festival held in the seaside town of Anstruther. This year, Homegame 6 runs from 17-19 April, and over these three days we’re proud to present Fence acts, plus special guests, in some of the best kept halls of our picturesque corner of Fife.

There have been so many musical highlights in our previous 5 years of Homegame that to single out but a few for this article would be grossly unfair, and nigh impossible, so here instead are 5 of my favourite nothing-to-do-with-the-music homegame memories.

ONE LOVE 1. The first Homegame was held in the Erskine Hall, a high ceilinged sunny room with murals of cotton wool and acrylic paint pinned up on its bright orange walls, and with plastic toys stuffed below tiny metal chairs that hugged the oversized metal-caged radiators. You’ll have guessed then that by day our chosen venue is used as a playgroup, whereas locals might be surprised to find a gathering of alt. folkies sitting about on the floor, instead of hutches filled with guinea pigs, of a weekend. We sold just shy of 100 handmade tickets in advance, several of which hadn’t travelled well by Royal Mail and were now leaking sand all over the place. The Pictish Trail and I thought we had the ideal way to launch our inaugural event - a heartfelt, breast beating rendition of U2’s One, making use of very long microphone leads to allow for much touching of hands with the sober and slightly uneasy audience. The thing was, Johnny Pictish hadn’t realised his mic lead had wound itself around opening act u.n.p.o.c.’s guitar stand, and the brand new instrument came crashing to the floor. I was left singing “did you come here to play jesus...” accompanied by some high-pitched wailing and mumbled apologies from the stage area. Much like the original some might say.

DATE WITH THE RAIN 2. For Homegame 2, ‘The Rematch’, in 2005, we used the same Erskine Hall, but for 2 whole days. On the Sunday, however, we’d slept in from the excesses of the night before, and so didn’t have the hall even remotely ready to open when our festival goers arrived en masse at noon sharp. As the rain clouds threatened and then spat, and with our backs to the wall, James Yorkston, The Pictish Trail and myself launched into an impromptu set in a valiant attempt to quieten the angry hordes, managing to extinguish a few flaming torches with our hastily written Let’s Not

Raise the Pitchfork Pat Shantz. This was to become a not-so-dry run for our much requested pooltable top performance in the Ship Tavern that very night, which incidentally marked the bedraggled hatching of Fence supergroup “The Three Just-Barely-Skinned-AliveEarlier-in-the-Day Craws”. We’ve since shortened the band name.

DISCO INFERNO (BURN BABY BURN) 3. Homegame 3 was “massive”, largely due to the overwhelming support from the Scottish media after a single unsubstantiated complaint from the previous year threatened to close us down. Almost 700 folks arrived in town for the Saturday night shows, our biggest venue that year being the Waid Academy school assembly hall. My favourite moment of HG3 was of enticing a motley crew, in all stages of early Monday morning dishevellment, across the stepping stones of the ice cold Dreel Burn with promises of a disco in the tiny A.I.A Hall. Sploosh! the drummer of M Craft took a header into the water and completely submerged himself - 2 piece suit, carry out and all. A few locals from the houses nearby were somewhat perplexed to hear the church bells “wringing” out the end of “The Threematch” at a twenty to six in the morning.

LOVE WARS 4. Homegame 4 was so popular we had to run the festival over two weekends. Both weekends are a total blur to me, but on the weekdays between we promised to take the stragglers/early arrivals on sobering walks through the surrounding countryside, or along the Elie Chain Walk, and then in the evenings we’d play tiny booze-fuelled concerts in the Fisheries Museum. My favourite memory is of HMS Ginafore and I sitting side by side on an antique sea chest having a domestic during our brief set of duets in front of 30 mortified folks sitting cross-legged on the floor. Beats Coronation Street though, eh?

YOU’VE GOT ME DANCING IN MY SLEEP 5. As luck would have it, we couldn’t book the main town hall for Homegame 5, so we chose to do a small Homegame - “The Gnomegame” - for around 150 folks using one of the smaller church halls as well as our local nightclub Legends. It turned out to be a most relaxed affair, so much so that by mid evening on the Saturday night I’d fallen asleep behind the deejay booth at Dominic’s feet, pint in hand, whilst

FOUND performed what was to become one of the festival highlights. This of course had nothing to do with Friday’s all night party in the Coach House.

The Homegame is THE event of the Fence calendar, and it is by far the best live event we can hope to put on for fans of the Collective. That might not mean a whole lot to some, but to me it means everything.

KC, March 2009.

King Creosote’s new album, Flick the Vs is available via Domino on 20 April.

Homegame 2009 takes place in Anstruther from 17-19 April. Tickets are available from the Fence website.

King Creosote plays: The GRV, Edinburgh on 23 May The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen on 25 May Ironworks, Inverness on 24 May The Garage, Glasgow on 13 June www.fencerecords.com

The Bands That Built St. Deluxe Glasgow's St. Deluxe have been making waves in their native city of late.

Martin Kirwan tips his bonnet to five of the bands they took their cue from.

1. Sonic Youth. They’re still vital today, making challenging, inspiring, discordant beautiful noise - and the band’s been going for 20 plus years. They never become complacent, instead trying new approaches and working with innumerable musicians (like Jim O’Rourke / Mark Ibold). Most importantly, they make music to please themselves.

2. Black Flag. So much good came from Black Flag and their label SST (Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr/Husker Du) – whose DIY ethics are exemplary. When we started our own label, Grundioso Records, we had these trailblazers for inspiration.

The sound of Black Flag, the guitars and the ferocity of songs like ‘Jealous Again’, really got me. How much energy can you cram into one and half minutes?!

3. The Jesus and Mary Chain. Will and Jim Reid both come from East Kilbride, Jamie’s (Cameron - guitarist) and my hometown. They recorded in Jamie’s house when Duncan Cameron (Jamie’s dad) had a studio in the spare room.

They’re in our bones. Not to mention the fact that we’ve wound up working with Joe Foster (Poppydisc Records) who produced some of the Mary Chain’s early Creation output.

4. Beat Happening. Calvin Johnson is punk rock. He has that single mindedness that comes with total belief in what he does.

He produced a new song for us which will probably end up on our next album. He was great in the studio with loads of ideas and seemed to arrive at the session with a game plan in mind.

He really pushed us and got something a bit different from us.

He fucked shit up!

5. Teenage Fanclub. The Fannies - it feels like we’ve grown up with them. They’ve recorded at Riverside a lot over the years and it’s always great when they’re around. A song like The Concept is a perfect example of the skewed pop song - noisy and melodic.

St. Deluxe play: Limbo @ The Voodoo Rooms on 2 April King Tut’s, Glasgow on 4 April Captain’s Rest, Glasgow on 11 April (supporting The Telescopes) Mad Hatter, Inverness on 29 May The Tunnels, Aberdeen on 30 May

April 2009

THE SKINNY 37

Music

In the Court of the Creosote King

Music

Pitted in the Enjoy the Silence Throes of Passion Magik Markers:

With their new LP, Magik Markers push the boat out beyond their comfort zone to find solace in silence. Jamie Scott talks noise with their drummer Pete Nolan

Amidst the hyperbole and throwaway soundbites, Billy Hamilton discovers Boston-born electro-poppers Passion Pit are a band who're having to grow up quickly...

“In Hindu philosophy, they get to that point where there’s this threshold between the conscious and subconscious reality, and there’s just this little dot, the Bindi point, where the two realities are one, where one reality is coming into being and the other’s going out of it. You have to stay in touch with that if you’re going to create anything.” Quite a mission statement, I say.

“That’s what I think noise is,” Pete Nolan replies, “and we embrace noise fully.”

Noise dominates the Magik Markers sound. See them, listen to them, hear about them: noise shadows their every step. Their live shows are a blitz of howling feedback, their recordings a fuzz of distorted melody, and both feature plenty of primal vocals and scattered drums. But despite forming as a free rock group, the duo’s recent output has taken a sidestep from full-on freedom to more realised structures. “With this band, more than any I’ve been in, it seems like we’re inventing what we sound like from scratch,” says Nolan, the percussive counterpart to anti-guitar hero Elisa Ambrogio. “And at first glance it now seems like ‘oh, they are playing tunes, they’re done with noise’, but that’s not the case. We’ve just developed out of that sense of freedom.”

Their new album, Balf Quarry, steps out of the sonic wreckage of 2007’s Boss with renewed restraint. Nolan shows little sentimentality for the Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth fame)-produced release. “With the last record, we jammed every frequency,” says Nolan.

“We’re really happy with Boss, but a lot of the songs had a similar feeling. We had a lot of things in mind that we didn’t want to do.”

On Balf Quarry, the band slow down and allow the listener to take a breath. The songs have a more developed sense of direction and development, as they find a pace that balances the noise and an absence of noise.

Restraint is the key here, no longer noise for noise’s sake. A greater sense of space is creeping into their work, challenging and breaking up the sound, lending it a breathability that energises the music, and creates a renewed listenability. And sometimes, in those spaces, is silence. “Silence to me is really valuable,” says Nolan.

“In New York City, you can’t even control the sound in your own home... silence is not that easy to find.” It

Sometimes the folly of youth lies in its blind ambition. As the industry hype-machine buzzed around Passion Pit last year, founding member Michael Angelakos fell prey to the wrath of the dictaphone by decreeing an intention to blend Randy Newman and Stevie Wonder-like song writing with experimental dance pop. The wishful thinking of a starry-eyed young pup, certainly, but in these feral days of bitch-slapping blogs such bravado can fester a sneering resentment that focuses on everything except the music.

Not quite the introduction a fresh faced electro-pop outfit needs, yet the truism of no publicity being bad publicity seems to resonate with the Boston-born ensemble: “We were 21 years-old, you know,” explains drummer Nate Donmoyer before a show at Glasgow’s Captains Rest. “Men don’t physiologically mature until they’re 30 so hopefully the press will go a little bit easy on us. I think Mike would take any criticism as a compliment though because Randy Newman is a major influence on us and has a special influence on Mike’s life.”

So far, it’s been Angelakos alone who has taken Passion Pit to the periphery of success. Recorded in his bedroom over two years ago, debut EP Chunk of Change was a Valentine’s Day collage of sun kissed laments intended for a then-girlfriend. But the EP’s mix of personalised lyrics and hook-infused electronica quickly made its way on to the US college radio circuit before exploding wider thanks to a series of commercial tie-ins and, of course, the obligatory Pitchfork commendation.

Now signed to effortlessly cool indie label Frenchkiss Records, Passion Pit has evolved as a full-formed band of five, adding flesh to the bones of Angelakos’s intimately conceived numbers. “It’s almost like method acting,” says Donmoyer of playing someone else’s personal songs. “Even though the person is

38 THE SKINNY April 2009

"With this band, it seems like we're inventing what we sound like from scratch" seems Magik Markers are trying to discover the sense of calm that silence gives in their own music.

Their continuing development has attracted the attention of the label Drag City, who set them up to record with Scott Colburn, one-time producer of Animal Collective and Arcade Fire. “I knew Scott would take what we threw at him, and would have an idea of where we were coming from,”says Nolan.

“We’re not playing by any rule books when we’re going in to make a record.” But the band don’t feel any of the pressure that comes with greater exposure. “It’s more of a liberating thing than feeling some kind of a pressure.

We’ve been dying to make another record, and it’s a relief to be able to do how it we wanted”.

For a band who have developed their own distinctive sound, it is rewarding to hear them continue to reinvent it. Although as Pete Nolan is very aware, it is always about the noise, rather than the silence.

“There’s never complete silence. If you put yourself in a completely enclosed room that has zero sound coming in, you start to hear the sound of the blood running through your ears.”

Balf Quarry is released via Drag City on 27 April. www.dragcity.com

singing about his experiences you’re still trying to put it into your own context. I don’t really know what the story he’s trying to tell is but I have one for when I’m playing it live that I believe in, so it inspires me to play harder.”

Having drawn comparisons with acts like Hot Chip and The Go! Team while infiltrating a ream of January tip lists (including our very own), the anticipation surrounding the release of debut long-player Manners is almost rapturous. Not that the band notice: “We try and not pay attention to what people say,” claims Donmoyer. “It’s always good to hear the positive things but not so good to hear the expectations are so high. Though, it’s nice to have the opportunity to live up to it some day.”

But with a spectrum of ideas running through the creative veins of Passion Pit, can Manners really mesmerise the lugholes like Chunk of Change did? “It’s still a summertime record but our range of influences can definitely be heard on this one,” Donmoyer states.

“There’s live drums running through the whole thing and there’s more guitars and pianos that’s given it a more organic feel. There’s still a shit tonne of synths on it but there’s more of a medium with live instruments now.”

Through the maze of hyperbole, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that Passion Pit are newcomers in an unforgiving industry. Their brazen soundbites disguise an openness that suggests this is a band coming to terms with its new status. Or as Donmoyer says: “It’s been really eye-opening to how the industry works. I’ve done DIY indie rock and dance and DJ kind of things and I’d never seen it on a major label. It’s kind of crazy how it all works but we’ll take it, I guess.”

Manners is released via Frenchkiss / Columbia on 18 May. www.myspace.com/passionpitjams

© 2009 Jack Daniel’s. All rights reserved. JACK DANIEL’S and OLD NO. 7 are registered trademarks.

FROM SOME BAR STOOLS YOU CAN SEE ALL THE WAY TO TENNESSEE. Enjoy the view. Drink responsibly.

DRINKAWARE.CO.UK

MUSIC

Musical Youth

By recording the soundtrack of his move from small town to big city, Lewis Cook has created a brilliantly resonant debut album. Nick Mitchell talks to the young talent behind Yahweh

40 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

about experiences in Glasgow, whereas the sounds on the second half are more subtle and are about experiences when I lived in the country.”

Back “in the country” as a youngster, the lack of diversions led to many hours spent in his room “with headphones on playing around with different sounds”.

That willingness to try out contrasting styles brought together elements of Mogwai’s minimal soundscapes and Boards of Canada’s tarnished electronica in his songs. But it is that other name-checked Scottish band of the past decade, Arab Strap, who are the closest musical relatives to Yahweh’s gutsy alt-folk. “When I was 14 I sent an e-mail to Aidan Moffat asking if my age would stop me from getting in to see their acoustic request show,” Cook recalls. “It was at Sleazy’s in Glasgow so I couldn’t get in but he sent me a letter with a couple of CDs. I was made up!”

Although Cook recorded almost the entire album alone in his bedroom, on an assortment of (pause for breath) guitars, maracas, drums, synths, sticks, toys, a programmer, harmonium, glockenspiel, banjo, violin, sitar and stapler, Yahweh is a collective that swells in number for live shows. “Tug of Love was definitely a solo project and is to be viewed as a complete piece,” Cook says, “but when we play live, the four of us are all part of Yahweh and everyone contributes to the re-invention of the tracks on the album.”

With two more releases “lined up in his head as concepts” and four years of study to look forward to, it looks certain Cook will have no trouble keeping busy.

The only problem might be one or two rather eccentric

ANDREA HEINS

LEWIS Cook has a level-headedness that belies his youth. When most teenagers fly the family nest for the boundless freedom of university life, their first year away from home is spent drinking, watching daytime TV, attending the occasional lecture, boiling pasta, and more drinking. But the 18-year-old Cook – whose own nest-exit took him from the quaint Dumfriesshire town of Moffat to the bright lights and rain-sodden streets of Glasgow – actually did something productive with all that freedom: he recorded a debut album under his musical moniker, Yahweh.

While Cook admits that juggling an academic and musical career “can be hard, especially when we’re busy and there are essays to be handed in”, the musical assignment he produced (titled Tug of Love) is a staggeringly assured debut. I ask him if people were surprised when they found out his age. “It’s one of these things that can either act in your favour or be a hindrance,” he replies.

“As much as there are the so-called benefits of youth on my side, there’s always the risk of not being taken seriously. As a result it’s not something I often mention to people... maybe I should be exploiting it more!”

Tug of Love can be read as a literal tug of love between the lively metropolis of his present life and the placid town of his upbringing: the first half of the LP is dedicated to Glasgow, the second to Moffat. “It’s quite an introspective record in a lot of ways and I decided to try and relate its format to the kind of split life I felt I’d spent over the course of writing and recording it,” Cook explains. “Most of the sounds on the first side of the album are immediate, more up-tempo and mostly

fans, but that’s inevitable when you name your band after the English version of the Hebrew word for God. “Every so often I’ll get a message opening with ‘shalom’,” Cook says. “There was a woman from America who was literally messaging me every day with pictures of her and her children and quotes from the Bible written below... that was pretty strange.”

YAHWEH PLAY STEREO, GLASGOW ON 11 APRIL AND SNEAKY PETE’S, EDINBURGH ON 20 JUNE. TUG OF LOVE IS OUT NOW, AND IS AVAILABLE FROM YAHWEH’S MYSPACE. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THISISYAHWEH

With a name like My Kappa Roots, it's always going to be about looking at the future in light of the past.

Jamie Scott hears Pablo Clark's short history thus far

CPL Skinny Ad - Easter-PRINT.pdf

23/3/09

MUSIC

A One Man Time Team

GROWING up, we’re all susceptible to a huge amount of culture, music and history that we absorb subconsciously. We hear stories and music that dig a little bit deeper, that resides in our memories, and lurks, waiting. “I remember sitting down one day, when I was a bit older, with the intention of listening to Bert Jansch’s first record and realising that I knew it almost by heart,” says Pablo Clark. “It was only when I left home that I discovered all this other music had worked its way under the skin.”

Clask – AKA My Kappa Roots – is a guitarist and singer, and far too interesting to be called a singersongwriter. A childhood in Fife, where “tradition and community played a big part”, led to influences from his parents’ record collection creating vague memories of albums and songs, and like anyone growing up in rurality, led to him amassing a collection of childhood experiences to inspire a young adult’s art. “The local Masonic lodge where I recorded [debut album] The House of St Colme Burnt Down was the same place where I went to nursery,” says Pablo, emphasising this vivid sense of history.

As a result, Clark’s music is the kind that gets under the skin, telling stories that tie into traditional tales, stories that pass down through generations. With guitars gently picked, his mellow voice and myths of royal tragedy, death and sex draw your attention, irresistible in their romantic allure. Indeed, one is left with the impression that Clark doesn’t take songwriting lightly, when every lyric seems loaded with content. “In a song, where economy of language is so important, being able to dredge up, in fistfuls, all that collective history contained within a single name or word is useful,” offers Clark. Even his answers are wonderfully crafted.

Recently, Clark has moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow via a Parisian attic where he “lived with a lovely woman who claimed she was a countess”. This move from east to west appears to be inspired by his need to keep challenging himself, by a desire for the new.

Alongside Auld Reekie based associates Eagleowl, Rob St John and Randan Discotheque, My Kappa

Roots is part of the Fife Kills collective, and despite helping to lay the foundations for the Edinburgh folk inspired scene that is taking shape and gaining attention, he has little regret in leaving this behind to continue developing his music elsewhere. “The capital seems to have a nurturing, enduring element that is at odds with Glasgow’s more combative and ultracurrent musical climate,” he suggests. “Both have equal merit. I feel in some ways that I’ve had to relearn my trade, but it’s also very rewarding and exciting being exposed to such a wealth.”

While Clark’s live shows couldn’t be more stark, the songs on his aforementioned debut LP are embellished with instruments and ambience. “What excites me about recording is not necessarily the same thing as when I play live,” he explains. “There is a confessional quality to playing live that has teeth and keeps things interesting. Recording is different, you have the opportunity to get other musicians in, the chance to readdress songs and hear them anew. It can have a real sense of occasion, everyone gathered round and playing music.”

The forthcoming “sense of occasion” will be an EP written and recorded with Findo Gask drummer Michael Marshall, set to be released before the autumn. In the meantime, don’t pass up the opportunity to see this man live, because it’s always an event in itself.

IT WAS ROUGH WHEN THE RAIN CAME BY MY KAPPA ROOTS IS AVAILABLE VIA THE POLICE BOX CHANNEL ON TENTRACKS.CO.UK ALONGSIDE NEW MUSIC FROM FOUND, EAGLEOWL, SPARROW & THE WORKSHOP, SILENI, PROFISEE, THE FOUNDLING WHEEL AND MANY MORE. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MYKAPPAROOTSMUSIC

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APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 41

Music

Elvis Perkins:

Checking out of Heartbreak Hotel?

Once a solo troubadour, this month Elvis Perkins emerges with a full band and a sequel to his compelling 2007 debut. Paul Mitchell finds out how becoming a frontman has afforded him a greater freedom, In Dearland.

“One must keep oneself entertained while attempting to entertain others.” Thus Elvis Perkins glibly accepts that audiences turning up to hear him play his last album, 2007’s ode to grief, Ash Wednesday, were treated to an altogether more raucous experience than the tone of that record would suggest. “I’m not into playing the same songs, night after night, the same way,” shrugs Perkins. “That would give me a bit of a downer. My band and I are performers. I sometimes think that the people who appreciated Ash Wednesday wanted to hear the sound of the record itself, which is probably a little more delicate and nuanced than what we gave them live. When you’ve got a record with strings and horns, which bring a certain energy, but you don’t bring that to the stage, then you’ve got to supply that energy yourself in another way.”

Famously, Ash Wednesday was titled to mark the day after 9/11. Perkin’s mother, photographer Berry Berenson, died in one of the planes crashing into the World Trade Centre. It also marked the anniversary of the death of his actor father Anthony Perkins (who played Norman Bates in Psycho) from Aids nine years previously. The almost inevitable consequence was a work drenched in melancholia and heartache, but which is not, according to Perkins, the epitome of abject despair it is made out to be.

On the eve of releasing an eponymously titled LP with his band In Dearland, he reflects on his debut and how it has helped define his career as a musician. “It’s been made out to be bleaker than it really is. This new album may sound a little more optimistic (he’s referred to it as ‘faster and younger’) but there were moments of hopefulness on Ash Wednesday too. What might be coming through in the sound is the fact that now my path is clear; I make records. I think it comes from playing

42 THE SKINNY April 2009

in a band, certainly you get to play rock ’n’ roll singer when you’re messing around with a group of friends, more than you do when you’re just trying to work out some songs by yourself which was mostly the case on the first record.”

But are the events of 9/11 still playing a significant role in his songwriting? The song Doomsday, for example, includes the lyric “Not in all my wildest dreams it never once was seen / that doomsday might fall anywhere near a Tuesday”. As oblique in conversation as he is in song, Perkins admits that “I’m not even sure myself anymore. I know that people writing songs often use material based on their own experiences. That song comes out of a very mundane moment with a stranger, at a bar – not very likely to remember their name, but knowing that they voted for George Bush. They said ‘Doomsday, born on a Tuesday? That must have been a reference to the day George Bush was elected’. So in the face of someone else’s perception of the song, it sort of becomes my perception too and it becomes unclear to me what it may mean, or if it means one thing only. That Tuesday [9/11] was a personal Doomsday for me more than George Bush’s election Tuesday was, but they both fit the description.”

Perkins however, has made a habit of drawing comfort from even the most tragic circumstances, and moves quickly to counterpoint that particular election with the result of the most recent US Presidential race. “Obama’s victory, on the other hand, is amazing. I can’t believe what I’m seeing when I watch a press conference or something; it seems almost too good to be true.”

Elvis Perkins In Dearland is released via XL on 6 April. www.elvisperkinsindearland.com

Going Over the Top

Almost two decades after it was first released, Pearl Jam's Ten arrives remixed and remastered.

Jeff Ament, Matt Cameron, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready offer their reflections on the album that launched their career and nearly tore them apart. Ewen Millar listens.

Camera Obscura's Gavin Dunbar and his trusty Rock Soldiers emerge from a year's incarceration to bring us My Maudlin Career.

Here he weighs up life down in the bunker against time spent on the road.

When Ten Turns Twenty

Lance Mercer

Pearl Jam in 1991

Amongst ‘serious’ musos, admitting that you like Pearl Jam is worse than confessing in church that actually you only religiously follow Hollyoaks. This is a band who not only had the indecency to outsell Nirvana, but then seemingly turned their back on the sound that had turned them into global superstars.

Instead of fitting into the ‘moderate rock’ pigeonhole ascribed to them by Everett True and other music journalists of an era gone by, they had the audacity to start name-dropping Fugazi; they recorded an album with Neil Young; they picked a fight with Ticketmaster over their monopolistic practices; they released increasingly experimental and challenging albums into the new millennium. It was as if Pearl Jam was the sportiest, most handsome kid at school who then decided to wear black nail varnish and listen to metal; while the football team was unhappy, the Goths were even more suspicious.

Over the years, music publications would hail every new Pearl Jam album with increasingly desperate proclamations of ‘a return to the mainstream sound of Ten’.

An ironic statement, given that the band were never that happy with the mix of that debut in the first place.

“Ten has a little bit more of an 80s production,” admits bassist Jeff Ament. “When Brendan [O’ Brien] mixed Vs., I asked him ‘can you remix Ten just for me so I can listen to a drier, more direct version of those songs?’”

Such unhappiness has led to a luxurious re-release of their first album, which includes multiple vinyl versions, notebooks, a DVD of their legendary MTV Unplugged performance, and a cassette copy of their original demo. Outside of the recent re-releases of Pavement’s back catalogue, such lavish attention to detail is unusual, although it fits in with the ethos of the band, as Ament explains: “Early on I found out it was better to make bad art yourself than to have somebody else create what they thought would represent you.

Ten was the one time in Pearl Jam where the finished product really wasn’t 100% what we intended”.

Of course, if the band hadn’t been as successful,

they’d never have so easily sustained their own path, as Ament recognises: “At the time we thought that selling millions of records was the biggest curse ever, but in retrospect that power actually allowed us a lot of freedom and allowed us to do things in a way that probably 99% of the major label bands that were out there didn’t get to do.”

Hitting that level of success so quickly bore its brunt on the band, as guitarist Mike McCready relates.

“It happened so fast for all of us, out of the blue. It was kind of mind shattering. It was affecting us all in certain different ways and we weren’t talking to each other, we were partying too much - Ed [Vedder vocals] was on the cover of Time magazine”.

Pearl Jam’s core ethos - depicted by the five team players on the cover of their first album - was in danger of being smothered by success. At the behest of Vedder and guitarist Stone Gossard, the band turned their back on making music videos and walked away from the kind of glory most stadium acts revel in. Not everyone was convinced by the move. “The idea of pulling back at the height of our popularity was not exciting to me at the time,” McCready reveals. “I wanted to continue to ride it and play the game, to do videos and go on tour, not throw away this great opportunity.

But in hindsight it was the right idea.”

Such willingness to do what was right for the long-term health of the band, as opposed to indulging in short-term opportunities, was in character with an outfit fronted by a surfer who had an epiphany about the lyrics and melody to their most famous songs whilst in the ocean. Gossard had first heard about the singer via an off-the-cuff remark by former Chili and future Pearl Jam drummer Jack Irons, referring to ‘Crazy Eddie’ down in California. Gossard posted a demo to Vedder, who cut his own vocals to it, and sent it back up to Seattle. “For Jeff it was instantaneous,” says Gossard.

“He loved it and realised how good he was. For me it was a longer process - I was probably slow. He was clearly a good singer but I didn’t necessarily get it.”

Once Vedder flew up to Seattle, however, there was little doubt as to the chemistry amongst the band as the singer insisted on going straight from the plane to the rehearsal room. “Eddie was mellow,” remembers Gossard. “He brought us gifts. He was very thoughtful and very different and that was a great change, so we dove right into it and wrote a bunch of songs.” McCready’s recollection is of a man “short, unassuming, but when he opened his mouth he had this thunderous voice and I was stoked. There were 5 guys in a band, everybody was firing on all cylinders.

I had no idea it was going to be huge, but I knew we were good.”

Fast forward two decades, and Pearl Jam are still writing, recording, and touring. After eight studio albums have seen them comfortably into their middle age, questions of how much juice is left in the tank arise. While current drummer Matt Cameron “doesn’t want to become the Rolling Stones,” Gossard pictures the scene: “It would be thrilling if we all looked at each other 10-20 years from now and went how did we do this? We’d have to play a crotchety Even Flow with disco brushes,” he laughs. “Our fans are gonna be so old they’re not going to be able to hear us anyway!”

The dichotomy between not wanting to be rocking geriatrics who have become their own covers band, while still appreciating the affections that they receive from their fan base, is emblematic of an outfit that has always walked an awkward line between Gen-X fury and glowing sentimentality. Perhaps Pearl Jam are disliked in certain quarters not because they’re mainstream, but because they refused to play the game everyone expected of them; the remix of Ten might not change many minds, but it fits right in with their modus operandi of taking to the park in their own fashion - of playing football with black nail varnish on.

Ten - Legacy Edition is out now via Sony on multiple formats.

We’ve been locked away for the past year or so. It’s not as bad as it sounds, ‘cause we’ve been keeping busy. First we were locked away in Glasgow getting ready to make the new record, then we were locked away in Stockholm making the new record. Then the record got locked away until we sorted out a wee home for it. And finally, for the past few months we’ve been locked away in Glasgow rehearsing to play live again.

Next week however, we’re getting let out. Time off for good behaviour. We thought the new album might not be released until autumn, but lo’ and behold, it’s out next month, and didn’t we half have to get our skates on! It’s nearly three years since Let’s Get Out Of This Country came out and it seems like forever; we’re bursting to let people hear the record, and get out and play live.

You forget, you see. You forget just how nervous you get waiting for a new record to come out; how great it feels when the first single comes off the album, and your mates text you to say they just heard it on the radio. You forget what it’s like getting 90 emails a day telling you what you’ve got coming up, where you’re going next week, reminding you to do all the things you’re supposed to have sorted out but haven’t quite got round to. Of course, you forget to pack half the things you meant to take with you on tour and end up having to buy most of it whilst you’re away (who needs 15 travel plug adapters and 5 mobile phone chargers?). That’s where we’re at just now: remembering how it all feels.

So, My Maudlin Career is imminent.

You might have heard French Navy on the wireless, or seen the video on YouTube, or the website, or even the telly. You might even have heard us in session (I’m writing this as we travel down to the BBC in Manchester to play live on Marc Riley’s show tonight). It’s all go, and we’re about to make our return as road hogs: we play a wee show in London next week; have five shows at SXSW in Austin; a couple of New York gigs; and then proper tours and weeks in a variety of vans, venues and hotels.

A t-shirt printer we used in the US once said to us, “You guys are Rock Soldiers!” So this is us, going over the top. The big push!

And aren’t we half excited.

My Maudlin Career is released via 4AD on 20 April.

Camera Obscura play Barrowlands, Glasgow on 26 April. myspace.com/cameraobscuraband

www.pearljam.com

April 2009

THE SKINNY 43

Music

Pearl Jam:

Music

BreathtakingSound Returning with a new sound and bewildering artwork, Colin Chapman talks to electronica stalwart Gui Boratto about his new album Take My Breath Away “I saw Gui Boratto at Creamfields... he was amazing!”

An out-of-the-blue text message from a disco-loving ex-girlfriend last year perfectly illustrates how the Brazilian producer’s brand of melodic, emotive techno holds an appeal that goes beyond the underground clubbing fraternity.

Delivering his sophomore album Take My Breath Away last month, Boratto originally burst onto the electronic music scene four years ago with his debut on Cologne label Kompakt. However, this wasn’t the first step but rather a new chapter in a musical career that has taken a somewhat unusual route.

Starting out in 1993, he recorded jingles and radio spots for the advertising sector, a year later moving into production and sound engineering for major labels such as EMI and BMG. This saw him becoming involved with an array of both Brazilian and international artists including, surprisingly enough, country singer Garth Brooks.

Although he spent time working on his own material, it was very much a bedroom activity at this point. He eventually reached the decision to go it alone, as he explains: “After producing two remixes for the soundtrack to the City of God movie in 2003, I decided to try to get more tracks signed under my own name. Two years later, I was listening to one of Kompakt’s TOTAL compilations and really identified with the sound of the artists on it, so I sent two tracks to Michael Mayer, who runs the label, and these became my first EP for the label, ‘Arquipélago’.”

In the next two years he released further singles for Kompakt as well as recordings on Plastic City, Harthouse and Audiomatique, before producing first album, Chromaphobia in 2007.

Coming as a breath of fresh air at a time when the less-is-more approach of minimal was beginning to reach saturation point, Chromaphobia’s emphasis on melody and harmony seemed to highlight the benefits of Gui’s residence in his native, sun-soaked Brazil and his dislocation from the European club scene, not to mention his particular musical past. His output since also gives credence to the importance of these factors, though he argues its not quite so clear-cut.

“My earlier experiences definitely helped me a lot. Not only recording lots of different instruments, but arranging, producing and dealing with so many different styles.

Of course, a musician or producer or any type of artist is influenced by their own environment but I’m in the studio most of the time rather and not DJing regularly in clubs like many other producers, so that perhaps takes me away from the ‘scene’. However, I’ve completed ten different tours in the last two years and they’ve helped me reconnect with what’s going on in clubs. But, overall, I’d say my background and musical taste has the biggest impact on the final results of my music.”

