The Skinny September 2010

.CO.UK

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ISSUE 60 • SEPTEMBER 2010

Music Like A Vitamin Scottish bands unite Interviews:

• ALAN MOORE • BLACK MOUNTAIN • MANIC STREET PREACHERS • DAVID SHRIGLEY • MOGWAI

Plus:

• STEVE MASON reviews the singles • THE VASELINES reveal Sex With An X • DIVORCE take on COMANECHI • NINJA TUNE turns 20

MUSIC|FILM|CLUBS|PERFORMANCE|DIGITAL|READING|COMEDY|ART|FASHION|LISTINGS

2 THE SKINNY July 2010

Research shows that people who do some regular exercise are likely to have more/better sex than people who do none.* Ride a bike to work sometimes see what happens :) *Don’t believe us? Have a quick look on the internet.

www.thebikestation.org.uk Registered as Recycle to Cycle Ltd, a charitable company limited by guarantee.

Registered in Edinburgh undernumber 237798. Scottish charity number SC033703.

by arrangement with Primary Talent International

special Guests

dave rawlings MACHINE

SunDAY 12th SEPTEMBER 230 0333 O2 ABCGlasgow 0871 www.ARTISTTICKETS.com

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PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS FRI 17 SEPT SAT 18 SEPT O2 ABC EDINBURGH GLASGOW LIQUID ROOMS

NELL BRYDEN

special guest

Philip Selway

GLASGOW

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WED 20 THE RENFREW FERRY - "DRINKIN" THUR 21 THE GRAND OLE OPRY - "CHEATIN" FRI 22 ORAN MOR - "KILLIN" SAT 23 THE CLASSIC GRAND - "HELL" AN

D ST CE JU UN NO

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Lloyd Cole

FEATURING

Lloyd Cole - Banjo, Guitar Mark Schwaber - Mandolin, Guitar Matt Cullen - Banjo, Guitar

Glasgow Old Fruitmarket Tues 26 Oct

www.lloydcole.com 0871 220 0260 www.seetickets.com

Sat 16th October 02 ABC2 Glasgow

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Wes Kingston has been a photographer for over 15 years. Based in Glasgow, he is inspired by the changing and challenging environments of this industrial city, his travels and the diverse range of artists contained within SWG3 from graffiti artiststo screen printers, musicians and sculptors. This collective group inspires him to continually challenge himself and his profession.

Recently Wes's work has seen him create documentary pieces for charitable organizations in South

SAT 9TH OCT O2 ABC2 GLASGOW FRI 15TH OCT LIQUID ROOMS EDIN. 0871 220 0260 www.seetickets.com

Wed 6th Oct Glasgow Mono

their new album, and Aidan Moffat has taken the time to share his memories of life in and after Arab Strap.

In Art we’ve got David Shrigley exclusively revealing what pen he uses to a somewhat starstruck interviewer; revelations include the fact that he didn’t invent crap drawing. In Clubs, we talk to Ninja Tune’s Matt Black about their 20th birthday and new box set, while in Film we look forward to festival-with-aconscience Take One Action Film Festival.

All this, and much more besides, naturally. We are generous on our birthday.[Rosamund West]

EMMA POLLOCK AND ROD JONES BROUGHT TOGETHER A STELLAR CAST OF SCOTTISH TALENT TO COLLABORATE AND MAKE AN ALBUM IN A MERE TWO WEEKS, AND WE’VE GOT THE INSIDE STORY Africa and across Scotland and, conversely, become involved in the world of high-end international fashion.

Wes continues to exhibit around the UK. He says: “Just remember, if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.”

THE SKINNY September 2010 Issue 60, September 2010 © Radge Media Ltd.

Small Ensemble

plus special guests

Seeing as this is The Skinny’s 60th issue (Happy Birthday to us!), we briefly considered theming it around all things pensioner.

Interviews with aging rockstars? Recommendations of books to read on a cruise? Tips for the determined silver clubber?

Then we decided that would probably be weird, and instead did our usual thing of producing a magazine positively hoaching with interviews and features on things that are genuinely exciting from across the cultural spectrum.

This month’s cover stars, Rod Jones and Emma Pollock, allowed us exclusive access to the making of First Edition, their contribution to the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival. They brought together a stellar cast of Scottish talent to collaborate and make an album in a mere two weeks, and we’ve got the inside story.

Turn to Music for an in depth interview with writer and visionary Alan Moore (of Watchmen fame amongst much else) as he unveils his new musical spoken word project with Doseone, Stuart Braithwaite and many more in the mix. Speaking of whom, we have an exclusive chat with Mogwai, Manic Street Preachers and Black Mountain, plus Steve Mason reviewing the month’s singles. What else? The Vaselines’ Eugene Kelly talks us through

This Month's cover photographer: Wes Kingston

O2 ACADEMY

AN

The

Editorial

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

DVD Editor

Keir Roper-Caldbeck

Heads Up Editor

Anna Docherty

Comedy Editor

Lizzie Cass-Maran

Reading Editor

Keir Hind

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.

Digital Editor

Alex Cole

Art Editor

Andrew Cattanach

Printed by Mortons Print Limited, Horncastle ABC verified Jul 2009 - Dec 2009: 34,329

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.

E: sales@theskinny.co.uk

Food & Drink Editor

Ruth Marsh

Competitions Editor

Ray Philp

Fashion Editor

Alexandra Fiddes

Listings/Cyberzap Editor Anna Docherty

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MOGWAI

MON 21ST FEB 2011

EDINBURGH PICTURE HOUSE

0871 220 0260 www.seetickets.com www.mogwai.co.uk 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 SEPTEMBER 2010

Production Production Manager

David Lemm

Designer

Lewis MacDonald

Chief Subeditor

Paul Mitchell

Sales/Accounts Head of Sales & Marketing Lara Moloney Advertising Sales Execs

Jan Webster & Lucy Watters

Publisher

Sophie Kyle

Contents

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

Feature

+ HAIGHT-ASHBURY

Music Like A Vitamin

GLASGOW ORAN MOR

»8

6 8 12 16 18 20 22 24 26 30 33 34 36 56 61 71

WEDNESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER

EDINBURGH BONGO CLUB

Wednesday 15th September

Heads Up A one stop look at what's on offer in our cultural melting pot this month.

GLASGOW ORAN MOR

Feature

Friday 24th September

Rod Jones and Emma Pollock exclusively introduce the inaugural collaborative album from the creative minds behind Music Like a Vitamin, with a little help from their friends.

WED 29TH SEPT

Les Garcons de Glasgow launch a t-shirt range, and Dundee gets crafty

Eat your way round Glasgow with the Gourmet Glasgow Festival.

AND BAND

EDINBURGH BONGO CLUB

Fashion Food & Drink

+ THE BOY WHO TRAPPED THE SUN

GLASGOW ORAN MOR plus guests

THU 30TH SEPT www.fyfedangerfield.com The album ‘Fly Yellow Moon’ featuring the hit single ‘Shes Always A Woman’ Out Now.

Showcase Our pick of the Edinburgh degree show, Liana Moran investigates the relationship between technology and humanity.

Digital Will the net stay neutral? Looking to an uncertain future.

Reading

We had the chat with Kevin McNeill about A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde.

Deviance International sexuality, with repression in America and Pride in Vilnius.

Film Take One Action Film Festival presents films with a global awareness.

GLASGOW GARAGE SATURDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER WWW.GETCAPEWEARCAPEFLY.COM NEW ALBUM ‘GET CAPE WEAR CAPE FLY’ OUT 13TH SEPTEMBER

LITTLE DRAGON GLASGOW SUBCLUB

TUESDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

(OF SIGUR RÓS)

+ MOUNTAIN MAN

O 2 ACADEMY GLASGOW SUNDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER

The Album ‘Go’ – out now. www.jonsi.com

Performance Scottish Ballet lets the New World in with their autumn programme.

Comedy How to avoid getting your jokes stolen on Twitter.

Art Hilarious illustrator David Shrigley tells us about his book.

Music

THE RUNAWAY TOUR

Iconic literary heavyweight Alan Moore introduces his spoken word project, Steve Mason reviews the singles, Aidan Moffat recalls Arab Strap, plus we also bring you interviews with the Manics, Black Mountain and many more.

Clubs

Ninja Tune turns 20, and Ray Philp has an appointment with a BumBumBox.

Listings Your comprehensive listings guide for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.5

Competitions Win stuff! Good stuff! Trainers, a trip to London or over £1000 worth of music equipment take your fancy?

+ DANNY AND THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD

+ THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS + MOJO FURY

PLEASE NOTE: RESCHEDUELD DATE - ORIGINAL TICKETS STILL VALID

Glasgow - Oran Mor

O2 ABC GLASGOW Wednesday 29th September

Sunday 19th September ‘SELF PRESERVED WHILE THE BODIES FLOAT UP’ OUT 6th SEPTEMBER 2010 ON SUPERBALL MUSIC www.myspace.com/oceansizeuk www.northernmusic.co.uk www.omerch.com

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

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

September 2010

THE SKINNY 5

LIFESTYLE

HEADS YOUR

UP MONTH AHEAD

FREE!

TUE, 31 AUG

WED, 1 SEP

MIAOUX MIAOUX have charmed us with their Knitted single, plinky plonky electronic pop presented in pouches hand-knitted by a group of ladies from Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres.

You can get your hands on one at the single launch. Captain's Rest, Glasgow, 8.30pm, £5

Creative (and competitive) folks will rejoice in the Flying Duck's HAVE A QUACK night, an interactive evening featuring live acoustic music, a quirky quiz, open mic and a creative writing challenge. Hosted by local muso misfits Turning Plates. Flying Duck, Glasgow, 8pm, Free

WED, 8 SEP

Showing mountain biking at its most epic is HOME, and its follow-up FOUND, featuring some serious talent in stunning locations.

Director Mark Huskisson and members of the cast (including YouTube hit/nutcase Danny MacAskill) will introduce the film. GFT, Glasgow, 8.15pm, £8 (£6.50)

Pairing delicate vocals with a beastlike thrapple there is the risk that the former will be drowned out, but ISOBEL CAMPBELL and MARK LANEGAN make it sound like a match made. ABC, Glasgow, 7pm, £16

PHOTO: MIKE CLARK

MON, 13 SEP

Danny MacAskill

Over Glasgow and Edinburgh way, STEPHEN FRY will be beamed onto a big screen to give a sneak preview of his new autobiography. Yeah, so it's not quite an in-the-flesh experience, but at least it's on a big screen. GFT, Glasgow (7.15pm) and Cameo, Edinburgh (7:30pm), both £12.50

SAT, 18 SEP

SUN, 19 SEP

We're kinda more your car boot sale looters, to be honest, but we do rather like the AFFORDABLE VINTAGE FAIR. Set up by former Selfridges stylist Judy Berger, it's an eclectic affair with over 40 stalls full of trinkets, tweeds, teddy girl jumpers, 80s jumpsuits, and vintage Barbours. George Street Parish Church, Edinburgh, 11am, £2

If you're going to make it in hip-hop, it takes discipline and a dedication to the craft. Few have either of those in bigger bundles than SAGE FRANCIS. Bow down.

Stereo, Glasgow, 7pm, £11

A collection of local indie folksters pay homage to not-solocal indie folkster, SUFJAN STEVENS, down at Glasgow's haven of cool, Stereo.

On the bill so far are Julia & The Doogans, Open Swimmer, and Esperi. Stereo, Glasgow, 8pm, £4

6 THE SKINNY SEPTEMBER 2010

THU, 2 SEP September's CRYPTIC NIGHTS is a unique sonic collaboration between composer Anna Meredith and cellist Oliver Coates (who's worked with Boards of Canada and Massive Attack), backed by artist and filmmaker Eleanor Meredith's visual oddities. CCA, Glasgow, 8pm, £5

Julien and the knitters

TUE, 7 SEP

WED, 22 SEP

PHOTO: DENNY RENSHAW

COMPILED BY: ANNA DOCHERTY

TUE, 14 SEP Indebted to the heady sound of 70s psych, BLACK MOUNTAIN play tracks from brand new album Wilderness Heart. It's rather bloody good. And it's got a shark on the cover. Comes with stellar support from fellow Vancouverites Ladyhawk. Òran Mór, Glasgow, 7pm, £11

THU, 23 SEP

FRI, 24 SEP

COMANECHI are screechy, clattering and inky-black at their core, and sharing the bill will be Divorce, with whom they have just released a new split 10-inch EP. And they like screaming. A lot. Ouch. Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh, 7pm, £5

Fence Records host their very first AWAY GAME on the remote island of Eigg (home to just 70 folk, a lot of sheep, and a big bastard bull called Dougal). Alas, it's a pretty exclusive affair, with King Creosote, Malcolm Middleton, and The Pictish Trail et al. playing to just 150 lucky ticket holders. Eigg island, Inner Hebrides, until 26 Sep

PHOTO: KATE MOROSS

E igg

LIFESTYLE

Music festival season continues in a green field near you, and EDEN FESTIVAL is first on September's hit-list.

Taking up the headline slots are Gil Scott Heron, Roots Manuva, and Zero 7, plus local talent from the likes of Banana Sessions and Horndog Brass Band. Raehills Meadows, Moffat, until 5 Sep, weekend ticket £75.90

SAT, 4 SEP Apparently traveLling in on 'a musical spaceship of dopeness', Boston dance duo Soul Clap drop by to give SUBCULTURE a glimpse of the future (i.e. spacey, sample-centred house). Sub Club, Glasgow, 11pm, £10

PHOTO:IAN ROOK

PHOTO:MISCHA RICHTER

FRI, 3 SEP

THU, 9 SEP Still playing angsty punk and rocking out like a band of teenagers, THE BUZZCOCKS really should know better. Fat Sams, Dundee, 8pm, £16 (they also play Edinburgh's Liquid Rooms the following evening)

SUN, 5 SEP

MON, 6 SEP

Those little-boy-lost vocals and delicate-tothundering orchestral arrangements are just so bloody lovely that when JÓNSI sings, we melt. O2 Academy, Glasgow, 7pm, £18.50

FEVER RAY (aka The Knife's Karin Dreijer Anderson) comes to Glasgow for a rare live appearance, taking the ferocious dance element of The Knife and replacing it with something much more foreboding. Think murky electro-folk with a blackened pebble for a heart.

ABC, Glasgow, 7pm, £18.50

SAT, 11 SEP

SUN, 12 SEP

The Granny Would Be Proud craft gang continue their quest for world domination with the introduction of a new club night, GRANNY WOULD BE LOUD! It's essentially a village-fete-cum-clubbers'-delight, with ice cream sundaes, retro pop from Jamie Yates, food stalls, and free corsages for the ladies. We're sold. Glasgow Union (theatre hall), Glasgow, 9pm, £6

Sundays and decadent 1920s-themed house parties fit together perfectly, and GHILLIE DHU's has enough burly dancers, cabaret dollybirds, vintage stalls, and tea cakes to keep us out of mischief. Ghillie Dhu, Edinburgh, 4pm, £tbc

FRI, 10 SEP Launching their new single Fortune Favours The Brave down at The Caves, COME ON GANG know how to win favour – they're handing out free handmade CDs to the first 200 guests, and then distributing the single as a free download. Good job we love their punky powerpop. The Caves, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £6

THU, 16 SEP

FRI, 17 SEP

Taking root in interviews conducted with former soldiers, Gregory Burke's elegy on the historic regiment, BLACK WATCH, moves from a pool hall in Fife, to an armoured wagon in Iraq, and home again. Powerful stuff. SECC, Glasgow, until 9 Oct, 8pm, £27.50

A moonlit meander through Glasgow's artistic and architectutal hotspots certainly presents MAGGIE'S NIGHT HIKE as an alternative to yer local techno rammy. The buildings opening their doors for the special charity evening include the Gallery of Modern Art, Trongate 103, Kibble Palace, and Maggie's Centre. £30 registration (£110 for a team of 4-6). More info at www.maggiescentres.org/nighthike

ILLUSTRATION: © SALLY PRING WWW.SALLYPRING.COM

MON, 20 SEP It's not many people that could take a squeaky little girl voice and indecipherable lyrics, and make it into something complex, rewarding, and often downright beautiful. But then, JOANNA NEWSON isn't most people. Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, 7.30, £22.50-£25

PHOTO: SARAH ROBERTS

WED, 15 SEP Scottish indie-pop progenitors THE VASELINES are well and truly back from the wilderness, playing Edinburgh's Bongo Club the day after the release of their – twenty-years-in-the-making – second album. Get excited. The Bongo Club, Edinburgh, 7pm, £12.50

TUE, 21 SEP For a chilled Tuesday night-er we have been enjoying SAY IT AIN'T SEW, Hillhead Bookclub's boozy sewing and fashion DIY club. It's basically cocktails with a side of crossstitch. Prasie be.

Hillhead Bookclub, Glasgow, 5.30pm, Free

FREE!

