The Skinny July 2010

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ISSUE 58 • JULY 2010 •

MITCHELL MUSEUM

LEAD THE CHARGE ON THE SCOTTISH FESTIVAL CIRCUIT

EXCLUSIVE

INTERVIEWS

PLASTIKMAN • CONVERGE • THEMSELVES CHROME HOOF • HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE THE UNBOUND PROGRAMME FOR EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL & JOANN SFAR ON GAINSBOURG MUSIC|FILM|CLUBS|PERFORMANCE|DIGITAL|READING|COMEDY|ART|FASHION|LISTINGS

2 THE SKINNY July 2010

July 2010

THE SKINNY 3

TS ED E IT C K E M TI L L I O N IL A B AS VA SE A

OUNC JUST ANN

OCTOBER

ED

4 NIGHTS - 4 VENUES 4 SETS - 4 THEMES WED 20 THE RENFREW FERRY - "DRINKIN" THUR 21 THE GRAND OLE OPRY - "CHEATIN" FRI 22 ORAN MOR - "KILLIN" SAT 23 THE CLASSIC GRAND - "HELL"

TOMMY REILLY

Tuesday 28 September

Glasgow Barrowlands

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

FRIDAY 17 SEPTEMBER EDINBURGH LIQUID ROOMS

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SATURDAY 18 SEPTEMBER O2 ABC GLASGOW

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NEW ALBUM ‘HELLO! I’M TOMMY REILLY’ OUT NOW

by arrangement with X-ray Touring

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WWW.TOMMYREILLYMUSIC.COM

FEATURING

Karine Polwart, Emma Pollock & King Creosote

FRI 5TH NOV EDINBURGH QUEEN’S HALL

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Editorial OUR Reading Editor has kindly informed me that my habit of beginning my editorials with references to the weather are the mark of a terrible writer, and so this month I will avoid that particular topic. Instead, I’d like to direct your attention first to our pull-out supplement. It’s a very special supplement, made for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and containing exclusive details of a new strand of their programme, a series of free late night events called Unbound. Our guide will tell you everything you need to know, and looks beautiful into the bargain. It also contains a quiz involving the Bulwer-Lytton Award for fiction, a prize to find the worst opening line of a novel inspired by Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s weather-referencing ‘It was a dark and stormy night…’ Ahem.

Back in the main magazine, our cover stars this month are local favourites Mitchell Museum. We’ve been championing them for a while now, and were overjoyed to hear both that their debut album is brilliant, and that they’re going to be kicking off their Scottish festival season at Kelburn, T in the Park and Wickerman this month. To celebrate, Darren Carle interviewed the lads while Markus Thorsen hung them on a washing line.

Elsewhere, we’ve got exclusive chats with Converge, Themselves and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, as well as a guide to Prog by Chrome Hoof’s Leo Smee,

This Month's cover photographer: Markus Thorsen Markus spent a lot of his time growing up looking at things and taking pictures of them – mostly while listening to music. He lives more in Edinburgh than he does anywhere else in the world. He is not from there, he was born and bred in a small seaside town called Sandefjord – that is in Norway. Markus is passionate about music. For two years now he has worked as a

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KATIE HERZIG plus gu

plus special guests

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ests

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TICKETS: www.seetickets.com 0871 220 0260 or in person from Ticket Scotland: Argyle Street Glasgow, Rose St Edinburgh & Ripping Records and all usual outlets

4 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

rosamund@theskinny.co.uk

OUR GUIDE WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW, AND LOOKS BEAUTIFUL INTO THE BARGAIN photographer for The Skinny magazine. He's got a degree in visual communication from Edinburgh College of Art, and has no idea where he put his keys. www.markusthorsen.com

THE SKINNY July 2010 Issue 58, July 2010 © 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

Editorial Editor

Rosamund West

Online & Music Editor

Dave Kerr

Clubs Editor

Chris Duncan

Deviance Editor

Nine

Performance Editor

Gareth K. Vile

Film Editor

Gail Tolley

Heads Up Editor

Anna Docherty

Comedy Editor

Lizzie Cass-Maran

Reading Editor

Keir Hind

Digital Editor

Alex Cole

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part without the explicit permission of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the printer or the publisher.

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The Skinny is Scotland's largest independent 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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SPECIAL FRINGE SHOWS - JUST ANNOUNCED

and an interview with Plastikman aka Richie Hawtin.

In Art, we rate Scotland’s central belt degree shows, and there’s an enlightening interview with Gainsbourg director and graphic novelist Joann Sfar in Film.

That should be plenty to keep you occupied.

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Food & Drink Editor

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Competitions Editor

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Fashion Editor

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skinny hpg July_Tuts_Layout 1 23/06/2010 11:05 Page 1

Contents FEATURE

Mitchell Museum Glasgow's Mitchell Museum reveal a stellar debut, set the record straight on Nigel Godrich and mock Bono's tiny feet.

6 10 13 14 16 18 20 24 27 28 30 33 56 62

Âť8

Heads Up

Your guide to where the fun's at this July.

Fashion

A shoot and an interview with Chelsea Rebelle, including a 5kg sequin dress.

Digital

Doubly Deviant, Doubly Damned: Women and Crime.

Food and Drink A guide to summer food festivals, including healthy food at T

Showcase GSA graduate Martin Bech-Ravn shows us his paintings.

Deviance

How to quit Facebook and find Diaspora*.

Film Filmmaker and graphic novelist Joann Sfar talks Gainsbourg.

Performance

The Circus Maximus, magic, and Shakespeare in the Botanics can't keep GKV away from burlesque.

Comedy

Looking forward to a LOLtastic Funny in Falkirk.

Art

Battle of the degree shows, as Glasgow School of Art and Edinburgh College of Art jostle for your attention.

Music

Converge and Themselves come to town, Predestination Records boot our erse sideyways with a killer new compilation, and Chrome Hoof show us the way of Prog.

Unbound The Unbound programme for Edinburgh International Book Festival .

Clubs

Plastikman talks re-emergence while Fabio warns of the danger in dubstep.

Listings Tells you what's going on this month, ken.

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 5

LIFESTYLE

HEADS YOUR

UP MONTH AHEAD TUE, 29 JUN

For a creative Tuesday night-er head to ALL THE YOUNG NUDES, the Flying Duck's relaxed life-drawing class, equipped with models, a teacher, live DJs, and a fully-stocked bar. We're sold. Flying Duck, Glasgow, 8pm, £4

WED, 30 JUN

THU, 1 JUL

The Individual Throw project invites you to hurl white, chalk-filled balls at a large black wall in an action vs. consequences display of live pattern. Art in all its unpredictable glory. As part of the New Works New Worlds performance art festival, www.newworksnewworlds. co.uk. The Arches, Glasgow, 6pm, Festival pass £22 (£18)

The former Guns 'n’ Roses guitarist sticks to what he knows best: saying nothing, looking awesome, and playing like a motherfucker.

C'mon, it's SLASH! HMV Picture House, Edinburgh, 7pm, Sold out

FRI, 2 JUL New York indie oddball Luke Temple's new project, HERE WE GO MAGIC, is an essay in fairytale electro, complete with acid-trip vocals, washes of xylophone, and pitter-patter percussion. It's also ruddy good. King Tut's, Glasgow, 8pm, £8

TUE, 6 JUL

WED, 7 JUL

THUR, 8 JUL

Dropping by Killer Kitsch for a guest slot is YOLANDA BE COOL, the Australian sweat duo behind recent clubbers' fave We Speak No Americano. Seriously down with the kids cool. Look busy. Buff Club, Glasgow, 11pm, £4 (£3)

Trongate 103's monthly filmmakers' event, CAFE FLICKER, invites local talent to screen and discuss their short films in a relaxed setting. Beats mid-week multiplex viewing. GMAC (Trongate 103), Glasgow, 7pm, £3

The big daddy of the musical festival calendar kicks off, with Eminem, Muse, and Kasabian headlining proceedings, as well as, oh, some hundred-odd other acts, spanning the musical line from Jay Z to local faves Sparrow and The Workshop.

Are you one of the lucky buggers with a ticket? Balado, Until 11 Jul, Sold out

SUN, 11 JUL GFT highlights all the best

MON, 12 JUL

W olf ja zz

We never tire of Cab Vol's Monday night party, TRADE UNION, eking out the UNION weekend just that little bit longer. Beefy and Wolfjazz blind-pick the mismatched selection of tunes. Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, 11pm, Free (£2 after midnight)

bits from London's Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and Here Come The Girls is a rather superb selection of lesbian shorts not to be missed. GFT, Glasgow, 6pm, £6.90 (£5.20)

SAT, 17 JUL

18 months after that fateful fire shut down the Liquid Rooms, the much-loved Edinburgh club is back with a grand relaunch.

Musika will kick off proceedings with superstar DJ SASHA with support from Max Cooper.

Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh, 9pm-3am, £20 (early bird £15)

Dunno who this guy is SUN, 18 JUL Recalling the golden age of record

FREE! MON,

cover art, PRINTS OF DARKNESS showcases 11 original prints from local artists, as well as a limited edition picture-disc LP from multimedia artist Vicki Bennett. Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, until 4 Sep, Free

19 JUL A collection of artists have been asked to create a piece of art – in any form – based on their favourite tree, alongside a little cardboard luggage label telling of where their tree is and why said tree is their favourite. This is the result: TREE MAP Exhibition.

Organic and delightful.

The Outbye Gallery, Glasgow, until Jul 31, Free

FREE!

NORMAN SHAW, PRINCESS OF WAILS, 2010

Edited by: Anna Docherty

FRI, 23 JUL

DJ SAS HA 6 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

Taking it down a notch after T in the Park is WICKERMAN FESTIVAL, with its wide open music policy (from Teenage Fanclub to Tony Christie), pictureperfect setting, and the burning of a 30ft wicker man. Dundrennan, until 24 Jul, £85 (weekend camping ticket)

PHOTO: TAKESKI TSUGA

T he re W ill Be Fire works

s

LIFESTYLE

GA

SAT, 3 JUL

SUN, 4 JUL

MON, 5 JUL

The grafitti castle hosts its annual eclectic bash, as KELBURN GARDEN PARTY welcomes the likes of Broken Records, Meursault, and Panda Su into the treetopped surrounds, complete with waterfalls and a tennis-court-cum-dance-floor.

Kelburn Castle, Ayrshire, Until 4 Jul, £48 (weekend ticket)

Mono is taken over for the day by COMMERCIAL ALTERNATIVE, a mini music festival on the inside, plus covered beer haven on the outside. The roster includes The Phantom Band, 1990s, Comet Gain, Remember Remember, and Astral Planes. Perfect Sunday stuff. Mono, Glasgow, 1pm, £20

The first week of Glasgow artist SCOTT MYLES' solo exhibition kicks off, showcasing his unique constructed screenprints, which incorporate familiar objects into both two and three dimensions. Go see.

Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, Until 15 Aug, Free

Ph antom B and FRI, 9 JUL

C oncrete Stree ts

A spliced up night of film and DJ beats at MAKE 1, 2, as short filmmakers and DJs (including Jamie Coull) take it turn-about to entertain.

All served up in the unique confines of an old man's social club that hasn't been decorated since about 1964.

Plus cheap booze. This might become our regular.

Pollok Ex-Servicemen's Club, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £4

THU, 15 JUL

TUE, 13 JUL

WED, 14 JUL

Expect some lung-busting Jamaican soul from TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS, as the 65 year-old Toots Hibbert belts it out like a true whippersnapper at heart. This is how it's done, kids. ABC, Glasgow, 7pm, £20

Prepare yourself for the hardcore punk jam of CONVERGE, as they rock The Garage with Kylesa, Gaza, and Kveleratak in tow. This is proper, shake the pennies out your pockets, style noise. The Garage, Glasgow, 6.30pm, £12.50

SAT, 10 JUL Some of the west of Scotland's best music bloggers will be picking the tunes at Blog Rocking Beats, so expect a battlefield of underground gems. The decks are in safe hands. Flying Duck, Glasgow, 7pm, Free

FREE!

FRI, 16 JUL Devil Disco Club bow down for a special guest spot from HER ROYAL HIGHNESS, who'll be working up a disco funk frenzy: think Blondie paggering Kylie Minogue is a back alley. This is the fallout.

Bongo Club, Edinburgh, 11pm, £3 (£5 after midnight)

King Tut's Summer Nights schedule kicks off with a Silver Columns headliner, with Midnight Lions, Mopp, and Nevada Base on support duty.

Plus 70-odd bands over the next fortnight. You know where you'll find us. King Tuts, Glasgow, 8.30pm, £6 PHOTO: HELEN ABRAHAM

TUE, 20 JUL THE VENUS LABYRINTH contains 28 individual rooms, each inhabited by a woman, and each pertaining to one of the 28 zones of the human brain. Got that? No? Well, it's kinda like peeking into someone's private thoughts, as each woman reveals a personal memory, emotion, or secret. Inspired. The Arches, Glasgow, 6pm, £11 (£9)

SAT, 24 JUL Collective Gallery show a selection of short films alongside a new experimental perfomance from Tessa Lynch, for THE ALL SIDED GAMES exhibit. It airs on the BBC Big Screen in Festival Square – the 280 square foot telly that may have caught your eye. Festival Square, Edinburgh, 6pm, Free

FREE!

WED, 21 JUL In a virtual keck-dropping and full bare-bottomed mooning to a fair few 'cutting edge' new bands, Glasgow's TREMBLING BELLS embrace the traditional folk sound of yesteryear. We salute them. Stereo, Glasgow, 7pm, £5

THU, 22 JUL TUNNG serve up otherworldly folktronica that sounds like it was penned around a forest campfire, complete with spacey samples, hippy drumming, and bluebird-plucked guitar strings. A little twee?

Yes. But utterly beguiling with it. Stereo, Glasgow, £14

SUN, 25 JUL With a hand-picked bunch of friends in tow, DAMO SUZUKI makes his love for intimate musical encounters known, stripping the music back to its bare bones.

Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, 7pm, £10

MON, 26 JUL

We love an excuse for a jaunt out the city, so we'll be heading to Uist for COME YE HITHER, a pop-up community collective of visual art, film, and music. North Uist, until 31 Jul, Free

FREE! TESSA LYNCH

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 7

Left to right - Raindeer, Dougie, Cammy, Kris

8 THE SKINNY July 2010

National Treasures The road to their brilliant debut album has been a hard but worthwhile one for Mitchell Museum. Ahead of its release, the Glasgow quartet square up to rival museums, set the record straight on Nigel Godrich and cast aspersions on Bono's feet Text Darren Carle Photography Markus Thorsen If you grew up on shiny pop bands with expensive haircuts, beaming from the glossy pages of the teeny pop Bibles of the time, chances are you became a little dispirited upon learning that said acts could barely stand the sight of each other in real life, let alone hang out or live together. It’s enough to drive you to grow your hair, wear flannel shirts and hate yourself.

So it’s a pleasant surprise when The Skinny finds itself in a first floor flat in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, a domain that acts as a home, rehearsal room, album storage facility, play-pen and general doss-pad for Mitchell Museum, a quartet of young, upbeat, affable, ‘actual friends’ who live, play and breathe in each others’ pockets with nary a spiteful word or awkwardly flung fist in sight. Oh, and they just happen to have made one of the quirkiest Scottish pop albums for some time.

As The Skinny photographer ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ at the cornucopia of ramshackle delights the Mitchell’s dwelling presents for photo opportunities, the band opt for the rooftop garden as fit for interview purpose, if only to get away from the towering boxes of newly delivered vinyl pressings of their upcoming debut album. A variety of garden furniture chairs showcasing the changing fads of domesticity over the past few decades is fed through the kitchen window, warm beer is served straight from the off-licence, before Dougie, Raindeer, Kris and Cammy take their seats.

Getting to the nub of how all four got together as Mitchell Museum takes some time though, as, aside from brothers Raindeer and Cammy, they all met as friends first and so constantly veer off on genial tangents. “Me and Cammy both went to see Ben Folds Five on my nineteenth birthday,” begins bassist Kris on his induction. “We were both in the same car together.” However, lead singer and keyboardist Cammy points this out as something of a red herring in that they only figured out that their paths had crossed the previous afternoon.

After five minutes of such banter, drummer Raindeer, a New Year’s party and alcohol emerge as the foundations of Mitchell Museum. “I’d been living in Manchester for a while, but one New Year I was visiting Glasgow, trying to figure out whether to come back or not,” says Kris. “I didn’t know Raindeer at all but he came up and sat next to me and said; ‘See you, I like you. I think we could be pals. You know what? We should be pals.’ Then he gave me a hug – so I moved back to Glasgow.”

Apocryphal or not, the remainder of the evening saw the group gather around Raindeer who was “a bit drunk and hitting the piano,” according to Cammy.

“We all joined in and then started doing it on a weekly basis after that.” As brothers growing up listening to Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips, Cammy and Raindeer were already well honed, the younger Raindeer owing his current drumming skills to the fact that his older sibling let him into his band in the first place, meaning he had to pick up his game. Dougie and Kris simply gelled with this set-up from the beginning.

The name came much later as the band playfully wrestled with each other on potential monikers such as Muscle Pony, now doubling as a side-project for Kris. However, the band claim it’s not a nod to the Native American museum in Illinois but rather an alliterative play on the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.

“There’s also the Mitchell Fishing Reel Museum,” points out Cammy. “I’m desperate to knock them off the Google page,” rallies Kris. Cammy is less vehement towards his rivals though. “There’s some nice old fishing reels there,” he admits, much to the band’s laughter. “I’m not kidding.”

With all due respect to the history of fishing reels, Mitchell Museum’s upcoming debut album, The

Peters Port Memorial Service, should see them rise a few places in the Google search engine. It’s a fresh, confident debut, bulging with experimental ideas, yet honed into some of the jauntiest and cerebral penetrating pop nuggets heard this year. Yet as much as it is a playful album, it is also one that sounds increasingly mature with each listen, an album that knows when to breathe and when to plough headlong.

Cammy picks up on this train of thought; “I’m not making a criticism as such, but a lot of bands bang out all the songs that they’ve got from their live set for their first album,” he says judiciously. “So it often ends up sounding like a ‘Best Of’ collection. For me, when it comes to listening to an album I want to listen to something that sounds like a whole piece, the same way as you might feel about a novel.”

Cammy cites Dark Side of the Moon as a ‘sort of’ influence, though not one of their more obvious ones.

Peters Port is certainly far from being a prog epic, and in terms of narrative, a story written by Cammy for the album was rejected by the rest of the band as “horrifying”, though it did end up subtly infused into the album’s artwork. At first, such dark leanings seem incongruous to the gleeful, upbeat carnival pomp of Peters Port until you listen more closely to Cammy’s lyrics.

“A lot of the lyrics are to do with some pretty dark things,” reveals Cammy. “I’ve got a bit of a past where I wasn’t so, um, sane in the brain shall we say. I’ve dealt with that now though. So a lot of it comes from just feeling quite crap about stuff. Then we put it into a jaunty tune!” Kris summarises this creative process further; “He goes to his dark place and then we have to play it.”

Though Cammy talks of the album having a “through line”, his lyrics seem more concerned with the abstract than with having any story-telling purpose. His style and delivery are at times reminiscent of Yoni Wolf of indie hip-hop outfit WHY? “We all love WHY?” agrees Cammy when put to him. “Oh you’ve made him happy,” bellows Raindeer. “You’ve made his day!”

Musically, there is little in the Mitchell Museum that feels as if it was forged in their home city. The aforementioned neo-psychedelic pop of The Flaming Lips, as well as Tripping Daisy, are reference points that are likely to be well-documented in the wake of the album’s release, whereas standout tracks like No.3 seem to be a missing link between Mercury Rev’s early experimentalism and the ornate lullabies of their later period. However, in the wake of their recent popularity, many are naming the Animal Collective as a touchstone.

“Oh, I can’t stand them,” jokes Cammy, all too aware of the influence the New York troupe have had on his band. At this point Raindeer reminds his older brother of a phone call he made after hearing 2007s Strawberry Jam. “You were going on about the first track on the album having this sort of sound like a dinosaur screeching on it,” laughs Raindeer before adopting an impersonation. “Raindeer! I think that’s like a sample or something! I think I want to do that!”

Conceding the point, Cammy picks up on the path this put him on. “I really wanted to sample stuff but didn’t know how to. All I could do was play a keyboard, I didn’t know how to use a proper sampler, so I just kept looking through stuff on e-Bay and thought ‘how can I make a sample sound come out of a keyboard’.

Then I saw the DJX and thought ‘I remember that from the old days!’”

At this point the band breaks into unilateral, if somewhat ironic praise of this antiquated keyboard with “a memory sample of around six seconds”, Out of financial necessity and a lack of technological prowess the band claim it became the backbone of their sound. “You play a banjo line and then just sample that and it’ll make up the basis of a song,” shrugs Cammy

modestly. “So yeah, the DJX is pivotal.”

It’s a humble beginning perhaps, but it’s something the band have become accustomed to. Peters Port has been a self-financed labour of love that has taken its toll on the young quartet. “There are some bands that have contacts with certain important people,” says Cammy of enduring to land a record deal. “We had a bit of that, but we were concerned about how long it was going to take. It’s also a bit of a shaky time just now so we thought we’d try and do it ourselves and see how we get on with it.”

Not that there hasn’t been interest, and with it some tall tales, as Raindeer relates. “We did a gig in the Brixton Windmill and there were some guys from Rough Trade who came to see us – we’re not signed to Rough Trade,” he deadpans to laughter. “At the time they seemed very keen on the whole thing, but for some reason they had been told that Nigel Godrich was producing our album.

That was hilarious. ‘Yeah, old Nige, he’s putting the finishing touches to it in my bedroom just now’. We’ve no idea where that came from.” “Maybe it was when Dougie was going about shouting at them ‘Nigel Godrich is producing our album!’” suggests Kris.

Behind the laughter though, the band admit that despite the current glow of having completed and produced a brilliant debut album that is now on the cusp of release, they would like someone else to take the baton from here. “Ideally we’d like to move onto

a nice label, like the one that was mentioned,” hints Kris. “It would be good to have some kind of label,” agrees Raindeer, “and with that, some money, or at least more money than we’ve got just now. But more importantly, someone who likes what we do and would like to help get our music out to more people.”

Is this something that the band’s future hinges on?

“It would be a good start,” shrugs Raindeer, showing that either way, it won’t impede future MM material.

“Then after that, U2 levels of success,” he laughs. Kris sits up with an objection. “No, I don’t think I want to be as much of a dick as U2,” he levels reasonably. “We’ll start referring to Cammy as the new Bono,” carries on Raindeer obliviously. “Oh, I can fill those shoes,” states Cammy, rising to the challenge. “Those tiny shoes.

Hasn’t he got tiny feet?” Kris flops back down. “I don’t want to comment on Bono’s tiny feet,” he sighs.

“Although perhaps I just have.”

Whomever’s shoes they choose to fill, it seems certain that Mitchell Museum will be walking their very own ramshackle path.

Playing Kelburn Garden Party, North Ayrshire on 3 Jul; T in the Park (TBreak Stage), Balado on 9 Jul; Latitude Festival (Lake Stage), Suffolk on 18 Jul and Wickerman Festival (Solus Tent), East Kirkcarswell on 23 Jul The Peters Port Memorial Service is released via Electra Frence Records on 12 Jul www.mitchellmuseum.co.uk

July 2010

THE SKINNY 9

Rebel Rebel FASHION

Combining unusual cuts and fabrics with huge attention to detail, Sarah Brannon, designer of Chelsea Rebelle, has created a modern yet whimsical aesthetic

1 10 THE SKINNY july 2010

The first five years of a brand can be the ones that either make or break it in the fashion industry. Chelsea Rebelle is approaching the end of this introductory period, and all signs point towards success.

This is largely attributable to head designer, Sarah Brannon. Originally a journalism student from New Zealand, she has cultivated and developed Chelsea Rebelle in a way which makes it unique, edgy and most importantly, covetable. Speaking to her, it is clear that her focused marketing strategy, enthusiasm and formidable work ethic are the keys to its success.

Chelsea Rebelle has become especially known for its unique silhouettes, most infamously the 5 kilogram sequin dress (below), which has a structured, modernized Victorian silhouette; think small waist and exaggerated hips. Sarah says the inspiration for that dress, and the SS/10 collection more generally, was "listening to far too much David Bowie and T Rex... hence the use of spandex and glitter – of course done in a tasteful Chelsea Rebelle way!." Pushing the boundaries is certainly an aim of Brannon’s. However, in spite of looking edgy and well constructed, the pieces still retain desirability and seem wearable; the brand is after all a viable business, in addition to being creatively exciting. Admittedly, the decision to mix edgy with girly is not in itself groundbreaking. Yet, what is unique to Sarah’s manifestation of this style is the particularly honest and accessible way in which the combination is achieved. "My inspiration comes in all forms, from London in the 1960s to books and films. I wear my heart on my sleeve so I think my influences are pretty obvious in the collections."

Naturally, if a brand wants to convey ‘the right message’, it must rely on having the correct marketing strategy. In the age of celebrity and PR, this means targeting your clothes at celebrities who share your aesthetic and ethos. Sarah admits that she’s been "lucky so far, as I admire and adore the girls who’ve worn my clothes, like Kelly Osbourne."

Nevertheless, she admits that what is more important is that the girls convey the spirit of a true ‘Chelsea’ girl. For Sarah, the ideal Chelsea girl is "someone who always breaks the rules." Like the clothing, they are "modern and flirty; whimsical with a dark twist."

As a former journalism student, I was interested to know if deciding to switch to fashion was a difficult decision to make. Brannon expresses that "it wasn’t really a difficult decision; I knew I wanted to go into fashion, and at the time studying fashion in New Zealand wasn’t considered a smart move. So, I knew I had to prove myself." With a selfconfessed addiction to magazines, Sarah claims that fashion journalism would have been the route she’d have gone down had she not had her collection. In addition, if she had to work for other designers, she would choose modern couturiers Viktor and Rolf who are "absolute geniuses" (on this point we are very much agreed). Finally, the revelation that one of her dreams was to own a news stand seems appropriately quirky, too. It may even still be on the cards, as Sarah says "maybe I’m only half joking about that!"

With Chelsea Rebelle receiving lots of positive press and interest in both brand and designer growing, Sarah sees the next logical step as expanding Chelsea Rebelle in an interesting way. "I’d love to do a collaboration with (US superstore) Target. I absolutely love their GO International collections; they’ve had designers such as Rodarte, Alexander McQueen and Luella doing collections. I think bringing high fashion to the mass market while still retaining creative freedom is great. The great thing about those collections is that a lot of them have still been edgy." Even currently, the price range means there’s something for everyone to invest in. Chelsea Rebelle clothing retails from £10-£800 and is stocked in newly opened Wolf and Badger in London, as well as online at CocoCareer.co.uk and Edinburgh based TheMoonAndMars.co.uk.

FASHION

Text Emma Segal

Photographer Wes Kingston www.weskingston.com Styling Alexandra Fiddes Make up artist/hair stylist Kimberley Dewar kimberleydewar@hotmail.co.uk Garments Chelsea Rebelle www.chelsearebelle.com Jewellery Such and Such SuchandSuchstudio.blogspot.com Model Chloe from Superior Model Management

1. Bow dess £495 Chelsea Rebelle 2. Peterpan top £125, shorts £125 Chelsea Rebelle 3. Glitter dress £745 Chelsea Rebelle, hoop earrings £180 Such and Such

www.chelsearebelle.com

2

3 july 2010

THE SKINNY 11

DIGITAL

THEATRE MUSIC FOOD VISUAL ARTS DANCE FASHION PERFORMANCE STREET ART COMEDY

MERCHANT CITY FESTIVAL 22–25 JULY

Meet the Mac. The ultimate PC upgrade.

If you’re thinking about getting a new PC, now is the time to take a look at Mac. Our Apple experts can show you all the reasons a Mac is great at the things you do every day. They can also help transfer all your PC files to a new Mac. Come into Cancom Edinburgh and see why a Mac is the ultimate PC upgrade.

Check out the new Mac range today and ask about our finance offers Cancom Edinburgh - 95-97 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9BY | 0845 686 3200 | www.cancomuk.com

merchantcityfestival.com MCF 2010 126 x 155 Advert_The Skinny.indd 1

12 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

Harry Stork

22/6/10 17:20:55

TM and © 2010 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

DIGITAL

How to Lose a Social Network in 10 Days

REVIEW

It's not like Facebook knows everything about you, is it?

RED DEAD REDEMPTION PUBLISHER: ROCKSTAR GAMES RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW CONSOLE(S): PS3, XBOX 360 PRICE: £49.99

rrrrr

Let’s face it, there’s a time and a place for space marines and carjacking, and then there’s a time to put that all away, strap on a gun belt and 10-gallon hat and ride off for some rough Western justice. And while the setting of Red Dead Redemption may not be the most familiar to regular gamers, when it comes to game play, there’s nothing that will scare any varmints away.

RDR takes players back to the end of the old American Wild West, complete with cattle rustling, saloons, shootouts, gangs of outlaws and lots and lots of bullets. The hero, John Marston, has quit his wild days and wants to settle down, but when his wife and family are kidnapped, the government

wants him to hunt down his old outlaw crew and put a bullet between their eyes.

In practice, however, it’s closer to Grand Theft Horse than a Sergio Leone film. The huge sandboxstyle world invites any kind of play you like, so if you want to find buried treasure, chase cattle or drink your character into oblivion, that’s fine too – there are achievements for everything. The visual style is damn impressive, and the gunplay, while not entirely challenging with all the bullettime style powerups, is undeniably fun. It’s the multiplayer that really sells it though, as nothing beats riding into town with a posse of your mates and raising hell.

Sure, there are a few visual glitches, and the in-game money doesn’t have much purpose once you’ve done a few missions, but ultimately this game boils down to unrestrained fun, whether you’re breaking out of jail or dueling at high noon. A great summer time-sink.[Alex Cole]

REVIEW Text Alex Cole Illustration Marcello Velho IT all started off so innocently, a flirtation. You gave it your name, maybe your email, and figured you’d leave it at that. But then you actually started having fun.

You planned events together, added people to your little circle of friends, and before you knew it you were sharing everything: where you work, what movies you like, where you went to school and even the fact that you secretly want to stab slow walkers in front of you on the street. It was supposed to be private, just you and your mates.

But Facebook was cheating on you. With other companies. And it told them everything.

Last month Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg landed in a world of digital hot water after it was revealed that not only did he call the first users of Facebook “fucking idiots” for trusting him with their information, but that he had shared massive amounts of supposedly private data with ad agencies and other companies. This meant that what users liked, what they did, and even their opinions on religion, politics, and movies – information that users expected was kept only in their circle of friends – was in the hands of evil corporations who would use it to target their ads. In many cases, that data was available to anyone who searched for you, friend or no.

In an awkward and sweaty interview at a technology conference, Zuckerberg pointed to his company’s revised privacy settings that made hiding your data simpler, but he looked more like a defensive 20-something trying to bluff his way out of a shitstorm than a CEO.

The tepid response is what led a group of New York University geeks to begin developing Diaspora*, intended to be an open-source response version of Facebook big on privacy and low on evil corporations.

As one of the founders explains, “the value [Facebook] gives us is negligible in the scale of what they are doing, and what we are giving up is all of our privacy.”

They mean to beat Facebook at its own game by doing social networking simpler, better, cheaper, and hopefully dropping Farmville as well.

Diaspora* will go live any day now, and there is already rabid interest in being among the first to finally break up with Facebook. While the site will be hard-pressed to completely unseat Big Blue, similar things were once said about MySpace and Bebo. These days, they’re the kind of sites who’re left in the corner of the pub, with users wondering what they ever saw in them.

THE VALUE [FACEBOOK] GIVES US IS NEGLIGIBLE IN THE SCALE OF WHAT THEY ARE DOING, AND WHAT WE ARE GIVING UP IS ALL OF OUR PRIVACY

FLIP OUT The big debate over any new toy these days is convergence: do you want one device that does everything decently, or a bunch of devices that do one thing and do them well? Case in point is a gadget like the Flip Mino HD, a pocket-sized camcorder that shoots in sharp 720p video, has 2 hours of onboard recording time, a simple interface, flip-out USB connector, and unabashedly slick looks (hey, metal instead of plastic!).

The video it shoots is crystal clear in daylight, and it switches pretty ably between light and dark rooms. The mic picks up sound without much background buzz, and you can hear someone talking reasonably softly from several metres away. In darker rooms (say, in private karaoke booths at night) the picture suffers for lack of light, but the noise isn’t as bad as most cameras at the same size. The included software makes it dead simple to get your embarassing memorable videos up on YouTube or formatted with music and text. All in all, it’s a tight little package that does exactly what it says on the tin very well.

That said, at £180, it isn’t exactly cheap, and in light of new smartphones that can shoot video nearly as well, the question is whether having an entire separate toy is worth it. For most people, probably not, but if you know you’re going to film a concert moment or have a bulging YouTube account, this is the right tool for the job. [Alex Cole] WWW.THEFLIP.COM

THE FEED BITE-SIZED TECH NUGGETS WITH ALEX COLE O2 DROPS UNLIMITED DATA PLANS, YOUTUBE FIENDS WEEP IN HORROR - NEW IPHONE HIGH ON SHININESS, LOW ON NEW FEATURES - NEW ROCK BAND GAMES FEATURES KEYTAR, FOR SOME REASON - WIKILEAKS FOUNDER IN HOT WATER WITH PENTAGON, EVIL CORPORATIONS, ANYONE WITH SOMETHING TO HIDE - GOOGLE KINDA IFFY ON WHY THEY RECORDED WIFI DATA, WHETHER THEY’LL GIVE IT BACK TO GERMANY - WORLD CUP PUSHES WORLDWIDE INTERNET NEWS TRAFFIC TO 12.1 MILLION USERS PER MINUTE - YOUTUBE CELEBRATES 5TH BIRTHDAY – FEEL OLD YET?

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 13

LIFESTYLE

FOODPOSH NOSH AND CHEAP EATS

& DRINK

A Festival Of Food

From grub on offer at our major festivals to specialist foodie gatherings, Scotland's finest foods are coming out to party this month

Text Ruth Marsh Healthy T @ T In The Park Sure, it sounds like the sort of well-meaning initiative that would sneak curly kale onto your pizza while your back was turned, but we have to admire Healthy T for bravely taking on the mantle of sensibly fuelling revellers at Scotland’s annual musical colossus.

Back and bigger than ever following its inaugural success last year, the Healthy T arena is a dodgy kebab-free haven. Food From Argyll will be shucking Loch Fyne oysters faster than it’ll take Diana Vickers to land a Buckie bottle in the coupon (there’s an office sweepstakes for you), La Grande Bouffe will be whipping up French speciality tartuflette (bacon + potato + cream = everything fine) and vegan purveyers of ‘non-violent curries for the civilly disobedient’ Ghandi’s Flip-Flop win the special prize for most appetising menu marred by most stomach churning business name. Entertainment while you chow down comes from performance pranksters The Bearded Kittens, The Flyin’ Jalapenos breakdance troupe and The Hurly Burly, a solar powered cabaret-cum-kitchen doling out inventive veggie cuisine alongside string quartets.

If the likes of tattie-themed comfort food Mash Shack and a converted VW van named Poppy that dispenses fresh smoothies has raised your whimsy levels to a code red, a quick blast of Plastikman in the Slam tent should return things to normal.

9-11 JULY WWW.TINTHEPARK.COM

The Big Tent Festival You can rely on Scotland’s major green festival to have some good scran on the go and sure enough all the suppliers at this weekend of arts, music and discussion at the Kingdom of Fife’s stunning Falkland Estate come from the immediate area.

The Estate’s very own sheep and pigs will be roasting on a spit for your Bacchanalian pleasure, plus there’s Pillars of Hercules homemade vegetarian grub for the less carnivorously inclined, Arbroath Smokies made on-site and gooey tarts and pastries from Fisher & Donaldson, Fife’s fourth generation family bakery.

Live acts include Rosanne Cash, Tunng, Tanzania’s phenomenal Zawose Family and Scotland’s own The Second Hand Marching Band, plus a programme of live poetry, debates and eco workshops. With tickets at a wallet-friendly £56 for three days camping if you

14 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

agree to their Big Green Discount and cut your carbon emissions by 10% (don’t worry – they’ll show you how!) The Big Tent looks a very agreeable alternative to the festival Big Boys.

However, the only real incentive you should need to head along is that the beer tent is in the hands of the excellent Black Isle Brewery, whose Red Kite and Yellowhammer Ales are the fruitiest, most mellow pints you’ll ever taste. If you do nothing more than lay in the sun with a few of their jars, you’ll have had a day well spent – I’m sure someone will give you crib notes from that talk on ‘Outer Resilience and Inner Depth’ you totally meant to go to.

2-3 JULY, PART OF OOFEST, PERTHSHIRE’S MONTH LONG FOOD FESTIVAL WWW.OOFEST.COM

Tarbert Seafood Festival Argyll’s picture perfect fishing village plays host to its traditional celebration of all things aquatic this month.

Pick up crabs, mussels, scallops, salmon et al on the cheap, either to wolf down on the spot or take to one of the nearby beaches for some serious barbie action.

Al fresco specialist seafood cookery demonstrations are informal and attract the big name chefs (Nick Nairn popped into town last year) – make sure you elbow your way to the front to grab a taster.

Non-fishy entertainment is of the jovial, village fete school with the Beer On The Pier family-friendly afternoon concert, battle re-enactments and , with a slight whiff of Wicker Man, the annual selection of a local girl to become The Seafood Queen.

3-4 JULY, WWW.SEAFOOD-FESTIVAL.CO.UK

THIS MONTH:

Classic Dry Martini

FOR July our cocktail comes from the Traverse Theatre Bar, where manager Steven Simpson made us a variation on the classic martini, pounding black olives in with the mix for a modern twist on the dirty martini. To do the same you will need: A chilled martini glass, rinsed with Noilly Prat Extra Dry

23-25 JULY WWW.BIGTENTFESTIVAL.CO.UK

Perthshire On A Plate Perthshire launches its inaugural celebration of local produce with a visit from ‘King Of The Jungle’ (ie head kangaroo ball botherer) and celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo. Whilst you may not want to shell out £100 to have lunch with someone your mum thinks is nice, there’s plenty of other items on the festival menu to whet your appetite.

Taking place in and around Perth Concert Hall, the majority of events are gratis and include sampling mini versions of local restaurants’ signature dishes, downing a dram or two of local whisky plus masterclasses and advice on everything from how to “grow your own” to the best way to gut and cook freshly caught fish.

THE SKINNY COCKTAIL COLUMN

50ml SW4 Gin A black olive Ice

FOOD FROM ARGYLL WILL BE SHUCKING LOCH FYNE OYSTERS FASTER THAN IT’LL TAKE DIANA VICKERS TO LAND A BUCKIE BOTTLE IN THE COUPON Can’t leave the city? There are a few lip-smacking events happening on your doorstep, so no excuse. The hugely popular Edinburgh Farmers Market hosts its 10th birthday party on 3 July with live music and the chance to win £500 in market vouchers (that’s mucho tablet); alternatively get yourself down to glam Prince’s Square in Glasgow on the 17 and 18 July for a taster of their pop-up Adult Ice Cream Parlour, which will be doling out scoops of alcohol-laced ices, including melon and Pimms and gin and lemon sorbets.

Shaken or stirred depending on taste, and strained into the chilled glass.

Garnish with olives

To sample some more SW4 cocktails, or just to have it with a splash of tonic, head along to the Traverse Bar, 10 Cambridge St, Edinburgh.

THE SKINNY COCKTAIL COLUMN IS SPONSORED BY:

SW4 LONDON DRY GIN FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SW4, VISIT WWW.PARKPLACEDRINKS.CO.UK

MACSORLEY’S

42 JAMAICA STREET, GLASGOW, G1 4QG TEL: 0141 248 8581

I’d always considered MacSorleys to be just a classic Glasgow pub, with drinks, loud music and maybe a greasy pie if you were lucky. One look at their Scottish ‘Spring Menu’ (on a tartan clipboard) shows how wrong I was. There’s nettle panna cotta, rabbit and snail terrine, mussels served up with a ‘deconstructed pigs trotter’, and that’s just the starters. This is not food for the unadventurous.

I’m a firm believer that food should sometimes be challenging, surprising and it should occasionally scare you a bit. MacSorleys certainly manages this.

I thought I knew food, but I didn’t know what half the things on the menu were. Spoots(1)? Tobacco rhubarb(2), espuma(3), feves(4), anyone…?

I didn’t know what a hogget(5) was. So I ate one.

Or most of one. And a delicious main course it was. Perfectly pink slices of hogget loin rest on a mound of mash, accompanied by shoulder, lights (that’s lung), tongue, epigramme (meaty bits) and sweetbreads served up chicken-nugget style (but oh-so-light and tasty). They certainly aren’t into

SEADOGS 43 ROSE ST, EDINBURGH EH2 2NH TEL: 0131 225 8028

Seadogs is the latest in the Dogs syndicate, adding a seafood twist to the popular original The Dogs and Italian joint Amore Dogs. Situated on Rose Street, this quirky restaurant looks set to be a firm favourite, specialising in fish and chips with a choice of fish and batter (trout in oatmeal anyone?) for lunch or dinner, and hearty starters including fresh mackerel and chowders.

To begin, I had the tomato-based seafood chowder while my friend plumped for a starter portion of mussels, which both proved to be satisfying choices.

The main distinction between starters and mains on the menu lies in the price points; don’t be deceived by the no-frills-presentation printed menu of one side of A4: there is a lot of choice and all the effort has gone into the food.

We followed these with their speciality of fish and chips, choosing breaded trout, and the classic fish pie, made with puff pastry, with a side of champ mash.

Bellies full, we took our time before ordering dessert; gratifyingly, the restaurant seemed in no hurry to get covers back within any timeframe.

To finish we had coffees, served in teacups, and sampled the more adventurous desserts with a Guinness parfait, which was bittersweet and delicate, and deep-fried chocolate cake with cream ice-cream, which was indulgent to the point of decadence.

With niche seafood and fish restaurants everywhere from the West End to Leith, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a saturated market; however, the pricing and quality of the sustainable produce and cooking ensure that there is space for one more in Seadogs. Highly recommended.[Yasmin Ali]

LIFESTYLE

RESTAURANT REVIEWS serving up just one bit of an animal here, but that’s no bad thing. My dining companion had loin, cheek and belly of pork and declared it all delicious.

It was inventive, verging on completely bizarre at times but the chef certainly knows how to cook.

Occasionally it’s a little bit fussy but most of the strange combinations work. A trail of dusty dried camomile really does go with fat juicy scallops.

Dark chocolate mousse is actually complemented by carrot sorbet. The staff were charming, happy to share stories of the first time the chef fed them a snail, what they love about the menu, how the chef won Masterchef ’99... And, if you’re not feeling brave, they’ll serve you a pie. What’s not to love?

(1) razorfish (2) rhubarb cooked with a cigar (3) foam (4) broad beans (5) adolescent male sheep [Jen Davies] DINNER FOR TWO AROUND £50 (EXCLUDING DRINKS) WWW.MACSORLEYS.COM

TEX MEX II Come and try our New Lunch Menu Bring this and we shall give you Bottle of Corona on the House Valid till the end of June fatdonny@texmex2.com

64 Thistle Street Edinburgh EH2 1EN

No other discounts apply

DINNER FOR TWO WITH WINE AROUND £40 WWW.SEADOGSONLINE.CO.UK

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 15

Lifestyle

SHOWCASE

THIS MONTH: Martin Bech-Ravn

"Everyday objects, entrances/exits, interior/exterior, pattern repetitions, music, vegetation, and painters' tools are all part of the universe that I am exploring, where anything is possible. My settings depict actual spaces, but are more like ideas of places and the situations, that have, will, or could happen within them. The tension between the objects is highlighted by the conjunction of painterly technique, which results in contradictions of the paintings' own expression. The play between flatness and 3D stresses the falsification of the illusion and the work is left, lost in translation.