Previous interviews have seen Gui discuss how broad this taste is: he’s cited acts such as Depeche Mode, New Order, Erasure and perhaps a little more surprisingly the likes of Echo & The Bunnymen, Led Zeppelin and Kiss as influences.

“These bands have all helped me to shape my own sound probably more then most techno artists,” he confesses. “When I was young I played piano and guitar player. It wasn’t until later that moved away from the basic rock band formation (bass, guitar and drums) to

44 THE SKINNY April 2009

"Two long years have passed since Chromaphobia, and I’m tired of single note basslines"

a more synthesized sound, incorporating electronic elements into my music.”

The success of Chromaphobia may have perhaps led his follow-up to suffer the notorious difficult-secondalbum syndrome, but Take My Breath Away simply builds on the signature sound Boratto set out so successfully on his first album, and this time offers a musically more mature approach.

“It’s more mature in a way,” he admits. “Two long years have passed since Chromaphobia, and I’m tired of single note basslines. Maybe it’s because of my musical background.”

However, his follow-up does feature a track not dissimilar to Beautiful Life. The uplifting No Turning Back again features the vocals of Gui’s wife, Luciana Villanova, and combines guitar, piano and a sawing synth melody to suitably anthemic effect. Easily the most accessible production on the album, it definitely has the potential to become a cross-over hit. How important is it for him to create recordings that reach out beyond the expected techno and house fanbases?

“First of all, I really like to experiment. I also love vocals and guitars. I didn’t do No Turning Back to be a second Beautiful Life. I did it because I wanted to. They are very

different from each other in my opinion.”

Looking to the rest of 2009, it seems Boratto will be kept very busy. He’s already started working with Tim Simenon of Bomb The Bass fame and a tour to promote Take My Breath Away is in the pipeline.

“I already have a hard schedule coming up,” he confirms. “Lots of gigs to promote the new album and probably some work on new remixes and singles. I’m also producing the new Bomb The Bass album. I’ve completed twelve tracks with Tim and we’ll also be recording several collaborations over the year.”

Finally, can we expect any gigs in the UK, in particular Scotland in future?

“I love to play in the UK, but it’s rare for me to be there.

I don’t know why, it just seems to be hard to fit into my schedule. However, in the past I’ve played at The End, Fabric, Plastic People and at the Retox after-hours party at Sosho. Maybe this year, I’ll get to visit. I’ve never actually played Scotland and unfortunately, there are no plans for me to come anytime soon. Some of my friends have visited and they’ve told me it’s incredibly beautiful.”

‘Take My Breath Away’ is out now on Kompakt Records. www.myspace.com/guiboratto www.guiboratto.com.br

Wild noise boys HEALTH are back in the studio for album number two. Gordon Bruce talks mushy peas and countryside rodents with bassist John Famiglietti.

In a small unassuming street in LA stands a small unassuming ex-Mexican grocery store. But peer behind its windows and you won’t find any rock hard (or soggy) taco shells, just some of the most exciting avant-garde music in America.

That store is now The Smell, an enticing alternative music venue which fountains creativity. Among its mainstays (the likes of No Age included) stand the experimental musings of noise-rock band HEALTH. Their self-titled debut was recorded in the very walls of The Smell, and was released to high praise. However, it teetered so close to the verge of destruction that listening is often an endurance test, but the reward is an entirely unique sound: a mash of ambient hip-hop beats, Animal Collective harmonies and, of course, a lot of noise.

Here, busy bassist and noise-mongerer John Famiglietti checks in to keep us up to date with their progress on album number two.

How are things now compared to a couple of years ago when your debut came out?

Pretty sweet. Though I find my lifestyle is the exact same, my daily routine is the same, my girlfriend is the same age, and my friend count hasn’t increased (so nothing’s changed then? - ed) What stage are you at in the recording process, and how are you finding it?

We are over our deadline by a week, getting tracks for mastering etc. It’s hard to have perspective, but I think it’s pretty good.

Are there any other differences we can expect from Health in this album?

We’ve definitely expanded our vocabulary with some new devices and concepts like time based effects, and some new rhythmic elements. The new album has a lot more repetition and melody, but the intent is the same.

You recorded a lot of your previous album in The Smell. Has the recording of this album been any different?

Recording this album is a lot easier, we are recording at a studio with an engineer, not showing up at The Smell

at 4am to get some tracks done before the vaquero bar next door starts playing music. Also, this time we got to record on analogue tape. It was a whole new squirrel.

Your first album was almost relentless from start to finish. Any plans to include a wee respite on this album?

Yes, there are two songs that will definitely let up. One of which has no drums, and it’s near six minutes.

Are you finding yourselves under more pressure with the expectation of a second album?

Even if no-one had listened to the first album our own personal pressures on this one would be just as big. Every time we do anything our stress levels and personal pressures go through the roof. We’re always miserable during this process.

I really enjoyed the HEALTH//DISCO album you brought out last year where you got some great acts on to do remixes. Any plans for a repeat, and who might you invite to remix?

Yes we plan to have another HEALTH//DISCO album after this one comes out. A lot of the names from the first one will return but we are actively seeking new remixers right now. Just like the first, most of the remixes will hit blogs long before the compilation, but this time we might hold more so the album has more impact.

Finally, is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to about your return to Britain for a tour this spring?

Yes, we will be back on the mushy peas and chips diet love it, love it, love it.

It seems HEALTH have more than a few tricks lodged up their collective sleeve for album numero dos. They’ll be road testing their new sonic explosions at Stereo in Glasgow this April, so catch them there or, if it sells out, the nearest chippie.

Music

Escape From the Studio THE FALL - SONS & DAUGHTERS - SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO (DJ) JEFFREY LEWIS & THE JUNKYARD - METRONOMY - MICACHU BROKEN RECORDS - COUNT & SINDEN (DJ) - SUCIOPERRO WE HAVE BAND - TOMMY REILLY - DRUMS OF DEATH - FANGS DINOSAUR PILE-UP- GOOD SHOES-THE INVISIBLE-SKY LARKIN DAN BLACK - I LIKE TRAINS - THIS WILL DESTROY YOU

85 BEARS - BE A FAMILIAR - BLACK SUN - BRIGADE - BURN THE NEGATIVE COLORAMA - COME ON GANG! - COPY HAHO - DANTE FRIED CHICKEN DE ROSA - DEAD KIDS - DJANGO DJANGO - DESALVO - EDIE SEDGWICK FOXFACE - EUROPEAN UNION - ELKS - EUGENE MCGUINNESS - FANFARLO FINDO GASK - FUTURISTIC RETRO CHAMPIONS - GALCHEN - GUANOMAN GEORDI LA FORCE - ISOCELES - JESUS H FOXX - JON HOPKINS - JUNO LITTLE MAN TATE - MANDA RIN - MANATEES - MITCHELL MUSEUM MING MING AND THE CHING CHINGS - MISS THE OCCUPIER - MEURSALT MY TIGER MY TIMING - OH, ATOMS - OU EST LE SWIMMING POOL - PHANTOM ORPHANS AND VANDALS - PANAMA KINGS - PEARL & THE PUPPETS PAPER PLANES - PLUGS - PRIMARY 1 - PUNCH & THE APOSTLES - POOCH POPUP - PREGO - ROGUES - REMEMBER REMEMBER - SIRENS SIRENS SONNY MARVELLO - SOFT TOY EMERGENCY - SLOW CLUB - STRICKEN CITY RUSTIE - SUGAR CRISIS - TEAM WATERPOLO - THE ANSWERING MACHINE THECOCKNBULLKID - THE BLESSINGS - THE LINES - THE DAMN SHAMES THE ID PARADE - THE LOVELY EGGS - THE PEOPLE - THE PLIMPTONS THE RAY SUMMERS - THESE MONSTERS - THE WAVE PICTURES THEOPHILIS LONDON & DJ MELO X - THREE TRAPPED TIGERS THESE MONSTERS - TRAILER TRASH TRACYS -TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB THE XCERTS - WILD BEASTS - VOLUNTARY BUTLER SCHEME - WINTERMUTE WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS - YOUNG FATHERS - WET PAINT YOUR TWENTIES - Y’ALL IS FANTASY ISLAND - ZOEY VAN GOEY

plus art events, club nights and more

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!"#$%&'%(#!#)*+,%)#-..#-++%(( =:>-<#?*+,%)@#AB=C#!:>-<#?*+,%)@#A=7D"8 !"#$%!&"'#()*%+&,-%%&*./'(.0*&#.12"(0!".'&0(3)1 ?*+,%)(#-&E#'5E-)%(#-$-*.-F.%#G6HI#:#JJJD9*&)%6.-&EG%()*$-.D+HI

HEALTH play Stereo, Glasgow on 19 April. www.myspace.com/healthmusic

April 2009

THE SKINNY 45

RECORDS

The Dirty Dozen Disco-pop, DIY indie and Dundonians all clash in this month’s round-up. Nick Mitchell sorts through the debris Another month, another New York band taunt us with a musical peek into their impossibly glamorous lives. This time it’s The Virgins, with Rich Girls (***, 6 Apr), a tale of broken mirrors and idle afternoons set to a Studio-54-meets-DFA beat. With our minds wandering across the Atlantic, just as well The View are on hand to haul us back to dreary Scotland. Temptation Dice (****, 13 Apr) is the best single to be plucked from their second album so far, because it plays to their limited strengths: bright guitars and Kyle Falconer’s enunciated Dundonian yowl. Zooming down the M90 and along the M8, we find ourselves on the doorsteps of Scotland’s other indie chart-stormers, Franz Ferdinand. No You Girls (***, 6 Apr) finds Govan’s biggest style icons hitting the dancefloor again, albeit in a rather superficial manner.

The xx are the newest alumni of the London comprehensive that gave the world Hot Chip, Burial and Four Tet, but the good news is that they’ve managed to forge a sound all of their own. Crystalised (****, 27 Apr) is hushed, lo-fi indie with an R’n’B feel, thanks to the honey-coated vocals of the boy/girl lead singers. Ill Ease (aka Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist Elizabeth Sharp) adds noise and attitude to a similar DIY template. But The Whole Sha-Bang! (***, 13 Apr) probably pushes the too-cool-to-singproperly nonchalance a bit too far, like an especially languid Karen O. So, apparently over there in the Land of Pop, someone called Lady Gaga had a hit this year called Just Dance. And I can only assume that Poker Face (*, 13 Apr) is the massively commercial follow-up to that massively commercial hit. Real music fans: move along now, nothing to

see. After that manufactured monotony, it’s refreshing to hear a band like Metronomy taking pop in a more interesting direction. Radio Ladio (***, 6 Apr) is the robotic chant-a-long single from one of my favourite albums of 2008; not their finest moment perhaps, but it’s electronically nourishing nonetheless.

Most famous for that eerily corporate chill-out sound that graced post-millennial hits by the likes of All Saints and Madonna, über-producer William Orbit now returns with solo material. And, you guessed it, Optical Illusions (**, 20 Apr) is more of the same wankadelic elevator soundtracking. Taking Orbit’s cue, Jon Hopkins also makes meandering, ambient electronica. Light Through The Veins (*, 27 Apr) won him the support slot on a recent Coldplay tour, which is quite appropriate, since this track is a bland, sleepy waste of nine (yes nine) minutes. Coming to a Travelodge lobby near you.

What’s happened to dodgy dancer/nu-skiffle pioneer Jack Peñate in the past year? Evidently sensing a critical backlash against his wide-eyed, loose-jointed pop, he’s only gone all Latin on our asses. But amazingly, Tonight’s Today (****, 30 Mar) actually works, in its Balearic-slash-samba way. Someone who could take a leaf out of the Peñate book of reinvention is Londoner Geoff Smith, who goes by the stage name Loner. I’m Not Sorry (**, 6 Apr) is a wistful, piano-led number that suffers from sounding like a million other plaintive loners. Which only leaves the coronation of King Creosote as maker of Single of the Month. Coast On By (****, 27 Apr) would probably have ended up as just another acoustic folk number

KING CREOSOTE

from the Fence collective heid honcho, were it not for the cut ’n’ paste antics of ex-Beta Band frontman Steve Mason, who adds snarling synth to the cosily melodic KC blueprint.

KING CREOSOTE PLAYS HIS OWN HOMEGAME FESTIVAL, WHICH TAKES PLACE IN ANSTRUTHER, FIFE, 17-19 APR. WWW.KINGCREOSOTE.COM

Single Reviews COPY HAHO

EVIL NINE

ISA & THE FILTHY TONGUES

BRED FOR SKILLS & MAGIC EP

ICICLES

NEW TOWN KILLERS

OUT NOW, BIG SCARY MONSTERS

27 APR, MARINE PARADE

6 APR, CIRCULAR RECORDS

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In his eponymous film, Napoleon Dynamite’s favourite animal is a liger, “bred for its skills and magic”. He might just have said the same about Stonehaven’s finest musical sons, Copy Haho. Now signed to fine indie label Big Scary Monsters and ‘awesome pals’ with the likes of Foals and Dananananaykroyd (see more info), the sprightly four-piece could be set for great things on the evidence of their debut EP. It starts with a bang: Pulling Push Ups is effervescent, power-pop with intricate guitar playing and oodles of charm. The inevitable Pavement comparison belongs to Bad Blood, and while not every track is as memorable, Copy Haho demonstrate enough skills to make a serious dent in the music biz. [Nick Mitchell]

Neither evil or nine, Tom Beaufoy and Pat Pardy are Adam Freeland’s favourite pets. Since signing to the electro maverick’s Marine Parade label, the breakbeat-spewing duo has collaborated with an elite of hip-hop dignitary while gorging on acclaim from the music press’s ink-smudged pages. Latest single Icicles – the final extract from last year’s They Live! LP – affirms the pairings’ sonic screwing mettle. A rush of frostbitten synths and probing drum loops, this thrusting, atmospheric canter oozes a mystique akin to Subtle and TV on the Radio. They may be Freeland’s protegés, but here Evil Nine brilliantly prove their own worth. [Billy Hamilton]

Best not mention Shirley Manson in earshot of this band; Manson left a previous incarnation in order to become vocalist for Garbage, a move that (judging by their press release) is still a bit of a sore spot. But while the Tongues might have been muttering under their breath for a decade, history has not been kind to Butch Vig’s outfit and judging by this single it could be time for the Tongues to enter the spotlight. New Town Killers is a gem of a track that comes across like Lee Mavers doing shoegaze, with tinny, early-Nineties-era drums and shimmering guitar accompanying vivid lyrics penned by Skids frontman and latter day thesp Richard Jobson. [Ewen Millar]

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/COPYHAHO

WWW.EVILNINE.NET

WWW.ISAANDTHEFILTHYTONGUES.COM

THE JAPANESE WAR EFFORT

JUNIOR BOYS

KIERONONONON

KING OF POLAND

HAZEL

THREE MAN PARTY EP

OUT NOW, FABRIKANT RECORDS

20 APR, DOMINO

27 APR, ROXXOR RECORDS

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Quite frankly, Martin Moog appears to be taking the piss. This EP begins with a rousing sample from the King’s College Choir and then Moog weighs in with the lyrics “I will be clean, wash me clean as the snow”. He lets loose juddering drum beats made from coins falling on the ground, layers of electronic whistles, bells and synths, and someone, quite possibly his mum, accompanies him with a fiddle. He pays tribute to footballing giant Ian St John aka The Saint and one of the songs is called You Like Dogs LOL. But this is too good, too inspiringly original, too unapologetically fucked-up, to be dismissed that easily, making Moog one of Edinburgh’s most intriguing new musicians. [Milo McLaughlin] WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEJAPANESEWAREFFORT

PATRICK WOLF

Hazel, the first single from Junior Boys’ upcoming third album Begone Dull Care is the best thing they’ve ever done, repudiating all the fair criticisms that can be levelled at the Canadian electropop duo. If they can at times give off an air of reserved tastefulness, it’s because they don’t do beats as funky as this often enough, or vocals as heartfelt about stories so illuminating. The breakdown is glorious, all pulsing silver bursts and soulful howls at the moon, but it’s the slow unfurling of the lovesick story towards a climactic last line that’ll send you head over heels. [Ally Brown] NEW ALBUM BEGONE DULL CARE IS RELEASED ON VIA DOMINO 11 MAY.

Allegedly, Kieronononon are the best thing to emerge from Hull since Dean Windass. A comparison to a 40-year-old footballer of limited ability and bovine physique would seem somewhat misguided, but herein lays an example of the band’s rather arbitrary attitude to self-image. An elusive proposition they may be, but Kieronononon are at least identifiable by their broad oeuvre and obvious vitality. A freewheeling brand of mischief permeates the grungy Three Man Party, and the absurdity of a couplet like “don’t forget the cake/it’s a chocolate cake” is effective in a primal sort of way. The emphasis on obscure ramblings curtails the impact of the EP, but Kieronononon’s musical promiscuity shows a refreshing lack of vanity. [Ray Philp]

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/JUNIORBOYS

WWW.BRUTALTECHNOPUNK.COM

PEACHES

WILBURNSILVER

VULTURE

TALK TO ME

FIRE IN YOUR EYES

20 APR 2009, BLOODY CHAMBER MUSIC

27 APR, XL RECORDINGS

13 APR, IN TOWN

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With over two years having passed since the release of his last single, The Magic Position, it’s reassuring to find Patrick Wolf still in the process of a musical evolution with seemingly no endpoint in sight. Currently favouring sex-club synths and NiN-styled industrialism, Vulture is almost entirely unrecognisable from the vantage of earlier works such as the multi-instrumental poetry of Middle England on 2005’s Wind In The Wires. Having a reputation as being prolific and something of an innovator, it seems essential for Wolf to maintain a forward momentum. However, innovative though it is, Vulture seems just a little debased in the light of his earlier works. [Paul Neeson]

Whatever has happened to everyone’s favourite hotpants-wearing, hermaphrodite-shagging pop tart? “This ain’t no Peaches show, it’s just me and you,” admonishes the lady in question. She’s right as well, as Talk To Me is a plea to a partner to open up, where once she would have rather shoved her crotch in their face. The slick electro track which accompanies it kinda sounds like Peaches, but sadly, with the rough edges sanded down. Still, for those who prefer the lady with a bit more ‘spunk’, her forthcoming album is entitled I Feel Cream and it’s unlikely to refer to eating yoghurt. [Darren Carle]

While some bands choose a life of experimentation, pushing their muse to its limits and sharing the eccentric results with the world, others just peek at what their favourite Sixties band did and do it again with gusto. Wilburnsilver are definitely in the latter, camp but there’ll always be rock ‘n’ roll aficionados looking for Doorsy, Beatlesy, Kinksy thrills and there are far worse ways to pass the time than jiving to Fire in Their Eyes. With a rollicking blues bass line, they certainly sound authentically Cavern Club - Andy Macgregor’s growled vocals pass muster, while the rest of the band add all the requisite garnishes - sax, guitar and organ solos - necessary to make a definite impact. [Chris Buckle]

PATRICKWOLF.COM

WWW.PEACHESROCKS.COM

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/WILBURNSILVER

46 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

Hutch Harris, singer with The Thermals, offers insight into their new LP. They take things seriously, but in a very funny way, as Paul Mitchell finds out.

Luke Winter

“We do love The Cribs. It is someone else’s show however, so often it’s a case of trying to win over kids waiting for the headliner to come on. That’s not always the most fun” And so I speak to The Thermals’ Hutch Harris the day after their support slot with the English four-piece at ABC. Singer Harris isn’t griping as such, he just doesn’t pull his punches in suggesting support slots aren’t what he wants. Unsurprising this, the Portland trio have a reputation for giving short-shrift to all they don’t like with the world, in super-short bursts of - if their self-penned press release is to be believed - ‘postpower-pop’. “Ha! We just said that to be obnoxious.

You’ve got to take what we say in the PR with a crate of salt, we’re just trying to have a laugh. All these labels have too many different bad connotations. Even with punk-rock, it means too many different things. And people reading about you will think you could sound like the Ramones if you’re lucky...” Then, giggling “...or perhaps Good Charlotte if it’s just not your day”.

Harris, along with cohorts Kathy Foster (who’s been there since inception in 2002) and Westin Glass (newbie drummer), had been showcasing their forthcoming release Now We Can See, The Thermals’ fourth studio album. It is the much-awaited follow-up to 2006’s three-chord concept rant The Body, The Blood, The Machine, replete with intense religious and political imagery. Not subtle, but possessed of humour and a musical prowess belying the seemingly straightforward presentation. As with that album, it was Harris and Foster who conceived and recorded it in its entirety before the recruitment of yet another percussionist (their fourth to date). If it all sounds

a bit Spinal Tap, Hutch assures us that “all previous drummers are alive and well…I think.”

Harris is eager to point out that Now We Can See won’t be such a full-blooded assault on contemporary society’s ills. “This one is really earthly, a lot of life and love, land and air” he explains. “A lot of the songs are from the point of view of somebody dying, or like a human looking back on life, or indeed the history of humans. We avoided religion and politics because we felt we had done it to death on the last record and now we’re aiming for something more timeless. In the last record we felt we were singing about what was going on in the U.S. at that particular time but really fantasising about what the future would look like if we continued on the same path. This record definitely has more simple lyrics but that there is still a lot of gravity there.”

The record was produced by one John Congleton, who, when not fronting his own band The Paper Chase, has fashioned the expansive aurals of Explosions in the Sky and The Polyphonic Spree, among countless others. “We are trying to widen our sound but still make records for the people who have been with us from the beginning when we were making them on a four-track,” says Harris. “John got in touch with us last year and said he re ally appreciated the lyrics on the past records and he loved our vibe and attitude. It was great working with him and I think it sounds like a John Congleton record; really bombastic and large.”

Now We Can See is released via Kill Rock Stars on 6 April.

Stórsveit Nix Noltes Chaotic and all-encompassing, mayhemic Icelandic 11-piece Stórsveit Nix Noltes let Billy Hamilton know how much crunch there is in their musical credit...

It seems the only noise emitting from Iceland right now is that of financial institutions crashing to the ground. But while the white-collared howls of kamikaze bankers may incite wry chortles from those poor enough to have slipped the credit crunch’s grasp, the sound’s not a patch on the ear-pleasing ditties of old-school luminaries like Björk, Sigur Rós and The Sugarcubes.

Fortunately, this baffling sonic deficit is about to change: Stórsveit Nix Noltes [SNN] are set to thrust the country's music scene back into the black.

An 11-piece ensemble conceived five years ago by various factions of the Reykjavik indie establishment, SNN’s collective girth is exceeded only by the sheer scale and depth of their plundering compositions. "[SNN is] really like a cluster of little military groups competing with each other," explains guitarist Vardi. "We just put the guitar section in one corner, the wind instruments in the other, the strings in another and so forth... in the middle sits Óli Björn [Olafsson], the drummer. He is the earth and heaven; the one that keeps these elements from dissolving into complete chaos."

But if SNN is redolent of anything, it’s chaos.

The group’s sophomore long-player Royal Family - Divorce is an unvoiced mortar of instrumentation that adjoins brass-punctuated gypsy toils with post-rock malignancy. “The music we play is folk music. Folk music is about storytelling. Storytelling is about insane intensity and aching brittleness…” pronounces trumpet-player Eiríkur Orri Ólafsson. “All that stuff, the gamut of emotions, has a lot to do with the original tunes,” agrees drummer Oli. “It is embedded in the melodies, so we really don’t need to strive in our performance to get them out. It’s all there in the first place.”

Over the years, the sound of the Balkans has been appropriated by a sprawl of American acts keen on fanfaring their Eastern European education. SNN’s motives were less self-congratulatory: “We probably didn't so much infuse [the Balkan sound] with a modern edge rather than

play it as honestly as we could,” reveals Eirijur.

“We are a group of composers from Iceland. We have not been to Bulgarian weddings, but we absolutely love the music. So playing the songs in a traditional style would be dishonest and probably sound a lot worse than an actual Bulgarian band would sound.” Or, as guitarist Hallvarður Ásgeirsson sees it: “It's not that we have infused [Balkan music], it has infused us. It's a living being that takes over.”

And take over is what SNN is beginning to do. Since releasing their debut album Orkideur Havai on FatCat’s US label Bubble Core in 2006, the band’s blaze of traversing folk has abducted audiences around the globe, particularly after a stint supporting the mighty Animal Collective.

Yet accessibility is an afterthought to this organic ‘Big Band’ [the English translation of Storsveit]: “We are the most impractical band in the universe,” decrees Hallvarður bluntly. “When we play shows in Iceland it’s for everybody, the indie kids and their grannies,” continues Oli. “It’s all about the fun of coming together for playing and dancing — although people have had some difficulties finding the steps to some of the tunes.”

Already pondering further line-up additions (“It could be twice as many. Imagine the sound: Boom!” enthuses Oli), SNN’s hopes for the future are as impenetrable as their brilliant squalls of sound. “We'd love to tour in the summertime.

It's hard though,” bemoans Eiríkur. “Iceland's economy is having a really, really, big, ghoulish, why-the-fuck-did-I-say-that, drunk-dialling, throwing-up-the-painkillers-on-the-bedroomfloor-while-remembering-you-lost-your-walletand-oh-shit-the-wedding-ring-is-gone hangover.

Besides that, we'd love a picnic.”

Royal Family - Divorce is released via FatCat on 13 April.

Wedding Rachenitsa by Stórsveit Nix Noltes is available via the FatCat Records channel on tentracks.co.uk alongside other new releases by Brakes, The Balky Mule and many more. www.myspace.com/storsveitnixnoltes

www.thethermals.com

April 2009

THE SKINNY 47

Records

The Thermals Keep Us Warm

www.tentracks.co.uk

RECORDS

Album of the month BAT FOR LASHES

TWO SUNS

rrrrr 6 APR, PARLOPHONE Anyone acquainted with Bat For Lashes’ highly regarded debut Fur and Gold will know that the Brighton singer-songwriter (real name Natasha Khan) is something of a New Age siren. On this highly anticipated followup, she ups the mystic ante, harnessing the tribal energy of kindred spirits Yeasayer (most noticeably on thrilling opener Glass) and poses on the cover in body paint against a desert-at-night backdrop. So far, so cosmic.

But there are also less predictable developments: Peace of Mind boasts an “all-black, all-gay” gospel choir, and legendary crooner Scott Walker makes a rare guest appearance on the vaudevillian finale that is The Big Sleep.

Conceptually, Two Suns is an album of opposites, an exploration of contrasting perspectives that Khan takes as far as the alter-ego ‘Pearl’, a character who acts as her more brazen, provocative self. While this can lead to occasional moments of lyrical indulgence, of more import is the fact that it only furthers her chameleon ability to flit between styles, from the menacing electro of Sleep Alone to the polyphonic vocals of Pearl’s Dream to the synth-pop gloss of current single Daniel. In less able hands such divergent ambitions would clash horribly; in Khan’s they gel to form another measured, consistently excellent album. [Nick Mitchell] BAT FOR LASHES PLAY QMU, GLASGOW ON 8 APR. WWW.BATFORLASHES.COM

Album Reviews ART BRUT

PETER BJORN AND JOHN

YEAH YEAH YEAHS

ART BRUT VS. SATAN

LIVING THING

IT’S BLITZ!

20 APR, COOKING VINYL

30 MAR, WICHITA

13 APR, POLYDOR

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Recorded with Frank Black in what is a rare production outing for the Pixies frontman, punk outsiders Art Brut have retained the rambunctious energy and endearingly ramshackle vocal arrangements of their first two outings on third album Art Brut vs. Satan. However, they have also evolved their twotone musical palette in order to create a musical backdrop that can cope with the more emotionally complex lyrical subject matter. Frontman Eddie Argos’s forte has always been documenting his inability to negotiate life and his record collection, and the album doesn’t deviate much from this theme; however, there’s an added pathos in the recurring idea that our hero is simply getting too old for his lifestyle. In expanding their horizons while sticking to their comic strengths, Art Brut have sidestepped the junior jinx and established themselves as being capable of nurturing a career. Satan ought to be running scared. [Gillian Watson]

“Peter Bjorn and John? The happy-go-lucky Swedes responsible for whistlecore pop smash Young Folks? They’re great, any whistling this time?” No, rhetorical review invention, there isn’t, but yours is likely to be a popular misconception for those unfamiliar with the remainder of their output, so I wouldn’t feel bad about it. “OK, thanks. So it’s happy-go-lucky pop sans whistles then?” Not exactly, my imaginary friend. In fact, it’s one of the most consistently interesting records of 2009 thus far: like MIA covered by Depeche Mode on first single Nothing To Worry About, disco-Cure on It Don’t Move Me and a little bit Afrobeat (well, like a stripped-down You Can Call Me Al at any rate) on Living Thing. It’s a layered, fascinating listen filled with unexpected nuances and underpinned by a slightly unhinged atmosphere. “Ah. Maybe I’ll just get that Noah and the Whale album, in that case.” Fine, it’s your loss, pal.

[Chris Buckle]

ART BRUT PLAY STEREO, GLASGOW ON 2 MAY. WWW.ARTBRUT.ORG.UK

BUTCHER BOY

Just like the first wave of post-punk bands a generation ago, the post-punk revivalists of this decade are also turning to synthesizers when their guitars no longer yield fresh ideas. For the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, that means a third album sound plotted somewhere between Blondie, Franz Ferdinand and Gwen Stefani; which, hopefully you’ve noticed, is two-thirds of a great formula. But just like Franz, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are caught in a conundrum about how to balance their party songs with their introspectives. First album ballad Maps shocked everyone by showing Karen O’s emotive side, and remains arguably the best thing they’ve ever written. But a few too many opaque slowies on It’s Blitz! short sells Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ most attractive quality - Karen O used to be a right entertaining and imaginative radge, and now she’s just a wee bitty tame.

[Ally Brown] YEAH YEAH YEAHS PLAY T IN THE PARK ON 10 JULY

WWW.PETERBJORNANDJOHN.COM

CAMERA OBSCURA

WWW.YEAHYEAHYEAHS.COM

KING CREOSOTE

REACT OR DIE

MY MAUDLIN CAREER

FLICK THE VS

6 APR , HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE LOVED?

20 APR, 4AD

20 APR, DOMINO RECORDS

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The follow-up to Butcher Boy’s well-received debut album finds them in familiar, but still exquisitely-crafted territory. React or Die is tuneful, rustic and soothing in equally handsome measures. However, the band draws a line between the traditional folk sounds of their Celtic forefathers and Glaswegian twee contemporaries like Belle and Sebastian or Wake the President; the mandolin intro to opening track When I’m Asleep predates vintage, setting the band’s uncompromisingly old-school agenda from the start. In that respect, Butcher Boy aren’t unlike the Fleet Foxes: too preoccupied with crafting wonderful melodies to worry about tempering them with excessive knob-twiddling. Smiths comparisons are not wholly inaccurate (the lyrics on This Kiss Will Marry Us recall Morrissey at his best, and the guitars of A Better Ghost wouldn’t be out of place in a Johnny Marr songbook) but fail to tell the full story of a band quietly and confidently carving out their own unique and impressive niche. [Finbarr Bermingham]

Local stalwarts Camera Obscura’s latest album title will likely elicit obvious jokes from detractors, especially with an opening line like “spend a week in a dusty library, waiting for some words to jump in me”. Not looking to win new fans, although being signed to 4AD could make this a happy by-product, My Maudlin Career finds the wistful sextet in similar, albeit slightly darker territory. Relationships end, affairs fizzle out and a boy called James is ominously knocking at the door of singer Tracyanne Campbell. Her various emotional bruises are well documented here, laid out starkly and with minimal literary frills. The rest of the Cameras hold forte when needed, such as on the bittersweet Hawaiian-tinged send off, Honey in the Sun. They also bow out accordingly on Other Towns and Cities, letting Campbell unweave the tangled ends of yet another doomed relationship. Give Camera Obscura your love - it sounds like they need it. [Darren Carle]

Flick The Vs sees a snarl added to Kenny Anderson’s dulcet tones, and frequent bad language spells out the fact that he’s got a few things to be pissed off about. Proving that he’s ever the iconoclast, the album’s more experimental nature is seemingly at odds with the more straightforward arrangements of KC Rules OK and Bombshell. It’s ironic that first single Coast By Coast, written in collaboration with Steve Mason and ostensibly a rather grumpy declaration of his uneasy retreat to Anstruther following thwarted ambitions in the music biz, becomes perhaps the most perfect pop song in Anderson’s canon. Another highlight, Camels Swapped For Wives, goes on to broach the difficult subject of “the effects of mental illness on the whole family” in heartbreakingly honest fashion. Ultimately, each number yields a markedly different style, but paradoxically - because of the high quality in Anderson’s songwriting - this makes for the King’s most consistent and sublime effort to date. [Milo McLaughlin]

CAMERA OBSCURA PLAY BARROWLANDS, GLASGOW ON 26 APRIL.