SAT, 25 SEP

SUN, 26 SEP

Back in the Glasshouse for a second outing this year, THE WEE CHILL is keeping its cards close to its chest. However, we can say with certainty that it'll be another impressive mix of legendary local talent and the best of the rest, with Subculture, Optimo, and Sensu stages. Save the date. Queen's Park Glasshouse, Glasgow, 12pm, £19 (earlybird)

Screening as part of TAKE ONE ACTION film festival, Three And A Half Lives of Phillip Wetu is an interactive film about an IT professional with multiple sexual partners. And there's eight possible endings, from which you decide the ultimate outcome. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, 6pm, £6.90 (£5.20)

MON, 27 SEP Seattle-born songsmith DAMIEN JURADO's comforting, lullabylike, lilt nestles down with quilted laments and gently-plucked guitar, sending us to bed with the sweetest of dreams. Arches, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £10

T hre e and a Half Lives of Phillip We tu SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 7

8 THE SKINNY September 2010

Making Music is Mental!

Rod Jones and Emma Pollock on the making of First Edition, their contribution to the forthcoming Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival Interview Paul Mitchell Photography Wes Kingston It’s early July, and the Chem19 Recording Studios in Hamilton are bearing witness to some hectic scenes.

Amidst the sound checks, photo shoots, bass riffs and (brief) coffee breaks, Idlewild’s Rod Jones is running on what seems like the last vestiges of nervous energy. He, along with Emma Pollock (formerly of The Delgados, and seemingly comparatively calm, though it is hard to tell amidst the hubbub) have set themselves one hell of a task – that of laying down an entire album in the space of a week.

This is the sort of organisational nightmare which presents itself when gathering a large crew of different musicians, each with their own timetable and career to consider, together in a room at the same time.

The album in question, First Edition, was written in its entirety under similarly hastened conditions, with Jones, Pollock and seven other hardies decamping to Perthshire for a few days in the winter with copious amounts of snow, boardgames and fruit wine for company. But the mayhem exists in good faith.

"You’re not going to stop people from suffering from depression or necessarily change their mindset but you can educate them about what to do when it does occur" Rod Jones

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival fast approaches and Jones and Pollock have been involved with that for three years now, curating music events, and collaborating with performers under the cooperative banner Music Like A Vitamin.

This year, (with the Festival running from 1-24 Oct) the collective features again, but Jones’s plans are growing ever more aspirational, as he explains whilst tripping over yet another amp: “Outside of the festival, there’s all this dead time where people have forgotten all that’s been done, so we wanted something sustainable and an album seemed like a good idea. We were going to do a covers record but instead, as a way around having to worry about royalties and other issues, we thought, ‘Why don’t we just write the music and then we’ll own it’?”

And so, it came to pass. “We got nine musicians we wanted to be involved and booked time in a house in Perthshire to just write with each other and see what would happen,” says Rod. [The group also comprises Twilight Sad vocalist James Graham, Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison, Jill O’Sullivan from Glasgow-based dark folk trio Sparrow and the Workshop, singer-songwriter Karine Polwart, multi-instrumentalist Jenny Reeve, and ‘folk-experimentalists’ Alasdair Roberts and James Yorkston; phew!] “And we paired off, two different matches a day, or three if people were fast. I’d say something like ‘Right, this morning Emma you’re going to work with James Yorkston and in the afternoon it will be with Scott and you’ve got that amount of time to come up with something.” Two tracks from First Edition will be available for download in September. The record will be available in CD format when the artists perform during the Festival with the album available for download in its entirety immediately following the Festival’s end.

Jones and Pollock (along with a funding specialist and members of the Mental Health Foundation, with support from Scottish Wave of Change for 2010) have gone so far as to establish their own organisation, Fruit Tree, for the purpose of financing and managing the project. Pollock is effusive in her praise for the contributions of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, but particularly those from a music scene. “There are a lot of people who have been extremely generous with their time to make this happen. The music industry in Scotland is full of disparate people, small companies, it’s a

Karine Polwart Why did you agree to take part?

I was attracted to the issues because I think the whole festival and this spin-off part of it is really well-conceived. There’s a lot of this stuff happening on the Scottish music scene. People you would never normally expect to have crossed paths at all are working alongside each other, and really enjoying it. I think that’s all for the better as it makes people push themselves a wee bit and work outside their box. Not just people from different musical backgrounds but people from different artistic disciplines. I think that’s great.

The points are made through the quality of the stuff rather than preaching. Nobody wants to be told what to think and nobody wants a lecture on an issue as sensitive as mental health, but there’s actually no need for that. The most powerful way to affect people is through film or music or theatre or literature. It’s also very cool.

A lot of awareness raising stuff is quite stuffy but there are people across all age groups taking part and attending this festival. There are very few things you can say that about.

Jill O’Sullivan & Alasdair Roberts Did you give much thought to the theme of childhood?

A: I was conscious of it because Rod and I had a chat about it. So we set out to do a song that could be perhaps about childhood. I think we’re calling it Dead Leaves and a Swollen Leg, about climbing a tree or something.

Did you enjoy the writing process?

J: It’s not often that as a song writer – well you do some collaborations – but I’ve never done anything like this. I write with my band and that’s it. I generally take over the first part of the song writing and then the boys help me out once it starts to take shape. For me it was a really big challenge and I was really nervous about going in and having to work in a new way, to share lyrics.

A: I tend, when I’m writing, to get into this three chords pattern; what I do is a lot of finger picking so that adds to the complexity of it.

But in terms of chords, it’s always quite simple.

Emma for example uses a lot of weird chords and I’d have liked to have done something like that.

Middle row: James Yorkston, Jenny Reeve, Alasdair Roberts Bottom row: Scott Hutchison, Karine Polwart, James Graham

r

w h m m o p t t

w

r t o

t t m t w t t d f i w b i a b a

s f

w N m a t c v t u w

James Yorkston

Top row: Emma Pollock, Rod Jones, Jill O'Sullivan

w w o n w t t j p g

How did you feel about locking yourself away with these guys for a week?

It was fun. We drank quite a lot, unsurprisingly. It was interesting seeing the others cook and such – I had the most varied diet of the entire household. James from Twilight Sad made mugs of soup where the sole ingredients were hot water and tomato ketchup while Emma Pollock only ever ate peas and grapes – which took me by surprise somewhat. It was like an episode of Freaky Eaters crossed with Jools Holland and Big Brother.

Did you tend to approach the suggested theme of childhood literally or give it a more ‘creative’ interpretation?

Eventually, I ignored the theme completely.

At one point it was suggested we had to get in something about the Olympic games as they’d funded our food budget or something bizarre. So we tried writing a song about Daley Thompson but I couldn’t find anything suitable that rhymed with ‘decathlon maestro’. Maybe I’ll think of something in time for the next Olympics after this.

t b b t p a a m a e

c

c p L s

s

September 2010

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SCÈNES DE BALLET FREDERICK ASHTON NEW WORK VAL CANIPAROLI FEARFUL SYMMETRIES ASHLEY PAGE 3 DISTINCTIVE PIECES 3 GROUNDBREAKING CHOREOGRAPHERS 36 PHENOMENAL DANCERS ‘THE AUDIENCE IS SURE TO BE DAZZLED BY ITS CUT-GLASS GEOMETRY.’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ON SCÈNES DE BALLET

‘COMPELLING STUFF. IT MAKES FOR A GREAT NIGHT OUT.’ SUNDAY EXPRESS ON FEARFUL SYMMETRIES

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10 THE SKINNY September 2010

Emma Pollock on the relationship between the arts and mental health The arts, with regards to mental health (whether it be positive or negative) are absolutely crucial. It is through the arts that people tend to show their character, who they are and why they’re different to the next person that they sit beside when they go to work every day. Your choice in the Arts as a consumer or a creator becomes a defining feature of who you are. And so whilst it’s difficult to quantify the benefit of a music industry or a visual arts industry or whatever, it is still absolutely vital that they exist.

So, as in this case, to have a bunch of musicians coming together to try and create awareness makes complete sense. None of us are necessarily wanting to sit down and talk in detail about the subject itself because we’re not, well I’m not,

James Graham Are you happy to have taken part in this process?

To be honest when I agreed to it, and as soon as I thought about it, I was like “I’ve never written with anybody before in my life,” apart from Andy who’s in the band. It was nerve-wracking but it’s also rare to get the opportunity to write with some of your favourite people and bands that you’re friends with. And it was a good opportunity to go up to Perth for a weekend… and drink a lot of weird fruit wine. I actually surprised myself that I could actually write with somebody else and do it so quickly; usually I take about a month to even be arsed writing.

Jenny Reeve Why did you sign up for this?

Rod asked me and I had no problem agreeing straight away, but also I loved the idea of going away for a few days.

How did you find the collaboration process?

It was the first time I’ve actually sat down and written a song from scratch with somebody else. Normally if I am working with other people the material is nearly always already written and I’m just adding parts to that material. Rod did give us a loose theme to consider when we were writing, which was childhood, but I’m not sure anyone stuck to that brief very literally. My understanding is that this is the theme of the festival as a whole and they were giving us that as a starting point but I don’t think the vibe was one where we felt forced to stick to that theme.

really wide and varied collection of sole-traders and people who just work on their own. When it’s a cause like this, where we hope the long-term benefits of the project will be to aid knowledge of the foundation and its work, it can have the effect of making people more willing to embrace the idea of working with other people, which can be really daunting.”

Jones explains why, despite his extensive commitments elsewhere, he’s been devoting so much time and energy to the whole thing. “The idea was to promote organisations like the Scottish Mental Health Foundation and also Breathing Space who have helped me in the past.” He’s also identified a cause of specific concern. “I have a bee in my bonnet about mental health education and think that’s one thing we don’t concentrate on enough in this country. We have physical education; and sex education which is invaluable but doesn’t teach people how to deal with the emotional side of relationships, which is one of the biggest causes of depression as I’m sure everybody knows. You’re not going to stop people from suffering from depression or necessarily change their mindset but you can educate them about what to do when it does occur. The fact is it does happen to everybody and it’s not something you should be embarrassed about. So we’re trying to help petition for an education system where mental health is being looked at.”

So is music an effective or appropriate way of conveying or publicising such matters? “Almost any song that’s ever been written has got a relationship to your mindset because a song is an expression of yourself,” says Jones. How, specifically, does he see this project playing a role in changing attitudes to mental health issues? “I think when people come to these gigs and see acts they respect and admire like Frightened Rabbit and Emma and James – it’s a fairly big cross-section of audiences – openly saying ‘Well, I’ve suffered from this,’ it does help to remove that aura of shame.” Laughing, he continues: “I’m not saying it necessarily makes it cool.

There are an increasing number of people who’ve been to these gigs as groups of friends and are now starting to, within that group, feel like it’s alright to talk about it. I feel the knock-on effect from the festivals before has been massive. Hopefully the album will help us create as much traffic to these corresponding sites as possible and find out about all these resources.”

Jones readily admits his ambitions don’t stop with this specific project, with ideas for taking the concept to an ever wider audience. “I want to keep growing. We’re presenting it through the festival but really it’s a separate entity. So next year, hopefully, we’ll go national, rather than just Scotland. Then, my aim is to be international the following year. We thought it was ambitious this year but we’ve pulled it off. I think if we can show that we’ve done it and that it’s worked, it will be easier to develop from there. I’m ever the optimist. For the third year, I want Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith to be involved.

That’s my plan.” Emma interjects. “Springsteen? Well, I suppose when he reads this article he won’t be able to refuse.” The Boss has been put on notice.

Music Like a Vitamin takes place at HMV Picture House on 1 Oct and O2 ABC on 2 Oct The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival takes place from 1-24 Oct www.mhfestival.com

qualified to do that. I’ve had experience with my own mental stability (I suffered from post-natal depression) and a lot of women have had that. An awful lot of people will experience a challenge in that area in their life.

Unfortunately, it still has a stigma about it, particularly in Scotland, even though it’s incredibly common. It’s also very prevailing with people who are involved in the arts because there is a dalliance with exploring what makes you tick.

It tempts questions, doubt, self-effacement and all these things that you generally have to get involved with because the whole point of being an artist, whether you’re doing films or music or writing or anything is to try to pull something out of yourself to turn into something unique.

The motivation for wanting to do that is usually the feeling of a need for correction of some kind, but that need for correction can sometimes lead to dissatisfaction with your own situation.

There’s been a lot of research into the area, and it’s not something I would pretend to even know enough about; but I do know that the whole existence of the arts, whether it be vocation, part-time or a hobby, is fundamentally about who we are as people. Its marriage with mental health is unavoidable.[Emma Pollock]

Aidan Moffat You’ve done the artwork for the album.

Did you adopt a specific theme?

I haven’t heard the album or any of the music either but I have been reliably informed that there’s a certain sort of folky, rustic quality to it so we went for some pictures of Scottish scenery and the front is a picture of a seal keeping his head above the water. There’s actually a theme to them all, running through it but I’ll leave that for other people to work out – even though it’s pretty obvious. I’m not going to patronise anyone by explaining what it means.

Why didn’t you join in the music making side?

Well, I wasn’t asked, but I’m quite busy, so it’s quite alright. www.mhfestival.com

Scott Hutchison How was the drinking session in Perth?

Is that what they called it? Hmmm....yeah.

There was also some songwriting done... but...

It’s funny, it was one of those things whereby I really only knew Rod and James Graham before and I think the biggest reason for the drinking on the part of everyone was just nerves.

Was the intense writing process a challenge?

I’ve never written with anyone else ever.

Sometimes the songwriting doesn’t work with your own pals, so to try and make it work in a day with someone you met that morning was daunting. But it’s a healthy thing to forgo a lot of your feelings about how songwriting should be done. You come up with something that you would never have written yourself and there’s a lot to be learned from the way other people do things.

I felt like a bit of a youngster at times just following people’s leads because in my own band, it’s like me that’s generally ‘in charge’ but here that was taken away and I think that’s quite healthy. I’ve been thinking for a while about getting other people involved in the process of writing in my own band and this made me realise that I don’t always know best (laughs). I knew it already but I was unwilling to accept it.

September 2010

THE SKINNY 11

FASHION

Craft Gets its Groove On! Dundee Jamboree with N_ilk Dundee Botanic Gardens 11 Sep, 3.30-10pm

Lovers of all things crafty are in for a treat this month with a one off collaboration of crafts and live music at the Dundee Botanic Gardens. Run

by N_ilk this micro-festival ensures you can peruse the latest creations by Dundee’s finest artists, courtesy of the Dundee Jamboree, while enjoying some laid-back beats.

The glasshouse in the Dundee Botanics will be transformed into a haven of vintage lifestyle accessories and crafty homewares within the green leaves; if the weather’s nice they might even move things outside! Mingle with artists, designers and makers as you search through handmade fashion accessories and textiles to find something truly unique, while the live music provides the soundtrack to your day.

The urban craft movement has been gathering momentum for the last few years encouraging us to swap our spending for mending and our consuming for creating. The Dundee Jamboree is run by Jen Collins, Nikki McWilliams and Lauren Gentry. This tremendous trio are bringing the traditional craft fair to a whole new level by staging special events that are contemporary, relaxed and give the creative community of Dundee a chance to get involved, enjoy themselves, and sell their work.

The festival, which takes place on 11 September from 3.30-10pm, is filled with our favourite independent designers Rosie Barthram, Hilary Grant and the fabulous Tights For Sore Eyes. There’ll also be an acoustic stage with ambient and electronic tunes by Loops Haunt, Noiserv, Esperi, The Village Orchestra, Point to C & Jo Foster. [Frances Spencer]

Interactive media design graduate and crafter extraordinaire Rosie Barthram's hand made pieces include embroidered coin purses.

www.myspace.com/naeilk www.ioftenwonder.co.uk-Rosie Barthram www.thingsilikethingsido.blogspot.com Hilary Grant www.dundee-jamboree.blogspot.com

Illustration work by Hilary Grant illustrator, designer and textile artist.

Tongue in cheek fashion for legs designed and hand screen-printed by cousins Danni and Nikki McWilliams.

12 THE SKINNY September 2010

Regular Skinny readers will be no strangers to the phenomenal online talent that is Les Garcons De Glasgow. A street style blog with a difference, the focus is usually on celebrating the unsung, everyday fashion heroes of Scotland. Despite this, Les Garcons has expanded and developed into a brand of its own, with new T shirt ranges, club nights and collaborative events all in the pipeline. As founders Jonathan Pryce and Daniel Stern note, now there are more ways than ever to get your Les Garcons fix offline and in the flesh.

To celebrate Beanscene’s 10th birthday in October, there will be an exhibition of photography from Les Garcons in-store, documenting the looks of stylish Glasgow locals along with a launch party showcasing a limited edition range of new Les Garcons t-shirts as well as their photography. More details are emerging on the blog day by day about the event, but it has been confirmed as taking place in the last weekend of September, on Saturday 25th, so check for details.