I look at my work as reinventions, questioning the nature and functionality of objects and space, and how these are interpreted. "

Photography: Diana Lindbjerg Jorgensen

16 THE SKINNY July 2010

Purgatory

Lifestyle

Gravity rides everything

Postulated preternatural

Wax on wax off (exposed palmtrees)

Broken endemism

July 2010

THE SKINNY 17

Lifestyle

DEVIANCE

SEX, TRUTH AND POLITICS

Doubly Deviant, Doubly Damned This is a man's world, or so they say, and no part of it is more filled with machismo than the legal system Text Lauren Mayberry Illustration Kate Copeland Oh, Lady Gaga. Love her or hate her, she has been touted as a visionary, one of the best entertainers of her generation, and a fashion vigilante – but a leader of legal reform? Perhaps not.

Yet, anyone who has seen the video for Telephone, a murderous tale of extravagant proportions, may just have been party to something thought-provoking, even if it was on T4. In our real legal system, made and administered by white middle-class men, would Stefani Germanotta’s femme fatale ever get away with it?

Probably not.

Back in ye olden days (ie: the 1950s), female criminals were repeatedly described as ‘wicked’ and perverse. One particular theorist claimed that it was the natural female way to be devious and cunning, exemplified by the fact that women may remain passive during intercourse and fake pleasure in ways men cannot. Apparently, even our bodies are manufactured to lie. And here we thought we were just sparing some hurt feelings...

The perception of a ‘proper’ woman and appropriate femininity is crushed by criminal conduct. Many female academics have pondered the topic, from the oh-so-very-wise Helena Kennedy to Ann Lloyd, concluding that female criminals are 'doubly deviant' and 'doubly damned' in the eyes of the law, simply because of their gender.

Men are thought of as ‘naturally’ violent, while women are traditionally viewed as demure and gentle. When a man commits a violent crime, it is a logical, if undesirable, extension of his masculinity.

When a woman commits a similar crime, it is viewed as more abhorrent due to its alien and unnatural connection to the conception of femininity. We wish to punish these women not only for breaking legal rules, but also for breaking the idyllic stereotype intrinsically linked to their gender.

But, according to the experts, this is one big crock of shit (to use the technical term). Ordinary women are equally capable of violent behaviour as men, although the type of violence may differ. But female killers are approached differently to their male counterparts.

Half of all female murder victims are killed by a husband or lover – and many of these men are able to argue that the conduct of their missus provoked them to lose control. Yet, few women who kill their husbands after years of domestic abuse are offered the same chance to diminish responsibility for their crime. There can, apparently, be no excuse for ‘slow burn’ anger, even if the eventual murder victim had been beating the breath out of their killer’s body every day for years beforehand. That’s not psychological damage she’s got there, apparently – that’s a grudge.

Most battered wife cases which successfully argue that the dead husband provoked his spouse into ending his life involve stereotypically ‘good’ women, who can be pitted against the Drunk, the Abuser or the Adulterer who drove her to it. If that wife dares to be in any way imperfect, she is deemed undeserving of sympathy or additional defences.

This inequality has been highlighted by academics since the early 1990s, focusing especially on the contrasting cases of Kiranjit Ahluwalia and Sara Thornton. Both women murdered their long-term abuser. Ahluwalia – whose crime was arguably more violent, setting her husband on fire, while Thornton stabbed her victim – was described in court as passive, meek and subservient, while Thornton was painted as an arrogant sexual aggressor. As one commentator noted afterwards, "She wasn’t being tried as a defendant but as a woman and, as a woman, she was found wanting."

The ‘type’ of woman on trial is also relevant to sentencing. Despite the best efforts of legal systems to avoid unintentional stereotyping, subconscious personality judgements are almost impossible to avoid, especially in jury trials.

Helena Kennedy says that the ‘golden-hearted

GENDER & JUSTICE

18 THE SKINNY July 2010

despite the fact that fidelity may have nothing to do with the case at hand. As former barrister Kennedy puts it, this would “offend against the notion of women as keepers of the hearth.” Crikey. So what’s the moral here? We had better start baking a hell of a lot more cookies if we can’t afford our own Johnnie Cochran to get us off? The fairer sex appear to only benefit from the alleged ‘chivalry’ of the system if they fulfil the necessary positive stereotype of ‘woman’ that the decision-makers are after. If not, you’re on your own, dollface.

PReview

Nine

Lauren Mayberry’s article on women and crime, above, brings various things to mind. One is the Gender & Justice class I took at university. It wasn’t easy. I don’t mean the coursework – I was into that; I mean the class itself. My classmates were by and large wealthy law students who were seemingly oblivious to the real world. After a while they settled into a weekly routine: examine an interesting topic, then systematically massacre it. A highlight was the waste of ten minutes debating the acceptability of a hypothetical person walking around with a scar on their face resulting from BDSM play. At least this bizarre derailing was original, unlike my tutor’s assertion that sex work was “just disgusting” (that came the following week). Oh, and the class was largely in agreement that the general purpose of men was to have

whore’ is far less likely to receive favourable treatment on the stand than a ‘good wife’ or daughter. Any woman who would sell her body for tuppence cannot be trusted to further the course of justice, you know – and heaven forbid she be black, on top of everything else. Yet, surely the ability to make canapés so delicious they would coax a back slap from the cold, dead hand of Julia Child doesn’t make a person any more or less likely to kill or to lie under oath?

If the aforementioned ‘good wife’ should cheat on her husband, her credibility would be in tatters,

fights and impregnate women.

My glimpse of our future lawyers was, then, less than encouraging. But maybe I was just too bitter and jaded to see the bright side! And maybe they were more inclined to wind up in corporate law, rather than represent people on Legal Aid. Here’s hoping.

The article also brings to mind Gaile Owens, who’s scheduled to be executed by the state of Tennessee in September for the murder of her abusive husband. Although no-one, least of all Gaile, disputes her guilt, a quick perusal of the case details shows that justice has not been served. Does it sound too earnest if I sign off by urging you to support her? Fuck it. Her life’s at stake. Please visit the site and get involved. www.friendsofgaile.com

Torture Garden The Caves, 17 Jul

October’s Torture Garden was a gathering of Scotland’s alternative scenes: fetish, burlesque, cabaret and hip clubbers together in a relaxed, sensual atmosphere, the Caves’ unique maze of spaces. Despite its strict dress code and intense main dance floor, TG avoided the exclusive clichés of fetish nights.

Dee Itsy, co-promoter for TG Edinburgh & founder of the Itsy Collective, believes that “Scotland showed that it was ready for an extreme clubbing experience by embracing the Autumn Ball with open hearts and minds. This summer we’ll be bringing a fetish-led, performance art-infused clubbing experience never before seen this side of Hadrian’s Wall.”

TG maintains its signature eclecticism. The presence of Scottish acts – including hussy extraordinaire Cherry Loco and intelligent humour from Vendetta Vain – gives the event a Caledonian flavour, while Dominic Johnson brings

the live art. London’s mistress of the night, Empress Stah, treads the line between eroticism and drama.

Torture Garden stands out from the average fetish club because of its emphasis on performance, with a latex fashion show from Kaori Designs and a dedicated dungeon-themed room supplied by DV8.

“Edinburgh is one of the highlights of the Torture Garden calendar and we’re excited to get back up to party with our friends in Scotland,” says Director Allen TG. “The Caves is a spectacular location and the Scottish crowd tremendously diverse, plus the partnership with Itsy could not be a better fit.”

Itsy’s background as a trusted DJ and promoter – her nights include the dynamic Kabarett – helps to make Edinburgh’s Garden forge its own identity, and the London-based club brings its unique fusion of hard clubbing and sexual playfulness. Dee concludes, “Edinburgh is ready to get its kink on once more.” [Gareth K Vile] The Caves, Niddry Street South, Edinburgh, 17 Jul 9pm - 3am, £18 + booking fee www.torturegarden.com

2010

A Diary Of Artificial Insemination: The Hollyoaks Years

‘Boundary breaking’ New York Times ‘Hops eagerly among multiple genres’ Timeout

Aurelia and Rebecca face up to it: trying to conceive isn't romantic

Text Rebecca Siminski Illustration Ursula Cheng Books and blogs on insemination told Aura and I that however much we tried to create a romantic conception atmosphere, we’d eventually be sitting in front of the telly, inseminating in front of Hollyoaks.

But we were determined this wouldn’t be us. We wanted candles and music and a romantic atmosphere. Otherwise we’d be no different from a straight couple.

In fact, Hollyoaks has been specifically outlawed – Tom’s not happy about having children with soap fans. He also told me that the whole deal was off unless I watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. And I think I was supposed to enjoy it. The future father of my child is an entertainment nazi.

The first try was actually surprisingly beautiful.

The bedroom is cleaned out and there are new white sheets on the bed. Tealights burn above it and the scent of incense fills the room. Aura gently massages my back, my neck, my feet, my legs. They say that for best results, have an orgasm. Oddly, this isn’t the easiest situation in which to do that, but we still manage relaxed and loving.

We have now tried this charade 17 times over 8 months and the Hollyoaks years are well and truly upon us. Twice I have inseminated by myself. We discovered after the first couple of months that the use of softcups, a sort of reverse diaphragm designed for women on their period, is much better than the

syringe option both for getting the stuff up there and keeping it there. And, for lesbians, pleasingly less phallic. But it does sort of make Aura more redundant – no-one but yourself or a qualified professional can jam a 3-inch-wide circle up inside you without spilling the contents. It’s sad, and I always want her there if she possibly can be, but the control of my ovaries is beyond me and cannot be planned for.

Contents, of course, have been spilled. Everyone’s combined schedules mean that we quite often have to carry out the whole operation late at night. Once, tired and hurried, I spilt half of the stuff onto a dirty sock lying on the floor. I had to rinse it out in the sink to avoid that smell hanging around. That night, Tom had been getting down to it while I brushed my teeth.

Mostly, though, we are still out of the house when he’s producing the goods. We get the same ‘safe to come home’ text every time and I wonder whether he has it saved as a template on his iPhone. For Aurelia and I, it’s become routine: leave the house, pop to the shops, make a quick phone call, return. I have managed to become blissfully numb to what he’s actually doing while we’re out, which I have to say is mostly a good thing. But it makes me forget that what is a slightly dull chore for us still needs a fair bit of effort on his part. The performance anxiety must be dreadful.

Maybe not. Maybe it’s dull and routine for him too.

I do hope I get pregnant soon before we all get too bored.

Kronos Quartet Steve Reich George Crumb Aleksandra Vrebalov Saturday 21 August 8.00pm Usher Hall

Tickets from £8 Call 0131 473 2000 Visit eif.co.uk

July 2010

THE SKINNY 19

Film

In Living Colour

Graphic novelist Joann Sfar discusses his ambitious directorial debut Gainsbourg, an unconventional biopic of the iconic artist Text Philip Concannon Joann Sfar is certainly not a man who lacks ambition. For his directorial debut, the acclaimed French graphic novelist has chosen to tackle the life of Serge Gainsbourg, one of his country’s most iconic cultural figures. As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, Sfar has eschewed the standard biopic format and has instead opted for a theatrical, surreal style that mirrors its subject’s personality and art. From the early scene when a young Gainsbourg studies a Jewish caricature in a Nazi propaganda poster, which then comes to life and chases the boy down the street, you know this is going to be something very different. Sfar has been fascinated with the life of Serge Gainsbourg ever since he was a child and if he was going to bring this complex character to the screen, he was determined to do it his way.

“Gainsbourg was the only French guy with an attitude on French television,” the lively and engaging Sfar recalls when asked what drew him to the artist.

“Everything was so boring on French television when I was a kid and this guy, he was not shaved, he pretended to be dirty, he would say dirty words and almost harass women on stage, and yet he was so intelligent at the same moment. Then when you discover his work you find also the sadness and the kind of cliché of the French Don Juan, the Russian-Jewish spirit which is almost mad and desperate with love, and it’s very appealing for a storyteller.” Gainsbourg, played in the film by the astonishing Eric Elmosnino, undoubtedly lived a life that merits the cinematic treatment, but for the director this is simply a story about a man looking for love. “He always claimed to be a rebel, but the truth I guess is that he wanted to be

Gail Tolley

Discovering Denis As I write this I’m preparing to interview the remarkable French filmmaker Claire Denis.

She’s the focus of a well-deserved retrospective which comes to Scotland this month (see Jenny Munro’s feature in this issue). I’m a big fan of Denis’ films, yet each time I sit down to watch her latest work I’m still taken aback by her filmmaking. There is something about the ways that Denis communicates the tension between characters that feels so unique. There is a memorable scene in 35 Shots of Rum, and it’s one I’ve written about before, where the main characters dance with each other in a bar.

It’s a very simple scene and there is almost no dialogue yet everything is communicated – the relationships between the different characters,

20 THE SKINNY July 2010

the emotions unsaid and the latent desire.

Words don’t really do it justice, and that’s probably a sign of great cinema. Denis’ work is filled with this kind of expert use of cinematic language. I’m really excited that this retrospective is touring the country and I hope it attracts more people to discover Denis’ work.

It’s a bit of a Francophile issue for film this month because alongside the feature on Denis there is also an interview with graphic novelist turned filmmaker Joann Sfar who has made an imaginative biopic on that iconic figure Serge Gainsbourg. It might be holiday season but you can get a cosmopolitan fix by getting yourself down to your local cinema. Enjoy.

loved.” Sfar explains. “He would do any silly thing for people to take notice of him, even if it meant hating him, but he could not stand the idea of people not talking about him or forgetting about him.”

Gainsbourg gives this unconventional life a suitably unconventional treatment, but Sfar is happy to admit that it was his naïveté, rather than a desire to be different, that led to this approach. “I don’t know how to write a movie,” the refreshingly candid director states. “I’m perfectly aware of the fact that I don’t know how to structure a movie and I’m not quite proud of the structure of my movie. I worked with what I knew, like dialogue, image, colour, scenes, and I have to confess I’m proud of the actors, the image and the scenes, but maybe I’m not quite proud of the structure because I’m learning.” With no cinema experience behind him, Sfar had to fall back on comic book techniques to help him get through the production. Instead of giving detailed instructions to his technical team, he would hand them precise drawings that expressed what he wanted to see on screen, and he relied on them to bring those drawings to life. “It’s a very good way to talk to a technician because he can interpret the drawing and he does not feel he is your slave, because he has a lot of invention as well.”

Sfar says, “We made thousands of drawings through the movie, and they told me they were very happy to work this way.”

Unsurprisingly, Gainsbourg’s visual style is vivid and memorable. Sfar utilises a number of imaginative storytelling devices, such as the constant presence of Serge’s devious id (a brilliantly creepy Doug Jones) and a number of deliberately artificial sets that recall the director’s beloved MGM musicals. “I don’t want my life to look like real life I want it to look like a movie, so there’s a lot of light and a lot of colour,” he says. “The other thing is that I don’t like it when a movie has the camera moving on the shoulder and you pretend that what you say will be more true because the camera is moving like you are a journalist and not a storyteller.

My whole point is that you can give true emotion through fake image. This is clearly not a realistic cinema but I hope people really cry and I hope they really laugh.”

For Sfar, the process of making Gainsbourg has been a remarkable learning experience and while he is keen to return to the world of graphic novels, we certainly haven’t seen the last of his work on the big

screen. Next up for Sfar is an animated adaptation of his comic The Rabbi’s Cat, for which he has created his own animation studio, and he says he would love to direct a musical or romantic comedy one day.

Whatever the director chooses to do in the future, Gainsbourg has given him a strong foundation to build upon. “I had no idea it would be so complicated to mix songs, children, animals, puppets. I didn’t know that the production would be so difficult,” he says. “I’m very happy that I went through this movie, because afterwards everything will be easy for me. This might sound very pretentious but I would like to do intelligent entertainment. I don’t feel I’m there yet, but I’m on my way.” The only thing Sfar is slightly hesitant about is the critical community, and whether they’ll be as appreciative of his subsequent films as they have been of Gainsbourg. “Maybe they were easy because it’s a first movie,” he says, before adding with a laugh, “They might shoot me for the second one!” As long as he continues to make films as distinctive and imaginative as Gainsbourg, Joann Sfar has nothing to worry about.

Gainsbourg is released on 30 Jul

"You can give true emotion through fake image. This is clearly not a realistic cinema but I hope people really cry and I hope they really laugh."

FILM

Cinema, Strangers and Sensation

A retrospective of French filmmaker Claire Denis’ work reveals a cinema of intimacy, tenderness and violent desire

Text Jenny Munro TWENTY-TWO years after the release of her first film, Chocolat (1988), French filmmaker Claire Denis is now regarded as one of the world’s finest living directors. Her slow-burning, intimate oeuvre has often escaped public attention, but, thanks to a retrospective at Glasgow Film Theatre atnd Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, audiences will finally be able to witness the progress of this extraordinary director’s career.

Denis was raised in Africa, and her films often return to the continent of her childhood. Chocolat, Beau Travail (2000), Trouble Every Day (2001) and her latest feature, White Material (2009) all refer to African locations and characters’ desire, or reluctance, to stay or return there.

Denis works through her own conception of identity, of Frenchness and Africanness, and the struggle to identify with both, or neither.

Writer Martine Beugnet refers to Denis’ films as a “cinema of the senses,” and indeed her films move beyond the visual, into tactile, sensory territory, where the viewer is asked to identify with characters’ physical sensations. In Vendredi Soir (2002), as two strangers spend one night together, we can smell the cigarette smoke on a man’s fingers, and feel the tentative erotic tension between two unfamiliar bodies as they touch.

Denis herself has said “desire is violence,” and the gentlest touches are often contrasted with violent acts. In Trouble Every Day(2001), a young man’s body is torn apart by the teeth and fingers of Béatrice Dalle, an actress who, after Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue (1986), became the image of unbridled desire in French cinema. Comparisons might be drawn with Catherine Breillat’s starkly intimate explorations of bodies in coitus, or, recently, the body-horror of Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (2009), but Denis’ is an oeuvre wherein unsettling sensations are balanced with exquisite tenderness. Her continued focus on male bodies might suggest a direct reversal of the age-old objectification of women onscreen, but the situation is more complex.

Denis regards the male body with an inquisitive gaze: these bodies are strange and elusive, and the sensations they experience are more important than their physical beauty.

Nottingham band Tindersticks have provided

HER FILMS MOVE BEYOND THE VISUAL, INTO TACTILE, SENSORY TERRITORY, WHERE THE VIEWER IS ASKED TO IDENTIFY WITH CHARACTERS’ PHYSICAL SENSATIONS many of Denis’ films’ soundtracks, their dusky scores perfectly complementing her wandering visuals.

Denis’ appropriation of pop songs is always surprising: perhaps Corona’s 1993 dance classic Rhythm of the Night never moved anyone to tears until the defeated legionnaire Galoup danced to it in Beau Travail; The Commodores’ Nightshift beautifully soundtracks a tentative kiss in 35 Shots of Rum. White Material stars Isabelle Huppert as the owner of a coffee plantation in an unspecified African nation which she refuses to leave, despite the threat of civil war.

Her adolescent son suddenly finds himself a stranger, threatened in the land of his birth. The film’s menacing tension approaches acts of horrific violence, where the human body’s vulnerability is explored, with even the chopping of hair becoming a terrifying act.

White Material cements Denis’ reputation as a filmmaker whose treatment of the cinematic experience goes far beyond the visual: we, the viewers, are always strangers in her universe, a landscape of frightening and pleasurable sensations, which linger even after our memories of the images fade.

INTENSE INTIMACY: THE CINEMA OF CLAIRE DENIS IS AT THE FILMHOUSE, EDINBURGH 3 - 25 JUL AND THE GLASGOW FILM THEATRE 6 - 27 JUL. WHITE MATERIAL IS RELEASED ON 3 JUL WWW.WATERSHED.CO.UK/CLAIREDENIS

FROM The pROduceRs OF The Secret Policeman’S Ball cOMedY FuNdRAIseR FOR AMNesTY INTeRNATIONAL

Stand up for

freedom 2010 Dan Antopolski Danielle Ward John Bishop Josie Long

Mark Watson Michael Mittermeier Tim Key

and more to come...

yearS running 3 1 w o h S t u o l l Se 19 auguSt 10Pm £14 Venue150 @ EICC, 150 Morrison Street, EH3 8EE

www.amnesty.org.uk/edfest www.edfringe.com 0131 226 0000

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 21

Film

July Events

Coming to a cinema near you Bona fide legend of the silver screen, one of the Golden Boys of the Golden Age, Tony Curtis will be at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh on 2 July for An Affair with Tony Curtis. The special night features Curtis discussing his Hollywood career (including his experiences of working with Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe) with clips from his films. The evening is followed by Billy Wilder’s classic comedy Some Like It Hot, ensuring this is one night you won’t want to miss.

In Glasgow the GFT has teamed up with the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival to give Scottish audiences a chance to watch some of the key films from the festival on their home turf. It’s a battle of the sexes, with Here Come the Girls on 11 July and Boys on Film on 12 July, offering the finest selection of lesbian and gay short films.

FILM Reviews Bluebeard Director: Catherine Breillat Starring: Dominique Thomas, Lola Creton, Daphne Baiwir Released: 16 Jul Certificate: TBC

rrrr Catherine Breillat’s filmmaking career has been defined predominantly by her explicit exploration of sex, as seen in films like Romance, Anatomie de l’enfer and A Ma Soeur!, which has led, unsurprisingly, to a volatile relationship with cinema censors. However in Bluebeard, the French director defies expectation by making a film with not one sex scene. Her adaptation of the dark fairytale tells the story of two young sisters, one of whom is married off to the mysterious and wealthy aristocrat Bluebeard. Within this narrative, Breillat explores familiar themes, namely the relationship between sisters and the ambivalent feelings between the sexes. What stands out is how elegant and intelligent a filmmaker Breillat is (something which is often forgotten in the furore that builds up around the graphic content). Here you’ll find sumptuous cinematography, vibrant use of colour and intriguing and complexly drawn characters.

[Gail Tolley]

When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors Director: Tom DiCillo Starring: The Doors, Johnny Depp Released: 2 Jul Certificate: 15

rrrr Billy Bragg

On 23 July Billy Bragg, whose music blends folk, punk and some hard-hitting protest songs, will be at the GFT for a live acoustic set following a screening of Breaking Rocks, a documentary about Jail Guitar Doors, Bragg’s independent initiative that provides musical instruments to inmates as a method of rehabilitation. Featuring performances from the ‘graduates’ and interviews from the initiative’s supporters, this is a film for music and documentary fans alike. Also attending for a Q&A is director Alan Miles.

The DCA is hosting a series of films that complement the first UK solo exhibition by Chicks on Speed, a radical, punk-inspired art group currently pushing the boundaries of art, fashion and music. Amongst the selected films is Brit Chic (19 July), a series of short films from the BFI tracing the development of British fashion from WWII onwards, and Peter Whitehead’s classic film, Tonight Let’s All Make Love In London (27 July), a snapshot of swinging sixties London featuring cameos from Mick Jagger, Michael Caine and Julie Christie.

Keren Cytter's Untitled

Finally, as part of the CCA’s ongoing Reflections On Black strand, Keren Cytter’s Untitled, a short film based on the true story of a jealous young boy who shoots his father’s lover, is showing 27-31 July. Featuring two of Germany’s finest melodramatic actors, Bernhard Schütz and Carolin Peters, the free event shows selected films on a loop throughout the afternoon, so you can pop in whenever you choose.[Becky Bartlett]

22 THE SKINNY July 2010

Alongside the kudos of Johnny Depp’s charismatic narration, When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors is a strong depiction of the much clichéd icons. Directed by Tom DiCillo, the documentary artfully delves deep into the band’s past from their meeting at the UCLA, to Jim Morrison’s premature demise in 1971. This is no mean feat considering the abundant caricatures within pop culture that intrinsically link The Doors to 60’s psychedelic historicism. Instead, the indisputable influence of the politics of the time is smoothed alongside the musical chronology without being too obvious. Whether this is due to Depp’s crystal clear, calm overtones or the fact that no particular aspect is over-analysed or revered, it is refreshingly detailed and balanced.

With dynamic sound throughout, great visual and auditory storytelling and plenty of rare footage, it is easy to see why Depp claims to be proud of this nostalgic yet relatable representation.

[Juliet Buchan] www.whenyourestrangemovie.com

White Material Director: Claire Denis Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Lambert, Isaach de Bankolé, Nicolas Duvauchelle Released: 2 Jul Certificate: 15

rrrr

Despite the threat of violence from rebel militia growing ever closer, coffee plantation owner Maria (Isabelle Huppert) refuses to leave the unspecified African nation where she has made her living and where her adolescent son, Manuel, was born. The strength of Claire Denis’ cinema is always its appeal to the viewer’s physical sensations, and White Material sees her use this skill to terrifying ends. Even the smallest wound, a cut on Manuel’s bare foot, is a warning of the terror to follow. Huppert is, unsurprisingly, mesmerising as the unshakeable Maria, but it is Nicolas Duvauchelle’s performance as Manuel, a lethargic slacker who undergoes a frightening physical and mental transformation, which lingers longest in the memory. White Material’s menacing pace and candid violence make for less pleasurable viewing than 2009’s gentle 35 Shots of Rum, but richly textured visuals and exquisitely maintained tension highlight Denis as a filmmaker completely in command of her craft.

[Jenny Munro]

Film

July 2010

THE SKINNY 23

Performance

Circus Maximus

Review

Burlesque is Dead: Long Live Burlesque Almost as soon as it revived, burlesque was announced dead

Once again, The Arches grabs the attention by going weird and wonderful, while leading a Surge into the streets of The Merchant City

The Mating Ritual 22 Jul, Voodoo Room

Text Phil Gatt Photo Alex Berg

rrrr

In the quiet before The Fringe, Glasgow makes a last claim for itself as the festival city. Conflux, led by dark storyteller Al Seed, and The Merchant City Festival are taking over The Arches and the streets of the West Coast’s cultural quarter in a series of shows that merge live art, comedy and circus skills.

Conflux was the logical progession for Seed’s ambitions, as a way to create a legacy for the 2012 Commonwealth Games. It brings together many marginalised performance arts as Seed himself says, from “Roman gladiators charging through the city centre, aliens blending with shoppers, performers taking to the river, willing participants being turned into a Jackson Pollock painting...” through to “jaw dropping Chinese pole and aerial work and, the chance to enjoy an experience which is unique to every visitor and exploits The Arches’ maze-like spaces.”

Seed is no stranger to The Arches experience himself; Danish company Cantabile will be taking over the building for the site specific The Venus Labyrinth. Half psychological study, half psychedelic Greek mythology, the labyrinth houses twenty-eight performers in twenty-eight rooms, offering a series of intimate shows based on the brain’s different areas.

Originally conceived in a former asylum, it has been called a "different and exclusive theatre experience for the daring. Theatre that incorporates every sense in you body: sounds, lights, fragrances, tastes and touches,” by Jakob Steen Olsen of the Berlingske Tidende.

Under Jackie Wylie, The Arches has been restless in staging this sort of experimental yet accessible work: echoes of the earlier Derevo/Akhe collaboration are joined with memories of former artistic director Andy Arnold’s forays into one-on-one theatre. Yet Surge promises another performance front, as the cabaret nights mix extracts from Germany’s Dramaten latest Freakshow alongside vaudeville.

Conflux’s further alliance with the Merchant City Festival sees the appearance of two other West Coast institutions: the redoubtable Mischief La Bas and Oceanallover. As always with La Bas, their event is free: a huge parade on Buchanan Street, starring the greatest of gladiatorial warriors: Truth, Beauty, Brain, Brawn, Honesty and Deceit.

Oceanallover have been down at Dumfries, exploring the meaning and patterns of tides and time: they

With a plethora of shows populated by new acts and many of the established shows disappearing, it sometimes feels as if the cabaret revival is sinking back into a self-supporting community rather than a vibrantly challenging art form.

Gypsy Charms is the Johnny Appleseed of Scottish burlesque: her classes fueled the revival. Her collaboration with Dance House, Blonde Ambition, Chris Wilson of the Kitsch Kats and the ubiquitous Desmond O’Connor is a resurrection ritual. Covering one hundred years of sensual miscommunication, it matches the cabaret format with an ambitious narrative that sees seduction evolve from Victoria’s Prince Albert to the sexualised aerobics of the yuppie generation.

As is natural for a generative event, The Mating Ritual has plenty of sex, alongside O’Connor’s cheeky George Formby tribute and Wilson’s quick fire jazz choreography. The final act even explodes onto the dance-floor in a celebration of new found liberation via the Village People.

Charms and Wilson are stunning dancers: loose and agile, hot and elated, while O’Connor threads together the story with his elegantly ironic interludes: an illegitimate birth, the genesis of disco and the revelation of Man’s true nature illustrate love’s failure to run free. As a taster for Blonde Ambition’s Fringe run, when this cabaret dream team will be exploring their permutations in the Ghillie Dhu, or a show that points to the future of a genuinely theatrical burlesque, The Mating Ritual puts cabaret back in the (Dance) House. [Margaret Kirk]

Red Bastard

arrive at Broomielaw pier with their kinetic sculpture and performers in an all ages showcase. Their last event at The Arches almost ended early when main player Alex Rigg walked out in front of a police van when his butoh inspired ragamuffin look was mistaken for a wandering drunk.

The Merchant City Festival has taken a risk by transplanting itself to July, and is filling the streets with Bollywood dancers, Mischief’s merry makers and Suspended Motion’s aerialism: yet the presence of Al Seed, Alex Rigg and Mischief’s Ian Smith and Angie Dwight is a reminder that Scotland has become

Gareth K Vile

The Critical is Virtual What is the purpose of performance criticism? For The Skinny’s print edition, the answer is simple: it provides a glimpse of the month ahead, suggesting nights out and predicting possible successes, based on past form and present enthusiasms. It’s not so different to the advice offered by a horse racing tipster, only with less chance of losing your house in an afternoon.

New media – in this case, the space afforded

by The Skinny website – provides alternative approaches. Reviews, which often arrive after a run has ended, are cached online as part of the documentation process, often informing future work and grant applications, while blogs allow a more personal response. Features can become in depth, without worrying about their impact

24 THE SKINNY July 2010

on rainforest resources. The rise of networking sites has made the internet part of an open, ongoing dialogue.

In this context, criticism becomes part of the creative debate, a place for ideas to flourish and wilt. If the emphasis in print is on positivity, there is a place for a more aggressive critique online. After much discussion, and no little trepidation, I have tasked one of our writers to offer just such an alternative: a series of articles that consciously challenge performers, and provoke serious debate. I am hoping for controversy, anger and the opening up of a questioning approach to criticism, while expecting a rapid descent into personal invective.

Here’s to pluralism.

an international powerhouse for angular, alternative theatre. It also pushes away the myth that experiments are necessarily obscure and opaque. For all these artists’ engagement with eastern aesthetics, rare emotions and twisted performance, they share a broad sense of humour.

tFrom 7.30pm in The Ballroom. Advance tickets £8 (stbf), £10 on the door + booking fee available from The Voodoo Rooms. www.thevoodoorooms.com

SURGE FESTIVAL Mon 19 – Sun 25 Jul The Arches, The Briggait and various venues Tickets for SURGE at Home paid performances can be bought from The Arches www.merchantcityfestival.com

Top Five JULY THEATRE EVENTS Valhalla

The Beach Ball

The Tron, Glasgow, 6-24 Jul, 7.30pm

Ghillie Dhu, Edinburgh, 4 Jul, 4pm

Camp champion Johnny McKnight and defender of existential drama Andy Arnold combine to celebrate mad monarchs and redneck love.

The old-fashioned event for new-fangled folk is a lively mix of performance, vintage shopping and music, with a crowd that takes the dressing up seriously. Featuring Leggy Pee and Skinny correspondent Charlie M.

New Works New World

The Arches, Glasgow, Until 3 Jul, various times

An early series of new theatre from rising stars, from Richard Dedominici – last seen satirising at the NRLA – to visceral family philosopher Lucy Gaizley, and many more.

Decky Does a Bronco

Lochee Park, Dundee ,23-24 Jul, 7.30pm

Grid Iron get site specific on Maxwell’s play about growing up and dangerous games.

Spangled Cabaret

Cafe Rio, Glasgow, 5 Jul, 8pm

Monthly madcap mix of rock, dark cabaret, comedy and poetry. The wildest mix of all the open and free nights in Glasgow.[Gareth K Vile]

Performance

venue of the month

The Botanics The Botanics is rarely used as a venue, but one annual festival is a reminder of how theatre need not be confined to the indoors

Text Gareth K Vile Since its inception in 2002, Bard In The Botanics has wrestled with two of contemporary theatre’s driving forces: the continued importance of Shakespeare and the need to find exciting performance spaces. A group of theatre makers noticed Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens. Artisitic Director Gordon Barr explains: “The Gardens have a range of locations within a relatively small area – from tree-lined lawns to small, cultivated gardens – it gives you great flexibility. Also, they are in the heart of the West End which is such a culturally thriving area – it’s great to be a part of that.”

Encouraged by the success of international festivals that place Stratford’s favourite son in nature, the team recognised that an annual outdoor festival avoided the perennial dilemma of either updating the classics with a potentially absurd interpretation, or sticking to a recognizable formula that might fail to offer anything new. With the Bard in the Botanics, which leads off from the West End Festival, Barr has developed a strategy that combines the power of tradition with a magical staging.

“This year’s programme is a perfect example of how flexible the gardens can be,” Barr clarifies. “King Lear is a play that is filled with references to nature and the majority of it takes place outdoors so we can use the gardens in a very organic way, making full use of everything that surrounds us from the heavens to the earth itself. The grandeur and the intensity of the struggles faced by Queen Margaret require the splendour of a venue like the Kibble Palace glasshouse. Twelfth Night has a wonderfully lyrical quality, very delicate and beautiful so it’s being staged with a backdrop of the stunning Rose Garden. Finally, Titus Andronicus has had to unearth a space that has a much wilder quality to suit the nature of that piece; 4 very different shows, all using the Botanics in completely different ways.”

Previous programmes have showcased taut productions that join some of Scotland’s most impressive actors with a unique atmosphere. The charm of the Botanics dispenses with the need to adorn the play

with awkward interpretations, providing a traditional Shakespeare that does not sacrifice imagination.

“These plays were, by and large, written for outdoor performance,” Barr admits. “They have a scale and a scope which matches perfectly with outdoor performance and Shakespeare’s language paints such a vivid picture that complicated scenery is just not necessary.” The language itself is often enriched by escaping the theatre. “As we’re currently discovering with King Lear, the outdoor environment can really bring aspects of the play to life. When Lear curses his daughter, and calls on Nature to help him do it, we see George Docherty playing Lear making a real connection to the ground and the forces of Nature – it’s no longer an abstract concept.”

Of course, in Scotland, the al fresco season is strictly limited, as Barr concludes. “If I listed every challenge, I would be here all day. Weather and midges are unavoidable in Scotland but everyone expects that. It’s the unexpected that brings the biggest challenges – the quad bikes that suddenly roared across the lawn and through the curtain call for a production of Macbeth, for example.” Yet experience has been a fine teacher. “After 9 years, we’re getting pretty good at staging work in the Botanic Gardens but we’ll never be totally prepared because a new random element will pop up every year – at least it keeps us on our toes.”

King Lear 23 Jun – 10 Jul (Previews 23, 24 Jun), Main Botanic Gardens, 7.45pm (no performances Sun or Mon) £15/£10 QUEEN MARGARET (adapted from Henry VI Parts 1, 2 & 3 and Richard III) 24 Jun – 9 Jul (Preview 24 Jun) 8.15pm Kibble Palace Glasshouse (limited capacity) (no performances Sun or Mon) £15/£10 TWELFTH NIGHT 14 – 31 Jul (Previews 14, 15 Jul) 7.45pm Main Botanic Gardens (no performances Sun or Mon)£15/£10 TITUS ANDRONICUS 20 – 31 Jul (Preview 20 Jul), 8pm, Main Botanic Gardens (no performances Sun or Mon) £12 /£8 www.bardinthebotanics.org

July 2010

THE SKINNY 25

Performance

previews

It's Magic

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E G N I FR Susan Morrison Magnus BetnEr Simon Munnery Stephen Carlin Susan Murray Bridget Christie Phil Nichol Jo Caulfield Andi Osho Alun Cochrane Paul Sinha Jason Cook DAG SØRÅS Bruce Devlin James Dowdeswell Tiffany Stevenson Nick Sun Kevin Eldon Michael Fabbri Jojo Sutherland Stewart Lee Addy van der Borgh Cary Marx Ava Vidal Vladimir McTavish Mike Wozniak Sarah Millican Andy Zaltzman John Moloney and many more

6-30 AUGUST 2010 26 THE SKINNY July 2010

Edinburgh hosts a festival in advance of the Fringe

Matthew Dowden

Text: Alex Eades and Rebecca Paul And now, before your very eyes.......Abracadabra! The city that gave birth to schoolboy wizard Harry Potter hosts a Magic Festival, starting this summer from 7-11 July.

Matthew Dowden has performed his magic around the world but reckons Edinburgh is the perfect place for some sleight of hand. “The people know how to handle it, they’re up for it and ready to be entertained.”

His show Some Enchanted Evening is inspired by an unlikely combination of performers, from the charismatic to the comedic. “I draw inspiration from classic entertainers like Dean Martin, and Morecambe and Wise... anyone you can watch from 50 years ago and still laugh at is really inspiring.”

Over 3000 people are expected to be spellbound by a variety of acts over the 5 days, which includes a Harry Potter-style magic school, magic cinema, mind reading, a War Of The Wizards competition and a special event by BBC’s The Real Hustle star Paul Wilson.

Despite dramatically rising in popularity over the past few years thanks to the likes of Derren Brown and David Blaine, magic is sadly nudged aside during the Fringe by theatre and comedy.

The Magic Festival aims to shuffle the artform back into the spotlight and reinvigorate a sense of wonder and illusion.

Drew McAdam has been messing with heads for years and hopes An Evening of Mindplay will not only leave his audience baffled, but inspired.

“I’d like to introduce audiences to a whole new world in which they appreciate just how powerful the human mind – THEIR mind – actually is, and that they are capable of far more than they ever thought possible.”

McAdam originally dabbled in psychic phenomena as a youngster to get girls but does not consider himself a showman, rather an “ordinary bloke who has learned to do some extraordinary things.”

“As a mind reader I love the fact that what I do is so personal to the person with whom I’m working.

If you tell somebody the name of the first person they kissed, or the name of their first pet, it’s extremely meaningful to them as an individual.”

At 23, Colin McLeod is the youngest performer of the festival but is already tipped to be the next

Derren Brown. With his show I Know, he hopes to “freak people out in a big way and leave them wondering if what they’ve just seen was real mind reading.”

Having performed at the Fringe over the last two years, Colin plans to teach the audience how to read minds themselves. Injecting humour is also crucial.

“With the comedy I use, it lightens up the mood. I identify myself most closely with psychics, and injecting that humour kind of helps me stand out.”

It will also entice more people to visit the city and experience its own magical qualities. A VisitScotland spokesperson has said: “Everyone is fascinated by magic, regardless of age, and the programme should be a great draw for visitors and also people in Scotland with some fantastic performances and competitions.”

Venues across Edinburgh, 7- 10 Jul, prices from £8 www.magicfest.co.uk/programme.html

Over 3000 people are expected to be spellbound by a variety of acts over the 5 days, which includes a Harry Potter style magic school, magic cinema, mind reading, and a War Of The Wizards competition

COMEDY

PREVIEW

Funny in Falkirk This month sees the start of the inaugural Funny in Falkirk, a comedy festival brought to us by the Scottish Comedy Agency, those folk behind The Stand and the Glasgow Comedy Festival. Launched by Fred MacAulay, there’s a whole load of stuff on offer; the new and the old, the famous and the burgeoning.

Here’s a quick run down on what to expect KEVIN BRIDGES FUNNY 29 & 30 JUL

KEVIN Bridges appears at Funny in Falkirk on 29 and 30 July. Here’s what we thought of his recent performance at the SECC. An event at which it is necessary to mop the floor during the interval is likely a pretty low-brow affair. The sight of Kevin Bridges’ name written in lights across the stage strives to suggest otherwise, though, adding a touch of showbiz class to the proceedings.

Bridges himself is neither classy nor downmarket, but a talented performer sticking to safe, populist material. If the proud Glasgow audience knew or cared how many local acts currently peddle material predicated on differences between the English and the ‘Scotch’, it is unlikely that Bridges’ opening gambit would prove such a hit. Still, he covers well-worn themes from a fresh, self-aware perspective and with a confidence belying his young age . At only 23, it’s disconcerting to find Bridges basing a large portion of his act on shared nostalgia, but he proves an expert at establishing common ground with the ten thousand-strong home crowd.

It’s when he addresses subjects such as politics and religion in offensively simple terms that the amiable star falters. His striving to diversify his topics may be admirable, but his polished performance simply lacks the subtlety required in dealing with such lofty concerns.

[Lewis Porteous]

THE SKINNY NEEDS COMEDY WRITERS!

IN PROFILE:

BILLY KIRKWOOD

MARKETING himself as a ‘comedy fizzbomb’, Billy Kirkwood lives happily in his high-energy act, whizzing through a routine which teeters between childish jokes, cheeky anecdotes and downright filth.

At the same time he’s been building his reputation as a rabble-rousing compere, developing his trade at his own popular gig at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine.

If that wasn’t enough, he’s also one of the resident comperes of the Glasgow Stand’s Comedy Club for Kids, entertaining the harshest critics on earth with his killer improvisational skills, which are also showcased at his monthly Improv Wars gig at the same venue. [Bronwyn Davies]

We’re looking for volunteer writers to cover the mighty Edinburgh Fringe in August.

During the busy period from early July until the end of August, skilled and highly organised volunteers are needed for: * Writing reviews, previews and interviews

SEE BILLY AT IN IMPROV WARS 26 JUL, BEHIND THE WALL OR TAKE THE WEE’UNS TO FALKIRK KID’S COMEDY CLUB, 24 AND 31 JUL, FALKIRK OLD PARISH CHURCH

* Attending press calls and launches

IN PROFILE:

NINA CONTI

* Liaising with press reps and agents for venues, companies and individual acts

NINA Conti has been ventriloquising – is that a word? – since 2002 and has plenty of those accolades we all like to read about when trying out a comedian we haven’t seen before: amongst them the BBC new comedy award, and the prestigious BARRY award at the Melbourne comedy festival – previously won by The Mighty Boosh and Ross Noble. If ventriloquism makes you think of end of pier shows in Blackpool then you are primed for Nina Conti – she shoves her arm elbow deep into her art and brings it springing to life. After a sellout tour in 2009 she is back to introduce Falkirk to Monk, her furry guest for her new show Talk To The Hand. Conti will undoubtedly be thrown off script, mess with the audience’s head and even throw in a bit of magic, making each show a little bit different from the last. [Edward Whelan]

In exchange for all this work, you will get review tickets for shows, the chance to have your writing published on The Skinny’s website, and invitations to our exclusive festival parties.

If you think this sounds like something you’d like to do, email rosamund@theskinny.co.uk with some of your writing and a CV.

SEE NINA IN TALK TO THE HAND, 1 AUG, BEHIND THE WALL WWW.FUNNYINFALKIRK.COM

ILLUSTRATION - NICK COCOZZA

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 27

Art

Antisocial Behaviour: ECA Degree Show A smashing time is had by all at this year's ECA degree show Text Andrew Cattanach Photography Jack Waddington It’s difficult to gauge the success of a degree show as a whole. There’s no prevailing theme, no curatorial selection process, and no vetting procedure. What you get is a cacophony of creative endeavour that very nearly always hits the mark and is invariably charming. In many ways it’s a celebration, a kind of collective coming of age for what will unquestionably be the next generation.