HOMEGAME 2009 TAKES PLACE IN ANSTRUTHER, FIFE FROM 17-19 APRIL.

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/BUTCHERBOYMUSIC

WWW.CAMERA-OBSCURA.NET

WWW.FENCERECORDS.COM

CRYSTAL ANTLERS

DEPECHE MODE

ELVIS PERKINS IN DEARLAND

TENTACLES

SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSE

ELVIS PERKINS IN DEARLAND

6 APR, TOUCH AND GO

20 APR, MUTE

6 APR, XL

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In the endlessly cyclical history of popular music, psychedelic rock has mostly been left to gather dust in record shops. There have been isolated attempts to revive the genre from bands like Comets on Fire and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, but nothing like a concerted revival. Crystal Antlers could well be the band to trigger it. Continuing where their acclaimed EP left off, Tentacles is a blistering onslaught of splashy organ, tangential guitar solos and Jonny Bell’s howling vocals. Despite their adoption of late-60s modes, the latest ‘crystal’-prefixed band do more than perform CPR on a half-dead musical corpse. Andrew, for instance, begins on a Van Morrison-style blues refrain before plunging into a double-speed punk frenzy, while Memorized is a pained, exhilarating track that encroaches on the far-out territory of the Mars Volta.

Unlike their indulgent forebears, Crystal Antlers refract psychedelic rock through the prism of punk, adding plenty of soul in the process. [Nick Mitchell]

With Depeche Mode returning to a scene so full of bands aping their sound, you could forgive them for dusting off their analogue synths in order to capture the retro zeitgeist, even if the results weren’t this promising. Upon first listen, it’s the hooks of Miles Away and first single Wrong that stand out, the latter a slow-burning stomper, complete with buzzing keyboards and bluesy vocals from Dave Gahan. But the other, initially salient moments are the clangers; the Jean Michel Jarre arpeggios of Peace are a little cringeworthy, and the lyrics emit the occasional cheddary whiff. Repeated listens, however, reveal successful experimentation: In Sympathy features Balearic beats, and Come Back incorporates some IDM sounds. For dynamics, there’s the rockier Fragile Tension and the decidedly trippy Little Soul. With bands like The Killers having colonised the alternative dancefloor, this album should see the old guns reclaiming some lost territory. [Joe Barton]

After the often difficult listen that was Ash Wednesday, a to-the-bone study of the trauma of grief, it is heartening to see that musically and lyrically, and (hopefully) emotionally, Elvis Perkins has made real progress. Settled in his surroundings with the talented In Dearland, there are a vast array of classic folk, big band and rock ‘n’ roll stylings here, mostly quite accessible in the sense that they add optimism to the serious issues Perkins addresses. Some are even uplifting, including the ominously titled Doomsday, with Perkins as the leader of a band marching into battle, trumpets blaring, facing down Death and basically telling him to lighten up. The brooding harmonicas and humming keyboards of opener Shampoo highlights Perkins’ penchant for an obscure yet intricate lyric. “You are worth your weight in gold/ you are worth your weight in sorrow/though you’ll never know why”. Somehow, in the context of this album, it makes a lot of sense. [Wilbur Kane]

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/CRYSTALANTLERS

WWW.DEPECHEMODE.COM

WWW.ELVISPERKINSINDEARLAND.COM

48 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

THE FLOWERS OF HELL

COME HELL OR HIGH WATER

JEFFREY LEWIS AND THE JUNKYARD

6 APRIL, BENBECULA RECORDS

‘EM ARE I

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20 APR, ROUGH TRADE

The Flowers of Hell describe themselves as a “rock orchestra”. Fear not, however, this is not some prog-rock indulgence of Spinal Tap proportions. An ambitious collaboration between musicians from the Patti Smith Group, British Sea Power, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, to name but a few, the project spans two continents, 30 musicians and the opposing poles of classical and rock instrumentation. The results are breathtaking: the first few tracks introduce orchestral textures similar to György Ligeti’s Atmosphères, and Forest of Noise unsurprisingly evokes raucous moments from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. In fact, the two musical worlds only mingle as the album progresses; there’s no sign of a guitar until halfway through. After bombarding the listener with feedback and drumrolls, Come Hell or High Water ends with a gorgeous piano piece, proving that these often incongruent worlds can meet and make something beautiful. [Joe Barton] WWW.FLOWERSOFHELL.COM

METRIC

FANTASIES 20 APR, METRIC MUSIC INTERNATIONAL

rrr Those of us who came to Metric via singer Emily Haines’ gorgeous contributions to Broken Social Scene gems like Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl were thrown a curveball by 2005’s Live It Out. Walloping, bubblegum guitar riffs constituted its memorable highlights and follow-up Fantasies also delivers some tasty riffs and hooks. Hammy lyrics aside, Gimme Sympathy is a centrepiece of synth and choppy guitar exuberance that sounds like half a dozen great ‘80s bands playing at the same time. Such moments are plentiful, yet on gentler songs like Collect Call things still feel a little ‘busy’ where perhaps some restraint would not have gone amiss, particularly if it would help to highlight Haines’ voice. But perhaps that’s not the point of Metric and if you can approach it from a fresh angle, Fantasies is a consistent, momentarily thrilling and unashamed guitar pop record. No more, no less. [Darren Carle]

MAGIK MARKERS

BALF QUARRY 27 APR, DRAG CITY

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rrrr New York’s renaissance slacker Jeffrey Lewis cultivates a prolific lifestyle, cramming the recording of this new album somewhere into a hectic touring, lecturing and comic-creating schedule. His last longplayer, 12 Crass Songs, a reworking of tracks by the seminal English punk band (funnily enough), allowed Lewis a different set of colours to work with. As a result, he appears to have discovered freedom in musical interpretation and applied this liberation to a set of unpredictably ramshackle tunes. His dexterous, almost improvised lyricism is strong here, despite the abashed remark “it’s easier said than done/ and it’s not even easy to say.” Heart-split renderings of his Year in Pictures mix with zombie-death musings, bluegrass escapism and abundant humorous observations. Lewis’ biggest strength, however, is an ability to soak up the culture around him, and channel it through his own friendly storytelling and mannerisms, making him a profound and original voice. [Jamie Scott] JEFFREY LEWIS PLAYS HINTERLAND, GLASGOWON 1 MAY AND TUNNELS, ABERDEEN ON 2 MAY

Magik Markers’ sonic experimentation continues with this, their first release on guitar-haven label Drag City. Their by now trademarked squalls and groans settle uneasily across dragging expanses of discordant pop. Don’t Talk In Your Sleep growls with primal blues-punk urges, as if the true spirit of resistance and debased lust were forced violently together. It plays like a filthy Peaches and Iggy collaboration, though even that comparison doesn’t quite do the dirt of Jerks justice. Silence finds a constant place on this album - in contrast with the band’s uninhibited, noisy live shows - as blank spaces fill out agonising and unpredictable pauses. Awkward gaps between where the notes should be and where they actually are stretch longingly, covering waves of crunching darkness. Despite leaning heavily upon the influence of the brooding, no-wave Sonic Youth sound, the fuzzy, fulfilling joy of messy guitars and ringing ears justifies repeat listens. [Jamie Scott] WWW.DRAGCITY.COM

NADJA

STORSVEIT NIX NOLTES

WHEN I SEE THE SUN IT ALWAYS SHINES ON TV

ROYAL FAMILY - DIVORCE 13 APR, FAT CAT

27 APR, THE END

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rrrr Cover albums can either be a thrilling exploration into a band’s influences, as they twist and absorb them into their own songbook, or dreadful last-ditch attempts to generate a few sales. Black ambient doom drone duo Nadja have been whipping up a sonic maelstrom for just over five years now, perhaps a little early in a career for a covers LP; but who could resist buzzsaw drone versions of tunes from A-Ha, Elliott Smith, The Cure, and the Kids in the Hall soundtrack? Well, certainly not Nadja. And the results are majestic, retaining all of the seismic shifting heaviness you would expect from the group, bending the pop and the not-so-pop songs into something both reverent and playfully grotesque. The jump to Swans, My Bloody Valentine and Slayer is perhaps not quite so distant, but the outcomes are equally great. This may very well be the world’s first catchy singalong drone metal album. [Ali Maloney]

Comprised of 11 Icelandic eclecticists with a fascination for music from Eastern Europe, there was little danger of Storsveit Nix Noltes churning out three-chord pop-punk. Thus The Nick Nolte Big Band, as it approximately translates, purvey some truly raucous, Balkans-rich, contemporary prog-folk.

A joyous and exuberant brass section accompanied by some lively percussion and fiddles combine well with the more contemporary electric guitar. They are probably most easily compared to Gogol Bordello, alas purely due to a lack of any real widespread awareness of Eastern European music. Originally released in 2007, Fat Cat picked up on the recent remastering and bring it to a wider audience. From the rambunctious Paudusko to the brilliantly wistful Atmadga Duma Strachilu, this record presents ten vibrant and well-realised reimaginings of traditional Eastern Bloc folk pieces and might easily broaden a few minds if given half a chance. [Chris Cusack]

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/NADJALUV

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/STORSVEITNIXNOLTES

METRIC PLAY ORAN MOR, GLASGOW ON 12 MAY. WWW.ILOVEMETRIC.COM

PREFUSE 73

EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHED TURNED AMPEXIAN 20 APR, WARP

rrrr Under the alter-ego of Prefuse 73, Guillermo Scott Herren releases another batch of avant-garde hip-hop, and it’s the musical equivalent of a man-made virus escaping a laboratory, wreaking havoc on our preconceptions. Nothing in the hip-hop world comes close in terms of enthusiasm to experiment: beats are dissected at random, loops are recklessly chopped up, and tracks stop as abruptly as they begin. The grooves are still there, but they’re moved away from simple drums and bass into the realms of jazzy abstraction; Periodic Measurements of Infrequent Frowns is a perfect example of the way in which noises can be made funky, as is Punisher. Snippets of old-school grooves are pitted against Varese-style orchestras, in a fashion that evokes Frank Zappa’s rock ‘n’ musique-concrete masterpiece Lumpy Gravy. It may be a somewhat overwhelming first listen, but Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian promises to be rewarding to revisit. [Joe Barton] WWW.MYSPACE.COM/PREFUSION1973

WILDBIRDS & PEACEDRUMS

THE SNAKE

13 APR, THE LEAF LABEL

rrrr Only after repeated spins of their second album is it clear how appropriately named Wildbirds & Peacedrums are: the tribal tubthumping of Andreas Werlin being the latter and Mariam Wallentin’s primitive, visceral vocals undoubtedly assuming the role of the former. Backed by a cacophony of harmonicas, deep woodwind sounds, gospel choirs and plinking xylophones, the Swedish duo combine here to offer an otherworldly experience that’s sometimes confusing, initially frustrating, but ultimately excellent. Wallentin’s voice is the focal point and is constantly captivating; the only lucid sound to pierce the murk of dense psych-folk, it recalls Patti Smith’s iconoclastic psychobabble. Some of the tracks, like So Soft, So Pink are slow-starters, but persevere and they reward with wonderful, haunting melodies. Final song My Heart, perhaps the straightest song here, stops resonating in your ears in time to steal the show and feels destined to be recounted as one of the tunes of the year. [Finbarr Bermingham]

THE THERMALS

THOMAS TRUAX

NOW WE CAN SEE

SONGS FROM THE FILMS OF DAVID LYNCH

7 APR, KILL ROCK STARS

6 APR, PSYCHO TEDDY/SL

rrrr This Portland-based trio (sometimes duo) received high praise for their 2006 album The Body, The Blood, The Machine with its grunge-pop tunefulness and the insight of singer Hutch Harris’ nihilistic storytelling. Fourth LP Now We Can See retains the same deceptively simple musical ethos, and though discarding the political/religious polemic which made TBTBTM so invigorating, is still an engaging source of food for thought. Liquid In, Liquid Out (“it’s what my life was all about”) sees Harris muse on someone’s battle with alcoholism, with the (almost) playful suggestion that this might have been a fun time. Equal stand-out We Were Sick may be a reflection on the same theme (“We were high, we were alive, we were sick”), yet musically calls to mind Weezer’s finest examples of college rock. As does the title track and first single - an infectious ode to evolution, and a pop gem to boot. [Wilbur Kane]

WWW.THETHERMALS.COM

Top 5 Albums 1. BAT FOR LASHES - TWO SUNS 2. KING CREOSOTE - FLICK THE VS 3. CRYSTAL ANTLERS - TENTACLES 4. PREFUSE 73 - EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHED TURNED AMPEXIAN 5. STORSVEIT NIX NOLTES -

ROYAL FAMILY - DIVORCE

rrrr ‘Lynchian’ has for too long been bandied around as a synonym for ‘surreal’, when it really fits only the truly unsettling and perplexingly brilliant. Luckily, anti-folkster Thomas Truax is both these things, and appropriately these covers wouldn’t sound out of place soundtracking a mental breakdown. Some stick closely to the originals (a haunting rendition of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game), others adjust the details but keep the arch-mood intact (Beck’s Black Tambourine drops some of the strut but keeps the voodoo vibe), while others still mutate into the kind of terrifying sounds you pray won’t creep onto your iPod shuffle as you drift off to sleep - his rendition of In Heaven is more frightening than a screaming Black Francis and a monstrous, miniature radiator lady combined. Testament to both the quality of Lynch’s soundtracks and Truax’s talents, this might induce occasional dreams of backwards-speaking dwarves, but a little insanity never hurt anyone. [Chris Buckle] THOMAS TRUAX PLAYS BREL, GLASGOW ON 2 APRIL AND CABARET VOLTAIRE, EDINBURGH ON 3 APRIL. WWW.THOMASTRUAX.COM

REVIEWS ONLINE rrrr rrr rrr rrr rrrr rrrr rrr rrr rrrr rrrr rrr rr rrrr rr

ALASDAIR ROBERTS SPOILS BIG NED BIG NED BRAKES TOUCHDOWN CAROLINE WEEKS SONGS FOR EDNA DOOM BORN LIKE THIS JENIFEREVER SPRING TIDES LAU ARC LIGHT OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT UNDERSTANDING ELECTRICITY PAPIER TIGRE THE BEGINNING AND END OF NOW THE STRANGE BOYS THE STRANGE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB SUPER FURRY ANIMALS DARK DAYS/LIGHT YEARS THE VIRGINS THE VIRGINS TIM EXILE LISTENING TREE VIDEO NASTIES ON ALL FOURS

WILDBIRDS & PEACEDRUMS PLAY THE CAPTAIN’S REST, GLASGOW ON 5 APRIL.

APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 49

RECORDS

Album Reviews

Music

Live Reviews Lily Allen O2 Academy, 14 Mar

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Heidi kuisma

With her chart success currently spanning the Atlantic, it’s no surprise that the opening night of Lily Allen’s tour is a pretty hot ticket. The exposure certainly won’t harm tonight’s support, electro-maiden du jour La Roux (**). If you’re struggling to keep track, she’s at the Ladyhawke rather than Lady GaGa end of the Eighties-aping-starlets-of-2009-it’s-still-OK-to-like spectrum, but while enjoyable, her icy glitch-pop sound has been done before and better, and is about to be made obsolete by Fever Ray. When Lily Allen (****) arrives heralded by a jackhammer strobe, the energy levels rocket. Observing the crowd reveals her broad appeal, the blue phosphorescence of raised phones revealing hip parents as well as dolled-up yoof, highlighting Allen’s deft balance of classy maturity and the savvy edginess for which she was first lauded. While some new songs may sound anonymous, it’s not long before she’s cheerfully narrating the adjusting of her pants and replacing heels with trainers. Her encore puts these two Lily’s sideby-side in the form of her biggest hits, Smile and The Fear, before a closing Womaniser finds something charming in Spears’ gratingly repetitive robotics.

Far more than just a celebrity, Allen’s a star. [Chris Buckle] www.lilyallenmusic.com

Hockey Captain’s Rest, 26 Feb

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The spring World Music Program at the Picturehouse has a wealth of acts playing from all over the globe, but few of the shows intrigue quite like this. It was Radio 3’s Late Junction who initiated the collaboration between folktronica sextet Tunng and Malian group Tinariwen, and prompted this tour. Language and cultural barriers mean that both groups have had to rely on their music as the only communication.

As the nights starter, Tunng deliver an underwhelming DJ set, packed with African rhythms and dub bass lines, perhaps as an attempt to assert their global credentials, which duly inspires audience chatter rather than dancing. Then emerge Tinariwen for a short set, colourful yet earthy, their golden call and response vocals fascinate, engulfing the room. Initially all is well as Tunng join them, as they trade verses and share each others’ songs. But there emerges a discomfort about the English outfit, who are a little insipid compared to their more exotic guests, and by the midway stage, a gulf in quality between the groups is appearing. When a sampler, integral to Tunng’s sound, has to be cut as it loses time, it is Tinariwen who rise to rescue the song.

It’s a shame they weren’t given the reins more often.

[Jamie Scott]

As the most straight-laced band tonight, Bear Hands (****) could easily have been overshadowed by their more hyped, more flamboyant touring partners. But in retrospect their no-nonsense guitar rock is a pre-emptive breath of fresh air, marrying Promise Ring-style riffs to huge pop choruses and eclipsing the bill’s rotating headliners.

With their cuddly indie-disco the main draw for many tonight, Passion Pit (***) seem destined for huge success if Joe Public learn to stomach Michael Angelakos’s voice - it’s the musical equivalent of the “broken watch is correct twice a day” aphorism, hoisted into a falsetto and wobbled in the general direction of a tune with which it only occasionally makes contact. But it does add another idiosyncratic layer to a set that at times resembles Animal Collective, Squarepusher and Scissor Sisters (occasionally all at once), and is consequently far from dull.

On paper Hockey (***) promise Beck and the Family Stone, but largely deliver the Chili Peppers auditioning for Flashdance, or perhaps Cage the Elephant with a higher BPM. Luckily, they have tonight’s highlight in Song Away, a goofy sibling of Vampire Weekend’s Paul Simon-isms and a ludicrously catchy anthem-in-waiting that’s enough to wash away the frat-rock funk elsewhere in their set.

Bonus marks too for not sulking when both microphones break, singer Ben Grubin instead converting his energy into a flailing mime almost as forceful as his coarse rock wail. Best get used to all three of tonight’s acts - chances are you’ll be hearing a lot more from them. [Chris Buckle]

www.myspace.com/thisistunng

Doves

Claire Taylor

Tunng with Tinariwen The Picture House, 21 Mar

www.myspace.com/hockey

ABC, 15 Mar

rr Doves are out of practice. Tonight they return after four years’ absence to play their high-quality songs to a supportive audience, but fail to draw out the best in their material. Encouragingly, new single Kingdom of Rust is a highlight, Martin Rebelski’s neat treble work on keyboard crystalising the sound and a two-step rhythm giving dynamism to proceedings that had otherwise started slowly. However, other new songs are somewhat lost throughout a fuggy set that has none of the smart pacing Doves have demonstrated on previous tours, while (should-be) sure-fire winners like Pounding and Words respectively suffer from looseness and flatness. Fortunately the band rouse themselves for a strong encore: an older b-side, Northenden makes for a reflective moment, while Here It Comes and The Last Broadcast build the atmosphere before a triumphant There Goes The Fear climaxes to a genuinely euphoric finale. For sure, it’s good to have Doves back; they just need a few more shows to sharpen up. [RJ Thomson] New album Kingdom of Rust is available on 6 Apri l via Heavenly. www.doves.net

50 THE SKINNY April 2009

Noah & The Whale Queen’s Hall, 12 Mar

rrrr In five years time it’s safe to assume Noah & The Whale won’t be singing THAT song. You see, the Twickenham quartet fancy themselves as more than chart-breaching pixie-poppers and tonight they make their intentions clear with a pre-show appetiser of short films embracing both monochromatic drama and Pingu-inspired animation. An interesting concept, for sure, but sub-par art-school productions do not a serious band make. What actually tips it N&TW’s way is the shoals of sombre, infectious melodies exuding from stage. Denser in sound than their brittle-boned debut LP suggests, Charlie Fink’s tremulous blow swathes through the orchestral blizzard of Jocasta and Mary with the expertise of someone much longer in tooth. New numbers slot in like quarters to a Vegas fruit machine and although THAT closing totem is wearily treadmilled, N&TW manage to chisel into an enthralling creative avenue. Lord knows where they’ll be in half a decade. [Billy Hamilton] www.noahandthewhale.com

Shred Yr Face 2 The Garage, 27 Feb

rrrr There’s something special about hardcore; while the music might not be for everyone, the energy, the spirit and the message certainly should be. Enter: Shred Yr Face 2. One could cut Sheffielders Rolo Tomassi (****) a little slack, considering their singer has fallen ill. “Could” is the optimal term, as none need be cut tonight. Eva Spence comes in on her A-game, as does the remainder of the quintet, notso-quietly marrying the best aspects of stalwarts such as The Locust and Dillinger Escape Plan.

Fucked Up (*****) require no introduction, and none in the crowd should forget these crushing Torontians. While the band’s live success relies on the antics of bellower Pink Eyes, his mates know enough to let him take the reins while they issue riff after punishing riff from The Chemistry of Common Life. With his off-stage travels taking him from balcony to bathroom, Pink Eyes’ enthusiasm breaks

the barrier not only between stage and crowd, but also live music and performance.

Headliners The Bronx (***) take punk from a more traditional, LA-hardcore angle, and maintain the energy of the show, if not its experimentalism. Engaging with concert-goers as well, Matt Caughthran’s consistent scream holds sway over the sweaty and tightly packed mass as the Californians plough through their arsenal of anthems.

Sure, their over arching message of non-conformity might seem a little tired by the show’s end, but El Bronx are a suitable capstone to a fervorous night.

[Jason Morton] A vinyl single commemorating the tour - and featuring new tracks from The Bronx and Fucked Up - is available in record stores now. www.shredyrface.com

MUSIC

APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 51

MUSIC

Live Music

Previews

Highlights

PJ HARVEY & JOHN PARISH QUEEN’S HALL, 26 APR

Elvis Costello once famously asserted that PJ Harvey’s songs can be summed up in three words: “blood and fucking”. Thankfully, Polly Jean has utterly refuted this through two decades of strutting her stuff to macabre psycho-blues, lounge lizard nihilism, and haunting piano work.

Her various guises have exposed different layers of a fascinating, contradictory individual who flits between bruised introvert, sexual tyrannosaurus and cackling banshee. Exemplifying her chameolonic talents, new album A Woman A Man Walked By re-teams her with her old bandmate John Parish; if you still need convincing that there’s more to PJ Harvey than sex and death, take this opportunity. [Ewen Millar] 7PM, RETURNS ONLY

FOXFACE

BRIDGE AND TUNNEL

HINTERLAND FESTIVAL, GLASGOW, 1 MAY

CASSETTE, 25 APR

One welcome trend in Scottish music of late has been the demise of the affected transatlantic warble in favour of genuinely native brogues. Some bands – most notably Idlewild and The Twilight Sad – know that, far from inhibiting the reach of their music, a raw Scottish accent can add real emotive power to a song.

Another band who place their home-grown accents at the heart of their sound is Foxface, a Glaswegian trio who shift between bluesy folk foot-stompers and traditional ballads. Anyone who has attended one of their countless gigs in Scotland’s cities will attest to the magical, eerie effect created by the harmonized vocals of guitarist Michael and bassist Jenny. And then there’s drummer John, who spends the majority of any gig battering away behind a vulpine head mask, making you think of some pagan ritual à la The Wicker Man. Foxface distilled all this mysticism into a debut album, This Is What Makes Us, released to positive reviews in late 2007. Since then they have recorded a film soundtrack, collaborated with Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, continue to beguile audiences wherever they play - not to mention raising the reputation of the indigenous accent.

Masks off to them. [Nick Mitchell]

DIY collective This Is Our Battlefield, self-confessed promoters of “loud screamy bands”, this month bring us No Idea Record's Bridge and Tunnel. With past and present members of Latterman and Slingshot Dakota and the odd comparison to Hot Water Music, Bridge and Tunnel deliver their blend of indie-hardcore, math-influenced guitar work and intense interwoven vocals with a smattering of angst. Playing on the UK leg of their tour are Exeter three-piece OK Pilot, post-punkers akin to a British version of Hot Snakes. With United Fruit also providing their increasingly-lauded flavour of raw, experimental rock and additional local screamo from Mesa Verde, it’s an evening bound to pack a substantial punch. [Lauren Mayberry]

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/FOXFACEMUSIC

CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 21 APR

To welcome the release of his upcoming album, entitled Vs. Children, Owen Ashworth, aka Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, will be taking his synths, sadness, and a few helping hands for good measure to Sleazy’s ever-welcoming basement for what is sure to be a stirring and intimate affair. Starting off in ‘97 after playing around with his brother’s keyboard, Ashworth has released five albums under the Casiotone moniker along with a wealth of singles/splits, some of which are featured in the recently released compilation Advanced Battery Life.

Fittingly, said brother Gordon’s drone project Concern will feature as main support. [Ryan Drever] 7.30PM, £7.50.

ALSO PLAYING SNEAKY PETE’S, EDINBURGH ON 22 APR. WWW.CFTPA.ORG

THE BROKEN FAMILY BAND CABARET VOLTAIRE, 24 APR

Fresh from headlining a JD Set in Glasgow, Cambridge quartet The Broken Family Band bring their biting indie gloom to the capital. Don’t expect many laughs, or any dancing: their trade is in stoic Editors-esque walls of guitar, with often surreal lyrics and the driest of delivery.

Instead, expect sturdy helpings from new album Please And Thank You (out this month), which, if current single Salivating is an indicator, sees the band stray into stranger downbeat territory. They don’t come to party, and neither should you, but as a band to make the audience stop, think and appreciate, there can be few finer examples.

[Heather Crumley] 7PM, £10 WWW.THEBROKENFAMILYBAND.COM

52 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

8.30PM, £3 WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TIOB

VESSELS SNEAKY PETE’S, 7 APR

Music journalists have been sounding the death-knell for post-rock for years now, assuming that the recent patchy output of Stuart Braithwaite’s likely lads Mogwai somehow stands as an omen over every band that dares to treat vocals like an instrument, or move away from three minute verse-chorus structure. The sombre proclamations that the genre is now entrenched in a rut seem to have bypassed Vessels, whose album White Fields And Open Devices brims with open-sky experimentation and envelope-pushing. This five-piece dabble with ambience, noise, and even metal, but avoid sounding schizophrenic: see this show and consider the genre orthodoxy well and truly smashed. [Ewen Millar]

The month gets off to a stupendous start on 3 April with the inauguration of Powerup; an exciting new monthly event taking place at Studio 24 in Edinburgh.

Explosive live-favourites Hundred Reasons will be on hand to make sure the night gets underway with a bang whilst support comes from the frankly fantastic Johnny Foreigner. With future nights set to include the likes of Mudhoney, Idlewild and Mondo Generator this looks set to become a staple of the Edinburgh music scene.

Notable experimentalists The Telescopes (well, Stephen Lawrie with help from St Deluxe) will perform a mostly acoustic set at Captain’s Rest Glasgow on 11 April. Having emerged as contempories of My Bloody Valentine and Spacemen 3 before forging their own unique path, it should be of interest to all fans of out-there music to see Lawrie perform an intimate set of solo material.

Continuing their run of snagging more interesting leftfield artists than most, The Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh play host to Canadian hip-hop duo Magnolius on 12 April. Eschewing the tired selfaggrandising schtick of their peers, they deliver an intelligent and brilliantly original take on hip-hop that doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to dynamics.

With a stage show that that marries music with visual projections, this should be a multi-sensory spectacle.

Ayr quartet Cinematics are preparing to take Scotland by storm this month with a brace of gigs to celebrate the completion of their forthcoming second album. If you enjoy driving, powerful songwriting in the vein of Editors you’ll definitely want to catch them at one of the following venues: Café Drummond, Aberdeen on 15 April; Fat Sam’s, Dundee on 18 April; Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh on 19 April and King Tut’s, Glasgow on 20 April.

Defiantly uncategorisable noise-pop (ha!) darlings HEALTH bring the crazy to Glasgow’s Stereo on 19 April for what promises to be this month’s most intense gig. Chewing up voices, synths and guitars beyond all recognition and somehow spitting out an urgent and rhythmically brutal sound, HEALTH’s modus operandi is anything but orthodox - but I swear to God they’ll turn any venue into a sweating, dancing mess in seconds. Essential.

Super-dependable Glasgow posse Errors pitch

THE HINTERLAND FESTIVAL 2009 TAKES PLACE ACROSS MULTIPLE VENUES AND FEATURES THE CREAM OF THE CROP IN REAL INDIE ROCK up at the Bongo Club, Edinburgh on 24 April and the Tunnels, Aberdeen on 25 April for another fascinating electronic-rock workout. Weaving complex strands of sound into delicious and danceable patterns, it’s always a pleasure to watch these masters at work.

Sucioperro have paid their dues on the local scene and honed a powerful, melodic sound that is finally bringing them to a wider audience. Basically, this band know how to write a riff, bringing an aggressive metal edge to their compositions - and without any ridiculous growling, thank heavens. They’re playing The Tunnels, Aberdeen on 27 April; Dundee, Doghouse on 28 April and Hinterland Festival, Glasgow on 30 April.

Speaking of which...

The Hinterland festival 2009 takes place across multiple venues in Glasgow from 30 April to 1 May and features dozens of great acts including The Fall, Broken Records, Drums of Death, Micachu and many more. Skinny picks include dazzling and energetic youngsters Copy Haho; Galchen - who blend post-rock guitar-scapes with driving rhythms and loops; and The Invisible, an up-and-coming trio who are making a brilliantly original noise. Check www.hinterlandfestival.com for more info. [Ted Maul] WWW.HINTERLANDFESTIVAL.COM

7PM, £5.

ALSO PLAYING CAPTAIN’S REST, GLASGOW ON 9 APRIL AND THE TUNNELS, ABERDEEN ON 10 APRIL.

DANANANANAYKROYD CABARET VOLTAIRE, 7 APR

Once upon a time, to name your band Dananananaykroyd would guarantee a future of obscurity. So how come the Glasgow sextet of that name have just rocked South

by Southwest in Texas (the music industry’s hottest showcase) and supported Kaiser Chiefs on their European tour? Well, quite simply, because they rock. Spearheading the self-titled ‘fight-pop’ sound that includes bands like Johnny Foreigner and Tubelord, the fun-loving troupe possess the frenetic energy of (very) early Idlewild.

So if you’re feeling young and boisterous, head along to Cabaret Voltaire to see a band leaving obscurity far behind. [Nick Mitchell] 7.30PM, £7.

DANANANANAYKROYD ALSO PLAY THEIR ALBUM LAUNCH AT THE ARCHES, GLASGOW ON 6 APRIL. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/DANANANANAYKROYD

FIND OUT WHAT'S ON, AND DO IT IN STYLE

THESKINNY.CO.UK

SUCIOPERRO PLAY THE TUNNELS, ABERDEEN ON 27 APRIL; DUNDEE, DOGHOUSE ON 28 APRIL AND HINTERLAND FESTIVAL, GLASGOW ON 30 APRIL.

Music

Metal

up your

ASS

by Austin Tasseltine

Earth, Nice 'n' Sleazy, 19 APr

Whilst Glasgow is still embroiled in Easter Next on the capital’s menu is the Metalhead festivities, rolling Kiss-painted eggs down St Vincent Weekend at The Ark. Unsurprisingly, it does exactly Street and craving the tidal wave of chocolate poised what it says on the tin. Cue a weekend of bands with tantalisingly just the other side of Lent, Edinburgh such colourful monickers as Junior Priest, Metaltech makes an uncharacteristically solid start to a busy and, of course, Cancerous Womb. Three days’ worth month of rock action. of hair-whirling guitar brutality ensues from Thursday Henry’s Cellar Bar, having thankfully shaken the through Sunday (9-11 Apr). rumours of imminent closure, leads the way for Forty days of spasm-inducing abstinence behind it Edinburgh’s happening shows. They kick off with and not to be out-done, Glasgow waves Lent farewell Thews (4 Apr) the Dundonian supergroup (in our and indulges itself with a mini metal festival of its very book anyway) featuring members of Laeto, Alamos own at Rockers, down by the Clyde. This time it’s and Avast! Also appearing that night are thunderous the quaintly named Unholy European Black Metal Welsh grungers The Death Of Her Money. Though Invasion (16 Apr), featuring Profundis Tenebrarum, not exactly metal, visceral French export Fordamage Valpurga and Daemonolith. The following day sees follow this up (8 Apr) with their scathing, energised Unearthly Trance visiting the 13th Note from the US racket. Having earned a reputation for blinding live (17 Apr) with support from Glasgow’s own crushingly shows on theCathouse continent, it’s perhaps worth settingPRINT.pdf the heavy Black Sun. 256x155 Skinny Section 24/3/09 13:56:29 black t-shirts aside for one night only.