If previous events are anything to go by (most recently Offline in Stereo, Renfield Street, where party goers uploaded playlists and song suggestions to the DJs, staying true to the interactive spirit of the blog, and also a hugely successful Urban Outfitters street style exhibition, complete with after-party), it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the offline presence of Les Garcons is fast becoming an undeniable feature of the Glasgow party scene and is now more than a street style blog alone. What is especially impressive about the way they are growing, however, is their desire to take us all along for the ride. [Emma Segal] T-shirts are £25 each and can be bought from LeGarconDesigns.bigcartel.com Bold souls: glasgow restyle community, stereo, 25 sep.

11am - 4.30pm. £12 www.lesgarconsdeglasgow.com

Photographer Jonathan Pryce

September 2010

THE SKINNY 13

FASHION

Les Garcons Designs

FASHION

T H E

Dresses by Little Sister

Work by Four & Plenty, Debbie Greenaway, Funky Frilly

Cushions by Angharad Jefferson, cloud mobile by Debbie Greenaway, cake stand by Funky Frilly

The Spider and The Fly Text Nikki McWilliams Photography Lisa Aaron As well as being a haven for eclectic design and handmade treasures made by UK based independent designer artists, Bread Street’s newly opened gallery and retail space The Spider and the Fly is set to hold a whole host of workshops and gatherings in the coming months.

Kirsty Anderson of Wooden Tree will lead a Teacosy Workshop, where she’ll help you realise your own teacosy dreams. Bring along yourself and your ideas between 6pm and 9pm on Tuesday 31 August and leave with the essential accessory for Tea Jennies everywhere!

Pop along on the second Friday of the month for the Spider and the Fly’s Craft Tea from 6pm until 9pm for a tea party with a twist. We’re talking cake, cocktails in teapots and themed crafting making for a welcome and civilised change on a Friday night for those who have overdone it during the festival.

Then DIY to your heart’s content on the last Sunday of the month with DIY Drop-In. Either bring along your own project, or buy one of the gallery’s kits, meet some new friends and have a natter.

Check out the Magpie Market blog for details of the following workshops, with dates to be confirmed: Rework tired crockery at Tea Set Transformation:

14 THE SKINNY September 2010

bring along your own doodles and tea set (or use that provided at the workshop) to create unique and usable items for you to enjoy at tea-time for years to come.

Learn how to patch and mend old but beloved clothes with Cardi-hole Surgery and Jean-etic Design: led by Ellen Munro of The Night Owl. Lastly join NikkiMade for a drop-in badge making session: bring along your own art, photos or doodles, or use Nikki’s collection of collage materials to create your own badge designs.

As well as the many exciting goings-on at the Spider and the Fly, Magpie Market (also run by the gallery’s owner) will return to The LOT this September every second Sunday of the month. Starting on 12 September, with a changing line up of various talented designers, makers and vintage sellers setting up shop each month. There’ll be plenty to see and do with live music, drop-in crafting, workshops, and delicious Sunday brunch served in the Bistro to keep you going.

B U L C Y D E M CO Y D E M O C E LIV TS A WEEK H G I N 7

h g r u b n i d E w o g s a l G £1 R O F Y ED M O C ays d n NEW o M h: g r u b n ys a d Edi s e u :T w o g s a Gl

The Spider and The Fly 65 Bread Street Edinburgh EH3 9AH Opening hours: Tue – Sat 10-6pm, Sun 1-6pm and for full listings visit www. thespiderandtheflyedinburgh.blogspot.com magpiemarket.blogspot.com wooden-tree.blogspot.com www.nikkimcwilliams.blogspot.com www.the-lot.co.uk www.thespiderandthefly.co.uk

www.thestand.co.uk

The Skinny Film Editor

Are you looking to get your toe in the film journalism door?

Are you mad about film, able to find interest in everything from commercial to classic to the obscurest of art house? Can you write? If the answers to these questions are all yes, we want to hear from you. We're looking for a new Film Editor, because Gail is sadly moving on.

The responsibilities include:

d Coming up with ideas for content based on schedule of new releases and events d Commissioning reviews, features and event previews from new and existing writers d Representing The Skinny to PR and industry contacts d Liaising with the Editor and being nice to other Section Editors at monthly meetings More information will be supplied on application.

This is a voluntary position.

Please send your CV and some examples of your writing to jobs@theskinny.co.uk by 17 September, or check out www.theskinny.co.uk/jobs for more info.

Distilled in a revered 200 year old Scottish copper pot still Edinburgh Gin is a small batch, big juniper gin with a particularly Scottish twist …softer, less pungent Scottish juniper, as well as heather, pine and milk thistle.

Bottled in Edinburgh at 43% ABV.

www.spencerfieldspirit.com/EdinburghGin Tel - 01383 412 144

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 15

Lifestyle

FoodPOSH NOSH AND CHEAP EATS

& Drink

Pie In The Sky vs Great Food On The Ground Can The Skinny's stomach take a series of challenges – dining in the sky and a gourmet crawl (crawl being the operative word) around Glasgow?

Text Jen Davies Illustration Sarah Tanat-Jones August’s Festival In The Sky saw diners getting winched 100 feet into the sky (while strapped into a rollercoaster seat) to be fed by some of Scotland’s top chefs and returned to earth with a bump and wallets up to £62 lighter. When The Skinny braved the press preview (hacks being obviously more disposable than punters) the food was well thought out (a platter of locally sourced salmon, cheeses etc that was light on potentially queasy stomachs) and were whooped up into the air by our baseball-hatted Sky Hosts (smacking a little of Hen Night). It’s a genuine once-in-a-lifetime thing but, for a whole lot less, great food can be yours without the gimmicks.

The Gourmet Glasgow Festival (until 17 September) gives you access to top-notch fare in some of Glasgow’s most popular restaurants for a whole lot less than you’d pay outside the festival. It has events, taster menus, special offers and sometimes a free bottle of wine thrown in for good measure. Gourmet Glasgow is now in its second year and boasts 45 participating restaurants, all members of the Glasgow Restauranteurs Association. Ryan, the chap who runs the GRA, took a friend and I on a whistle-stop tour of six of them – for one meal, with one course in each.

Now, no doubt this was a carefully planned itinerary, with restaurants chosen for courses which reflect what they do best and we were plied with wine and given some really great food. I’m not averse to a perk but this was getting pretty close to bribery. Naturally, it didn’t give us a true picture of any of the restaurants involved but the evening did provide a very interesting window on some very interesting eateries.

Firstly we arrivedat Two Fat Ladies at the Buttery to find a glass of cold pink bubbly on the bar and some appetisers. These were plump prawns on squares of toast, asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon and some crumbly cheese and relish on tiny oatcakes. All was pretty much perfect, as would be expected from the generally impeccable Fat Ladies chain. Then on to Thali in the Merchant City for starters. With its glittery interior, explanatory paper placemats and spice laden air, this is traditional Indian food – tapas style. As we were just popping in for starters, we were served up a selection of Indian street food in silver dishes. Worth a try is Bhel Puri – a spicy puffed rice salad served with sharp cold yogurt. My friend described it as ‘like Rice Krispies – but amazing.’

Then on to Gandolfi Fish, next door to the renowned Café Gandolfi for a ‘fish course’. The chef is from Barra and we were told that both the lobster and the scallops were caught on his island, that he was very proud of them and we just had to try them. So we did. We dug sweet creamy meat from the lobster’s claws and picked its shell clean, dipping crispy twicefried chips in buttery hollandaise sauce. The scallops were plump and tasty pillows, cooked up with strips of bacon and served with broad bean puree. A glass of Galician white from the specials list was recommended and was a dry and minerally gem which went pretty much perfectly with the seafood.

Now, I’m no stranger to gluttony but from this point on it became sheer endurance.

The charming Raymond Man of Dragon-i is a man

16 THE SKINNY September 2010

with a vision. No MSG, everything cooked fresh, great Chinese classics with a Scottish seasonal twist. We were there for a main but were convinced (it didn’t take much) that a selection of the best things on the menu would be better. We begged for small portions but, with great pride, we were brought (more) fat prawns in a light champagne batter with a slice of strawberry on top – the sharp tang of the fruit complementing the seafood, black pudding spring rolls with their dark, unlikely interior showing through paper thin, crisp filo pastry and many other tiny tasty treats. Then a selection of mains, unlike the Chinese food I’m used to but all delicious. Thai Gai, chicken with apples and pinapples in a lemongrass and chilli sauce, and Lembu Serai – strips of beef served up in a salty, sharp sauce were both remarkable. This isn’t hangover-cure cheap Chinese, it’s get-someone-else-to-take-you-Chinese, and I’d recommend you find someone willing to. Sure, it’s a little pricier than some of the other Oriental restaurants in the city and the interior is a tad stark but it serves up some truly great food.

We tried to quit at this point, sure that we’d probably die if we ate any more, but were convinced to continue on to Amarone for dessert. I may have been hallucinating from too much food and wine but I could swear that the waiter whispered ‘tiramisu’ to me when he handed me a menu. Now, I’m not a tiramisu fan but I always trust a staff recommendation (imagined or not), so I ordered it, and it was delicious with boozy sponge and light creamy chocolate. My overfed accomplice’s semifreddo was a bit oversweet and I wasn’t convinced but she somehow polished off most of it. They also brought us a cheesecake and a chocolate mousse as we were just about finishing our desserts. Now, fair play to them as they knew I was writing this and being bribed with pudding is something I’m not averse to. However, the bribes weren’t really necessary – they were pretty good desserts. We managed a few spoonfuls before waddling around the corner to 29 for an unremarkable cocktail. 29 is a bit of an odd private members club (filling in a form with your job and your hobbies, attaching a photo and £150 might get you in ‘subject to approval’). Maybe I’m still too young – it is aimed at ‘individuals of 30 yrs and over’. Anyway, it wasn’t a great gin martini.

On my gourmet race around Glasgow I ate more than I ever thought possible and I haven’t eaten since (at time of writing this was the day before yesterday).

However, doing this with restaurants in full knowledge that I was writing about them gave me the chance to chat to restauranteurs about what they do and why they love what they do. I learnt how happy Thali are that they are highly rated on Trip Advisor, how much consideration goes into what’s on the specials board in Gandolfi Fish and how proud the team in Dragon-i are about what they serve. We chose nothing – we just let some of Glasgow’s great restaurants feed us – and it was, apart from one fairly average martini, a joy.

I guess this is what the festival is all about. Go eat.

Gourmet Glasgow runs until 17 Sep Go to www.graonline.co.uk for a full list of participating restaurants, events and details of how to book. Prices range from £5 for ‘Curry Madness’ in Kama Sutra to £35 in The Bothy for four courses and a ‘showcase’ of six malt whiskies

RESTAURANT REVIEWS PASSORN THAI RESTAURANT

You may not find a friendlier welcome in an Edinburgh restaurant than the one at new Thai kid on the block Passorn. Your coat is whipped off and your seat whisked out with aplomb – it’s not their fault I’m the sort of clumsy diner that takes this as a cue to get tangled up and fall on my arse. Angelic Dining is the tagline here and the mood is certainly one of friendly transcendentalism, with low lighting, murmuring loved-up couples and immaculately plated food.

I started with Bangkok cakes, Taffir-style marinated fishcakes of prawn, cod and kaffir lime leaves; what arrived were three little pucks of fresh, grease-free seafood in Panko-like breadcrumbs, all with that pleasingly squeaky texture that Thai food does so well. Across the table my dining buddy tucked into the first course of what was to be a triumvirate of deep-fried offerings. His golden Taro fritters may have looked suspiciously like lumpy McCain micro chips – and indeed were dubbed ‘potato family’ by the menu, just to give vegetarians an anthropomorphised guilt-trip – but they were sweetly earthy and mopped up the chilli-peanut dip perfectly.

He followed this with Pad Ma kauy doi krum, slices of aubergine fried in a feather-light coating of egg (those kitchen angels definitely had a hand in this one) and doused on a deeply savoury yellow bean sauce. My ‘Angel Curry’ saw generous slabs of chargrilled rare sirloin steak drenched in a so-called ‘exotic’ house curry sauce; fortunately ‘exotic’ was a bit of a naff description for a delicately spiced red sauce that delivered a endorphin-fuelling kick long after the first bite. We both dug into bowls of sticky coconut rice topped with crispy shallots, glutinous sweet pillows of starch that absorbed the complex savoury-sweet flavours perfectly.

Every morsel was cleared from each plate in lighting speed. Should I have eaten that beautifully carved

carrot rose? Probably not. Did I wolf it down? You betcha! If only all of my five a day could be so ornate.

Stuffed to bursting, I watched my friend finish off his holy trinity from the deep fat frier with banana fritters (in more of those breadcrumbs) topped with snowy vanilla ice and drizzled with golden syrup, like the school dinner pud of your dreams. If you’re strong enough to ignore the tempting sin of gluttony, the food at Passorn will really give you wings. [Ruth Marsh] DINNER FOR TWO (WITH BEERS) £50 PASSORN THAI RESTAURANT, 23-23A BROUGHAM PLACE, EDINBURGH EH3 9JU TEL: 0131 229 1537 WWW.PASSORNTHAI.COM

THE SKINNY COCKTAIL COLUMN THIS MONTH:

SW4some BON Vivant’s Stuart McCluskey took the time to invent this complex yet delicious twist on a julep. Inspired by SW4’s location in Clapham, London, Stuart used the idea of multiculturalism as the starting point to create a drink that melds British influences with flavours from the Middle East and beyond. Brilliantly, you can make this at home with ingredients that you probably already have.

You need: 25ml apple juice (preferably of the pressed, organic variety, rather than from concentrate) 50ml SW4 Gin 5ml / 1 tsp honey

To serve, strain into a teacup and add crushed ice.

Twist some lemon zest over the top, and garnish with some fresh mint leaves.

Position the straw next to the mint for added flavour.

To sample an SW4some, head along to Bon Vivant, 55 Thistle St, Edinburgh Sponsored by SW4 Gin. For more information on SW4, email info@parkplacedrinks.co.uk

A handful of fresh mint 1 teabag Prepare at room temperature, so the honey will mix in.

Add the honey, gin and teabag to a mixing glass. Clap the mint between your hands (to open up its cells and release the flavour) and add to the glass. Stir it all together gently, adding the apple juice.

Leave for the flavours to infuse for a minute or so. Careful not to leave the teabag in too long.

THE SKINNY COCKTAIL COLUMN IS SPONSORED BY:

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

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 17

Lifestyle

SHOWCASE

THIS MONTH: Liana Moran

Monstrous Aerials. Screen Print 2010

'In an increasingly networked world, escape is nearly impossible' (Shaviro) My current work is looking into modern technology within mass communication. I'm interested in the notion that people nowadays have a fear of not being ‘connected’ and also a fear of being excessively ‘connected’; by connected I am referring to mobile phones, internet and television. Key concepts that I am interested in are: objects and machines like T.V aerials, mobile phone masts, defunct devices; wireless transmitters and the image of the Cyborg; looking at a more visual way of displaying (interior and exterior) impacts of technology on humans. There is a historical thread running through my work, commenting on current technology similar to other artists making work about the technology of their time.

The definition of a Cyborg is a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependant upon a mechanical or electronic device; I think this is relevant to our generation. [Liana Moran]

Mobile Masts . Drawing 2010

18 THE SKINNY September 2010

Lifestyle

Global Village - Drawing 2010

Excessively Connected House Installation 2010

September 2010

THE SKINNY 19

Digital

The Neutral Net

REVIEW

Who says the internet is free?

Starcraft 2 Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment Release date: 27 Jul Console(s): PC Price: £34.99

rrrr Reviewing Starcraft 2, if you’re old enough to have played the original, is like reviewing your daughter’s school play: you’re biased no matter what. If Starcraft 1 hit you at the right time, it took over your free time like a Zerg infestation and made “En Taro Adun!” part of your geek-speak.

Twelve years later, and we finally have the sequel, which is so thoroughly deep-fried in nostalgia that it’s hard to treat it like something new: to be honest, it isn’t.

The gameplay is very similar to the original, the strengths and weaknesses of the three races are still much the same, and though everything has a shiny new coat of

paint and some very slick cutscenes in the single-player campaign, the game is still basically the same.

Wings of Liberty is the first of three games in the Starcraft 2 series (confusing much?) following Jim Raynor and the Terrans as they fight to save the galaxy (again). The new units are pretty well balanced and there are more pronounced advantages to each play style. The tide of the game really can turn on one well-placed unit or area effect. Build order, resource management and early recon are essential, and there are some genuinely heart-stopping moments as you defend your base from wave after wave.

For all its lack of innovation and the general datedness of real-time strategy, Starcraft 2 reminds us why we like the whole thing in the first place. It’s massive fun. If you don’t love, even a little, building up an army of siege tanks and leveling your enemy’s base, then you probably have no soul. [Alex Cole]

PREVIEW

Text Jodi Mullen Illustration Edward McGowan The big boys are up to something: Google and telecoms giant Verizon have been locked in talks on internet neutrality that potentially threaten to change the democratic approach to web content.