Edinburgh College of Art never fails to astound me with its ability to impart top notch technical skills to its students, particularly in the sculpture department where slick, autonomous objects are largely prevalent. It’s in many ways the most mature of all the degree shows, if not a little conservative at times.

Conservativism is not a criticism that can be applied to the work of Kevin Harman. As his final project for the College’s Masters program he panned in the window of The Collective Gallery with a piece of scaffolding, displaying the instruments of his antisocial performance as indexes of the violent act, including the shattered window itself. On one wall he has framed all the correspondences between himself, the gallery, his lawyer and the police. Even though Harman warned the gallery and replaced the window moments after the performance, The Collective still saw to it that he was charged for his transgressions.

The work, a wonderful piece of straight-faced conceptualism, highlights the possible contradiction between the gallery’s responsibility to emerging artists and its willingness to penalise them. It is a bold contribution to a long history of institutional critique within the arts.

Arwen Duncan has made a courageous and yet subtle addition to feminism. Using sculpture, installation, photography and found objects, Duncan explores the aesthetic of the domestic. All washed-out pastel colours and gloopy foodstuffs, she expertly marries form and content, where conceptually affective works are nonetheless beautiful objects. One in particular, a stack of cupcake holders and plastic jugs is a restrained and elegant work. As a backdrop to this she has smeared an entire wall with custard, forming a sinister, mucousy crust

that seems to parody the female stereotype of the abundant provider.

Two stand-out painters are Alex Gibbs and Matthew Swan. Gibbs paints distant, flat landscapes that remind one of the Surrealist Giorgio de Chirico. With a limited and measured palette he imagines stark planes of loneliness and post-industrial nothingness.

Truly existential.

Edinburgh College of art is in many ways the most mature of all the degree shows, if not a little conservative at times Swan’s wall paintings, on the other hand, are a hectic scrawl of faces, fruit and lower colons.

Where Gibbs is a measured modernist, Swan is a postmodern shambles of pop culture and surfacevacuity. The body is the main point of reference and each figure seems to be reflected in the objects and abstract marks that surround them. If the ECA had a prize for the creepiest sculpture it would go to Swan.

A hooded figure with what looks like a porcelain face has droopy, gloved hands and an ominous blank gaze. It thoroughly gave me the willies.

Katy Thomson’s detailed drawings of tanks and aircraft that have mysteriously sprouted villages and travelling communities wonderfully humanise the West’s military-industrial complex. Groups of tiny tents congregate in the fuselage of a fighter jet while a tank is more like a funfair than a weapon of war.

It’s a pity, however, that Thomson also went to so much bother to make what is a confusing installation that neither fully evokes a fantastical or a real world.

And so another year is concluded at the ECA. Whether this one will prove a fine vintage is yet to be seen. It certainly looks promising.

New Beginnings

28 THE SKINNY July 2010

Arwen Duncan

www.eca.ac.uk

Andrew Cattanach

It’s been mental. Since taking over from my flawless predecessor as Art Editor of this fair magazine just a couple of weeks ago I’ve attended five degree shows and a plethora of exhibitions, events and openings. A steep learning curve, I’ve had to balance a heavy workload with a power of boozing and schmoozing that’s seen me morph into a pitiful scenester, trying to befriend everyone in Scotland, and become a veritable Facebook slag! Can’t say I’m not loving it, though.

It seems only right that this new beginning of mine coincides with the degree show period – a new beginning for so many others. It’s like a midgie hatching, flooding the scene with clouds of youth and keenness. As a self-diagnosed old shit I’ll try and live vicariously through their creative antics, watching on like a slightly dubious uncle.

Kevin Harman

Matthew Swan

So on these pages I look to impart my avuncular wisdom on a monthly basis. With the inevitably inflated notion of oneself that comes with writing anything as pretentious as an editorial, I’ll make on that I am a knowledgeable wit, recommending the best of upcoming shows. This month begins with the final few days of Edinburgh’s Annuale, with interesting stuff going on at Generator Projects in Dundee, and The Project Rooms and SWG3 in Glasgow later in the month. And just as you’re relaxing into the summer vibe August will be upon you and the whirlwind that is festival season. So make sure that between galleries you take a wee seat and enjoy the weather – there’s a storm a-brewin’.

TOP FIVE Kevin McPhee - just after dawn and close to midnight (On Seeing and Knowing)

Johan Grimonprez

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh Until 11 Jul, free

David Dale Gallery, Glasgow 25 Jun – 11 Jul, free

If you haven’t seen this yet then now is your last chance.

McPhee’s show looks to be a cerebral number that incorporates several media, pitching the artist as a latter day Zarathrusta.

Various venues, Edinburgh Until 4 Jul, free

FIELD: By Means of Matter Generator Projects, Dundee 26 Jun – 25 Jul, free

Part of a collaborative venture between Generator Projects and Field, London, the first leg of this partnership sees Field artists showing in Dundee and will have them all questioning the traditions of the white cube.

Annuale

Quite disparate institutions come together in a celebration of grassroots ventures that might otherwise go unseen.

Scott Myles: Elba

Glasgow Print Studios 2 Jul – 15 Aug, free

This intelligent and humorous artist will exhibit new prints made in situ alongside a series of fluorescent text works that explore language and generic signage. [Andrew Cattanach]

ART

Melting Pot: GSA Degree Show

This year's GSA degree show offers an astonishing variety of young talent.

The Skinny gets stuck in

Text Nefertali Deeb Photography Ashley Good AS ever, this year’s Glasgow School of Art degree show presents an impressive range of talented young artists. Complete with dinosaurs, penguins, clay floors, and awash with bright colours, 2010 is all about making yourself heard; it’s a return to romantic childhood idealism and a sense of playful abandon.

Pia Männikkö’s huge sponge-like sculpture, delicately crafted from tiny masking tape funnels, and her ambitious installation that sees her cover an entire studio floor with clay, textured by the tread of her own feet, are breathtaking successes heightened by their popularity with the general public. Our relationship to space and volume are key elements to Männikkö’s projects and her work should definitely not be missed. The clay floor is particularly striking and original, maintaining the fun, childlike quality prevalent throughout the degree show.

Tilde Lerche Engstrom’s prints and mixed media focus on abstract, existential human figures and are admittedly quite unsettling. Giant babies and conceptual families juxtaposed with images of nature, Engstrom’s work is delightfully strange. In Fraudulent Miracles, Kirstin Norma Beaton portrays fascinating images of pain where modern life is everywhere overshadowed by psychosis. Perhaps a reference to The Shining, a typewriter with the phrase “did you believe me when I said this would only hurt for a second?” written a thousand times over on a long ream of paper is totally deranged – in a Jack Torrance kind of way – but entertaining nonetheless.

In Barras Sunset, Judith Brown overlays 1980s cuttings from National Geographic and Reader’s Digest against a printed background of a beach. A bright, kitschy collage of colours, Brown describes it as “a new narrative and juxtaposition for images.”

Colonialism, its ill and lasting effects on the natives and nature are key elements to the work. Inspired by her childhood memories of Venezuela and Mexico, Brown uses “elements from Polynesian-Pop

and the story of Robinson Crusoe to examine the relations within the images and objects and explore their pervasive attributes.”

A darkly humorous, political and social diatribe, David Jack’s paintings are structured on nepotism, cronyism, and the absence of a grand narrative in society. I Used Alcohol As A Crutch, one of the artist’s personal favourites, is a painting of a beautiful red rose in a half empty pint of beer. The piece reflects Jack’s disillusionment with the Labour party and former Labour Councillor Steven Purcell’s drug and alcohol abuse scandal. Disenfranchised by politics, religion and the erosion of class identity, Jack makes a strong statement about our current political climate. Of particular note is Mother and Child, an acerbic portrait of a modern day Madonna and Child, here played by Karen and Shannon Matthews of 2008's kidnapping scandal.

Ida Arentoft’s staged photographs have an eerie Nordic feel to them, evoking a dark and cold isolation. The images are powerful, compelling and suggest a kind of messed up Hansel and Gretel, lost and unable to find their way home. Or perhaps just a bunch of displaced partygoers out of their minds and stranded on a beach.

Vibrant, rich and almost tropical in their setting, Martin Bach-Ravn’s huge colourful paintings in the main gallery showcase an incredible emerging talent – a highlight of this year’s degree show. his work can be seen in this month's Showcase.

Meanwhile, Lisa McNairn’s abstract paintings portray repetition, distortion, colours and patterns with each piece equally emotive.

Ever difficult to sum up, this year’s GSA degree show is a vibrant collection of youthful experimentation. Less a celebration of individual talent, the degree show rejoices in the community spirit of the art school and its collective effort to pull together a decent show. The highlight, in many ways is the degree show itself.

Pia Männikkö

Judith Brown

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART DEGREE SHOW 2010, 12-19 JUN WWW.GSA.AC.UK/DEGREESHOW2010

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 29

Music

There Will Be Blood

After 20 years, Converge have come a long way from simply being one of literally thousands of American hardcore bands Text Eric Ledford Originally hailing from Salem, Massachusetts (the small town outside of Boston made infamous by its colonial-era witch trials), Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou initially set out to play the music they loved, but have since gone on to completely redefine postmodern heaviness through their peerless combination of metallic precision and hardcore brutality.

Now joined by bassist Nate Newton and drummer Ben Koller, this long-standing quartet have enjoyed a significant level of success considering the extreme nature of their music. Thrash, grindcore and sludge collide in a skin-tight, ferocious hybrid overlaid with Bannon’s signature unintelligible shrieks and animalistic screeches – somehow these manage to pierce through a dense layer of mathematical riffage that suggests a more prog-inclined Slayer at their most punk.

Early releases highlight a young group that was fleshing out its own individuality through much

“When you start looking at what you should be, or where you fit in the grand plan of a scene, you start becoming dated” Jacob Bannon

Dave Kerr

Where The Wild Things Are Rock journalism used to seem like such an intuitive thing: band comes along, proves to be a) dross, b) quite decent actually or c) life changing – and it’s any self-respecting scribe’s duty to warn the world immediately. But as more dummies fly over written opinions, it’s become that little bit unnecessarily political when it comes to justifying why. And as the internet opens up limitless avenues of music to explore and people to stroke their chin over it, sometimes it’s a treat just to shrug off all the bullshit and return to a familiar sound.

It's not easy to find respite from the deluge though: although we can't argue with being in the enviable position of having access to pretty much every piece of new music, sifting through the bilge is a challenge and anybody who contributes to this section usually has a steep listening

30 THE SKINNY July 2010

pile to tackle every month. But when you find yourself staring blankly at the wall as you try to get your head into another Britpop throwback at 2am, it can feel a bit like you’re cheating on those artists you already regard so highly. The Anticon collective is one of those for me.

With their various hybrids of dub, shoegaze, battle rap and electronica – Anticon’s early stable was derided for its narcissism (show me the hip-hop that isn’t full of itself) before it was championed for its innovation. Having rarely played live in Scotland, we have two opportunities to see Adam "Doseone" Drucker (who once battled and beat Eminem, don't cha know) and Jerry "Jel" Logan performing as 'Themselves' in Glasgow and Edinburgh this month. Escapism at its most refreshing, deranged and entirely unmissable.

gnashing of teeth, but some of the weaker stylistic elements (OK, the emo bits) have long since disappeared. Most of us who found ourselves located outside the tight-knit northeastern hardcore scene began to take notice when the band released Jane Doe in 2001, a seminal record that effectively inaugurated the beginning of their current sound.

Perhaps unconvincingly, Bannon insists that their entire output should be judged as a whole: “I feel we started doing things that were interesting probably a couple of years into being a band. We were starting to find our own voice and shed some of the stereotypical influences. When you’re a teenager and you start growing and spreading your wings creatively a little bit, you stop being concerned with the music community outside of you, and you’re more concerned with creating something that’s pure and interesting artistically. That’s when things start mattering; it’s all about perspective.”

This sense of perspective has a large part to play, and when asked how the band see themselves in relation to what’s gone on over the years in their hometown scene, the answer is simple: “We don’t. [laughter] When you start looking at what you should be, or how you should be classified, or where you fit in the grand plan of a scene or sub-genre, you start becoming dated. At that point, you’re no longer concerned with writing interesting music – you’re

more concerned with your place in history. I don’t think it’s healthy to think that way.”

Health, indeed, is something that Bannon, who goes to the gym almost every day, takes pretty seriously. Since his vocal chords are basically shredded on a nightly basis throughout their gruelling tour schedule, he’s forced himself to be more aware of his body’s basic needs and limitations. But having said that, are the Converge guys total sport dudes? “Most people of our generation of hardcore kids rejected sports – we didn’t wanna relate to the jocks or anything like that. I rejected that world of regular culture.” As a die-hard fan of combat sports like boxing and Muay Thai (kickboxing), Bannon is currently pursuing his certification to become a judge (i.e. referee) in the state of Massachusetts.

Besides his active involvement in blood sport, Bannon has also made a name for himself as a graphic designer of immense talent, one who not only defines the look-and-feel of Converge, but also dozens of other bands in the heavy music universe. His work is instantly recognisable and his approach has been mimicked for over a decade – on everything from websites and album covers to t-shirts and skateboards. He humbly claims to be unaware of his status as a trendsetter: “We don’t really operate in that world of music, nor do we really pay attention to the influence that we’ve had visually on stuff. We just put our heads down collectively and continue doing our own thing, both visually and musically, and getting something out of it rather than paying attention to how things get watered down or misrepresented.”

He goes on to elaborate on the work-intensive method of collectively creating every aspect of the band’s output: “That creative process is truly brutal and it’s a bitch in every way. It comes natural, but the refinement of it is torturous at times. You get a lot out of it, psychologically, but it’s definitely draining.”

Converge have released four full lengths to great acclaim over the course of the past decade and show no sign of letting up any time soon. Their latest, Axe To Fall, topped many ‘best of’ lists for 2009 and was a former Album of the Month here at The Skinny. In the live setting, they continue to focus their attention on the intimate club gigs that are their bread-and-butter, but as the followers of heavy music continue to grow in number, the band find themselves playing larger venues year in and year out.

They have never encouraged violence at their shows, but the bloodthirsty reputation of audience brawls and injuries precedes them. Years ago they started playing with other bands that increasingly come from the metal scene, but their hardcore roots remain firmly intact. Meeting the expectations of their fanbase or critics does not concern them on any level: “Some people will look at the Jane record, and say this is the watershed record, or something like that – for me it isn’t, but for those people it is, and that’s all well and good, because my personal experience with creating the record is different from theirs listening to it.”

Converge play The Garage, Glasgow on 14 Jul www.convergecult.com

MUSIC

A ROUGH GUIDE TO DOSEONE

PHOTO: MATHEW SCOTT

Return of the Boom Bap

With CrownsDown, Themselves came full circle, delivering an album of straight-up hip-hop. Adam "Doseone" Drucker says it's all about avoiding rap Hell

Interview Bram E. Gieben Doseone is one of the founding members of seminal underground hip-hop label Anticon, which exploded out of Oakland in the late nineties. He is the main voice in the band Themselves; his other collaborations – as 13&God, with members of The Notwist, as the Anticon supergroup cLOUDDEAD, and as the six-piece experimental hip-hop band Subtle – have seen him alternate between ambient textures, extreme noise and intricately layered vocal harmonies, challenging notions of hip-hop.

With the last two Themselves releases in 2009 – a mixtape (The Free Houdini EP) and an album (CrownsDown) – Dose and his long-time friend and collaborator Jel went back to basics, performing intense live sets which showcase Dose’s intricate, polyrhythmic double-time raps and Jel’s jaw-dropping live percussion on the MPC. Before Themselves play a rare Scottish double at Glasgow’s Stereo and the Electric Circus in Edinburgh this month, we caught up with Doseone to get the lowdown on Themselves and the legacy of Anticon.

You work under a lot of different names – where do Themselves fit into this?

“Themselves is actually the closest to the bone that it gets for me. With each grouping of people, only certain things fly. Like, in 13&God, where I have six grown-ass men in that band with me – same thing in Subtle – I can’t be like: ‘I wanna lollipop!’ I can’t really put the I-me-me-I stuff in it. With Themselves there are none of those rules – Jeff and I are best friends, we share the same sense of humour, it’s the same musical soil that we came out of. Themselves is where I get to be me. With these last two albums, we really deeply enjoyed going back and making rap music, after everything we’ve done and explored.”

Is the live show equally exciting for you?

“There is something about the way we’ve been playing live that feels new again. It feels like the first time.

I mean, I grew up watching rap bands like The Roots, but Jeff and I – we’re like that two-man boombox. While we may have always struggled with, or not cared about our ties to the origins of rap and our validity in its greater scheme because of wherever we come from, or where we wanted to go... now it’s like this really crazy, pure rap-in-a-can when we play live. It’s awesome, and I feel good about it, but I’ve always felt more than one way about getting into this thing which I deeply love and am meant to do – about being a rapper. Sometimes it was confusing, sometimes welcoming, sometimes frustrating. Now it feels really good. I don’t care if I’m standing next to fucking Redman or Holger Czukay [of Can], I feel proud about what I do in the greater scheme of music, the music that I came from and the music that I’ve always been heading towards.”

Anticon is nearly fourteen years old now.

What do you think the label has achieved?

“What we have achieved is fucking awesome, which is that all of us can make the music we want to make, with no fingers in our vaginas whatsoever. That is all we ever wanted. As for that any pipe dreams we had about ruling the world overnight? We’ve had to forfeit those, but it’s for a greater good. Our label is not drowning right now. I mean, Def Jux went down, all these labels have gone down, and we don’t have any of those problems. We’ve got a good group of people: we communicate, we put out music that we all approve of – still, somehow – which is mystical.”

CrownsDown felt like an album that was pure technique – the syllables match the MPC beats exactly. Why do you focus so hard on the technical aspects of rap?

“I’d have to say that the focus on technique comes from two things. One is that we are both neurotic,

PHOTO: MATHEW SCOTT

Doseone & Boom Bip – Circle (Leaf, 2000) Possibly the weirdest hip-hop album ever recorded, Dose bounces off angular production to explore every possible facet of his voice; the result is a critical textbook for anyone with delusions of performance poetry.

positively obsessed fans of this music – Jeff and I make rap because when we first heard it, it made us go crazy. It made us fall in love, we’d hear it in our sleep, hear it in our own voices... we have studious rap knowledge. We loved all the groups who were great, and have memorised ridiculous amounts of just horrendous rap records, which we love just as much, because they’re just one hundred and ten percent rap.”

Like Tim Dog? “Good, exactly! Like, if every fucking rapper or front-person in the world swung it that hard, we’d be in a better place. Dude is like: ‘I AM RAP! I’M IT!’ That’s what I like about crazy-ass Tim Dog. Jeff and I have all this technique, all this ability because we schooled ourselves, because we fucking loved it. It’s like if there’s this ever-present wack emcee, there should also be this ever-present ‘perfect man’ I feel confident being cocky about the fact that that is what I’m fucking with. The perfect rapper – freestyler, performer, chopper, writer. The crown! There’s no illusion. That’s the metaphor. We [as Themselves] have got to make the real shit. I don’t wanna go to rap Hell, not even remotely. I don’t even want to be in the waiting room.

I wanna have a rider when I go to rap Heaven. I want it to be like, ‘Yo, dude, this is your room, check it out, you’re gonna love it! There’s not many people on this floor. It’s just you and two other guys, and they’re cool – you’re gonna love ‘em!’”

THEMSELVES PLAY STEREO, GLASGOW ON 23 JUL AND ELECTRIC CIRCUS, EDINBURGH ON 24 JUL VISIT WWW.WEAPONIZER.CO.UK TO READ MORE OF BRAM’S WRITING WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEMSELVES

Themselves – THEM (Anticon, 2000) Despite the seemingly simple beats and raps configuration, there is no shortage of jaw-dropping pyrotechnics and originality on show here. An indispensible banger, even for those who normally shy from Dose’s more experimental output.

Themselves – The No Music (Anticon, 2002) With this album, Dose and Jel not only re-invented themselves as a most forward thinking hip-hop team, but reinvented the entire genre. Dadaist rap swagger anthems and avant-glitch sculptures keep it more real than a million gold studded crunk pretenders. cLOUDEAD – Ten (Mush, 2004) Dose and WHY? trade expansive raps and platitudes over Odd Nosdam’s dream-like sound collage in a sublime powerhouse of free-ambient soundscape-hop. This collection of 12”s defined the advancement of hip-hop for the arthouse generation.

Subtle – For Hero : For Fool (Lex, 2006) A six-piece expansion of Themselves’ outerlimit hip-hop, Subtle shed a lot of the psychedelic freak-out of their initial recordings and picked up a fuzzy pop sensibility along the way. The sheer beauty of the songs belie dense arrangements that would make Brian Wilson dizzy. [Ali Maloney] WWW.MYSPACE.COM/DOSEONEINC

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 31

MUSIC Don’t know your Bartok chamber prog from a creepy Italian horror score?

Let Leo Smee of progressive 'disco metal' orchestra Chrome Hoof shine a light Text Leo Smee WHEN I see articles in magazines about progressive bands, they always mention the likes of Dream Theatre, Porcupine Tree or Mars Volta of the current time (yawn) – or Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd from back then. All fine, but if you dig a bit deeper there’s some golden nuggets to be had.

During the period from 1968 to 1975 you’d already had genres such as blues, pop, soul, jitterbug, psych, classical etc; with these ingredients all you could do is embrace and start bolting together. Throw in some synthesizers, unusual instruments and a pinch of experimental freedom and voila – exciting, original times.

So this is where to start, in no particular order…

Magma – Udu Wudu (1976) The French really know how to deliver when it comes to Progressive music, especially in the 60s, 70s and for a petite time in the 80s. Drummer and visionary Christian Vander’s imagination created a band with the help of Jannik Top (bassist) where the rhythm section’s motorik drive and inventiveness, layered with angular choral melodies and bent out synths created a truly original feast. They also sing in their own made up language, ‘Kobaian’. These guys take you from ethereal beauty to dark trance-like grooves. Udu Wudu has a real uplifting, summoning feel at the start – breaking out into dark Egyptian slabs of polymorphic freak out funk and nut, nut time signatures. They end it all with the epic seventeen minute track De Futura. A must! They’re still going strong, but check some of the side projects spawned by Magma.

King Crimson – Larks Tongues in Aspic (1973) When I first heard this it made me feel on edge.

Not just because of the amazing musicianship, out of the box textual layering, heavy metal or sinister string arrangements, more because I’d found something new that excited me about the sheer brilliance of how music can be brought forth..

Up until then I thought I couldn’t write songs or get a hold on verse-chorus-verse type arrangements. When I came up with songs, a lot of the time band members said ‘Leo that’s too weird’, or ‘How can you put that together with that?’ This album relinquished all my phobias about writing music and gave me a lot of confidence in my imagination.

T2 – It’ll All Work Out in Boomland (1970) Early 70s English trio T2’s three track album of epic blues, jazz, psych mash has a quality like a great novel – great start, middle and ending. They must have been a killer live band. I also like the fact the drummer was the singer with a real soothing melancholic tone, whilst still beating the shit out of the drums.

Birth Control – Plastic People (1975) A reason I got into ‘prog’ was because of the artwork. When you look through records at markets or charity shops those prog albums just want to be seen – I purchased Plastic People for 50 pence at a market in Brixton for that very reason. It helped that there’s tons of interesting instruments on there – some of the riffs are really goofy, in a fun way, with a nice kraut element. They have a bunch of other albums, but for me this is their best work.

Earth and Fire – Song Of The Marching Children (1971) A Dutch band that formed in 68, they even had a couple of pop singles in the 60s. This album is another great ‘journey’ album (note: not the band ‘Journey’). With beautiful female vocals that sound a bit Susie Sioux and Kate Bush, majestic mellotrons and inventive arrangements take you far far away. I heard the singer is now a judge on Holland’s Got Talent?

Aphrodite’s Child – 666 (1972) The legendary Demis Roussos and Vangelis based this concept album on the Book of Revelations. This is a real cult album in the history of music, full stop. First time I heard it was when I was about 14, bunking off school around one of the older boy’s houses. After a couple of ‘hot knives’, he put on 666. It’s a long, amazingly crafted double album with narration based on religious mythology – a mix of pop, rock, psychedelia, symphonic passages and cult voodooism. Perfect!

Os Mundi – Latin Mass (1970) This band doesn’t sound all that German, owing to the vocals being in Latin.

The album sounds more like the music to a 70s Italian horror movie. Demonic riffs, a lot of studio splicing, experimenting, reversing and elongated swinging psych jams – still sounds well fresh!

Univers Zero – Heresie (1979) Belgian band formed in 1974. Stephen O’Malley [of Sunn 0)))] hooked me up with these pioneers of dark, dark, atmospheric, Bartok chamber prog.

Mostly an instrumental soundscape of marching drones and overlapping time signatures, it’s an eerie journey led by sinister bassoons and strings – but uplifting at the same time.

Goblin – Suspiria (1977) A big Chrome Hoof influence, this Italian band are probably known best for their soundtracks to 70s and 80s films, but this is a soundtrack for all occasions. We love their use of synthesizers – synth arpeggios based around the drums and bass and plodding disco. Exciting stuff. Tenebre is another must have album from these guys, if only for the first track.

Egg – The Polite Force (1971) This album is muso, not in the cheesy six string fretless bass way, but in a real endearing, challenging, angular, classical, earthy and fun way – with a sense of humour. One of my favourite bands from the Canterbury scene, I got this tape stuck in the cassette player of my old car (VW Polo) for two years. It’s a bit challenging at first but after 567 listens you can tell they’re having a lot of fun.

And that’s what music’s all about, right?

CRUSH DEPTH BY CHROME HOOF IS OUT NOW ON SOUTHERN RECORDS WWW.MYSPACE.COM/CHROMEHOOF

32 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

Unbound Late nights at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Unbound JULY 2010 THE SKINNY 33

Welcome to Unbound This year, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is introducing a new strand to its programme featuring free tickets, late nights and innovative approaches to author events. Programme Manager Roland Gulliver introduces us to Unbound Text Roland Gulliver For the 2010 Edinburgh International Book Festival we wanted to challenge ourselves, our authors and audiences; to create something new, exciting and slightly chaotic. We wanted to make the most of our fantastic Highland Park Spiegeltent and let the festival fun last a little bit longer into the night.

So we made Unbound. A collection of nights bringing together authors, poets and musicians to play, perform and read to you, to inspire and amuse you, maybe to make you feel a little uncomfortable.

To say it is authors reading stories, poets reading poems or musicians singing songs doesn’t describe it.

It is gloriously indefinable – as all the best things are!

We love the live experience, energy and intoxication of watching someone stand on stage, share their heart with you and capture your imagination. Letting you discover something unexpected. Live events like these are appearing everywhere from New York to London to Glasgow and Edinburgh, it is where new talent is being discovered and well-known faces get to play a little after hours.

Unbound is a series of events running every night throughout the Edinburgh International Book Festival, bringing together the best from Scotland, Britain and the USA. We have hooked up with authors, poets and musicians to entertain you every night from 9pm: underground live literature nights from Scotland; indie magazines from around the world; authors singing their songs and singers telling their stories. Each night will be different, refreshing and spontaneous.

And it is free! Yes, free. And there is a bar. This stuff is so good we want everyone to experience it; we want you to discover a hidden gem on a hot August night that will come back and keep you warm in dark December days.

We begin on Sunday 15 August. Gutter magazine from Glasgow will give us hot moves and terrible chat up lines as we celebrate all that is sensual and subversive in Scottish literature.

Scottish legends run amok; Christopher Brookmyre will join Billy Franks performing the songs behind the stories and the stories behind the songs. A L Kennedy brings together her achingly funny stand up with the poise of her writing to present Words.

The young pups are here too fighting their corner.

Alan Bissett hosts the devilish DiScOmBoBuLaTe; Ryan Van Winkle leads us in a merry dance through The Golden Hour; Canongate give us a cavalcade of treats in Irregular; Rodge Glass and the Year of Open Doors is all that is brilliant about Scotland and new writing and Writers' Bloc will take us on a fantastic adventure, real and imaginary.

And there’s more. We will host the first ever Dragon’s Pen: new writers fresh from creative writing schools will pitch their ideas to you and an expert panel. Debut author Louise Stern, who is a deaf visual artist, will play with words and voices.

And if that’s not enough, we have transatlantic treats. Willy Vlautin, of Richmond Fontaine fame, with Lean On Pete; Simone Felice, founder member of The Felice Brothers and now The Duke and The King, with the dark world of Black Jesus, his new novel out in 2011, and a night with the cult American magazine, McSweeney’s.

And it all finishes on Monday 30 August with an extended Unbound from 7pm till 11pm. This won’t be free but you can buy tickets in advance from our box office £10 (£8). There will be some very special guests.

So come and get Unbound with us every night in the Highland Park Spiegeltent and celebrate Edinburgh in August – you never know what you might find or who you might meet.

Unbound events will run from 15 to 30 August, and with the exception of the closing night, they’re all free.

Due to licensing laws Unbound is only open to over 18s

Edinburgh International Book Festival Text Roland Gulliver

Every August, Charlotte Square in the heart of historic Edinburgh, the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, becomes the home to the Edinburgh International Book Festival. This year, from 14 – 30 August, the Book Festival will play host to authors, playwrights, poets, politicians, journalists and thinkers from around the world.

Over 200,000 visitors will come to join the debate, meet the authors, browse the bookshops or just enjoy an ice cream in the tranquil setting of the beautiful gardens. To complement the adult programme there is a full children’s programme with events, workshops and debates for every age from toddler to teenager.

Founded in 1983, the Book Festival is the largest festival of its kind in the world. It has become a platform for audiences to debate with leading thinkers from the worlds of science, politics, business, economics and journalism as well as literature.

You can expect to see Edinburgh favourites such as Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith and Carol Ann Duffy, as well as some top international authors, a

smattering of politicians and some of the best new talent.

This year iconic NME journo Nick Kent, cyclist Mark Beaumont, musicians Jah Wobble (who collaborated with Sinéad O’Connor, Björk and Baaba Maal), respected and beloved actor Simon Callow, MP Alistair Darling, celebrity hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, artist Martin Creed and architect Norman Foster will all be joining us in August.

Remember, authors such as J K Rowling, Yann Martel and Salman Rushdie all spoke at the Edinburgh International Book Festival long before their books became world bestsellers – you never know who you might discover this year.

Full details of the programme are available on www.edbookfest.co.uk and tickets can be booked online or over the phone (0845 373 5888)

34 THE SKINNY July 2010 Unbound

Illustrations by David Lemm

A Bit of Bissett

A chat with renowned author Alan Bissett about DiScOmBoBulAte, his work in general, and storytelling Text Keir Hind ALAN Bissett is a kind man. Despite talking to some of the older kids at a school in the north all day (his first two books, Boyracers and The Incredible Alan Spark are deemed to have teen appeal, though he has to stay away from his most recent, Death Of A Ladies' Man, about a womanising English teacher) then traveling back from Aberdeen by train, he’s still happy to talk to me about the events he’s involved with at the Book Festival. He’s talking specifically about the long running, and very successful DiScOmBoBulAte spoken word nights that he’s part of.

When I ask what makes DiScOmBoBulAte special amongst the many similar nights out there, Bissett quickly replies “I think it’s the host, Ian Macpherson.

He brings a particularly...” he pauses to produce the right word “...laconic style to DiScOmBoBulAte. He did stand up comedy for a long time, and that suits DiScOmBoBulAte, because a lot of the work is comedic, but at the same time we’re always looking for stuff with a literary quality.” DiScOmBoBulAte ran regularly for about three years, but, says Bissett, “It was never meant to last forever.” It’s now likely to survive as part of special events – special events like Unbound, in fact.

Bissett’s involvement with literary evenings began when he was at Stirling University, where he helped one of his tutors, Magi Gibson, to organise a literary night called Growl. It was “a spoken word night we started to create a scene in Stirling, because there wasn’t much happening there at the time." This grew later on, when – after a spell in Leeds – he ended up in Glasgow, and with Magi Gibson again, tried to start something similar in that city.

He says, “We knew what we didn’t want it to be.

We were both familiar with poetry nights where we’d been bored to tears because the poets weren’t often great performers – which is no slight on their writing, just a reflection on the fact that they didn’t get to perform that often.” Bissett is quick to stress that it was others who properly organised the event though: “Magi and Ian Macpherson were the main organisers of DiScOmBoBulAte, and so their rule was that the performers had to be confident in front of an audience – it wasn’t just for anyone who had written something.”

The event attracted bigger names as it went on.

Bissett talks excitedly about when they had Alasdair Gray on. “He went into this… it was like a tour of European history at one point, and it really showed the crowd how smart he is. He just started declaiming it, and the Arches audience was completely with him too. It had nothing to do with what he’d come to talk about, but it was great.”

It wasn’t all big names though, because that wasn’t the point. Bissett takes care to mention that they would have people on who weren’t well known, or even likely to appear at spoken word nights. “Working class writers are getting rarer,” he says “but Billy Letford is that. He works as a roofer, and his work just shocked me with how powerfully it affected the audience”. And while he says that “We do have screening.

It’s not a come one, come all, that’s a sure fire route to disaster” there’s still an air of unpredictability to the events. As Bissett admits, “You’re not going to get Alasdair Gray on and tell him what to talk about.”

It’s probably a mark of quality that, in Alan Bissett’s point of view, DiScOmBoBulAte wasn’t ever to be a vehicle for selling books. “The way that the publishing industry looks at live performance is that it’s a marketing opportunity for a book, and I never saw it like that,

because the performance should be an end in itself. If you’re speaking to a crowd with a microphone, then that’s performance – you can pretend to yourself that it’s not, but that’s what it comes down to. And when I see someone just intoning from a book then I see that as disrespecting an audience.” However, polite to a fault, he adds, “I understand that some people prefer, or just have to do that, but I didn’t want to, personally.”

Bissett tells me about the first time he appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and it’s a good story. “It must have been about 2001, and I was on with a couple of other authors, and we all read pieces of our books, and then when it was question time this woman stood up at the back and said basically ‘I think you were all shite!’ She said that the listings had said we were provocative writers and ‘I haven’t been provoked in the slightest’, and on she went, and the audience started booing her. It was my first time at the Book Festival, and I thought I’d done a pretty good reading. But naw, apparently not. So I hope I don’t get that again!” He’d be forgiven if that put him off performing entirely, but happily, it didn’t.

Bissett made the move into live performance himself, when, after writing two plays, he wrote and performed in The Moira Monologues, his ‘one woman play’ about – there’s only one way to put this – a gallus Falkirk wumman. The Moira Monologues will be running in Edinburgh during the festival too, so there’s a good chance she’ll make an appearance at DiScOmBoBulAte. Bissett says, “When I first started out I was a very, very young man, and I was eager to perform.” After giving a lot of readings, he became more confident. He continues, “After a while it becomes something that doesn’t faze you as much, and so that’s why I started going into doing plays and stuff like that.”

The question is, does performing affect the way he writes? He’s pretty certain it does, and for the better.

“It definitely affects the way you write because you start to think about how it’ll come across live. So it is there, but I think that not everything I write could be picked up and read to a crowd – some of the formal experimentation that you find in my books just wouldn’t transfer." That said, he expands on his idea of the relationship between the spoken and the written word by telling me that “there’s a really strong oral tradition in Scotland – I mean there’s the bardic tradition and so on, but even at the level of guys in pubs, especially in the central belt, there’s a lot of guys on the job or in the pub telling each other funny stories, and if you can’t do that you’re deid. So that’s what it’s all about really!” And that has to be the bottom line.

"I NEVER SAW READINGS AS A MARKETING OPPORTUNITY, BECAUSE THE PERFORMANCE SHOULD BE AN END IN ITSELF"

DiScOmBoBulAte WILL TAKE PLACE AS PART OF UNBOUND IN THE HIGHLAND PARK SPIEGELTENT ON MONDAY 16 AUG. ALAN BISSETT WILL BE APPEARING IN THE MOIRA MONOLOGUES AT THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND FROM 10 TO 21 AUG (EXCLUDING 14 AND 15)

Unbound JULY 2010 THE SKINNY 35

LISTINGS Unbound events happen every night from 15 to 30 August in the Highland Park Spiegeltent in Charlotte Square, part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. All events bar the closing party are free and unticketed. To get in, simply turn up on the night. We suggest arriving in advance of the start time for a better chance of securing a seat. Events start at 9pm and the bar will be open until 1am.

TUESDAY 17-AUG 9-10.30PM FREE

FRIDAY 20-AUG 9-11PM

Willy Vlautin

FREE

Vlautin is an American author and lead singer of alt-country rockers Richmond Fontaine. He's doing a more conventional author event at the Book Festival to publicise his new book Lean On Pete, but tonight he gets to blend together his two trades in an informal evening of storytelling and music.

WEDNESDAY 18-AUG 9-11PM FREE

SUNDAY 15-AUG 9-11PM

MONDAY 16-AUG, 9-11PM

FREE

FREE

A Night in the Gutter: McSex

DiScOmBoBuLaTe

They're only on their second issue, but Glasgowbased Gutter magazine are already challenging preconceptions of what a literary magazine is. They come to Unbound to extend that challenge to the literary event, and also show off all the exciting things they do for the rest of the year. Taking the rather terrifying subject matter of Scottish erotic writing, the event will feature four published and three unpublished authors discussing whether such a tradition exists.

Authors so far confirmed include Michel Faber, Ewan Morrison, Zöe Strachan, Helen Sedgwick, Allan Radcliffe and Anneliese Mackintosh. Turn to page 39 to read an interview with editor Adrian Searle.

Based in Glasgow, DiScOmBoBuLaTe is a regular night run by renowned Scottish writer Alan Bissett and stand up comedian / playwright / musician / multi talented artist type person Ian Macpherson.

They've been presenting DiScOmBoBuLaTe for a good few years, allowing literature and comedy to collide in a live setting and opening the floor to writers ranging from the celebrated to the emergent.

Poet Magi Gibson, comedians Simon Munnery and Arnold Brown, and of course Alan Bissett and host Ian Macpherson are so far scheduled to appear.

Turn to page 35 for an interview with Alan Bissett.

WWW.DISCOMBOBULATE.ME

Christopher Brookmyre: The Songs behind the Stories and the Stories behind the Songs See below.

THURSDAY 19-AUG 9-11PM FREE

It Doesn’t Have to Rhyme

Irregular Organised by Canongate Publishing, Irregular is a night which runs frequently, if not regularly, in Edinburgh. Bringing together writers, poets and musicians, the night aims to bring a cabaret style to Edinburgh, a literary club night, if you will, where you can listen to some reading and some music, have a drink and maybe even a dance. Dan Rhodes, Emily Mackie and John Wray are all set to appear with compere duties carried out by Dave Peron.

SATURDAY 21-AUG 9-11PM FREE

McSweeneys Discover the life & times of Timothy McSweeneylong-lost brother, friend we all wish we had, geek in the corner, flagrant raconteur? Eli Horowitz, managing editor of the pioneering literary magazine, takes us on a journey of discovery through the stories, people, designs, and misadventures, capturing McSweeney’s unique view of America.

Poetry Night puts exciting debut poets alongside more established names for a night of performance, comedy, surrealism, stories and reading. It claims it will be a poetry night that isn't a poetry night. Names so far scheduled include Lorraine Mariner and Frank Kuppner, with further famous names in the offing.

WWW.GUTTERMAG.CO.UK

PROFILE Christopher Brookmyre and Billy Franks WEDNESDAY 18-AUG 9-11PM

Chris Brookmyre’s events at Aye Write! have typically been the most hilarious events there – he’s been funny at the Edinburgh International Book Festival too, but somehow more subdued...

Until now, when he brings musician Billy Franks with him to try and storm the Highland Park Spiegeltent. He’s described a previous event like this: “It had a cabaret feel to it, which made for a different atmosphere than the usual author reading. It was good fun, and the audience seemed to respond to it.” With Brookmyre planning a move away from the satirical crime genre where he’s had such success to something “that’s – I hesitate to say serious, but one that’s a bit more down to earth than what I usually write,” this might be a good point to see what all the fuss is about – and Unbound is the ideal venue for this mix of words and music. [Ryan Agee]

36 THE SKINNY JULY 2010 Unbound

PROFILE A L Kennedy

MONDAY 23-AUG 9-10.30PM

In 2005, literary hero A L Kennedy slid a foot into the shady world of stand up comedy. She’s kept it there ever since, performing regularly at The Stand’s Wicked Wenches night – a celebration of all things female and funny – and rocking the Fringe with shows crammed full of beautifully crafted comedic observations.

It makes sense: Kennedy has the ability to whip language into whatever obscure shape takes her fancy and uses her linguistic superpowers to good effect in her musings. Her mighty back catalogue (including the Costa prize-winning book Day) inevitably loom behind her, even in the lightest moments of whimsy, as do her strong lefty politics. Both provide a beautifully odd contrast to the... well... fun of her performances and presence. Unbound will be a chance to see some of the many, bloody entertaining, guises of A L Kennedy. [Siân Bevan]

LISTINGS Five Dials

PROFILE Writers’ Bloc TUESDAY 24-AUG 9-11PM

If you’re looking for thought-provoking, amusing, chilling and invariably gripping tales that are well told, then the established and new authors who make up this Edinburgh-based ‘spoken word performance collective’ will certainly give you an evening to remember.

With work published professionally in the UK, US and elsewhere – and their self-published, criticallyacclaimed chapbooks regularly selling out – the members making up Writers’ Bloc are modern-day champions of an often overlooked Scottish literary tradition – the fantastique. As with their literary predecessors, Writers’ Bloc’s tales of the weird and wonderful have foundations in solid ground; in these stories, often harsh realities invariably are entwined with even harsher supernatural worlds.

Although the evening’s line-up is yet to be confirmed, the collective’s slogan – “Better read than dead” – perfectly describes their work’s intelligence, wit and political awareness; this will be an exciting opportunity for a wider audience to discover a unique element in Edinburgh’s literary world. [Paul F Cockburn]

SUNDAY 22-AUG 9-11PM

WEDNESDAY 25-AUG 9-11PM

FREE

FREE

Year of Open Doors: New Writing

Golden Hour

Editors Rodge Glass and Mark Buckland have put together a collection of new Scottish writing called The Year of Open Doors. The event will feature stories from the book, including authors Kapka Kassabova, Daibidh Martin, Allan Wilson, Sophie Cooke, Helen Lynch and Anneliese Mackintosh. For a somewhat non-traditional interview with Glass and Buckland, turn to page 38.

WWW.CARGOPUBLSHING.COM

A mixture of structure and chaos, brought together in a night of music and literature. Organiser Ryan Van Winkle has booked three bands to perform at this Festival edition of his cabaret night usually housed in Edinburgh's Forest Café. Black Diamond Express, Withered Hand, Jed & Hailey will be joined by some as yet unannounced writers and readers (they're keeping it close to their chests until just before the event) who will bring the necessary unpredictability to the mix.

FREE

Words with AL Kennedy See to the left.

TUESDAY 24-AUG 9-11PM FREE

Writers' Bloc

SUNDAY 29-AUG 9-10.30PM FREE

Closing Night Bands & Books The final shindig of the programme looks set to be one hell of a party. Featuring Rodge Glass's band Burnt Island, a set from Chemikal Underground's Adrian Crowley, and Ryan Van Winkle, Alan Bissett and many more writers doing readings. There is also a super secret ‚'very special musical guest', whose identity will remain a mystery until close to the night.

This is the only event requiring payment, with tickets available for £10.

Louise Stern Author Louise Stern presents an event mirroring the disjointed narrative techniques employed in her debut collection of short stories, Chattering: Stories, to create a uniquely interactive author event. Stern, who is deaf, will invite the audience to communicate through notes during the evening, letting their imaginations fill in the deliberate gaps left in her reading of one of her stories, The Velvet Rope.