Though again stretching definitions of metal,

Sleazy’s plays host to Seattle’s now fairly infamous Earth (19 Apr), whose booming, cavernous waves of noise are a match for even the most facially-painted goth misanthrope. Simultaneously, mere yards along the road, ABC hosts another Sub Pop affiliate in The Supersuckers, who appear alongside the bashful and understated Nashville Pussy.

Another double-header (22 Apr) presents the dilemma of choosing between 65 Days of Static’s enormous break-beat metallic crunch at King Tut’s or Rolo Tomassi’s skittish “casio-core” at Stereo, although the latter are exhibiting more and more prog fixations as time goes on.

Co-Exist, Glasgow’s long-serving godfathers of brutal, brutal metal, head a cast of similar social miscreants at Stereo (24 Apr) with Deamonolith, Achren and Burning Earth completing the evening.

The following night sees This Is Our Battlefield

represented in typically excellent style when they bring the gruff-punk-cum-melodic-hardcore of Bridge And Tunnel to Cassette (25 Apr).

Obviously dissatisfied with just one metal festival in a month, Edinburgh’s GRV hosts its own “Deathfest” in association with Zero Tolerance Magazine. Seven of the heftiest metal groups currently doing the rounds, including London’s Dyscarnate and Glasgow’s own Cerebral Bore, congregate to beat you senseless with music. Should you leave with any hearing in tact, Henry’s Cellar Bar will doubtless finish you off the next night (26 Apr) as Greek progressive death metal act Echidna mess the place up.

As May approaches, there’s one last chance to get a load of some metallic post-rock when two of our best native proponents of the art, Jousting With Dracula and You Already Know, perform for free at Bar Bloc in Glasgow.

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April 2009

THE SKINNY 53

CLUBS

Noiseporn wants your mix-tapes The flourishing blogosphere is the place to be these days.

Nicol Craig sits down with Ally and Gellan from Noiseporn and finds out what a ‘Mongolian mix-tape marathon’ is all about THE fanzine used to be considered a way for die-hard fans to stay connected with their music. Pictures and articles were casually stripped from ageing magazines and then suitably glued together, fashioning what might now be perceived as an enthusiastic primary school project. Fast forward a few decades and we have the e-zine. Not only that, there’s heaps of the blighters, covering any genre that takes your fancy. Blog away to your heart’s content I say, as long as there’s free music going about, no?

“That’s what they’re there for isn’t it?” quips Ally, Noiseporn’s creator. Intrigued after the cavalier introduction, I ask if that’s all it is. “Well it depends. There are blogs that just post up tracks; that’s just them putting tunes up and sharing it. But that’s not what we do. We’re promoting artists who specifically want to give the music away for free.” And there is no shortage of artists willing to give away mp3s, often at a 320-bitrate, just for the free advertising.

"OUR TOP TIPS FOR THIS YEAR? FAKE BLOOD, HEAR NO EVIL, BASS WEAZAL, AC SLATER AND BRYAN LAZER" The promotional aspect is the driving stimulus behind the project. “I started it,” says Ally, “mainly because I was bored during exams. I mainly wanted to support nights in Edinburgh, support local talent and people I really like.” The expanding blogosphere may cause nearconstant head-scratching for copyright lawyers, but the boys feel it’s indicative of a change in PR tactics: “Artists and promoters use it as a sort of springboard. It’s still a niche part of the whole music market,” says Gellan.

Ally interjects: “I really enjoy hearing back from an artist whose mix we put up and they say it got them a

gig or something. That’s really satisfying. We try and keep a balance between grassroots and bigger names.

On bigger names we let the music speak for itself, but with lesser-known artists we focus on writing a bit more about them, bigging them up for their sake.”

Fuse, Compakt and Aztech Breaks are the main nights in Edinburgh. Local DJs and artists like Hostage, Edinburgh Dream Factory and Al Majik really helped the site in the beginning by sending in their new releases, but visitor numbers have taken a hike over the last year, now up to around 65, 000 page loads per month. “Part of the reason that it really blew up is because of Fabric,” Ally says. “They really got behind us with their support, sending us promos, sorting out interviews. Our Stanton Warriors and Commix interviews came directly because of them.”

Noiseporn dedicates itself to promoting club music from any electronic genre. Taking a look across the main page you’ll see reviews, promos, previews and occasional guest writers. J Woot and London favourite NAPT look into the world of breaks. Jeff Doubleu and Dominik Von Werdt take up duties on electro, fidget and house noises. The added bonus of living in this century is that fanzines can boast about their interactive nature. Ally tries to encourage as many Edinburgh promoters, DJs and producers to the site as he can. “Blogs are meant to be where you cultivate a bit of discussion.

We get comments and discussion, people making up their own minds about the music.”

Noiseporn has also recently launched a forum. It fosters a public space for dialogue with the main aim of bringing Edinburgh’s electronic scene closer together.

So why do they want your mix-tapes? For a ‘Mongolian mix-tape marathon’, of course. Ally is using his advertising revenue to fund a charity trip from London to Mongolia. “We’ve worked out there is 780 hours driving time, so that’s 780 mix-tapes. If each visitor donated a quid to the cause we’ll cover our petrol to get there.” So far, the drive has pulled in mixes from across the globe, but it’s local DJ sets they’re hoping to attract.

Get in touch via www.noiseporn.com and sponsor Ally’s ‘Mongolian mix-tape marathon’ to help the cause in aid of Save the Children.

NOISEPORN HOST THEIR 1ST BIRTHDAY PARTY ON 22 MAY AT CABARET VOLTAIRE WITH GUESTS HOSTAGE, HIJACK, MASTER CHEMIST AND AZ-TECH BREAKS. WWW.NOISEPORN.COM

DJ CHART SUNDAY CIRCUS Last orders?

Chris Duncan: will Aberdeen's new curfew lead to trouble?

Aberdeen City Council are going ahead with plans to introduce a city-wide curfew in September which would stop anyone from entering a bar or club after 12.30am. The outcries against these proposed measures (www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-the1230am-curfew-in-aberdeen.html) have been

54 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

AFFI KOMAN

RONNIE MUIRHEAD

Billy Bought a Laser (Pan-Pot mix) (Siteholder Records) Classic warehouse vibes and the occasional wonky sound which is always good

Cherry (Herz Ist Trumpf) Been one of my favourites for a while, hypnotic deep grooves with a distinctive sound

DJ Chart: SundayStereofuse Circus Brian Ffar widespread and justified, after all, the cut off point is very early and the idea of a curfew is slightly absurd in the first place. Instead of making the streets quieter, the curfew will most likely cause more trouble on the streets, as people discover that nowhere will let them in or queues of people outside a venue are told that they've missed the cut off by a few minutes and are turned away. Trouble is bound to flare up as a result. It's no different from the current problems that occur because of every club shutting at 3am - forcing everyone onto the streets at the same time.

Here's hoping Aberdeen doesn't suffer from it's curfew the same way Inverness now does.

Hugo & Daniele Papini Physical (Systematic) Two really talented producers deliver some very tasty produce

Sebo K Far Out (Joris Voorn mix) (Mobilee)

Sean Miller Santanera (Viva Music) Amazing groove that just keeps on building Anton Zap Ain’t Got the Time (Quintessentials) Perfect daytime deep sounds

Can't go wrong with a bit of Joris; he makes an already outstanding track even better thanks to an intense breakdown

The Mole For The Lost (Internasjonal) The Mole keeps churning them out, atmospheric downtempo deepness at its best

Josh Wink Hypnoslave (Ovum) As the name suggests, this is a somewhat hypnotic affair... for me, the standout tune of his recent When A Banana Was A Banana album

Till Von Sein It's My Love (Channels) Great vocal sample in a very effective track… love it

2000 and One Spanish Fly (100% Pure)

Really infectious hook and a massive build up… always gets an amazing reaction

SUNDAY CIRCUS WITH BURNSKI (POKERFLAT/ DESSOUS), EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 12TH @ THE COURTYARD, 84 WEST NILE ST, GLASGOW 3 – 11PM & AFTER PARTY CHECK WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ SUNDAYCIRCUS FOR TICKET INFO & MORE DETAILS

Clubs

Far Eastern Delight?

A varied line-up for the April date means that there is something for everyone at Death Disco this month.

Whether it's "dance music saviours", Soulwax's favourite DJs or strange cover versions you're after, Chris Duncan doesn't think you will be disappointed

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Deep within The Arches this month, Scotland’s biggest club night presents quite possibly its most varied line-up to date. Already confirmed are Japanese Popstars, Andy George and Jamo, Fanklub Deejays, Man Like Me and theatre performer Ann Liv Young.

As if this smörgåsbord of performance wasn’t enough, the people behind Death Disco are hoping to bring in Zombie Nation to headline the April date. Nothing is confirmed yet but regardless of whether or not Zombie Nation are added to the bill, the current line-up will still ensure this month’s Death Disco is a highlight of April.

Japanese Popstars are sitting pretty at the top of the bill at the moment, creating a name for themselves off the back of a series of impressive live appearances and general media praise. Japanese Popstars are not Japanese, or indeed popstars in any conventional sense of the word. Instead they are natives of Northern Ireland and consist of Declan McLaughlin aka Decky Hedrock, Gary Curran and Gareth Donoghue. They are signed to bespoke indie label Gung-Ho Recordings (Gus Gus, Zoo Brazil) in the UK, and Beatink in Japan (home of Underworld, Aphex Twin and Cinematic Orchestra).

Japanese Popstars only real parallel with rock music is that they had already built up a sizable live show fanbase before releasing their first major single. Their gigs are typically raucous affairs, with a great amount of energy being displayed on stage. Their sound is similar to that of Orbital and Underworld, with some drawing comparisons between them and The Chemical Brothers.

Also appearing are Fanklub Deejays, hailing from Antwerp where they run their fantastic club night Blast Your Ghetto. Well known in Europe, the pair have been the support on recent 2 Many DJs tours, as well as performing alongside Shadowdancer, Modeselektor and Brodinski recently. This is their debut appearance at Death Disco and judging by the love they have garnered elsewhere it is unlikely to be

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their last. They’re pretty much guaranteed to work the glitter-splashed crowd into a foaming frenzy and win over a brand new Weegie fanbase.

The Skinny Playroom will most likely be the setting for London based three-piece Man Like Me, whose self released ‘Oh My Gosh’ record managed to combine the Commodore 64 sounds of the oh-soachingly-now 8bit genre with MC skills. Led by mildmannered 23-year-old Camden local Johnny Langer, Man Like Me combine indie, rave, grime, ska and hip hop with matter-of-fact lyrics to create a youthful British sound. Over the past three years, Man Like Me have built a strong and loyal following through a combination of quality releases, extensive gigging, and TV and radio appearances. Their meteoric rise from the streets of Camden - including high profile gigs in London, Paris, Glasgow, Florence, Venice, Amsterdam, LA, Las Vegas, Rome and Barcelona as well as a very muddy Glastonbury appearance – was reflected when they became the second only unsigned act, after Friendly Fires, to play Channel 4’s Transmission show.

This, like so many other acts so far this year, is their debut performance at Death Disco. Be sure to sample their delights this month, although you can probably head to the bar when they break out their cover of Salt ‘n’ Pepa’s ‘Lets Talk About Sex’.

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23/3/09 8:11:59 pm THE SKINNY 55

Previews Octopussy Golf Tour

Pyramid of Boom

The Arches, Glasgow, 8 Apr

Sub Club, Glasgow, 3 Apr

Now enjoying a third year as the country’s largest student club night, Octopussy shows no signs of changing its winning formula too much. It simply fills the ever-spectacular venue that is the Arches with two bars, a Rock Band room, bouncy castles, a jacuzzi or three, a wedding chapel and a Serato-armed DJ to oversee the proceedings.

Octopussy throw one-off events whenever the feeling takes them, previously hosting a beach themed party and celebrating every Halloween with a fancy dress night. Next up is 8 April, when the team host a golf tour evening, inviting guests to dress up and tee off on their crazy golf course. Music as always comes from resident DJ Johnny Whoop, fresh from supporting Herve at Stereo last month. Expect big bass and a welcome shunning of all ‘student anthems’. [Anna Seale]

RPZ 7th Birthday

Numbers rolls into the Sub Club for a night of glorious excess this month, when a triple bill of top-of-the-line music producers promises to push the city’s best soundsystem to its limits. Hudson Mohawke, Rustie and Flying Lotus all take the reins down in the Subby for the appropriately named Pyramid of Boom evening. Rustie’s fusion of hip-hop, techno and all things bass has wowed peeps all over the world, and he’s released records on Numbers labels Stuffrecords and Wireblock to widespread acclaim. His Jagz The Smack and Zig-Zag 12”s were instant sell-outs and are now regarded as classic material.

Flying Lotus is an influential Los Angeles-based beathead and production maestro, and Hudson Mohawke has been described as Warp’s secret weapon: his take on hip-hop and electronic music is the most exciting sound around. He was responsible for last year’s underground anthem Ooops! on Wireblock X Lucky Me. This will be Hud Mo’s first live show in Glasgow for two years. Also, look out for an interview with him next issue. [Chris Duncan]

The Vic Bar, Glasgow, 30 Apr

11pm-3am, £10

10.30pm-3am, £7/£5/£3 www.octopussyglasgow.co.uk

RPZ are celebrating their seventh birthday this month by doing what they do best: cranking up the music until the Vic Bar’s windows threaten to give way. Describing their music policy as “future body music, digital disco, wrong-sounds aplenty, gay hi-nrg, electro-punk, rave, new-wave, italo and prog rock” resident DJs Hush Puppy and Bonjour Boi manage to keep the slightly anarchic house party vibe going through the night. No live acts are booked for the birthday, just the residents transforming the well-worn checked floor into a cesspool of spilled drinks and moving feet. After years of booking acts such as AC Slater, Bang Gang DJs, Scissor Sisters and Nag Nag Nag, RPZ doesn’t show signs of giving up its crown any time soon. Seven years in, the only predictable thing about RPZ is the queue around the block. [Chris Duncan] 11pm-3am, £1/£3/£4 www.myspace.com/recordplayerzclub

Inner City Acid Pivo Pivo, Glasgow, 10 Apr

The puppet master pulling all the strings at Inner City Acid this month is none other than Grant Wilson-Claridge, aka DJ Rephlex Records. The well-informed among you may know him as one half of Rephlex Records with Richard D James - the one and only Aphex Twin. Since forming the label in 1991 they have managed to seduce an intimidating array of artists including 808 State, Luke Vibert and the mighty Squarepusher to join their roster.

Expect to see choice cuts from their extensive back catalogue and some very special surprises thrown in for good measure. Support comes in the form of Konx-OmPax and DJ Espee. If that isn’t enough to make your mouth water with anticipation and your foot tap with nervous excitement, Inner City Acid founder Monsieur DeLarge will be spinning hot fire as well. Now that’s value for money. If you have always been intrigued by Inner City Acid but are just too damn lazy to venture to the murky depths of the Soundhaus, take this opportunity to experience the spectacle in full effect at a city centre venue.

[David McNamara] 12pm-3am, £8 www.myspace.com/innercityacid

Greg Wilson @ The Deep End Snafu, Aberdeen, 25 Apr

Legend. In Manchester, back in the early 80s, the modern day club scene came alive and very real for the UK’s electro-funk pioneer Greg Wilson and the mercurial dancefloors he educated. It may have been a million unglamorous miles from the globally influential hip-hop and electronic sounds mushrooming out of New York, but it took the dedication of this unassuming post-disco disc-jockey to get the ball, or rather tapes, rolling on home soil. By introducing dance-orientated music to the indie roots of the infamous Hacienda he rode bravely into the underground revolution. This provided a mighty influence on house and techno’s progress (including TV’s first live mix), and as always was done in tandem with his recognisable partner in edit - the trusty Revox reel-to reel tape machine. Despite a move away from performing for much of the 90s Wilson roared back to the DJ circuit with the release of the Credit to the Edit in 2003, fusing the origins of the Salsoul Orchestra with modern-day players such as Chicken Lips of Bizarre Inc fame. [Jaco Justice]

56 THE SKINNY April 2009

Daniele Baldelli @ Huntley’s and Palmer’s Audio Club Stereo, Glasgow, 10 Apr

Imagine if you can, a time without the disco. An era where the DJ was simply there to fill the gap between live bands in the dance halls and obtaining the latest record imports from America meant travelling halfway across the European continent. Since the dawn of Daniele Baldelli’s DJ career in 1969 - some 40 electro-obsessed years ago - there’s been a certain dedication to his art. In comparison, the jockey cadets of today certainly have it easy in their quest to acquire the latest beats. But the chances are they don’t have the same emotional connection as this Italian (their version of David Mancuso, so to speak) does with his collection of some 60,000 vinyl discs. Synth-pop, new wave, electro, funk, krautrock, blues, afro-beat, disco... the DJ, producer and near-pensioner Baldelli has literally lived it, adapting as the technology advances but still operating at the core of a dancefloor’s chemistry. Needless to say his slightly dodgysounding style in the early days of speeding up records with English lyrics is a slightly more controllable affair in the year 2009, but the Italian revellers never really understood the words back then anyway. Now we all do. [Jaco Justice] 11pm-4am, £10 http://www.danielebaldelli.com

Jimpster @ Ultragroove Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, 12 Apr

Every spring since the big man’s re-emergence we’ve all been a bit disappointed that a new messiah hasn’t given us the spectacle of a good old resurrection. Here to change all that come Ultragroove and their decision to restore their famous Easter Party. By popular demand, they’ve brought back house favourite Jamie Odell aka Jimpster.

No stranger to Auld Reekie’s charms, it’s the Essex lad’s third time at Cabaret Voltaire. He likes to mix up warm, club-friendly cuts with ultra-deep basslines, keeping an old-school groove that DJ Sneak would be proud to nod along to. On the flyer you’ll see local superstar Gareth Somerville’s name: he’ll be keeping things humid in the main room, and DJ Mag’s Yogi Haughton is also making his well-overdue debut. Haughton is set to take a firm grip of room two, satisfying your ears with soulful dance vibes.

If, like me, you’re hungry for an Easter Sunday resurrection, then this is the one for you. [Nicol J Craig] 11pm-3am, £10/£8

Return to Mono Sub Club, Glasgow, 10 Apr

11pm-3am, £4/£6

The third night of this year’s run of the ever popular techno night at Sub Club looks set to be as good as the previous two, with the talent on offer this time remaining as strong as ever. Soma spinner Adam Beyer, synonymous with the techno sound of Sweden, will bring his unique brand of electronic to Glasgow. His highly-polished output is guaranteed to get your feet on the floor. Paul Ritch, Paris’s premier minimal producer, will also break out some blockbusting beats. The fact that his tracks have appeared on no less than nine different mix albums, from DJs ranging from John Digweed to M.A.N.D.Y., means that the records he’s gonna drop will be nothing short of excellent.

Soma stalwarts Slam round off the night, ensuring that you’ll be in for one of the greatest minimal techno/house nights you’re sure to experience all year. [Michael Slevin]

www.electrofunkroots.co.uk

10.30pm-3am, £14. www.somarecords.com

Following their sell-out night at The Arches and release of Happy Birthday! Remixed pt 3, Rosie Davies meets up with Modeselektor deep underneath The Arches

Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary are tired.

After arriving in Glasgow four hours ago, they’ve done a video interview and a soundcheck, and managed to nip to Rub-a-Dub for some hasty record shopping.

Outside The Arches, the surrounding bars are full of bassline-hungry techno heads, shiny legging-clad scenesters and a smattering of shirted-up InsideOuters.

In the dressing room, with just the whump of the bass softly vibrating the walls, the “boy group from Berlin”, as Gernot quips, are attempting to relax. He moves a huge American football shoulder pad aside to sit down. “For the monkey costume later on,” he says.

It’s possibly the only sign of the performance which is to come. Many people thought last month’s gig at the Arches was their first Glasgow performance since 2007. But their secret guest appearance at Club69 for Numbers’ fifth birthday in July 2008 saw around 80 fans heading to a tiny club hidden below an Indian restaurant in Paisley and tearing down the walls. Six months before that, the duo had drenched the Art School with expensive champagne and a shook it to the core with a crowdpleasing, dancefloor-storming set. Monkeys aside, who knows what to expect from a Modeselektor show?

As part of the Glasgow Film Festival, the visuals for tonight’s gig are part of a collaborative project which started more than ten years ago – before Modeselektor, before the hype. They are, as expected, fairly monkey-heavy. I attempt, and fail, to pronounce the name of their collaborator. They seem used to this.

“Pfadfinderai. A German guy, who always does the visuals. We’ve collaborated with him for a long time now, right from the start, before even the illegal parties. This was in a club called Labland in Berlin about ten years ago. It was tiny at first, then it just started getting bigger and bigger.”

Pfadselektor is the merging of the two acts, and Pfadfinderai’s “favourite collaboration”. The result is an hour-long live show of “visual music”, pieced together from a tour around France, released on a DVD also called Labland.

Beginning as a print design agency for a small electronic label in Berlin, Pfadfinderai claims to be part of the “second generation” of visual artists formed in the mid-90s, in a city still adjusting to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Houses on the east side of the city were turned into off-scene clubs, and the huge interiors demanded visual decoration. This next generation was the first to involve laptops, new technology and computer graphics, but threw just as many free parties and one-off, innovative club nights in empty basements. It’s no surprise the acts have continued to work together.

“We are all east side”, says Gernot. “All the creative guys come from the east side. It’s true! It was all

Moderat's self-titled debut album is out 20 April. www.myspace.com/mdslktr

April 2009

THE SKINNY 57

Clubs

Still in the Mode

east side. The west side was full of guys with a lot of money. When the wall came down there was nothing there [in East Berlin], not even any police.

He takes a minute to reminisce. “Some of the West Germans would come over, because we’d organise raves. This was in ‘91, ‘92. Sometimes more than a thousand people showed up. It was crazy. Back in the day, it was an adventure...”

Modeselektor, who have played “maybe a thousand shows together in the last five years”, are on the look out for something new. It’s not just a physical fatigue tonight but, I suspect, a musical one, the type which stems from being overly-creative and enviously on the ball. They are an act famed for their collaborations, from Thom Yorke to Otto Von Schirach or Maximo Park, but when asked about remixes and future guests, they are fairly noncommittal.

“The thing with Thom Yorke is an unfinished thing, so I cannot talk about it. But, we like each other and we hope that we will make something in the future. There’s a few guys I would like to work with.”

Ask them, however, about their latest album as Moderat, a collaboration between Modeselektor and German experimentalist Apparat, and they brighten up.

“It’s different, it’s not Modeselektor music. We’ve got Sacha [Ring, aka Apparat] singing on some of the songs. Turns out he has a good voice so we got him singing. He did one song with Autechre and one with Busdriver, this speed rapper from LA. He talks so fast. We also featured a singer from Harry’s Big Band in Germany.”

The album, released on 20 April, is definitely more experimental than their previous collaborations – more layers, fewer need-to-dance basslines – but elements of the relentless Modeselektor rhythms and respect for melody, which honour their hip-hop sensibilities, still remain. Similarly, it seems their taste for showcasing other artists is still rampant.

I am immediately corrected. “Features are not important on this record. It’s the first collaboration we did with Apparat, and that was the really interesting experience. We met up around almost ten years ago at these parties and we started other parties, this was the time we mentioned. We’d done one record with him in 2002 with more tracks, but after that we never made any music.

“He’s been making records on his own, but hasn’t had any reason to tour. When he came to us, the time was just right. This is our last show as Modeselektor this year, because we want to focus on the new record. I’m also really tired of remixes.

Artists like Kid 606 got famous with them but that’s old, already ten years ago. Tonight I’m going to play Justin Timberlake. It’s called RU Technology, I think.”

The break certainly seems well timed. “We’ve toured the world, but now we have little children at home, and touring is getting more and more...”

He trails off. Does the industrial, fiercely European sound the act have translate in other countries?

“Yes, we’ve played everywhere. There was a Numbers night in Tokyo which was great fun. But nowadays, when we go touring the United States, we’ll go for two weeks and play over seven days in a row, so we’re not away for too long. But it means you get back on the plane needing a wheelchair, you know?”

Six weeks ago, they played in New York. The photos from the gig show a man holding a pig’s head, just seconds after he had decapitated the animal.

“We met these crazy guys called The Fantastic Nobodies. They are art collectors, the craziest New York guys you can imagine. So, that was our first time in New York.”

Perhaps the last time, at least for a while? “I’m not a big America fan”, Szary says. “We’re from Berlin and we’re anti-everything.”

Everyone wants to say it about their city, but the boys genuinely do have an affinity for Glasgow.

They play exclusively for the Numbers crew, one of the city’s most exciting collectives, so it’s no surprise that they feel their musical sensibilities are always on the same track. “They were the first ones to approach us and we liked each other. We were on the same level. I know exactly when I like a special thing, any music, I make sure that I let these guys know. I see them about twice a year.

CLUBS

GLASGOW SATURDAY 23 MAY 09

Presents

&

OVER 80 ACTS MULTIPLE VENUES ONE DAY

Tickets £ 10 (Early Brid) Additional dates and line-ups in London 21st | Leed22nd

WWW.STAGANDDAGGER.COM

In Association With ADVENTURES IN THE BEETROOT FIELD

COLD WAR KIDS, THE MAE SHI, TWILIGHT SAD, ABE VIGODA, ANDREW WEATHERALL, LOVE FOXX, MAPS, JAMES YUILL, RUSKO, NTYPE & MANY MORE

www.seetickets.com | www.gigantic.com | www.wegottickets.com

Tunnel Skinny Section PRINT.pdf

24/3/09

PCLpresents

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58 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

25/3/09 17:59:53

glasgow Music Wed 01 Apr Operation Wallace: Al Baker, The Dole Queue, Mark McCabe, Pablo Gone Nut Cassette, 17:00–22:00, £tbc

Charity gig

DF Concerts present: D12 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

Rap

A Place To Bury Strangers Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £6

Loud stuff

Live Jazz

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 19:00–23:00, £2

Fortnightly offering of classics and modern standards

the mean tambourine scene, the kamillas

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. rock and acoustic

Josh Pyke

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £8

A one man-indie-acoustic-heartwrenching-machine

Black Rat Death Squad, Throne of Elvis, Corpses Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Rock punk

Mono Jazz

Mono, 20:00–23:00, Free

Weekly jazz night with the resident house four-piece, plus guests.

Revelations (The Drones, Mean Street Four, The Paul Cuthbert Band) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Weekly indie.

Make my Day

Ivory Blacks, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Pop punk

Thu 02 Apr Firestorm presents: Dr. Acula

Cassette, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Grindcore

pooch!, any colour black Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Thrash, electro and punk

Flatbeat: Andrew Jones, Rats of the Capital Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £3

The first of two April fundraisers to buy a PA to be shared by the Flatbeat community www.myspace.com/flatbeatglasgow

Concrete Campfire (Brel - Glasgow’s Belgian Bar and Restaurant Conor Mason, Night Noise Team) Brel, 20:00–22:00, Free

Acoustic session

New Adventures, The Zonules Of Zinn, Any Human Heart

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £5

Alt. indie

The Felt Tips, Occasional Flickers

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Indie pop

Silvertrace, Desolate Dreams, Unmortal, To Catch A Predator, I Sell the Dead-Panisia Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Thrash metal

Quiet Riot (Alex Wayt, Jonny Downie, James Dickerson) The Drawing Room, 21:00–00:00, Free

A weekly mixed bag

Fri 03 Apr

Flashlight presents: The Switchblade Masquerade, Yoshi Cassette, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Orange unsigned finalists

isolated atoms, the marionettes, curators Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. rock and electro

Psychobilly vs Punk (FRantic Flintstones, Lucky Death, 4 Past Midnight, The Hold Up.)

Maggie Mays, 20:00–00:00, £5

Alt. rock

Jack Penate, Magistrates

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £11

Saaaf Londan lyrical hipster

Baddies, Jack Butler

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. indie

Indie rock

DVD’S, Paper Planes, Cassidy Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £5

Indie

GOREROTTED, ANTERIOR, MALFICE, PSYCOANALYSIS Metal, hardcore and rock

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Indie

Fangs, Boycotts, Unicorn Kid, Findo Gask

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £6

A new wave, neon riddled disco feast

RMC & DFC presents: 6 Day Riot, Gideon Conn & The French Wives

No Tribe (Gambit)

Eyes Wide Open (The Fast Camels, DJ Chris ‘Beans’ Geddes)

The Twisted Wheel, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Garage, psych, freakbeat, rock n roll.

Sat 04 Apr The MeatMen

Maggie Mays, 17:00–19:00, Free

Old fashioned country and rock ‘n’ roll

KMR Promotions present: The Sweet Leaves (Kalla Heartshake) ABC, 19:00–22:00, £6

Rock

DF CONCERTS present: MUMFORD AND SONS Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £7

Afrobeat and bluegrass

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Throw rocks against your ear drums.

Weekly.

Mon 06 Apr Michael Simons

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 19:00–23:00, £2

folk, blues and beyond

Remember Remember , Matt Elliott

Cassette, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Hardcore pop punk

SECC, 19:30–23:00, £40

Sound Of Guns, Must Be Something, New State Revolt

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £6

Brash Liverpudlian rock

The Fire and I, Dupec

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Single launch

Acoustic Bazooka (Zoe Lewis, Franny McKeown, Harper and Reid, Michael Sharp) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Indie and acoustic

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Weekly acoustic night.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Nitogen Promotions presents: FELL SILENT

Rodent Emporium

Indie rock

Experimentally progressive

Figure 5, Val Verde, Dead Sea Souls, The Mix-ups Maggie Mays, 20:00–00:00, £5

Garage and roots to disco house

Get Loose (Daybreak, 60 Persons, Reality Killed Us, The Vicounts) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5

Local indie rock ‘n’ roll

Hanoi Rocks (DJ Craig Wilson)

Firewater, 20:00–00:00, £5/4

Post gig hang-out for fans and bands alike.

RMC presents: Dean Owens, Kim Edgar & Jim Byrne The Twisted Wheel, 20:00–23:00, £6

Acoustic pop

Tue 07 Apr brother louis collective, three blocks from the wake, we break mirrors Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. rock

Winning Sperm Party presents: Dawn Chorus, Fordamage Cassette, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Facing New York, St Deluxe, Castaway

Indie folk rock

Indie rock from Frisco

The Prodigy bring their acclaimed live act to Glasgow on their UK tour with support from Dizzee Rascal.

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £5

Dead City Riots, Sound Projekt, Crushing Tokyo The Cathouse, 19:00–22:30, £5

The Moscow Club, The Rioteers, Local Tour Guide, Sons Of The Morning Star

Republic of Soul

J-pop and alt. indie to shake your fringe to

The V Club, 20:00–23:00, £5

Seinan Music Presents Deepchild Live (Deepchild, Seinan Music Djs) Stereo, 23:00–03:00, £7

Dub, electronica.

Sun 05 Apr

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Screamo rock

Mono Jazz

Mono, 20:00–23:00, Free

Weekly jazz night with the resident house four-piece, plus guests.

Revelations (The Shermans, Ok on the Day, Arthouse) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Weekly indie.

Heliport, Grozny, Hyper Magic Mega Fighting Robots Cassette, 20:30–23:00, £tbc

Happy hardcore

Thu 09 Apr

the cinnamons

The Prodigy

SECC, 19:30–23:00, £27.90

Vessels, Fire on the Horizon, The Ocean Fracture Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Experimental alt. rock

Eclectiv (Kunk, Nespresco, The Lava Experiments) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Weekly eclectic collective.

Firestorm Events present: THIS IS HELL Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Metal

Nuts and Seeds presents: Vialka, Tattie Toes, Jer Reid & Jamie Grier

the retrofrets, king japan, the fatalists, la barrons

Poptasic

Rock, garage and blues

Firestorm Events present: Brides, Lower Than Atlantis, Wolves At Heart, Cyrus

Dave Sharp, Caragh Nugent

Indie rock and punk

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

The Twisted Wheel, 20:00–22:30, £5

Acoustic folk rock

Polly Scattergood

The Merchants, Codeen, Call Me Ishamael, Duelling Winos

Perhaps the best name ever amongst the murky hoardes of beige female singers

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Maggie Mays, 20:00–22:30, £5

Rock, punk and ska

Firestorm Events presents: Watch You From A Far Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Whole Wheat Bread, Versa Emerge, In This Moment, Lights

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £5

Jacksonville punk outfit

Post-rock

sedition, constant fear, gutrot, ceasefire, the brain

The Brutes, The Bucky Rage, The Musicians of Bremen Cassette, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Throw rocks against your ear drums.