Net neutrality states that all information transmitted across the internet should be treated equally, and forbids service providers from creating services where traffic from preferred partners is prioritized over anything else.

Verizon and other ISPs are keen to overturn net neutrality and strike potentially lucrative content delivery deals with media providers. With traditional forms of media increasingly moving to online platforms, Verizon believe that consumers will happily pay a premium to receive it at optimum speeds.

On one level, it’s a fairly simple question of economics; if demand for tiered subscription services and partnerships exists, shouldn’t ISPs be allowed to provide it? To net neutrality campaigners, however, these changes threaten the principles of the open internet by enabling ISPs to discriminate against, or even block, content from rival providers.

Fundamentally, is the internet like a utility, where you pay a flat rate every month, or is it like TV,

20 THE SKINNY September 2010

where premium content means a premium price?

The repercussions are potentially vast, with repressive governments able to relegate protest groups to the internet slow-lane. In a post-neutrality world, non-commercial sites would be unable to compete with media giants while poorer internet users would be prevented from accessing the ‘full’ fast web experience.

At the conclusion of talks, Google and Verizon proposed that net neutrality should be preserved but only for fixed landlines – wireless services would be fair game. The line between the two, however, has become increasingly blurred. Experts predict that landline connections will disappear altogether within a decade as devices like mobile broadband dongles become more popular. New rules for the mobile internet could eventually come to govern the entire web.

For now, the Google-Verizon proposals don’t present a legal challenge to current net neutrality legislation. The Federal Communications Commission in the US is clearly worried though, and have denounced the two companies for trying to dictate policy.

The argument is far from settled, however, and it remains to be seen whether governments, corporations, or the people themselves, will control where you go with your browser.

Orlando

Traverse Theatre 30 Sep

Elaborate love affairs are ravishing things. Volatile, life-changing and prone to periods of self-discovery.

Through them we grow increasingly comfortable in our own skin as we find ourselves projected into the heart of another. Cryptic’s production of Orlando, directed by Cathie Boyd, will premiere at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh on 30 September. If you decided not to grow old, how would you explore science and technology to enhance your lives and loves?

Cryptic have always done a nice line in geek chic, enhancing their stage productions both for audience and performer since Bonjour Tristesse in 1994. They love making ‘music to be looked at…not just listened to.’ Each production’s developments in live soundscapes, electronica, video projection, live camera feeds and 3D film culminated in the bewitching promenade performance Each… and Every Inch that marked the opening of the CCA in 2002.

Next on Cryptic’s technological journey was how interactivity could work on stage. Through software, designed by Martin Parker of the Dialogues Festival, the voice of a performer was able to control how real time

visuals reacted to it. This was used to portray the chorus in the mesmerising production of Trojan Women in 2005. For the forthcoming Orlando they will use what’s called Living Canvas technology that will project exactly onto a performer’s body as they move around the stage.

Living Canvas has been developed by Dr. Martin Naef, as a collaboration with the Digital Design Studio at Glasgow School of Art. It’s a new projection system enabling performers to wear virtual costumes that adapt to the body. Cryptic are moving into a more real and immediate visual world. Orlando opens with the hero as a young man in Elizabethan England, and follows his transformations of fortune, love and gender in a century-spanning quest for ‘life and a lover’. It will be performed by Madeleine Worrall and feature live vocals and electronics by AGF and an original soundtrack by Craig Armstrong.

The celebration of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando will continue as part of the Glasgay! Festival where Rhona Cameron will be introducing a screening at the GFT of Sally Potter’s celebrated 1992 film adaptation starring Tilda Swinton on 17 October. On 3 November, the Tramway will also host Unlacing Orlando to explore the novel’s modern cultural legacies. She’s lived for 400 years and hardly aged a day. Restylane? [Mark Daniels]

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SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 21

REading

reviews from the book festival

Philip Pullman @ EIBF 14 Aug

rrrr Inasmuch as we love Lyra Belacqua, so does Philip Pullman love Jesus: a poetic genius, social reformer, and protagonist of the greatest story ever told.

Pullman shares the stage at the book festival event with the ex Bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries, a pairing meant to juxtapose ideas and prompt debate; but more often than not Harries and Pullman are in complete agreement over the theological issues The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ raises.

Where Dawkins and Holloway before him intellectualised, polarised and thus inadvertently excluded many audiences, Pullman breaks down barriers Newspaper advert (3)

19/8/10

5:20 pm

Page 1

Christos Tsiolkas @ EIBF

Newspaper advert (3)

19/8/10

5:20 pm

Page 1

14 Aug

THE THE

CHOOKY CHOOKY BRAE BRAE

by D. C. JACKSON DIRECTED by KENNY MILLER DESIGNED

by NEIL HAYNES

by D. C. JACKSON

DIRECTED by KENNY MILLER DESIGNED by NEIL HAYNES

PALACE THEATRE EDEN COURT 9 Green Street, Kilmarnock.

Bishops Road, Inverness.

PALACE THEATRE EDEN COURT Thurs 2nd & Frid 3rd Sept Fri 17th & Sat 18th Sept 9 Green Street, Kilmarnock.

Bishops Road, Inverness.

(Previews)@ 7.30pm. Box @ 7.30pm. Box Office: Thurs 2nd & Frid 3rd Sept Fri 17th & Sat 18th Sept Office 01563 554 900 01463 234 234 or online (Previews)@ 7.30pm. Box @ 7.30pm. Box Office: @ www.eden-court.co.uk Office 01563 554 900 01463 234 234 or online TRON THEATRE @ www.eden-court.co.uk 63 Trongate, Glasgow. Tues macrobert TRON THEATRE 7th Sept – Sat 11th Sept @ University of Stirling, 63 Trongate, Glasgow. Tues macrobert 7.30pm. Matinee: Sat 11th Stirling. Tues 21st Sept @ 7th Sept – Sat 11th Sept @ University of Stirling, Sept @ 2.30pm Box Office: 8pm. Box Office: 7.30pm. Matinee: Sat 11th Stirling. Tues 21st Sept @ 0141 552 4267 or online 01786 466 666 Sept @ 2.30pm Box Office: 8pm. Box Office: @ www.tron.co.uk or online 0141 552 4267 or online 01786 466 666 @ www.macrobert.org @ www.tron.co.uk or online RYAN CENTRE THEATRE @ www.macrobert.org Fairhurst Road, Stranraer.

EASTWOOD PARK THEATRE RYAN CENTRE THEATRE Tues 14th Sept @ 7.30pm.

Rouken Newspaper advert (3) 19/8/10Eastwood 5:20 pmPark, Page 1 Fairhurst Road, Stranraer.

EASTWOOD PARK THEATRE Box Office: Glen Road, Giffnock. Wed Tues 14th Sept @ 7.30pm.

Eastwood Park, Rouken 01776 703 535 22nd Sept @ 7.30pm. Box Box Office: Glen Road, Giffnock. Wed Office: PRESENTS 0141 577 4970 BORDERLINE THEATRE COMPANY 01776 703 535 22nd Sept @ 7.30pm. Box BRUNTON THEATRE Office: 0141 577 4970 Ladywell, Musselburgh HOWDEN PARK CENTRE BRUNTON THEATRE Wed 15th Sept @7.30pm.

Howden, Livingston. Thurs Ladywell, Musselburgh HOWDEN PARK CENTRE Box Office: 23rd Sept @ 7.30pm. Box Wed 15th Sept @7.30pm.

Howden, Livingston. Thurs 0131 665 2240 Office: 01506 777666 Box Office: 23rd Septby @ 7.30pm. Box or online @ or online DIRECTED @D. C. JACKSON KENNY MILLER 0131 665 2240 Office: 01506 by777666 www.bruntontheatre.co.uk www.howdenparkcentre.co.uk DESIGNED by NEIL HAYNES or online @ or online @ www.bruntontheatre.co.uk www.howdenparkcentre.co.uk

THE

CHOOKY BRAE

PALACE THEATRE EDEN COURT 9 Green Street, Kilmarnock.

Bishops Road, Inverness.

Thurs 2nd & Frid 3rd Sept Fri 17th & Sat 18th Sept (Previews)@ 7.30pm. Box @ 7.30pm. Box Office: 22 THE SKINNY 2010 01563 554 900September Office 01463 234 234 or online @ www.eden-court.co.uk TRON THEATRE 63 Trongate, Glasgow. Tues macrobert

Philip Pullman appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 14 Aug

rrrrr

BORDERLINE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS BORDERLINE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS

through the simple, ubiquitous medium of storytelling and empowers the reader to take their own meaning. While proclaiming he is the totalitarian dictator (i.e. as the author, he is the authority), Pullman reminds us that reading is a democratic art, and meaning is taken from the text and the individual engagement we each have with the words. Pullman speaks of a great disparity between Jesus the man, and the immortal persona of Christ; his contempt for the church is obvious, and while none of the ideas are new, they were more accessible and engaging than a dry, theological text because of his power as a story teller. [Renée Rowland]

A NEW COMEDY ABOUT LOVE, DUTY A NEW COMEDY AND FREE RANGE FOWL ABOUT LOVE, DUTY AND FREE RANGE FOWL Recommended age 14+.

Contains strong language.

Recommended age 14+. www.borderlinetheatre.co.uk Contains strong language.

www.borderlinetheatre.co.uk HARBOUR ARTS CENTRE Harbour Street, Irvine. Fri HARBOUR ARTS CENTRE 24th & Sat 25th Sept @ Harbour Irvine. Fri 7.30pm. Street, Box Office: 24th & Sat 25th Sept @ 01294 274059 or from 7.30pm.

Box Office: www.ticketweb.co.uk 01294 274059 or from BYRE THEATRE Abbey www.ticketweb.co.uk Street, St Andrews. Tues 28th BYRE Abbey Sept @THEATRE 7.30pm. Box Office: Street, St Andrews.

01334 475 000 orTues from28th Sept @ 7.30pm. Box Office: www.byretheatre.com 01334 475 000 or from CARNEGIE HALL East www.byretheatre.com Port, Dunfermline. Wed 29th CARNEGIE HALL East Sept @ 7.30pm.

Box Office: Port, Dunfermline.

Wed 29th 01383 602 302 or online Sept @ 7.30pm. Box Office: @ www.attfife.org.uk 01383 602 302 or online RUTHERGLEN TOWN HALL @ www.attfife.org.uk 139 Main Street,Rutherglen.

RUTHERGLEN HALL Thurs 30th SeptTOWN @ 7.30pm.

139 Main Street,Rutherglen.

Box Office: 0141 613 5700 Thurs 30th Sept @ 7.30pm.

ABox NEW COMEDY Office: 0141 613 5700 CUMBERNAULD THEATRE Kildrum, LOVE, Cumbernauld.

ABOUT DUTY CUMBERNAULD THEATRE Fri 1st & Sat 2nd Oct @ AND FREE RANGE FOWL Kildrum, Cumbernauld.

7.45pm. Box Office: Fri 1st &732 Sat 887 2nd Oct @ @ 01236 or online Recommended age Office: 14+.

7.45pm.

Box www.cumbernauldtheatre.co.uk Contains strong language.

01236 732 887 or online @ www.borderlinetheatre.co.uk www.cumbernauldtheatre.co.uk HARBOUR ARTS CENTRE Harbour Street, Irvine. Fri 24th & Sat 25th Sept @ 7.30pm. Box Office: 01294 274059 or from www.ticketweb.co.uk BYRE THEATRE Abbey

This year’s Book Festival begins with a slap. It’s a full house in the Highland Park Spiegeltent to hear Christos Tsiolkas talk about his Booker-nominated novel. The story behind The Slap is told through the eyes of eight characters attending a Melbourne barbecue where one of them slaps a badly-behaved toddler. Tsiolkas stresses that his book isn’t about the rights and wrongs of hitting a child. Instead, it’s intended to challenge assumptions about a country we thought we knew. His sometimes-lacerating candour about uncomfortable issues like domestic abuse has attracted charges of misogyny. But in Edinburgh Tsiolkas adopted a reasonable defence: “Don’t confuse the author with the characters; I learned that when reading Enid Blyton.” He is unapologetic about his quest for authenticity. “I want books that make me scared, make me cry.” But that gritty realism, he claims, is coming not from Europe, but from the new world. Asked if this reflects an

Dan Cruickshank @ EIBF 15 Aug

rrr Dan Cruickshank requires no lessons in architectural history. But he could do with some guidance on public speaking. Cruickshank’s new book is called The Secret History of Georgian London, and we expected some disclosures on how prostitution funded the construction of the city. However,

anxiety on our part for avoiding uncomfortable truths, Tsiolkas takes refuge in his roots: “It’s hard for a foreigner to answer that. Maybe you should put the question to European authors.” Maybe. And what better place to do so than an international book festival? [James Carson]

Christos Tsiolkas appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 14 Aug

frequent digressions and an elastic concept of time mean Cruickshank leaves his audience half baked. In his more focused moments, he is excellent. The scale of female prostitution in 18th century London – 1 in 5 of the population – seems incomprehensible. It becomes easier to understand once reminded of your appalling prospects if you had the misfortune to be born female. With the professions closed to women in the upper classes and wages of £5 a year for the lower, the only ways for women to make good were to marry money or screw their way to respectability. Cruickshank is about to make the connection between the sex trade and the splendours of Georgian architecture when Sheena McDonald in the chair has to call time. Judging by the long queue at the book-signing tent, plenty still hold Cruickshank in high regard. But a few grumbles overheard after the event suggest not everyone left as a Dan fan.

[James Carson]

Dan Cruickshank appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 15 Aug

READING

A Sideways Ride Through Jekyll and Hyde Kevin MacNeil is a writer from Lewis whose previous work has included poetry, plays, and a debut novel The Stornoway Way - which Rodge Glass named as his choice for ‘Best Scottish book of the 21st Century’ in our Unbound pullout. His latest book, A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde, is out on 1 September Interview Keir Hind Illustration Kate Copeland HAPPILY, it turns out that A Method Actor’s Guide to Jekyll and Hyde is a great book, and no mere retread of the classic original either. “I thought that would be a bit cheeky to do,” says the author. “Instead I wrote something that alludes to the original Jekyll and Hyde story, but it’s not a retelling. If you have a knowledge of the original Jekyll and Hyde it might help you with appreciating some of the subtleties in the novel – but you don’t need to know it.” To give a flavour of what this means, in this novel an actor called Robert Lewis, who’s appearing in a stage version of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, is involved in a terrible bike crash(MacNeil too is a keen cyclist, having cycled the length of the Danube last year), and finds himself in hospital – and attended by a nurse Stevenson – after which things get stranger still. Later there are further developments that not only change Lewis’s life completely, but also the way the story is told.

Remember though, that Robert Louise Stevenson’s book was told in an unusual manner too, with different narrators gradually revealing what was going on. “I think I partly took my cue in structuring this novel from Stevenson,” MacNeil says, “but I also think it’s fair to say that I write novels with unconventional structures anyhow, because I don’t really follow the tradition of structuring novels the way that ‘How to Write a Novel "books’ tell you to.” He’s right – his novel is refreshingly different structurally, whilst still exploring familiar themes, of identity, and of place. MacNeil has brought this story back to Scotland, if it ever left. “I think the London of Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde is….

I agree with GK Chesterton, it’s a very Caledonian London, and to me it’s quite like Edinburgh,” he says.

It’s very true of Stevenson’s novella and more true of MacNeil’s novel, which is set directly in Edinburgh. “And Edinburgh does have that feeling of being a divided city, “ MacNeil says ”which I love. It’s got these grand avenues and little dark secretive seedy closes. It’s got the old town and the new town. It seems perfect for

this novel.”

Oddly enough for a story dealing with duality, Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde had a double, an earlier draft that Stevenson’s wife didn’t like. “I love that” says MacNeil .“He threw it on the fire, and who knows, that’s one of the world’s great lost books. Or was it great – maybe his wife was a good critic?” he laughs. This work has some parallels with reality – MacNeil mentions “the guy whose vehicle ate my bike” in the dedications page – but thankfully not too many, as he escaped harm – narrowly. Happily, he’s enjoying his work now, brushing off any notion of second novel syndrome, and telling me, “Although it’s my second novel, it’s my fourth or fifth book, so I didn’t have any great anxieties over that. In fact if anything, I’m bursting with ideas.

I’ve got a new play commissioned that I’m desperate to do, I’ve got two ideas for new novels, and I’ve got a non-fiction book about my Danube cycle, so I’m not shy of ideas. And the album’s coming out and there’s other little projects, and I was doing short stories as well.”

But for now there’s this novel, an excellent story about an unusual man, who creates characters but who turns out not to know his own reality quite as well as he should – with his crash, and the play within the novel all contributing to this. It’s a dark novel in places, but there’s no small measure of hope in the book too. Sadly, I can’t really say more than this without spoiling what is an excellent read. Imagine reading the original Jekyll and Hyde without knowing about the dualities involved in the story, having not had the plot spoiled by innumerable sources from popular culture – and you can get a flavour of that by reading this intricate, powerful novel.