MONDAY 30-AUG 7-11PM £10 (£8)

PROFILE Simone Felice FRIDAY 27-AUG 9-10.30PM

THURSDAY 26-AUG 9-11PM FREE

MONDAY 23-AUG 9-10.30PM

Produced by London publisher Hamish Hamilton, Five Dials is a literary magazine available for free in pdf form from www.fivedials.com/fivedials, designed to be printed out and enjoyed away from the screen. Based around the theme of dialogue, the event will form a showcase of their produce and a launch party for their latest issue. They also promise some top secret very special guests doing readings

Dragon's Pen, in association with the City of Literature Like Dragon's Den, but with aspiring writers from seven of Scotland's creative writing schools pitching their novels to a panel consisting of published authors, publishing houses and agents. The panel is as yet a closely guarded secret, but the event is sure to provide plenty of entertainment for an audience eager to see dreams being both crushed and made.

Despite the superfluous ‘e’ in his first name (yes, Simone is definitely a dude), Felice is otherwise preceded by an understated reputation. His musical output is categorised as Country Soul, but if you can imagine Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and Robert Frost collaborating on songs and forming a band, you might have a more accurate idea of what to expect from Felice. His lyrics, poetry and prose give voice to a new Americana: a continued wholesome wonder of the natural world, countered by emotive political stances on the Iraq war, confirming that Felice’s heart is embroidered on his sleeve, and that he will never want for a muse. Last summer saw the release of his album Nothing Gold Can Stay, as well as the publication of his first novel Black Jesus, so his occupation of a prime Friday night slot in the Highland Park Spiegeltent looks justified, and very tempting. [Renée Rowland]

See above.

FRIDAY 27-AUG 9-10.30PM FREE

Simone Felice See to the right.

SATURDAY 28-AUG 9-11PM FREE

The Edinburgh International Book Festival opens in Charlotte Square Gardens on Saturday 14 August and the public programme runs until Monday 30 August, with the RBS Schools Gala Day closing the Festival on Tuesday 31 August. Full details of the 2010 programme can be found at www.edbookfest.co.uk. Tickets are available either online (www.edbookfest.co.uk), by telephone on 0845 373 5888 or in person at The Hub on Castlehilll (from Sunday 27 June to Thursday 13 August).

Due to licensing laws Unbound is only open to over 18s.

Unbound JULY 2010 THE SKINNY 37

Opening Doors to New Writing The Year of Open Doors is an upcoming collection of new Scottish writing, edited by Rodge Glass (properly: Dr Rodge Glass, novelist and eminent Gravian) and published by Mark Buckland (properly: Mr M. Buckland esq, head of Cargo Publishing), which will showcase a selection of its stories at Unbound on 22 August. The Skinny met up with the pair to talk books, events and Tory names Text Keir Hind

When I meet Mark and Rodge, they’re eager to tell me all about The Year of Open Doors, their new writing collection which features work by Doug Johnstone, Kirstin Innes, Duncan McLean, Allan Bissett and even Aidan Moffatt of Arab Strap. But I assure them that they need not convince me of the self-evident quality of any book with such a roster of talent, nor do they need convince me of how great the forthcoming free event at Unbound will be. In fact, I’m so convinced that there’s no need to explain any more to me that asking them ridiculous quiz questions seems like the way to go: Question 1: The Tory name question – poshest wins.

(Your Tory name is the name of your grandfather or grandmother on your mother’s side as a first name, with a double-barreled surname formed from the first street you grew up on plus your headmaster’s surname) Mark came up with: John Crewer-Wilson Rodge topped that with: Murray TroutbeckBrown, which wins. It’s now: Rodge 1-0 Mark Whilst I’m devising a scores table, Rodge tells me about the genesis of The Year of Open Doors. “It came out of an original idea between me and Alan Bissett a couple of years ago,” he says. “Most of my book ideas start out from being drunk with Alan Bissett and him going ‘You know what you should do?!’ and I go ‘Really?!’” This one was a keeper though. “The idea between me and Alan was to try and do something in the tradition of: art before money; independent spirit; Clock Tower Press; Rebel Inc; Children of Albion Rovers; even Lean Tales that Alasdair Gray, James Kelman and Agnes Owens put out together – all that kind of tradition.

And we wanted to do something that was part of that, but which also shows how Scotland has changed, so it would be internationalist and would include people that had come here from other places.” Most interesting. But since I’m sure it’s ace anyway, back to the quiz: Question 2: Music. Which of the following is not an actual band? (a) Oh Shit! A Geyser! (b) I Love You, But I’ve Chosen Darkness (c) Lack of Afro (d) A Fine Boat, That Coffin! (e) Insects With Tits (f) Swollen Monkeys (g) Forever Goes Quick After a few wrong guesses on each side, Rodge hits paydirt with Forever Goes Quick.

Rodge 2-0 Mark On a rush from getting this right, Rodge starts telling me more about the book. “It was nearly taken up by several very large publishers in London, who wanted lots more famous names in it.”

After rejecting this approach, Glass laid the idea to one side, until one of his old creative writing pupils – enter Mark Buckland – approached him about publishing his work. Glass responded by pitching The Year of Open Doors to him. “It might not be hugely commercial but there’s a coherent idea about it that I really believe in. What do you think?” Mark’s answer after this short interlude:

Question 3: The American authors catchphrase game. Clues are given to the surname of various American twentieth century authors. So: (a) Person who posts a lot: Rodge guesses this is Norman MAILER. (b) Used to keep a fire going: Nobody gets Saul BELLOW. (c) Moving higher on a dam: Nobody gets John UPDIKE either! (d) Singular of a British supermarket: Mark gets Toni MORRISON. (e) One of the seven deadly sins (sounds like): Rodge gets Philip ROTH. (f) Colloquial term for stealing: Mark gets Thomas PYNCHON. This was a draw, a point each, making the score: Rodge 3-1 Mark Mark, happy to have gotten a point at last, tells me he jumped at the chance to work with Rodge.

“Initially, we both had quite a loose idea of how we wanted it and Rodge had a few specific people in mind, but we were both agreed we wanted it to be quite open, and we wanted to try and find new people. We worked quite closely all the time, constantly updating, batting names back and forth.”

This literary talk leads neatly into another question: Question 4: Scottish Literature. What is the best Scottish novel of the 21st century so far?

Rodge goes for The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil Mark goes for Death of a Ladies Man by Alan Bissett.

They’re both wrong. It’s The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson. Fact. Score remains: Rodge 3-1 Mark It’s notable that both Rodge and Mark chose novels by authors who have work in The Year of Open Doors. Rodge – who’s originally from England – is full of praise for the Scottish Literary scene. “The more that I travel with my work and get invited to other countries, the more I realize that it’s great what we have here. I’m not saying that there aren’t many problems – there are – but there are writers that come here to settle and to make a writing career for themselves.” All of this talk of good writing leads to a complete detour with the next question: Question 5: The Edward Bulwer-Lytton challenge. There is an actual EBL prize given every year to the person who pens the best ‘bad’ first sentence, named in honour of the man who came up with ‘It was a dark and stormy night’.

Rodge’s entry is, cheekily: “As Keir looked forlornly up at the Eiffel Tower, he remembered with deep regret the previous night in the boudoir.”

Mark’s is: “As the sociologist worked tirelessly to examine the faults in his statistical diagram of the social strata in lower middle class Glasgow, he felt a dark foreboding.”

Mark wins, taking us to: Rodge 3-2 Mark The Year of Open Doors does not, of course, have that kind of bad writing in it – it’s a strong collection, born out of a rigorous selection process. “We were talking about who we admired,” says Mark,

38 THE SKINNY JULY 2010 Unbound

“and who we liked, and we discovered that we’re both from very different schools of thought when it comes to writing, we like very different things.

So there was a lot of arguing, there was a lot of bickering.” Rodge agrees, adding, “We agreed at the start that if we were on some kind of ‘behind the music’ type programme in ten years talking about why we’re suing each other, then that’s the way it’d have to be.” Happily, the process not only yielded new work from established writers, but also found excellent work by three writers chosen from open submission: Helen Lynch, Allan Wilson and Micaela Maftei – look out for their names in future. But right now, another question: Question 6: Sport. This is three rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

After a draw and two wins, Rodge Glass is the winner, which makes it: Rodge 4-2 Mark To move on to more important events (and because of growing interest) I ask Rodge about The Year of Open Doors event at Unbound, on 22 August. “I’ll be hosting,” he says, “and there will be six writers on, including Sophie Cooke and Kapka Kassabova. We’re making sure we’ve got new writers on.” Not only are their writers talented, but their ideas are innovative. Mark eagerly tells me about “this audiobook that we’re also doing, which Chemikal Underground Records are supporting and distributing for us.” Why do that? “We noticed that many of the writers that we have in this collection have got a history not just in one discipline of art in Scotland, but also in music or performance and things like that,” Mark says. “So this is an opportunity to prove that our writers aren’t just singularly talented.” Sadly, this noble sentiment leads to a supremely daft question: Question 7: Children’s literature. The question here is: If you were stranded on a desert island with the Mr Men, and food became scarce, which of the Mr Men would you kill and eat first?

Mark goes for Mr Jelly, because he’d taste nice.

Rodge goes for Mr Slow, because he’d be easy to catch.

Mark has to win this one, because taste beats utility. This makes the score: Rodge 4-3 Mark Rodge wouldn’t be mistaken for Mr Happy after losing that point, so I ask him about his favourite part of the festival. “Traditionally the final night in the Spiegeltent is quite a special thing. We’ve taken it over this year, so Burnt Island [Rodge’s band] are playing, Adrian Crowley from Chemikal Underground is playing, and there’s going to be a very special musical guest on the bill who we can’t possibly mention who we’re going to leak very, very late. We’ve also got Ryan Van Winkle, Alan Bissett, and one or two other writers doing very short readings in between.” Mark adds, “I’m really excited about the whole festival. The whole Unbound programme is something completely different. It’s probably never been tried before in certain respects…” he trails off here, but Rodge wraps up the thought by telling me, “If there’s one thing we can’t stand, it’s being bound.”

Sadly, they’re bound by this stupid quiz.

Question 8: The final, and hardest question – for 5 points.

The contestants have one question each here, for 5 points. Mark’s question is: Identify this book from its ISBN number: 978-0-9563083-0-6 Mark reasons that this must be something he’s published, and guess that it’s Cancer Party by Andrew Raymond Drennan. And he’s right, for 5 points!

Rodge’s question, and only chance to beat Mark now is: Identify this book from its ISBN number: 0-330-31965-5.

He guesses that it’s his biography of Alasdair Gray. It’s not. It is in fact Lanark by Alasdair Gray (if anyone should know, it’s Rodge. And he calls himself a biographer?!)

So the overall winner is Mark Buckland, by a score of 8-4!

Commiserations to Dr Glass, who probably would have won a more normal quiz.

Congratulations to Mark Buckland, who ironically wins the book Doctor Glas, the classic 1905 Swedish novel by Hjalmar Söderberg. Mark can now be seen on Cargo’s website wielding this like a trophy.

KEIR HAS NOW READ THE YEAR OF OPEN DOORS, AND SINCE IT IS, AS PREDICTED, THOROUGHLY EXCELLENT, HE FEELS THAT HIS DECISION TO STUPIDLY QUIZ MARK AND RODGE WAS JUSTIFIED. MANY THANKS TO THEM FOR GOING ALONG WITH IT. THE YEAR OF OPEN DOORS EVENT WILL BE ON 22 AUG FROM 9-11PM IN THE HIGHLAND PARK SPIEGELTENT AS PART OF THE UNBOUND PROGRAMME. THE BOOK IS RELEASED ON 27 JUL

WWW.CARGOPUBLISHING.COM THEYEAROFOPENDOORS

A Night of Sex in the Gutter!

That's Gutter Magazine, so don't get too excited. Or maybe you should, because they've a very unusual event planned...

Text David Agnew WHEN asked why The Skinny’s readers should go to Gutter Magazine’s event at Unbound, the magazine’s editor Adrian Searle gets straight to the point: “Ours will be the smuttiest... the magazine is named Gutter after all!”

Actually, it’s possible that his claim will be a hard one to uphold in this programme (all being well!) but then again... “The event is called McSex,” says Searle, “and will examine whether there’s such a thing as an erotic tradition in Scottish literature.” To this end, “We’re asking four published and three unpublished Scottish writers to read from their own work and others from any period of Scottish literature, past or present,” which should provide ample proof of this theorem.

Confirmed authors so far include Zoë Strachan – “a brilliant erotic writer” – Michael Faber and Ewan Morrison – “who has written some of the most important books about contemporary sexuality in the last twenty years – Swung and the fabulous Ménage.”

They’re the promised published authors, with two others still to be confirmed. Searle continues, “They’ll be joined by three outstanding young writers, Helen Sedgwick, Anneliese Mackintosh and Allan Radcliffe, all of whom coincidently are graduates of Glasgow University’s renowned creative writing Masters programme.”

Gutter’s event is probably running in the Unbound strand because it wouldn’t fit elsewhere in the Book Festival’s programme. Not because of the subject matter though, more because Unbound is being used as a way to give new writers an outlet. Searle says “I think Nick Barley and his team are to be commended for introducing the Unbound strand of late night events. The Scottish literary scene is bouncing just

now, and while the Book Festival is excellent at attracting big names to Edinburgh, it can also provide an important platform for emerging Scottish talent.”

And he continues that the freedom of the Highland Park Spiegeltent atmosphere, and the format of the Unbound events “give us the freedom to break out of the traditional, relatively static approach to literary events and deliver something more vibrant.”

Gutter itself should also be commended for providing a platform for emerging writers. And it seems there’s an audience for the magazine, too. “Issue 1 has sold out and Issue 2 is selling very well,” says Searle. ”We now have a well established subscriber base and we’ve had some great events, particularly at Aye Write! and the National Library of Scotland.”

Their event at Unbound looks set to be similarly great. Perhaps it’ll even be good enough to produce something that matches the moment Searle tells me is his favourite ever from the Edinburgh International Book Festival: “Hunter Davies asked Janice Galloway if she was a man-hater. She almost roasted him alive!”

Maybe not quite. Still, in addition to quality readings, there will be “a short acoustic set from Grant Campbell, Scotland’s answer to Tom Waits. And we’ll be announcing the result of a public poll as to who is the nation’s favourite erotic Scottish writer.” Get your votes in now, and get to the Highland Park Spiegeltent on 15 August for A Night In The Gutter.

A NIGHT IN THE GUTTER WILL BE ON SUNDAY 15 AUG FOR MORE INFORMATION ON GUTTER MAGAZINE, PLEASE SEE WWW.GUTTERMAG.CO.UK

The Power of Golden Hour!

Golden Hour comes to the Highland Park Spiegeltent – brace yourselves...

Text Graham C. Paterson RYAN Van Winkle is the distinctively moustachioed, talented and charismatic (qualities he shares, of course, with all who have written, as he once did, for The Skinny’s Books section) regular host of the Golden Hour literary and musical evenings. “We just finished a massively fun tour of England,” he says, “hitting up Sheffield, Brighton, Bristol, London and Newcastle. Brilliant shows with loads of guest stars and, perhaps, a taste of what fun we’ll be having in the Highland Park Spiegeltent. Drinking and dancing and stories and poems – what more could you want from 9 – 11pm on a festival Wednesday?”

He’s right: it’s a great event. And the reason? “Golden Hour is not just multi-author - it is multi-platform. And so you have music and cartoons and jokes as well as top quality writers reading their work.” To that end it’s been confirmed that top musical acts Withered Hand,

"THE SCOTTISH LITERARY SCENE IS BOUNCING JUST NOW, AND THE EIBF CAN PROVIDE AN IMPORTANT PLATFORM FOR EMERGING SCOTTISH TALENT”

Jed Milroy, Hailey Beavis and the thoroughly excellent The Black Diamond Express will be there – the writers reading will have to be a surprise for now, as Ryan plans to trawl the Book Festival for prospective acts.

Ryan has excellent memories of last year’s Book Festival, when “I particularly enjoyed my conversation with David Simon about the pizza in my native New Haven, CT”! But this year it’s his job to create treasured memories at his event. How? “To my knowledge” he says “The Golden Hour is the only literary event that regularly ends with lots of dancing and a few cheap, red wine-soaked snogs.” Good. Join the party!

GOLDEN HOUR IS IN FACT TWO HOURS: 9-11PM ON 22 AUG IN THE HIGHLAND PARK SPIEGELTENT. GOLDEN HOUR IS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH FOREST PUBLICATIONS WWW.FORPUB.COM

Keeping It Irregular Text Johnny Chess IRREGULAR is a literary club night, which runs, yes, irregularly, and is put on by Canongate publishing.

Canongate’s Francis Bickmore told us, “When we started Irregular in 2009 we wanted to host the kind of club that we couldn’t find in the city at the time, something that brought together books and performers in an after-hours way. Edinburgh’s Yellow Café from the 1990s and London’s Bookslam were definite inspirations, places where you could hear writers, poets and musicians in a relaxed environment, with a drink by your side, and then maybe have a dance afterwards.” This spirit that informs Irregular will now be coming to the Highland Park Spiegeltent.

Authors confirmed so far include Dan Rhodes, a “literary genius, and ex-stand up comedian,” according to Francis, and John Wray, writer of the acclaimed Lowboy and one of Granta’s 'Best of Young American Novelists'. “Our compere will be in the form of a foulmouthed Gary Glitter-meets-Alan Ginsberg performance poet, Dave Peron (aka Glasgow’s Innes Smith),”

Francis says, and he also promises “some hot debuts and some veteran acts that we’re keeping close to our chest.” He’s very positive about the festival too. “We’re also extremely excited to be joining the programme now that Nick Barley has taken over,” he says. “He seems really keen to build on the festival’s strengths, as well as make it more dynamic, opening it to a less, er, silver-topped demographic.” Er, yes. If you haven’t caught an Irregular before, get yourself to this one – it’s highly recommended.

IRREGULAR WILL BE STAGED IN THE HIGHLAND PARK SPIEGELTENT ON FRIDAY 20 AUG.

Unbound JULY 2010 THE SKINNY 39

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

relax, explore, discuss, discover, imagine, and be inspired at the biggest and greatest book event in the world.

This year iconic NME journo Nick Kent, cyclist Mark Beaumont, musician Jah Wobble who collaborated with Sinéad O’Connor, Björk and Baaba Maal, respected and beloved actor Simon Callow, MP Alistair Darling, celebrity hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, artist Martin Creed and architect Norman Foster who designed the new Wembley Stadium and one of the towers at Ground Zero in Manhattan, will all be joining us in August. And there are hundreds more…

www.edbookfest.co.uk BOOK TICKETS BROWSE THE FESTIVAL BY THEME OR SUBJECT HEAR RECORDINGS OF EVENTS READ EXCLUSIVE NEW WRITING COMMISSIONS SIGN UP FOR FESTIVAL UPDATES JOIN US ON TWITTER

14-30 AUGUST 2010 CHARLOTTE SQUARE GARDENS BOOKING LINE: 0845 373 5888 40 THE SKINNY July 2010 Unbound

Vote foR ouR ReAdeRs’ fIRst book AwARd 2010 SEE THE EVENT EXPLORE THE BOOKS MEET THE WRITERS CAST YOUR VOTE AT WWW.EDBOOKFEST.CO.UK

©2010 Jack Daniel’s. All rights reserved. JACK DANIEL’S and OLD NO. 7 are registered trademarks.

MATURI†Y åPπLˆES TO μøR´ THåN JUST WHISK´Y. Your friends at Jack Daniel’s remind you to drink responsibly.

July 2010

THE SKINNY 41

MUSIC

Predetermination Some five years into its existence, Glasgow (via Stirling) label Predestination Records presents the third chapter in its Premeditation compilation series this month. Co-founder Chris Cusack introduces an indelible snapshot of Scotland’s independent alternative rock landscape and the international ties it has developed Additional Text Dave Kerr

PHOTO: DAVID NEWITT

PHOTO: YOUKO KIMURA

THE roots of the Premeditation compilations go back to one fundamental question that the five of us in Predestination Records posed to ourselves nearly six years ago: what makes a scene? The best answer we could come up with at that time was “community”.

We defined community with wider boundaries than most perhaps, preferring to draw the lines based on perceived common interests and so it extended across cliques and cities not to mention Scotland and later into Europe. Musically speaking, that under-pinning interest is the survival of the numerous independent labels, promoters and bands operating outside the mainstream of a notoriously prohibitive industry.

The basic purpose behind these compilations is to bring a band’s music to the attention of people who would otherwise perhaps not encounter it and, as a result, try to encourage some crosspollination between disparate crowds. To that end, Volume 3 is by far our most diverse collection, hopefully without being inconsistent.

Of course, it’s only one of many such collections released by DIY contemporaries across Scotland and Europe, all equally deserving of your attention. So here it is, band by band.

– PreRec, June 2010

2 ADEBISI SHANK

This Dublin trio’s feral live shows are already the stuff of legend. A commendable devotion to touring has even taken them as far as Japan. Look out for the guitarist with a brain like a super-computer and an insane masked bass player with a penchant for climbing.

1 UNITED FRUIT

Current pack-leaders of the Glasgow post-hardcore scene who combine elements of Sonic Youth’s inventiveness with Quicksand’s raw snarl. Push It is the rasping opening track from their brilliant Mistress Reptile EP. Big plans are apparently afoot for the end of 2010.

Ostensibly the original core of the label, DorA called “hiatus” in early 2009. Creepy, barbed and melodic – Ne Plus Ultra is the lingering reek of a band at the height of its powers.

Taken from their belligerent, Kurt Ballou produced swansong (?) Thaumaturgy.

PHOTO: IAIN CANNING

6 DIVORCE

Four girls and a guy spewing a gritty mix of contemporary Riot Grrrl and 90s Chicago noise.

A split record with über-hip Comanechi attracted much praise but the track on the compilation is lifted from their equally excellent split cassette with fellow Glaswegian face-melters Ultimate Thrush.

42 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

PHOTO: HEIDI KUISMA

4

VCHEKA

Their genre-blurring, trend-shunning sound emerged apparently from nowhere. A vain attempt at comparison might read: a rhythmic blend of Battles-eque instrumentalism and Primal Scream’s violently skewed indie. Whatever. Long story short, they’re superb and their Live At The BBC EP is released later this year.

5 SUPER ADVENTURE CLUB

One of the hardest gigging Scottish bands around, this trio make a fantastic racket distinctly of their own design, somehow staggering the divides of pop, jazz, post-hardcore and prog. All done with a level of musicianship that makes most guitarists/bassists/drummers want to throw in the towel.

8 VAKUNOHT

From the ashes of Senator and the legendary Macrocosmica, these three gents make a mammoth progressive racket, with hints of stoner rock and metal to boot. There’s a debut album already in the bag, try to catch them live and remember to marvel at their gloriously indulgent drum-kit.

PHOTO: PIERRE WETZEL

PHOTO: DAVID NEWITT

PHOTO: MARKUS THORSEN

DEAD OR 3 AMERICAN

7 GÂTECHIEN

This cult French duo usually require little introduction. Thunderous drumming and jaw dropping bass-lines make the noise of twice as many lesser musicians. Their contribution is taken from their fourth album, recorded by Ted Nicely, also the man behind the desk for DIY godfathers Fugazi.

PHOTO: GOGO BRADY

This solo, electrodoom machine is usually spotted as the manic frontman for Take A Worm For A Walk Week. Lifted from his eponymous debut, this tune, You really Are Just A Waitress, is a collision of Joy Division and Big Black, while recent live shows have yielded some stunning expansive new material.

From their background in punk and hardcore, Citizens’ devotion to DIY gig-swapping has brought numerous great European underground acts to Glasgow. Their sound builds on those volatile roots and branches off in fascinating, inventive directions, encompassing the progressive instincts of many Dischord luminaries.

PHOTO: DAVID NEWITT

10 HOLY MOUNTAIN PHOTO: CHRISTINE ROBERTSON

PHOTO: DAVID NEWITT

LOSS LEADER

PHOTO: TAKESHI SUGA

12 CITIZENS

MUSIC

9

Originally a power-duo, these guys have delivered some of the most talked about shows in recent Glaswegian memory, including one in the back of a moving transit van en route to one gig from another. Allan Stewart (of Desalvo/Idlewild fame) has also recently been drafted in on four strings.

PHOTO: DAVID NEWITT

11 HEY ENEMY

Surely raised on a nasty diet of reptilian post-punk favourites like Jesus Lizard and Hot Snakes, it’s not uncommon for Hey Enemy gigs to end in smashed pint glasses, police involvement and didgeridoo solos. A collaboration with Rolf Harris is in the post.

14 OLYMPIC SWIMMERS

13 STOMACHS

Vibrant art-punk depicting the collision of former members of Glasgow-based post-punkers Plaaydoh and Hyena. Each live show is different, in typical unfussy style. Loud, catchy and clearly a lot of fun for both band and audience. Their recent album on Winning Sperm Party comes highly recommended.

PHOTO: SARAH ROBERTS

Comprising some of the most highly regarded musicians on the contemporary Glasgow scene, as well as some gorgeously understated songwriting sensibilities, their debut Chem19-produced single promises much for future releases. Expect a busy live schedule in the next 12 months.

15 THEWS

PHOTO: ANDREW R MOORE

PHOTO: ALI SMITH

The glorious union of three of Dundee’s finest exports: Alamos, Avast! and Laeto, whose collective time served on the UK live circuit is huge. Tayside Story simultaneously exhibits their pop addiction, Van Halen fixation and hardcore roots. The forthcoming mini-album is a beast too.

16 LAETO

Yes they are still alive. More than ten years on, Dundonian cult heroes Laeto have finally finished a new album and advance snippets, including Ecuador, sound incredible. Past tour supports with Idlewild and Snow Patrol have seen them cast as the nearly-men of the Scottish scene. Hopefully not for much longer.

17 YOUR LOYAL SUBJECTS

This dynamic Edinburgh duo have more riffs than a stadium full of Jack Whites. Having recorded with little-known Steve Albini in previous incarnations, the new album sees singer Doug MacDonald writing his best stuff yet. It’s a simple recipe, cooked to perfection.

20 PHOTO: CHRIS CUSACK

PHOTO: GILLES RAMMANT

18 MARVIN

Surely one of the hardest working bands in Europe, this French three-piece are seemingly perpetually on the road, blowing people’s minds with danceable, electro-infused post-punk. Not only revered musically, they’ve become something of a standard bearer for independent touring acts.

19 CHICK PEAS

With a glowing reputation in their homeland of France, this mob’s twin-bass attack makes for a huge live sound. They’ve shared bills with almost every other talked about band on the French underground and their recent eponymous debut album marks a justifiable push for the same kind of prestige.

BOUTROS BUBBA

PHOTO: DAVID NEWITT

PHOTO: DAVID NEWITT

Another band with an idiosyncratic take on the noise genre, this pioneering Dutch group twist and contort their structures as much as they do the notes within. As deceptively loose as the music sounds, it’s performed with pin-point accuracy live.

21

PHOTO: BENJAMIN POTTIER

MR PROTECTOR

This bass-less French trio utilise chunky guitar tones to both intermittently lurch and stampede their way through five minutes of highly intelligent, experimental hardcore. Past trips to our shores garnered rave reviews and recent album Petrole is a great introduction for the uninitiated.

PHOTO: ALLAN RONEY

22 OTHER PEOPLE

Relative newcomers to the Scottish scene, this quartet have made an unprecedented impact with their hookdriven alternative pop. Threads of Pavement and other 90s U.S indie are neatly interwoven with more typical Scottish pop influences. Given half a chance stardom surely beckons.

23 TITUS GEIN

A familiar name to anyone involved in Glasgow’s alternative scene, these guys have been refining their catalogue for a long time and are only now working on their debut full length album.

Here’s what they do best: a massive electro-prog anthem with more catchy bits than a Velcro catsuit.

PREMEDITATION VOL. 3 IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD FOR A MERE £3 FROM 4 JUL WWW.PREDESTINATIONRECORDS.COM

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 43

Music

Stray Cats As Kassidy ready their debut album, the all acoustic quartet look to a halcyon age of guitar pop for inspiration Text Alexis Somerville Glasgow’s Kassidy are disappointed by their own inability to transcend scientific laws. “I would love to go see us but it’s a physical impossibility,” says Lewis Andrew, one of the four guitarists comprising the band. “When people see us live it makes them open their eyes; they don’t shoegaze and chat, so much as try to solve the equation.”

Formed in 2008, they needed a slight name change to avoid a grisly lawsuit (from the rapper Cassidy of Swizz Beatz and manslaughter charge infamy).

Based on the philosophy that a great song will sound impressive whether jammed full of competing instruments or played on a lone acoustic guitar, they stumbled upon their unusual set-up. “We wanted it to be a vocal band,” explains Barrie-James O’Neill, “but we didn’t expect it to remain acoustic until we just fell in love with the idea and the imagery of it.”

The four are musicians with gigging backgrounds outside of Kassidy, having served their time on penniless toilet tours – all part of the fun, of course. “I’d do it even if it was for £2 a night,” says O’Neill. It seems unlikely that he’ll have to now – they’ve reportedly signed a £400,000 four-album deal with Mercury before their debut has even arrived. “We went to the crossroads on a cold Wednesday night in Glasgow and Mercury picked us up,” deadpans O’Neill, unruffled by the huge pressure. “They say four albums – it might be one. If they want four, we’ll give them four.”

For a band with such a cohesive sound, they have wildly contrasting tastes encompassing rock’n’roll,

44 THE SKINNY July 2010

funk, hip-hop, blues and sun-kissed 60s surf pop.

They split the songwriting duties for the sake of an easier journey together. “We’ve made the sound progress together,” says O’Neill. “We thought, to avoid any friction, we’d just share for a while.”

So how does this socialistic songwriting process begin?

“Melody comes first,” O’Neill affirms. “Most of our songs come from melody, rhythm, force and sound. We normally write the lyrics to the song once we’ve got the structure.”

Loosely telling the nature of their lyrics and music, O’Neill hints that there’s an air of escapism to Kassidy that marks them out from the pack. “It’s about things you’ve never heard of and things that you believe but you never see – matters that are bigger than us, basically.”

Their debut album, Hope Street, is due out in August and was produced by Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Ladytron).

But before that, they’re playing T in the Park again after a memorable slot on the T Break stage last year – a feat the band considers a “milestone” in their short career thus far.

Despite relative local success, a love of their city and the house they share in it, Kassidy can’t identify any Scottish contemporaries and find themselves out in the wilderness. “It’s quite hard to have friendly peers in Glasgow,” says Andrew. “They shake hands and smile but they really wanna kill you.”

O’Neill agrees, apparently reveling in the adversity.

“We’re surrounded by people who think we should fail, which I love, because it’ll make the success all the sweeter if we get it.”

Kassidy play T in the Park, Balado on 11 Jul and Tartan Heart, Belladrum on 6 Aug www.myspace.com/kassidyuk

MUSIC

Stray Cats As Kassidy ready their debut album, the all acoustic quartet look to a halcyon age of guitar pop for inspiration Text Alexis Somerville GLASGOW’S Kassidy are disappointed by their own inability to transcend scientific laws. “I would love to go see us but it’s a physical impossibility,” says Lewis Andrew, one of the four guitarists comprising the band. “When people see us live it makes them open their eyes; they don’t shoegaze and chat, so much as try to solve the equation.”

Formed in 2008, they needed a slight name change to avoid a grisly lawsuit (from the rapper Cassidy of Swizz Beatz and manslaughter charge infamy).

Based on the philosophy that a great song will sound impressive whether jammed full of competing instruments or played on a lone acoustic guitar, they stumbled upon their unusual set-up. “We wanted it to be a vocal band,” explains Barrie-James O’Neill, “but we didn’t expect it to remain acoustic until we just fell in love with the idea and the imagery of it.”

The four are musicians with gigging backgrounds outside of Kassidy, having served their time on penniless toilet tours – all part of the fun, of course. “I’d do it even if it was for £2 a night,” says O’Neill. It seems unlikely that he’ll have to now – they’ve reportedly signed a £400,000 four-album deal with Mercury before their debut has even arrived. “We went to the crossroads on a cold Wednesday night in Glasgow and Mercury picked us up,” deadpans O’Neill, unruffled by the huge pressure. “They say four albums – it might be one. If they want four, we’ll give them four.”

For a band with such a cohesive sound, they have wildly contrasting tastes encompassing rock’n’roll,

44 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

funk, hip-hop, blues and sun-kissed 60s surf pop.

They split the songwriting duties for the sake of an easier journey together. “We’ve made the sound progress together,” says O’Neill. “We thought, to avoid any friction, we’d just share for a while.”

So how does this socialistic songwriting process begin?

“Melody comes first,” O’Neill affirms. “Most of our songs come from melody, rhythm, force and sound. We normally write the lyrics to the song once we’ve got the structure.”

Loosely telling the nature of their lyrics and music, O’Neill hints that there’s an air of escapism to Kassidy that marks them out from the pack. “It’s about things you’ve never heard of and things that you believe but you never see – matters that are bigger than us, basically.”

Their debut album, Hope Street, is due out in August and was produced by Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Ladytron).

But before that, they’re playing T in the Park again after a memorable slot on the T Break stage last year – a feat the band considers a “milestone” in their short career thus far.

Despite relative local success, a love of their city and the house they share in it, Kassidy can’t identify any Scottish contemporaries and find themselves out in the wilderness. “It’s quite hard to have friendly peers in Glasgow,” says Andrew. “They shake hands and smile but they really wanna kill you.”

O’Neill agrees, apparently reveling in the adversity.

“We’re surrounded by people who think we should fail, which I love, because it’ll make the success all the sweeter if we get it.”

KASSIDY PLAY T IN THE PARK, BALADO ON 11 JUL AND TARTAN HEART, BELLADRUM ON 6 AUG WWW.MYSPACE.COM/KASSIDYUK

Music

Over the past few years Woodenbox has expanded to incorporate new collaborators, old friends, many horns and about five extra words.

Ali Downer explains why Text Ryan Drever Photography Stewart Fullerton Beginning life as a modest bedroom endeavour, Woodenbox has since spawned into a vibrant, proficient musical collective. “I did the first album as a little thing for myself, with pals, and just printed about a hundred,” explains frontman Ali Downer.

“Over a couple of years we’ve built up slowly, member by member, but I think that’s it done now. Once you start playing with six people, you find it difficult to go back.”

Dubbing the collective band of stragglers “A Fistful Of Fivers” – a reference to Downer’s self-proclaimed obsession with Spaghetti Westerns – Woodenbox have become a solid proposition, both in the studio and the live arena. Exhibiting several prolonged nods to the work of legendary composer Ennio Morricone – thanks in no small part to a prominent horn section – the resulting sound also pulls together elements of folk and country. From their more laidback, reflective moments to full-on barn-raising anthems, Downer’s old school storytelling style is augmented by dense harmonies.

Having already released an album primarily consisting of Downer’s solo material, the gradual influx of members has since produced a much more collaborative second effort. Home And The Wild Hunt, released earlier this year, was recorded at Stow College and seems to have benefited from its facilities, namely in-house record label Electric Honey – perhaps best known as the folks behind debut EPs by Biffy Clyro and Snow Patrol.

For A Few Fivers More “We were doing the recording course, just skiving from getting a real job,” jokes Downer. “They had this studio downstairs that we got to play in for ages.

We were just doing a few recordings for a laugh when Electric Honey came in. I’d heard of them before but I didn’t really know what they could offer you,” he explains. “They had a limited budget but it sounded great and we had total freedom to just record whatever we wanted.”

Home And The Wild Hunt stands as the first solidified piece of work for the band’s now completed line-up, and after several years in the making, most

certainly seems worth the effort. Downer himself agrees: “It feels great to have a complete body of work, not just a piss-about with mates. It’s nice to get something down, something you can share. It’s one of those things; it’s just brilliant when we’re gigging,” he gushes. “It feels like time off from your shitty life, you know?”

Besieged with fulltime work schedules and split between Edinburgh and Glasgow, that the band even finds a way to exist – let alone having dedicated such time to crafting an accomplished album together – is a remarkable achievement in itself. But, like the resilient

Man With No Name in the Sergio Leone movies they pay homage to, there’ll be no keeping them down.

Plans are already percolating for album number two (or three if you're splitting hairs), and if you want to catch a glimpse of Woodenbox and all associated fivers at work, they’ll be a staple of the remainder of the Scottish festival season.

Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers play Wickerman Festival, Kirkcudbright on 23 Jul; The Big Tent Festival, Falkland on 24 Jul and Tartan Heart, Belladrum on 7 Aug www.myspace.com/awoodenbox

July 2010

THE SKINNY 45

Music

DF CONCERTS PRESENTS THE EDGE FESTIVAL

OVER40GIGSTHROUGHOUTAUGUSTDURINGTHEFRINGEINEDINBURGH...

CORN EXCHANGE

CORN EXCHANGE

18th

26th

AMY MACDONALD

DIZZEE RASCAL

HMV PICTURE HOUSE

HMV PICTURE HOUSE

8th

23rd

13th 15th 17th 20th 22nd

DOVES + DOT ALLISON TINCHY STRYDER LITTLE FEAT HALLOGALLO 2010

(Michael Rother performs the music of NEU)

PLAN B BEIRUT

28th

MIKA JASON DERULO EELS THE CORAL PHOENIX

29th

MODEST MOUSE

24th 25th 26th

+ THE BOY WHO TRAPPED THE SUN

THE QUEEN’S HALL

ELECTRIC CIRCUS

30th

7th

THE LOW ANTHEM

8th

LIQUID ROOM

11th

5th

12th

6th 17th 18th 20th 21st 23rd 24th 26th 28th

STORNOWAY THE DIVINE COMEDY FEEDER STEVE MASON PROFESSOR GREEN WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS ELI PAPERBOY REED DAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS PIP MARK LANEGAN BROKEN RECORDS

CABARET VOLTAIRE 20th

SOMA RECORDS

FEATURING SLAM + FUNK D’VOID (11PM-4AM)

13th 14th 16th 17th 18th 22nd 23rd 25th 27th 28th 30th 31st

FOUND KITTY, DAISY AND LEWIS MITCHELL MUSEUM CARRIE MAC GET CAPE. WEAR CAPE. FLY. COLIN MCINTYRE (AKA Mull Historical Society) TOM GRAY (Of Gomez)

WITHERED HAND LAUREN PRITCHARD JON FRATELLI KASSIDY THE PHANTOM BAND THREE BLIND WOLVES PEARL AND THE PUPPETS ALEX CORNISH GENERAL FIASCO

SNEAKY PETE'S

CAPITAL

6th 13th 14th 17th 19th

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VILLAGERS NORTH ATLANTIC OSCILLATION PANTHA DU PRINCE THE BESNARD LAKES FRANKIE & THE HEARTSTRINGS

FORFULLLINEUPANDUPDATES,LOGONTO…

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24HRTICKETHOTLINE08444 999 990 46 THE SKINNY July 2010

THE UNWINDING HOURS JOHN GRANT SLEEPY SUN FIELD MUSIC BEAR IN HEAVEN

Glasgow may have that whole indie rock and dance thing sewn up, but Auld Reekie has long been the place to see live jazz. This year's Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival has attracted some top names from around the world; here's five nights to look out for

Ty

LIZARD LOUNGE HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 30 JUL

The festival kicks off in style with James Brown’s right hand man Fred Wesley bringing the brass and London rapper Ty supplying lyrics and soul. As if that’s not already ample fodder for a sweaty night out on its own, The Rumba Caliente Afro Latin Soul Orchestra round off a vibrant bill.

SAMUEL HALLIVIST QUARTET VOODOO ROOMS, 31 JUL

As the sons of Sun Ra's trumpeter, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble were probably always destined for greatness

Interview David McNally MUSICIANS often talk of the Extrasensory Perception they feel when their communal playing gels and they start to anticipate what each other is about to play. Factor in the bond of a band of eight close knit brothers (plus non-sibling drummer, Gabriel Wallace) – drilled by their bandleader/educator and Sun Ra Arkestra trumpeter father, Phil Cohran – and you can imagine what levels of alchemy the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble can reach on a good day.

And to hear member Gabriel “Hudah” Hubert tell it, there aren’t too many bad ones. “Our parents had a plan for us, long before we decided to be involved in music,” he says. “We were up before school every day to put in a few hours of practice. Sure, some of us strayed as teenagers, but we couldn’t stray too far!”

Having since risen from the streets of Chicago with their 2004 debut, when you hear the prolific brass outfit – either on record or at one of their many upcoming festival dates – you’ll thank the Creator that they stuck with the masterplan. If you’ve sampled Gorillaz’ recent Plastic Beach album you’ll be aware of the shifting, mesmerising lines the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble weave – a feature that Gabriel suggests originally inspired their handle. “We were busking by the L train in Chicago when a passerby said to us ‘You guys just hypnotised me’. That seemed as good a name as any!”

So how did the link up with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon posse come about? “Well, we’ve been travelling back and forth to London since around 2007,” says Gabriel. “An associate of ours introduced us to the guys at Honest Jon’s [Albarn’s label] and we

were asked to remix a track for Tony Allen, Fela Kuti’s drummer. He dug it so much we ended up supporting The Good The Bad and The Queen on their London engagements. They were blown away by the chemistry we all had in the studio, so we leased our album to the label, and when it came to recording Plastic Beach, it was a no-brainer.” And what about Damon himself?’

“He’s given us a lot of support and guidance, for a guy in his position it means a lot to up and comers like us.”

Fresh from (sort of) headlining Glastonbury as Gorillaz’ special guests last month, HBE continue their trek well into the summer months, both in their own right and with their illustrated conspirators. “We’ll be doing around 20 or 30 dates around Europe in July and August,” marvels Gabriel. “So the logistics of that are

"MILES DAVIS SAID THERE ARE ONLY TWO TYPES OF MUSIC, GOOD AND BAD. I TRY TO KEEP MY EARS OPEN AND LISTEN TO EVERYONE" GABRIEL HUBERT

what we’re currently occupied with.”

Another unique selling point, as if these guys needed any more; they are fiercely independent and have a hand in every aspect of their business. “Yeah, if you wanna talk to us, you just call up. There’s no PR, no middle men. We do have a booking agent but apart from that – being independent means more control.

What we really want to do is set an example to the bands coming up, to show them what organisation and commitment can achieve. Our father told us the music we play was cosmic, so we try to live up to that.”

The brothers might find themselves in the unique position of playing a diverse, genre-bridging festival circuit in the coming months, but a gruelling schedule has left them oblivious to the sheer range of bands they’ll be playing alongside. “I haven’t had time to check that out yet,” Gabriel admits. “But you know Miles Davis said there are only two types of music, good and bad. I try to keep my ears open and listen to everyone. When we were young we were all crazy about hip-hop, and personally I’m a big Bob Marley fan.”

And what can the curious expect when the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble roll up to T in the Park this month, or the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival come August? “You know like back in the day when you could be sure the band was gonna kick ass – you were gonna see them throw down? That’s what we’re working toward. With repetition comes the flow.”

THE HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE PLAY T IN THE PARK, BALADO ON 11 JUL AND ASSEMBLY AT PRINCES STREET GARDENS, EDINBURGH ON 3 AUG

PHOTO: TOM OLDHAM

Lullabies to Hypnotise

There’s been a thriving scene in Scandinavia for a while now, and Hallivist – Jazz in Sweden artist of the year 2010 – is well worth catching for his weird guitar based take on the future of jazz.

The Bays

THE BAYS AND HIDDEN ORCHESTRA THE CAVES, 1 AUG

Deep house layered with dubby bass lines from The Bays, all improvised, never the same twice; little wonder they are one of the most talked about live acts in the UK right now. The artists formerly known as Joe Acheson Quartet – now Hidden Orchestra – support with the spaced out cinematic grooves we’ve become accustomed to.

ANTHONY JOSEPH & THE SPASM BAND VOODOO ROOMS, 4 AUG

If you’re up for a bit of swampy punk and funk – and who isn’t at this time of year? – Mr Joseph is your only destination. This teacher, poet and novelist comes out of the Gil Scott-Heron spoken word tradition but with some of Sun Ra’s angular oddness.