Weekly.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

The V Club, 20:00–23:00, £5

Kathaarsys (Daemonolith, Daedalus) Soundhaus, 19:30–23:30, £5/6

Spanish progressive black doom metallers

13th Note, 20:30–23:30, £4

Bugger nostalgia, this is abrasively Aussie spawn wired noise with an abundance of intricate subtleties. Raise your hands and say ‘punk’

Sat 11 Apr The MeatMen

Maggie Mays, 17:00–19:00, Free

FlatBeat: Skinny Villains, The Dirty Demographic, Billy Bates, Action

Old fashioned country and rock ‘n’ roll

The second bout of fundraising in aid of the Flatbeat community’s PA. Indie, soul pop and space rock groups are on the case www.myspace.com/flatbeatglasgow

RMC and SOCKS OFF! present: The Bookhouse Boys, Louise Against the Elements

Concrete Campfire (Malcolm Le Maistre, Inspector Tapehead)

The Leisure Society

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £3

Brel, 20:00–22:00, Free

THE SOUND OF Q-DANCE

Experimental indie folk

Alt. Rock

The Twisted Wheel, 19:00–22:30, £6

Alt. rock and pop

Mon 13 Apr Devil Sold His Soul, Shaped

By Fate, Fire On The Horizon The Cathouse, 19:00–22:30, £9

Hardcore

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:30, £6

Michael Simons

Indie

YRock present: Just Tourist

Live at The Mill (Canary Warfare, El Dog)

Indie rock and ska

Showcase double-bills for the best upand-coming acts. For more information on these gigs go to: http://www.themill-live.com

Hard Work Promotions presents: Instruments Cassette, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

o2 Academy, 19:00–10:30, £23

Acoustic session

The Mill Glasgow @ Òran Mór, 20:00–22:30, Free

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Nuts & Seeds present: Scul Hazzards, My Disco

Indie rock

Metal

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £6

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 19:00–23:00, £2

folk, blues and beyond

Burning Codes, Robyn G Shiels, Yahweh

Acoustic Bazooka (Marc Evans, The Silent Notes, Leanne McKissick, Alan Ross)

Alt. rock

Weekly acoustic night.

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Pink

SECC, 19:30–23:00, £32.50

Oso, Enemies , Super Adventure Club

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Information Libre

Supercharged indie electro pop

The Detours, Mellifluous, Soulmover, Expanding Demands

An indie revolution

Sennen, Galchen, The Kays Lavelle

atlas skye

Progressive rock

Rock ballad hybrids abound

Indie rock

The Towers

Poptasic

Pop rock

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Cassette, 20:30–23:00, £tbc

Tue 14 Apr

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £6

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, Free

A Wee Tasty Experiment (Various)

The Telescopes, St Deluxe Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Findlay Napier and the Bar Room Mountaineers

A night of art, music and performance bringing together the worlds of clubs, gigs and exhibitions for a unique experience in the basement of Glasgow’s Stereo.

El Mendez

Folk swathed in melodrama of the loveliest kind

CD launch

Eclectiv (Nevada Base, San Toy, PauseBreakRiot)

Stereo, 20:00–03:00

Operation Wallace: Roscoe Vacant, Dave, Onsind Cassette, 20:30–23:00, £tbc

Charity gig

Quiet Riot (Al Shields & the Wilted Roses, Nicky McDougall, Bob Wilkinson) The Drawing Room, 21:00–00:00, Free

A weekly mixed bag

The Arches presents DAVID HOLMES, A LA FU, HUNTLEY’S AND PALMER’S AUDIO CLUB (DAVID HOLMES, A LA FU, HUNTLEY’S AND PALMER’S AUDIO CLUB) The Arches, 23:00–03:00, £10

Fri 10 Apr

Psychedelic experimental electronica Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

The Dead Generals, Little Bhudda, Croma

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Weekly eclectic collective.

Maggie Mays, 20:00–23:00, £5

Indie rock and metal

Ross Clark

Hanoi Rocks (DJ Craig Wilson)

Acoustic session

Òran Mór, 20:00–23:00, Free

Firewater, 20:00–03:00, £5/4

Post gig hang-out for fans and bands alike.

Aerials presents: Great Eskimo Hoax

Dino Rawk Records presents: United Fruit, Fighterplanes, Bronto Skylift, Okker Cassette, 20:30–23:00, £tbc

Alt. rock

Cassette, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Ambient pop

Wed 15 Apr

Muck (Craig McGee and Paul McQueen)

The Twisted Wheel, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Electro, mash-ups, pop.

U2UK (cancelled)

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30

Rock

Good To Go Funsize Tour

Sun 12 Apr

The Cathouse, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Deathstars, Marionette, The Defiled

Punk

Box Concerts present: The Black Arrows (The Mode, The Soviets)

Industrial goth metal

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Tour and single launch

Alt. metal

THE JAPANESE MAFIA

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £7

Classic Rock and Modern Indie

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £6

Ross Clark

Dicelines and CG Live present: Acrylic Iqon, On All Frequencies, Explain This

Alt. indie pop

Rock

Acoustic session

Indie pop

Òran Mór, 20:00–23:00, Free

SECC, 19:30–23:00, £32.50

Rock

Alt. rock

Alt. indie

The Twisted Wheel, 20:00–23:00, £4

Pink

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £12.50

DF Concerts present: Eskimo Joe (Jersey Budd) ABC, 19:00–22:30, £10

Psychedelic

The award winning Nick Harper visits Glasgow, before he bounds off to a gig at Mt Kilimanjaro in aid of raising funds for cancer treatment centres around the world.

No Tribe (By Another Name, Battle a Dinosaur, Sonic Assault)

Vendor Defender Single Launch with guests TheCarreras, Likeable Shapes, the dirty cuts Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £6

Indie, new wave lyricist

jonah matranga, carnivore six people away, dave hughes

Cassette, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Flood of Red

ABC 2, 19:00–22:30, £10

Sick Head Tapes presents: WOLF EYES, NACKT INSECTEN

Bluesy pop

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

The swan song tour

Ivory Blacks, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. rock

Traditional celtic

Purple Ohms, Semper Fi

Next Stop Rehab presents: The Fractions

Alkatron, The Scheme Experience, San Toy, Breakglass Emergency, Catcher

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Nick Harper and Cy Cumin (Nick Harper and Cy Cumin)

Barrowlands, 19:00–23:00, £18

Regular Music present: Chris Difford

Simply Red

Punk rock

Wintermute

Charlie & the Bhoys

Wildbirds and Peacedrums

Indie rock

The Twisted Wheel, 19:00–22:30, £4

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £8

The Twisted Wheel, 20:00–22:30, £6

Indie rock

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. rock and powerpop

Alt. rock

Cassette, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

The Lane, The Young HipsThe King Hats-Halcyon Days, Eightball, The Deals

Industrial death metal

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £6

Technical acoustic wizardry

Indie alt. folk and hip hop pop. Bam

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

SPEARBRAVE, WOULD BE KINGS, SURREAL KNIGHTS

Atomic Garden, Tempercalm, Lull

Inner Sight, The La Barrons, The Dieyoungs, Politics Of Time

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £5

Soul

Trace Bundy, Evie Hounslow

marble valley, call to mind, maple leaves

Chaotic stand-off

Wed 08 Apr

Punk

Ivory Blacks, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

The Void, Vendor Defender, Landon, Slow Motion Replay

Òran Mór, 19:00–22:30, £8

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:30, £6

Soundhaus, 19:00–23:30, £7

ABC DIY present: Chao:Sphere, Forever Void, Three Days Born

Punk rock

Templeton Pek

The Twisted Wheel, 19:00–22:30, £4

cassidy, this kid kodiak, rodan

The Cathouse, 19:00–22:30, £14

Radgy electro

Glasgow Live Events Present: Exit Ten

Live Jazz

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 19:00–23:00, £2

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:30, £6.50

Harperspace present: Nick Harper (Cy Curnin)

Fortnightly offering of classics and modern standards

Roy Harper’s singing/ songwriting boy child

Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £12

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £10

PCL presents: IAMX Indie powerpop

April 2009

THE SKINNY 59

Glasgow music The Gillyflowers, Femmepop

Cassette, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Acoustic country rock

Mon 20 Apr DF Concerts Present: Eli Paperboy Reed

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Soul

Evile, Warpath, Mutant, Amok

The Cathouse, 19:00–23:00, £8

Hardcore

Michael Simons

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 19:00–23:00, £2

folk, blues and beyond

Das Filth, Bronto Skylift Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Synth driven disco house for the morally weak and hygienically challenged

Acoustic Bazooka (Psychedeliasmith, Action, Andrew Yule, FreeSpirit)

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £7

Folk

Mono Jazz

Mono, 20:00–23:00, Free

Weekly jazz night with the resident house four-piece, plus guests.

Parkway Events presents Purpose: Failed, Dusk Till Dawn, Rollercoaster Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Pop punk and rock

Revelations (Alkotron, Tonic Tuesdays, Albion Tower) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Weekly indie.

Thu 16 Apr THE LONELY SOULS

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £6

Rock and Roll

ABC and DF Concerts present: Bombay Bicycle Club ABC, 19:00–22:30, £7

Indie alt. rock

Gomez

Barrowlands, 19:00–22:30, £16

Indie- Funk and Blues

The Anomalies

Ivory Blacks, 19:00–23:00, £5

Hip hop and breakbeat

Concrete Campfire (Da Brasilians, Ciaran McIlwham) Brel, 20:00–22:00, Free

Acoustic session

The Big Pink, Loverman, A Grave With No Name, The Ghosties

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–22:30, £6

Concrete hoodies

We Are Trapped in Kansas, The Darien Venture, Esperi Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Indie minimalist shoegaze

THE ANOMOLIES, Madskull, The La Fontaines Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. rock

TW presents: Wrongnote, We The Last Men

The Twisted Wheel, 20:00–23:00, £4

Alt. rock and pop

THE NIMMO BROTHERS AND HERMAN ROBERTSON DOUBLE HEADLINE

Punk/Rock Rammy presents: Maxwell’s Dead, Burnout 27

Blues/Rock/Southern Rock

Pop, punk and ska

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £13.50

...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead Òran Mór, 19:00–23:00, £10

A rejuvenated incarnation of the Texan rockers return in support of progressive new LP The Century of Self.

punto the feef, sky mangle the wandering rocks, coward

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. indie and experimental

RMC and DFC present: Marina and the Diamonds, The Zonules of Zinn, Da Brasilians

The Twisted Wheel, 19:00–23:00, £6

A shimmering Greek/ Welsh hybrid riding aboard that adorably vintage, synthed piano wave. Everyone say ‘ooo’

Pin Up Nights presents...

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Line up to be announced

4 Day Weekend, De Jour, The Rudiments, 60 Persons The V Club, 20:00–23:00, £5

Alt. rock

Eskimo Blonde, The Jack Knives

Maggie Mays, 20:00–23:00, £5

Indie rock

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Pop

Johnny & The Giros, Shimmer, Models For The Radio, 3 Hits In 3 Days Maggie Mays, 19:30–23:00, £5/4

Indie rock

Get Loose (The Scalies, Black Hack, Second Last Look, John Neville Junior)

DF Concerts Present: Innerpartysystem, Telegraphs

Mono Jazz

Rock

Punk and ska

Mono, 20:00–23:00, Free

Weekly jazz night with the resident house four-piece, plus guests.

Revelations (Tombstone Road, Station Sound, Uncle Hippo, Mistakeface) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5/1

Weekly indie.

Thu 23 Apr ABC DIY present: The Strike Nineteens ABC, 19:00–22:30, £5

Firewater, 20:00–03:00, £5/4

Post gig hang-out for fans and bands alike.

Sun 19 Apr

Indie four-piece

Tue 21 Apr The Zombies “Odessey and Oracle”

Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Alt. indie

regular presents: ruarri joseph

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Alt. folk

PCL Concerts present: The Zombies

Oxjam (Jenn Ruxton, Journeybox, Salon Society, Fremsley)

Pop rock

Charity gig

ABC, 19:00–00:00, £22.50

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £22.50

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5

Anavris, We Made God

Concrete Campfire (Bob Wilkinson)

The Cathouse, 19:00–23:00, £6

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Golden Silvers, Acrylic Iqon, Callan

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £7

Retro afro dance pop

Ross Clark

Òran Mór, 20:00–23:00, Free

Acoustic session

Eclectiv (The Gazettas, Revelations) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5/1

Weekly eclectic collective.

Wed 22 Apr

Acoustic session

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Indie

Live at The Mill (Nacional, Diamond Sea)

The Mill Glasgow @ Òran Mór, 20:00–22:30, Free

Showcase double-bills for the best upand-coming acts. For more information on these gigs go to: http://www.themill-live.com

Foolin’ Around presents: Crayon Fields, The Motifs The Twisted Wheel, 20:00–23:00, £5

Indie soft pop

Nightmare Of You, Jukebox The Ghost

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £7.50

Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £7.50

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Experimental rock

Indie rock

PCL presents: earth

Doves

Mumbleclub presents: On All Frequencies, Lad Lazarus

Alt. rock

Rock

Pop punk

The Cathouse, 19:00–23:00, £5

Rock

Sat 18 Apr

Glasgow Live Events Present: Crysalys, Switchblade Scream

A weekly mixed bag

Metal

Old fashioned country and rock ‘n’ roll

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:30, £5

THE FRANK O’HAGAN BAND

The Twisted Wheel, 20:00–23:00, £5

Rock metal

Brakes, The Voluntary Butler Scheme, Le Reno Amps

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £8

Guttural, nuisanced rock ‘n’ roll

No Tribe (Curlys Heroes, Dadelus, John Neville Junior) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Blues/Country

Throw rocks against your ear drums.

Weekly.

PM Music present: The Trade

PCL presents: LONEY, DEAR

Wonderboy

Rock

Jazz and folk

Tenacious D tribute

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £11

Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £9.50

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Get yer listings at

theskinny.co.uk 60 THE SKINNY April 2009

the Latecomers

Lauries Bar, 20:15–23:00, Free

Experimental acoustic Glasgow-based outfit

Define Pop Presents: Louise Against The Elements Cassette, 20:30–23:00, £tbc

Powerpop

Is this Music? presents: The Grey Datura’s, Tacoma Narrows Bridge 13th Note, 20:30–23:30, £4

Welcome the liminal spaces of the quasi-metal realm; abstracted ambience coupled with drill-drone attacks

Matryoshka Records presents: Only Joe Kane

The Twisted Wheel, 22:00–00:00, £4

“Jennifer One” single launch

Sat 25 Apr The MeatMen

Maggie Mays, 17:00–19:00, Free

Old fashioned country and rock ‘n’ roll

DF Concerts Present: The Answer, Swanee River Classic Grand, 19:00–22:30, £11

Classic rock

Parkway Events present: Harvest the Sun, Fall and Perish, Griever, Face of Fatality, Shift

DF Concerts presents: The Rakes

Variations of metal

SECC, 19:00–22:30, various

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Òran Mór, 19:00–22:30, £11

Alt. rock

McFly Pop trio

RML presents: James Apollo

Prog. punk

A weekly mixed bag

Prog. rock

Psychedelic rock and dub

The MeatMen

Alt. rock

sons of noel & adrian, we see lights the ten to five project

Wooderson, Avast!, Citizens

Firestorm Events presents: Kings of Delmar, Dirty Wee Middens

Indie

Soundhaus, 20:00–01:00, £5/6

Quiet Riot (The Colts, Jack in the Green, Alexander Murray)

BLK JKS, Barn Owl, Aloha TV

Indie post punk

Hardcore metal

PCL presents: Rolo Tomassi, Gramatics, Pulled Apart By Horses

Live gypsy, klezmer and balkan beats Cassette, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Co-Exist, Achren, Daemonolith, Burning Earth

The Twisted Wheel, 19:00–23:00, £5

Barrowlands, 19:30–23:00, £18

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Alt. Rock

Cassette, 20:30–23:00, £tbc

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Stereo, 21:00–03:00, £6 before 11pm/ £8 after

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £10

Soundhaus 50/50 Band Night (Shoes on Fire, Servants of Serpents, Sons of the Morning Star)

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £7

Brooklyn heavies whack out some war time drumming iced in vicious vocals

BALKANARAMA (THE DESTROYERS, DJ SAVA)

THE SMITHS INDEED

Transcendental art instrumentals

Synergy Concerts Presents: HEALTH

13th Note, 20:30–23:30, £4

Acoustic indie rock

the poison sisters, the space kittens, beatroot

royal panties addiction, variety suite final voyage of the liquid sky

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £13.50

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £11

The Cinematics

Pop

Hanoi Rocks (DJ Craig Wilson)

Regular Music present: Ben Taylor

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

To The Bones

Neon NYC indie

Lyric driven alt. rock quintet

Screamo punk

Eskimogo

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £7.50

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £6

david macdonald

Local indie rock ‘n’ roll

The Virgins, Amazing Baby, Chew Lips

PM Music present: The Sears

The Cathouse, 19:00–23:00, £10

PCL Presents: casiotone for the painfully alone, concern

Alt. rock

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £4

Brel, 20:00–22:00, Free

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Funky House/electronica/Dance

Senses Fail, The Gap Year Riot

Experimental rock

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £19.58

Indie rock

Country and punk

Essex pop

Quiet Riot (Sparrahawk, Patrick Bullen, Jonny Jack)

ABC, 19:00–22:30, £6

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Unearthly Trance, Rameses, Black Sun

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £6

Electronic rock

Fri 17 Apr

CAtCH 22, J B CONSPIRACY

Alt. electronica and tropical nu wave

Heavens Basement, Wired Desire

Maggie Mays, 17:00–19:00, Free

The Drawing Room, 21:00–00:00, Free

the hussys

BASEMENT JAXX

Regular Music present: Supersuckers, Nashville Pussy

Esser, Young Fathers, Jesus H Foxx

North Atlantic Oscillation Cassette, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

The Twisted Wheel, 19:00–23:00, £3

Fri 24 Apr

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £9.79

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:00, £5/1

Weekly acoustic night.

Foy Vance, Iain Archer, Dan Lyth

65Daysofstatic, Amusement Parks On Fire, Popolo

Stereo, 19:30–23:00, £7.50

The Drawing Room, 21:00–00:00, Free

Rock and Americana

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Edinburgh music Foxgang, Any Human Heart, The Sleepwalkers, Sinister Flynn The V Club, 20:00–00:00, £5

Headlined by the tentracks featured four-piece. Wedge a bit of sangria soaked orange in your mouth and bop, satirically

VAKUNØHT, Your Loyal Subjects Cassette, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Hardcore funk

Mon 27 Apr

Under the Paving Stones

JOE BONAMASSA

Post-punk and new wave at the monthy night curated by local label Flowers in the Dustbin

Blues/Rock and Roll

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5

The Black Arrows, Acrylic Iqon

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

o2 Academy, 19:00–19:00, £20

Michael Simons Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 19:00–22:00, £2

folk, blues and beyond

Indie garage rock

JOE BONAMASSA

Cortez, Sons Of The Morning Star, Soulcircus, Ewan Butler

o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £20

McChuills, 20:00–23:00, Free

Rock and metal

Jeniferever, The Whisky Works

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £6

Indie

The Rutlands, The Tenemants, The White Light, Electrolite Maggie Mays, 20:00–23:00, £5

Blues/Rock and Roll

Alestorm, Tyr, Alba Gu Brath The Cathouse, 19:00–23:00, £10

Metal-folk hybrids

Canterbury Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Indie rock

The Days, Be A Familiar, Carnivores

Indie rock and acoustic ramblings, oh arr

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £6 Acoustic indie Dartmoor foursome

Triple G presents: InMe

Acoustic Bazooka (Julia Doogan, Cami, Humble Hobos)

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Progressive metal

Hanoi Rocks (DJ Craig Wilson)

Firewater, 20:00–03:00, £5/4

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5/1

Weekly acoustic night.

Post gig hang-out for fans and bands alike.

Hard Work Promotions presents: 4 Or 5 Magicians

This Is Our Battlefield presents: Bridge and Tunnel

Alt. indie powerpop

Cassette, 20:30–23:00, £tbc

Indie punk

BLACKTRACKIN’ (Dave Box, Kenny Burrell, Gordon Couch)

Woodside Social Club, 20:30–02:00, £5

Northern Soul and Motown from special guests Andy Dyson and Chalky plus Blacktrackin’ residents.

Sun 26 Apr Camera Obscura and Attic Lights

Barrowlands, 19:00–22:30, £12

With lush vocals and beautiful melodies, Camera Obscura arrives back in their native town, Glasgow

Chasm, Switchblade Spectacular, Landon

Cassette, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Tue 28 Apr DF Concerts presents: Calvin Harris Òran Mór, 19:00–22:30, £12.50

Shiny PVC electro Pop

Triple G present: Saxon ABC, 19:00–22:30, £16.50

Metal

THE SPECIALS o2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, No Tickets Available

Alt.Rock

KMR presents: sneaky Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Electroacoustic

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Free Peace, The Shermans, Ben Sturrock

Inner Sight, Little Yellow Ukeleles, I am Enforcer, Dive In

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £8

Alt. rock

Òran Mór, 20:00–23:00, Free

Hip hop, soul and jazz

Ivory Blacks, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

The Von Bondies, Goldhawks

King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, 20:00–23:00, £10

Alt. indie

No Tribe (Kashmir Red, Social Schism, Port Cullas) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5/1

Throw rocks against your ear drums.

Weekly.

Three-piece Liverpudlian mavericks

Ross Clark Acoustic session

Eclectiv (The Wildhouse, Cycle of Zen, Phiktion) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–00:00, £5/1

Weekly eclectic collective.

Firestorm presents: Shook Ones, Red Tape Parade Cassette, 20:30–23:00, £tbc

Hardcore pop punk

Wed 01 Apr Mike Silver, Johnny Coppin The Pleasance, 20:00–23:00, £7-5

Folk

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Thu 02 Apr International Noise Conference

Bristo Hall, 17:00–00:00, Free

15 minutes or less per act, no laptops.

LOST IN AUDIO, MARVEL HEIGHTS

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, sold out

Formerly The Dials, the Audio boys christen their new moniker in true power indie style

Live at The Mill (BO DEADLY, ELECTROLITE)

The Mill Edinburgh @ Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, Free

Showcase double-bills for the best upand-coming acts. For more information on these gigs go to: http://www.themill-live.com/gigguide. aspx

Hundred Reasons, johnny Foreigner, The Void

Rob St John, The Wee Rogue & Ben Wetherill

Dan Arborise

Alt. rock

Edinburgh anti-folk

The Bowery, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Down tempo acoustic

The Cosmonauts, The Generous Thing, Ghost Boy, The Angel Converstations The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Surf punk

Studio 24, 19:00–23:00, £10

DOG TIRED, WHITE TRASH CIRCUS, HOLY BARTENDER The GRV, 19:30–22:30, £4

Southern rock and metal

Jenna Reid

Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:00, £10/12

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

The Bowery, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Flat Iron, Threshold Sicks Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, £4

Metal

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4

Applauded fiddler from Shetland.

Winner of Best Up and Coming Artist at the 2005 Scots Trad Music Awards and nominated for Instrumentalist of the year 2007

Limbo (ST DELUXE, TEAM TURNIP, FRENCH WIVES)

Black Tapes presents: Jesus H. Foxx, Y’all Is Fantasy Island, Hindle Wakes

BLUE PANDA PROMOTIONS: COME ON GANG, VENDOR DEFENDER, THE KAYS LAVELLE

FBS, SOUNDS OF SWAMI, BEGRUDGERS, RODENT EMPORIUM, ROUGHMUTE Punk

The Voodoo Rooms, 20:30–00:00, £4

Voodoo’s weekly forray into the burgeoning music scene

DUTY FREE & SICK NOTE PRESENT: TIM & SAM’S TIM & THE SAM BAND WITH TIM & SAM Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Sneaky Pete’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Jesus launches a record for the postpunk people

The gang’s first show back on home shores after SXSW

Fell Silent, My Minds Weapon, Paridian

AMORISTE, JAMIE MCKAY, POSE VICTORIOUS, THIEVES IN SUITS

Hardcore metal

Britpop

The Hive, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Indie-folk pop multi instrumental four-piece

Frightened Rabbit, Meursault

LATE n’ LIVE

A great checkered shirt of a rollick through all of your religious education needs.

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Fri 03 Apr Bainbridge presents: The Red Show, Skyless, Ram Bam Thank You Mam Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £4

Indie

DUTY FREE PRESENTS: THOMAS TRUAX (WITHERED HAND, GREG DODGESON)

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, Free

The DIY instrument man launches his latest album

Dark City Events: Implant, System:FX, Anowrexyia The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Industrial electronica

Sun 05 Apr

The Bowery, 20:00–23:00, £15

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, £6

The Picture House, 19:00–23:00, £16

Afro-beat jazz ensemble... or, a massive singing tree from Le Petit Prince, with or without said afro

Alt. country and acoustic rock

Club For Heroes (Jamie Spectrum & The Boy Blunder)

A medicinal mix of live blues, soul, jazz, Americana and roots. The first Sunday on the month

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–23:00, £5/3

Wee Red Bar, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£3)

Psychedelic disco music from beyond the stars.

Sat 04 Apr Jam The Box Goes LIVE (THE 10.04’s, THE HIGH LINES, LEWIS GIBSON AND THE MIDAS TOUCH) The GRV, 19:00–03:00, £4

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–23:00, £5

The Colors LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Mon 06 Apr

Folk-pop

Tue 07 Apr

Exposure Promotion Presents: Isolated Atoms, The Marionettes, Curators

FORDAMAGE, HIRED MUSCLE

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–23:00, £5/4

Post-punk rolled up in a buttery, no nonsense crêpe The Pleasance, 20:00–23:00, £7-5

Folk

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

VESSELS, STATE OF AFFAIRS, NO PASARAN

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

Leeds-based post rock

Jesus H. Foxx

Manky Bastard Presents: Swimmer One, Lions.Chase.

Tigers, Luxury car Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–23:00, £5

Homegrown indie electro gems and alt. rock kids

Metal

My Turn To Kill, Mind Set A Threat, No Way Back, Carve The Future Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Symphonies in C (Sally Matthews)

The ‘idiot rock music’ sextet

WINTERMUTE, THE VOID, SALUTE MARY

The Village, 19:30–23:00, £6

Gothic caped free-folk quartet

Punk, rock and pop

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, £7

Psychedelic gospel

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–23:00, £6

The Bowery, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Studio 24, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

DANANANANAKROYD

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–23:00, £5

Trembling Bells

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Dirty Love Club presents: Delta Mainline, Sweet Jane, Guile

Rock

METALHEAD WEEKEND: Broken Melody, Ascension, The City Ignites

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £6

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

New wave pop and post-punk

Rock and pop

LATE n’ LIVE

6 DAY RIOT (GIDEON CONN, CARRIE MACDONALD)

The Lunes, The Limits, Fitzroy Soul

The Bowery, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

THE DEATH OF HER MONEY, FIGHTERPLANES, THEWS, THE GREAT CITY, HITCHER

Sludge metal and post-hardcore followed by some progressive, ambient DJ sets

Crayola disco pop for the Nike Dunk masses

Thu 09 Apr

A bi-monthly “Live” night, showcasing the best in electric live music

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 19:00–03:00, £5

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

Keiran Halpin, Jimmy Smith

ORCHESTRA BAOBAB

Soul Survivor (We See Lights, Blue Flint, Roddy Neilson & Pat McGarvey, The Universal Exports, Derek Smith)

MYSTERY JUICE, THE GILLYFLOWERS, THE FNORDS, TOWER OF GIRLS

Wed 08 Apr AERIALS PRESENT: GREAT ESKIMO HOAX, WE SEE LIGHTS, CANCEL THE ASTRONAUTS

Queen’s Hall, 19:30–22:00, £26-8

Stravinsky Symphony in C, Britten Les Illuminations and Bizet Symphony in C

Punk pop

My Turn To Kill

Jackie Oats and Belinda O’Hooley, Heidi Tidow

The Hive, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Progressive metal

Limbo (PAUL VICKERS AND THE LEG, ELECTRONICAT, DEAD BOY ROBOTICS)

Fiddle, folk and dry wit

Matt Elliot

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

The GRV, 20:00–23:00, £6/5

Manky Bastard Presents: The Gothenburg Address, San Sebastian, North Atlantic Oscillation

out of the bedroom (Open Mic)

ShellSuit Massacre, The Ex-men, Zorras

To anyone who’s wanted to play to more than their cuddly toys, welcome to your first gig.

A night of spoken word bands with sounds and visions from B&D Sessions and Aufheben

Alt. electro and rock

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–23:00, £5

Prepare to be ripped to shreds ... progressively

The Voodoo Rooms, 20:30–00:00, £4

Twisted Slavic, European folk and electronica

The Tron, 20:00–23:00, Free

Voodoo’s weekly forray into the burgeoning music scene The Bongo Club, 21:00–01:00, £5/4

April 2009

THE SKINNY 61

Edinburgh music Oso, Transcollective Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, £4

Folk rock

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Fri 10 Apr The Doors Alive

The Bongo Club, 19:00–22:00, £12/10 in advance

Tribute to the Californian rockers

FLOOD OF RED, THE DAY I VANISHED, MIRRORVIEW, PAUL SLIFER ARTWORK

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, £8

Alternative Ink combines music and tattoos, orchestrating gig-come-exhibition events in aid of The Make A Wish Foundation UK.

DEAD IN THE WOODS, EHANHRE, UNCALM, OF SPIRE & THRONE

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 19:30–23:00, £5

Sludge rock, crusty hradcore and experimental death doom

Magnolius, Kobi Onyame

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:30–23:00, £8

Canadian independent hip hop and Uk-based Ghanaian MC

OSO, Super Adventure Club, Rodent Emporium, The Gorms The GRV, 20:00–23:00, £4

Alt. indie electro folk

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Mon 13 Apr

THE APPLE SCRUFFS, DEAD SEA SOULS, HAVANA FAYRE, EWAN BUTLER

POLLY SCATTERGOOD, RACHEL CORMACK, DEBUTANT

Rock and powerpop

Heavy-fringed macabre songstress on the ‘one to watch’ lists

The GRV, 19:00–23:00, £5

METALHEAD WEEKEND: Dog Tired, Metaltech, Sylvanus, Lycanthrope, Cancerous Womb The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Metal

METALHEAD WEEKEND: Junior Preist, Backlash, Engines Of Vengeance, Adastra The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Metal

SPLODGENESSABOUNDS (SAD SOCIETY)

Citrus Club, 19:30–23:00, £6

Alt. indie

This Is Music: Chutes (The French Quarter) Sneaky Pete’s, 20:00–03:00, £3

Gig/ club crossover night

Disgraceland

The Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–23:00, £4

Punk, garage, rock ‘n’ roll and soul

LOS, STEVE HERON

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–23:00, £5/4

Punk blues

Trouble 7th Birthday (JOE ACHESON QUARTET (LIVE), HOBBES & ERIK D’VIKING) Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £5 (free entry with Horace Andy ticket)

THE LAST EVER TROUBLE AT CABARET VOLTAIRE

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £6

Sanna, Roy and the Devil’s Motorcycle The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Alt. electroacoustic

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Tue 14 Apr Esther O’Connor

The Village, 19:30–23:00, £6

Alt. country 90’s melancholy

out of the bedroom (Open Mic)

The Tron, 20:00–23:00, Free

Live at The Mill (STATE OF AFFAIRS, THIEVES IN SUITS)

Studio 24, 19:00–23:00, £6

Pop punk, indie and rock

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Solo and acoustic set from the feert bunnies

THE HUMBLE HOAX, OLMEC DIAGRAM, HITCHER

Contemporary folk from Skye

Indie rock

Stillmarillion

Escape the fate

Marillion Tribute

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Progressive metal

Limbo (MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS, MY COUSIN I BID YOU FAREWELL)

BALKANARAMA (The Destroyers, TRI TACHKE, DJ Grandma Staflas)

Studio 24, 21:00–03:00, £7 before 11pm/ £9 after

Live gypsy, klezmer and balkan beats

The Voodoo Rooms, 20:30–00:00, £4

LATE n’ LIVE

Voodoo’s weekly forray into the burgeoning music scene

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Drum Club (DJ Le Lievre) The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5

Five live drum crews, everything from Samba to Arabic.