A novel whose author says that “I didn’t want to look at mere duality, I also wanted to look at multiplicity.” And then slyly adds “But I wanted to resolve that in unity”.

Really, you’ll have to read the book to find out what it all means.

A METHOD ACTOR’S GUIDE TO JEKYLL AND HYDE IS OUT ON 1 SEP, PUBLISHED BY POLYGON, COVER PRICE £12.99 HARDBACK KEVIN MACNEIL’S DEBUT SINGLE, WITH WILLIAM CAMPBELL, LOCAL MAN RUINS EVERYTHING, IS AVAILABLE NOW ON ITUNES

REVIEWS HEAVEN AND HELL

BY JÓN KALMAN STEFÁNSSON

rrrr Heaven and Hell is set in Iceland around the start of the 20th Century, and it concerns a boy named Bardur, and another boy who goes unnamed. Both are taken as passengers on a fishing boat, but they’re caught in a storm and Bardur has forgotten his waterproof because, symbolically enough for a book with this title, he was reading Paradise Lost. He dies of the cold, and the unnamed boy grieves for him. But this grieving takes on the form of a quest as he makes the journey – and a perilous one it is, in a world where forgetting one item of clothing can kill you – to return the book to its owner in a far off town. Once he gets there, he finds all kinds of different stories, those of the people of the town. This is a haunting book, with a simple, if occasionally philosophical style. The book is told in the third person, but also in the present tense, which is a fitting choice because it reflects an immediacy in lives that can be (and sometimes are) taken away suddenly, but also brings reader and character closer as the book goes on. A very enjoyable historical novel. [Ryan Agee] RELEASE DATE: SEP. PUBLISHED BY MACLEHOSE PRESS. COVER PRICE £12 HARDBACK

AT THE LOCH OF THE GREEN CORRIE

BY ANDREW GREIG

rrrrr

GENESIS

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?

rrr

BY DAVID SHRIGLEY

BY BERNARD BECKETT

Norman MacCaig’s request to Andrew Greig at their last meeting was a simple one: catch a fish for him at his favourite spot; the Loch of the Green Corrie. It is a fitting tribute to one of Scotland’s greatest poets that his concise words lead Greig to examine fishing, the Scottish landscape, history, friendship, poetry, whisky, geology, the concept of living in the moment, the memory of friends and friend’s memories. Greig is neither condescending nor excluding in his explanation of practices, language or ideas the reader may not be familiar with and the journey he invites us on is beautifully and welcomingly set out. The book works at its best when the many different ideas and voices ebb and flow into each other; there are some of MacCaig’s poems and conversations and interviews with various people who knew him and his friends. Greig’s personal musings and memories are never allowed to run on too long without being brought back to the here and now; at one point one of the men fishing says: ‘Enough blethering, we’ve got fish to catch!’ This is an engaging, well balanced look at a poet and the country that could allow people like him to flourish. [Anna Howatt]

Genesis by Bernard Beckett manages to express an idea of what the future could be like. Set in the late 21st century, protagonist Anaximander is being extensively examined on The Life and Times of her hero Adam Forde. Through the course of the lengthy exam the reader finds out about the events that shaped the future and despite her dedicated knowledge on her subject matter, Anax is exposed to previously unknown information. Yes - the text is imaginative, but not so original, as the ideas that emerge have already been presented to us in action packed sci-fi movies. There’s that war where the robots fight the humans... and that threat of robots taking over the world. In spite of this Beckett masterminds a thought-provoking text which raises philosophical questions about evolution and the human body. Genesis is short, subsequently fast-paced and easy to read. This means that the questions raised come across effectively, create impact, and make the book a page-turner. If you’re thirsty for an insightful story with meaning, yet one filled with uncertainty go for Genesis. You’ll undoubtedly continue to think about the questions raised once you’ve read the final sentence of the final page over and over again. [Tina Koenig]

OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY QUERCUS. COVER PRICE £16.99

OUT NOW. PUBLISHED BY QUERCUS. COVER PRICE £6.99

rrrr The artist David Shrigley is from Macclesfield originally, but is now a Glasgow resident, and if you’re struggling to place the name, you’ll probably be familiar with postcards of his work, featuring things like a sign that says “Lost: Grey and white pidgeon[sic] with black bits. Normal size. A bit mangy–looking. Does not have a name.” Here it’s traditional to ask: But is it art? Well, this collection showcases whatever Shrigley’s work is, a series of drawings, photographs, and other pieces less easily categorized. It should be said that Shrigley’s style is somehow very distinctive, despite being somewhat plain looking at first inspection, and that it may seem easy to replicate; although if it was then everyone would be doing it. But is it art? Well this book is a chunky collection of much of the best of Shrigley’s work, and it should be enough to win most readers (or viewers) over. It has a style of its own, often but not always characterised by humour, or surreal images, and it’s an infectious style that will prompt most readers to want to show images from it to friends, to gauge their reactions. But is it art? You decide! (Which means yes.) [David Agnew] RELEASE DATE 16 SEP. PUBLISHED BY CANONGATE. COVER PRICE £20. READ AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID SHRIGLEY IN THE ART SECTION

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 23

Lifestyle

DEVIANCE

SEX, TRUTH AND POLITICS

No Sex Please, We’re American

The land of the free is notoriously conflicted when it comes to sexuality. And given the extent of its influence, it's hard for the rest of us to ignore it Text Kirsty Logan Illustration Ursula Cheng

Nine

Abstract topics The boy I’d just met asked me what I wrote about. “Oh,” I said, “I write about travel and sexuality and books and films and –” “Tell me about sexuality,” he interjected, with a smile that was so predictable I suddenly felt weary.

Or there was the one who repeatedly stressed that he found it “very interesting” that I wrote about sexuality, and would love to hear what I had to say about it. I felt like something had shifted: we’d been getting on fine, but now there seemed to be a new agenda.

Newsflash: Sexuality is a big subject! What makes me feel uncomfortable about these conversations is the absence of any indication as to where the other person’s interests lie – other than a suspicion that my mere use of the word

24 THE SKINNY September 2010

‘sexuality’ has, in their eyes, marked me as available. I’ve had much more productive discussions when people have volunteered the information that they’ve paid for sex, or sold it, or have issues with burlesque, or like it when their partners beat the shit out of them, or feel like they’re boring because they don’t have sex often enough or with enough people or at all. But when I’m expected to just hold court and provide some sort of wisdom about sexuality, à propos of nothing, it feels like I’ve been handed a role to play – which is exactly the kind of approach to sexuality that I’m keen to discard. If I’ve got to sound off about a big abstract topic, I choose travel.

Gay marriage is legal in California (again) and conservative Christian groups are trying to make it illegal (again). Sex toys are banned in Alabama, while Texas only legalised them in 2008. Why is the USA – which supposedly prides itself on ‘liberty and justice for all’ – so un-libertarian about sexuality?

It’s well-known that US film censors are harsher on sex scenes than on violence, whereas in Europe the situation is reversed. Perhaps Americans think that we liberal Europeans are all shagging in the street, but a few on-screen willies don’t appear to have caused biblical plagues to rain down on us. In the US a PG-13 film can contain fairly graphic violence, but not even a flash of pubic hair. What harm can be done with a scene of consenting sex? Would the fabric of society really crumble if a few Alabamans played with a sex swing or a strap-on in the privacy of their own homes? Perhaps I’m just a smut-peddling European, but I don’t think anal beads are as dangerous as a handgun. Yet you’re more likely to see a gunfight in a Hollywood film than a depiction of happy, healthy men and women having consensual sex. You’re even less likely to see a gay sex scene.

A friend living in Tennessee recently visited me in Glasgow, and was surprised that my girlfriend and I hold hands in the street. “In America,” she said, “people would yell insults at you for doing that.” We’re not strangers to the odd shout of “LEZZIE!” from a group of idiot kids, but I’ve never felt that anyone was particularly against us being a couple. Most people in Scotland don’t seem to care about other people’s sex lives – which is exactly how it should be. But in a US state like Tennessee, holding my girlfriend’s hand would be an intensely political (and potentially dangerous) statement. Unfortunately, right-wing Christians make up a significant percentage of the US population, and boy can they shout loudly. It’s easy to write off the Westboro ‘GOD HATES FAGS’ Baptists as crazy freaks, but a less aggressive though equally anti-gay sentiment exists in thousands of otherwise sane Americans. This bigotry is by no means shared by the entire population, but it’s by no means insignificant either.

But why do we care what’s happening hundreds of miles across the sea, when US laws don’t affect us in the UK? Because America exports its culture in a way no other country does. Think of the last five films you watched, songs you heard, or websites you visited – I bet at least one is from the US. The more ubiquitous American culture becomes, the more we’re in danger of absorbing aspects of their morals and views. Anti-gay laws exist in other countries, but their culture is nowhere near as pervasive as US culture in other countries.

It’s not that gay marriage matters to me as such.

It might be nice to wear a big dress and throw some flowers, but I don’t care whether my girlfriend and I

sign a bit of paper and double-barrel our names. Not every LGBT person wants to get married, and that’s fine – no-one’s forcing gold rings on fingers. But restricting freedoms that don’t hurt or even affect anyone else is unacceptable. Telling people they can’t have the same rights because of their sexuality is unacceptable. You should care about sexualitybased laws because denying people the basic right to love who they choose, and to express that love, is unacceptable.

You know what, America? People have sex. People have always had sex, which is why we all exist.

Trying to deny that fact – to make consensual sex seem immoral or shameful – will not make for healthy, happy citizens. You can try to fight progress if you like, but all you’ll achieve is a rise in your blood pressure.

LGBT equality is another sign of progress, and rest assured it is going to happen. Canada, South Africa, Argentina and the Netherlands all have same-sex marriage and as far as I can tell the sun has not imploded. The UK legalised civil partnerships in 2004 and we’re tootling along just fine. Listen: the rest of the western world is not cheering on these restrictions of freedom. We’re not wishing that we too could go ass-backwards instead of sensibly forwards. We know you’ll see sense eventually and join the rest of us in the 21st century – we just wish you’d hurry the fuck up.

Would the fabric of society really crumble if a few Alabamans played with a sex swing or a strap-on in the privacy of their own homes?

Pride and Progress

An anti-gay poster in Vilnius

Text Nine Following in the recent tradition of Pride marches in Kraków, Moscow and Belgrade, the Lithuanian LGBT community met with opposition in May 2010 when Pride took place in Vilnius, its ban having been overturned at the eleventh hour.

Over a thousand protesters showed up, resulting in violent clashes. On my recent visit, I asked my hosts, a gay couple in their early thirties, about their own experiences in the country.

Armin is from Austria, which saw rapid changes in the last five years in terms of LGBT rights. How does this compare with Lithuania? “Zero. I do not think they want to be confronted with this topic.”

The overall reaction recently when Vilnius Pride hit the headlines was one of outrage. “The gay community pushed too hard,” he says. “It would be better for them to search for more consensus and not throw it in people’s faces. On the other hand, twenty years ago this country got freedom and I think this should be for all inhabitants and not just a certain part of [the population]. I heard that 40% of Lithuanians think homosexuality is an illness.

Funny, I don’t feel ill ...”

Armin’s Lithuanian partner feels differently about Vilnius Pride. “It’s good that it was there,” Dalius says, “because obviously it’s not the same aim as it is in countries where they’ve had it for twenty

years. It’s good to start the discussion. Of course the process will be very long. 75% in polls say they are totally against it, but this is because people don’t know and they have some strange preliminary prejudice. I think that when the people little by little demand what has been demanded thirty to forty years ago elsewhere, it’s childish to expect to get it immediately. But gradually we can expect some of those 75% to change their minds.”

Dalius adds, however, that he has never personally experienced a single negative reaction to his sexuality. “So on the one hand, people as a whole are very homophobic, but on the other, when all of a sudden somebody they’ve known for ages [comes out as] gay or lesbian, they say ‘wait a minute, there’s nothing wrong, they’re a normal person’. So this helps as well in a broad sense.”

In fact, Dalius’ colleagues will be throwing them a wedding party. By the time you read this, the couple will have been married in Austria, leading to an odd legal status – according to Austrian law, Lithuania must recognise their marriage in some sense, otherwise Dalius could theoretically marry a woman in Lithuania. So, they need to provide documents to a solicitor who will draw up a civil legal contract. Armin will have the status of a married person, but for Dalius it’s entirely new territory: “It will be funny,” he says, “to be both married and not married.”

September 2010

THE SKINNY 25

Film

The Dead of Winter

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and a stand out work at Edinburgh International Film Festival, Winter’s Bone is one of the most inspiring examples of recent American cinema. Director Debra Granik discusses the film Interview Gail Tolley Winter’s Bone, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell, tells the story of a teenage girl, Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), who is the sole carer of her sick mother and younger siblings in their remote house in the Ozark region of Southern Missouri. When she finds out that her absent father has put the family home up as collateral for his bail, and that if he doesn’t attend court the family

will soon be evicted, she decides to hunt him down. Ree begins to question her family and neighbours and in this closed community her actions soon lead to conflict.

Through a vivid evocation of the remote Ozark region and use of the lyrical local dialect, Winter’s Bone creates a world of bleak beauty punctuated by unexpected violence. It is at once a gripping drama and an atmospheric mood piece. Here director Debra Granik talks about the making of such a distinctive film.

Gail Tolley

One dimension Too many?

Ah, 3D. I’ve avoided this topic so far, in the hope that maybe it was just a passing phase.

But if anything, the number of 3D films hitting the cinema this summer prove that the new format is here to stay. Am I the only one who is completely nonplussed? I’ve never been taken in by the 3D experience; it feels disruptive, crude even and it makes your eyes feel a bit funny. There was even some research that suggested in certain people it led to headaches. Well it certainly gives me a headache. I was amused when one friend conversely felt that the emphasis on layers in 3D film actually led to it feeling more 2D – to it actually feeling flatter than traditional cinema.

And I don’t think its just vanity that’s behind

26 THE SKINNY September 2010

my aversion to those horrible glasses. If I had to put my finger on the one issue I have with 3D it would be its complete disregard for the romanticism of cinema. Without doubt there will be significantly less back-seat canoodling in 3D films. I’m reminded however that when sound cinema first emerged there was a similar resistance: it’s the death of cinema, people cried, and silent films were held up as examples of ‘true cinema’. So, is 3D the death of cinema? Probably not, but one thing is certain: it’s going to ruin first dates up and down the country.

The character Ree Dolly is at the heart of the film – tell me a bit more about her.

Ree Dolly is a female protagonist I’ve been waiting a long time for. I enjoy seeing tom girls on screen because with a tomgirl character you often get the full embodiment of what a female human being can be, [she uses] a variety of resources, both her intellect and intuition, her resolve and her youth and the stakes are very high for Ree Dolly. It’s not like she’s hooked up with any form of state intervention that can assist her, she is lacking adult guidance and therefore everything she does is a high stakes endeavour. You wonder what her moves are going to be. What’s this girl going to do? She’s trying to solve a mystery and as she finds she’s blocked by her kin she has to exert a lot of force; she has to actually decide to brush up against them and the ultimate suspense is: will she prevail?

I was very attracted to her qualities and frankly longed to see a tried and true Western story, an American Western but in the boots of the hero and what it would be like to be all in a girl’s body.

How did you go about casting for the film?

The casting process happened in two different ways.

The leads were cast out of the coasts, out of traditional casting methods working with a casting director. Yet I have to add that a lot of the leads had life experience from the surrounding states to Missouri. I had people who had the sound of different accents in their head and they were able to read the script with ease whereas for me it was a much more foreign way of speaking.

The next tier of casting was actors in that region, especially people in their twenties who had had training at Missouri State University, who aspired to do acting and then this was their first opportunity to try it out in a film experience.

And the third tier was a whole load of people we met through a variety of means, going into churches etc. You introduce yourself, you tell people who you are, you have to be very frank about the whole thing.

Over time you realise there are some people that will take a risk with you and once you approach them and say ‘I was wondering if you’d be interested in being in the film?’ quite a few people will say yes.

How did you cast Jennifer Lawrence in the main role?

We didn’t know about her previous work, she came in like other actors into the casting room. What I didn’t know was that she’d read the screenplay so carefully and was really invested in the role and had done all her own work on it. Out of her mouth came this lyrical way of pronouncing American English (she’s raised in Kentucky). I trusted the voice, I was like ‘Wow, I feel like I’m believing Ree here’ whereas a lot of other people really struggled.

The film has a very distinct sense of place – how did you approach creating this?

The fact that the film takes place in southern Missouri was both very alluring and very daunting.

My collaborator Anne Rosselini, who produced the film and co-wrote the screenplay with me, she and I responded very strongly to the novel by Daniel Woodrell. Reading it, both of us had to do a lot of conjuring because everything described was very different from our daily life and any life that we know about in the United States. It wasn’t clear to me whether it was all contemporary or not – we knew that we had to go there to see.