NeWt

NEWT THE LOT, 7 AUG

An international trio who play in the boundaries of jazz, progressive rock and ambient, they’ll be joined by acclaimed Berlin clarinettist Silke Eberhard for some downtown NY edge meets European classicism.[David McNally] THE EDINBURGH JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL RUNS FROM 30 JUL TO 8 AUG AT VENUES THROUGHOUT THE CITY WWW.EDINBURGHJAZZFESTIVAL.COM

WWW.HYPNOTICBRASSENSEMBLE.COM

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 47

MUSIC

JAZZ (WE GOT)

RECORDS

THE DIRTY DOZEN After too many months of letting rock stars have their say, Darren Carle retreats to his listening chamber and takes the Dozen back to its roots tongue firmly in cheek when delivering line after line of cheeky phone analogies like “even though you’ll trade me in for a faster kind, I don’t mind”. Mildly diverting.

According to their bio, Milk White White Teeth “push the boundaries of what it means to play music with a group of people in modern times.” The catch however is that bands who do push boundaries would never spout such shite, meaning Ingrid Won’t Smile (**, 19 Jul) sounds EXACTLY like a group of people playing music in modern times.

Any chatter of Jack White taking a backseat on his other-other side project The Dead Weather will surely cease for the three minute duration of Blue Blood Blues (***, 28 Jun). Another fuzzedout, dirty garage lick with White on lead vocal duties, spitting some bone-cracking, onomatopoeic verse. Nicely done.

After repeat listens to In The Summer (****, 5 Jul) by London hipsters Crystal Fighters, we’ve still no idea which planet it approached from. One slant would be to say it’s like a Mortal Kombat victory jingle written by Yeasayer that got out of hand when The Go! Team dropped by, but that really only scratches the surface of this unquestionably ace oddity.

The epic, visionary album concept of Janelle Monáe’s The Archandroid may be lost on lead single Tightrope (***, 5 Jul) but it’s an able slice of upbeat, trimmed-down R&B with brass trimmings that suitably sees Outkast’s Big Boi return the vocal favours the young diva delivered on their Idlewild album.

Foals

FIRST to face the Dirty Dozen’s scrutiny this month are Swedish punks Refused, who tore metal a new one in the nineties and are now polishing off their influential album The Shape of Punk To Come with a reissue of single New Noise (****, 5 Jul). It’s a snarling, moderately epic buzz of high drama hardcore, perfect for blowing away a decade’s worth of cobwebs.

Hot on the heels of last year’s eponymous debut, Miike Snow follow up with brand new single The Rabbit (***, 5 Jul). It isn’t much of a progression on their sparkly electro pop, but as an added bonus to the upcoming deluxe edition of their debut, it doesn’t really need to be.

Edinburgh sextet The Last Battle work on the other end of the spectrum with Ruins (****, 5 Jul), a beautifully low-key, country strum with an uplifting chorus which will find good company amongst fellow Auld Reekie staples Eagleowl and Meursault.

Stornoway’s Colin MacLeod picks up the baton as The Boy Who Trapped The Sun. Katy, (**, 12 Jul) bounds in as a buoyant bluegrass toe-tapper that sadly becomes a little too shrill after a few minutes.

Hooting and Howling (***, 12 Jul) by Wild Beasts works best when singer Hayden Thorpe’s

falsetto is countered by busy drum fills and chiming guitar work. At other times his croon hogs too much of the spotlight, but overall it’s fine stuff.

Ever wondered what Balearic dance crossed with sappy boy-band indie pop would sound like?

Us neither, yet Diagram of the Heart answer a question only they posed with Dead Famous (*, 5 Jul).

Like many crossovers it fudges both influences and is unlikely to appeal to either camp.

SINGLE OF THE MONTH: With the sophomore Foals album having slipped somewhat under the radar, second single Miami (****, 5 Jul) chastises such ignorance with groove-laden melodrama and high production gloss that would make lesser indie heroes baulk.

It seems that Yannis Philippakis’ bunch are not ones to be straight-jacketed by their own hype and should accordingly be saluted for this Single of the Month.

FOALS PLAY HMV PICTURE HOUSE, EDINBURGH ON 31 OCT

If the Party Like It’s 1999 Remix wasn’t clue enough, I Wanna Be Your Telephone (**, 19 Jul) finds glitchy soul-boy Jamie Lidell in full Prince regalia,

WWW.CRYSTALFIGHTERS.COM

EP REVIEWS HOLY STATE

THE TWILIGHT SAD

KID ADRIFT

HOLY STATE EP

THE WRONG CAR EP

OXYTOCIN EP

12 JUL, DANCE TO THE RADIO

26 JUL, FAT CAT

12 JUL, ISLAND

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From the throaty vocals to the stripped rock bite, it’s tempting to suggest the specific Holy State these lads from Leeds are striving towards is Nirvana. Cobain/Hindu philosophy puns aside, it’s a pleasure to hear a Fugazi influence holding sway, with Holy State unafraid to weld grooves to riffs.

From Brain Cave’s Jesus Lizard worship to the gnarled garage punk of Palms, what their latest EP lacks in variety it makes up for by being consistently invigorating. The comparatively clean Skull on Skull lightens the load a tad, but the overall impression is of a band that takes the business of making a racket very seriously indeed.

It’s not enough to scar or bruise, but the impression left is indelible.

[Chris Buckle] WWW.MYSPACE.COM/HOLYSTATE

48 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

Comprising of two unreleased tracks and two remixes, The Wrong Car EP is what you might call a “stop-gap” release between albums, but really it’s much more than that. The eponymous opener throws in the pounding drums and impassioned wails we’ve come to expect from the ‘Sad, though they’re complemented with dense, colourful string arangements and considerably more refined periods of noise. Throw Yourself In The Water Again shows its guitar-driven strength right from the start – easily one of the more direct numbers the band have produced to date. The remixes are equally engaging, with Mogwai transforming The Room into subtle, melancholic electro-pop and Rock Action disciples Errors twisting Reflection Of The Television into a dark contender for the dance floor. [Ryan Drever] PLAYING A CO-HEADLINE TOUR WITH ERRORS AT THE WAREHOUSE, ABERDEEN ON 29 SEP; DOGHOUSE, DUNDEE ON 30 SEP; TOLBOOTH, STIRLING ON 1 OCT AND THE LIQUID ROOM, EDINBURGH ON 12 OCT WWW.THETWILIGHTSAD.CO.UK

Variously described as “a dubsteppy Muse” and “the new Mylo” by lazy mothers, Clackmannanshire’s Kid Adrift could be a mess or a gifted prodigy. Studiously mixing shades of dubstep and emo (careful now) on his unlikely palette, the Oxytocin EP reassuringly nods to the latter. The title track’s segue from mechanised industrial clatter to an orchestral swoon might sound like a man’s brain on the brink of implosion at first, but full immersion points to a future in scoring scenes of mild peril.

Crash Therapy is a more up-tempo mining of similar territory to its predecessor, but the last track here is the killer. Piano meets machine on Static, evoking a hungry Liam Howlett – but it sounds like a sketch of something greater. [Bob Morton] PLAYING T IN THE PARK, BALADO ON 10 JUL WWW.MYSPACE.COM/KIDADRIFT

Records

Notes on The Mirabel

Falkirk troubadour Adam Stafford lays out the liner notes for his new covers album

Music in the Mirabel by Adam Stafford and the Death Bridge Convention is available for free download on 24 Jul www.wisebloodindustries.com

DUNDEE BLUES BONANZA

2010

www.dundeebluesbonanza.co.uk

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Over 130 Live Acts In 30 Venues

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Blue Clouds (Daniel Johnson) The conception of this covers record began here, really. I’d been asked to play a Johnson Tribute night in Glasgow and was going to cover Blue Clouds – one of my favourite songs of his – but didn’t want to just go up there and play it on guitar. I’d been experimenting with looping and layering vocals before – inspired, primarily, by Steve Reich’s vocal arrangements on Music For 18 Musicians and Edinburgh’s Wounded Knee. It took a while to get right.

Big Mess (Devo) Big Mess is one of the best pop songs you’ve never heard. I’d hate to speculate on the interpretation of the lyrics, but I think it’s about a redneck Radio Talk Show Host. We stripped the fun/satirical aspect out of it and tried to make it a bit more sinister – the boy’s got a gun at the end of the day! Emily Scott asked if her double bass playing was “too country”, I said “no, it’s perfect”. That countrified element was definitely something we wanted to imbue.

Tin Foil (The Handsome Family) Rennie Sparks is not only one of the best living lyricists but also one of the greatest poetesses of her generation. I would place her words right up there with my two favourite American female writers, Flannery O’Conner and Carson McCullers. The words to Tin Foil, like most of the Handsome Family songs, strike directly at the macabre and mysterious aspects of life while still embodying a deeply dejected wit. Robbie Lesuik (engineer, ex-YiFI) threw down some pedal steel on top of the track that was so good I almost vomited. The Handsome Family is hands down one of my favourite bands ever.

Music in The Mirabel (Georg Trakl) A friend gave me a collection of Trakl’s poetry entitled Trakl: A Profile and it was some of the most deeply haunting stuff I’ve ever read. Music in the Mirabel is the first poem in the collection and I wanted to split the LP into two sides essentially, like the good old days of records, with a recital of the poem. I had to get a writer/performer – Alan Bissett – to recite in a careful, expressive manner as my speaking voice is mainly dull and monotonous. There’s a section in the

introduction to the collection explaining when Trakl, returning on leave from the front of WW1, had to pass through a forest to reach his town. Hung from the trees were the shifting bodies of deserters from the front. A deathly reminder to the soldiers that always sends me into a shiver when I think about it.

Nancy Sings (Jandek) The second half gets slightly apocalyptic, naturally!

A lot of people haven’t heard of Jandek and probably wouldn’t enjoy his output: he’s a shadowy character who’s released over fifty records of near unlistenable music since 1978. This cover, again, is mostly comprised of vocal loops and Emily Scott’s bowed strings. I was in the middle of reading Roberto Balano’s waking-nightmare of a novel 2666 when we recorded this, which informed the mood quite a lot.

Invisible Sun (The Police) I’ve been out of The Police closet since I was eleven! I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t disagree that Stuart Copeland is one of the best rock drummers of all time. While I’m predominately a fan of their earlier, punkier stuff, Invisible Sun from Ghost In The Machine is probably their darkest track and, I think, relays a deep paranoia about industrialisation, the Cold War and Terrorism – pointing towards a potentially futureless future, essentially the times we are living in now. For me, serious songwriting is a process of elimination, so when I rearranged the track I ripped-out all of the choruses that divide the verses up and left them to the end. Louise Hendry is known more for her raucous rock moves in The Elements, but I knew her back when she sang folk and her double-tracked vocal is beautiful on the song.

Walking For Two Hours (The Twilight Sad) I can’t say anything else other than I wish I’d written this song. I don’t know what the lyrics mean but I understand the sentiment and emotion, I think that’s why so many people connect with The Twilight Sad. The girl at the end of the track is my girlfriend, aged five, singing a goodnight message to her parents.

Out of all the things in my oeuvre, this is one of my favourites.

ES

Text Adam Stafford Photography Ashley Good

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THE SKINNY 49

RECORDS

ALBUM OF THE MONTH: MITCHELL MUSEUM

THE PETERS PORT MEMORIAL SERVICE 12 JUL, ELECTRA FRENCH

rrrr Glasgow’s Mitchell Museum have been ones to watch for some time now, but the unexpected brilliance of their debut album suggests we weren’t watching quite closely enough. Barely a moment of The Peters Port Memorial Service is bulging with less than fifteen ideas, yet it’s an album continually honed into three-minute, manic, off-kilter, carnival pop.

The neo-psychedelic blueprint of Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips are obvious touchstones, whilst Room For Improvement sees the band adopt the jungle ‘yadda-yadda’ mantras of Sung Tongs-era Animal Collective.

The conscious-spewing abstraction of WHY?’s Yoni Wolf is another influence, particularly on the galloping, vocal somersaults of Mission 1.

Yet Mitchell Museum are far from being consigned to slavish idolatry. Maybe it’s the spine-tingling drum fills of Copy + Paste or singer

Cammy MacFarlane’s idiosyncratic two-line coda about old folks’ homes and baby-trainer cups. Maybe it’s Tiger Heartbeat’s bounding enthusiasm and humorous analogies on up-turned spiders.

Whatever it is, Peters Port stands as an album head and shoulders above its peers, one that belies its debut status and, crucially, sounds as if Mitchell Museum have only just started to flex their creative muscle.

We’ll be keeping a much closer eye on them from now on. [Darren Carle] MITCHELL MUSEUM PLAY KELBURN GARDEN PARTY, AYRSHIRE ON 3 JUL; T IN THE PARK, BALADO ON 9 JUL AND WICKERMAN FESTIVAL, NEAR DUNDRENNAN ON 23 JUL WWW.MITCHELLMUSEUM.CO.UK

ALBUM REVIEWS JAMMER

DANIEL JOHNSTON AND BEAM

BEAM ME UP!!

OUT NOW, HAZELWOOD

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DIGITONAL

JAHMANJI

BE STILL MY BLEEPING HEART

5 JUL, BIG DADA

5 JUL, JUST MUSIC

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Daniel Johnston’s most celebrated work was recorded single-handedly on a basic tape recorder, often in one take, using nothing more than a cheap acoustic guitar or an old chord organ. The prospect of listening to selections from his beloved catalogue spruced up by an 11-piece jazz orchestra does little to whet the appetite, and more fervent followers may consider it akin to messing with the gospel. Thankfully the BEAM Orchestra handle the material tastefully and attentively. However it’s the songs plucked from Johnston’s latter studio-friendly albums – Fear Yourself and Lost and Found – that lend best to the lite-jazz wiggle treatment. Syrup Of Tears and Try To Love sound particularly lush in their fresh form. Danny flies solo without accompaniment on new songs, Mask and Last Song, the former typical of Johnston – endearing and melodic – and the latter typical of Johnston, oblivious and unlistenable. It’s a charming – if not quite essential – addition to an already substantial body of work. [Alan Souter]

Even though grime got glam and captured the ears of everyone from ringtone-buying teens to contemplative middle-class listeners since being commandeered by Dizzee’s Disco, it’s still refreshing to hear an album that keeps solidly true to its roots while wringing London’s non-stop music scene for all it’s worth. Jammer is an old hand in the grime game, and uses his influence to rope in plenty of producers, MCs and vocalists on this debut. The most familiar track is last year’s Party Animal, which loops his urgent, on-repeat vocals over producers Boy Better Know’s old-school jump-up beat and throbbing bass, but there’s a lot more to get excited about here. Ignore the perennially boastful subjects a number tracks gloss (money, status, girls) and check highlight Back To The 90s – a hardcore stomper given the 2010 treatment, with a wonky keyboard line and in-the-know lyrics. Musically, Jahmanji is vital, dementedly inventive and impossible to ignore. [Euan Ferguson]

London duo Digitonal once played at a base for NASA, which suits that starry glare in their eye down to the ground, or rather off into space. This collection of disparate early releases is dreamy – almost too dreamy – and proffers a ‘Phillip Glass jamming with The Orb’ type mash-up of modern classical and electronic music. Their tantalising hybrid of book smarts and street cred (read: classical training plus programmed beats) produces some breathtaking moments, such as the ambient driftworld of Seraphim (Angel Mix), surely a trick missed by licensers of TV advertising music everywhere. Also brilliant is the ten minute long, Steve Reich-esque, Drencrom. Although these 11 tracks of rarities are technically outstanding, Be Still My Bleeping Heart might appear a little like fodder for by-the-numbers, classical ‘chill out’ compilations at first glance – helped in no small part by some of the slightly dated trip-hop beats. Dig deeper for the prize. [Martin Skivington]

WWW.HIHOWAREYOU.COM

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MURKLEMAN1

WWW.DIGITONAL.COM

DM STITH

JOHN KNOX SEX CLUB

THE YOUNG VEINS

BLUD RINS CAULD

TAKE A VACATION!

5 JUL, ASTHMATIC KITTY

OUT NOW, SELF RELEASED

5 JUL, ONE HAVEN MUSIC

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HEAVY GHOST: APPENDICES

Following emphatic praise for 2009’s Heavy Ghost, DM Stith presents its Appendices – two discs of remixes, demos and covers. Such an extensive document may seem indulgent, but these odds and ends work well enough together to warrant their separate release. With the single-disc review copy shuffling together a random assortment from across the twenty-two tracks, consistency and sequencing are difficult to gauge, but quality certainly isn’t in doubt.

Covers of Diane Cluck’s Easy To Be Around and Randy Newman’s Suzanne are skewed through Stith’s distinct aesthetic, the latter adding ghostly loops and backing vocals to Newman’s twisted narrative. Better still is Be My Baby, delivered with an unsettling Doveman-style minimalism that recasts the lovers’ ode as a stalker’s demand. These help Appendices shrug the yoke of curio and stand firm as a worthy release in its own right, though Heavy Ghost itself remains the newcomer’s first port of call. [Chris Buckle]

Their name may conjure images of bondage-born deviancy, but John Knox Sex Club (JKSC) believe in more traditional values.

Flashing a spectrum of rich instrumentation, the Glasgow quintet’s debut LP spotlights a band boasting a remarkable way with song progression. A certain dedication to quiet-loud atmospherics makes a contemporary comparison to The Twilight Sad inevitable, but – whereas their Chem19 brethren can be more immediate in their delivery – JKSC’s efforts unfurl with fascinating depth.

It’s a slow-burning affair, but persistency is rewarded in Honestly The Beast’s swooping, mournful violin and the astonishing string-laden ripples of In The Ditch. Capable of both a grave blast and a pensive cry, singer Sean Cumming’s brogue-affected delivery is the centrepiece of William and caustic closer Light Through Rubble. But this is no one man show; every corner of Blud Rins Cauld is engrained with a sound that’s expertly crafted and devilishly engorging.

[Billy Hamilton] AVAILABLE TO BUY VIA THE BAND’S MYSPACE

If Pretty Odd’s prominent Beatles-isms felt like a, er, pretty odd change of direction for Panic! At The Disco, Take A Vacation! offers perspective. The Young Veins sees Panic frontman Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker leave OMG-emo behind entirely to focus more consistently on chilled-out, Sixties-influenced pop. While reluctant to echo the band’s claims that such a sound is somehow more ‘mature’ than their former musical pursuits, Take A Vacation! does feel satisfyingly grown-up and no-nonsense: twenty-nine minutes of hooks and charm that’s only hampered by a slight air of artifice. Though pre-emptively paved by Pretty Odd, the road from Panic! At The Disco to Laid-back At The Beach Party risks resembling forced entry into fresh markets rather than a natural expression of the songwriters’ passions. But their debut’s successes disperse suspicions, and as the duo settle into their new, eyeliner-less musical identities, they can only grow more convincing. [Chris Buckle]

WWW.DMSTITH.COM

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEJOHNKNOXSEXCLUBTRIBUTE

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEYOUNGVEINS

CONRAD VINGOE

JANELLE MONÁE

THE CORAL

SIMPLE SECRETS

THE ARCHANDROID

BUTTERFLY HOUSE

5 JUL, CRAZY BEARD

12 JUL, BAD BOY

12 JUL, DELTASONIC

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In an age where gunshots are establishing themselves as a legitimate form of percussion, Johnny Rotten advertises butter and everyone seems to have a fucking vuvuzela, it’s quite a relief to hear something that is indisputably inoffensive. Thankfully, Brighton’s Conrad Vingoe seems to have produced this summer’s definitive soundtrack to smiling sleepily at people in cafés, occasionally mustering the energy to compliment the muffins, plus your mother would love him. Simple Secrets consists of 14 analogue recordings of the basics: acoustic guitar, double bass, piano, drums and Vingoe’s mellowest-of-yellow vocals. The combination is reminiscent of Damien Rice, even Jack Johnson if he’d never been to the beach, and there are moments of true warmth, notably Ghost Behind – swinging with a kind of effortlessness which suggests Vingoe could do this forever. Whether he can find a way to truly set himself apart from the vast crowd remains unclear, but the man’s gathering steam. [Mark Holland]

It’s easy to hear why Janelle Monáe has taken four years since her breakthrough as a guest on OutKast’s Idlewild to complete her own debut album: The ArchAndroid is a staggeringly ambitious attempt. It’s a first-time shot at a grand conceptual masterpiece that makes you wonder whether, considering the struggling record industry, she’s perhaps pegged this as her only chance. She’ll surely get another because her talent is obvious – the Big Boi-featuring Tightrope shuffles to an African rhythm before heckling horns intervene, Faster glides effortlessly and exuberantly like a Solange take on Stevie Wonder’s Keep On Running, and Neon Valley Street showcases the full expressiveness of Monáe’s voice. Almost inevitably for an 18 song opus, there are missteps – Make The Bus, featuring Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes, irritates as a Love Below pastiche, and the psychedelic ballad Sir Greendown frustratingly interrupts the momentum of a fantastic opening sequence. There is a masterpiece here, but it’ll take a little skipping to find it. [Ally Brown]

With Oasis deceased, another sixties-indebted Brit act has obligingly assumed the proffering of perpetual ‘best since their debut’ pre-release promises. The Coral clearly operate on a significantly different scale – especially eight years after that self-titled success, when hype-stores are long diminished and their continuation goes unnoticed by many erstwhile fans. Fortunately, they differ from the Gallaghers in various other ways: Butterfly House is indeed the Merseyside outfit’s finest release since their first.

The title track augments its breezy melody with vaguely eerie whispers, Green Is The Colour combines a Donovan-esque chorus with Spector-echoing verses to superb retro effect, and the slight Falling All Around You is perhaps the prettiest three minutes they’ve penned thus far. And these aren’t even necessarily the best tracks, the quintet’s understated, John Leckie (Ride, Radiohead, Stone Roses) produced sixth album housing no hits-in-waiting but generating its success from an overall sense of harmony. [Chris Buckle]

WWW.CONRADVINGOE.CO.UK

WWW.JMONAE.COM

PLAYING T IN THE PARK, BALADO ON 10 JUL WWW.THECORAL.CO.UK

50 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

TANGO IN THE ATTIC

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS

COMMON PRAYER

BANK PLACE LOCOMOTIVE SOCIETY

DISCONNECT FROM DESIRE

THERE IS A MOUNTAIN

12 JUL, BELIEVE

12 JUL, VAGRANT

19 JUL , BIG POTATO

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When fresh-faced newcomers identify Paul Simon as a chief songwriting inspiration, cynics might well read between the lines and translate the citation to ‘Vampire Weekend’. For Tango in the Attic, Simon’s influence definitely feels filtered Chinese-whispers-style through the preppy New Yorkers’ recent successes, thinned to jaunty keyboards and the subtlest of afrobeat rhythms. Yet this dilution is ultimately to the band’s advantage – let the comparison lie and other textures reveal themselves.

For example, accents and a track entitled Whiskey In The Wind are only part of their debut’s Scottish connection, with shades of Frightened Rabbit’s emotional peaks in several choruses. Yet the VW-echoes prove resilient. This scribe hasn’t been to Glenrothes in some years, but either the dreakit Fife town of memory has benefited from significant, localised climate change or Tango in the Attic are simply very good at injecting sunshine into their melodies. Online weather reports confirm the latter. [Chris Buckle] PLAYING KING TUT’S, GLASGOW ON 27 JUL

School of Seven Bells’ debut LP was a masterclass in pop mysticism. Glazed with complex harmonies and effects-sodden chords – courtesy of Secret Machines alumni Ben Curtis – Alpinisms propelled the New York trio into the upper echelons of the dream pop genre. It’s of no surprise, then, to find album number two, Disconnect From Desire, maintaining such ethereal yearnings. The dense, watertight production and elegant breeze of opening number Windstorm exudes the air of a band with its foot on neutral. But behind this gauzy front-door lies a hallway of synth that touches on a certain 1980s dancefloor aesthetic and, in less clever moments, Ray of Light-era Madonna. At times it’s a curveball too far – Camarilla’s iodine Kraftwerkism is close to criminal.

But when they hit the button, as they do during the transient Heart Is Strange, Disconnect From Desire becomes the work of an act pitching a better future. [Billy Hamilton]

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TANGOINTHEATTIC

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SCHOOLOFSEVENBELLS

ADAM STAFFORD AND THE DEATH BRIDGE CONVENTION

DANGER MOUSE & SPARKLEHORSE

MUSIC IN THE MIRABEL

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

26 JUL, WISE BLOOD INDUSTRIES

12 JUL, EMI

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Covers albums can be risky: on the plus side, the artist gets to release versions of songs his listeners may already love; on the negative, well-known songs are quick to bore. While Y’All Is Fantasy Island take an extended break, YIFI frontman Adam Stafford presents a 25-minute covers album that avoids the pitfalls of overfamiliarity with inventive interpretations of an intriguing bunch of songs. Opener Blue Clouds is the highlight, retaining only the vocal of Daniel Johnston’s original, otherwise built upon layers of looping vocals – hums, swooshes and rambles – towards a rousing climax. The Twilight Sad’s Walking For Two Hours is stripped of its ferocious guitars and righteous vocals in favour of a disquietingly placid take, and Devo’s Big Mess is completely reimagined, the peppy synth-driven original rendered as a slow, creepy tale of mental instability. A lesson in musical recomposition. [John Wylie] PLAYING THE ROXY ARTHOUSE, EDINBURGH ON 16 JUL

A collaborative album from Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse will raise few eyebrows, given both acts’ prior prolificacy as musical magpies – with a plethora of guest acts on their own projects – and having already worked together on Sparklehorse’s final LP, Dreamt for Lightyears in the Belly of a Mountain. No shock then that their second joint endeavour should boast involvement from such pinups as The Flaming Lips, Vic Chesnutt and Iggy Pop, with celluloid-surrealist David Lynch providing a collection of photography inspired by the album. But is there any real weight behind the high-profile cameos and associated grandeur? In short, yes. Insane Lullaby, finds James Mercer’s lilt contrasting wonderfully with an impenetrable fuzz of budget distortion; unlikely inclusion Suzanne Vega fronts sad-eyed album highlight The Man Who Played God, while Black Francis weirds-up Angel’s Harp with his alien wail. A feverish journey, by turns Dark Night Of The Soul is a sombre and dizzyingly eclectic collection. [Paul Neeson]

WWW.WISEBLOODINDUSTRIES.COM

WWW.DNOTS.COM

SPARE SNARE

The latest project of ex-Mercury Rev bassist and Hopewell founder Jason Sebastian Russo begins eponymously with commonprayer, an endearingly rickety shuffle knitted together with odd bits of typewriter and spare strings – kitchen sink folk at its best. If naming this song after the band is supposed to suggest any sort of manifesto, it is one you wish they wouldn’t stray so far from. Sticking close to it, Us vs. Them, Marriage Song and – in particular – Sara G have the most endorphin producing qualities, abandoning harmony in favour of a sing-along and absolutely bursting with camaraderie. Russo is, however, less successful when emulating others. Free Air is an anaemic attempt at Devendra Banhart’s Mother Earth shtick with its eyes on the moon; American sex has all the finger-picked dread of Elliott Smith though none of the vulnerability, and Hopewell stomps around like mid-nineties Flaming Lips but without the trippy payoff. [Oisín Kealy] WWW.COMMON-PRAYER.COM

THE BOY WHO TRAPPED THE SUN

FIREPLACE 12 JUL, GEFFEN

rrr The Boy Who Trapped the Sun apparently chose his lengthy stage name because it felt “bigger and less lonely” than ‘Colin MacLeod’.

While the pseudo-communal effect is somewhat undone by 1) his debut’s consistently forlorn atmosphere, and 2) MacLeod’s decision to play every instrument himself (bar occasional strings, used to great effect), its evocative qualities remain apt. Such a clean and familiar sound – as polished and well-worn as its practitioners’ acoustic fret-boards – may limit opportunity for innovation, but innovation has never been the be-all and end-all. Other factors elevate Fireplace: its melancholic heart, its sincerity, and its maker’s voice for starters. So while not entirely unique – recommendation engines can comfortably slot this alongside Damien Rice without risking offence – it carries a level of conviction that allows the odd genre cliché to pass by practically unnoticed, and a level of promise that assuredly exceeds the average Buckley-indebted solo singer-songwriter. [Chris Buckle] PLAYING T IN THE PARK, BALADO ON 10 JUL AND KING TUT’S, GLASGOW ON 19 JUL WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEBOYWHOTRAPPEDTHESUN

KID CANAVERAL

DEER TICK

VICTOR

SHOUTING AT WILDLIFE

THE BLACK DIRT SESSIONS

OUT NOW, CHUTE

5 JUL, STRAIGHT TO VIDEO

5 JUL, FARGO

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Aesthetically gorgeous; initial copies of Victor are packaged in a lovely hand screen printed card sleeve by Spare Snare driving machine, Jan Burnett. Championed by the late John Peel, nine albums into their career and Burnett and co. continue to take the tourist route, leisurely passing by while a plethora of try-hard indie bands burn out quicker than you can say Jing Jang Jong. The Dundonian quintet has crafted a peculiar record, intentionally difficult in places – the drums are abrasive and often clunky, sitting at the top end of the mix. The opening salvo of And Now It Is Over and Zappa Is Sound work as a blueprint for the whole record, the first a cunningly disguised slacker-pop song with piercing two-string guitar lines and distorted vocals. Not a seamless collection, but it’s reassuring to hear a seasoned band throw so much friendly experimentation at their songs, making music as fresh as in their salad days. [Alan Souter]

WWW.WEARETHESNARE.COM

TONY DA GATORRA VS GRUFF RHYS

THE TERROR OF COSMIC LONLINESS 26 JUL, OVNI/TURNSTILE MUSIC

rrr Man, this is weird – but then, it was always going to be. Brazilian musician (and TV repair man) of the ‘cult’ variety Tony da Gatorra has invented his own instrument – the Gatorra, part drum machine, part guitar. Said contraption – coupled with Tony’s melodramatic delivery of ‘peace-loving protest songs’ (that’s what we’ve been told, our Portuguese ain’t so hot) – is the prominent feature of this unorthodox collaboration.

Of course unorthodoxy was always going to appeal to the Super Furry Animals’ frontman Gruff Rhys, who chips in with some songs of his own, with only In A House With No Mirrors and 6868 sounding anything like a song from his previous outings. Buzzsaw guitar, simplistic yet ominous rhythms, and the occasional ethereal howl are the order of the day.

Variety is subtle to non-existent but as ever with Rhys, delivered with immaculate wit and a deep appreciation of the curious. [Wilbur Kane] WWW.GRUFFRHYS.COM

Kid Canaveral have four self-released seven inches to their name, lyrics that rhyme Smash Hits with Brad Pitt, and debut album artwork adorned with doodled cute animals. Egads, what twee nightmare lies in wait behind this squirrel sketch? None, silly: Shouting At Wildlife is a thrilling, uplifting and generally all-round spiffing combination of indie-pop skills, lyrical wit, and choruses sung through smiles. It doesn’t quite manage twelve full tracks of unbroken charm (Her Hair Hangs Down for one is disappointingly limp), but for a good portion of its run time, Kid Canaveral deliver winner after winner: You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night skips jauntily on bouncy backing vocals; On Occasion somehow sounds like a less hormoneled Scottish Blink wan-eighty-too; And Another Thing is the pick of their softer side; while Smash Hits and Cursing Your Apples provide chuckles as well as indie-disco dancefloor material. [Chris Buckle] PLAYING THE ROXY ART HOUSE, EDINBURGH ON 3 JUL AND THE FLYING DUCK, GLASGOW ON 10 JUL

Like all true country musicians, Deer Tick’s John McCauley shares his name with his father and grandfather, has an unfashionable moustache and sounds as though he swallowed a cactus as a child. The Black Dirt Sessions isn’t one for fans of Dolly Parton though; the whole thing is pretty bleak, almost comedically so. It’s not that the LP’s failure to vary in mood from song to song is condemnable in principle, rather the lyrics lack the clarity of imagery necessary to give the bleakness any sort of novelty; eventually it just becomes words. The same could be said about the music, though the essentially mid-tempo (albeit dirty) Americana is interspersed with moments of genuine intrigue, especially Mange, whose irregular beat collapses pleasingly into proper bar brawl honky-tonk and there’s nobody singing about loneliness. What the Rhode Islanders do they do well, but it might be nice to hear them do something different, badly. [Mark Holland]

WWW.DEERTICKMUSIC.COM

MONGO NINJA

TOP FIVE ALBUMS

1) MITCHELL MUSEUM THE PETERS PORT MEMORIAL SERVICE 2) DANGERMOUSE&SPARKLEHORSE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

3) JOHN KNOX SEX CLUB BLUD RINS CAULD 4) JANELLEMONÁETHEARCHANDROID 5) KID CANAVERAL SHOUTING AT WILDLIFE

NO CUNT FOR OLD MEN 18 JUL, INDIE RECORDING

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Colossal riffs, break-neck drumming, and throat-ripping vocals – these Norwegian thrashers deliver a relentless bout of fat-metal frolics and a perturbing measure of primitiveness. No Cunt For Old Men is not for the thin-skinned. Not least on the epic Broken Cock; who would have thought a song about a fractured penis could be such a sing-along ditty?

Then comes the insightful Wheelchair Hooker – with a chorus like “Your legs, your arms, they don’t work but that is your charm, no legs, no arms for you,” it’s surely a contender for most popular first dance wedding song. Perhaps not, but who says romance is dead? Clearly Mongo Ninja couldn’t care less whether we buy into this shtick or care for their razor sharp brand of punk, but if you take this stuff seriously then you’re in the wrong bar, at the wrong jukebox, spinning the wrong disc. This is big, dumb, odious fun. [Alan Souter] WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MONGONINJA

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 51

RECORDS CLUBS

ALBUM REVIEWS

Cypress Hill 02 Academy, 16 Jun

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PHOTO: CLAIRE TAYLOR

A week shy of a decade since they last rolled (and blazed) through Glasgow; the Cypress Hill we see tonight is shorn of the rock band experience that made their Barrowlands appearance a treat. They’re also without chief ambience architect DJ Muggs – extending his sabbatical from recent promotional photography and most of new LP Rise Up’s writing credits – leaving B-Real and Sen Dog to party around the possessed Latino bongo rhythms of Eric Bobo and the tune of a DJ who barely embellishes on the basic backing tracks of those ‘Killa’ Hill classics.

But they’re all here: the thugged out trilogy of Hand On The Pump, When The Shit Goes Down and Lick A Shot are reasons to attend on their own, though the Academy’s cavernous depth doesn’t do a bit of it justice. Waving a suspect cigarillo in the air like he just don’t know there’s a smoking ban, B-Real eggs his sparring partner into Cheech n’ Chong theatrics to the tune of I Wanna Get High – all the go-ahead an already half-baked crowd needs to claw a crooked doobie from their pocket. Us? We Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That – not on a school night, homie. [Bob Morton] www.cypresshill.com

The JD Set

Quasi

ABC 2, 17 Jun

Captain’s Rest, 28 May

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For those unfamiliar with the JD Set formula, it presses shuffle on the standard gig routine – mixing up members of veteran acts alongside those of up-and-comers; encouraging the resulting line ups to reinterpret influential artists and classic tracks.

Tonight, our dream team bring the party like it was 1989 – taking on the iconoclastic pop of early Madonna; mercifully, post-Evita Madge is largely left on the shelf.

Folktronic wunderkind James Yuill starts the evening with the only single-handed performance – a low key rendition of Frozen – before accompanying NME sweethearts Casiokids on a suitably upbeat and novel rendition of Holiday in their native Norwegian tongue.

Malcolm Middleton, unsurprisingly provides a stark contrast, delivering bountifully on his mission statement to ‘depress the shit out of you’ through a dark, minimalist reinvention of Vogue with Silver Columns.

London’s Cocknbullkid – aka Anita Blay – breathes life back into the room, reworking the dreamy Dress You Up with a staggered beat.

But it’s not until everyone piles on stage to perform the most successful reinvention of the night – a thumping, noisy synth pop rework of Borderline (the power pop vocals care of Blay and Silver Columns’ Johnny Lynch proving to be a crowning glory) – that the evening realises its true potential. To persistent encores, the melting pot supergroup reprise with a formidable electro take on Get Into the Groove, curtailing the set just as we all were. [Rachel Bowles]

To say there are ‘only’ two bands on tonight would be a mistake. Quasi, troubadors of indie rock’s old young team, and Dead Meadow, masters of psychedelic rock and pals of Fugazi, are quite enough.

Dead Meadow’s Jason Simon (nephew of The Wire creator, David Simon- fan fact*) contributes minimal yet effective vocals, concentrating on the thick, powerful guitar tones and dirty bass reminiscent of QOTSA stoner rock in its prime. Not ones for masses of stage chat or meandering, the LA via DC outfit kick out riff after riff of Sabbath proportions and Mascis-style solos, with drummer Stephen McCarthy’s set-ending solo bringing froth to the mouth of anyone who has ever trawled eBay for that perfect vintage Vistalite.

Quasi are comparatively less heavy, but still tight as you like, having been on tour since February. Janet Weiss lays into her signature beats, deceptively complicated and dynamic, yet solid as a brick wall, whilst providing surprisingly hefty voice live. Sam Coomes’ vocal is raw and ramshackle but fittingly emotive throughout, melodies arranged around expertly executed guitar hooks.

Despite a few potentially dodgy harmonies early in the set, the trio plough through a confident mix of material, American Gong’s Little White Horse and Bye Bye Blackbird sitting especially well amongst older tracks.

No stranger to a bit of repetition, the nigh experimental jams of earlier albums are well-suited to a live setting, reassuring all present that the Portland team still have a hell of a lot of fight left in them. [Lauren Mayberry]

www.thejdset.co.uk

www.myspace.com/theequasi

Polar Bear The Arches, 21 Jun

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Writing about jazz, it’s not often you get to deploy words like ‘punk’, ‘pure evil’ and ‘Christ my ears are bleeding’, but tonight’s TrioVD gig is an occasion to extend the lexicon. As for the evil I can’t speak to their intentions but the effect is clear for all to see: they cause a harm that borders on the physical.

And they enjoy it too.

Look at drummer Chris Bussey – at one point he abandons his sticks and takes to whaling on the kit with bare fists. The brute. Their set is largely improvised but they play with an ability to stop on a dime and cohere. When guitarist Chris Sharkey briefly hits a logical run of notes you immediately assume it’s a mistake; it seems weirdly insulting to what’s gone before, like the London Philharmonic busting out Never Gonna Give You Up. Owing a little to the early style and spirit of avant-garde sax alchemist John Zorn, TrioVD make for a compelling watch. [David McNally]

A passing Duke Ellington fan may not recognise it as such, but in the case for jazz being about embracing creative freedom and pushing at accepted forms, Polar Bear should be Exhibit A. Tonight a ruminative opening piece thankfully doesn’t set the pace; in light of what’s to come it’s more a palette cleanser, a Zen exercise in forgetting any other music you might have heard earlier in the day.

Then martial beats strike up, a reggae rhythm starts on John Burton’s guitar, and twin tenors stomp in like marauding conquistadors – this is visceral, meaty stuff. Drones and tense rhythms build to unbearable levels then suddenly resolve into glorious shards of harmony, like some tyro horror director letting the good guys win at the end.

Just when you think they forgot to pack their sense of humour, Burton shows he can shred as hard on a party balloon as he can on a Strat. And you really haven’t lived until you’ve seen a double-bassist like Tom Herbert employ an effects pedal to duet with himself. On tonight’s form, Polar Bear are stone cold killers. [David McNally]

Played as part of Glasgow Jazz Festival www.myspace.com/triovd

PHOTO: ASHLEY GOOD

TrioVD Stereo, 23 Jun

PHOTO: CRIMSON GLOW

Music

Live reviews

Played as part of Glasgow Jazz Festival www.polarbearmusic.com

Teenage Fanclub O2 ABC, 2 Jun

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Sailor Jerry Presents... !!!

The Arches, 18 Jun

Fresh off the back of recent successes with Los Campesinos and Mystery Jets, Sailor Jerry Presents... hauls its travelling tattoo and rum themed show into Glasgow. Tonight we’re treated to an intimate free show by !!! (Chk Chk Chk) – a proper coup as it happens, as the Sacramento octet’s only UK tour date in advance of their anticipated follow-up to 2007’s excellent Myth Takes.

A strained, anticipatory atmosphere fills The Arches, though the Sailor Jerry girls offering free transferable tattoos grant some temporary, novel diversion. A short wander beyond the mainstage arch leads the audience to a cosy cinema and a rare showing of 2008 film Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry: The Life of Norman K. Collins – a well meaning, pedestrian biographical documentary with colourful subject matter at its heart.

Sure enough, !!! bring the adrenaline shot needed to revitalise the crowd, hitting the stage with their high energy dance-punk fusion – comfortably falling somewhere in-between The Rapture and The Faint, with added tenacity and sax. Testing out material from the forthcoming Strange Weather, Isn’t It?, the band confidently recite their fresh, apt mantra - ‘You gotta trust the music’ – over psychedelic guitars and a seemingly ever accelerating beat. As teasers go, tonight bodes well for the slab of wax in store. [Rachel Bowles] Strange Weather, Isn’t It? is available via Warp on 23 August www.chkchkchk.net/

PHOTO: TAKESHI SUGA

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With ex-members of The Royal We and Sexy Kids at work, you’d expect a level of song-writing a notch above the average new-start. Expectations are met: from doowop to C86, Raveonettes to Breeders, Veronica Falls are evocative without being defined by their influences, and promise a heck of a lot.

Teenage Fanclub have one of the finest musical portfolios compiled in living memory. It’s a bold claim, but re-visit anything from Bandwagonesque to Howdy and you’ll search in vain for evidence to the contrary. So why does tonight feel pedestrian? Fickle affections don’t help, as large sections of the crowd eagerly clap conclusions when moments earlier their focus was conversation (the hope that this was a fringe-only phenomenon is dashed when careful repositioning brings fresh voices but zero respite). While sympathetic to relative disinterest towards the new material (though not the smashing Baby Lee), it isn’t as simple as sticking to the hits - even The Concept can’t command full attention for more than a verse. But a relatively weak showing from Teenage Fanclub still features magic - Sparky’s Dream closes the main-set wonderfully, while a second encore of Star Sign confirms the band’s own enthusiasm is unquestioningly strong.[Chris Buckle] www.teenagefanclub.com

52 THE SKINNY July 2010

MUSIC

TS E E R T S MY N MY TOW EST K MY QUOICWORK WAY T

a car est End: n to the We or 18 minutes in to g in w e N s on a bik 9 minute

The Bike Station Registered as Recycle to Cycle Ltd, a charitable company limited by guarantee. Registered in Edinburgh under number 237798. Scottish charity number SC033703.

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 53

PHOTO: BRYAN BUSH

Highlights

by Mark Shukla

HAVING made the leap from fascinating bedroom project to full-on psych-pop ensemble with excellent recent album Pigeons, Luke Temple and Here We Go Magic look set to deliver some driving, hypnotic melodies and trippy atmospheres when they roll into Glasgow King Tut’s on 2 July.

Dream-pop devotees take note.

Glasgow’s Endor have been on The Skinny’s radar since their early releases on Say Dirty Records and on 2 July this stirring four-piece will celebrate the completion of new LP Without the Help of Sparks with an album launch show at Glasgow King Tut’s. What’s more, the new material sounds epic – expect them to make waves with this one.

Unicorn Kid – aka Edinburgh based 8-bit urchin Oliver Sabin – plays Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire on 1 July, Dingwall Oscars on 2 July, Aberdeen Warehouse on 3 July and Glasgow King Tut’s on 4 July. Anyone with a penchant for chiptune, glitch-pop or electronic bleeps in whatever form may want to step away from their C-64 emulator and check this out. This kid has already remixed Pet Shop Boys and Gorillaz and he’s only 18!

Should be hectic.