Sun 19 Apr

LATE n’ LIVE

THE CINEMATICS

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £7

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Up ‘n’ coming indie rock ensemble from Dingwall (don’t ask)

Fri 17 Apr

Anavris, We Made God Studio 24, 19:00–23:00, £6

The Gap presents: The Eggmen, GK, The Renegades

Experimental rock and pop

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5

TO THE BONES, UNKNOWN HAGANA, AUTOSAFARI

Experimental rock from Manchester

LATE n’ LIVE

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, £6

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Shiny neon art rock from NYC

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

The Picture House, 19:00–23:00, £18.50

Accordian driven folk

Mon 20 Apr DUTY FREE PRESENTS: WE SEE LIGHTS (TINDERBOX, LINDSDAY SUGDEN AND THE STORM)

Ten Storeys High, Kudos, Paper Beat Rocks, Denied Sons Of Iglesias, Sea Bass Kid

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, Free

Album launch

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Franke Gavin

Acoustic rock and pop

PAPER PLANES, FOUNDLING WHEEL, KUNG FU, THE PLANES

Madame Pi, Herb Diamante, Goatgirl

THE AXIDENTS Punk rock

Punktastic

Powerpunk pop

The Bowery, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Experimentally minimalist yurdishesque plinky plonk

LATE n’ LIVE

Music at the Brewhouse

Assembly Rooms Ceilidh (ceilidh band Wild Geese & caller Ken Gourlay)

An international group of artists conjoin to spawn Cabaret Baby, a 9-piece love affair of live electronics and remixes by DJ Chickenhed

Confusion is Sex (Noblise Oblige, Dolby Anol DJs, The Freaky Brides)

CHIEF, FIGHTS & FIRES, THE TERRORS, TAKING CHASE The GRV, 19:30–23:00, £5

R&B and folk rock

OSO, ELECTRIC MUD GENERATOR, TIM HOLEHOUSE, JACKIE TREEHORN, THE INCENDIARY BATS, HIPPOCAMPUS Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–03:00, £5/3

Cacophonies of melody driven west coast american folk

Sun 12 Apr

Queen’s Hall, 20:00–23:00, £12/10

Sarah Jane Summers Trio The Pleasance, 20:00–23:00, £7-5

Folk

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Thu 16 Apr

Black Sea Sailors, Story About The Boy, Reformation City

Yashin, Mind Set A Threat, Your First Mistake, Mufasa

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Studio 24, 18:00–22:30, £5

French pop

Screamo metal

The Gig Cartel presents: HAWKWIND

So Cow, Zoey Van Goey, Local Livin Guy

Page rock

Indie pop

The Picture House, 19:00–23:00, £20

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £4

Folk

The Pleasance, 20:00–23:00, £7-5

Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–23:00, £5/4

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Assembly Rooms (George Street), 23:00–03:00, £10

Tue 21 Apr Evile, Warpath, Mutant

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5

Studio 24, 19:00–23:00, £8

Where David Lynch fantasy becomes reality.

Thrash metal

Rachel Harrington and Zack Borden

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

The Village, 19:30–23:00, £8

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Minimal, reappraisal of American folk tradition

Sat 18 Apr

out of the bedroom (Open Mic)

THE WEEK THAT WAS, MITCHELL MUSEUM, EX LION TAMER

The Tron, 20:00–23:00, Free

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

Nine-piece indie tour de force

Trampoline presents: Come On Gang!, Findo Gask, Dupec Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Go polish your dancing shoes kids and get ready to bounce

Rock

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Thu 23 Apr DUTY FREE PRESENTS: POPUP (ALAN BISSETT, FUTURISTIC RETRO CHAMPIONS, KIRSTIN INNES)

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, Free

Bisset reads from his forthcoming novel, Death of Ladies Man

DEAD BOY ROBOTICS, POPOLO, KESER

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £3

An electro punk love-in

Rock trio

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4

Punk rock

Studio 24, 19:00–23:00, £10

Alt. blues

ELOHYMN

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

DF Concerts presents: THE DOVES

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Alt. rock and indie

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, £7

Leith Walks, Lobe

Dirty Wee Middens, Kings of the Delmar

Y’all had better not miss this one

Sat 25 Apr

19 folds, The Colors

Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, £16

Folk

The Bowery, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Peatbog Faeries

Folk rock

Y’all Is Fantasy Island

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Experimental droning echoes and reverberations

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

Machargranite

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £4

RUARRI JOSEPH

LATE n’ LIVE

Singer/ songwriter flying the DIY flag (a choice, not a necessity, he’ll have you know)

The Pleasance, 20:00–23:00, £7-5

Sat 11 Apr

Battery powered pop with support from the bango twanging heroes of the anti-folk revolution

Psychobilly punk rock

Hardcore punk and metal

BEGINNING OF THE END

Kim Richey, Joan Coffey

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £7

Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Mean Fiddler presents: SHARON SHANNON BIG BAND FEAT. SHANE MACGOWAN

Blackchalk, Set In Motion, We Are Empire, Backlash

Supercharger12, Ninecircles, The Rain King, Curious Fix, The T120’s

Hyperjax, Buzzbomb

Alt. rock

LATE n’ LIVE

Wed 15 Apr

Riffy, harmony laden, folk-rock rambles

Wed 22 Apr CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE, CONCERN, MEURSAULT

GIANT TANK Presents: ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB, FORDELL RESEARCH UNIT, DORA DOLL & ALI ROBERTSON

THE VIRGINS, CHEW LIPS

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, £5

Showcase double-bills for the best upand-coming acts. For more information on these gigs go to: http://www.themill-live.com/gigguide. aspx

To anyone who’s wanted to play to more than their cuddly toys, welcome to your first gig.

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

GOODBYE LENIN, SEBASTIAN DANGERFIELD, THE BYRONS

The Mill Edinburgh @ Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, Free

To anyone who’s wanted to play to more than their cuddly toys, welcome to your first gig.

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

The Picture House, 19:00–23:00, £18

Fourteen Hours, Autosafari The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Acoustic Americana

Polish Cultural Festival and LionStage presents: St Nicolas Orchestra (Orkiestra Swietego Mikolaja) Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, £10

Vigorous Polish folk

Limbo

The Voodoo Rooms, 20:30–00:00, £4

Voodoo’s weekly forray into the burgeoning music scene

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Fri 24 Apr Man At The Window, Bn’L Dub Club

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, Free

Reggae and drum ‘n’ bass ‘n’ dub

YUSUF AZAK, ENFANT BASTARD, STEVE HERON Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £4

Acoustic folk

Broken Family Band (Broken Family Band)

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–23:00, £10

Retraspective, Miles Mayhem

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Prog rock

senses fail, To Catch a Thief Studio 24, 19:00–23:00, £10

Indie

Nanobots, Yoshi

3 Sisters, 20:00–00:00, Free

Psychedelic rock

Mathias Eick Quartet

Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, £10/12

Up ‘n’ coming Norwegian trumpeter

The Douglas Kay Band, Citizen Lane, Alan Davison The Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–23:00, sold out

Acoustic folk rock

FRIGHTENED RABBIT, TOM BROSSEAU, JESUS H FOXX

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, sold out

The Ark, 19:00–23:00, £4

Tentracks Night

The Bowery, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Foregrounding emergent gems from the Scottish scene

DOWN TO KILL, OVERSPILL, MALFUNCTION

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 19:30–23:00, £4

Punk

The Assassination Of The Hive, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Metal

The Lord Bishop, Degrassi, Magdalene

Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, £tbc

Rock metal and funk

Departure Lounge (Souljazz Orchestra (Do Right, Canada/Live), DJ Lubi Jovanovic (Fania Records/DJ Set), Mr Zimbabwe & Jimenez (DJ Set))

The Caves, 22:00–03:00, £9, £8 b4 12am/ students

LATE n’ LIVE

The Jazz Bar, 00:00–03:00, various

Nightly sessions of live jazz, funk, soul and blues.

Sun 26 Apr GBH Presents: The GRV DeathFest (INGESTED, DYSCARNATE, NEUROMA, CEREBRAL BORE, VISCERAL DEITY, BONESAW) The GRV, 18:00–22:00, £5

Music to eat cupcakes to

JENIFEREVER (BE A FAMILIAR, LIONS.CHASE.TIGERS)

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £6

Ephemeral, floaty, Swedish post-rock

Eoghan Colgan

The Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–23:00, £8

Acoustic rock

After School Club

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

No show without funds. Bands, DJs, performances, drag queens! Who knows?

Mon 27 Apr ECHIDNA

Henry’s Cellar Bar, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Greecian progressive death metal

Tue 28 Apr ALEX CORNISH

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Album launch

Alestorm, Tyr

Studio 24, 19:00–23:00, £10

Thrash metal

Gurf Morlix

The Village, 19:30–23:00, £8

Americana big wig

out of the bedroom (Open Mic)

The Tron, 20:00–23:00, Free

To anyone who’s wanted to play to more than their cuddly toys, welcome to your first gig.

check us out ...

online

62 THE SKINNY April 2009

theskinny.co.uk

GLASGOW CLUBS WED 01 APR

DAMNATION (DJ BARRY & DEC)

SOLUTE (WARDY)

A night of alternative alternatives.

House & techno.

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

TONGUE IN CHEEK

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

R&b, hip hop and indie

SECTION 63 (DAVE TARRIDA, PACOU LIVE, DAVE SHADES)

VELVET (JIM HUTCHISON (HUM+HAW) & PADDY MAC)

Electro, techno.

Minimal Tech/house.

THE ARCHES, 22:30–03:00, £12

OCTOPUSSY

THE ARCHES, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

VICE (MARTIN BATE + DJ BILLY)

THU 02 APR

THE CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Indie, emo, dance and party on Level 2.

ELECTRIC GYPSYLAND (DJ ‘MISS ELECTRIC GYPSYLAND’)

ALTERNATIVE (POPOF (PARIS), HARRI (SUB CLUB))

BLACKFRIARS BASEMENT, 21:00–01:00, £4

ARABASQUE, CROSSING CONTINENTS, MIDDLE EASTERN, BALKAN BEATS, TRIBAL FUTURES.

ALTERNATIVE NATION (BARRY & HARVEY KARTEL)

BAMBOO, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), FREE B4 11PM & 12 WITH MATRIC

THE V CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10

Electro, Deep House, Techno, Minimal Dubstep.

EYES WIDE OPEN (THE FAST CAMELS, DJ CHRIS ‘BEANS’ GEDDES)

THE TWISTED WHEEL, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Rock, industrial, metal, punk and electro

Garage, psych, freakbeat, rock n roll.

NUMBERS (FLYING LOTUS, HUDSON MOHAWKE, RUSTIE)

BENNY BOOM & FRIENDS

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART, 23:00–03:00, £3/4. GSA STUDENTS FREE BEFORE MIDNIGHT/ £1 AFTER

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10

Eclectic electronic.

THE BASEMENT (2 MANKY DJ’S, EVILEAN AND DIRTY BASEMENT)

Electro and house

CATHOUSE THURSDAYS (BILLY & COLIN)

SOUNDHAUS, 23:00–04:00, £7 (£5)

Techno, electro & house.

THE CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Anthemic rock, metal, emo, extreme metal.

SAT 04 APR

CLATTY PATS

VEGAS (VEGAS! SHOWGIRLS)

ÒRAN MÓR, 23:00–03:00, £4, FREE FOR NHS WORKERS

THE FERRY, 21:30–02:00, £10

GATECRASHER GLOBAL SOUND SYSTEM (FERRY CORSTEN, RILEY & DURRANT)

EQD (BOBBY WILSON, ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE & TRUMAN DATA)

THE ARCHES, 22:00–03:00, £15

THE V CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

A blend of disco, funk, house and techno.

HOMEGROWN (BIG AL, DOMINIC MARTIN & ROBIN B)

MIXED BIZNESS (BOOM MONK BEN)

R&B, street soul, funk, rock and pop

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £7 (£5), FREE B4 10.30PM/12.30AM STUDENTS

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART (VIC GALLERY), 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), £1 STUDENTS FREE B4 12AM

Hip hop, house, drum & bass, funk, dance hall, electro, garage, break beat and disco.

RPZ (HUSHPUPPY & BONJOUR BOI)

THE VIC BAR, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), £1 GSA STUDENTS

Digital stimulation, non-stop dancing, bent disco, wrong sounds…

FRI 03 APR GALAXY 21

BASURA BLANCA, 22:00–02:00, £4

Inter-galactic funk, mixed with love.

BAMBOO FRIDAYS (GAVIN SOMMERVILLE, SOSE & JAMES GARDNER)

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £5 (FREE BEFORE 11PM/ 12PM WITH MATRIC)

R&B, hip hop, rock, indie and electro

CASA (DJ LISA LITTLEWOOD) ÒRAN MÓR, 22:00–03:00, £8

Friday night house party with DJ Lisa Littlewoo.

ABSOLUTION (DJ BARRY AND DJ DEC)

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

A heavy alternative concoction involving styles from metal to emo, punk to industrial. Drinks offers all night to keep you absolved.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS (DJ ERIC AND DJ MUPPET/ DJ BILLY & FRAMIE)

THE CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £6/£4 STUDENTS OR FREE BEFORE 11.30PM WITH SNAPFAX

Level 1: Classic rock, Metal and Nu-Metal, Industrial, Punk, Alt and Commercial Rock. Level 2: Emo, Pop Punk, Metalcore, Beats, Hip Hop, Indie and Hardcore.

MELTING POT (THE REVENGE (JISCOMUSIC, FIVE20EAST) AND THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA)

THE ADMIRAL, 23:00–03:00, £10

SEINAN MUSIC PRESENTS DEEPCHILD LIVE (DEEPCHILD, SEINAN MUSIC DJS) STEREO, 23:00–03:00, £7

Dub, electronica.

BALLBREAKER (DJ BILLY AND COLIN)

SLABS OF THE TABERNACLE 1ST BIRTHDAY (LOUD E (INTERGALACTIC FM))

Rock and metal.

DUTCH DISCO PARTY.

THE CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

THE CLUB (69), 23:00–03:00, £5

THE TWISTED WHEEL, 23:00–03:00, £5

RPZ (HUSHPUPPY & BONJOUR BOI) THE VIC BAR, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), £1 GSA STUDENTS

THE V CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6

Digital stimulation, non-stop dancing, bent disco, wrong sounds…

OFF THE RECORD AND ANIMAL FARM

THE ARCHES PRESENTS DAVID HOLMES, A LA FU, HUNTLEY’S AND PALMER’S AUDIO CLUB (DAVID HOLMES, A LA FU, HUNTLEY’S AND PALMER’S AUDIO CLUB)

SOUNDHAUS, 23:00–04:00, £TBC

House, techno.

SUN 05 APR DISCO BADGER

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4), FREE B4 11PM/12PM WITH MATRIC

OPTIMO (JD TWITCH AND JG WILKES)

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Diverse music policy.

RITUAL (DJ BARRY)

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £3

THE ARCHES, 23:00–03:00, £10

FRI 10 APR SHINING EARS (DJ MINGOGO, DJ HUSH PUPPY) THE TWISTED WHEEL, 21:00–03:00, £4 (£3), FREE B4 12AM

Rock, Metal, Punk and Industrial tunes.

Indie, alternative.

SUNDAY SESSION (CRAIG LOOSEJOINTS & STEVIE ELEMENTS)

BAMBOO FRIDAYS (GAVIN SOMMERVILLE, SOSE & JAMES GARDNER)

THE V CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE, £3WITH FLYER

Soul, Ska, Deep Funk, R&B, Latin & Jazz.

WED 08 APR TONGUE IN CHEEK

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £5 (FREE BEFORE 11PM/ 12PM WITH MATRIC)

R&B, hip hop, rock, indie and electro

CASA (DJ LISA LITTLEWOOD) ÒRAN MÓR, 22:00–03:00, £8

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Friday night house party with DJ Lisa Littlewood.

OCTOPUSSY

DIFUSIÓN (CINEPHILE, MADSKULL, STREETLIGHT CONSPIRACY, KID CARPET, RADIOACTIVEMAN A.K.A. KEITH TENNISWOOD)

R&b, hip hop and indie

THE ARCHES, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

THU 09 APR ALTERNATIVE NATION (BARRY & HARVEY KARTEL)

BAMBOO, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), FREE B4 11PM & 12 WITH MATRIC

Rock, industrial, metal, punk and electro

BALLERS SOCIAL CLUB (KULTURE (DISFIGURED DUBZ), MR COPY AND SIMON STOKES (SOMA), LUCKYME DJS) SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

Techno, electronica, hip hop.

BENNY BOOM & FRIENDS (JACKMASTER)

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART, 23:00–03:00, £3/4. GSA STUDENTS FREE BEFORE MIDNIGHT/ £1 AFTER

Electro and house

CATHOUSE THURSDAYS (BILLY & COLIN)

THE CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Anthemic rock, metal, emo, extreme metal.

CLATTY PATS

ÒRAN MÓR, 23:00–03:00, £4, FREE FOR NHS WORKERS

MIXED BIZNESS (JACKMASTER (DRESS 2 SWEAT / NUMBERS))

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART (VIC GALLERY), 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), £1 STUDENTS FREE B4 12AM

Hip hop, house, drum & bass, funk, dance hall, electro, garage, break beat and disco.

THE ARCHES, 22:00–03:00, £12

2 room Fundraiser for Diabetes UK

BALLBREAKER (DJ BILLY AND COLIN) THE CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Rock and metal.

DAMNATION (DJ BARRY & DEC) CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

A night of alternative alternatives.

VICE (MARTIN BATE + DJ BILLY) THE CATHOUSE, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Indie, emo, dance and party on Level 2.

MEN AND MACHINES THE V CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC Electro, Deep House, Techno, Minimal Dubstep.

RETURN TO MONO (SLAM, ADAM BEYER, PAUL RITCH LIVE) SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£8)

Slam rock the Subbie with the aid of a rotating support of high-calibre techno and house names. Live sets a frequent highlight.

HUNTLEYS AND PALMERS AUDIO CLUB (DANIELE BALDELLI (ESKIMO / COSMIC / ITALY) [3 HOUR SPECIAL]) STEREO, 23:00–04:00, £10

INNER CITY ACID (DJ REPHLEX RECORDS, KONX-OM-PAX, ESPEE & DELARGE) PIVO PIVO, 23:59–05:00, £8

DISCO BADGER

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4), FREE B4 11PM/12PM WITH MATRIC

CARL COX - THE LEGEND RETURNS (CARL COX, JON RUNDELL)

THE ARCHES, 22:00–04:00, £19

Slamming tunes.

OPTIMO (OPTIMO PRESENTS ELECTRONICAT (LIVE))

SAT 11 APR

SUB CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £9 (£8)

COSMIC MICROWAVE (OOFT (ALI HERRON & THE REVENGE)) HETHERINGTON RESEARCH CLUB, 22:00–02:00, £6 (£5)

“Cosmic Microwave is a deep space techy disco machine that draws influence from the disco trends of late.”

HOMEGROWN (BIG AL, DOMINIC MARTIN & ROBIN B)

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £7 (£5), FREE B4 10.30PM/12.30AM STUDENTS

R&B, street soul, funk, rock and pop

ABSOLUTION (DJ BARRY AND DJ DEC)

CLASSIC GRAND, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

A heavy alternative concoction involving styles from metal to emo, punk to industrial. Drinks offers all night to keep you absolved.

CATHOUSE SATURDAYS (DJ ERIC AND DJ MUPPET/ DJ BILLY & FRAMIE)

Diverse music policy.

RITUAL (DJ BARRY)

CLASSIC GRAND, 23:00–03:00, £3

Rock, Metal, Punk and Industrial tunes.

SUNDAY SESSION (CRAIG LOOSEJOINTS & STEVIE ELEMENTS)

THE V CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE, £3WITH FLYER

Soul, Ska, Deep Funk, R&B, Latin & Jazz.

DIVERSION VS FILTHY GORGEOUS (SCOTT MARTIN, JAMIE GITTINS, 2 MANKY DJ’S, ELLIOT CASTRO, DIRTY BASEMENT, EVIL EAN) THE FERRY, 23:00–04:00, £8

House, electro, fidget and techno tunes.

WED 15 APR

THE CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £6/£4 STUDENTS OR FREE BEFORE 11.30PM WITH SNAPFAX

Level 1: Classic rock, Metal and Nu-Metal, Industrial, Punk, Alt and Commercial Rock. Level 2: Emo, Pop Punk, Metalcore, Beats, Hip Hop, Indie and Hardcore.

MUCK (CRAIG MCGEE AND PAUL MCQUEEN)

THE TWISTED WHEEL, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Electro, mash-ups, pop.

TARGETS DOWN (PAUL RESET, STEVIE ELEMENTS, ALCANE)

TONGUE IN CHEEK

BAMBOO, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

R&b, hip hop and indie

OCTOPUSSY

THE ARCHES, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

THU 16 APR ALTERNATIVE NATION (BARRY & HARVEY KARTEL)

BAMBOO, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), FREE B4 11PM & 12 WITH MATRIC

Rock, industrial, metal, punk and electro

THE V CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6

BENNY BOOM & FRIENDS

VELVET (JIM HUTCHISON (HUM+HAW) & PADDY MAC)

Electro and house

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART, 23:00–03:00, £3/4. GSA STUDENTS FREE BEFORE MIDNIGHT/ £1 AFTER

Drum & bass.

THE V CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £6

CATHOUSE THURSDAYS (BILLY & COLIN)

Minimal Tech/house.

SOUNDHAUS EASTER SPECIALITEE (PUSSYPOWER’S TERRY & JASON, SCOTT CONFUSION AND MORE)

THE CATHOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Anthemic rock, metal, emo, extreme metal.

SOUNDHAUS, 23:00–04:00, £7 (£5)

CLATTY PATS

PEST CONTROL (AUTOMAT, GREG MUNGIN, SCOTT THEORY & THE WASP, DOMMM)

MIXED BIZNESS (BOOM MONK BEN)

Techno, electro.

PIVO PIVO, 23:59–05:00, £7

Live electronics.

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART (VIC GALLERY), 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), £1 STUDENTS FREE B4 12AM

Hip hop, house, drum & bass, funk, dance hall, electro, garage, break beat and disco.

SUN 12 APR “LE BUNNY” BYBLOS EASTER SUNDAY (VINCENT CARRIÉ, TONY MASSERA AND DEMARCO) BYBLOS, 22:00–03:00, £5

ÒRAN MÓR, 23:00–03:00, £4, FREE FOR NHS WORKERS

RPZ (HUSHPUPPY & BONJOUR BOI)

Sublime disco and house in a celebration of the Bunny-Girl...Paris style.

THE VIC BAR, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), £1 GSA STUDENTS

Digital stimulation, non-stop dancing, bent disco, wrong sounds…

Exhibition Events Presents

BALLOON FARM Leave on your, black shoes, brown shoes,distressed boots.

£4 www.myspace.com/balloonfarm2009

8th April ’09 - Nice ‘n’Sleazy [Glasgow] 20th April ’09 - The Bongo Club [Edinburgh] 24th April ’09 - Moshulu [Aberdeen]

APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 63

GLASGOW clubs Fri 17 Apr BALKANARAMA (THE DESTROYERS, DJ SAVA)

Stereo, 21:00–03:00, £6 before 11pm/ £8 after

Live gypsy, klezmer and balkan beats

Numbers (Piddy Py (Dress 2 Sweat), Nok La Rok, DJ Bobby Cleaver) Basura Blanca, 22:00–02:00, £7, £5 b4 11pm

Chicago House anthems, 80’s Disco belters, jiggy hip hop, Drexciya and 150bpm booty bangers.

Bamboo Fridays (Gavin Sommerville, Sose & James Gardner)

Bamboo, 22:00–03:00, £5 (free before 11pm/ 12pm with matric)

R&B, hip hop, rock, indie and electro

Casa (DJ Lisa Littlewood) Òran Mór, 22:00–03:00, £8

Friday night house party with DJ Lisa Littlewoo.

Fortified Sessions (DMZ) Glasgow School of Art, 22:00–03:00, £10

Ballbreaker (DJ Billy and Colin)

The Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Rock and metal.

Damnation (DJ Barry & Dec)

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

A night of alternative alternatives.

Rectify (Kiddkaos)

Soundhaus, 22:30–03:00, £12 (£10)

House & techno.

Vice (Martin Bate + DJ Billy) The Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Indie, emo, dance and party on Level 2.

DEBAUCHED (CAGEDBABY (Southern Fried Records)) The V Club, 23:00–03:00, £10

Techno, Baltimore Club, Electro, Dubstep, Rave.

Jukebox! (The Black Hand Gang, The Doledrums, DJ Paul Molloy)

The Twisted Wheel, 23:00–03:00, £5

Sat 18 Apr Sound the Alarm (Empty Set (live) (Future Days/ Caravan), VJ Vitascope)

Monox

Soundhaus, 23:00–05:00, £12 (£10)

Techno & electro.

Sun 19 Apr Disco Badger

Bamboo, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4), free b4 11pm/12pm with matric

Optimo (JD Twitch and JG Wilkes)

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Diverse music policy.

Ritual (DJ Barry)

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Rock, Metal, Punk and Industrial tunes.

Sunday Session (Craig Loosejoints & Stevie Elements)

The V Club, 23:00–03:00, Free, £3with flyer

Soul, Ska, Deep Funk, R&B, Latin & Jazz.

Wed 22 Apr TONGUE IN CHEEK

Bamboo, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

R&b, hip hop and indie

Octopussy

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Thu 23 Apr

A heavy alternative concoction involving styles from metal to emo, punk to industrial. Drinks offers all night to keep you absolved.

Bottle Rocket

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:00–03:00, £3, free b4 11.30pm

A night for dancing to indie-pop, post-punk, motown, twee and anything else that gets feet tapping.

Cathouse SATURDAYS (DJ Eric and DJ Muppet/ DJ Billy & Framie)

The Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £6/£4 Students or free before 11.30pm with Snapfax

Glasgow School of Art, 23:00– 03:00, £3/4. GSA students free before midnight/ £1 after

Electro and house

CATHOUSE THURSDAYS (Billy & Colin)

The Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Anthemic rock, metal, emo, extreme metal.

Clatty Pats

Òran Mór, 23:00–03:00, £4, free for NHS workers

EQD (Bobby Wilson, Alexander Technique & Truman Data) The V Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Glasgow School of Art (Vic Gallery), 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), £1 students free b4 12am

Hip hop, house, drum & bass, funk, dance hall, electro, garage, break beat and disco.

RPZ (hushpuppy & bonjour boi)

The Vic Bar, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3), £1 GSA students

Digital stimulation, non-stop dancing, bent disco, wrong sounds…

Fri 24 Apr Bamboo Fridays (Gavin Sommerville, Sose & James Gardner)

Bamboo, 22:00–03:00, £5 (free before 11pm/ 12pm with matric)

Deep house.

Velvet (SCUBA (Hotflush recordings/Berghain)) The V Club, 23:00–03:00, £10

Minimal Tech/house.

Dance! Dance! Dance!

(BALEARIC MIKE) The Twisted Wheel, 22:00–03:00, £7

Homegrown (Big Al, Dominic Martin & Robin B) Bamboo, 22:00–03:00, £7 (£5), free b4 10.30pm/12.30am students

R&B, street soul, funk, rock and pop

Absolution (DJ Barry and DJ Dec) Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

A heavy alternative concoction involving styles from metal to emo, punk to industrial. Drinks offers all night to keep you absolved.

Level 1: Classic rock, Metal and Nu-Metal, Industrial, Punk, Alt and Commercial Rock. Level 2: Emo, Pop Punk, Metalcore, Beats, Hip Hop, Indie and Hardcore.

Inside Out (Barry Connell Charity Tribute Night (The Meningitis Trust): Mark Sherry, Brian Kearney, Greg Downey, Paul Webster, William Daniel, Shan, David Forbes, Marc Doc, Colin Bell, Ben Brenton, Alyn Rodger, Chris Metcalfe) The Arches, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Velvet (PATRICK PULSINGER (Cheap records/Disko B)) The V Club, 23:00–03:00, £13 (£10)

Minimal Tech/house.

Connected (DJ Jackal (Fix8 Edinburgh), Behaviour (Sub City), C.L.B. and Steven Coyle) Soundhaus, 23:00–04:00, £7 (£5)

Poppy electro and future techno.

Soundhaus Specialitee (Terry Pussypower, Scott Confusion, Bad Function) Soundhaus, 23:00–04:00, £7 (£5)

Techno, electro.

Sun 26 Apr Bamboo, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4), free b4 11pm/12pm with matric

The Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

The Admiral, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Techno, electronica, hip hop.

Casa (DJ Lisa Littlewood)

Death Disco (Japanese Popstars)

Tronicsole Sessions Album Launch Party (Billy Shane, DJ Hiro)

The Ivy Bar, 20:00–00:00, £5

Disco Badger

Level 1: Classic rock, Metal and Nu-Metal, Industrial, Punk, Alt and Commercial Rock. Level 2: Emo, Pop Punk, Metalcore, Beats, Hip Hop, Indie and Hardcore.

Electro, disco and techno at what is now pretty much Scotland’s biggest monthly club night. Exciting new music features strongly, lapped up by a diverse, gay-friendly and fun-loving crowd.

Ballers Social Club (Dorian Concept live (Kindred Spirits), Jay Prada (live debut), LuckyMe DJs)

R&B, hip hop, rock, indie and electro Òran Mór, 22:00–03:00, £8

The Arches, 23:00–03:00, £14

Sat 25 Apr

Benny Boom & Friends

Mixed Bizness (Boom Monk Ben)

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Techno, Pop, Electronica, Italo, Electro, Afro beats.

The Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £6/£4 Students or free before 11.30pm with Snapfax

Rock, industrial, metal, punk and electro

Homegrown (Big Al, Dominic Martin & Robin B)

Absolution (DJ Barry and DJ Dec)

The V Club, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Bamboo, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Basura Blanca, 22:00–02:00, £5

R&B, street soul, funk, rock and pop

Wrong Weekend (Ramadanman (Souljazz/ Hessle Audio))

Cathouse SATURDAYS (DJ Eric and DJ Muppet/ DJ Billy & Framie)

Alternative Nation (BARRY & HARVEY KARTEL)

A blend of disco, funk, house and techno.

Bamboo, 22:00–03:00, £7 (£5), free b4 10.30pm/12.30am students

Edinburgh clubs

Friday night house party with DJ Lisa Littlewoo.

Ballbreaker (DJ Billy and Colin) Rock and metal.

Damnation (DJ Barry & Dec)

Optimo (JD Twitch and JG Wilkes) Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

JungleDub

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

We Are Electric

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £2, free b4 12am

The city’s leading punk-funk electrodisco party with resident electro-punk Gary Mac playing the sounds of Berlin & beyond.

Thu 02 Apr International Noise Conference

Bristo Hall, 17:00–00:00, Free

15 minutes or less per act, no laptops.

Jagerbomb (DJ Dan)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Indie, Electro, Urban, Mashups.

Kinky Indie

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, £2 students/ £5 others

Vice (Martin Bate + DJ Billy) Indie, emo, dance and party on Level 2.

70’s, 80’s and 90’s cult rock classics.

The Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, Free

How’s Your Party? (Tayo, Rusko, Boom Monk Ben)

Sunday Session (Craig Loosejoints & Stevie Elements)

Rich Kids Gang Bang

The V Club, 23:00–03:00, Free, £3with flyer

Electro, Baltimore Club, Hip Hop, Dubstep.

Soul, Ska, Deep Funk, R&B, Latin & Jazz.

Saturday’s at Opal (Dave Shedan)

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £8, £4 b4 11pm

Glamorous vocal house, accessible electro, past and present club classics with a hint of R&B.

Musicology (Calverto, Scott Granger) Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £10 (£5)

Tease Age

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £6, free b4 11pm

THE GO-GO 9th Birthday Bash (Les Bof!)

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £5/4 (£3 before midnight with a flyer)

The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £3

Hip hop and funk.

Mumbo Jumbo (Trendy Wendy, Colin Millar & Steve Austin) Funk, soul, electro & house.

Sneaky Beats (Tittsworth)

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3), £3 b4 11.30pm

Baltimore, rave, bass.

The Egg (Chis & Paul)

Bubblegum Boogaloo

The Voodoo Rooms, 21:00–01:00, Free

French 60’s pop, psyche, retro.

Friday’s at Opal (Jez Hill)

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £8, £4 b4 11pm

Mix of electro-pop, classic beats and disco.

FUNK SHUI (DJ Fiona)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £8 (£4)

Classic, chart anthems, dirty house and dance.

Club For Heroes (Jamie Spectrum & The Boy Blunder)

Wee Red Bar, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£3)

Psychedelic disco music from beyond the stars.

Cosmic

Studio 24, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

A night of psychedelic trance, progressive and live percussion. Resident DJs, full UV decor environment, crystal clear visuals, high vibrational, psychedelic trance dance ritual.

Off:beat (JAMIE JONES, Chris Graham, Ewan Smith, Jamie McKenzie)

The Caves, 22:30–03:00, £12, £10 b4 12am, £9 NUS

Deep to Tech-House through to Techno.

Planet Earth

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £5, free b4 10.30pm

70’s, 80’s and 90’s hits

Creative Industries (wolfjazz vs. stephen brown, gee dubs, keytes) The GRV, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Techno.

Fuse (Gus Armstrong, Stu Todd, Tim James) Berlin, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

NUWAVE, ELECTRONICA, TECHNO, WONKY ELECTRO, FIDGET HOUSE.

Tokyoblu (TOKYOBLU, plus DJ sets from Tokyoblu residents JOHN & IAIN)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£6)

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Drum’n’bass evolution feat a residents special: PAUL RESET [Nerve Recordings], ENO [Parlay], TREASON [Coalition - final UK gig], MC BZ, MELDRUM + B-RAW www. myspace.com/club_xplicit

Sat 04 Apr Jam The Box Goes LIVE (THE 10.04’s, THE HIGH LINES, LEWIS GIBSON AND THE MIDAS TOUCH) The GRV, 19:00–03:00, £4

A bi-monthly “Live” night, showcasing the best in electric live music

Thu 09 Apr Jagerbomb (DJ Dan)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Indie, Electro, Urban, Mashups.