We went down to southern Missouri and met with the author and he showed us places that had been inspirations. We realised it would be a very rich opportunity to attempt to put on film a region you don’t know but have to do the research over a period of time to get familiar. So you take a novel, you find where the characters are living and you try to find real life locations that seem to link up with what the author was describing, and that was the process we used.

In the end there was this large contribution from local people because their animals ended up on screen, their clothing, their house, their personal effects, in the end that was the collaboration. We had the infrastructure for making a film and they had the life experience and the material objects that gave credence to this daily life.

Winter’s Bone is released on 17 Sep

This month, discover films which inspire and challenge at the Take One Action Film Festival Text Rachel Bowles

Sobering and positive in equal measure, the festival returns in its third year to once again raise audience awareness and advocacy within an extensive range of pressing humanitarian issues

For those of us still recovering from the heady heights of August’s Fringe, Take One Action Film Festival 2010 brings a fresh programme of films with a globally conscientious perspective to help bring us back down to earth. Sobering and positive in equal measure, the Festival returns in its third year to once again raise audience awareness and advocacy within an extensive range of pressing humanitarian issues, from environmentalism and economic justice to conflict and poverty. Its patrons are none other than the illustrious Cannes Palme d’Or winners, director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty (Looking For Eric, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Sweet Sixteen), who describe the festival’s emphasis on audience empowerment as “very, very important.”

“Take One Action is about reclaiming aspects of the cinema, both space and content, for transformative exchanges which run beyond the screen,” explains Festival director, Simon Bateson.

“When people come together and are inspired, which is what cinema does all the time, they have the opportunity to become powerful actors in the story themselves.” It’s this focus on activism which makes the Take One Action Festival unique, engaging with spectators long after the credits have rolled. With audience discussions, calls for creative engagement and links to local organisations for those who want to get their hands dirty, the festival could prove a vital source for positive change in the future.

However, hardcore cinephiles need not fret – all this activism does not come at the price of

aesthetics. This is best demonstrated by the Festival’s UK premiere of an original score by the Hidden Orchestra to accompany Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation, an arresting patchwork of imagery that focuses on the conflict between industrialisation and traditional life in the developing world (25 Sep, Filmhouse, Edinburgh, 27 Sep, Glasgow Film Theatre).

Having previously screened such socio-political gems as Charlie Chaplin’s labour focused Modern Times, Take One Action will offer this year’s festival goers the rare chance to see a 70mm print of Richard Attenborough’s classic biopic Ghandi (2 Oct, Filmhouse). The cinematic rendering of Ghandi’s teaching of pacifist resistance in the face of violence is just one of the festival’s contemporary films on war and conflict. Another to look out for is Budrus (23 Sep, GFT, 24 Sep, Filmhouse), a gut-wrenching film that documents the struggle of unarmed Palestinian and Israeli protesters against the building of an Israeli Separation Fence. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the award winning director, Julia Bacha. Another special Q&A will follow the UK premiere of Persona Non Grata, with the film’s subject, protesting Belgian priest Frans Wuytack, and his son, the film’s director, Fabio Wuytack (27 Sep, Filmhouse, 28 Sep, GFT).

Don’t miss it!

Take One Action Film Festival runs from 23 Sep - 5 Oct. For full programme details visit www.takeoneaction.org.uk www.takeoneaction.org.uk

Coming to a cinema near you

For budding filmmakers or those simply interested in exploring the future of cinema and the moving image, head to the GFT in Glasgow on 28 September for FilmCamp 10, a four hour special event in which a multitude of speakers, from filmmakers to game designers, discuss the increasing convergence of technology and film. The event is free, but you need to reserve a spot, so hurry while there’s still space.

Gandhi

The Take One Action Film Festival takes place between 23 September and 5 October, showcasing films that focus on issues of global and environmental concern. Hosted by both the Filmhouse in Edinburgh and the GFT, events include special screenings of new and classic films, discussion groups, workshops and Q&A sessions. The selection is vast, from Oscar-nominated documentary The Garden, following a Los Angeles community fighting to retain their large growing space, opening the festival on 23-26 Sep to a special 70mm screening of Gandhi on 2 Oct, marking the International Day of Non-Violence.

Stephen Fry is appearing live via satellite all across the country on 13 Sep to celebrate the launch of his new book, The Fry Chronicles. Showing at the GFT, Belmont in Aberdeen and the Cameo in Edinburgh and streamed from the Royal Festival Hall, the evening promises to be intellectual and highly entertaining as Fry allows the audience a special preview of his new work.

Metropolis

From 17-23 Sep the DCA in Dundee is giving viewers the chance to watch Fritz Lang’s sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis in its (almost) original glory. This is a rare opportunity, as for over eighty years an entire quarter of the film had been considered irrevocably lost due to enforced cuts by the film studios, until several dusty film reels were discovered in an Argentinian museum in 2008. Finally restored and reconstructed, this version is a must-see for sci-fi fans and cinephiles alike.

On 3 Sep the CCA in Glasgow, in collaboration with Screen Academy Scotland, is showing a compilation of some of the work to emerge from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. Named after the famous West Bengali director, who received an honorary award at the Oscars in 1992, the Institute is dedicated to training the next generation of Indian filmmakers, and the CCA’s free event promises to be entertaining and insightful glimpse into Indian cinema. [Becky Bartlett] Simon Bateson, Take One Action Director

September 2010

THE SKINNY 27

Film

Reel Change

September Events

Film

Mother Knows Best The Korean director Bong Joon-ho talks about his highly-anticipated new film, Mother

Interview Philip Concannon Bong Joon-ho is a filmmaker who loves to upend audience expectations.

After making The Host, South Korea’s highest-grossing film of all time, he made the surprising decision to follow that blockbuster with Mother, an intimate study of a woman’s obsessive love for her naive son, who becomes embroiled in a local murder. But the director insists this was always his plan. “I already had a storyline for Mother before I completed the scenario of The Host,” Bong explains. “I prepared for this movie from

2004, so it depended on what I wanted to say rather than the scale of the movie. It was a personal line-up planned by my desire for expression.”

Mother also proves that Bong is a filmmaker who can turn his hand to any subject matter and make great cinema from it, but the film may never have happened if Kim Hye-ja, Bong’s only choice for the lead role, turned him down. “I worried a lot because this movie could not be continued if she declined my offer,” he says. “I made this story and scenario while thinking of Kim Hye-ja, so there was no substitute. Fortunately, she liked the story and said she would like to take the role, saying it role

was different from other mothers she had previously performed, and I remember I breathed a sigh of relief when she said that.”

It was a daring move by Bong, building his entire movie around an actress best-known for playing wholesome characters on Korean TV, but it pays off handsomely. There’s an extraordinary intensity to Kim’s performance, through which Bong hopes to explore the depth of emotion between mothers and their sons, and he cites the relationship Norman Bates had with his mother before her death in Psycho as an influence.

“When love crosses a certain line it turns to obsession or madness and it also can be a sin,” he says. “Basically, it starts as love, but it can be changed to something animal rather than humanlike – a growling tiger with its claws out to save her cub. It could be madness and brutality from the viewpoint of a human, and I would like to show something like that in this movie.” Mother also allows Bong to once again examine the effect of violence on communities and families, a key theme in his films. “I’m a little faint-hearted and I’m afraid of violence,” he admits. “In Korea, in which I spent my adolescence, the 1970s-80s were days of military dictatorship.

In those days, violence was such an ordinary thing. We even had military training at school, so violence was a daily routine. There are still vestiges of it, and that’s why we can’t help being interested in the relationship between Korea and violence.”

Despite the dark edge to his work, Bong finds room for moments of wry humour in Mother, displaying a rare gift for blending tones that has become something of a trademark for the director, and he claims this style comes quite naturally. “Actually, that kind of mix is my instinct.

I have never arranged scenes intentionally, but it just mixes like that when it is complete,” he explains. “I think that it is more natural, because emotions cannot be defined as just one. I insist that this way with mixed feelings is more realistic.” Similarly, Bong claims his fondness for working in familiar genres is something that happens organically: “I’m not really conscious of the genre itself every time I work. My favourite genre lies inside myself, and as I follow my favourite stories, characters and images, it consequently ends up in a certain genre. So at times even I have to try to guess which genre it’ll be after production.”

The next genre for Bong to tackle is science-fiction, with the screen version of French comic book Transperceneige, although he admits this adaptation has been a challenging process. “Now I’m alone working on the adaptation of Transperceneige, which is torturing me at times. When I’m stuck on it, I sometimes feel like killing everyone besides me and then killing myself,” he jokes. Beyond that, Bong has ruled out involvement in any sequels or remakes to his earlier works, and is already planning future projects. “Personally, I’m much more inclined towards new stories and new films, so I don’t have any interest in sequels or remakes,” he says, before adding, “There’s one particular project which I’m planning to work on after finishing Transperceneige. It’ll be such a unique one, I think.” Somehow, we don’t doubt him.[Philip Concannon] Mother is released on DVD on 20 Sep

FILM Reviews My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

Director: Werner Herzog Starring: Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny, Grace Zabriskie Released: 10 Sep Certificate: 15

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Following the commercial and critical success of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Werner Herzog returns with the equally long-titled but far more bizarre My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?. Loosely based on the true story of a man (played with heavy lidded intensity by Michael Shannon) who kills his mother, Herzog has assembled an excellent, though largely under-used cast, including Willem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny and Grace Zabriskie of Twin Peaks fame. The influence of Herzog’s direction is more evident here than in Bad Lieutenant, with tableau scenes, lush Peruvian jungles and animals (flamingoes and ostriches replace the former film’s iconic reptiles). Executive producer David Lynch’s style is also instantly recognisable, and the collaboration between the two is a fascinating and stylised, though superficial one; like many of the characters, the plot is under-developed yet My Son, My Son lingers in the brain and is essential viewing for Herzog and Lynch fans alike. [Becky Bartlett]

28 THE SKINNY September 2010

Certified Copy Director: Abbas Kiarostami Starring: Juliette Binoche, William Shimell Released: 3 Sep Certificate: 12A

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Acclaimed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami makes his first film outside his home country with Certified Copy; a tale of a relationship that takes on new meaning during a day spent in the Tuscan countryside. Juliette Binoche plays a single mother who meets English author James Miller (renowned opera singer William Shimell in his debut acting role) after a book reading. A few days later they take a trip to a nearby village, which has a history as a destination for couples to marry. In this setting our two protagonists’ conversation gradually hints that their relationship might not be what it initially appears. The mystery thickens rather than clarifies, yet rather than being a point for frustration it acts as a device through which the emotions entwined in past relationships can be explored. Over the course of the film the tone subtly becomes more melancholic and Certified Copy emerges as a carefully crafted work that contemplates the memories we choose to treasure and those we choose to forget. [Gail Tolley]

The Runaways Director: Floria Sigismondi Starring: Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon Released: 10 Sep Certificate: 15

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Based on a novel by Cherie Currie, former front-woman of the radical teen rock band The Runaways, this biopic of the same name follows the predictable route laid down by many other rock biopics. It charts the rise to stardom and inevitable drugs-and-scandal-related fall of the 70s group, yet stands out because of the excellent performances by the young cast. The focus of the film is primarily on Currie (Dakota Fanning) rather than founding member Joan Jett (who wrote many of the songs), while the other band members are often little more than background additions. Yet Fanning is a delight on screen, indicating a successful transition from child star to respected actor, while Kristen Stewart is perfectly suited to play Jett, slouching and hiding behind her hair. Despite a rousing, authentic soundtrack, The Runaways is let down by its inability to decide where the story ends, but it will doubtless resonate with anyone who ever dreamed of quitting school to become a rock star. [Becky Bartlett]

BREATHLESS: 50TH ANNIVERSARY DIRECTOR: JEAN LUC GODARD STARRING: JEAN PAUL BELMONDO, JEAN SEBERG RELEASED: 13 SEP CERTIFICATE: 15

rrrrr Godard’s first and most accessible film is many things: a studied homage to his beloved Hollywood gangster films; a pioneering piece of guerilla film-making; a showcase for innovative techniques which directors are still plundering; a masterclass in effortless Gallic cool; and the director’s first salvo in his life-long war with what he saw as the lazy provincialism of European cinema. Most of all, it is a film that anyone who loves cinema must see. The extras that come with this remastered edition include an archive documentary in which Godard proves to be a willing and witty interviewee with some wry analogies for the film-making process.

Worth the price alone is an imagined dialogue in which, having compared filming to war, he explains to an actor that he should stop complaining because, unlike a soldier, he won’t be killed. Also included is an introductory film in which Jefferson Hack inadvertently reveals just how far style and substance have diverged. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

EYES WIDE OPEN

COMPULSION

DIRECTOR: HAIM TABAKMAN STARRING: ZOHAR STRAUSS, RAN DANKER RELEASED: 20 SEP CERTIFICATE: 12A

DIRECTOR: RICHARD FLEISCHER STARRING: ORSON WELLES, DEAN STOCKWELL RELEASED: 20 SEP CERTIFICATE: 12

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It’s often said about religion that people get in the way of a nice idea. It’s certainly true in Israeli filmmakers Merav Doster and Haim Tabakman’s story of Aaron, an Orthodox Jewish butcher who finds himself in love with a young man named Ezri who comes to work for him.

Despite saying that all desires come from God and that a man who denies himself something is a sinner, the local community leader shuns him and Aaron finds himself an outcast.

Doster and Tabakman’s views on the hypocrisy of the Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem, teaching tolerance and understanding on paper but in practice demanding conformity with the help of gangs of “modesty guards”, gossip, intimidation and violence are very clear and sometimes make difficult viewing. It’s a bitter reminder of the unwelcome influence religion still has in parts of the world today and the desperate need for love and understanding over dogma. [Scotty McKellar]

Compulsion is an enjoyable period thriller from 1959. It dramatises a famous 1920s crime which saw two rich law students trying to commit the perfect murder to prove their superior intellects. This basic story is overlaid with the trappings of a 1950s exploitation flick where psychological and existential terminology flows as freely as cigarettes are smoked and homosexual subtexts dare not speak their name. A young Dean Stockwell is effective as the repressed Judd, while Bradford Dillman is excellent as Artie, a live-wire sociopath with a wide smile that reveals some serious dental overcrowding. A lank-haired, bloated Orson Welles wanders into the last half hour of the film for a somnolent cameo as a crusading lawyer, only winding himself up at the very end to deliver a ten minute speech against capital punishment which leaves the courtroom stunned and the rest of the cast contemplating the crime of having a film stolen from under their noses. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

SONS OF CUBA

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

ROBIN HOOD

DIRECTOR: ANDREW LANG STARRING: RELEASED: 20 SEP CERTIFICATE: E

DIRECTOR: MICHAEL POWELL STARRING: NIALL MACGINNIS RELEASED: OUT NOW CERTIFICATE: U

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DIRECTOR: RIDLEY SCOTT STARRING: RUSSELL CROWE, CATE BLANCHETT, MARK STRONG, WILLIAM HURT RELEASED: 20 SEP CERTIFICATE: 15

Joyce Carol Oates has written that whilst life could be considered as a metaphor for boxing, “boxing is only like boxing.” But for the youngsters attending the Havana Boxing Academy boxing is life. Hoping to become one of the Olympic champions that Cuba has proved so successful at producing, they live, sleep and eat boxing in the ramshackle Academy building. This gruelling regime takes its toll and tears are common: from beating your best friend in the ring, from being beaten, from the disappointment of not making the team, and from the pain of a split nose. Hovering over their lives is the presence of the man they refer to as “Commandante”, Fidel Castro. Perhaps the most disturbing sight in this well made documentary is not that of ten-year olds punching each other, but of a young boy at a primary school wearing a false beard and aping the relentless, cigar-poking speech-making of the old revolutionary. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

Released for the first time on Blu-ray, The Edge of the World was Michael Powell’s first major feature. Filmed in 1937 on the Shetland island of Foula and using a mix of professional actors and locals, it tells a story which deliberately echoes that of the evacuation of St Kilda which had occurred only seven years before. Whilst this earnest movie lacks the sparkle and bite of the director’s later work, its commitment to filming a real community in their locale places it in a realist tradition that stretches from Robert Flaherty to Satyajit Ray. The melodramatic story and occasionally awkward technique are quickly forgotten in moments when the camera gives us an almost magical access to lives and a landscape we could never otherwise know. The rugged island, with its sheer cliffs, phlegmatic inhabitants, and cramped dwellings hunkered down against the ever present wind, seems at times more strange and exotic than the farthest reaches of the earth. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

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In their version of the classic English myth Scott and Crowe choose to explore their hero’s origins in the way that has proved so popular of late with superheroes: Hood Begins, as it were. This approach yields an exciting opening siege, handsome images of the English landscape and a bizarre beach battle with the invading French, a medieval D-Day in reverse. Yet in its attempt to fill out its hero’s back story with endless intrigues, an ever expanding cast of villains, a will-they-won’t-they romance with Cate Blanchett (of course they will), and the inevitable story of an absent father, the film becomes at times a dutiful trudge through the (historically accurate) mud and loses the spry leaps and bounds of the original anti-authoritarian legend. When, in the closing scene, Hood looses a cheeky arrow at his wanted poster being nailed up by the Sheriff the thought arises: why couldn’t we have started here? [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

It’s Halloween!