The Legendary Shack Shakers’ combination of industrial chug, country/blues hollerin’ and righteous punk riffs may sound a little hard to swallow but when you consider that Duane Denison (ex-Jesus Lizard/Tomahawk) is their guitarist it all starts to fall into place. Combined with J.D. Wilkes’ crazed Tom Waits-meets-Jello Biafra vocals it all adds up to a hell of a cocktail. These boys are weird, wired and they know how to play. Ain’t no way this will end up being anything other than a hell of a show. Glasgow King Tut’s, 12 July is the place to be.

IF THE WORD CHILLWAVE MAKES YOU CONFUSED AND ANGRY THEN JUST KNOW THIS: TORO Y MOI WRITES BRILLIANTLY TRIPPED OUT POP

Medieval-tinged folk, like abortion rights, is often the great divider. You’re either for it or against it, and fence-sitters be damned. The Skinny expects a healthy crowd then – and a vocal picket, natch – for Trembling Bells’ gig at Glasgow Stereo on 16 July.

This troupe have a solid critical pedigree and their lead singer can wail for sure – just don’t expect any riffs.

Folktronica poster-people Tunng are a dab hand at conjuring gorgeous melodies and odd rhythms with their deceptively progressive tunes and anyone in attendance at their gigs at Glasgow Stereo on 22 July or Stirling Tolbooth on 23 July can also expect a nice warm sound and some intriguing narratives to boot. Kind of like a big mug of cocoa with a Poirot plot-summary cunningly etched into the handle.

Toro Y Moi

Epithetically eccentric folk-pop posse Mammoeth (formerly Team Turnip) celebrate an album launch at Glasgow Classic Grand on 25 July and anyone who appreciates wordy, beautifully orchestrated pop songs would do well to check these cats out. Certainly not the most explosive band on the circuit, but they’ve got melodies to burn.

San Fransico-based Moon Duo may be a Wooden Shjips side-project for all intents and purposes, but believe us when we tell you that these peeps have got some legit jams. Think endless Suicide-esque keyboard motifs being chased into oblivion by slowburning motorik grooves and a blizzard of feedback.

Glasgow Stereo 26 July.

Epic, yearning and filled with melancholy, Shearwater delivered one of 2010’s highlights with The Golden Archipelago and their gig at Glasgow Stereo on July 28 is a justifiably anticipated affair.

Built around Jonathan Meiburg’s extraordinary voice, their music is both beautiful and dramatic – in short, this is a hot ticket.

Currently the face of the much-derided yet pleasingly fertile chillwave scene, Toro Y Moi plays Glasgow Captain’s Rest on 29 July. If the word chillwave makes you confused and angry then just know this: the boy writes brilliant, trippy pop songs with an undercurrent of lazy, hazy sun-bleached nostalgia. Good vibes for sure.[Mark Shukla]

four-piece have spent the last few years building a loyal fan base with their eccentric and innovative indie pop, at times invoking the spirit of Brooklyn’s experimental forerunners Yeasayer. With debut album, The Peters Port Memorial Service, released this month, Wickerman provides a perfect opportunity to catch a band truly hitting their stride.

From behind her mask of black and white makeup, Fifer Suzanne Shaw has been quietly crafting a collection of electro-inflected folk under her Panda Su alter-ego. And whilst her only release to date has been the Steve Mason-produced

Sticks and Bricks EP, few could fail to be captured by its understated brilliance.

Leith based producer, DJ and knackered GameBoy operator Unicorn Kid has been described as an internet phenomenon. It’s a tag which seems justified, given that his MySpace page has amassed over one million hits. Factor in that Oli Saban has only recently left school, and that feat seems all the more impressive. Wait till he gets on FaceBook.[Paul Neeson]

LIVE PREVIEWS COMMERCIAL ALTERNATIVE

WICKERMAN 2010

MONO, GLASGOW, 4 JUL

23 & 24 JUL

The Mono bar and Monorail record store in Glasgow’s King’s Court has long been one of the hippest hangouts the city has to offer, selling reams of quality, fair-priced vinyl juxtaposed with a cool, open-spaced cafe/bar in which to sit down and stroke your purchases afterwards. What more could you want?

What’s that? You also want a mid-summer day’s mini-festival chock full of some great under the radar bands, with a large outdoor covered beer garden in which to schmooze with the cognoscenti between sets? Well alright then. On Sunday 4 July, Mono will play host to just that with the oxymoronic Commercial Alternative. The emphasis however is heavily on the ‘alternative’ part. Regular readers should be no strangers to headliners The Phantom Band, a ragtag collective of Glasgow art students touting some of the finest robotic krautrock prog going and live, they simply shouldn’t be missed.

Able support comes from pastoral indie veterans Comet Gain and the seemingly perennial 1990s, bringing some dirty glam pomp to proceedings. With their bill placing, the towering, loop-infused crystalline aural structures of Remember Remember should go down a treat on a sunny Sunday afternoon with a cold cider in hand. And whilst you may be au fait with some of these names, there are plenty of smaller acts such as the Spectrals, Girls Names, Astral Planes, Peter Parker and Golden Grrrls waiting in the ranks to be your new found treasured discovery. [Darren Carle]

Ever since its inception in 2001, Scotland’s Wickerman festival has drawn parallels with festival Godfather, Glastonbury, both for its free-flowing, reclined atmosphere, and ethos of musical diversity, ensuring that there’s a little something for everyone in attendance. A glance at the line-up for 2010 confirms that this year will be no different, with its musical pendulum swinging between the extremes of 808 State’s frenetic in-your-face techno, and the likes of Chris Bradley’s gentle folk musings, with a plethora of varied acts packed in between.

High-profile highlights include a double-barrelled retrospective from punk legends The Undertones and The Buzzcocks, and an appearance from Scotland’s irrepressible sons, Teenage Fanclub.

However it’s under the awning of the Solus tent where Wickerman’s finest offerings can be found.

Here are just a few of the anticipated highlights.

Dan Willson may use his guise as Withered Hand to indulge his badly bruised soul, however his ironically titled 2009 debut LP Good News showcased not only his finely-tuned songwriting skills, but also an endearingly dark humour which offset his doomsday-isms. He’s worth catching based on the brilliance of standout track, Religious Songs, alone.

Their name itself will undoubtedly prove divisive, however the fanfare of Glasgow’s Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers should unify Wickerman come July, as whilst their 2010 album Home And The Wildhunt has provided one of this year’s surest homegrown offerings, it’s when translated to the live arena that the sextet’s full-bodied, Morriconeflavoured folk truly shines.

Behind the colourful quirk and gimmickry of our July cover stars Mitchell Museum, this vibrant

TICKETS ARE £20 AND ARE AVAILABLE FROM MONORAIL MUSIC AND TICKETS SCOTLAND – WWW.TICKETS-SCOTLAND.COM / 08444 155 221. THERE ARE ONLY 300 AVAILABLE EVENTS.MYSPACE.COM/EXTERNAL/ MYSPACEMESSAGE/EVENT/VIEW/5028917

54 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

PHOTO- JENNY ANDERSON

MUSIC

Live Music

WEEKEND CAMPING (WITH PARKING) TICKET: £85 WWW.THEWICKERMANFESTIVAL.CO.UK

MUSIC

by Eric Ledford IN an attempt to cover everything metal in Scotland, we do our best to unearth all the upcoming gigs that (14 Jul) will see them rip through a blistering set of their take place across the entire country. But it’s never easy: seething and meticulous metalcore anthems, with ample unfortunately the content and layout of this here support from newcomers Gaza and the mighty Kylesa. magazine gets nailed down weeks in advance. So a This impressive Savannah, Georgia quintet boast two word of advice to bands, promoters and venues: get drummers and three vocalists (both male and female), your flyers hung, emails posted and websites updated and they manage to crank out some of the best shit we’ve ahead of time. Every month there are tons of heavy heard in ages. Can’t really go wrong with this one. gigs that don’t appear within these here inches, but we While we’re on the topic of brutality, SF fastcore dudecan’t write about them if we don’t know about them. bros PUNCH inspire circle-pit acrobatics at 13th Note Thanks for letting us get that off our hairy, muscular (8 Jul), while bodybombers Throats and Lavotchkin chests. detonate their homemade weaponry at Captain’s Rest Whether you have long hair or a shaved head, it’s no on the very same night (8 Jul). The Glasgow Thrash matter: Converge are coming, and everyone is welBash takes over the cavernous cellar of Stereo (4 Jul), come…to sustain grievous bodily harm before the night featuring [Seregon], Circle Of Tyrants, Amok, InCathouse June 256x155 Skinny Ad PRINT.pdf 25/5/10 14:39:06 is over. Their highly anticipated punchfest at The Garage sanita and XXXX. Tapping a similar vein, Glaswegian

Kylesa

death metal mainstays Man Must Die behead the prophet at Ivory Blacks (7 Jul) alongside openers The Rotted and Sworn Against.

Merciless pillagers Town Called Hell set fire to the Windsor Hotel in Kirkcaldy (31 Jul), following their appearance earlier in the month with Insylum and Torn Face at Bannerman’s (3 Jul). Edinburgh’s favourite den of iniquity also hosts the pungent excruciation of Scatorgy and Acatalepsy (10 Jul) – your giblets will be burnt to a crisp. Bannerman’s also serves up some serious rock action with The Plight (11 Jul), who then forge onward to Captain’s Rest in Glasgow (12 Jul) before heading north to The Tunnels in Aberdeen (13 Jul). Still trucking despite that Cavalera Conspiracy, Sepultura prepare to unleash death metal classics on Dundee’s Fat

Sams, no less (19 Jul). Refuse/Resist at your peril.

Beauty lies in the eye? Apparently so, as Beholder bring their lager-fuelled true metal swagger to the Classic Grand (10 Jul), where industrial metal legends KMFDM bring the noise just days prior (3 Jul) and Front Line Assembly blaze through the same doors on 17 Jul. Speaking of Canadian industrial, former comrades of FLA’s Bill Leeb, Skinny Puppy, reinstate themselves as the ultimate purveyors of electrodarkness, once again at the Classic Grand (20 Jul).

Oh, and we almost forgot: some guy named Slash is playing the HMV Picture House in Edinburgh (1 Jul), but here’s the thing: A) it’s been sold out for ages, and B) it’s no doubt already happened by the time you’re reading this. Pity, that.

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Clubs

The Dangers Ahead

Ahead of his appearance at the Bass Camp at Wickerman Festival, Fabio talks about how garage died and the dangers facing dubstep Text George Binning The likes of the Charlatans, Ocean Colour Scene and Goldie Looking Chain, though worthy in their own right, may not be enough to draw Scottish clubbers to the Wickerman Festival. The promise of a “Bass Camp” however, surely is.

When Fabio, one of the original drum and bass pushers and the mind behind the Creative Source record label, was confirmed, bassheads must have been queuing round the block for a ticket.

Fabio is looking forward to getting out of the dark clubs and taking in the festival air, and he tells us he has a soft spot for the smaller, less commercial festivals.

“It’s always nice playing at festivals,” he says. “I started off in raves which were outdoors so you get that rave feeling. On a nice sunny day you cannot beat a good festival. I like the smaller festivals because they attract a lot more families and older people. Sometimes atmosphere won’t be as good at the bigger festivals, especially if they’re not full to capacity.”

The extensive list of DJs billed for the Skiddle Arena means the program is going to be tight, with a rapid turnaround and not a huge amount of room for manoeuvre; a bonus for the crowd, but a source of lament for the seasoned DJ. “I don’t think an hour’s long enough for me anymore.

I would love to go to the Wickerman Festival and play

Chris Duncan

Flying low Fresh back from the delight of Sonar and the abject horror of a Ryanair flight, over on the website we have a day by day round up of all three days of the Barcelona based festival, featuring reviews of the highs, such as Flying Lotus, Jackmaster, Lunice, Hudson Mohawke, Nosaj Thing and Machinedrum, as well as the lows (mostly just the insufferable Uffie in that category).

Shortly before his appearance at Sonar and ahead of arriving at T in the Park, Richie Hawtin spoke to us about his decision to blow the dust off his Plastikman project and take the LED cage around the globe to selected venues. The ongoing summer tour has seen the audio/visual

56 THE SKINNY July 2010

spectacular arrive at Coachella, Timewarp, WeLoveArt and Dissonanze Festival so far, and on page 57 he explains just exactly why he felt it was necessary to bring his early recording moniker of Plastikman back to life. Catch the show at Kinross on 11 July along with Sven Vath, Dubfire, Slam, Andrew Weatherall & Ivan Smagghe or rue the day forever.

"Garage is now a dead genre because their big stars got taken away and moulded into R&B stars, all their shining lights basically got raped by record companies and they sold the whole genre" Fabio

two hours and take people on a journey. In an hour it’s more about impact and you’ve really just got to keep them hyped. It’s a different art to a degree.”

He says he is now using CD decks in his live shows, and though puritans might raise their eyebrows, Fabio is not prone to nostalgia.

“I was a vinyl purist, I was like ‘you know what, I’m never going to stop playing vinyl’ but there comes a time when, well everyone likes to make their lives easier.”

He seems to be bucking a trend for D’n’B DJs moving towards dubstep. I discover that the question he is most frequently asked is, naturally, “What do you think of the dubstep thing?” but I go ahead and ask it anyway.

“I don’t play dubstep simply because I don’t like it enough. I respect the genre, I’ve heard dubstep tracks that I like, but it’s not really me.” With almost two decades of experience behind him, he can offer some wisdom on the subject, as well as some juicy gossip.

“Garage is now a dead genre because their big stars got taken away and moulded into R&B stars: So Solid Crew, Miss Dynamite, Artful Dodger, Craig David, all their shining lights basically got raped by record companies and they sold the whole genre. It happened with drum and bass but we survived it. Now dubstep is going to have to survive it.

“I heard that Britney Spears’ next album is going to be half dubstep, Madonna’s asking for dubstep producers.

Its credibility is going to be questioned when that happens. But I never rule anything out in music, in two years time who knows where we’re going to be at?”

At present Fabio is working on an Influences mix with Grooverider and Ministry of Sound, and hints at a possible Liquid Funk Volume 3 (yes please!), but does he plan to do any of his own production?

“I ain’t going to lie, I turn around to journalists the whole time and say I’ll be in the studio by the end of the year but I don’t think the studio is me really. I wouldn’t hold your breath.”

As our conversation draws to a close I mention the World Cup, not knowing what a nerve I would hit.

“There are a few things which England supporters are deluded about. England have never been good in possession. England’s strengths are their passion not their technical ability, and Capello is a very technical manager, and I don’t think that suits England at all.

Forget this: ‘Oh this is the strongest team we’ve ever had.’ This is not the strongest team we’ve ever had, 1990 was the strongest team we ever had, this side are naïve. There’s no subtlety in England’s play either, there’s no guile.”

About a quarter of an hour later Fabio says: “I could go on about this all day but I won’t.” Which is lucky because I really believe he can.

Fabio appears alongside Kutski, Utah Jazz and others at The Wickerman Festival on 23 and 24 Jul. Tickets are £85for weekend camping www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk

Clubs

Awakening the Giant As Richie Hawtin awakens his dormant project Plastikman for a new world tour – including a performance at this year’s T in the Park – the people behind Glasgow tech-house night Bigfoot’s Tea Party speak to the Minus maestro Text Calum Sutherland Photo Stefan Solf Minus Records is, to many, so much more than merely another techno imprint. It is an ethos, a design and a guide. The Berlin based label has been at the forefront of cutting edge electronica for the past decade, with an unimpeachably talented artist roster and an approach to techno like no other.

At the helm of the label is Richie Hawtin, a Da Vinci of modern electronic music and arguably one of the most innovative and progressive artists our generation has ever known. This year sees the return of Plastikman, the project that brought Richie to the attention of the techno community of which he is now seated firmly at the epicentre.

With Plastikman's re-emergence this year it appears Hawtin is attempting to fill a void he believes to have existed in live electronic music for some time. “There is nobody doing what I would be doing,” he says, “trying to create a crazy live audio visual experience.” This is not unfamiliar territory for Richie. The Contakt shows of 2008 are still engrained in the minds of all who were witness to the most ambitious Minus masterminded project to date.

“Contakt was a laboratory,” says Richie, who believes that the Contakt allowed for unbridled degrees of experimentation which have been adopted into the Plastikman setup, with the use of LED lighting along with the synchronisation of jaw dropping techno and head fuck visuals.

This wholly original approach to the audio/visual experience is the result of the collaboration between Hawtin and Ali Demirel, a Turkish-born visual architect whose structural, concept based creations resonate strongly with Hawtin’s own approach. The pair’s marriage of audio and visual produce a hypnotic

and psychedelic experience for the audience, as the spectacle takes on a poetic form, saying nothing, and everything.

Neither the Contakt nor the Plastikman shows can be classed as club nights. You are not just going to see a DJ, nor will you be shaking your ass from start to finish; the aim is that you will be taken on a journey.

“Clubbing in the early days was always an experience,” says Hawtin. “Now everybody knows all the music, all the DJs and now everyone on the dancefloor is a DJ and sometimes it’s not so exciting.”

With so much added to the presentation of the Contakt shows, it seems that perhaps nobody but Richie Hawtin could recreate it. “If you can excite a DJ in the crowd, that’s a reminder of why we’re all in it in the first place, that’s what Contakt was about and hopefully that is what Plastikman will be about.”

Perhaps it is with this in mind that he began to devote more attention to the visual aspect of performance? “It’s what you see behind us. Everything, the experience, is designed. We sit down for months and think about all the ways we can create an experience with lighting, sound, visuals, venues... we don’t just put Plastikman anywhere.”

The point is that with so many great parties, DJs and producers around, a Minus tour is unparalleled in its unique nature, as anyone who witnesses one of these special shows will testify. The audience leaves remembering something exceptional; something they have never felt, heard or seen before.

With a career spanning almost two decades now, Hawtin has influenced and affected generations of electronic music fans, clubbers and artists alike. With that in mind, was he concerned about alienating his younger fans who were perhaps unaware of what the Plastikman show entailed?

“Actually, I was more worried about shocking my

older fans who were so used to seeing me DJ. Usually they’re the ones complaining about all the changes we’re doing but the younger ones are always just like ‘Hey this is crazy, what the fuck are you doing?’ They love it, but we’re always thinking about that. That’s also why I’m still DJing and playing in small clubs, and doing this, because I love it all. I love just having

"When I see other live shows or hear other things that are out there right now, I don’t think there’s anyone doing anything like Plastikman, so if there was someone else doing it, like continued on with what I was trying to do, maybe I wouldn’t be back" Richie Hawtin

a great night with a cool crowd with a soundsystem and a strobelight. But we also wanted to grow and do weirder things. We just did a show in Detroit and there were friends there who saw the last Plastikman show in 1994 and next to them were eighteen year old kids who had just heard a Plastikman record who were like ‘Man, what the fuck is going on?’ That’s cool right?”

Plastikman’s sustained longevity means there is a whole new audience of techno fans who are perhaps unaware of the project. Does this notion have any effect on the production of the new shows? “When I see other live shows or hear other things that are out there right now, I don’t think there’s anyone doing anything like Plastikman, so if there was someone else doing it, like continued on with what I was trying to do, maybe I wouldn’t be back but since it’s open I’m like ‘Y’know what? Nobody else is doing it so I better fucking do it because people need to hear this shit.’”

This is another example of Hawtin’s drive to break down the walls between performer and audience. It’s part of what makes him stand out and contributes to making whatever project he is involved in unique and different. “I want to try new things and connect to the fans on the dancefloor. I want to keep them up to date but also sometimes to hide information, but what you have to remember is you need a crowd, you need people there listening. It gets boring when it's just someone sending out a message, it gets interesting when you see messages received and come back. This dynamic loop of performer and audience, what goes in, what comes out, we’re all in it together, that’s what makes a beautiful, amazing, crazy night.”

Plastikman appears in the Slam Tent at T in the Park on 11 Jul www.plastikman.com

July 2010

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eDen the

festival 2010

Gil Scott-Heron Roots Manuva

Zero 7 (DJ set) Pama international Freestylers (DJ set) Zion Train Belleruche

Hilight Tribe 3 Daft Monkeys Banana Sessions Horndog Brass Band Bombskare Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam 6 Yes Sir Boss

The Balkan Bandits Biggles Wartime Band Big Hand The John Langan Band East Park Reggae Collective Wille and the Bandits Samba Ya Bamba Maghribibeat Digitalis Subsource King Arthurs Men Vid Warren Asazi Space

Funk Explosion Wobbly Squadron Maybe Myrtle Tyrtle Terra Nine Juno Reactor Logica Ital Requestival Sound System Liquid Ross Morph The Meatmen drunken balordi and many more....

Tickets £69 Devorgilla Main Stage Ghilli Dhu Dance Emporium Furry Chillum Stage Rabbies Tavern Big Tams Cider Bar My Giddy Aunt Cabaret stage Ladybird Collective Zone The Vishnu Lounge Shellycoat Kids Arena Workshops Performance Art Interactive Games Stalls Cabaret Theatre Burlesque Fire Shows and much MUCH more...

www.edenfestival.co.uk

58 THE SKINNY July 2010

Light my Beyer Shortly before the Slam Tent hosts its strongest line-up in years, Adam Beyer talks about his plans for the Drumcode label and 'dance music fashion' Interview Calum Sutherland Sweden has a strong reputation for producing top producers/DJs, why do you think this is?

There is a very rich music scene in Sweden, not necessarily electronic music but music in general. Loads of people produce music in Sweden and it is encouraged in the schools with many having midi studios or coaxing students to perform. The weather also plays its part.

With cold temperatures for more than half the year it's no surprise that people stay inside and so I guess making music is more interesting than watching TV. It is also the case that Swede’s tend to be very internationally aware so producers are always comparing themselves with the best there is around the world and this pushes up the standard.

Your labels, Drumcode, Mad Eye and Truesoul have been known for releasing quality techno since their conception. Do you feel the climate for releasing records has changed since you started out? What effect does that have on the running of your labels?

Lots of things have changed for sure, like the size of the vinyl market and the trends that come and go, but basically the approach to the labels has remained pretty consistent since the start. Each label has its own feel and this is a big part of how we look at things. Drumcode is all about the big sounding tracks while Truesoul is more about a deeper sound and allowing producers to do something a little bit different to the norm. Mad Eye is my own personal project which is an outlet for experimenting either with the sound of the records or working on collaborations with other producers.

Do you have plans for any new releases yourself?

I am actually in the busiest period of my own releases for a while right now. I have a track out on Chris Liebing’s CLR right now which I did as part of their 10 Year album project and I have just finished two collaboration EPs with Alexi Delano. One will be released on Drumcode and the other on Mad Eye. I am always trying to find time to write more but it just happened that recently these tracks came together all at the same time.

Sometimes you can’t predict when these things will happen but I am really happy with all the tracks.

What do you look for in a record before it becomes a part of your set?

Usually if it fits with the rest, it can be a big track with an obvious theme or a tool to connect tracks, but usually I like things which grab my attention direct after a few seconds.

You have also been cited as having an affinity with artists who focus on the harder side of techno, like Luke Slater and Surgeon; how relevant do you feel that style is today with the rise of more minimal and tech house sounds?

I wouldn’t say minimal and tech house is on the rise in 2010, it’s been dance music fashion for about five years. If anything I feel like old school techno is on the rise. I have huge respect for people like Luke Slater and Surgeon since I grew up on their stuff and a lot of their work used to inspire me and occasionally still does.

Adam Beyer appears in the Slam Tent on 10 Jul

"I wouldn't say minimal and tech house is on the rise in 2010, it's been dance music fashion for about five years. If anything I feel like old school techno is on the rise" adam beyer

Sonar 2010: 17 June Sonar festival and the sheer volume of offshoot parties that surround it can make Sonarweek almost impossible to navigate. Best to just keep your ear to the ground and an open mind Text Chris Duncan Tucked away in a street not far from La Rambla, a single black flag is fluttering in the wind above an unassuming shop front. Inside, the white walls are decorated with the Minus logo, the record label that boasts the likes of Magda, Richie Hawtin, Marc Houle and Troy Pierce on their release list. This is Minus Ghost Space, a shop that has been transformed, with a back room now hosting a cinema where visual artist Ali Demirel is explaining to a tiny yet captivated audience how ‘the music always comes first’ when he is creating a video, before delivering the world premiere of Plastikman’s Optik. Upstairs Marc Houle plays a subdued set in the bar as a warm up to his performance scheduled for later in the cinema whilst Richie Hawtin poses for photographs with fans who look as though the whole experience may cause them to faint at any given second.

Back at Sonar by Day it’s the usual affair of there being almost too much to see, but Round Table Knights have the high ground, working the sunny courtyard with their unmistakable sound that manages to blend jazz and disco in an infectious manner. The Swiss duo are met with rapturous applause and mass dancing as their kick drum heavy set wins over new fans with each minute that rolls on. In the bowels of the CCCB building lies the art displays of SonarMatica,

ROUND TABLE KNIGHTS HAVE THE HIGH GROUND, WORKING THE SUNNY COURTYARD WITH THEIR UNMISTAKABLE SOUND THAT MANAGES TO BLEND JAZZ AND DISCO IN AN INFECTIOUS MANNER

this year’s theme being For The Robots, inspired by Kraftwerk’s music.

The highlight of the works on offer is without a doubt Robotic Chair, created by Max Dean, Raffaello D’Andrea and Matt Donovan. A generic looking wooden chair sits alone on a stage and then on the hour, every hour, it collapses sharply before revealing its mechanical insides and drifting around the stage picking up the pieces of itself and rebuilding its frame back to normal.

Perhaps if our colleagues in the Art section were here they would describe Robotic Chair as an attempt to take the chair, an everyday object in society and turn it on its head. But we’re not from the Art section, we’re from Clubs, so we’re just going to call it “really fucking cool” and be done with it. What philistines eh?

Elsewhere, Ango is busy reducing the SonarDome to a fine rubble with his finely tuned, bass heavy set that is getting bodies jerking at all manner of angles down the front. Merging synth sounds with hip-hop samples, before drawing to a close with Mr. Oizo’s Positif and Douster’s King of Africa, his performance sets the tone well for the kind of talent that will be appearing on this particular stage over the next few days.

Finally, closing the first day are Robot Koch, consisting of Berlin producer Robert Koch and a female vocalist. The resulting sound is dubstep orientated and fluctuates in direction, making it hard to pin down exactly, but if you imagine Glass Candy’s frontwoman Ida No forming a side project with a bedroom beatmaker, you’re not far off.

T S E F R ÜBE ALL DAY FESTIVAL Saturday 31st July 2010 3pm - 3am

50 DJs over 4 areas of brilliant sounds with outdoor arena

£5 before 8pm, £10 after

Glasgow

Soundhaus 47 HYDEPARK ST, G3 8BW 0141 221 4659 www.soundhaus.co.uk

FULL COVERAGE OF THE REMAINING SONAR 2010 EVENTS IS AVAILABLE AT WWW.THESKINNY.CO.UK/CLUBS

The Robotic Chair Display

Round Table Knights

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 59

CLUBS

27TH JULY DOORS 7:30 ÂŁ10

2 Roxburgh Place Edinburgh tickets: www.roxyarthouse.org

OPEN 7 DAYS, 5PM-1AM GREAT MUSIC, GREAT DRINKS, UNDERGROUND

desert romance:

RAJASTHANI FOLK MASTERS

Garage Skinny Ad_July_PRINT.pdf

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60 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

14/6/10

Rajasthani folk music is perhaps the finest folk music in the world, rich in its diversity, exciting and vibrant in rhythm and beautiful in melody. Not only are the artists extraordinary and wonderful to look at, but they are powerful musicians whose lyrics tell of love, separation, heroism, patriotism, respect for nature, marriages, birth and death and every aspect of life and human expression.

THIS SPECIAL PERFORMANCE IS A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE MUSICIANS DIRECT 09:36:40 FROM THE DESERTS OF RAJASTHAN PERFORM IN SCOTLAND.

ROXY ART HOUSE 2 ROXBURGH PLACE EDINBURGH www.roxyarthouse.org

Beyond the Grave

The disco loving DFA duo are set to unleash their new live show after the crossover success of their debut release

BOK BOK, LIL SILVA & FEADZ @ NUMBERS

THE ELECTRIC FROG STREET CARNIVAL

SUB CLUB, 2 JUL

100 EAST VALE PLACE & SWG3, GLASGOW , 1 AUG

To mark their seventh birthday the Numbers crew welcome the debuts of Night Slugs head honcho Bok Bok, his new signing, Lil Silva and the return of the Parisian DJ Feadz.

Alongside friend and fellow DJ/Producer, L-Vis 1990, Alex ‘Bok Bok’ Sushon is responsible for both the Night Slugs parties and imprint. Like Numbers, Night Slugs shares a similar disregard for musical purism, refusing to succumb to the micro-genre labelling fad, their flyers simply offer ‘house/bass’ to describe their riotous approach to mixing up grime, dubstep and house.

Though a recent addition to the Night Slugs stable, Lil Silva’s already established himself thanks to a slew of UK Funky classics including Seasons, Funky Flex and Different and he’ll be playing back-to-back with Bok Bok. Ed Banger’s Feadz’ feverish mixing style has proven popular with the Numbers crowd since its beginnings in the Brunswick Basement, so it seems he was the natural choice to complete this celebratory line-up.

[Colin Chapman]

Returning for its second outing, this time Electric Frog offers a heftier line-up that balances more established names with emerging talent. Playing live are Simian Mobile Disco, Liquid Liquid, Alter Ego and Luke Slater under his Planetary Assault Systems guise.

Originally a DJ off-shoot of the now defunct indie band, Simian, the duo of James Ford and Jas Shaw initially gained fame for their Simian Mobile Disco remix work, but have since gone on to release albums featuring the likes of Beth Ditto and Gruff Rhys and are now a fully-fledged live act.

First becoming active in the early eighties, New York post-punk/disco quartet Liquid Liquid re-formed in 2008, playing the UK alongside Optimo, who took their name from the band’s Liquid Liquid EP. A decade after their first album, German techno pair Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling aka Alter Ego gained worldwide fame for their Rocker single, while Flügel’s solo-effort Ghets Noch? was also a club smash making them much in-demand as club performers.

Over five Planetary Assault Systems’ albums, UK producer Luke Slater has consistently delivered an uncompromising brand of club techno that’s earned him a place in both the heads and hearts of the global dance scene.

Merging "krautrock, post-punk, the primitive electronica of Cabaret Voltaire and the early tribal artbeat of 23 Skidoo", shadowy London outfit Factory Floor will also perform.

On the decks will be the ever-popular, Prince-worshipping, former electro clash king Felix Da Housecat, Manchester’s answer to Moodymann, Trus’Me and fellow Lancastrian Cottam, whose productions and DJ sets brilliantly merge soul, house and techno.

Optimo-pairing Twitch and Wilkes will also be returning, whilst local heroes Sensu, Dan Monox, Melting Pot’s Simon Cordiner, Billy Woods, Teamy and Dirty Larry of Wrong Island, Dema and Nice and Piece Together Soundsystem’s Kev Stevens and Craig Moogroove will also appear.[Colin Chapman]

11PM - 3AM, £10 WWW.NMBRS.NET

EDU IMBERNON @ BIGFOOT’S TEA PARTY THE GOAT,3 JUL

Text Chris Duncan Native New Yorkers Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser met in elementary school and have played together in bands ever since. The pair formed Holy Ghost! over a shared love of “analog synthesizers, disco and hot sauce” and have been associated with Death From Above records long before their debut release.

Both Frankel and Millhiser worked as studio musicians and live players for Death From Above Records partners James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy as well as playing and recording with Juan Maclean on his releases. The pair’s fondness for Larry Levan era disco and the cheap thrills of highly infectious pop music led them to the inevitable conclusion of creating their own music.

At the insistence of James Murphy, the duo released their first original song Hold On on Death From Above Records. The track featured a mixture of

italo beats and pop vocals which led to worldwide recognition and cross oversuccess as it was named iTunes’ single of the week.

Propelled by the success of Hold On, Holy Ghost! released a string of remix work for the likes of MGMT, Cut Copy, Phoenix and Moby whilst traveling across the world for an exhausting line of DJ dates. Their second single, I Will Come Back, was released in 2009 and was coupled with a music video that is an homage to their love of New Order.

After releasing a cover swap with British band Friendly Fires on XL/DFA, the duo are now set to showcase their new live band set-up as well as releasing an EP of new material on DFA later this year. To support it, they’ll open up for LCD Soundsystem in the US before visiting Europe for various festival and club dates.

DEATH DISCO TAKES PLACE AT THE ARCHES, GLASGOW, 17 JUL. 10.30PM - 3AM

Our favourite outdoor shindig packs up its gear and shifts venue to The Goat on 3 July for another all day session. This month they welcome Edu Imbernon as their headliner of choice, who at the age of 21 has made a global name for himself with his hit El Baile Alemán which was produced alongside Iván Ramos, released under German label Liebe*Detail and has been heavily supported by artists such as Ricardo Villalobos, Marco Carola, Sebastien Leger, Agoria and many more.

At a sickeningly young age Edu has amassed a high quality back catalogue and is the proud owner of the Eklektisch label, regularly supported by artists like Gregor Tresher, Danny Tenaglia and Gabriel Ananda and has himself released on labels such as Great Stuff, Noir Music and Cr2 records. Future releases will see Edu on Dynamic, Suchtreflex, Trapez LTD, La Factoria and Hey Records.

With a residency alongside Guy Gerber and Nick Curly at Space’s influential Kehakuma this summer in Ibiza as well as dates at Cocoon and La Terrazza, this will be Edu’s first ever Scottish date.

Joining Edu will be Hans Bouffmyhre, who will be returning to Bigfoot’s after a successful series of gigs at the Winter Music Conference in Miami. As one of the city’s finest techno exports and Sleaze Records head, Bouffmyhre has already earned himself a distinctly prominent position in both Glasgow’s and Europe’s clubbing world with mind blowing sets and some faultless productions, as well as establishing his own independent label as a global techno imprint.[Chris Duncan] 1PM-11PM, £8/£10

SASHA & MAX COOPER @ MUSIKA THE LIQUID ROOM , 17 JUL

Make no mistake, The Liquid Room has been sorely missed in Edinburgh since a fire rendered it out of action in December 2008. Now, after eighteen months of club night Musika being nomadic and sleeping rough in every venue in the capital, it makes a welcome return to its former home. Ushering in the next Musika era are appearances from both Sasha and Max Cooper on 17 July, Sasha has been a regular entry in the Top Ten DJs in the World Chart, as voted by readers of DJMag every year since 1997. Influenced by the early sound of The Haçienda, Sasha began his career playing records within the acid house genre and during the 1990s, he adopted a darker European house music style. This changed as he moved to dance music club brand and label Renaissance where he began to use the music of Moby, Spooky, and Leftfield. A must for progressive trance hounds, and anyone who's been missing the Liquid Rooms.[Anna Seale] 9PM-3AM, £15/£20

The Arches, 253 Argyle Street, Glasgow 0141 565 1000 www.deathdisco.info

1PM-11PM, £8/£10

JEFF MILLS & JACKMASTER @ SUB CLUB SUB CLUB, 23 JUL

To celebrate the forthcoming relaunch of Rubadub Records´ new website following its design overhaul by the sickeningly talented Remote Location, the fine gents behind the online emporium will be bringing none other than Jeff Mills to the intimate Sub Club for an exclusive three hour set. It´ll also be Rubadub Records´ eighteenth birthday, meaning that it´ll legally be allowed to attend its own party.

It´s hard to express the significance of both this appearance and the influence Jeff Mills has had on the electronic music landscape over the past few decades.

He began as a radio DJ WJLB as The Wizard, a name he still adopts to this day for his astounding four deck sets where he beat juggles, scratches and showboats to devasting effect. No further detail is required really, if you don´t know who he is or the importance of his back catalogue, you probably don´t have any business being at such an intimate gathering.[Chris Duncan] 10PM-4AM, £16.75

TROUBLE'S DEVIL DISCO CLUB @ THE BONGO CLUB THE BONGO CLUB , 16 JUL

Trouble’s Devil Disco Club has gained something of a die-hard following of late, among local fans of the Bongo Club and old fans of the Trouble nights. Joined by veterans of the Scottish capital’s club-scene, who suggest that disco never really went away at all, but instead it formed a much bigger picture that comprises of house music and club culture.

July heralds not only the long-awaited return of Devil Disco Club DJ Kris Wasabi after a six month stint in South America, but also a live show by buzzing newcomers Her Royal Highness. Kris will be as well known to anyone who frequents his excellent monthly Wasabi Disco night at Sneaky Pete’s as Devil Disco Club regulars, while this will be chance to see the brand new live show from His Royal Highness.[Anna Seale] 11PM-3AM, £3/£5

JULY 2010

THE SKINNY 61

CLUBS

PREVIEWS

GLASGOW MUSIC TUE 29 JUN

SAT 03 JUL

MAGIC CARPET CABARET

ANDY SHARKEY QUARTET

Singer/songwriters night.

YAMAN

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

FRI 09 JUL

Indian music on sitar and flute.

THE CUREHEADS

Versatile bassist.

BREL SESSIONS

Tribute band.

GLASGOW SLOW CLUB

KMFDM (ALTERRED)

Traditional-style folk sessions.

Relaxed night with guest bands.

Industrial stomp.

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

BLOC+, 20:00–23:00, FREE

THE MORNING BENDERS KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £7

Lyrical pop.

SINGLE SKIN PROMOTIONS PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £4

Inde, rock and pop.

BREL, 15:00–17:00, FREE

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £15

THE RETROFRETS (THE VESPAS) ABC, 19:00–22:00, £6

EP launch. In ABC 2.

MODELS FOR RADIO (HOOKS AND CROOKS)

BREL, 20:00–22:30, FREE

SPANGLED CABARET (SCUNNER, CREATIVE MARTYRS AND A ROTATING CAST) RIO CAFÉ, 20:00–23:00, FREE

Glasgow’s alt. cabaret

HEAVY SMOKE, WORSE THAN MOE, STEVEN FLAVAHAN PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, FREE

TUESDAY MUSIC CLUB

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £6

Open mic night.

DAEDALIAN

BLOCHESTRA

Alternative grunge rock.

Bring an instrument and join in.

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 20:30–12:00, FREE

Indie rock.

KOFFIN KATS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

Punk rock.

CHERRY RED, CROW ROAD, RYAN BISLAND, PAUL VINTER

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

WED 30 JUN JOHNNY FLYNN

ÒRAN MÓR, 19:00–22:30, £10

Americana-tinged folk.

MONO JAZZ

MONO, 20:00–23:00, FREE

Weekly jazz residency.

VINYL NIGHT

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

Hip-hop, mod, funk and ska.

THU 01 JUL

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

Acoustic indie and rock.

FUCK OFF MACHETE

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £5

Alternative rock.

SOUND OF ARROWS KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £6

Off-beat pop.

THUNDER IN PARADISE PRESENT PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £5

BRIGADA MERCY, MINDSET NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

Folk and punk mish-mash.

SOUNDHAUS LIVE

SOUNDHAUS, 19:30–23:30, £7 (£5)

Live bands night.

DAVE DOMINEY

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Funked-up bass loops.

SEMPER FI, FOURTH CALL, HEAVY SMOKE

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

Rock showcase.

EVOL

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £6

Experimental types.

JESSE MALIN (THE KILLING FLOOR)

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £10

Folky punk rock.

Scratch, live bands, poetry and stand-up.

TUE 06 JUL CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH SECC, 19:30–22:30, £45

Underground band takeover.

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Live bands showcase.

UNITED FRUIT, THE WHISKY WORKS BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

Alternative rock.

SUN 04 JUL WILLIAMVINTAGE: THE SCOTLAND SALE ÒRAN MÓR, 12:00–18:00, £TBC

Rare vintage and couture clothing sale.

COMMERCIAL ALTERNATIVE (THE PHANTOM BAND, 1990S, REMEMBER REMEMBER, ASTRAL PLANES, COMET GAIN) MONO, 13:00–00:00, £20

Live acoustic session.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

LOUNGE ACT (LOVERS TURN TO MONSTERS, CHRIS CROSBIE) SLOANS, 20:00–23:00, £4

Chilled music acts.

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Relaxed night with guest bands.

WED 07 JUL

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

Album launch.

BUTTERFLY FRIDAYS

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 19:00–03:00, FREE

Resident bands and DJs.

J.E.M.

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Indian and Scottish style music.

SILVERSCREEN, TEN 84, MONO SIX, DAYBREAK MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

Alternative pop and rock.

ELEPHANT STONE

STATE BAR, 20:00–23:00, FREE

Local indie-pop.

SMITH, BYRNES, O’SULLIVAN

THE STATIC CULT

BRANT BJORK (LOW SONIC DRIFT, DEAD OTTER)

Gentle acoustica.

Experimental rock tour.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £5

SAT 10 JUL BREL, 15:00–17:00, FREE

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £8

KLAXONS

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £12.50

Progressive pop beats.

BEFORE THE ESCAPE, SEMTEX, CASINO CITY PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £3

BEHOLDER, SWITCHBLADE SCREAM, FARSEER

Alternative rock, punk and electro.

Rock and metal showcase.

Open mic night.

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £7

TUESDAY MUSIC CLUB

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 20:30–12:00, FREE

LEON JACKSON (AMY HAWTHORN, BEN T.D)

THE GLASGOW SLOW CLUB (JUDE WALDMAN)

Acoustic singer/songwriter.

Relaxed night with guest bands.

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £8.50

FLYING DUCK, 19:00–00:00, FREE

Scottish bloggers pick the tunes.

PERDURAMO

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

Grunge metal.

FORTUNES OF SORROW, THE HUMAN ZOO, NINE PERCENT UNKNOWN, KID FIRE MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

Rock, metal and indie.

THE SENSES, PARIAH PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, FREE

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

WED 14 JUL SUMMERLIN, FINE YOUNG FIRECRACKERS ABC, 19:00–22:00, £5

Punk pop. In ABC 2.

J.E.M.

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Indian and Scottish style music.

MONO JAZZ

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £6

Acoustic folk and powerpop.

UNICORN KID (FRIDGE MAGNETS) KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £7.50

Pop beats.

ICE CREAM SUNDAY (MODELS FOR THE RADIO, TURNING PLATES, CHERRY RED) PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, FREE

Summer Sunday indie and pop.

BLOC+ JAM

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

Live jam session.

JAZZ WITH NIGEL CLARK

CAFE COSSACHOK, 21:00–23:30, £6

Latin jazz stylings.

PETTYBONE, THULA BORAH 13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £5

Rock and punk.

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

MON 05 JUL A DAY OVERDUE

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £6

Punk and pop.

SALTFISHFORTY (SPIERS & BODEN)

Genre-specific night.

HAVE A QUACK

FLYING DUCK, 20:00–00:00, FREE

Interactive music night, plus quiz, writing challenge and prizes!

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

Experimental tunes.

SUN 11 JUL

OPENMIKING

BLOC+ JAM

HALT BAR, 20:30–23:00, FREE

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

Turn up and do your thing.

Live jam session.

FEAR THE FIVES

JAZZ WITH NIGEL CLARK

Experimental types.

Hot club and gypsy jazz.

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

VILE IMBECILES

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Alternative rock noisemakers.

VINYL NIGHT

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

Hip-hop, mod, funk and ska.

THU 08 JUL AMY DUNCAN, DEBBIE KATE NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

Down-tempo folk and indie.

ANDREA HEINS

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Canadian-born singer/songwriter.

THROATS, HUSH, CITIZENS CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £5

Hardcore punk and rock.

ROCKIE, MATT, DOUGSIE, JENN, AARON, DAVID PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £5

CAFE COSSACHOK, 21:00–23:30, £6

BUTTERFLY STRATEGY

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

Acoustic acts; local and far-flung.

MON 12 JUL MICHAEL SIMONS

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Folk and blues fingerstyle guitar.

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £5

Indie rock line-up.