Kinky Indie

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, £2 students/ £5 others

From indie and new wave to fidget house, Baltimore booty bass to nurave.

Saturday Night Fish Fry (Erik D’Viking)

Fri 03 Apr

The city’s leading punk-funk electrodisco party with resident electro-punk Gary Mac playing the sounds of Berlin & beyond.

GRAND THEFT AUDIO (Babes, Mr Meeks, BSides & The Bandit, Xtra and Monkey Boy)

From indie and new wave to fidget house, Baltimore booty bass to nurave.

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £2, free b4 12am

Sick Note

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6, £5 b4 12am)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

We Are Electric

French 60’s pop and garage, with DJs Tall Paul Robinson and Big Gus

Sick Note

XPLICIT (MORPHY)

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

SLIDE IT IN (DJ Nicola)

64 THE SKINNY April 2009

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Ritual (DJ Barry)

A night of alternative alternatives.

The V Club, 23:00–03:00, £10

Chairman Meow (Calverto)

House night with skilled house house band

Rock, Metal, Punk and Industrial tunes.

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £12

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Diverse music policy.

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

The Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Wed 01 Apr Chambles (Jez Hill)

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5, £2.50 b4 11.30pm

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Fri 10 Apr Friday’s at Opal (Jez Hill)

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £8, £4 b4 11pm

Mix of electro-pop, classic beats and disco.

FUNK SHUI (DJ Fiona)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £8 (£4)

Classic, chart anthems, dirty house and dance.

glitch (Mike 13, Laurie Neil, Harry Brown (Beneath Records))

Indie / 60’s Garage / Northern Soul / Ska / 70’s / Punk / New Wave. www.eggsite.co.uk

Berlin, 22:00–03:00, £5

Ultragroove (GARETH SOMMERVILLE, CRAIG SMITH (MOOVN), CRAIG REID, BARRY FELL)

Planet Earth

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£6)

Sun 05 Apr

Underground house and progressive to tech-house and techno.

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £5, free b4 10.30pm

70’s, 80’s and 90’s hits

Dirt (Morphamish (Audiodacity/Double Helix), AMeldrum)

Rise (John Hutchison)

The GRV, 23:00–03:00, £4, free b4 12am

Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £4

Techno, electro, breaks, electronic.

Electrohouse and cherished club classics.

Shake (Leon Easter)

Four Corners (Simon Hodge, Johnny Cashback & Monkeyboy)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Funky House, club classics and R’n’B with Live Sax and Percussion.

New Idols (Hobbes & Dava)

The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £5, £3 for fancy dress, idol-a-likes & students

New Idols is Edinburgh’s new monthly Sunday night party night, featuring club classics, dance-not-dance and, yes, of course, New Idols being played on the wheels of steel.

Taste (DJs Fisher & Price in the main room and Miss Chris in the bar) The GRV, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

House & dance.

Mon 06 Apr Dirty Stop Out (DJ Andrew Taylor)

Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £5, £4 b4 11pm

Funk, R&B, classics.

Forbidden (VDJ SCOTT GRANGER)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Trade Union (DJ Beefy & Wolfjazz)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £2, (£1), free b4 12am

Tue 07 Apr out of the bedroom (Open Mic)

The Tron, 20:00–23:00, Free

To anyone who’s wanted to play to more than their cuddly toys, welcome to your first gig.

Motherfunk (Fryer & Gino) Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, Free

Split

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Wed 08 Apr Chambles (Jez Hill)

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3 b4 12am)

Furburger

GHQ, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

The club night for ‘girls who like girls who like music’ presents a bout of aural stimulation from the funki diva, dejaybird, boy toy and debi t. Pre-club stuff at Planet down the road. Second Friday of every month.

Jackhammer (Marco bailey, stephen brown, wolfjazz) The Caves, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Techno.

Trouble 7th Birthday (JOE ACHESON QUARTET (LIVE), HOBBES & ERIK D’VIKING) Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £5 (free entry with Horace Andy ticket)

THE LAST EVER TROUBLE AT CABARET VOLTAIRE

Sat 11 Apr Trouble 7th Birthday (HORACE ANDY & ASHLEY BEEDLE (LIVE))

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–21:30, £20

Trouble 7th Birthday (FOUND (LIVE))

The Jazz Bar, 23:30–03:00, £5 (£3, free entry with Horace Andy ticket)

Saturday’s at Opal (Dave Shedan)

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £8, £4 b4 11pm

Glamorous vocal house, accessible electro, past and present club classics with a hint of R&B.

Musicology (Calverto, Scott Granger) Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £10 (£5)

Musika (NIC FANCIULLI) Faith, 22:00–03:00, £10

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

We Love Space Ibiza party.

Chairman Meow (Calverto) JungleDub

Substance (SUGAR EXPERIMENT STATION, TIM WRIGHT aka TUBE JERK)

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

Techno, electro.

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

The GRV, 22:00–03:00, £tbc

Tease Age Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £6, free b4 11pm

Big N Bashy (David George, Beast, Deburgh & Decoy Roy) The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4 b4 12am)

Forbidden (VDJ SCOTT GRANGER)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Trade Union (DJ Beefy & Wolfjazz)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £2, (£1), free b4 12am

Tue 14 Apr

A 4-deck mix of dubstep, reggae, dancehall + jungle

Motherfunk (Fryer & Gino)

GRAND THEFT AUDIO (Babes, Mr Meeks, BSides & The Bandit, Xtra and Monkey Boy)

Split

The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire,

Chambles (Jez Hill)

23:00–03:00, £3

Hip hop and funk.

Karnival (SAM BALL, MIKE PINKERTON, MATT EDWARDS and RYAN ELLIS) Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

House & techno.

Saturday Night Fish Fry (Erik D’Viking) The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3), £3 b4 11.30pm

The Egg (Chis & Paul) Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5, £2.50 b4 11.30pm

Indie / 60’s Garage / Northern Soul / Ska / 70’s / Punk / New Wave. www.eggsite.co.uk

Sun 12 Apr Rise (John Hutchison) Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £4

Electrohouse and cherished club classics.

Shake (Leon Easter) Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Funky House, club classics and R’n’B with Live Sax and Percussion.

More (MISS CHRIS and KAUPUSS) The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Funky vocal house, electro and club classics.

More (MISS CHRIS and KAUPUSS) The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Funky vocal house, electro and club classics.

Ultragroove (JIMPSTER (FREERANGE RECORDS), GARETH SOMMERVILLE, YOGi HAUGTON) Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£6)

Mon 13 Apr Dirty Stop Out (DJ Andrew Taylor) Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £5, £4 b4 11pm

Funk, R&B, classics.

Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, Free

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Wed 15 Apr Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Chairman Meow (Calverto) Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

JungleDub

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

We Are Electric

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £2, free b4 12am

The city’s leading punk-funk electrodisco party with resident electro-punk Gary Mac playing the sounds of Berlin & beyond.

Thu 16 Apr Jagerbomb (DJ Dan)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Indie, Electro, Urban, Mashups.

Hark!

Wee Red Bar, 22:30–03:00, £2

Indie, rock n roll.

Drum Club (DJ Le Lievre) The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5

Five live drum crews, everything from Samba to Arabic.

Kinky Indie

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, £2 students/ £5 others

Sick Note

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

From indie and new wave to fidget house, Baltimore booty bass to nurave.

Fri 17 Apr Andrew Weatherall

The Voodoo Rooms, 21:00–01:00, £7

Rockabilly sci-fi 7” rock ‘n’ roll DJ set

Friday’s at Opal (Jez Hill)

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £8, £4 b4 11pm

Mix of electro-pop, classic beats and disco.

FUNK SHUI (DJ Fiona)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £8 (£4)

Classic, chart anthems, dirty house and dance.

MON.O Presents Infant Records night (SIMON BAKER, BURNSKI, CHRIS GRAHAM, JAMIE MCKENZIE, EWAN SMITH, TEME NOSCE, BLAIR HARROWER, PAUL MORRICE, FLAV) Berlin, 22:30–03:00, £10 (£8)

Houe, tech-house, techno.

Planet Earth

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £5, free b4 10.30pm

70’s, 80’s and 90’s hits

Confusion is Sex (Noblise Oblige, Dolby Anol DJs, The Freaky Brides) The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5

Where David Lynch fantasy becomes reality.

Riddim Tuffa Sound (Chakka Chakumaki, Big Toes Hifi Sound, Riddim Tuffa Sound) The GRV, 23:00–03:00, £6, £4 b4 11.30pm

Reggae, dubstep, jungle.

Telefunken (SlumScience (Eddie Leader)) Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £7, £6 b4 12am

House.

Vintage Violence (Anastaziya Violence & Christopher FAST (FASTpunkclub), DJ guests Chrissy (Gussets) and Mike (Sara & the Sakes)) Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £4

Garage / Girl groups / RnB / Dirty soul / Junk Shop Glam / Punk / Psych / Rockabilly.

Sat 18 Apr Vegas (VEGAS! Showgirls) The Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £5

BALKANARAMA (The Destroyers, TRI TACHKE, DJ Grandma Staflas) Studio 24, 21:00–03:00, £7 before 11pm/ £9 after

Live gypsy, klezmer and balkan beats

Saturday’s at Opal (Dave Shedan) Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £8, £4 b4 11pm

Glamorous vocal house, accessible electro, past and present club classics with a hint of R&B.

Musicology (Calverto, Scott Granger) Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £10 (£5)

Tease Age Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £6, free b4 11pm

GRAND THEFT AUDIO (Babes, Mr Meeks, BSides & The Bandit, Xtra and Monkey Boy) The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £3

Hip hop and funk.

Headspin (Headspin Residents) The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5 b4 12am)

Saturday Night Fish Fry (Erik D’Viking) The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3), £3 b4 11.30pm

The Egg (Chis & Paul) Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5, £2.50 b4 11.30pm

Indie / 60’s Garage / Northern Soul / Ska / 70’s / Punk / New Wave. www.eggsite.co.uk

Ultragroove (GARETH SOMMERVILLE, NEIL BETHUNE, ISLA BLIGE, SIMONE BLACK) Cabaret Voltaire, 23:03–03:00, £8 (£6)

Sun 19 Apr

Thu 23 Apr Jagerbomb (DJ Dan)

360 degrees of consciousness www.myspace.com/messengersoundsystem

Indie, Electro, Urban, Mashups.

Optimo (Twitch & Wilkes)

Audacious

Diverse music policy.

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £10

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Here Come the Girls (Lucy Lucious and DJ Holyrude)

Kinky Indie

Saturday Night Fish Fry (Erik D’Viking)

Fairbridge in Scotland is proud to present an evening of burlesque, cabaret and fashion

Sick Note

The Egg (Chis & Paul)

The Voodoo Rooms, 17:00–01:00, £25

Rise (John Hutchison) Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £4

Electrohouse and cherished club classics.

Shake (Leon Easter)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Funky House, club classics and R’n’B with Live Sax and Percussion.

More (MISS CHRIS and KAUPUSS)

The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Funky vocal house, electro and club classics.

More (MISS CHRIS and KAUPUSS)

The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Funky vocal house, electro and club classics.

Mon 20 Apr Dirty Stop Out (DJ Andrew Taylor)

Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £5, £4 b4 11pm

Funk, R&B, classics.

Forbidden (VDJ SCOTT GRANGER)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Trade Union (DJ Beefy & Wolfjazz)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £2, (£1), free b4 12am

Tue 21 Apr out of the bedroom (Open Mic)

The Tron, 20:00–23:00, Free

To anyone who’s wanted to play to more than their cuddly toys, welcome to your first gig.

Motherfunk (Fryer & Gino) Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, Free

Split

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Wed 22 Apr Chambles (Jez Hill)

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Chairman Meow (Calverto) Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

JungleDub

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

We Are Electric (Lee Burridge)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

The city’s leading punk-funk electrodisco party with resident electro-punk Gary Mac playing the sounds of Berlin & beyond.

Breakcore, gabba, jungle, dubstep.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

From indie and new wave to fidget house, Baltimore booty bass to nurave.

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5, £2.50 b4 11.30pm

Indie / 60’s Garage / Northern Soul / Ska / 70’s / Punk / New Wave. www.eggsite.co.uk

Fri 24 Apr Friday’s at Opal (Jez Hill)

Sun 26 Apr

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £8, £4 b4 11pm

Mix of electro-pop, classic beats and disco.

FUNK SHUI (DJ Fiona)

Mosh

The Bongo Club, 22:00–03:00, £5

Metal.

Rise (John Hutchison)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £8 (£4)

Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £4

Classic, chart anthems, dirty house and dance.

Electrohouse and cherished club classics.

Planet Earth

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £5, free b4 10.30pm

70’s, 80’s and 90’s hits

Shake (Leon Easter)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£2)

Funky House, club classics and R’n’B with Live Sax and Percussion.

Sugarbeat (FAKE BLOOD, KIDDA)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Breaks, beats, bootlegs.

Volume 2nd Birthday (Akira Tikeshi, Cloak X Dagger, Termite, Paranoise, G-Mac, Brian d’Souza) The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5 b4 12am)

Dubstep, breaks, jungle, DnB, grime.

Big Toe’s Hi-Fi (Symbiosis Sound System (Leeds)) Wee Red Bar, 22:30–03:00, £5

Reggae, dub, dancehall, dubstep.

After School Club

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

No show without funds. Bands, DJs, performances, drag queens! Who knows?

ELECTROsexual (Lucky Luciano)

Sat 25 Apr

CC Blooms, 23:00–03:00, Free

Saturday’s at Opal (Dave Shedan)

Dirty bootlegs and cheeky electro.

Opal Lounge, 21:00–03:00, £8, £4 b4 11pm

Glamorous vocal house, accessible electro, past and present club classics with a hint of R&B.

Departure Lounge (Souljazz Orchestra (Do Right, Canada/Live), DJ Lubi Jovanovic (Fania Records/DJ Set), Mr Zimbabwe & Jimenez (DJ Set))

More (MISS CHRIS and KAUPUSS)

The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Funky vocal house, electro and club classics.

More (MISS CHRIS and KAUPUSS)

The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

The Caves, 22:00–03:00, £9, £8 b4 12am/ students

Musicology (Calverto, Scott Granger)

Funky vocal house, electro and club classics.

Mon 27 Apr

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £10 (£5)

Dirty Stop Out (DJ Andrew Taylor)

MADCHESTER!

Faith, 22:30–03:00, £5

Long-running indie, brit pop and rave night.

Tease Age

Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £5, £4 b4 11pm

Funk, R&B, classics.

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £6, free b4 11pm

Forbidden (VDJ SCOTT GRANGER)

GRAND THEFT AUDIO (Babes, Mr Meeks, BSides & The Bandit, Xtra and Monkey Boy)

Trade Union (DJ Assault, DJ Beefy & Wolfjazz)

Shanghai, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

The Speakeasy @ Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £3

Hip hop and funk.

Messenger Sound System

The Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6.50 (£5 b4 12am)

Sweet reggae rocking with Scotland’s original roots & culture sound system, feat MC Ras Echo.

On Thursday 11 and Friday 12 June, Go North will host an array of live music showcases, workshops and industry seminars in Inverness.

60 bands will play over the two days, and Go North is currently taking applications from any interested musicians at

www.goevents.info

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3), £3 b4 11.30pm

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, £2 students/ £5 others

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £2, (£1), free b4 12am

Tue 28 Apr Motherfunk (Fryer & Gino) Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, Free

Split

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

The Skinny is hosting a stage!

To register your interest to play on our stage, shout us on demos@theskinny.co.uk

April 2009

THE SKINNY 65

GLASGOW Comedy Wed 01 Apr Midweek Comedy Cabaret (With Raymond Mearns) The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £8/£4

GO Laugh (MC Viv Gee, The Wee Man, Alan Sharp, Phil O’Shea, Stephen Callaghan and headliner Chris Henry) Trader Joe’s, 21:00–23:00, Free

For more details see www.thegobutton.co.uk

Thu 02 Apr The Thursday Show (With Gavin Webster, Dave Ward, Elaine Malcolmson and John Gavin. Hosted

by Raymond Mearns) The Stand, 21:00–23:06, £8/£7

Ease yourself into the weekend with top laughs and delicious food.

Fri 03 Apr Best of Red Raw 2009

Classic Grand, 20:00–22:30, £7 / £5

In association with BBC Scotland.

The Stand Comedy Club presents a sizzling selection of the very best beginners from its sell-out weekly newcomers’ showcase.

Part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival

D.A.M. Fine Comedy

Gramofon, 20:30–23:00, £5/£4

Thu 09 Apr The Thursday Show (With Andre Vincent, Greg McHugh, Joseph Wilson and Carly Baker.

Hosted by Joe Heenan) The Stand, 21:00–23:06, £8/£7

Ease yourself into the weekend with top laughs and delicious food.

Fri 10 Apr D.A.M. Fine Comedy

Gramofon, 20:30–23:00, £5/£4

The Friday Show (Andre Vincent, Greg McHugh, Joseph Wilson and Carly Baker.

Hosted by Joe Heenan) The Stand, 21:00–23:05, £10/£9

Doors open 7pm

Sat 11 Apr The Saturday Show (Andre Vincent, Greg McHugh, Joseph Wilson and Carly Baker. Hosted by Joe Heenan) The Stand, 21:00–23:02, £13

Top acts. Hot food. An altogether great night out.

Half Price Comedy Club (Neil Dougan m.c.

Alan Anderson)

Uisge Beatha, 21:00–23:04, £4-£6

Sun 12 Apr

The Friday Show (Gavin Webster, Dave Ward, Elaine Malcolmson and John Gavin. Hosted by Raymond Mearns.)

Bank Holiday Special (With Andre Vincent, Greg McHugh, Joseph Wilson and Carly Baker. Hosted

by Michael Redmond)

Doors open 7pm

The Ivory (Up to 8 comedians with Alan Anderson)

The Stand, 21:00–23:05, £10/£9

Sat 04 Apr The Saturday Show (Gavin Webster, Dave Ward, Elaine Malcolmson and John Gavin. Hosted

by Raymond Mearns) The Stand, 21:00–23:02, £13

Top acts.

Hot food.

An altogether great night out.

Half Price Comedy Club (Tim Clarke, Steven Dick & m.c. Alan Anderson) Uisge Beatha, 21:00–23:04, £4-£6

Sun 05 Apr Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service (With Dave Ward, Elaine Malcolmson, Eddie O’Dwyer, Daniel Webster and Michael Adams. With host Michael Redmond) The Stand, 20:30–23:00, £5/£4

The Ivory (Up to 8 comedians with Alan Anderson) Ivory Hotel, 21:00–23:10, Free

New acts, new material

Mon 06 Apr Dance Monkey Boy Dance (Raymond Mearns, Paul Pirie and Allen Chalmers) The Stand, 20:30–22:37, £4

Monthly show featuring a mix of topical stand-up, filmed sketches and improvised games and songs.

Tue 07 Apr Red Raw (With Siân Bevan and John Ross.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £2/£1

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy, costing mere pennies.

Wed 08 Apr Wicked Wenches (With Tanyalee Davis, AL Kennedy, Ruth E Cockburn and Dee Custance. Hosted

by Susan Calman) The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £6/£5

The Stand, 20:30–22:35, £8/£6

Ivory Hotel, 21:00–23:10, Free

New acts, new material

Mon 13 Apr Dance Monkey Boy Dance (Raymond Mearns, Paul Pirie and Allen Chalmers.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:37, £4

Monthly show featuring a mix of topical stand-up, filmed sketches and improvised games and songs.

Tue 14 Apr Red Raw (With Ro Campbell and Jo Jo Sutherland) The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £2/£1

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy, costing mere pennies.

Wed 15 Apr The Sugaring-Off Cabin The Stand, 20:30–22:37, £4

A dirty great, big night of weird and wonderful characters and sketches brought to you by some of Scotland’s finest new comics.

GO Laugh (MC Andy Vaughan, Andy Hollywood, Dee Custance, Niall Hamish McNeil and headliner Niall Browne) Trader Joe’s, 21:00–23:00, Free

For more details see www.thegobutton.co.uk

Thu 16 Apr The Thursday Show (With Nick Wilty, John Ross and Paul F Taylor. Hosted

by Susan Calman.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:06, £8/£7

Ease yourself into the weekend with top laughs and delicious food.

Fri 17 Apr The Friday Show (Nick Wilty, John Ross and Paul F Taylor. Hosted

by Susan Calman.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:05, £10/£9

Doors open 7pm

Sat 18 Apr

GO Laugh (MC Obie, Graeme Harkins , Katie Louise, Tony Hilton, Ross Stewart and headliner Paul Pirie)

The Saturday Show (Nick Wilty, John Ross and Paul F Taylor. Hosted

by Susan Calman)

For more details see www.thegobutton.co.uk

Top acts. Hot food.

An altogether great night out.

Trader Joe’s, 21:00–23:00, Free

The Stand, 21:00–23:02, £13

66 THE SKINNY April 2009

Edinburgh Comedy Half Price Comedy Club (Des Clarke)

Uisge Beatha, 21:00–23:04, £4-£6

Sun 19 Apr Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service (With John Ross, Paul F Taylor, Ailsa Johnston, Paul Goodbrand and Jeff O’Boyle. Hosted

by Michael Redmond) The Stand, 20:30–23:00, £5/£4

The Ivory (Des Clarke and up to 8 comedians with Alan Anderson) Ivory Hotel, 21:00–23:10, Free

New acts, new material

Mon 20 Apr Dance Monkey Boy Dance (Raymond Mearns, Paul Pirie and Allen Chalmers.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:37, £4

Monthly show featuring a mix of topical stand-up, filmed sketches and improvised games and songs.

Tue 21 Apr Red Raw (With Billy Kirkwood and Silky) The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £2/£1

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy, costing mere pennies.

Wed 22 Apr Benefit in Aid of Diabetes UK Scotland

The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £7/£5

GO Laugh

Trader Joe’s, 21:00–23:00, Free

For more details see www.thegobutton.co.uk

Thu 23 Apr The Thursday Show (With Junior Simpson, Joe Heenan, Holly Walsh and Michael Adams. Hosted

by Susan Morrison) The Stand, 21:00–23:06, £8/£7

Ease yourself into the weekend with top laughs and delicious food.

Fri 24 Apr The Friday Show (Junior Simpson, Joe Heenan and Michael Adams. Hosted

by Susan Morrison.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:05, £10/£9

Doors open 7pm

Sat 25 Apr

Thu 02 Apr

The Friday Show (Tanyalee Davis, Stuart Hudson, Jeff Kreisler and Iain Stirling.

Hosted by Bruce Devlin.)

Ease yourself into the weekend with top laughs and delicious food.

Doors open 7pm

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £8/£7

Heresy

Jekyll and Hyde , 21:00–23:20, £3

Night of dark and depraved comedy

Fri 03 Apr Laughing Horse New Act of the Year Competition (Quarter Final. With compere JoJo Sutherland) Meadow Bar, 20:30–23:00, £5/£4

14 new acts with an experienced compere to guide you through the night.

The Friday Show (Sean Percival, Teddy and Katie Mulgrew. Hosted

by Susan Calman.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £10/£9

Doors open 7pm

Sat 04 Apr Laughing Horse New Act of the Year Competition (Quarter Final. With compere JoJo Sutherland) Meadow Bar, 20:30–23:00, £5/£4

14 new acts with an experienced compere to guide you through the night.

The Saturday Show (Sean Percival, Teddy and Katie Mulgrew. Hosted

by Susan Calman.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £13

Top acts.

Hot food.

An altogether great night out.

Sun 05 Apr Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, 12:30–15:00, Free

Improvised comedy led by by audience suggestions, with Stu and Garry.

Hot coffee, delicious food...the nation’s top hangover cure

The Sunday Night Laugh-In (With Gary Little, John Whale, Dee Custance, Carly Baker and Ben Verth. Hosted

by Susan Morrison) The Stand, 20:30–22:35, £5/£4

Mon 06 Apr

The Saturday Show (Junior Simpson, Joe Heenan and Michael Adams. Hosted

by Susan Morrison.)

Absolute Beginners (MC Siân Bevan and headliner Chris Henry)

Top acts.

Hot food.

An altogether great night out.

Showcase of new comedy talent with a top headliner to round off your night www.fitothegiggles.com

The Stand, 21:00–23:02, £13

Half Price Comedy Club (Bill Dewar)

Uisge Beatha, 21:00–23:04, £4-£6

Sun 26 Apr Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service (With Joe Heenan, Ben Verth, Robert Graham and Martin McAllister. Hosted by Michael Redmond.)

The Stand, 20:30–23:00, £5/£4

The Ivory (Up to 8 comedians with Bill Dewar) Ivory Hotel, 21:00–23:10, Free

New acts, new material

Mon 27 Apr Dance Monkey Boy Dance (Raymond Mearns, Paul Pirie and Allen Chalmers.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:37, £4

Monthly show featuring a mix of topical stand-up, filmed sketches and improvised games and songs.

Tue 28 Apr Red Raw (With Joe Heenan) The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £2/£1

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy, costing mere pennies.

Fri 10 Apr

The Thursday Show (With Sean Percival, Teddy and Siân Bevan. Hosted

by Susan Calman.)

The Beehive Inn, 20:00–22:30, £2/£1

Red Raw (With Jeff O’Boyle) The Stand, 20:30–22:46, £2/£1

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy, costing mere pennies.

Tue 07 Apr Wicked Wenches (With Tanyalee Davis, AL Kennedy, Ruth E Cockburn and Dee Custance. Hosted

by Susan Calman.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:45, £6/£5

Wed 08 Apr Phil Nichol

The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £10

Thu 09 Apr The Thursday Show (With Tanyalee Davis, Stuart Hudson, Jeff Kreisler and Iain Stirling. Hosted

by Bruce Devlin.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £8/£7

Ease yourself into the weekend with top laughs and delicious food.

Heresy

Jekyll and Hyde , 21:00–23:20, £3

Night of dark and depraved comedy

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £10/£9

Sat 11 Apr The Saturday Show (Tanyalee Davis, Stuart Hudson, Jeff Kreisler and Iain Stirling. Hosted

by Bruce Devlin) The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £13

Top acts.

Hot food.

An altogether great night out.

Sun 12 Apr Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, 12:30–15:00, Free

Improvised comedy led by by audience suggestions, with Stu and Garry.

Hot coffee, delicious food...the nation’s top hangover cure

Bank Holiday Special (With Tanyalee Davis, Stuart Hudson, Jeff Kreisler and Iain Stirling.

Hosted by Bruce Devlin) The Stand, 20:30–22:34, £8/£7

Mon 13 Apr Absolute Beginners (MC Jason C. Murphy and headliner Ricky Callan) The Beehive Inn, 20:00–22:30, £2/£1

Showcase of new comedy talent with a top headliner to round off your night www.fitothegiggles.com

Red Raw (With Siân Bevan and Gus Tawse.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:46, £2/£1

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy, costing mere pennies.

Tue 14 Apr Wil Hodgson

The Stand, 20:30–22:37, £8/£7

Wed 15 Apr Melting Pot

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £5/£4

Watch a series of short comedy sketches, presented by top actors and comedians.

Vote for your favourite, and see a longer version next month.

Thu 16 Apr The Thursday Show (With Ian Moore, Silky and John Gavin. Hosted

by Susan Morrison.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £8/£7

Ease yourself into the weekend with top laughs and delicious food.

Heresy

Jekyll and Hyde , 21:00–23:20, £3

Night of dark and depraved comedy

Fri 17 Apr The Friday Show (Ian Moore, Silky and Mike Wozniak. Hosted by Susan Morrison.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £10/£9

Doors open 7pm

Sat 18 Apr The Saturday Show (Ian Moore, Silky and Mike Wozniak. Hosted

by Susan Morrison.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £13

Top acts.

Hot food.

An altogether great night out.

Sun 19 Apr Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, 12:30–15:00, Free

Improvised comedy led by by audience suggestions, with Stu and Garry.

Hot coffee, delicious food...the nation’s top hangover cure

The Sunday Night Laugh-In (With Silky, Jim Park, Katie Craig, Ross Baillie and Robert Parker. Hosted

by Graeme Thomas.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:35, £5/£4

Mon 20 Apr Absolute Beginners (MC Iain Stirling and headliner Marcus Ryan) The Beehive Inn, 20:00–22:15, £2/£1

Showcase of new comedy talent with a top headliner to round off your night www.fitothegiggles.com

Red Raw (With Silky and Billy Kirkwood.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:46, £2/£1

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy, costing mere pennies.

Tue 21 Apr Vladimir McTavish: The Top 50 greatest Scots Of All Time Ever!

The Stand, 20:30–22:40, £8/£7

An hour of irreverent satire celebrating and debunking the men and women who shaped a nation’s culture. Edinburgh 2008 sellout.

Wed 22 Apr Benefit in Aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust (Joe Heenan, Vladimir McTavish and Jay Lafferty) The Stand, 20:30–22:36, £7/£5

Thu 23 Apr The Thursday Show (With Rudi Lickwood, Neil McFarlane, Jonathan Mayor and John Whale.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £8/£7

Ease yourself into the weekend with top laughs and delicious food.

Fri 24 Apr The Friday Show (Rudi Lickwood, Neil McFarlane, Jonathan Mayor and John Whale.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £10/£9

Doors open 7pm

Sat 25 Apr The Saturday Show (Rudi Lickwood, Neil McFarlane, Jonathan Mayor and John Whale.)

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £13

Top acts.

Hot food.

An altogether great night out.

Sun 26 Apr Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, 12:30–15:00, Free

Improvised comedy led by by audience suggestions, with Stu and Garry.

Hot coffee, delicious food...the nation’s top hangover cure

The Sunday Night LaughIn (With Jonathan Mayor, Rick Molland, Ailsa Johnston, Jason Arnstein and Daniel Webster) The Stand, 20:30–22:35, £5/£4

Mon 27 Apr Absolute Beginners (MC Barry McDonald and headliner Jim Park) The Beehive Inn, 20:00–22:15, £2/£1

Showcase of new comedy talent with a top headliner to round off your night www.fitothegiggles.com

Red Raw (With Chris Henry.)

The Stand, 20:30–22:46, £2/£1

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy, costing mere pennies.

Tue 28 Apr Topical Thunder (Des Clarke, Vladimir McTavish, Susan Calman and guests) The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £7/£6

This is the show that poses the questions others don’t dare to ask and pokes fun at the media, politics and Scotland itself.

Glasgow Theatre

GLASGOW Art CCA Stage Fright 11:00, Sat 4th–Sat 25th, closed sun/ mon, Free

The CCA and experimental theatre group Suspect Culture present a new collaboration exploring the nature of theatricality.

GOMA Collected: Matthew Buckingham and Peter Hujar 09:00, 01 Apr—25 Apr, not 5th, 12th, 19th, Free

Photography and video work by the American artists

Mary Mary Arrival Inside 12:00, Sat 18th, Thu 23rd, Fri 24th, Sat 25th, Free

Groups show featuring Alexandra Bircken, Thea Djordjadze, Gego, Owen Gump, Alexis Marguerite Teplin, Gerda Scheepers, Sam Windett

Recoat Rasterizing 12:00, 01 Apr—05 Apr, Free

International and local artists who work in the digital medium

Reposition Sandy Smith 12:00, 18 Apr—26 Apr, not 20th, 21st, Free

Sandy Smith will be presenting an exhibition of new work made during a three-week studio residency in one of the retail units in Princess Square. The project begins on the 28th March.

Stereo A Wee Tasty Experiment 20:00, 09 Apr

A night of art, music and performance bringing together the worlds of clubs, gigs and exhibitions for a unique experience in the basement of Glasgow’s Stereo.

The Arches Verbal Debris Multiple times, 01 Apr—12 Apr, Free

The ECA artists first collabortive show, created especially for the Arches, plays with ideas of scattered dialogue and captive audiences.

Modern Institute Ever Growing Never Old Multiple times, 01 Apr—09 Apr, not 5th, Free

Beck’s Futures winner whose work in painting, drawing and sculpture derives from architectural forms

Michael Wilkinson

Multiple times, Fri 3rd–Mon 27th, closed sundays, Free

Wall work and drawing from the Glasgow-based artist.

The Vic Bar Secret Wars: Scotland v England 21:00, 10 Apr

These live art battles are being hosted in the darkest corners of each city.

Artists are only allowed to use black paint with markers/brushes on a white background (normally a wall or board).

Sketches are not allowed once the battle begins and there is an invisible line which neither artist can cross into the other team’s area without their permission. The goal is to outdo, out skill or just embarrass your opponent by making fun of them and woo the crowd and judges.