Saturday 30 October 7.30pm £10. Concessions available

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

PG

Classic 1920 silent horror film accompanied by live organ music

www.usherhall.co.uk 0131 228 1155 SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 29

FILM

DVD REVIEWS

Performance

Geometry and Grace Scottish Ballet will be flying high this autumn as Val Caniparoli brings New World choreography to Europe Gareth K Vile

The Critical is Artistic A month at The Edinburgh Festivals is a bonanza for the performance critic. Apart from the annual ruckus about outrageous shows – this year it was the audience participation of the mighty Wau Wau Sisters rather than the nudity that caused the predictable complaints – there was a minor burlesque backlash, and heated debate about the status of cabaret.

Once again, the hack criticism of criticism turned up and writers for The Shimmy Skinny were accused of failing to be objective by online posters.

Although individual moans can easily be ignored, as they tend to assume that objectivity means “agreeing with my opinion in specific detail,” the broader question of objectivity deserves attention.

The authority of the critic seems to rest on their ability to give an impartial opinion, which does not

30 THE SKINNY September 2010

allow personal feelings to corrupt their perception.

Aside from the challenges to objectivity by postmodernism, which advocates a plural and partial series of perceptions, the theatre itself militates against it. The job of drama is to manipulate, persuade and cajole. Whether the players are running around the aisles or safe on the Playhouse stage, they require the audience’s emotional participation.

To write about performance without subjectivity is like ignoring the nudity in striptease.

A critic can advise audiences, and by acknowledging their own bias, indicate why they might not be making an absolute statement. The critique – an ongoing dialogue – is more vital than the star rating and perhaps a review could aim towards being an entertaining, provocative work of art in its own right.

Text Amanda Grimm Val Caniparoli has been called a choreographer of uncommon ability and rare dramatic vision. He has contributed to the repertoire of more than thirty-five dance companies, including San Francisco Ballet, where he was appointed resident choreographer in the 1980s. But he has never choreographed a new work on a dance company in Europe – until now. He is currently in the studios of Scottish Ballet, creating a piece on the dancers for their upcoming autumn mixed bill, Geometry and Grace. Eve Mutso, a Scottish Ballet soloist who is originating one of the main parts in Caniparoli’s new work, says about his choreography: “I think it’s really powerful and has a really fierce energy, with sort of ethnic movements mixed with purely classical lines, and these breathtaking still moments which kind of calm you down. So it’s a real mix of everything.”

Caniparoli’s self-described “eclectic and schizoid” style is the result of his rather unconventional career.

Whereas most professional ballet dancers train intensely throughout their childhood and join a ballet company straight out of high school, Caniparoli didn’t start ballet until much later. He had always been interested in all forms of dance: the old ballroom style

"Actors want motivation before any kind of movement, and the dancers want the movement before motivation"

of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, ethnic dancing (which inspired one of his most acclaimed works, Lambarena), modern dance, social dance, even ice skating.

But it wasn’t until after university, where he studied everything from English and speech education to music, theatre and design, that it dawned on him that he could be a dancer as a profession. He auditioned for the San Francisco Ballet School, and, despite his age (at that time, you couldn’t join San Francisco Ballet School after the age of 16), they recognised his talent and accepted the university graduate, on a prestigious Ford Foundation scholarship.

“I think my background of not starting dance so soon in a way shaped how I choreograph”, says Caniparoli. “It might have been different if I were 5 or 6 when I started.” It certainly allowed him a wider perspective than those of dancers who have been immersed in the narrow world of classical ballet their whole lives, and provided him with a broad base of knowledge and ideas from which to draw inspiration.

Perhaps his strongest influence is his background in theatre. In addition to studying theatre at university, Caniparoli has had extensive experience choreographing for opera and theatre companies, most recently co-writing and -directing The Tosca Project for the esteemed American Conservatory Theatre.

Thinking about this experience, and how it influenced his choreographic process, he says: “It was musically based but you had to approach it differently. The actors want motivation before any kind of movement, and the dancers want the movement before motivation. So there’s this whole thought process, I had to figure out how to come in between – so it has affected me.”

This unique ability to “come in between” is frequently commented on by critics, who praise Caniparoli’s choreography for its “implicit theatricality” without being overblown and detracting from the physicality of the movement. Mutso recognises this in his new work: “It’s a really emotional piece, without being too dramatic. It gives a lot of chances for couples to dance, and it’s like living though these real emotions which I think audiences can really relate to.”

The main inspiration for the piece didn’t come from a relationship, however. It came from a much simpler idea: the flight of birds. Caniparoli was intrigued by the idea of flight as a metaphor for life, and of loss of flight—being grounded—as a metaphor for death.

Caniparoli came to Glasgow with that general idea, but not knowing exactly how it would manifest itself in his choreography. But rehearsing in Scottish Ballet’s beautiful studios, full of natural light from the vast windows in the slanting ceilings, provided that extra nudge. “There are so many seagulls in Glasgow… in these studios I’m looking up here and I’m constantly seeing seagulls fly by. I’m choreographing and all of a sudden they appear and then they go away and that’s inspirational too.”

There’s something special about the fact that the piece draws inspiration from birds on both sides of the Atlantic.

Given the fact that that body of water seems to create a significant divide in the dance world, one hopes that Caniparoli’s work will be equally well received on this side as it is back home. Caniparoli is philosophical about this: “There is a difference, I think, even in Europe, from country to country. But I haven’t altered what I’m doing.

You just never know: what works in London may not work in Madrid, or in New York City.”

For Mutso, Caniparoli’s different style is appreciated: “I really like it, and it’s nice to do something completely new and fresh. I’m really curious to learn more.”

Geometry and Grace will feature Caniparoli’s new work alongside two pieces by British choreographers.

The epitome of British classical elegance, Ashton’s Scenes de Ballet, will be contrasted by the exciting, relentless energy of Ashely Page’s Fearful Symmetries.

Scottish audiences are lucky that their national ballet company takes on such stylistically diverse works.

As for the three pieces in Geometry and Grace, the increasingly versatile and proficient Scottish Ballet dancers are uniquely placed to show each of these works in their best light.

THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW, 16 - 18 Sep, 7.30pm £12 - £20 EDINBURGH FESTIVAL THEATRE 23 - 25 Sep, 7.30pm £10 - £20 His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 1 & 2 Oct, 7.30pm £12.50 - £22.50 www.scottishballet.co.uk

Performance

preview Carmen @ the Citz Citizens Theatre Glasgow From 7 Sep

ROMEO AND JULIET THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST THE SNOW QUEEN A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE AGE OF AROUSAL MARILYN EDUCATING AGNES DUNSINANE BOX OFFICE: 0131 248 4848 GROUPS 8+: 0131 248 4949 www.lyceum.org.uk Company No. SC062065 Scottish Charity Registered No. SC010509

Text David McNally There’s a fair series of firsts associated with Scottish Opera’s upcoming production of Bizet’s Carmen.

First opera at the venerable Citizens Theatre, bringing together two disparate crowds; the first staging of Carmen set during Franco’s regime, bringing new levels of complexity and relevance; and the professional debut of self-described ‘Welsh farmer’s daughter’ Rebecca Afonwy-Jones.

“I came to opera fairly late. I was always encouraged to sing by my family but I guess I never thought it was a viable career option so I did a few other things first then trained when I was 27.” That’s the time when most singers are finishing their training.

“People come at it from different angles. There seem to be a lot of lawyers who then decide they want to sing opera.” A similar sense of drama maybe?

“Ha, yeah you have to be a really good actor to be a lawyer so maybe that’s the connection!”

She has previously done a lot of educational work for Scottish Opera but Carmen is her bow as a lead.

It’s a role many singers would kill for I imagine? “I’m so lucky, there will be many sopranos wailing in the aisles, saying they want to be Carmen –and they can’t, it’s mine!” A feisty lady, how Carmen is that?

“Its a big responsibilty, a bit of a ‘bungee-jump’ role for me, exciting and terrifying. But I’m not hiding behind the sofa anymore, I’m like ‘Come on, let’s have it!’”

Having been in Glasgow for 2 years, she has forged a strong connection with the city. “It’s really beautiful, you can breathe – which is kind

of important for an opera singer – and since I’m a real country girl, being near lochs and mountains is great for me. Even if we have a 10 minute break I’m heading for the daylight in my tall wig and costume.”

With the Citizens being such a Glasgow insitution you’re extending the audience in two directions at once, the diehard opera crowd who would never cross the river and the hardy Southsiders who populate the Citz. “I’m really excited to bring in an audience who would never normally do opera, and Carmen is the one with something for everyone. I mean you’ve got Beyonce aping the style, and the songs are so well known...I think Glasgow excels at nights out where you experience something you normally wouldn’t do, and that’s the idea here. I love it.”

The modern setting adds new textures, as does the relative youth of the cast. “Everyone in it is at the beginning of their careers, so it’s great for them to have these iconic, exciting roles but in a very earthy venue rather than one of the big houses in London.” And your role is the juiciest of all. “Yeah she’s a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, doing anything she can to survive.” Presuming you can access that side of yourself... “I’ll give the audience an entertaining Carmen. Let’s say I will use my guile and wit, give them a sultry, sexy Carmen.” Promises promises. See for yourself when this Señorita hits the Southside and leaves a trail of broken hearts in her wake. www.vanishing-point.org

September 2010

THE SKINNY 31

Performance

review

review

The Not-So-Fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo Traverse Theatre 8-29 Aug

rrrr Rhyming couplets aplenty, Vox Motus introduces the little American town of Reliance Falls. Strumming guitars and singing with a country twang, we meet four of the residents welcoming us to their home and explaining that we have never heard of it because it is “really, really, super-duper shit.” The tone of the performance set, the humorous tale of Fridtijof Fredo unfolds.

Based on a true story, The Not-So-Fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo tells of a man who attempts to cryogenically freeze his grandfather’s body using dry ice. Joining the eccentric Fridtijof are a host of redneck stereotypes, all ably portrayed by a cast of four actors. Capitalising on the intriguingly ridiculous nature of the plot, boundaries of the absurd are flouted in this highly physical theatrical experience.

The production is very visual, energetic and ‘cartoonesque’. Sections of mime synchronised with sound effects are wittily utilised to enhance the bizarre setting. A musical theatre mentality of ‘why speak it when you can sing it?’ makes perfect sense and live video projections create moments of comic genius. The pop-up design of the transformational set is inspired, allowing the company to open out a whole town from one small shed.

Vox Motus’ latest play is yet another example of their exciting explorations into a defining style. This genre-fusing company are taking steps towards the future of performance and it is encouraging to see such progressive work being developed in bonnie Scotland. If

Beautiful Burnout Pleasance 4-29 Aug

rrr you are into cryogenic freezing then this one will warm your heart. Dead good. [Laurin Campbell] www.voxmotus.co.uk

preview

The National Theatre of Scotland, even after the international success of Blackwatch is still willing to experiment with adventurous theatre-making. Their predominantly young casts – often recent graduates from the RSAMD – and collaborations with companies like Frantic Assembly, one of British Physical Theatre’s originators, suggest that the NTS is looking both for another hit show and ways around bland drama.

Beautiful Burnout does fall between two stools: the boxing match finale and montages of training leap from the heavy script as examples of how movement can be more expressive than words. Yet much of the play is given over to Bryony Lavery’s script, which is a relatively pedestrian, chronological study of one boy’s journey towards destiny.

Like Lavery’s last play seen at Tramway, Kursch, the essential tragedy is not trusted enough to carry the

emotional weight and a secondary, irrelevant disaster is thrown in. Never really deciding whether it wants to be naturalistic or speak directly to the audience, the script lumbers against the sleek footwork of the dance sequences.

A curious hybrid of traditional play and Dance Theatre, Beautiful Burnout is supported by strong central performances and there are moments of sublime beauty.

A boxer who finding himself slowly suffocating beneath the weight of his success is crucified against television screens; intimate moments are played out in the corner.

And Lavery insists on covering all angles, albeit incompletely, from female boxing, the reasons why mothers might accept their sons competing at such risk, even the dubious motivations of the trainer and referree.

The question of whether this is physical or scripted theatre may seem academic, but it is this tension that weakens Burnout. Never sure what it wants to be, it wanders from its purpose and is a tough slap when it could have been a knock out. [Gareth K Vile] Beautiful Burnout moves to Tramway, Glasgow 2 to 11 Sep, £15

preview Vanishing Point

Iain Campbell

Arches LIVE Arches LIVE! is an institution, having shifted in the past few years from a radical theatre extravangza to a radical performance fortnight. With 28 local artists, including the all-conquering Nic Green and the veteran Ian Smith in solo mode, Arches Live! is both a first step for young artists and a celebration of Scottish based live art.

The themes of this year’s edition are suitably broad: Green checks out the relationship between place and identity, Ugly Pup consider the process of aging while a certain Skinny Performance editor exposes his eccentric vision of performance criticism.

Jackie Wylie, whose uncompromising vision has led to The Arches championing small scale and local performance explained the festival’s ethos: “There is no doubt that we are living in uncertain times and many of the artists at this year’s Arches Live are determined to ask difficult questions,” she comments. “For me, what is exciting is their refusal to provide definitive answers.

Rather, the festival opens up a space

32 THE SKINNY September 2010

for conversation, ignites new debate and creates sparks of dynamic dialogue.”

It is not only content that is diverse and questioning: jumping from drama into music are Iain Campbell’s he’s NOT_WITH (Music installation), Lawrence Crawford’s Coma features Joel Stone from west coast rockers band Shitdisco. Visual art arrives with Inbox, while the latest generation of RSAMD and Glasgow University graduates cross boundaries without even noticing.

An introduction to Scotland’s underground theatre and an exampler of how curation can be a performance in itself, Arches Live! is a more focused Fringe to Glasgow’s ongoing theatre festival. [Phil Gatt]

The Arches, 16 – 25 Sep, £28/£24 for a festival pass £13/£9 for a day pass www.thearches.co.uk

Acclaimed director Matthew Lenton has another laurel to stick in his cap: he has become the first UK director to be invited to lead this year’s prestigious École des Maîtres.

Lenton, the artistic director of the theatre company Vanishing Point, has a history of creating challenging productions of high quality. Recent work of his includes the award-winning play Interiors, which is returning for another European tour, Little Otik, which was a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland, and the recent (and somewhat controversial) production of The Beggar’s Opera, which split critics and audiences.

Vanishing Point has a reputation of excellence and is considered by many to be one of the most influential theatre companies currently working in Scotland. According to their website, they create highly theatrical work that is “action-based theatre, combining performance with multimedia” and results in work that is “visual, filmic, evocative and impressionistic.”

Lenton’s involvement with the École des Maîtres now puts him in league with some of theatre’s greatest practitioners, including Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Stein, Lev Dodin, Dario Fo, Eimuntas Nekrošius, Jan Fabre, Pippo Delbono and Antonio Latella, all of whom had worked with the school. École des Maîtres itself is designed to put young aspiring actors in professional contact with some of theatre’s greatest artists, allowing them to not only train but to also work alongside them. Students come from all over Europe and go through a gruelling audition process for one of 22 places.

This puts Lenton in the unique place of not

only representing the UK but in also influencing and guiding the next generation of practitioners.

[Michael Cox] Tramway, 29 Sep - 2 Oct, 7.30pm £14 www.vanishing-point.org

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Big news in the comedy community has recently focussed on 'Cheggersgate', where Keith Chegwin has been stealing jokes from other comedians. Local act and prolific tweeter Teddy tells us about his own experiences Illustration Nick Cocozza

Join them....

What is it you like about Twitter?

Tweeting gags has been a double-edged sword.

On the plus side, I now have almost 1500 followers, a lot of one-liners that I may not have had the motivation to write otherwise, and I’ve been able to record my jokes in a date-stamped fashion by tweeting them. On the negative side is the frustration of seeing my jokes appropriated for uncredited commercial use.

‘At school we discussed the great rulers.

I opted for the Helix 30cm shatterproof’. This joke you wrote recently made it into the last 20 of a joke competition carrying a £5000 prize.

Great. Except it had been entered by someone else. Thankfully, the comedy chain running the contest were happy to disqualify the gag when I pointed it out, and I’ve now got a couple of open spots and the chance to prove my abilities in one of their clubs.

Not long after that came a second uncredited appearance for the same gag – this time on national television. I was pretty stunned to hear Countdown host Jeff Stelling end an opening monologue with it.

Can you really copyright a joke?

People often don’t realise that jokes are also covered by copyright. Jokes, like any other form of literature, are protected as soon as they are ‘fixed’, ie recorded (for instance on Twitter). Publishing (or broadcasting) of them requires the permission of the author.