FLYING DUCK, 20:00–00:00, FREE

HALT BAR, 20:30–23:00, FREE

LIAM CAIRNS BAND BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

Young Glasgow singer/songwriter.

VINYL NIGHT

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

Hip-hop, mod, funk and ska.

THU 15 JUL JODY HAS A HITLIST ABC, 19:00–22:00, £7

Irish punk pop. In ABC 2.

ORCHESTRE TOUT PUISSANT MARCEL DUCHAMP, THE ONE ENSEMBLE STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

Ensemble musings.

HIP-HOP RAW (MEGAMEGA MAN)

FLYING DUCK, 19:30–23:00, £4

BREL SESSIONS

Raw, underground beats.

Traditional-style folk sessions.

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

BREL, 20:00–22:30, FREE

NIALL CONNOLLY

BREL, 20:00–22:30, FREE

Singer/songwriter from Ireland.

THE LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £12.50

Country blues rock.

THE PLIGHT

THESE MONSTERS, VESSELS 13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Punk and experimental rock.

BREAKDOWN BANDS (STEPHANIE MANNS, EIGHT BALL, WE ARE JAWBONE, CURLY’S HEROES, SANCHEZ, NO NINES) SOUNDHAUS, 21:00–01:00, £6 (£5)

Live bands night.

SAT 17 JUL DECLAN FORDE QUARTET BREL, 15:00–17:00, FREE

Versatile pianist.

THE FOX HUNT

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

Country and roots.

3 MUSICIANS AND A BASS (FISSURE, CLOG AND THE QUIRKS) O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £6

Alternative rock and metal.

EP launch.

Turn up and do your thing.

PAUL MCGRANAGHAN, TENANTS

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £5

Brighton electro-indie rockers.

PART TIME SIGNALS

UNSCENE (THEEMRMISTER)

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, FREE

SINGLE SKIN PROMOTIONS PRESENT

OPENMIKING

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £33.50

WHAT’S YOUR VICE (ONLY GUILTY MAN, THE FILTHY HARMONICS)

Indie, rock and pop mix.

Live bands podcart night.

Weekly jazz residency.

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

Indie rock and pop.

Interactive music night, plus quiz, writing challenge and prizes!

Underground band takeover.

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £6

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–22:30, £5

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £8.50

DIGITAL DINOSAUR

MONO JAZZ

SUMMER NIGHTS (JONATHAN CARR, STEVIE & THE MOON, SIMON DOHERTY, DANTE)

ONE NIGHT ONLY

HAVE A QUACK

HALT BAR HIJACK

STATE BAR, 20:00–23:00, FREE

PELMET NIGHTS, WE SEE LIGHTS, BLUE SKY ARCHIVES

HALT BAR, 20:00–00:00, FREE

Folk rock set.

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

Weekly jazz residency.

MONO, 20:00–23:00, FREE

Jazz classics and modern standards.

1901, 17:00–19:30, FREE

Acoustic acts; local and far-flung.

JULIA & THE DOOGANS, THE POWER CUT CHOIR, MISS LEGGY PEE

Acoustic guitar, banjo and oud.

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

ACOUSTIC BUTTERFLY

HERE WE GO MAGIC Electro fairytales.

Multi-instrumentalist on banjo and kora.

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

LIVE JAZZ

Psychedelic powerpop.

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £8

ANDY MILLER

ÒRAN MÓR, 19:30–22:30, FREE

Alternative rock. Played loud.

BUTTERFLY STRATEGY (RICHARD COBB)

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £TBC

Butcher Boy drummer.

ICHI AND THE HAND

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £5

All-day mini music fest, with nine bands.

FEEVENTS PRESENT

ENDOR

Live acoustic session.

BLOG ROCKING BEATS

Hip-hop master.

FRI 02 JUL

Album launch.

RADIOKILLS, BADFOLKS AND THE DOTS

Indie, rock and pop.

Country metal, experimental and punk.

FINDLAY MACKINNON

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

Trio of ace new bands.

THE GLASGOW SLOW CLUB (ANDY LUCAS, ASPEN TIDE)

Resident bands and DJs.

Metal, punk and rock.

Gentle experimental.

Open mic night.

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 19:00–03:00, FREE

OPEN MIC

FLYING DUCK, 19:00–23:00, £5

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 20:30–12:00, FREE

BUTTERFLY FRIDAYS

New music showcase.

Resident bands and DJs.

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £10

TUESDAY MUSIC CLUB

Electro rock. In ABC 2.

THE SCUFFERS (THE DIRT, JULIE AGNEW)

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 19:00–03:00, FREE

STANDARD FARE, KID CANAVERAL, WATER WOLVES

Alt-rock, blues and indie.

Nothing short of legendary.

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £10

PREACHER, WRONGNOTE, VEGAS NIGHTS, TWISTED MELONS

BUTTERFLY FRIDAYS

SARAH HARMER

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £3

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £20

FRI 16 JUL WILLIAM CONTROL (MAVRICKZ)

SCOTT HUTCHINSON, ROSS CLARK, MY COUSIN I BID YOU FAREWELL

Driving jazz funk.

ÒRAN MÓR, 19:30–22:30, FREE

WHAT’S THE NOISE!

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

Ska night.

OPEN MIC

SNOOP DOGG

KASPER ROSA, WHAT THE BLOOD REVEALED, A PLASTIC ROSE

PIVO PIVO, 19:00–23:45, £8

MARCO CAFOLLA QUARTET

MONO, 20:00–23:00, FREE

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £5

GLASGOW SKA TRAIN (TRUEBEAT, BIG FAT PANDA)

Folk rock supergroup.

Grindcore ‘til the end.

SEDITIONARIES

Electro-pop and folk rock.

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

HALT BAR HIJACK

Album launch.

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

INITIAL ITCH

ROBINSON

HALT BAR, 20:00–00:00, FREE

BORN BY WIRES, BRAZEN CARS

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

Indie, rock and pop goodness.

SKERRYVORE

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £12

Garage rock, punk and acoustica.

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £10

TUE 13 JUL TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS (THE AMPHETAMEANIES, BOMBSKARE, CAPTAIN SLACKSHIP’S MEZZANINE ALLSTARS)

CAKE FREE BAKESALE Music night with Jonny Terrell.

SUMMER NIGHTS (SILVER COLUMNS, MIDNIGHT LION, MOPP, NEVADA BASE) KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £6

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

BIG BOX LITTLE BOX, A MARCH IN NOVEMBER, MIDAS IS KING, SWAN LEE

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

SUMMER NIGHTS (WHAT THE HEROES SAY, LOUIS MACBETH, STARSTUDDED78, DIRTY MODERN HERO) KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £6

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

WHAT’S THE NOISE PRESENT PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £5

Monthly Saturday live residency.

HALT BAR HIJACK

HALT BAR, 20:00–00:00, FREE

Underground band takeover.

STATIC FROM STEREO 13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Alternative rock.

SOUNDHAUS LIVE (NEVADA BASE, CRAIG MCGEE, JIM MCCAFFERTY)

SOUNDHAUS, 21:00–01:00, £6 (£5)

Live bands and DJs.

PAUL MILLS’ MIND EXCURSION

BLOC+, 23:00–02:00, FREE

Funk fusion.

SUN 18 JUL MARTHA REEVE AND THE VANDELLAS

THE ARCHES, 19:30–22:30, £26.50

Soulful R’n’B.

CIRCA SURVIVE

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £10

Experimental indie.

DE SOTO FIREFLY

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £6

Punk rock with pop leanings.

ICE CREAM SUNDAY (ALKOTRON, SYNDRI, CASINO QUEEN, THE SUNSET STRIPS) PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, FREE

Summer Sunday indie and pop.

ATOMGEVITTER, FAMILY MAN

ÒRAN MÓR, 19:00–22:30, £12

Acoustic line-up.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £5

SCUNNER

ACOUSTIC JAM

COMADRE, PUNCH, SHIELDS UP

BLOCHESTRA

PODCART

BLOC+ JAM

Alternative guitar lunacy.

Live jam session.

Punk and hardcore.

Bring an instrument and join in.

Live bands podcart.

Live jam session.

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £8

Traditional folk night.

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Traditional Scottish tunes.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–22:30, £TBC

62 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

13TH NOTE, 20:30–23:30, £6

Punk rock.

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £3

Melodic rock and acoustica.

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Hardcore pop.

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

Glasgow music Lev and Friends

Have A Quack

Jazz and light operatics.

Interactive music night, plus quiz, writing challenge and prizes!

Cafe Cossachok, 21:00–23:30, £6

Butterfly Strategy

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–12:00, Free

Acoustic acts; local and far-flung.

Mon 19 Jul Frontline Assembly, Skinjob, Je$us Loves Amerika

Flying Duck, 20:00–00:00, Free

Openmiking

Who’s Edna, Good Bad News, The Tuesday Night Girls, San Pan Disco, Emerald Black Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £5

Halt Bar, 20:30–23:00, Free

Metal, rock and indie-pop.

Gecko, First Step To Failure

Summer Nights (Astral Planes, Galleries, Cancel The Astronauts, Casino Brag)

Turn up and do your thing.

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Rock, indie and punk.

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £15

Vinyl Night

The Smittens, Boy Genius, The Specific Heats, Springfactory

Hip-hop, mod, funk and ska.

New bands showcase.

Tunng

Halt Bar Hijack

Twisted folktronica.

Underground band takeover.

Industrial types.

Flying Duck, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–12:00, Free

Thu 22 Jul

Yaman

Stereo, 19:00–22:30, £12

Indian music on sitar and flute.

Richard Cobb

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £2

Brel Sessions

Ivory Blacks, 19:30–22:30, £5

Traditional-style folk sessions.

Shakey Shakey Present

Brel, 20:00–22:30, Free

Experimental acoustic.

MIMI Soya

Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £5

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £5

Four indie pop acts.

Summer Nights (The Boy Who Trapped The Sun, Bear Bones, Lou Hickey, Crow Road)

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £5

Poppy rock.

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

Liam Cairns Band

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, Free

Acoustic rock.

Blochestra

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Bring an instrument and join in.

Tue 20 Jul Skinny Puppy

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £20

Experimental electro.

Stephen Dale Petit ABC, 19:00–22:00, £10

Blues rock. In ABC 2.

Open Mic

Òran Mór, 19:30–22:30, Free

Live acoustic session.

Corrie Dick

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £3

Jazz session with Corrie Dick.

MAX RAPTOR (Galleries) Rock with a capital ‘R’.

The Ferry, 20:00–00:00, £8.50

Tribute act.

Jean Claude

Bloc+, 23:00–02:00, Free

House and electro.

Sun 25 Jul

Stereo, 19:30–22:00, £5

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £6

Album launch.

Jazz Night

Experimental indie folk.

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £tbc

Koshka

Summer Nights (Young Fathers, Kobi Onyame, Gav Livz, Stanley Odd)

Jazz and gypsy mash-up.

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

Experimental and contemporary jazz.

Cafe Cossachok, 21:00–23:30, £6

Fri 23 Jul Themselves

Stereo, 19:00–22:30, £9

Hip-hop beats.

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Ice Cream Sunday (Scott Nicol Band, Fevrier, The Gift Horses) Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, Free

Summer Sunday indie and pop.

Butterfly Fridays

Bloc+ Jam

Butterfly & Pig, 19:00–03:00, Free

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Resident bands and DJs.

Live jam session.

Rod Stewart

Cossachok Gala

Oldie but goodie.

Gala concert led by Nigel Clark.

SECC, 19:30–22:30, £70

Alternative rock and indie.

Lounge Act (We The Plural, Eddie Beggan)

Summer Nights (Mikey 9s, Vendor Defender, The Emmas, The OK Social Club) King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

Zanin’s Magic Crayon, In Cases, The Argyle Wishlist Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, Free

Experimental indie pop.

Tuesday Music Club

Hells Bells

Open mic night.

Butterfly & Pig, 20:30–12:00, Free

Stone Rosez

Rae Spoon

Indie and rock.

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

Halt Bar, 20:00–00:00, Free

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £5

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Pop night.

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £5

Summer Nights (Kitty and the Lion, Martin James, Julia & The Doogans, The Second Hand Marching Band)

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £5

Mammoeth

East/Strike/West, Tiger Please, Ocean Fracture

Chilled music acts.

Single Skin Present (Rio Callahan)

Summer Nights (Lightguides, Make Sparks, Penguins Kill Polarbears, Oliver Stays)

Tasty Jailbait, Eightball, Galoshins, Superjunkie

Sloans, 20:00–23:00, £4

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

The Ferry, 20:00–00:00, £10

Cafe Cossachok, 21:00–23:30, £6

The Dead Class

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Alternative punk.

Butterfly Strategy

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–12:00, Free

Acoustic acts; local and far-flung.

Mon 26 Jul Public Image Ltd ABC, 19:00–22:00, £25

New wave.

Moon Duo

Stereo, 19:00–22:30, £8.50

Psych trance.

Tribute act.

Jakob Dylan

The Glasgow Slow Club

Chicago 5

The son of Bob Dylan plays solo.

Relaxed night with guest bands.

Straight-up Chicago blues.

Rod Stewart

Calvinball, Leagues Apart, Cynics

SECC, 19:30–22:30, £70

Oldie but goodie.

Punk and rock.

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £2

Bloc+, 21:00–01:00, Free

Wed 21 Jul Room 94 (Mavrickz) ABC, 19:00–22:00, £5

1901, 21:00–23:00, Free

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Pop and punk. In ABC 2.

This Is Sick

Trembling Bells, The Hidden Masters

Electro beats.

Stereo, 19:00–22:30, £5

Folk and power pop.

Live Jazz

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £2

Jazz classics and modern standards.

He Slept on 57, Avoid The Morning

Bloc+, 23:00–02:00, Free

Sat 24 Jul Scott Mackay Quartet Brel, 15:00–17:00, Free

Graduate muscian line-up.

Pop, indie and rock.

Silent in Action (Dawns Club, The Angies, Denizen)

Mono Jazz

Punk rock.

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £4

Mono, 20:00–23:00, Free

Weekly jazz residency.

Summer Nights (The Hostiles, Energy, He Slept on 57, Fires Attract) King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

O2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £6

Killing Time, The Young Hips

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–22:30, £6

Hardcore punk and indie.

Rod Stewart

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

SECC, 19:30–22:30, £70

Molitov, Worse than Moe, The Edge of Noize, Superbad Comrade

Soundhaus Live (Mass Action Radio)

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £3

Full-on punk.

Oldie but goodie.

Soundhaus, 19:30–01:00, £6 (£5)

The Arches, 19:30–22:30, £18

Michael Simons

Folk and blues fingerstyle guitar.

Brel Sessions

Brel, 20:00–22:30, Free

Traditional-style folk sessions.

Summer Nights (Three Blind Wolves, Admiral Fallow, Olympic Swimmers, The Social Services) King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Part of the Summer Nights schedule.

The Smoking Hearts, Jackie Onassis, Flags Raised Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £5

Rock and punk.

Reality Kills Us

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, Free

Power-pop and punk.

Blochestra

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Bring an instrument and join in.

Live bands and DJs.

July 2010

THE SKINNY 63

Wanna be in our gang?

edinburgh music Tue 29 Jun Leith Folk Club (Smith, Byrnes, O’Sullivan) The Village, 19:30–22:45, £8

Blistering Irish fiddle.

Great Jazz Jam

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:30, £2 (£1)

Live jam session.

Wed 30 Jun

Jazz All Stars

Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

ShieldYourEyes,Illness,Nope Henry’sCellar,20:00–23:45,£5

Friendlypost-hardcore.

Fri 09 Jul

Independence Day celebration.

The Jam House Experience

TownCalledHell,Insylum, TornFace(Jackal-headed GuardoftheDead)

Live music epic.

The Jam House, 18:00–03:00, £6

Cnoc An Tursa, Albu Gu Brath Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £10

WORLD PREMIERE QUINTET

The Remnant Kings, TV21, Tam’s Railways

White Noise (Homework)

Hand-picked jazz five-piece.

Weekly music showcase.

Voodoo Rooms, 20:30–01:00, £5

Jesse Malin Folk rock.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Rockin’ indie quartet.

Edinburgh Folk Club (John Morran, Wendy Weatherby, Sandy Brechin, Marc Duff) The Pleasance, 20:00–22:30, £8 (£7)

Weekly folk session, in the Cabaret Bar area.

Forgotten Roots, Misled Icons (Under Stars & Gutters)

VEGAS!

50s-themed fun and dancing a-go-go.

Cathal McConnell, Duncan Wood

St John’s Church, 21:00–23:30, £6

Irish foilk and Scots fiddle.

Sun 04 Jul Tea Dance Sunday

Ghillie-Dhu, 16:00–20:00, £12.50

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

1920s-style tea dance, with dancing, music, vintage stalls, and cake!

Dias Quartet

The Hundred Meter Club, Alasdair Young

Melodic punk rock.

The Jazz Bar, 20:30–23:30, £4 (£3)

Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Thu 01 Jul Last Battle (Meursault, Johhnie Common) Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£3)

Single launch.

UNICORN KID

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £7.50

Electro kid.

Dr John and the Lower 911

Queen’s Hall, 19:00–22:30, £25

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £4

Black metal.

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £6

A trio of Edinburgh bands.

J-Phunk Quintet

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Funk and acid jazz.

Run Walk!, Vasquez, Sweet Chin Music (Comma) Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Discordant alternative rock.

Live Band Karaoke

ElectricCircus,22:00–00:00,£5(Freebefore10.30)

Singon-stagewiththehouseband.

ThisIsMusic

SneakyPete’s,23:00–03:00,£3(membersfree)

Indieandelectrofave.

Sat 10 Jul

Pop and punk.

Bruncheon!

Country Bluegrass Review

Brunch and live music event.

Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 11:30–15:00, Free

Acoustic Coconut

Fighterplanes(Pensioner, YourNeighbourTheLiar,Heart Beats,CarsonWells,Hagana)

Array of acoustic musicians.

Noise rock.

Independence Day celebration.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Sneaky Pete’s, 17:30–22:30, £tbc

JamesMckenzie&TheAquascene,Borthwicks(MrWishart)

The Jam House Experience

Anthemic, melody-filled acoustica.

Down To Kill

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Roxymoron

The Jam House, 18:00–03:00, £6

Live music epic.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Roxy Art House, 20:00–23:00, Free

Pure punk.

Picture House, 19:00–22:30, £sold out

Whighams Jazz Club

Banana Sessions (The Dull Fudds, Mike and Solveig)

String Hammer, Deaf Professor

Jazz jam and open mic session.

Experimental noise-pop.

American singer/songwriter.

Slash

Old-school legend.

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £6

Musical folktronica pirates.

Graeme Stepher International Trio

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Creative guitarist.

Open mic in the bar.

Whighams Wine Cellars, 20:30–23:30, Free

Mon 05 Jul Eras (City Of Statues) Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

Alternative tunes.

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Epic26

Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Powerpop and rock.

Diamanthan, Scatorgy, Acatalepsy

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Jazz Bar Big Band

Brutal, unrefined death metal.

Massive musicial line-up.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

TestofanEmpire,Necropolis

The Jazz Bar, 19:30–23:00, £4 (£3)

Hardcore and progressive rock.

Hand-picked jazz five-piece.

Volitantes

PacificBlues,Soundtrackfor Daydreams(Keava,TheLimits)

Rock and trip-hop from Leith.

Indie up-and-comers.

Henry’s Cellar, 23:00–03:00, £4

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Henry’s Cellar, 20:00–23:45, £4

Fri 02 Jul

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Tue 06 Jul

The Jam House Experience

Emerging Edinburgh

WORLD PREMIERE QUINTET Earl Grey & The Loose Leaves

Howlin’ rhythm and blues.

Sun 11 Jul

The Jam House, 18:00–03:00, £6

Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Live music epic.

New local talent night.

Bannerfest! (The Plight, Shields Up)

Bainbridge Presents The Mine (100 Metre Club, Underclass, New Delusion)

Leith Folk Club (Pipedown)

Hardcore metal and rock all-dayer.

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £4

Trio of live bands.

Them Beatles

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Glasgow-based tribute band.

Capital Blues Club Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Live blues.

Bons Balls

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

AC/DC tribute.

Jazz Bar Quartet

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Sax and piano four-piece.

Soul Foundation

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, Free

Classic soul and motown.

Live Band Karaoke

Electric Circus, 22:00–00:00, £5 (Free before 10.30)

Sing on-stage with the house band.

ThisIsMusic

SneakyPete’s,23:00–03:00,£3(membersfree)

Indieandelectrofave.

Sat 03 Jul The Jam House Experience The Jam House, 18:00–03:00, £6

Live music epic.

The Village, 19:30–22:45, £6

Bannerman’s, 16:00–23:00, £4

Traditional tunes.

Flamenco Session

Great Jazz Jam

Flamenco jam session, with dancing.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £2 (£1)

Jazz jam. Good with toast.

Wed 07 Jul Bainbridge Presents This Is Not A Toga Party (Conscious Route, Pray For Ryan, Coast, Baskervilles) Maggie’s Chamber, 19:00–22:30, £3

Student music night.

Rickie Lee Jones

Queen’s Hall, 19:00–22:30, £23.50

The Jazz Bar, 18:00–20:00, Free

Edith Budge

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Jazzy blues singer/songwriter.

Roxymoron

Roxy Art House, 20:00–23:00, Free

Open mic in the bar.

Whighams Jazz Club

Whighams Wine Cellars, 20:30–23:30, Free

Jazz jam and open mic session.

Mon 12 Jul

Folk and pop legend.

Jazz Bar Big Band

Richard Cobb (Kate McGill)

The Jazz Bar, 19:30–23:00, £4 (£3)

Massive musicial line-up.

Experimental acoustic.

Before the Escape

TheLights,CameronArndt, ThomasDavis(SeanPorteous)

Soaring alternative pop-rock.

The GRV, 19:30–22:30, £5

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Rising rockers.

Unpeeled

The Jazz Bar, 20:15–23:00, £3

New bands showcase.

Thu 08 Jul Marco Cafolla Quartet The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Tue 13 Jul LeithFolkClub(ElizabethCook) The Village, 19:30–22:45, £8

Belting female vocals.

Great Jazz Jam

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £2 (£1)

Jazz jam. Good with toast.

Wed 14 Jul

This Is Divine, Hush (Arcite, The Colour Pink Is Gay)

Jazz and funk fusion.

Muddy Miles

Jude Waldman

Metal and rock.

Prog and jazz psych.

Acoustic singer/songwriter.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

64 THE SKINNY July 2010

Album launch.

Heavy metal.

Vigo Thieves

Find out more at www. theskinny. co.uk/jobs

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Electric Circus, 19:00–00:00, £3

The Skinny is looking for an ambitious, driven and skilled Sales Executive to join our growing team.

KidCanaveral(ComeonGang!, TheScottishEnlightenment)

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

The Lot, 19:30–22:30, £6

Glasgow Clubs Acoustic Coconut Array of acoustic musicians.

Secta Rouge, Jackie Treehorn, Khuda (The Radiation Line, Hoarder Myna)

Sister Bitch

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Brain-melting jazz, metal and rock.

Gutter-dwelling rock ‘n’ roll.

WORLD PREMIERE QUINTET

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Six piece Geneva-based orchestra.

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £tbc

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £6

Thu 15 Jul Conscious Route (Bulletvi, Coast)

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, Free

Trio of live bands.

Summerlin (Fine Young Firecrackers, Atlas, Ratson, Supercharger) The GRV, 19:00–22:00, £6

Pop and punk.

The Marvels (Thanks You So Nice, Chin Strap) Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

Hand-picked jazz five-piece.

Limbo

Live music night.

Musika: Liquid Room Relaunch (Sasha)

The Liquid Room, 21:00–03:00, £20

Grand relaunch with special guests.

Sun 18 Jul Endor (Gdansk, Lady North) Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

Indie folk rockin’.

CRANACHAN

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, Free

Classic rock covers.

Indie pop with hints of rock.

Roxymoron

Cultureshock

Open mic in the bar.

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Roxy Art House, 20:00–23:00, Free

Dub and reggae.

Singer’s Night

Nervana, The Paradox

Jazz vocalists.

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Nirvana tribute.

Cathal McConnell, Duncan Wood

St John’s Church, 21:00–23:30, £6

Irish foilk and Scots fiddle.

Jammin’ at Voodoo

Voodoo Rooms, 21:00–01:00, Free

Live jam session.

Miyagi

Roxy Art House, 21:00–01:00, Free

Pre-album-launch DJ set.

Fri 16 Jul The Jam House Experience The Jam House, 18:00–03:00, £6

Live music epic.

Y’all is Fantasy Island Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Adam Stafford and pals.

The UK Subs

Citrus Club, 19:30–22:00, £13

Punk rock.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Whighams Jazz Club

Whighams Wine Cellars, 20:30–23:30, Free

Jazz jam and open mic session.

Mon 19 Jul Jazz Bar Big Band

The Jazz Bar, 19:30–23:00, £4 (£3)

Massive musicial line-up.

The Harlets, Curly’s Heroes Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

New local talent.

Tue 20 Jul MIMI Soya (The Afterparty, Home Star Runner, Hagana, Lost To The Landslide) The GRV, 19:00–22:00, £6

Pop and rock beats.

Emerging Edinburgh Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

New local talent night.

Dougie White

Leith Folk Club (Anne Lederman, Aaron Jonah Lewis)

Rock and metal.

North American fiddlers.

Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Richard Cobb (Kat Healy) The Lot, 19:30–22:30, £5

Experimental acoustic.

Black Rose

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Thin Lizzy tribute.

The Village, 19:30–22:45, £8

Great Jazz Jam

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £2 (£1)

Jazz jam. Good with toast.

Wed 21 Jul

Jon Irabagon Quartet

Pareto

NY tenor sax player and band.

Mellow alternative rock.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Aidan Curran

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

Dead On The Live Wire

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £tbc

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Live Band Karaoke

Decipher, 4StarSunday

Sing on-stage with the house band.

Good-time punk pop.

Acoustic singer/songwriter.

Edinburgh industrial punk duo.

ElectricCircus,22:00–00:00,£5(Freebefore10.30)

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

ThisIsMusic

Jazz Bar Quartet

Indieandelectrofave.

Jazz four-piece.

SneakyPete’s,23:00–03:00,£3(membersfree)

Sat 17 Jul The Jam House Experience The Jam House, 18:00–03:00, £6

Live music epic.

Echofela

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £6

Acoustic pop and rock.

Moishe’s Bagel

Bongo Club, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Jazz-infected Balkan beats.

The Valkarys, The Steals, Green Man Running Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £6

Local bands showcase.

Bwani Junction (Escort Knights, Emelle) Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

Indie fusion.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Bongo Club, 19:00–22:00, £5

Hugs 4 Thugs

Don McGlashan (Daniel Abercrombie)

Hip-hop, funk and digi art.

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £8

New Zealand singer/songwriter.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

New bands showcase.

Dead At The Scene, Shields Up, The Graeme Mearns Band, Deadloss Superstar

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Album launch

Wed 30 Jun

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

Vagabonds & Renegades (Vantage Point, Nashira)

Octopussy

Thin Lizzy tribute.

Student fun night.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:30, £5

Safehouse

Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Experimental jazz.

Driller

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Feel-good rock ‘n’ roll.

Lucy Kerr Quartet

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Glasgow sax player.

James Frew

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £tbc

Alternative tunes.

Live Band Karaoke

Electric Circus, 22:00–00:00, £5 (Free before 10.30)

Sing on-stage with the house band.

This Is Music

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, £3 (members free)

Indie and electro fave.

Sat 24 Jul The Jam House Experience The Jam House, 18:00–03:00, £6

Live music epic.

Amoriste

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

English super-pop.

Mammoeth

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Thu 01 Jul Thursdays

Halt Bar, 20:00–00:00, Free

The Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Good old indie rockin’.

Hellcats Records Night (Orange) Citrus Club, 19:30–22:00, £9

Showcase night.

Electric Banana

Capital, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Electro rock.

C.H.A.S. Fundraiser (Deathtrap City)

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Local bands charity gig.

WORLD PREMIERE QUINTET The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Hand-picked jazz five-piece.

Jazzfinger

Henry’s Cellar, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Detroit and drone night.

Sun 25 Jul Flamenco Session

The Jazz Bar, 18:00–20:00, Free

Flamenco jam session, with dancing.

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £10

Is This Poetry?

Slam Contest

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

St John’s Church, 21:00–23:30, £6

Will Pickvance and Friends

Charity Baw II (King Creosote, Three Blind Wolves, Found, Ballboy, Panda Su, The Sexual Objects, Over the Wall, Maple Leaves)

Cabaret-style mayhem.

Ace night in aid of Art Link.

Live music epic.

Fri 23 Jul The Jam House Experience The Jam House, 18:00–03:00, £6

Skint/Vengeance

Emo, punk and metal. Resident DJs.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Friday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Orderly Disorder

Disco, soul and funk from Kev Stevens.

Thursdays

Dirty electro beats.

Flying Duck, 21:00–03:00, Free (£5 (£4) after 12)

Dance, R’n’B and chart.

Soul Glo

Funky disco and soul.

Funk and northern soul.

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Emo, punk and hardcore.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

Fri 02 Jul Blink (Nino, Mofo, Martin Muir, David Todd) Club 69, 11:00–03:00, £6

Local boys and Blink veterans.

Bazodee

Halt Bar, 20:00–02:00, Free

Reggae and dancehall.

Friday @ Hillhead Bookclub Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Disco, soul and funk from Kev Stevens.

Offline

Brunswick Hotel, 22:00–02:00, £tbc

Eclectic club night.

Audio Kandi

Byblos, 22:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Vocal house and mash-ups.

Crash

The Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11)

Pop, dance and hippity-hop.

Ballbreaker/Vice

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Rock, metal and indie. Resident DJs.

Classic Fridays

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Aternative rock, metal and punk.

Symbiosis

Soundhaus, 22:30–03:00, £5

Charity drum and bass night.

Melodic rock from down’t South.

Funk, soul and disco.

Whighams Jazz Club

Riot Radio

Bigfoot’s Tea Party (Hans Bouffmhyre) The Goat, 13:00–23:00, £10

Special guest DJ, plus BBQ, visuals and live mural wall.

Surf beats.

Audio Kandi

Colours Presents Will.I.Am (Chuckie)

Vocal house and mash-ups.

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£10 after 12)

The Arches, 22:00–03:00, £20

Dubbed-out electro.

Special guest night.

The Rock Shop

Crash

Maggie May’s, 23:30–03:00, Free (£5 (£3) after 12)

The Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11) Pop, dance and hippity-hop.

Rock, indie and metal.

Ballbreaker/Vice

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Sun 04 Jul

Rock, metal and indie. Resident DJs.

Scarlet Fever Burlesque: The Big Apple (Daiquiri Dusk, Miss Hell?s Belle, Dolly Tartan) Ivory Blacks, 19:00–23:00, £10

Independance Day burlesque special.

Sunday @ Hillhead Bookclub Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

40s rockabilly soul.

Classic Fridays

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Aternative rock, metal and punk.

Distortion

La Cheetah, 23:00–03:00, £5

Minimal, techno and house.

Festival Friday ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Friday night party.

Cathouse Sundays

Old Skool

Requests with DJ Mythic.

Funk, soul and disco.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Hung Up!

Riot Radio

Optimo-curated weekly party.

Indie rock ‘n’ roll.

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Shedkandi

Kino Fist

House and R’n’B.

Krautrock, new wave and freaky beats.

The Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Sin City

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Funk, disco and house.

Vengeance (Q-Ball)

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Thrash, doom and death metal.

Mon 05 Jul Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Disco, funk and electro.

Tue 06 Jul

Special guest edition.

Sat 03 Jul

The Cave

Subculture

Damaged Goods

Punk, noise, pop and disco.

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Byblos, 22:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Indie rock ‘n’ roll.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Fri 09 Jul

La Cheetah, 23:00–03:00, £5

Killer Kitsch (Yolanda Be Cool)

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £7

Nu Skool

Thursdays

Emo, punk and hardcore.

The Admiral, 23:00–03:00, £6

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Henry’s Cellar, 20:00–23:45, £5 (£4)

Massive musicial line-up.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Punk and indie rock.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

The Jazz Bar, 19:30–23:00, £4 (£3)

Soul Glo

Sabado

Saturday night disco.

Indie, rock and pop.

Festival Friday

Jazz Bar Big Band

Emo, punk and metal. Resident DJs.

Teenage Lust

Roxymoron

Mon 26 Jul

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Love Music

Deep and underground house.

Live funk and DJs.

Skint/Vengeance

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Shake It Up

Pounding electro-rock.

99 Hanover Projects, 21:00–01:00, Free

Indie, rock and pop.

House and disco fundraiser.

Lafaro, Slow Motion Replay

Beautiful South ensemble.

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Indie night.

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£7 after 12)

Super Jam Project

Shake It Up

Discopia

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Jazz jam and open mic session.

Indie night.

Funk and northern soul.

Rubbermensch

Depth Charge Vs Gutter Punk

Whighams Wine Cellars, 20:30–23:30, Free

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, Free (£8 after 11)

Electro, dance and dirty pop.

Metaltech

24 slam poets compete.

Rubbermensch

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Eclectic duo of bands.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Punter iPod playlists.

The Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£6 (£4) after 11)

Detroit techno.

Curators

The Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Hardstyle dance.

Funk, techno and hip-hop.

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £9

IDJ

Soundhaus, 21:30–03:30, £12 (£10)

Cheap ‘n’ Nasty

LP launch.

90s nu-metal.

Infexious

Themselves, The Blessings

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Garage, soul and rock.

Rock and punk. Regular DJs.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Counterfiet

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 21:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11:30)

Misbehavin’ (Dolly Daydream, Drucifer)

R’n’B and dirty chart.

Electro, house and hippity-hop.

Pandemic

Cathouse Saturdays

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £3

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Live music from the residents.

Punter iPod playlists.

Satisfaction

Cloak and Dagger

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–03:00, Free

Pop, punk, metal and rock.

Midgar

Picture House, 19:00–22:30, £20

Butterfly Saturdays

IDJ

Charity fundraiser.

Performance-led tomfoolery.

Funk, soul and hip-hop from Andy Taylor.

Absolution

Old Skool

Roxy Art House, 20:30–01:00, £5

Deep house and slo-mo techno.

Halt Bar, 20:00–00:00, Free

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

R’n’B and dirty chart.

Friday night party.

Nonsence

Saturday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Pop classics and hip-hop.

Open mic in the bar.

Catchy alternative rock.

Rock, metal and emo. Under 18s.

Satisfaction

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £3

Thu 08 Jul Thursdays

Yoyo Saturday

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Cathouse, 16:00–21:00, £6 (£3 members)

Deep house and slo-mo techno.

Roxy Art House, 20:00–23:00, Free

Henry’s Cellar, 19:30–23:45, £5

Voodoo

Slabs Of Tabernacle: Summer Detroit Party (Arne Weinberg, Hek, Binny)

Former Can legend and friends.

Orange Slice Records Present

Killer Kitsch

Electro clash, 80s, and disco.

Blues and funk.

Thu 22 Jul

Flying Duck, 19:00–00:00, Free

Shutter

Damo Suzuki

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Tue 29 Jun

Album launch.

Mike Kearney KA-TET

The South

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Bosie

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Wed 07 Jul Octopussy

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Student fun night.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Sat 10 Jul Voodoo

Cathouse, 16:00–21:00, £6 (£3 members)

Rock, metal and emo. Under 18s.

Saturday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Funk, soul and hip-hop from Andy Taylor.

Butterfly Saturdays

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–03:00, Free

Live music from the residents.

Yoyo Saturday

The Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£6 (£4) after 11)

Pop classics and hip-hop.

Absolution

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Pop, punk, metal and rock.

Cathouse Saturdays Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Rock and punk. Regular DJs.

Sabado

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, Free (£8 after 11)

Dance, R’n’B and chart.

The Mumble Club

Half My Heart Beats

Alternative hip-hop.

Classic indie-pop hits.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £4

July 2010

THE SKINNY 65

Glasgow Clubs

edinburgh Clubs Tue 29 Jun

Love Music

Crash

Ruby Fruit

Festival Friday

Saturday night disco.

Pop, dance and hippity-hop.

Funky soul, disco and retro pop.

Friday night party.

Circus Arcade

Old Skool

Pop quiz and musical bingo.

Bubblegum

Funk, soul and disco.

Antics

Chart, indie and retro.

Riot Radio

Rock, metal and punk.

Tease Age

Split

Indie, rock and soul.

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £7

Nu Skool

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Funky disco and soul.

Subculture

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£10 after 12)

Dubbed-out electro.

The Rock Shop

Maggie May’s, 23:30–03:00, Free (£5 (£3) after 12)

The Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11)

Destination Afrika Byblos, 22:00–03:00, £tbc

Naija hits, salsa and zouk.

Homebass (Katchi, Badfinger)

Soundhaus, 22:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Dance night.

Tictactoe

The Ferry, 22:00–03:00, £12

Rock, indie and metal.

House and techno.

Wrong Island

Ballbreaker/Vice

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Techno, beats and electro.

Sun 11 Jul Elephant

Flying Duck, 19:30–00:00, Free

World music night.

Sunday @ Hillhead Bookclub Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

40s rockabilly soul.

Cathouse Sundays

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Requests with DJ Mythic.

Hung Up!

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Optimo-curated weekly party.

Shedkandi ( )

The Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

House and R’n’B.

Sin City

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Funk, disco and house.

Mon 12 Jul Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Rock, metal and indie. Resident DJs.

Classic Fridays

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Aternative rock, metal and punk.

Argonaut Sounds Reggae Soundsystem (Daddy Scotty, Puppa Zeb)

Blackfriars Basement, 23:00–03:00, £3

Reggae and dancehall.

Cotton Cake Vs. Thunder Disco Club Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £12

Funk and Italo-disco mash.

Festival Friday ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Friday night party.

Nuke The Moon

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Funk, disco, house and dub.

Old Skool

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Funk, soul and disco.

Riot Radio

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Indie rock ‘n’ roll.

Disco, funk and electro.

Sat 17 Jul

Tue 13 Jul

Sound in Town

Killer Kitsch

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Electro clash, 80s, and disco.

Wed 14 Jul

Brunswick Hotel, 10:00–02:00, £tbc

Eclectic club night.

Voodoo

Cathouse, 16:00–21:00, £6 (£3 members)

Rock, metal and emo. Under 18s.

Octopussy

Saturday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Student fun night.

Funk, soul and hip-hop from Andy Taylor.

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

In About It

Butterfly Saturdays

Wonky bass.

Live music from the residents.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £5

Thu 15 Jul Thursdays

Halt Bar, 20:00–00:00, Free

Deep house and slo-mo techno.

Satisfaction

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £3

R’n’B and dirty chart.

IDJ

The Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Punter iPod playlists.

Rubbermensch ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Indie night.

Shake It Up

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Indie, rock and pop.

Skint/Vengeance

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–03:00, Free

Precision Bass

Soundhaus, 22:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Drum and bass.

Yoyo Saturday

The Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£6 (£4) after 11)

Pop classics and hip-hop.

Absolution

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Pop, punk, metal and rock.

Cathouse Saturdays Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Rock and punk. Regular DJs.

Death Disco

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £12 (£7)

Residents party night.

Sabado

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, Free (£8 after 11)

Dance, R’n’B and chart.

Emo, punk and metal. Resident DJs.

Lock Up Your Daughters Vs Menergy

Soul Glo

Pride special party.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Funk and northern soul.

Love Music

Thursdays

Saturday night disco.

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £7

Flying Duck, 21:00–03:00, £5 (£6 after 11)

Cathouse Sundays

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Requests with DJ Mythic.

Hung Up!

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Optimo-curated weekly party.

Shedkandi

The Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

House and R’n’B.

Sin City

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Funk, disco and house.

Mon 19 Jul Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Disco, soul and funk from Kev Stevens.

Breakdown Bands (Stephanie Manns, Eight Ball, We Are Jawbone, Curly’s Heroes, Sanchez, No Nines) Soundhaus, 21:00–01:00, £6 (£5)

Live bands night.

Saturday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Burlesque stage show celebration.

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Soul, garage and R’n’B.

Tuesday Heartbreak

The Jazz Bar, 23:30–03:00, £2 (£1)

Swirling guitar and beats.

Wed 30 Jun

Killer Kitsch

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Electro clash, 80s, and disco.

Wed 21 Jul Octopussy

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Student fun night.

Thu 22 Jul

Cafe Cossachok, 21:00–02:00, £8

Unique club space, as part of West End Festival 2010.

Butterfly Saturdays

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–03:00, Free

Punk, funk and electro-disco.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 21:00–03:00, £3

Psych, punk and rock’n’roll.

Supermax

Going Underground

Foreplay Records (Big Sie, Katchi, Trigger)

Indie and mod.

Breaks, electro and techno.

Eclectic club night.

Flying Duck, 20:30–02:00, £5 (£4)

Soundhaus, 22:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Satisfaction

Yoyo Saturday

Cryotec

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

The Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£6 (£4) after 11)

Pop classics and hip-hop.

Absolution

Dark electro launch night.

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Dirty Noise & Muck Present Mightyfools

Cathouse Saturdays

Stereo, 23:00–03:00, £5

Dutch house duo guest.

Pop, punk, metal and rock.

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Rock and punk. Regular DJs.

IDJ

Sabado

Punter iPod playlists.

Dance, R’n’B and chart.

The Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, Free (£8 after 11)

Rubbermensch

Love Music

Indie night.

Saturday night disco.

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Shake It Up

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Indie, rock and pop.

Skint/Vengeance

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Emo, punk and metal. Resident DJs.

Soul Glo

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Funk and northern soul.

Thursdays

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Emo, punk and hardcore.

The Pump Club

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

Dubstep, jungle and reggae.

Fri 23 Jul Friday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

The Hot Club

Deep house and slo-mo techno.

R’n’B and dirty chart.

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

Live music from the residents.

Brunswick Hotel, 22:00–02:00, £tbc

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £3

JungleDub

We Are Electric

Thursdays

Halt Bar, 20:00–00:00, Free

Chart, electro and cheese.

CabaretVoltaire,23:00–03:00,Free(£2after12)

We Is Eclectic

CabaretVoltaire,23:00–03:00,Free(£2after12)

Wonky beats. In Speakeasy.

Soul Society

The Jazz Bar, 23:30–03:00, £2 (£1)

Funk and blues.

Thu 01 Jul Born To Be Wide

Electric Circus, 19:00–00:00, £4.50 (Free after 9.30)

Music agent seminar. DJs from 9pm.

Frisky

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Chart, indie and 90s hits.

Dapper Dans

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Soul and laptop trickery.

Dub Kaoss

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 12)

D’n’B and dubstep.

Octopussy

Picture House, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £7

Chart, indie and electro.

Nu Skool

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Funky disco and soul.

Carry On DJs

Subculture

Friday night party tunes.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£10 after 12)

Dubbed-out electro.

The Rock Shop

Maggie May’s, 23:30–03:00, Free (£5 (£3) after 12)

Rock, indie and metal.

Sun 25 Jul Slow Club

Flying Duck, 20:00–00:00, Free

Laid-back beats.

Sunday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

40s rockabilly soul.

Electric Circus, 00:00–03:00, £5

Fri 02 Jul Akimbo Devine

Roxy Art House, 19:00–01:00, Free

Mutant disco and soul.

Disgraceland

Maggie May’s, 23:30–03:00, Free (£5 (£3) after 12)

Rock, indie and metal.

Sun 18 Jul

DJs and MCs play charity extravaganza.

Ballbreaker/Vice

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Rock, metal and indie. Resident DJs.

Classic Fridays

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Aternative rock, metal and punk.

Sunday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Alibi Vs Itch

Rock, punk and garage.

40s rockabilly soul.

One-off club mash-up.

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

66 THE SKINNY July 2010

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Disco, funk and electro.

Rock Show

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Alternative metal and rock.

Coalition

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Breaks, dubstep and D’n’B.

Killer Kitsch

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dance beats old and new.