Tramway James Yamada - Our Starry Night

Theatre Royal Cabaret

19:30, 01 Apr—04 Apr, contact www.ambassadortickets.com/

Carmen and Cheating, Lying, Stealing

19:30, 15 Apr—25 Apr, Multiple prices

Citizens Theatre Citizen Y

19:30, 08 Apr—11 Apr, £7

Les Amoureux

12:00, Wed 1st–Sat 25th, Closed Sun/Mon, Free

Roll it to me is a new group exhibition at the Collective Gallery featuring video work by Pil and Galia Kollectiv (London), Team PingPong (Berlin) and Tim Etchells (Sheffield).

Corn Exchange Life Time

11:00, Wed 1st, Thu 2nd, Fri 3rd, Sat 4th, Tue 7th, Wed 8th, Thu 9th, Fri 10th, Sat 11th, Tue 14th, Wed 15th, Free

Brian Hewitt’s latest show ‘life time’, predicts that he will die on 30 December, 2043. He counts his total heart beats, breaths, blinks, complete skin replacements and the total amount of radiation he’s been exposed to.

Printmakers New Commissions

10:00, Wed 1st– Sat 25th, CLOSED SUN/MON, Free

This exhibition showcases works by some of the UK’s most respected leading contemporary artists, all commissioned and published by Edinburgh Printmakers. Artists include Kate Downie, Andrew Mackenzie, Scott Myles, Ray Richardson, Graeme Todd and Kirsty Whiten.

Embassy Gallery Boneless Box

12:00, Fri 3rd–Sun 26th, ONLY FRI/SAT/ SUN, Free

Boneless Box is the inaugural show at the Embassy’s new gallery space in Art’s Complex. A deliberately themeless exhibition, Boneless Box features more than thirty local and international artists who have been invited to spastically jig heart muscle, pump blood and inflate our new reliquary behemoth into life.

Fruitmarket Openwide

11:00, 01 Apr—12 Apr, Free

Multimedia installations, materials propped suspended and balanced around central structures responding to the space of the gallery

Dummy

10:00, Sat 4th–Mon 27th, CLOSED SUNDAY, Free

For this show, Grace draws on his alter-ego as a graphic designer, using the industry’s standard filler text Lorem Ipsum as his starting point for a series of collages. Lorem Ipsum has been in use since the 1500s, and derives from Cicero’s 45BC treatise on ethics, ‘The Extremes of Good and Evil’. Though five centuries have elapsed, its function remains unchanged: to emphasize form over meaningful content so the reader is not distracted. Grace has designed and printed his own ‘meaningless’ newspaper to make a series of intricate formal patterns; subtle allegories for the ways in which we see (or fail to see) that which is before us.

Francesca Woodman

10:00, Sat 4th–Mon 27th, CLOSED SUNDAY, Free

Francesca Woodman is one of the most distinctive photographers of the last 50 years. She died in 1981 aged just 22, but during her brief yet extraordinary career she created an enduring body of photographic work that continues to fascinate and influence today.

Institut Francais d’Ecosse Vive la Tapisserie

09:30, 01 Apr—09 Apr, not 4th, 5th, Free

Seventeen of Scotland’s leading tapestry artists showing together for the first time

Inverleith House Autobuilding

10:00, Wed 1st–Sat 18th, Closed SUN/MON, Free

Leith School of Art Celebrating Twenty Years 10:00, 03 Apr—11 Apr, Free

Leith School of Art is holding a major exhibition in April to celebrate its Twentieth year. Celebrating Twenty Years will present a diverse range of work by the many interesting and talented people who have passed through the School’s doors since 1989.

Fri 24th, tbc

The Ferry

Scottish Dance Theatre 20:00, 23 Apr—24 Apr, tbc

Vegas Multiple times, 04 Apr—18 Apr, Mul-

Kings Theatre Little Shop of Horrors

tiple prices

19:30, 06 Apr—11 Apr, contact

Tramway

www.ambassadortickets.com

Orgy of Tolerance

Spoonface Steinburg

20:00, 11 Apr, £14

Dancing on Your Grave

Wuthering Heights

Venizke

19:30, 08 Apr—09 Apr, £14

19:30, 16 Apr—18 Apr, £12

The Idiot Colony

19:30, 21 Apr—25 Apr, £12

19:30, 21 Apr—25 Apr, £9.50

The Arches

Tron Theatre

Look Mummy I’m Dancing

Behaviour

Multiple times, 17 Apr—18 Apr, £10

Formerly known as the Arches Theatre

Vanessa

19:00, 12 Apr

An interactive aluminium sculpture studded with 1,900 lights marks the passageway to the Tramway’s Hidden Gardens.

Artist Rooms

19:30, 15 Apr—18 Apr, £10

The Angel and the Woodcutter 19:30, 24 Apr—26 Apr, £14

Edinburgh theatre

12:00, 17 Apr—26 Apr, not 20th, Free

The exhibition comes to Tramway as part of a nation wide project to launch an important new contemporary art collection assembled by Anthony d’Offay, known as ARTIST ROOMS.

Brunton Curve Foundation

Brunton Theatre Les Amoureux

19:30, Wed 8th, Mon 20th, Wed 22nd

Festival Theatre Roll it to me

20:00, Thu 16th, Fri 17th, Thu 23rd,

12:00, 01 Apr—26 Apr, not 6th, 13th, 20th, Free

Edinburgh Art Ingleby Gallery

Scottish Dance Theatre

tion of the live experience.

19:30, 08 Apr—22 Apr, Multiple prices

19:30, 03 Apr—04 Apr, £10.50

Collective

Festival, this re-imagining is a celebra-

Modern Art

Dorothy... Once More 19:30, 05 Apr, from £11

Never Forget

19:30, 21 Apr—27 Apr, not 26th, from £15.50

King’s Theatre 19:30, 01 Apr—04 Apr, from £14.50

The BFG

Multiple times, 08 Apr—11 Apr, from £11.50

Hot Flush

19:30, 13 Apr—18 Apr, from £19.50

Two Horizons

19:30, 15 Apr—25 Apr, not 19th, 20th, 21st, Multiple prices

10:00, 01 Apr—27 Apr, Free

Brings the works of some of the most interesting international artists to Scotland for the very first time. With challenging juxtapositions, humorous observations, and surprising new discoveries, it presents a unique chance to explore recent developments in contemporary art.

19:30, 21 Apr, from £14.50

Carmen and Cheating, Lying, Stealing

Playhouse Divine Performing Arts 19:30, 08 Apr, from £15

13:00, Wed 1st–Mon 27th, not sa/ sun, £10 13:00, 01 Apr—04 Apr, £10

At the heart of ARTIST ROOMS is the concept of individual rooms devoted to particular artists, so that their work can be seen and appreciated in depth.

10:00, 01 Apr—27 Apr, Free

Play Pie and a Pint

Poem in October

Hot Flush

Le Grand Cirque

19:30, 15 Apr—18 Apr, from £12.50

19:30, 17 Apr—25 Apr, not 19th, 20th, Call venue for details

Traverse

For King and Country

19:30, 13 Apr—18 Apr, contact www.ambassadortickets.com/

Artist Rooms

Copenhagen

Interiors

Waiting for Godot

20:00, 03 Apr—11 Apr, not 5th, from £5

Horrible History

An Apple A Day

19:30, 21 Apr—25 Apr, contact www. ambassadortickets.com/

Lucky Box 13:00, 07 Apr—11 Apr, £10

Royal Lyceum Curse of the Starving Classes

13:00, 07 Apr—11 Apr, £10

Be Near Me 20:00, 15 Apr—18 Apr, from £8

19:45, 01 Apr—11 Apr, not 5th, 6th, £12

Arches Award 19:15, 22 Apr—25 Apr, from £8

RSA Turner and Italy Multiple times, 01 Apr—27 Apr, £8(£6)

Explores the complex and enduring relationship between JMW Turner and Italy, highlights include the artist’s great ‘Rome from the Vatican’ of 1819, and his 1844 ‘Approach to Venice’.

Stills Barbara Probst 11:00, 18 Apr—27 Apr, Free

Photography from the German artist.

Talbot Rice Desire Lines 10:00, Wed 1st–Sat 25th, CLOSED SUN/MON, Free

Site specific works by a variety of artists across the Edinburgh University campus while the gallery’s closed.

The Bongo Club After School Club 23:00, 26 Apr, £6 (£5)

No show without funds. Bands, DJs, performances, drag queens! Who knows?

doggerfisher Built, Lacking Multiple times, 17 Apr—25 Apr, not 19th, 20th, Free

April 2009

THE SKINNY 67

Aberdeen

Clubs Fri 03 Apr Kamikazi (DJ ADAM) Moshulu, 22:30–03:00, £3

Kamikazi is Aberdeens longest standing champion of rock. Every Friday expect 500+ folks for one of the biggest alternative nights in the north-east.

Mixtape (IDC)

Snafu, 23:00–03:00, varies

Weekly club sessions in the dirty side of electronic moosick.

Sat 04 Apr The Deep End

Snafu, 22:00–03:00, £6

Each and every Saturday your host Funky Transport delivers house music in its purest form. Just the good stuff for music lovers. http://www.myspace.com/funkytransport

Adventures in Stereo (Steven Milne + co) Moshulu, 22:30–00:03, £3

Classic Indie and 60s/70s rock tunes, to the latest Electro/ Dance / New Wave classics along with the latest Indie Seven Inches! www.myspace.com/adventuresinstereoclubnight

Mon 06 Apr Black Tooth Rock Lounge Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3/2

As well as dancefloor gems from the Fudge DJs, expect touring bands, local barnyard rockstars, groupies, dark cabaret and burlesque.

Fri 10 Apr Kamikazi (DJ ADAM) Moshulu, 22:30–03:00, £3

Kamikazi is Aberdeens longest standing champion of rock. Every Friday expect 500+ folks for one of the biggest alternative nights in the north-east.

Mixtape (Edit Select: Stacey Pullen, Tony Scott) Snafu, 23:00–03:00, varies

Weekly club sessions in the dirty side of electronic moosick.

Sat 11 Apr The Deep End

Snafu, 22:00–03:00, £6

Each and every Saturday your host Funky Transport delivers house music in its purest form. Just the good stuff for music lovers.

Adventures in Stereo (Steven Milne + co) Moshulu, 22:30–00:03, £3

Classic Indie and 60s/70s rock tunes, to the latest Electro/ Dance / New Wave classics along with the latest Indie Seven Inches!

Mon 13 Apr Black Tooth Rock Lounge Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3/2

As well as dancefloor gems from the Fudge DJs, expect touring bands, local barnyard rockstars, groupies, dark cabaret and burlesque. http://www.myspace.com/

Fri 17 Apr Kamikazi (DJ ADAM) Moshulu, 22:30–03:00, £3

Kamikazi is Aberdeens longest standing champion of rock. Every Friday expect 500+ folks for one of the biggest alternative nights in the north-east.

Dundee Mixtape (residents (GILES WALER+ co))

Snafu, 23:00–03:00, varies

Weekly club sessions in the dirty side of electronic moosick.

Sat 18 Apr The Deep End

Snafu, 22:00–03:00, £6

Each and every Saturday your host Funky Transport delivers house music in its purest form. Just the good stuff for music lovers.

Adventures in Stereo (Steven Milne + co) Moshulu, 22:30–00:03, £3

Classic Indie and 60s/70s rock tunes, to the latest Electro/ Dance / New Wave classics along with the latest Indie Seven Inches!

Mon 20 Apr Black Tooth Rock Lounge Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3/2

As well as dancefloor gems from the Fudge DJs, expect touring bands, local barnyard rockstars, groupies, dark cabaret and burlesque.

Fri 24 Apr Kamikazi (DJ ADAM) Moshulu, 22:30–03:00, £3

Kamikazi is Aberdeens longest standing champion of rock. Every Friday expect 500+ folks for one of the biggest alternative nights in the north-east.

Mixtape (residents (GILES WALER+ co))

Snafu, 23:00–03:00, varies

Weekly club sessions in the dirty side of electronic moosick.

Sat 25 Apr The Deep End

Snafu, 22:00–03:00, £6

Each and every Saturday your host Funky Transport delivers house music in its purest form. Just the good stuff for music lovers.

Adventures in Stereo (Steven Milne + co) Moshulu, 22:30–00:03, £3

Classic Indie and 60s/70s rock tunes, to the latest Electro/ Dance / New Wave classics along with the latest Indie Seven Inches!

Comedy Tue 07 Apr Snafu Comedy Club (Paul Pirie, Jason C Murphy, Jill Baxter, Kevin McCallum) Snafu, 19:00–22:30, £4

Tue 14 Apr Snafu Comedy Club (Raymond Mearns, Kim McAskill, Chris Forbes, Andrew Learmonth) Snafu, 19:00–22:30, £4

Tue 21 Apr Snafu Comedy Club (Bruce Fummey, Scott Forbes, Jason C Murphy) Snafu, 19:00–22:30, £4

Music Wed 01 Apr DEPARTURES, GLASS WOLVES, HEART IN HAND, UNCALM The Tunnels, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Rock

ISOLATED ATOMS, THE MARIONETTES, DEBUTAUNT The Tunnels, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Alt. electro and rock

Thu 02 Apr THE FIRE & I, 10 EASY WISHES The Tunnels, 19:30–22:00, £tbc

Indie rock

Tommy Smith & Jacob Karlzon

The Lemon Tree, 19:30–22:30, £13.75

Jazz

Thu 09 Apr

Sat 25 Apr

The Dirty Hearts Club (Steven Milne + guests)

Big Vern ‘n’ The Shootahs

Steven Milne hosts this weekly electroindisocial that keeps the tight jeans that wee bit tighter. DJs + Live performances

Soul and funk nine-piece from Glasgow

Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3

Fri 10 Apr Vessels (Wintermute)

The Lemon Tree, 20:00–22:30, £12.50

Sun 26 Apr Belhaven Sunday Jazz The Lemon Tree, 12:00–14:00, Free

The Tunnels, 20:00–23:00, £5

Belhaven Sunday Jazz (Kate Geiben)

The Lemon Tree, 12:00–14:00, Free

Mon 13 Apr

Art Foyer Restaurant

THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT

Black Tooth Rock Lounge

Allan Watson

Indie

As well as dancefloor gems from the Fudge DJs, expect touring bands, local barnyard rockstars, groupies, dark cabaret and burlesque. http://www.myspace.com/

free

Café Drummonds, 20:30–22:30, £tbc

The Dirty Hearts Club (Steven Milne + guests) Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3

Steven Milne hosts this weekly electroindisocial that keeps the tight jeans that wee bit tighter. DJs + Live performances

Fri 03 Apr GFN presents (The Fractions, Jonas First Date, The Terrors + more) Cellar 35 , 19:00–02:00, £5

Ska, punk and hardcore from medley of bands in ace, snug venue.

The Fractions (Rochdale) as seen supporting Rancid on their last tour, Jonas First Date (Italy) - female fronted melodic punk rock/hardcore outfit, The Terrors (Glasgow) - street punk with a hint of psychobilly - plus local skanks The Hijacksand Escape To Victory.

ESKIMO BLONDE, M.I.N.E, THE DIRTY TRICKS, ZED MACHINE, THE ELIZABETHS

Café Drummonds, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Indie rock

Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3/2

Thu 16 Apr The Dirty Hearts Club (Steven Milne + guests) Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3

Steven Milne hosts this weekly electroindisocial that keeps the tight jeans that wee bit tighter. DJs + Live performances

Fri 17 Apr The Hollies

Music Hall, 19:00–22:30, £22.50

Pop old boys

Jon Allen

The Lemon Tree, 20:30–22:30, £5

Singer/ songwriter of a folk-rock bent

Sun 19 Apr Belhaven Sunday Jazz (Buchaneers Jazz Band)

SCOTTISH COT DEATH TRUST CHARITY NIGHT: KASHMIR RED, THE TIJUANA SUN

The Lemon Tree, 12:00–14:00, Free

Charity gig

Black Tooth Rock Lounge

The Tunnels, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Sat 04 Apr HELLER STATE, 4 STAR SUNDAY The Tunnels, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Pop punk

VESUVIAN, PETER PARKER

Café Drummonds, 20:00–22:00, £tbc

Psych rock

Sun 05 Apr Belhaven Sunday Jazz

The Lemon Tree, 12:00–14:00, Free

HEAVENS BASEMENT, DARKWATER, KETAMINE DECO, THE WILDCARDS

The Tunnels, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Rock

MY MINDS WEAPON

Café Drummonds, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Hardcore

Mon 06 Apr Black Tooth Rock Lounge Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3/2

As well as dancefloor gems from the Fudge DJs, expect touring bands, local barnyard rockstars, groupies, dark cabaret and burlesque.

Mon 20 Apr Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3/2

As well as dancefloor gems from the Fudge DJs, expect touring bands, local barnyard rockstars, groupies, dark cabaret and burlesque.

Thu 23 Apr RSNO: Humour and Humanity

Music Hall, 19:00–22:00, £8.50-£19

Dvoák’s Scherzo capriccioso, Bruckner’s Sixth Sympony and a new concerto for Håkan Hardenberger

The Dirty Hearts Club (Steven Milne + guests) Snafu, 21:00–02:00, £3

Steven Milne hosts this weekly electroindisocial that keeps the tight jeans that wee bit tighter. DJs + Live performances

Fri 24 Apr Rumours of Fleetwood Mac

Music Hall, 19:30–22:30, £16.50-£18.50

Tribute

Karan Casey

The Lemon Tree, 20:30–22:30, £10

Irish folk singer

11:00, Wed 1st–Sat 18th, SUN/MON,

Sculptural works that explore the ‘aesthetics of labour’, craftmanship and labour from Perthsire born artist and GRy’s alumni.

Kilau Mother Multiple times, 01 Apr—25 Apr, free

Chronicling the making of ‘mother’ - a 1970’s set short film about a family torn apart by the wife/mothers suicide.

Peacock Visual James Furneaux: A retrospective 09:30, 18 Apr—25 Apr, not 19th, 20th, free

A retrospective of one of the Abereen’s best loved artists as part of Peacock’s 35th birthday celebrations.

Under the Hammer Feed The Bast That Drives You Multiple times, 01 Apr—15 Apr, free

Want to know what a picture looks like that takea an hour per square inch to draw. Check out the doodles from Neets.

Theatre His Majesty’s Blood Brothers 19:30, 01 Apr—18 Apr, Multiple prices

Scottish Dance Theatre 20:00, 16 Apr—24 Apr, tbc

The Lemon Tree The Idiot Colony 19:30, 09 Apr—18 Apr, £10

Les Amoureux 19:30, Wed 8th, Mon 20th, Multiple prices

68 THE SKINNY April 2009

The Reading Rooms, 22:30–03:00, £8/ £6 before 11pm

House

Sat 04 Apr The Reading Rooms, 22:30–03:00, £10

Fri 10 Apr CTRL*ALT*DEFEAT

The Reading Rooms, 22:30–03:00, £tbc

House

Fri 17 Apr PANGEA

The Reading Rooms, 22:30–03:00, £tbc

Electronica

Sat 18 Apr GOING BACK TO OUR ROOTS (PTJC, DANNY WALSH, BAXTER PARK SUNBATHER, Alan Livie, Andy Kerr)

The Reading Rooms, 21:30–03:00, £10

Fri 24 Apr GREG WILSON @ Autodisco

The Reading Rooms, 22:30–03:00, £tbc

Electro, funk and disco

Sat 25 Apr THE UNDERGROUND HEROES (The Sport) Fat Sam’s, 19:00–23:00, £8

Alt. rock

SUNWEED SOUND SYSTEM IN SESSION

The Reading Rooms, 22:30–03:00, £tbc

Comedy Sat 04 Apr Just Laugh (Compere Bruce Fummey, Dougie Dunlop, Keir McAllister and JoJo Sutherland)

Fat Sam’s, 21:00–23:00, £9.00 including free entry to nightclub

www.justlaugh.co.uk

Music Fri 03 Apr Tim and Sam’s Tim and Sam Band

The Doghouse, 19:00–23:00, £5

Acoustic folk

Sat 04 Apr Lefty

The Doghouse, 14:00–19:00, Free

Blues and country

Sneak Promo: Fell Silent The Doghouse, 19:00–23:00, Free

Metal, rock and indie

Sun 05 Apr Official Secrets Act and Dave? and Theatre Fall and Native Alien The Doghouse, 19:00–23:00, £5

Get yer listings

online

Fri 03 Apr Headway (Harvey McKay, Andy Barton, Neil Clark)

Norman Jay M.B.E @ Plastic Soul (Desperate Dan)

Experimental alt. rock and indie

Sun 12 Apr

Clubs

New wave pop

Thu 09 Apr Wintermute, Great Eskimo Hoax, Penguins Kill Polar Bears, Milk Club The Doghouse, 19:00–23:00, £5

Alternative

theskinny.co.uk

Fri 10 Apr Core, Excellent Cadaver The Doghouse, 19:00–23:00, £4

Album launch

STIRLING THE DOGHOUSE, 19:00–23:00, £21

Indie rock under blue neon, probably

NEON NIGHTS (TEAM! NEON, CHRIS DU FUR, IS_KILL)

THE READING ROOMS, 22:30–03:00, £TBC

THU 16 APR 1990’S

THE DOGHOUSE, 19:00–23:00, £8

Indie rock

FRI 17 APR HEALTHY MINDS COLLAPSE, WHITE LIGHT, PARANOID MONKEYS

COMEDY THU 02 APR JUST LAUGH (COMPERE BRUCE FUMMEY, DOUGIE DUNLOP, KEIR MCALLISTER AND JOJO SUTHERLAND)

OUTBACK BAR & GRILL, 20:00–23:00, £9

www.justlaugh.co.uk

WED 22 APR GUILDED BALLOON COMEDY CLUB (JARRED CHRISTMAS, TOM STADE, DANIEL SIMONSEN, JOHN GAVIN) THE TOLBOOTH , 20:00–23:00, £10

THE DOGHOUSE, 19:00–23:00, £TBC

Alt. rock and pop

SAT 18 APR DRESSED TO KILL, WITCHBLADE

THE DOGHOUSE, 19:00–23:00, £8

Kiss tribute

THE CINEMATICS

FAT SAM’S, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

Indie rock

FRI 24 APR THE TRADE, DAVE ARCARI, THE CURTAINS, 4DAY WEEKEND THE DOGHOUSE, 19:00–23:00, £TBC

Alt. rock

SAT 25 APR BOX PRESENTS: THE BLACK ARROWS

THE DOGHOUSE, 19:00–23:00, £5

Single launch

TUE 28 APR

MUSIC THU 02 APR SCOTTISH FLUTE TRIO

THE TOLBOOTH , 20:00–23:00, £10/8

The acclaimed trio perform in conjunction with Japanese musician and composer, Joji Hirota

FRI 03 APR RELOADED

THE TOLBOOTH , 19:00–23:00, £4

The Tolbooth’s platform for emerging acts

ESSENCE OF IRELAND

THE ALBERT HALLS, 19:30–22:00, £18.50/£17.50

A cavalcade production of dance, live music and song from the green across the water

SAT 04 APR

SUCIOPERRO, THE FLOOR, MAKE SPARKS, THE BOY ORCHESTRA

TOMMY SMITH YOUTH JAZZ ORCHESTRA

Alt. rock

Dynamic young ensemble

THE DOGHOUSE, 19:00–23:00, £5

ART DCA THE ASSOCIATES

09:30, WED 1ST–MON 27TH, CLOSED DUN, FREE

Celebrating DCA’s 10th anniversary with a survey of work from Jordanstone trained artists

DOJ COLLEGE BACK OF THE HEAD: SOME ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO PORTRAITURE 09:30, 01 APR—03 APR, FREE

Group show, exploring portraiture through various mediums

PRINTS, BOOKS AND THINGS 09:30, 01 APR—02 APR, FREE

‘Self initiated project’ work from level 3 illustration students

SPIRITUAL OBJECTS

09:30, 06 APR—10 APR, FREE

Work from Interactive Media Design students, examining the increasingly blurred boundaries between the virtual and physical world

GENERATOR

THE TOLBOOTH , 20:00–23:00, £8/6

THU 09 APR SHASHANK

THE TOLBOOTH , 20:00–23:00, £10/8

Traditional carnatic flute from southern India

FRI 17 APR RELOADED

THE TOLBOOTH , 19:00–23:00, £6

The Tolbooth’s platform for emerging acts

SUN 19 APR STRATHCARRON SINGERS

THE ALBERT HALLS, 19:30–22:00, £10

Gala spring concert

THU 23 APR KARAN CASEY

THE TOLBOOTH , 20:00–23:00, £12/10

Irish singer

FRI 24 APR

SAT 25 APR AN EVENING WITH PETER GRANT

THE ALBERT HALLS, 19:30–22:00, £12.00/10.00

Lounge jazz from a blonde boy from Yorkshire

MARTIN GREEN’S BRASS BAND DAY

THE TOLBOOTH , 20:00–23:00, £10/8

A world premiere of Green’s new comission for the Kirkintilloch Brass Band

36 BLAIR ST, EDINBURGH. 0131 220 6176

SICK NOTE THURSDAY 2ND APRIL TIM AND SAM’S TIM AND SAM BAND WITH TIM AND SAM

SUN 26 APR THE ORCHESTRA OF SCOTTISH OPERA

MACROBERT, 15:00–17:00, £10/6

Showcasing various components of the orchestra, geared towards budding young musicians

ART

DUTY FREE 3rd April

7pm - 10pm free entry!! thomas truax, withered hand, greg dodgeson

4th April 09 7pm

OVER 14s

STIRLING SMITH 6 ARTISTS

MULTIPLE TIMES, 01 APR—19 APR, NOT 6TH, 13TH, FREE

Painting, pastels, collage, photography and film from a collective based in Bridge of Allan

ARTLINK CENTRAL

MULTIPLE TIMES, 01 APR—26 APR, NOT 6TH, 13TH, 20TH, FREE

Ceramics, painting, textiles and prints from participants of the Artlink Central projects in Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannan

with Gideon Conn, Carrie MacDonald 19TH APRIL 09

7pm OVER 14s

SUPPORT

HIP PARADE + THEATRE FALL

DEREK ROBERTSON

MULTIPLE TIMES, 25 APR—26 APR, FREE

Sculptural painting, prints and drawing

CHANGING ROOM GRAHAM FAGEN (SOMEBODYELSE)

10:00, 01 APR—11 APR, NOT 5TH, 6TH, FREE

DUTY FREE

20th April 7pm - 10pm free entry!! we see lights - album launch tinderbox, lindsay sudgeon

A portraiture exhibition by Graham Fagen, exploring cultural identity through photographic works. Exhibited for the first time in Scotland, as part of the homecoming Scotland event 2009.

THEATRE SAT 18 APR WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD MACROBERT, 11:00–13:00, £6/5

An interactive fairytale of a jaunt through the fantastical and surreal

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD MACROBERT, 14:00–16:00, £6/5

An interactive fairytale of a jaunt through the fantastical and surreal

DUTY FREE

23rd April 7pm - 10pm free entry!!

pop up, alan bissett (spoken word), futuristic retro champions, kirstin innes (spoken word)

24TH APRIL 09 7PM

SUN 19 APR WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD MACROBERT, 11:00–13:00, £6/5

An interactive fairytale of a jaunt through the fantastical and surreal

THE ELECTRONIC BAR

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

An orgy of laptops, sequencers, drum machines and samples

An interactive fairytale of a jaunt through the fantastical and surreal

THE TOLBOOTH , 19:00–23:00, FREE

BREAKING BOUNDARIES IN MUSIC FREE ENTRY 11PM-3AM

WED 15 APR PETE DOHERTY

MACROBERT, 14:00–16:00, £6/5

MASS DAMPER

DAN MICHAELSON & THE COASTGUARD

THEBROKENFAMILYBAND.COM

26th April 09 7pm

JENIFEREVER

09:00, 01 APR—25 APR, NOT 5TH, 12TH, 19TH, FREE

Minimalist scultpure exploring the functions of structurally engineered modes of absorption

THEATRE CAIRD HALL BLOOD BROTHERS

19:30, 01 APR—18 APR, NOT 12TH, 13TH, MULTIPLE PRICES

DUNDEE REP BILLY LIAR

19:30, 21 APR—25 APR, FROM £12

be a familiar and lion.chase.tigers

155,524 PEOPLE A MONTH CAN'T BE WRONG THESKINNY.CO.UK

26TH APRIL 09

FAKE BLOOD

ALEX METRIC + KIDDA RIPPING RECORDS (SOUTH BRIDGE), WWW.TICKETWEB.CO.UK T: 08444 77 1000 TICKETS SCOTLAND T: 0131 220 3234

WWW.THECABARETVOLTAIRE.COM APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 69

COMPETITIONS

WIN TICKETS TO THE

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL!

Horoscopes COMPILED BY VISIONARY VIV

ARIES

Edinburgh International Film Festival has teamed up with The Skinny to offer five lucky readers a pair of tickets to the film of their choice, plus a special limited edition EIFF goodie bag at this year’s festival.

Now in its 63rd year, the EIFF takes place over twelve days (1728th June), each and every one crammed with fantastic premieres, masterclasses, Q&As, workshops and other special events.

Register now at www.edfilmfest.org.uk to be the first to know what’s happening when during the festival, and get the chance to win lots more great prizes!

To enter the competition, just answer the following question:

Last year Shane Meadows won the EIFF Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature for which film?

Visit www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions before April 30 for your chance to win!

Regular Skinny T&Cs apply, available on request.

21 MAR - 21 APR

At the moment you're being given a hard time. This is a practical demonstration of your popularity levels. A good start would be to learn a selection of amusing lines from a popular TV series like Friends or David Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth and drop them into conversation at regular intervals.

TAURUS

21 APR - 21 MAY

Be nice to your granny, she's not got long to go and she's got a will to draw up. Don't kill her now, you dick.

GEMINI

22 MAY - 21 JUN

With Venus off the radar and Jupiter at home doing Scrabble training, you're not at your best this month. So when people give up their seats on the bus for you as a matter of course, it only seems to make the sinking feeling worse.

CANCER

22 JUN - 22 JUL

If you stay focused, you'll save on bullets. But sometimes you have to step back and think about the choices you're making. Even you'll struggle to pull off an appropriately reflective shooting massacre.

LEO

23 JUL - 23 AUG

As the credit crunch bites and prejudice against sex workers continues to be legislated into standard procedure, now is a good time to consider a career as a pimp.

Smarter still would be to set up an agency website giving start-up pimps up to date information on gaps in the market across Scotland. Now is the time, big man.

VIRGO

24 AUG - 22 SEP

WIN TICKETS TO THE SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL! Soundcrash has joined forces with New Bohemia to bring you the inaugural Soundwave Festival in Croatia from 17th - 20th July.

Thanks to the folks at Soundcrash, The Skinny are giving away two pairs of tickets to this fantastic event.

The Soundwave Festival includes four days of boundary bothering alternative music, all against the beautiful backdrop of pristine beaches, mountains, the Adriatic Sea, and other like-minded revellers. Set across three stages, Soundwave also includes boat parties, an amphitheatre for live acts that overlooks the ocean, and much more!

Headline acts include DJ Yoda, Hexstatic, Alice Russell, DJ Format, DJ Vadim, Daedelus, and many, many more to be confirmed. For more information on the line-up you can visit www.soundwavecroatia.com.

This month, and any month henceforth with 'ember' in the name, if you get bitten by a dog, you'll get rabies. It you're a numerological '11', it'll give you visions of future football pools results. But you'll still have rabies.

LIBRA

23 SEP - 23 OCT

If you're feeling overly tired or maybe just a little under the weather, now is a particularly good time to ask yourself searching questions about the meaning of life: save getting rest for later.

SCORPIO

24 OCT - 22 NOV

Try experimenting with your food this month, especially with anything of the plant variety. Lettuce, zucchini, ladies' fingers. This will make you sleepy, so very very sleepy.

SAGITTARIUS

23 NOV - 21 DEC

You would make an excellent butcher. Good hands. Strong hands. But leave it out the bedroom, eh?

CAPRICORN

22 DEC - 20 JAN

Ever wanted to shout 'bomb!' just as you enter the commuter train?

Yeah? Problem is, come the morning of 15 April, every bloody Capricorn in Britain is going to try it on the way to work. Losers.

AQUARIUS

To enter the competition, just answer the following question:

21 JAN - 18 FEB

What is the official currency of Croatia?

Okay, so the idiot capoeira class let you into the Drill Hall, and by some fluke you chanced upon a set of master keys. But don't think you've got one on us, we're just gonna ask the stars to tell us where you live.*

PISCES

19 FEB - 20 MAR

Visit www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions before April 28 for your chance to win!

Regular Skinny T&Cs apply, available on request.

Everyone in the pub is a Pisces. Even that one over there with the goat head. It's papier maché. Dirty fucking alkies. Give us a drink. * THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. BUT WE CAN ACTUALLY CONSULT THE STARS, SO IT'LL BE FINE.

70 THE SKINNY APRIL 2009

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The Skinny wants to know what you think about what we do.

Shout us on hello@theskinny.co.uk and let us know.

APRIL 2009

THE SKINNY 71