Mon 05 Jul The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Trade Union

Cabaret Voltaire, 22:30–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Eclectic trade night.

Nu Fire

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Hip-hop, dubstep and breaks.

Tue 06 Jul Electric Circus, 19:00–00:00, Free

Retro soul, garage and D’n’B.

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 after 12)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Special guest edition.

Mon 26 Jul

Monthly mood music and film.

Bass, breaks and techno. Rotating DJs.

Slide It In (Nicola Walker)

Glam and hair metal classics.

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £3

Cabaret Voltaire, 22:30–03:00, Free

Funk, disco and house.

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Sun 04 Jul Slow Club

Split

One Drop (Deadly Hunta)

Trash and Burn

House, disco and techno.

Retro from 1970 to 1999.

Funk-fuelled breaks. In Speakeasy.

The Rock Shop

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£8 after 12)

Rock, metal and punk.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Cult and classic rock.

Ultragroove (Harry Bennett, Gareth Sommerville)

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Sin City

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Classic rock club fave.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Pop, dance and hippity-hop.

Soundhaus, 22:00–03:00, £10 (£8)

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Planet Earth

Subculture

Homeless World Cup (G-Force, Gary Mc, Emotion PA, Mark Logue)

The Mission

Antics

Indie, post-punk and alternative.

The Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11)

Mod, beat, soul and garage.

Twisted disco.

Inkling (MC Silver Tongue)

The Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Pop quiz and musical bingo.

Techno, electro, house and rave.

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

The Go-Go (Tall Paul, Big Gus)

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11.30)

Requests with DJ Mythic.

Music that will make you dance.

Wee Red indie club fave.

Misfits

Rock, garage, punk and soul.

Black Tent

Hung Up!

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £1 (£3 after 11.30)

Circus Arcade

Cathouse Sundays

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 21:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11:30)

The Egg

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £3

Disco, soul and funk from Kev Stevens.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

High energy ska, punk and bhangra.

Hip-hop, chart and R’n’B requests.

Bubble (DTR, Shanos, Eric, Robbie)

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Quids

House and R’n’B.

Indie dancing club.

Reggae, grime and dubstep.

Indie and electro club fave.

Crash

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £8

Sick Note

Deep funk, jazz, reggae and hip-hop.

Bottle Rocket

Big‘N’Bashy(PMoney,DJMagic)

Saturday Nite Fish Fry (New Urban Frontier, D’Viking)

The Hive, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11)

Shedkandi

Dubbed-out electro.

Non-cheesy retro. In Speakeasy.

Bangers and Mash

Byblos, 22:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£10 after 12)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £3

SneakyPete’s,23:00–03:00,£3(membersfree)

Optimo-curated weekly party.

The Admiral, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

BeepBeepYeah!(Be-Bop-a-Tallah, KateandtheGang,Jumpin’Jack)

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Four Corners (Simon Hodge, Johnny Cashback, Astroboy, Wee G)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Electric Circus, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 after 11)

Meaty electro breaks.

Upside Down

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 21:00–03:00, £3

Rock, metal and emo. Under 18s.

Va Va Voom 1st Birthday

Soul Night

Tue 20 Jul

Vocal house and mash-ups.

Friday @ Hillhead Bookclub

Cathouse, 16:00–21:00, £6 (£3 members)

D’n’B, techno, electro and dub.

Electro, techno and bassline.

Pretty Ugly

Eclectic club night.

Voodoo

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Carnival Arts Present Festival Club (Crazy P, Dicky Trisco)

Audio Kandi

Brunswick Hotel, 10:00–02:00, £tbc

Sat 24 Jul

Cabaret Voltaire, 22:30–03:00, Free

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Fake (Scrubber Fox, Eatdisco)

Funky disco and soul.

On/Off

Indie rock ‘n’ roll.

Eclectic tunes night.

Axis

Cheap ‘n’ Nasty

Fri 16 Jul

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Roxy Art House, 19:00–01:00, Free

Disco, funk and electro.

Nu Skool

Funk, techno and hip-hop. For dancing.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Electric Circus, 19:00–00:00, Free

Popscure

Funk, soul and hip-hop from Andy Taylor.

Emo, punk and hardcore.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Skunkfunk(TheDirtyMartinis) The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Funk, soul and rock.

Tokyoblu

CabaretVoltaire,23:00–03:00,£8(£5members)

Funk and house. Resident DJs.

Sat 03 Jul Blaize

Bongo Club, 19:00–22:00, £5

New bands showcase night.

Soul Jam Hot

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Tuesday Heartbreak

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Swirling guitars and beats.

Wed 07 Jul Bangers and Mash

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11)

Electro, rock and cheese.

Axis (Yolanda Be Cool) Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Special guest edition.

JungleDub

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

We Are Electric

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Punk, funk and disco.

We Is Eclectic

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Wonky sister club. In Speakeasy.

dundee music Thu 08 Jul

Mon 12 Jul

Sat 17 Jul

Frisky

Quids

Popscure

Chart, indie and 90s hits.

Hip-hop, chart and R’n’B requests.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Dub Kaoss

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 12)

Open Mic

Eclectic tunes night.

Octopussy

Live acoustic sets.

Live acoustic sets.

Chart, indie and electro.

Roxy Art House, 19:00–01:00, Free

Picture House, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

TradeUnion

Torture Garden

Minimal and techno.

Eclectic trade night.

Extremefetishclubbing,withfivethemedrooms.

Sick Note

Nu Fire

Bubblegum

Indie and electro club fave.

Hip-hop, dubstep and breaks.

Chart, indie and retro.

Carry On DJs

Tease Age

Friday night party tunes.

Dub Kaoss

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 12)

D’n’B and dubstep.

Octopussy

Picture House, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Chart, indie and electro.

CabaretVoltaire,22:30–03:00,Free(£2after12)

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Tue 13 Jul

Sick Note

Circus Arcade

Indie and electro club fave.

Pop quiz and musical bingo.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Electric Circus, 19:00–00:00, Free

Carry On DJs

Antics

Friday night party tunes.

Rock, metal and punk.

Electric Circus, 00:00–03:00, £5

Fri 09 Jul Akimbo Devine

Roxy Art House, 19:00–01:00, Free

Mutant disco and soul.

Selektrance

Lane Nightclub, 21:00–03:00, £tbc

Hard dance.

Misfits

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11.30)

Twisted disco.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Split

Cabaret Voltaire, 22:30–03:00, Free

Skunkfunk (The Soul Foundation) The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Funk and soul.

Soulsville

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 after 12)

Soulful fodder.

Soulsville (Tsatsu, Argonaut) Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 after 12)

Spanning a century of soul music.

We Are Electric (Gary Mac) Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £5

Underground electro Friday spin-off.

Sat 10 Jul Bubblegum

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Messenger Sound System (MC Ras Echo)

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£7 after 12)

Sweet reggaue rockin’.

Saturday Nite Fish Fry (The Ordinary Allstars) The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Rockin’ hip-hop grooves.

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Swirling guitars and beats.

Wed 14 Jul The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11)

Axis

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Wire

Electric Circus, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£6 after 12)

Cult indie for dancing.

Sun 18 Jul Rock Show

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Alternative metal and rock.

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

Coalition

WeAreElectric

Breaks, dubstep and D’n’B.

CabaretVoltaire,23:00–03:00,Free(£2after12)

Punk, funk and disco.

WeIsEclectic

CabaretVoltaire,23:00–03:00,Free(£2after12)

Wonky sister club. In Speakeasy.

Thu 15 Jul Frisky

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Killer Kitsch

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dance beats old and new.

Mon 19 Jul Quids

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Hip-hop, chart and R’n’B requests.

Chart, indie and 90s hits.

Trade Union

Dub Kaoss

Eclectic trade night.

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 12)

CabaretVoltaire,22:30–03:00,Free(£2after12)

Chart, indie and electro.

Picture House, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Sick Note

Indie, rock and soul.

Indie and electro club fave.

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

THE BANG BANG CLUB

Carry On DJs

Eclectic hits.

Friday night party tunes.

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Alternative tuneage.

Headspin

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5

Four-deck mix-up of beats.

Saturday Nite Fish Fry (D’Viking)

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Electric Circus, 00:00–03:00, £5

Fri 16 Jul Akimbo Devine

Roxy Art House, 19:00–01:00, Free

Mutant disco and soul.

Misfits

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11.30)

Twisted disco.

Planet Earth

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Retro from 1970 to 1999.

Funk beats.

Compakt (Bruno FK, Paul Thomas)

Sick Note

Minimal and tech-house.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £5

Indie-electro Saturday spin-off.

Stepback

SneakyPete’s,23:00–03:00,£3(membersfree)

Electronic bass.

The Egg

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £1 (£3 after 11.30)

Wee Red indie club fave.

The Mission

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Classic rock club fave.

Sun 11 Jul

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£6 after 11)

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Rock, metal and punk.

Split

Cabaret Voltaire, 22:30–03:00, Free

Bass, breaks and techno. Rotating DJs.

Modern Lovers

The GRV, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£6 after 12)

Little Barrie of Primal Scream guest DJs.

Soul Jam Hot

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Retro soul, garage and D’n’B.

Tuesday Heartbreak

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Swirling guitars and beats.

Wed 21 Jul The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11)

Electro, rock and cheese.

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

JungleDub

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

Underground house. In Speakeasy.

Coalition

The Green Door

Breaks, dubstep and D’n’B.

Rock, doo-wop and garage. Resident DJs.

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £4

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

We Are Electric

CabaretVoltaire,23:00–03:00,Free(£2after12)

Punk, funk and disco.

We Is Eclectic

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Wonky sister club. In Speakeasy.

Thu 22 Jul

Killer Kitsch

Vintage Violence (Chris, Anastazia)

Frisky

Dance beats old and new.

Punk, rockabilly and new wave.

Chart, indie and 90s hits.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Drum and bass evolution.

Sat 24 Jul Bubblegum

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Chart, indie and retro.

Wasted British Youth (101, Tim Stevens, Alex Finlay, Planisfear, Thundercat) The Caves, 22:00–03:00, £5

Big DJ line-up.

Tease Age

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

SneakyPete’s,23:00–03:00,£3(membersfree)

Skunkfunk (Ray Harris and The Fusion Experience)

Alternative metal and rock.

Xplicit

Definition

Reggae special guest.

CabaretVoltaire,23:00–03:00,Free(£4after12)

Leith FM show fundraiser.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Electric techno for dancing feet.

Magic Nostalgic

Electric Circus, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£6 after 12)

Open Mic

The Doghouse, 12:00–00:00, Free

The Doghouse, 20:00–23:00, Free

Fundraiser for Maggie’s Centre.

Live acoustic sets.

Maggie’s Festival (Heathen, Floyd Inc, Lefty and Friends)

Fri 23 Jul

Dexter’s Lounge Bar, 20:00–00:00, £tbc

Fundraiser for Maggie’s Centre.

Pop and punk.

Sat 24 Jul

The Doghouse, 12:00–00:00, Free

Blues Bonanza

Maggie’s Festival

Dexter’s Lounge Bar, 20:00–00:00, £tbc

Fundraiser for Maggie’s Centre.

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£7 (£6) after 12)

Funk and disco party soundtrack.

SaturdayNiteFishFry(D’Viking) The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Funk beats.

The Doghouse, 14:00–23:00, Free

Two-day blues fest.

Sun 25 Jul

Thu 08 Jul

Blues Bonanza

The Doghouse, 15:00–23:00, Free

Two-day blues fest.

The Doghouse, 20:00–23:00, Free

dundee clubs Thu 01 Jul

Fri 16 Jul

PLASTIC SOUL

Tried ‘N’ Tested (Charley

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Hip-hop, beats and funk.

Mendez, Jack Leotakou)

Wed 07 Jul

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £tbc

Fever

80s and 90s special.

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Garage punk and thrash.

Wed 21 Jul

Thu 08 Jul PLASTIC SOUL

Fever

Hip-hop, beats and funk.

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Garage punk and thrash.

Wed 14 Jul Fever

Thu 22 Jul

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Garage punk and thrash.

Tunes chosen by ‘the wheel’.

Mumbo Jumbo

Autumn In Disguise, Yeah Detroit, Tonight We Let Go The Doghouse, 19:00–23:00, £5

Sun 04 Jul

Live acoustic sets.

Lane Nightclub, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Thu 22 Jul

Maggie’s Festival

Punchy trumpet and jazz vocals.

The Vinyl Club Fundraiser

Heavy metal.

Sat 03 Jul

Open Mic

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Fat Sam’s, 19:30–22:30, £16

Fundraiser for Maggie’s Centre.

Skunkfunk (The Union)

Antics

Electro, techno and bassline.

Keys and vox funk ensemble.

Straight-up house and techno.

Pop quiz and musical bingo.

Riddim Tuffa Sound (Robigan)

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£8)

Electric Circus, 19:00–00:00, Free

Axis

The GRV, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£6 after 12)

Evolve

Indie, rock and soul.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£5 after 12) House, electro and dub over two levels.

Soul, rap, and electro-funk.

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 after 12)

House, techno, electro over two levels.

Circus Arcade

Bangers and Mash

Rock Show

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Tue 20 Jul

Devil Disco Club (HRH, Kris Wasabi, Hobbes, Erik d’Viking, Simonotron)

Souloco (Jamie McKenzie, Kirk Douglas, Chris Graham)

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Sepultura (Gama Bombs)

The Doghouse, 20:00–23:45, Free

Fundraiser for Maggie’s Centre.

Cosmic house, punk and disco.

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Mon 19 Jul

Maggie’s Festival

Axis (Anarkid, Iain Rogers, Kai Davidson)

SneakyPete’s,23:00–03:00,£3(membersfree)

JungleDub

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

The Caves, 22:30–03:00, £tbc

Tribute band.

EP launch.

Maggie’s Festival

Electro, techno and bassline.

Tease Age

Ascension

Twisted disco.

The Doghouse, 20:00–23:00, £8

Dexter’s Lounge Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4

Retro from 1970 to 1999.

Three-deck special mix-up.

Gay and bi-girl night. In Speakeasy.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11.30)

Nivermind

14 Miles From Home (My Fallen Idea, One Week’s Notice, Maxwell’s Dead?)

Wasabi Disco

JakN

Cabaret Voltaire, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£6 after 11)

Misfits

Sat 17 Jul

Fri 02 Jul

Planet Earth

Hip-hop, dubstep and breaks.

Velvet (Trendy Wendy, Jeremy)

Mutant disco and soul.

The Doghouse, 20:00–23:00, Free

The Doghouse, 20:00–23:00, Free

Classic rock club fave.

Nu Fire

Electric Circus, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 after 12)

Roxy Art House, 19:00–01:00, Free

Tuesday Heartbreak

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £1 (£3 after 11.30)

Octopussy

The GRV, 22:30–03:00, £3 (34 after 12)

Akimbo Devine

7th birthday bash with plenty surprises.

The Egg

D’n’B and dubstep.

Chart, indie and retro.

Fri 23 Jul

Studio 24, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Electro, rock and cheese.

Gay girls night.

Indie, rock and soul.

Electric Circus, 00:00–03:00, £5

The Mission

Retro soul, garage and D’n’B.

Retro from 1970 to 1999.

GHQ, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Wee Red indie club fave.

Bangers and Mash

Furburger

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Soul Jam Hot

Planet Earth

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

The Caves, 21:00–03:00, £18

DepartureLounge(Captain Slackship’sMezzanineAllstars, EdinburghSambaSchool)

Bass, breaks and techno. Rotating DJs.

Thu 15 Jul

Open Mic

Animal Hospital

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Thu 01 Jul

D’n’B and dubstep.

PLASTIC SOUL

Thu 15 Jul

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

PLASTIC SOUL

Hip-hop, beats and funk.

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Hip-hop, beats and funk.

TheEgg

WeeRedBar,23:00–03:00,£1(£3after11.30)

WeeRedindieclubfave.

Sun 25 Jul Rock Show

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Alternative metal and rock.

Coalition

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Breaks, dubstep and D’n’B.

Killer Kitsch

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dance beats old and new.

Mon 26 Jul Quids

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Hip-hop, chart and R’n’B requests.

TradeUnion

CabaretVoltaire,22:30–03:00,Free(£2after12)

Eclectictradenight.

Nu Fire

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

WANNA BE IN OUR GANG? Shimmy Skinny Production Team & Editorial Staff REQUIRED We need WRITERS with a passion for performance, and PRODUCTION staff who can subedit, lay out to template in InDesign and supervise printing the publication.

A great opportunity to cut your teeth on fast paced magazine production in Edinburgh festival, with accreditation, and training provided.

Sound interesting? Email jobs@theskinny. co.uk with a CV and some samples of writing or design work by 9 July.

Hip-hop, dubstep and breaks.

July 2010

THE SKINNY 67

art listings dundee DCA Don’t Art, Fashion, Music

Various times, 29 Jun—25 Jul, not 5th, 12th, 19th, Free

Chicks on Speed’s first UK solo show, featuring Objekt Instruments, video, a team of weavers and a theramen tapestry.

Gen. Projects Field: By Means of Matter 12:00PM, Multiple dates, Free

Part of an artist exchange program between Field Gallery, London, and Generator Projects

edinburgh Café Renroc Black and White Town

Various times, Multiple dates, Free

An exhibition of urban photography in black and white, by Edinburgh Digital Photography Meetup Group.

Collective

Printmakers Alfons Bytautas: Lost Time and Annie Woodford, Ice: Tracing the Line of Existence 10:00AM, 29 Jun—03 Jul, Free

Two artists’ display work separately in Gallery 2 and Gallery 3. Alfons Bytautas deals in small-scale black and white intaglio prints, while Annie Woodford’s work encompasses object-making, installations, wall works and works on paper.

Edinburgh Zoo bestiary 09:00AM, 29 Jun—25 Jul, Free

A Collaboration between Edinburgh College of Art students and Edinburgh Zoo.

Embassy Gallery Avalon 12:00PM, 01 Jul—11 Jul, not 5th, 6th, 7th, 0

A group show looking at neomedievalism in contemporary culture and including the work of Torsten Lauschmann, Alex Pollard and Plastique Fantastique.

Fruitmarket

Torsten Lauschmann

Johan Grimonprez

New commission. Collective has collaborated with with Edinburgh International Film Festival to develop a cross-artform residency for Scottish based artist Torsten Lauschmann.

The first British gallery showing of Doubletake which mixes film, television and documentary footage, fact and fiction, to make a complex blend of meanings and counter-meanings.

11:00AM, 29 Jun—18 Jul, not 5th, 12th, Free

Various times, 29 Jun—11 Jul, Free

Drill Hall Exposed 10

10:00AM, 29 Jun—01 Jul, Free

Students from Stevenson College Edinburgh’s photography department showcase their final year work.

Roxy Art House Made in the Shade Summertime Hop! 10:30AM, 24 Jul, £1

Made in the Shade play hostess to over 20 designers, vendors and creatives showcasing off-beat design, trinkets and vintage goods.

Sierra Metro Johannes Sailer: Deleted Scene

12:00PM, 03 Jul—11 Jul, not 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, Free

A body of new work from Edinburgh-based Australian artist, Johannes Sailer, encompassing film, sculpture and installation.

The Jazz Bar Dr Sketchy

03:00PM, 04 Jul, £7 (£6)

Glam burlesque drawing class. GO!

glasgow CCA This Land is Your Land

11:00AM, 10 Jul—24 Jul, not 11th, 12th, 18th, 19th, Free

Annual two week project looking at connection between gardening and art

David Dale just after dawn and close to midnight (On Seeing and Knowing) 12:00PM, 02 Jul—11 Jul, not 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, Free

Multimedia exhibition by Dundee based artist Kevin McPhee

Flying Duck All The Young Nudes 08:00PM, Tue 29th, Tue 6th, Tue 13th, Tue 20th, £4

Drawing class with a backdrop of DJ beats and a bar to the side.

Goma Fiona Tan: Tomorrow Various times, 29 Jun—25 Jul, Free

Fiona Tan exhibits a two screen video installation that takes a look at youth and identity

Sculpture Studio Jimmie Durham: Universal Miniature Golf 12:00PM, Multiple dates, Free

American sculptor, essayist and poet, Jimmie Durham, shows a large-scale sculptural installation of work created during his studio residency.

Kelvingrove Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880–1900

Mary Mary Sara Barker - Images

12:00PM, 29 Jun—24 Jul, not 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th, 18th, 19th, Free

Barker looks at notions of working and living space, creating a new body of work

SWG3 This will not last as long as you

12:00PM, 30 Jun—17 Jul, not 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, Free

New film installation by London based artist Chris Clarke.

Sorcha Dallas Raphael Danke

11:00AM, 29 Jun—09 Jul, not 4th, 5th, Free

New sculptures and drawings looking at metamorphosis

Street Level Ephemeral Ephemera

Various times, 29 Jun—25 Jul, not 5th, 12th, 19th, Free

Dr Sketchy’s 04:00PM, 18 Jul, £7 (£5)

Alternative life drawing, this month with a Steampunk theme.

Modern Institute Mark Handforth Various times, 29 Jun—24 Jul, not 4th, 11th, 18th, Free

Large-scale sculptures and light works by Glasgow based artist

Touchbase Sensing Outdoors 09:00AM, 29 Jun—23 Jul, not 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, Free

Artwork created by Sense Scotland artists as a result of the last five years of the Outdoor programme at Sense Scotland.

Tramway

Solo exhibition of photography by Ayoung Kim.

Christoph Büchel

Grimaces of the Weary Village

Free

Various times, 29 Jun—25 Jul, not 5th, 12th, 19th, Free

Solo show from Lithuanian photographer Rimaldas Viksraitis.

The Arches The Individual Throw

12:00PM, 29 Jun—18 Jul, not 5th, 12th,

Unique art work involving shipping containers.

Transmission Must I Paint You a Picture?

11:00AM, 29 Jun—17 Jul, not 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th, Free

06:00PM, 30 Jun, £22 (£18) festival pass

Annual members show at this Glasgow stalwart

Cinema of Diaspora

Youkali

Valhalla

A live cinema and crafted audio work exploring themes of flight, migration, and the fluid nature of identity in a world of fluid borders.

Chinese pole piece in which nothing is what it appears. The audience is taken back in time to the lost utopian world of pre-war Berlin.

As camp as Carry On, as outrageously funny as Cooking With Elvis, as historically accurate as Blackadder.

Various times, 29 Jun—25 Jul, £5 (£3)

The biggest Glasgow Boys exhibition in more than 40 years.

Performance art, as part of New Works New Worlds.

theatre listings dundee Dundee Rep Decky Does a Bronco 07:30PM, 24 Jul, £8

Broncoing is a sign of manhood – which Decky and his friends all impatiently await.

Suddenly and abruptly it will be forced upon them this summer…

edinburgh Ghillie-Dhu The Beach Ball 04:00PM, 04 Jul, from £10

The cheekiest in end-of-the-pier entertainments and the usual mix of dancing, amusements, competitions, games and vintage-themed shopping.

King’s Theatre Rock Around The Clock 07:30PM, 29 Jun—03 Jul, from £11

Nostalgia musical.

Witness for the Prosecution 07:30PM, 29 Jun—03 Jul, from £11.50

Murder mystery.

Roxy Art House McGrotty and Ludmilla 07:30PM, 22 Jul—24 Jul, £7 (£5)

Holyrood Amatuer Theatrical Society perform Alasdair Gray’s McGrotty and Ludmilla.

Storytelling Cen. Some Enchanted Evening

St Augustine’s An Evening of MindPlay 07:00PM, 07 Jul—10 Jul, From £8

Enjoy the spoon-bending mind-reading talents of TV personality Drew McAdam. Expect plenty of friendly audience participation.

I Know 08:30PM, 07 Jul—10 Jul, rom £8

He’ll read your mind... and you’ll like it! Not only that, he’ll actually teach you how to do it too!

The Lot Nothing to Lose 07:00PM, 07 Jul—10 Jul, from £8

Can a human being hide their innermost thoughts during moments of hilarity?

Predictions, revelations and impossible feats, punctuated with some very funny moments.

Is that really possible?

Magic and Mayhem 08:30PM, 07 Jul—10 Jul, from £8

Witness a mixture of Close up and Stage Magic in this roller coaster ride of Magic and Mayhem.

The Vault Sleight of Hand, Sleight of Mind 07:00PM, 07 Jul—10 Jul, From £8

Things appear - disappear and who knows he may even read your mind!

Close-up Magician 08:30PM, 07 Jul—10 Jul, from £8

No stooges, smoke or mirrors, just world class close-up magic.

Voodoo Rooms The Mating Ritual 07:30PM, 22 Jul, £8

Magic!... Maestro!

Various times, 07 Jul—10 Jul, from £8

A multi-talented artist, playing several instruments (sometimes at the same time!), performing mime routines and performing marvellous magic.

08:00PM, 01 Jul, £5

A cryptic theatrical tale of two lovers told via Twitter stream. Clues to locations and the prospect of iPods to be won. Music by Peter Gregson and a far better explanation at www.cca-glasgow.com

The Memory of Water 07:30PM, 14 Jul—15 Jul, £7/£5

Memories and secrets collide as we discover how the past shapes the present and that the line between perception and memory is anything but clear.

George Square Used to be Slime 12:00AM, 24–25 JUL, Free

Aliens invade... nicely.

Kings Theatre Rock Around The Clock 07:30PM, 29 Jun—03 Jul, from £13

Nostalgia musical with rock’n’roll classics and a large cast.

Merchant Sq The Pipe People

TIMES VARY, 24–25 JUL, Free

Half dance, half vaudeville, half loony, half art, but one hell of a whole presence.

Mirch Masala Bellydancing

08:00PM, Fri 2nd, Fri 9th, Fri 16th, Fri 23rd, meals from£10

Live dance as you eat

Ramshorn The Russian Play

The burlesque dream team look at how we do, or don’t, seduce the opposite sex

07:30PM, 24 Jul—25 Jul, £10

glasgow

Spangled Cabaret

Totalitarian state fights the artist

Rio Café

Various times, 07 Jul—10 Jul, from £8

Charm, wit and comedy to entertain audiences of all ages with his infectious love for the classic art of magic.

CCA Cryptic Nights

Blackfriars An Accident Waiting to Happen 08:00PM, 24 Jul, £6

One man reading

68 THE SKINNY July 2010

08:00PM, 05 Jul, Free

Glasgow’s alt. cabaret

The Arches New Worlds New Works 07:00PM, 30 Jun—03 Jul, from £10

Festival of up and coming performance artists.

Various times, 02 Jul—03 Jul, £10

Contact Jam

12:00PM, 24 Jul—25 Jul, Free

02:00PM, 04 Jul, £3

Red Bastard

Surge

Eric Davis, America’s première bouffon.

His mission: to charm, disarm, shock and seduce. His target: you!

Dancers are invited to hang and dance together.

03:01PM, 19 Jul, from Free

Live art and circus skills festival.

The Venus Labyrinth 06:00PM, 20 Jul—25 Jul, £11

A remarkable interactive journey into an entirely female environment...

Conflux Maximus 05:00PM, 23 Jul, FREE

Imperial parade.

The Tide Machine

Various times, 23 Jul—25 Jul, free

Regulated and inspired by the daily rhythms of the tide: twice each day it ebbs and flows, carrying with it an irrepressible energy.

SURGE... Cabaret Club Nights 10:00PM, 23 Jul—25 Jul, £5

A tempting mix of circus, cabaret and freakishness, featuring Dresden-based company Dramaten with Freak Show.

09:15PM, 24 Jul—25 Jul, £9

The Briggait Spokes

12:00PM, 24 Jul—25 Jul, Free

With only a chinese pole and aerial fabrics, two women embark on a playful yet poignant journey across the sea

The Tron Theatre Steel Magnolias

07:45PM, 01 Jul—10 Jul, not 4th, 5th, £8.50 (£6.50)

Hilarious and touching look at a group of beauty-parlour Southern gals.

07:30PM, 06 Jul—24 Jul, not 11th, 18th, from £6.50

Tron Theatre Club Sublime

07:30PM, 04 Jul, Free(Donation)

A monthly musical event hosted by awardwinning cabaret duo Blind Gurl and the Crips, these evenings feature hot new local artists and bands.

Trongate Dance House Presents Dance Juke Box! 01:00PM, 24 Jul, Free

Outdoor performance event, as part of Merchant City Festival.

Òran Mór Lysistrata

01:00PM, 29 Jun—03 Jul, from £8

No sex comedy.

edinburgh Comedy Tue 29 Jun Midweek Comedy Cabaret (With Bruce Devlin)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £4 (£2)

Doors open 7:30.

Wed 30 Jun The Best of Scottish Comedy (With Dougie Dunlop.

Hosted by Susan Morrison) The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£3)

Thu 01 Jul Ghillie Laughs

Ghillie-Dhu, 20:30–23:17, from £5

Heresy

Jekyll and Hyde , 21:00–23:00, Free

Night of dark and depraved comedy.

Fri 02 Jul The Friday Show (Dougie Dunlop, Steve Cummins, Sean Grant and Daniel Webster. Hosted

by Bruce Devlin)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers.

Sat 03 Jul The Saturday Show (Dougie Dunlop, Steve Cummins, Sean Grant and Daniel Webster.

Hosted by Bruce Devlin)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £13

Saturday special with varying top line-up.

Sun 04 Jul Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, Edinburgh, 12:30–15:00, Free

Improvised comedy led by audience suggestions, with Stu and Garry.

The Sunday Night Laugh-In (With The Reverend Obadiah Steppenwolfe III, Scott Agnew and Sean Grant) The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4/£1).

Round off your weekend with a night of laughs.

Mon 05 Jul Absolute Beginners Beehive Inn, 20:00–22:30, £2

Lineup of new comic talent.

Red Raw

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy.

Tue 06 Jul Wicked Wenches (With Danielle Ward, AL Kennedy, Janice Phayre and Chloe Philip.

Hosted by Susan Calman) The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:17, £6 (£5/£3)

Wicked Wenches (With Danielle Ward, AL Kennedy and Andi Osho. Hosted

by Susan Calman.)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£3)

Wed 07 Jul The Broken Windows Policy

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:24, £4 (£2)

Sketch show fun.

The Broken Windows Policy

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £4 (£2)

Sketch show fun.

Thu 08 Jul Heresy

Jekyll and Hyde , 21:00–23:00, Free

Night of dark and depraved comedy.

The Thursday Show (Wayne Deakin, Danielle Ward, JoJo Sutherland and Davey See. Hosted

by Vladimir McTavish.)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Doors open 7:30.

Fri 09 Jul The Friday Show (Wayne Deakin, Danielle Ward, Jojo Sutherland and Davey See. Hosted by Susan Calman) The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers.

Sat 10 Jul The Saturday Show (Wayne Deakin, Danielle Ward, JoJo Sutherland and Davey See. Hosted

by Vladimir McTavish)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £13

Saturday special with varying top line-up.

Sun 11 Jul Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, Edinburgh, 12:30–15:00, Free

Improvised comedy led by audience suggestions, with Stu and Garry.

The Sunday Night LaughIn (With Rick Molland and Carly Baker. Hosted

by Bruce Devlin)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4/£1).

Round off your weekend with a night of laughs.

Mon 12 Jul Absolute Beginners

Beehive Inn, 20:00–22:13, £2 (£1)

Lineup of new comic talent.

Red Raw (With Graeme Thomas)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy.

Tue 13 Jul Midweek Comedy Cabaret (Joe Heenan, Gordon Alexander, Derek Johnston and John Gavin)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:33, £4 (£2)

Doors open 7:30.

Wed 14 Jul Fringe preview double bill The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:29, £7 (£6/£3)

Thu 15 Jul Heresy

Jekyll and Hyde , 21:00–23:00, Free

Night of dark and depraved comedy.

The Thursday Show (Bruce Morton, Shelley Cooper and Kim MacAskill. Hosted

by Billy Kirkwood) The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Doors open 7:30.

Fri 16 Jul The Friday Show (With Bruce Morton, Shelley Cooper and Kim MacAskill.

Hosted by Billy Kirkwood.)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers.

Sat 17 Jul The Saturday Show (With Bruce Morton, Shelley Cooper and Kim MacAskill.

Hosted by Billy Kirkwood) The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £13

Saturday special with varying top line-up.

Glasgow Comedy Sun 18 Jul Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, Edinburgh, 12:30–15:00, Free

Improvised comedy led by audience suggestions, with Stu and Garry.

The Sunday Night Laugh-In (With Shelley Cooper, Bob Graham and Phil O’Shea) The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4/£1).

Round off your weekend with a night of laughs.

Mon 19 Jul

Tue 29 Jun New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy.

Monthly show featuring a mix of topical stand-up, filmed sketches and improvised games and songs.

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

Wed 30 Jun The Best of Irish Comedy (With Brendan Dempsey and Andrew Ryan. )

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:59, £7 (£6/£3)

Thu 01 Jul The Thursday Show

Lineup of new comic talent.

Doors open 7:30.

Red Raw (With Chris Forbes)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy.

Tue 20 Jul Fringe preview double bill The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £7 (£6/£3)

Wed 21 Jul Benefit in Aid of Fisherrow Community Nursery The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:40, £7 (£5)

www.fisherrowcentre.org.uk

Thu 22 Jul Heresy

Jekyll and Hyde , 21:00–23:00, Free

Night of dark and depraved comedy.

The Thursday Show (Dave Fulton, Ro Campbell, Tom Goodliffe and Gordon Alexander.

Hosted by Joe Heenan)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Doors open 7:30.

Fri 23 Jul The Friday Show (Dave Fulton, Ro Campbell, Tom Goodliffe and Gordon Alexander.

Hosted by Joe Heenan)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers.

Sat 24 Jul The Saturday Show (Dave Fulton, Ro Campbell, Tom Goodliffe and Gordon Alexander.

Hosted by Joe Heenan)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 21:00–23:00, £13

Saturday special with varying top line-up.

Sun 25 Jul Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, Edinburgh, 12:30–15:00, Free

Improvised comedy led by audience suggestions, with Stu and Garry.

The Sunday Night LaughIn (James Dowdeswell, Tom Goodliffe, Chloe Philip and Robert Parker.

Hosted by Billy Kirkwood.)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4/£1).

Round off your weekend with a night of laughs.

Mon 26 Jul Stewart Home

Roxy Art House, 19:30–21:30, £4 (£3)

Artist, filmmaker and writer Stewart Home will read from, and talk about, his novels.

Absolute Beginners

Beehive Inn, 20:00–22:13, £2 (£1)

Lineup of new comic talent.

Red Raw (With Scott Agnew)

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy.

Sat 24 Jul

Dance Monkey Boy Dance

Absolute Beginners

Beehive Inn, 20:00–22:13, £2 (£1)

Mon 12 Jul

Red Raw

The Stand, Glasgow, 21:00–23:12, £8 (£7/£4)

Fri 02 Jul The Friday Show (With Brendan Dempsey, Gus Tawse, Andrew Ryan and Tony Cowards. Hosted by Joe Heenan.)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–23:00, £10 (£9/£5) Friday night special with a changing rota of performers.

Sat 03 Jul The Saturday Show (With Brendan Dempsey, Gus Tawse, Andrew Ryan and Tony Cowards. Hosted

by Joe Heenan. ) The Stand, Glasgow, 21:00–23:00, £13

Saturday special with varying top line-up.

Sun 04 Jul Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service (Susan Calman, Derek Johnston, Chloe Philip and Gus Lymburn)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4/£1)

Sunday night comedy hosted by Michael Redmond.

Mon 05 Jul Improv Wars

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:35, £4 (£2)

Brand new fast paced improv show featuring the nation’s top comics.

Tue 06 Jul Red Raw (With Billy Kirkwood)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy.

Wed 07 Jul Wicked Wenches (With Danielle Ward, AL Kennedy,Janice Phayre and Chloe Philip.

Hosted by Susan Calman.)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:26, £6 (£5/£3)

Thu 08 Jul The Thursday Show (With Nick Revell, Mark Nelson, Janice Phayre and Daniel Webster. Hosted

by Susan Morrison.)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Doors open 7:30.

Fri 09 Jul The Friday Show (With Nick Revell, Mark Nelson, Janice Phayre and Colin McGlinchey. Hosted

by Susan Morrison.)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers.

Sat 10 Jul The Saturday Show (With Nick Revell, Mark Nelson, Janice Phayre and Colin McGlinchey. Hosted

by Susan Morrison) The Stand, Glasgow, 21:00–23:00, £13

Saturday special with varying top line-up.

Sun 11 Jul

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:44, £4

Tue 13 Jul

The Stand, Glasgow, 21:00–23:00, £13

Saturday special with varying top line-up.

Red Raw (With Chris Henry) The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy.

Sun 25 Jul Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service (With Susan Morrison, Patrick Rolink, Phil Differ and Richard Melvin. Hosted

by Michael Redmond.)

Wed 14 Jul How Do I Get Up There?

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4)

Fast paced sketch show.

Thu 15 Jul

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4/£1)

The Thursday Show (With Rob Deering, Lloyd Langford and Chris Forbes.

Hosted by Susan Calman)

Sunday night comedy hosted by Michael Redmond.

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Doors open 7:30.

Mon 26 Jul Dance Monkey Boy Dance

Fri 16 Jul

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:44, £4

Monthly show featuring a mix of topical stand-up, filmed sketches and improvised games and songs.

Michael McIntyre: Work in Progress

The Stand, Glasgow, 19:00–20:00, £10

With support from John Gordillo

The Friday Show (With Rob Deering, Lloyd Langford and Chris Forbes Hosted

by Vladimir McTavish)

The Stand, Glasgow, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers.

Sat 17 Jul Michael McIntyre: Work in Progress

The Stand, Glasgow, 19:00–20:00, £10

With support from John Gordillo

The Saturday Show (With Rob Deering, Lloyd Langford and Chris Forbes.

Hosted by Susan Calman) The Stand, Glasgow, 21:00–23:00, £13

Saturday special with varying top line-up.

Sun 18 Jul Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service (With Lloyd Langford, Mark Bratchpiece, Stephen Callaghan and Mark Davies)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4/£1)

Sunday night comedy hosted by Michael Redmond.

Mon 19 Jul Improv Wars

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:35, £4 (£2)

Desperately seeking Sublime

Brand new fast paced improv show featuring the nation’s top comics.

Tue 20 Jul Red Raw (With Scott Agnew) The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

Character required for supporting role in city centre salon.

New acts, new material from old acts; a classic lucky dip of comedy.

Personality and social skills are more important than experience.

Wed 21 Jul Benefit in aid of The Cystic Fibrosis Trust (Gary Little, Des Clarke and Joe Heenan and a mystery special guest!)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:30, £10

Coffee making, spelling and excellent housekeeping skills required.

www.cftrust.org.uk

Thu 22 Jul The Thursday Show (With Erin Judge, James Dowdeswell, Patrick Rolink and Chris Henry.

Hosted by Scott Agnew.)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Doors open 7:30.

Fri 23 Jul

Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service (With Raymond Mearns, Teddy and John Aggasild)

The Friday Show (With Erin Judge, James Dowdeswell, Patrick Rolink and Chris Henry.

Hosted by Scott Agnew.)

Sunday night comedy hosted by Michael Redmond.

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers.

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–22:34, £5 (£4/£1)

The Saturday Show (With Erin Judge, James Dowdeswell, Patrick Rolink and Chris Henry.

Hosted by Scott Agnew)

The Stand, Glasgow, 20:30–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Apply in person by 31 July 2010 to Lesley Moses at 16 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2JU sublimehairdesign.co.uk

July 2010

THE SKINNY 69

t

Local Takeover

How the locals party all year round

Hostage [Nightshifter]

Anarkid [Axis] Bargain Harold & i-Tallah Disco [Sick Note/This Is Music]

Ambient amusements from Gamma Ray’s Freaky Brides and ECA Performance Costume

Wednesday 11th August Assembly @ Princes St Gardens 11.30pm - 3am, £7+bf / £9 on the door Tickets: www.assemblyfestival.com 70 THE SKINNY JULY 2010

PRIZES!

COMPETITIONS

WEALTH BEYOND MEASURE

The Skinny on tour!

So, this world domination thing has gone quite well so far. Having welcomed a victorious Rosamund back from Barcelona (well done to those of you that guessed last month’s Skinny On Tour poser correctly), we dispatched our music editor Dave to another exotic land, where he proceeded to re-enact, to the last detail, the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Except with copies of the Skinny instead of arms.

To enter, if you can guess the country in which Dave has been whispering seductively to the locals about stuff like Silver Columns, old metal and other such delights, we’ll give one lucky reader a special festival pack from Cosy Camper, which includes a four person tent, two sleeping bags, a double airbed, a lantern, a pair of wellies and three pairs of knee-length socks.

With the festival season well underway, Cosy Campers should already be a familiar site to UK festival goers. Specialising in fun and practical festival equipment and clothing, Cosy Camper are based on the ground floor of Buchanan Galleries shopping centre in Glasgow. They also offer a pay and collect service, where you can pick up your gear onsite rather than lug it around on the way there. For more information, visit www.cosycamper.co.uk.

closing date: 25 juLY

Going on holiday? Take a Skinny, photograph it enjoying the sights, send us the evidence and you’ll be in the running for publication in the magazine, as well as a super-secret prize. Send pics to competitions@theskinny.co.uk

Terms and Conditions: Visit www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions for details.

Visit www.theskinny.co.uk/terms for details.

WIN AN EDGE FESTIVAL 2010 PACK!

The Amnesty International Stand Up for Freedom!

As Edinburgh gears up for another bumper summer of music, comedy, dance and theatre, this year’s Edge Festival (5 – 31 August) features a host of #1 artists and marks more than a decade of dedicated popular music programming at the Edinburgh Festival.

Chart-topping acts like Dizzee Rascal and Plan B are joined by cult and indie favourites Eels, Modest Mouse, Beirut, Phoenix, Hallo Gallo!, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, The Divine Comedy, The Coral and much more, as well as a raft of homegrown talent that includes The Phantom Band, Steve Mason, Colin McIntyre (aka Mull Historical Society) and We Were Promised Jetpacks.

Amnesty International’s famed Stand Up For Freedom comedy show is bigger than ever this year with more acts, more punters and even more laughs. Featuring 2009 Edinburgh Comedy awardwinner Tim Key, Mark Watson, John Bishop, Josie Long, Dan Antopolski, Danielle Ward and more top names to be announced, it has to be one of the strongest line-ups of the Fringe.

The Skinny have teamed up with the Edge Festival to offer one lucky reader an exclusive Edge Festival Package: a pair of tickets to see Dizzee Rascal, The Phantom Band, Eli Paperboy Reed and Phoenix.

Stand Up for Freedom is on at a new, earlier time of 10pm on Thursday 19 August at Venue 150 at the EICC. Tickets are £14 each from www.venue150.com (tel. 0844 8471639) but The Skinny has a pair to give away to one reader.

For full line-up details and tickets, visit www.theedgefestival.com or call 08444 999 990

To enter just answer this question : Dizzee Rascal’s monster summer hit of last year, Bonkers, was produced by which DJ? Visit theskinny.co.uk/competition before 25 July for your chance to win!

Ts & Cs: Visit www.theskinny.co.uk/terms for details. Entrants must be 18 or over. Prize is non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash.

The promoter and the venues reserve the right to refuse admission.

Amnesty’s focus is on celebrating freedom of expression at the festival and campaigning for people around the world whose free speech is denied. This year we’re campaigning for Zarganar, Burma’s top comedian, who is serving a 35-year jail sentence for speaking out against the government.

To enter just answer this question : What is the name of Amnesty International’s legendary comedy gala that first united the Monty Python & Beyond the Fringe teams, and returned to the Royal Albert Hall in 2008?

-THE SECRET POLICEMAN’S BALL -THE TORTURER’S TEA PARTY -THE HANGMAN’S HOOTENANNY Visit theskinny.co.uk/competition before 25 July for your chance to win!

Ts & Cs: Visit www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions for details.

July 2010

THE SKINNY 71