Of course, there is some leeway on this. A joke is covered ‘provided the comedian has used original skill to create it’. So an obvious topical joke would be difficult to protect, as there’s too high a chance of someone else coming up with it independently. Another bit of wriggle room would be a joke appearing in a review because ‘news & review’ is generally considered fair usage.

Though bear in mind that the nature of this usage means the joke would at least be credited.

So people need your permission to tell one of your gags in the pub?

Nope, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m happy people like my gags. The same applies to retweeting – and the joke author remains clear in that instance.

When it comes to commercial use though, be aware that they are covered by copyright, you require my permission, and I’ll probably require a fee. As for

Scotland's largest entertainment and listings magazine d Free d 34,329 copies per month (ABC verified) d 160,000 readers a month d Available in over 700 venues

Contact sales@theskinny.co.uk or call 0131 467 4630 "The Skinny is far more than a listings magazine, it's at the forefront of cultural activity across Scotland..."

Jen Davies, Marketing26/8/10 Manager, 15:25 GlasgowPage Film Theatre/ Glasgow Film Festival rn_155x126Skinny 1

everyone, the principle of being paid when my work is used commercially is pretty fundamental to me having a roof over my head.

What happened with Countdown?

Thankfully, Channel 4 were good enough to agree that the joke was mine, that I’ll be paid for it, and that I can submit material for future potential credited use at the discretion of the producer. Hopefully what could have been a negative has now become an opportunity.

Sounds like you were lucky this time. So how do you know all this legal stuff?

So that I’m not forgetting to credit the worthy myself, much of the knowledge I’ve gleaned on the subject of joke copyright over the past year has come from the digging of comedy journalist @ jayirichardson.

You can follow Teddy @ComedyTeddy Follow us @SkinnyComedy or @theskinnymag

Top Five Out of the Central Belt August left you feeling like there's no comedy outside Edinburgh?

This'll prove you wrong

MICK PERRIN FOR

THURS 7 OCT 0844 847 1660

edinburghplayhouse.org.uk

mickperrin.com

rossnoble.co.uk ROSS NOBLE'S NEW LIVE DVD OUT NOVEMBER

Robin Ince’s Bad Book Club 30 Sep, 8pm, £14 (£12/£10) The Byre Theatre, St Andrews Discussions on the world’s worst literature.

Dundee Just Laugh 4 Sep 9pm, £9 Fat Sams Night Club, Dundee With Bruce Fummey, Chris Henry, Stephen Dick and Stu Who? Also available in Perth. (New County Hotel, 3 Sep)

Sidesplitters Comedy Club 18 Sep, 9pm, £6 Irvine Harbour Arts Centre With Des Clarke and Billy Kirkwood. Probably the best value comedy show in the country.

Kai Humphries & Mark Nelson 30 Sep, 8:30pm, £8.50(£7.50) Dunfermline Carnegie Hall Two top acts, fresh from the Fringe, for the price of one.

Breakneck Comedy 12 Sep, 8pm, £7(£5) The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen Line up still to be announced, but previous billings set standards high. [Lizzie Cass-Maran]

Pre-order today from

September 2010

THE SKINNY 33

Comedy

Twitter – a Blessing or a Curse?

Art

A Catalogue of Ideas Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley is a rare thing in the art world: someone whose work people – normal(ish) people – actually love. He's made sculptures, music videos, drawings and books too numerous to count, and much more besides. He kindly made time to have a chat with The Skinny about his new anthology, What The Hell Are You Doing?

Andrew Cattanach

End of the affair I’m anticipating a slump. Summer is drawing to an end (and has been for weeks now), festival season is more or less over, and my brief love affair with Edinburgh is grinding to a halt. Seems we’re sick of the sight of each other, me and the fair Capital, both of us guilty of doing too much too soon.

It’s perhaps a little early to reflect on what was and what might have been, but I suppose that’s what I’m here for. The Collective had long videos about stuff in the style of Johan Grimonprez, Stills had some tasteful photos of landscapes, Talbot Rice had several very curious paintings of children, Sierra Metro dryly considered contemporary design, and ESW chose to practise a tantric method of exhibition, and are still yet to climax.

34 THE SKINNY September 2010

And what about old Creed? His ballet was one of the most ludicrously enjoyable things I’ve seen at the festival. His Fruitmarket show, on the other hand, perhaps one of the biggest let downs.

Seemingly abandoning his ability to astound audiences with virtually nothing, here we experience a rather inelegant taster menu. But with the aroma of his Common Guild show still in the air, he was bound to fail.

Talking of The Common Guild, who isn’t wetting themselves over Robert Barry’s impending arrival? Opening on the 4 September, The Guild have also commissioned a series of events to coincide with the show, kicking off with an artist’s talk on 3 September. A pioneer of conceptual art, Barry was dealing in minimal intervention before Creed was even born.

Interview Rosamund West What’s the general idea behind What The Hell Are You Doing?

It’s primarily an anthology of my work over the last 18 to 19 years – a greatest hits if you will. Although my idea of what constitute greatest hits tends to differ quite wildly from what other people see.

There’s some new work in there and there’s also some unseen stuff collected from things I did for the Guardian. And some other stuff that’s been published in very limited edition books that haven’t been seen very much. There are some sculptural works and also odd photographs of things that I’ve made. It’s quite a mixture, and we spent quite a long time producing it to make sure that it looks nice, nicer than all my other books which are sometimes a little bit hastily rendered.

It does look very nice.

It’s a coffee table book. I suppose it’s the most complete thing that I’ve done, and it’s kind of useful to have that. If it can go on the coffee table then, well you’ve got to put something on the coffee table.

The book’s massive. How did you decide on the arrangement of works?

Most of the books I make are collections of drawings rather than having a narrative, so I kind of realised over the years how things fit together in a visual way rather than sequence of ideas or themes or anything. So I put it together quite intuitively, visually so it had a balance.

Then there were all these things that I’d never really thought about before that the publishers were telling me about, like you’ve got to have a strong section at the beginning and a strong section in the middle and a strong section at the end cos when people are in a bookshop that’s what they look at. So I had to bow down to their superior knowledge of how things are put together. But essentially [Canongate] were pretty good actually, for a big publisher, they let me do pretty much what I wanted without too much interference.

Why’s it called Essential? Is this the ultimate book or will there be more?

Yes, there are going to be quite a few more, unless I die. It’s got to be called something that indicates that it’s some kind of best of collection. After much negotiation – I didn’t want to call it anything like that, in fact I didn’t want my name in the title – that was my concession to proper publishing. I kind of wanted it to have a proper title, so What The Hell Are You Doing? will hopefully be what people call it. Rather than The Essential David Shrigley, which seems a bit pompous. I spelled it wrong on the cover. Not completely playing along with the idea.

You’re very much known for your books. Did you start off self-publishing?

Yeah, I left art school in ’91 and that’s when I published my first book. That was just a sort of photocopied pamphlet I made and distributed myself. The first 2 or 3 books were like that. I guess I just wanted to create a forum for my work, where it could be without having to ask anybody else’s permission or support. I just published myself and sold things in the pub.

How did it take off? At what point were you able to live off your art – I assume there was a period of shit jobs?

Yeah, there was probably about 5 years of shit jobs. Then I was commissioned to make a book for a publisher in London and the guy that edited it wrote for an art magazine [it was Frieze]. They did a feature in the art magazine, then things started to snowball. I was on the cover of Frieze in October 1995. That was my moment I suppose. And then I started to show with commercial galleries, and sell my work. So I gave up work in ’96. ‘Gave up work’ [laughs]. It’s still hard work! But I haven’t had a ‘proper’ job since 1996.

Do you ever feel like your style has been plagiarised?

I don’t really feel like I’ve got a style to be honest.

It’s always something that other people tell me. The work’s more about a certain idea or something that I want to express. I could probably just as easily make the work in a different medium. It could be a painting, or a film or a song I guess. It’s always been the easiest way to do it, to make a drawing with text. I think there’s a particular voice that I have but I don’t think anyone else could have that voice, not that I recognise anyway. When people do things that are superficially similar to what I do, unless it’s blatant plagiarism it doesn’t bother me at all – I didn’t invent crap drawing.

What are you proudest of, out of everything you’ve produced?

I’m most proud of the fact that I don’t have to have a ‘proper’ job. And my wife doesn’t have to have a job.

It might be a dumb thing to be proud of… I think the thing you’re most excited about is always the thing you’ve done right now, that you’ve just finished. Then you get sick of it pretty quick. Then maybe 6 months later you can see it for what it is. Or sometimes several years later you can see it for what it is.

Do you really do 30 drawings a day?

That seems a good number, a good day’s work. I’m into even numbers. On A3 30 is quite a lot. On A4 I might go up to 40. It does have to be an even number though. It couldn’t possibly be 31, it would have to be 32 or 34. I’m a bit mad about stuff like that.

How long do you live with them before chucking some out?

I think a year. Space becomes a problem after a certain point when you’ve been doing that much. If they still don’t look good in a year then they’re bad, so they’re torn up and put in the recycling. I don’t draw all the time though. I always have obligations to do things so I go through phases of making drawings then other times I’ll make some sculptural work then other times I’ll work on some animation… I like being at home drawing, it’s easy in a way. It’s easy but it’s hard.

It’s every child’s fantasy as well, to just sit and draw all day.

It’s a great thing. You do have to remind yourself it’s great because sometimes when you have to do it, it becomes a bit of a chore. But when you don’t have to do it it’s a great joy. So I’m always trying to pretend that I do something else.

Our designer Lewis would like to know what your favourite pen is?

Now you’re asking… Well there’s a different pen for a different task isn’t there. For making my drawings I use a Uniball Posca poster pen marker, made by the Mitsubishi pencil company. That’s my pen of choice for drawing. All different shapes and sizes and colours, but mostly black. I have several boxes of them. But I have a vast array of different pens for doing different things. Like biro for filling in FedEx forms, pencil for writing in my diary. And all sorts of other pens. Writing in my notebook, there’s a notebook pen.

Do Uniball sponsor you?

No they don’t. I should get the agent on the case.

Finally, have you been doing a phone doodle during this conversation?

No. What I’ve been doing is slightly tidying the kitchen. [Laughs] When you called I spilled stuff, and I’ve been gradually mopping it up.

What The Hell Are You Doing? The Essential David Shrigley is published by Canongate, out on 16 Sep, cover price £20

"I didn’t invent crap drawing" DAVID SHRIGLEY

Staged @ City Observatory City Observatory 30 Jul - 15 Aug

rrr The title of Kim Coleman & Jenny Hogarth’s new Edinburgh Festival commission might suggest a work that is rather spectacular. ‘Staged’ is a term often used to allude to all that is amplified, visually seductive and riddled with exaggerated fakery. Likewise press releases for the show describe a project that seeks to document the ‘human drama’ that invades the city every August.

Yet sitting quietly at the summit of Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, Staged uses a mixture of live feed CCTV and pre-recorded footage to chronicle the 2010 festival with a lightness of touch that is almost imperceptible.

Projected floor to ceiling onto every wall of the small, sweltering box that is The City Observatory, many of the images depict Edinburgh in the abstract, focusing on the pattern of light on rooftops in a way that feels

preview

Art

review

more referential of the visual history of painting than the rampant cavorting of theatrical display.

For centuries the human race has been compelled to recreate its environment via art and the production of imagery. What began with cave paintings and experiments with pinhole photography now finds form in reality TV and the popularity of camera phones. Coleman and Hogarth understand that as our access to digital media increases, so does our tendency to record the painfully mundane. While trying to concentrate on out-of-focus CCTV images of an empty city bar at lunchtime, it’s impossible not to wonder if all of this voyeurism is really as entertaining as we think.

Back outside on Calton Hill the air is fresh, some kids are running about playing football and an American tourist is bitching at his wife about the fact that their dog has just taken a shit in the grass. It’s a human drama all of its own and yet no-one in their right mind feels compelled to photograph it. [Vanessa Bartlett] www.collectivegallery.net

Saturday 2nd October 11am - 5pm Sunday 3rd October 12pm - 5pm

Yuck ‘n Yum’s Annual General Karaoke

films worth talking about

HOME OF THE EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

City Chambers, Dundee 18 Sep

Yuck ‘n’ Yum is a Dundee based art zine production team who have been in business for nigh on half a decade and have created some 11 issues of their celebrated publication. A modest black and white affair that marries text with image, the zine has in the past included work

by Alex Hetherington and Kevin McPhee.

Like any big business, Yuck ‘n Yum have a responsibility to their shareholders and the public in general.

It’s time they illustrate their net profits, evidence their capital accumulations, and acknowledge their gaping fiscal gap at their Annual General Karaoke (AGK).

Held on 18 September at City Chambers, Dundee, the AGK, unlike ordinary karaoke events, encourages each participant to produce a video that will accompany their undoubtedly dismal crooning. Guest speakers include Richie Cummings who will be recreating the intro to Cheers in Dundee’s very own Art Bar, while FEAR WASABI take on the Pixies’ Debaser.

Keynote speakers will include Rachel MacLean and the artist collective Now Now. What else the event might have in store is a carefully guarded secret but the organisers offer £300 and a mini residency at the Hannah Maclure Centre as a prize for the best contribution. What is more, and as if you needed any more encouragement, buses have been chartered from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen to take participants and spectators to the event.

Let’s hope to see videos with a painfully literal correlation between word and image alongside its antithesis, stupendously abstract suggestions of mood and atmosphere with little or no reference to lyrical content. Perhaps someone will even have the gumption to perform a wee dance routine to an instrumental number.

Far from a song and dance about nothing – Yuck ‘n Yum mean business.[Andrew Cattanach]

Meadow Mill, Dundee Edinburgh: Patriothall, Stockbridge Albion Road, Leith West Park Place, Dalry Glasgow: Hanson Street, Dennistoun The Briggait, Merchant City Courtyard Studios, Irvine Langstane Place, Aberdeen St Mary’s Mill, Selkirk

Hundreds of artists in Wasps’ studios across Scotland will open their doors and showcase a wide variety of work including: painting, printmaking, photography, ceramics, textiles, digital media, jewellery, glass installation and sculpture.

For more information about locations and participating artists, please visit:

www.waspsstudios.org.uk

agk.yucknyum.com

September 2010

THE SKINNY 35

Music

Let Spirits Ride In 2008 they brought us In The Future. Now in that future, Black Mountain are ready to unleash Wilderness Heart. Matt Camirand finds the time to talk about its creation, his Led Zeppelin fantasises and how hip-hop legends unite the young rockers Text Darren Carle When you dream of becoming a ‘rock star’ it no doubt involves victoriously punching the air in front of a sold-out stadium gig, Freddie Mercury style, or combining the cream of guitar rock signature moves in a way that would make Marty McFly proud. Little thought it seems is given to the laborious time spent travelling or the mundane periods of just waiting around in unfamiliar venues.

Matt Camirand, bassist with nu-psych rock behemoths Black Mountain is clearly in the throes of

the less glamorous side of being in a touring rock band when The Skinny meets with him backstage at T in the Park, fresh off the Futures stage after a blistering but brief half-hour slot. “It was just in the last song that I started to feel we were hitting our stride and then it was over,” he laments. “I wish we could hang out and have a little experience but we’re leaving now. We’ll literally have been here for like, two hours in total.”

Testament to this, our interview takes place in the Black Mountain tour van, partly to get some peace and quiet but also because Camirand is not exaggerating; five minutes off the stage at T and after our brief

Dave Kerr

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Birthdays quite rightly mean gratuitous selfindulgence, but they don’t count for much without the company of pals. So rather than just slap our own backs to celebrate 60 issues, we’re fortunate to be surrounded by a wealth of spiritual brothers and sisters in Music this month – many folk our writers have long admired before the wee rag you hold in your hands first went to print in September 2005, and in some senses mavericks who brought about the need to create our humble magazine in the first place. For instance, Steve Mason once said of The Skinny: “Love what you’re doing, gives me hope,” which damn near had me greetin’.

I mean, what other self-respecting publication in Scotland is going to recommend that you ‘FUCK JAMIE OLIVER TO FIERY HELL’? See Jay Shukla’s always awesome (and fairly contentious, to people

36 THE SKINNY September 2010

who don’t like chips anyway) rundown of the gigs you need to be at this month on page 52, opposite Ryan Drever’s debut Metal Column. Elsewhere – attacking us from all sides on a month typically reserved for post-festival comedowns and tinnitus recovery – you can find a sizeable raft of album reviews from local stalwarts, indie legends and (slight?) returning champions alike.

We also (deep breath) sit down with Alan Moore, Manic Street Preachers, Black Mountain and Mogwai to talk new horizons; guest writers this month include Divorce (Glasgow’s snarling riot grrrls – and boy – catch a blether with Comanechi before they all jump in a van), Aidan Moffat (who revisits Arab Strap’s early catalogue) and The Vaselines (unveiling a worthy follow up to their debut – 20 years later). Better than birthday cake.

conversation the band will literally be back on the road. “The whole idea is to play smaller places, so that way when the record comes out I guess we can come back and not do what we’re doing now,” he explains of the necessary grind.

That new record is up-coming third album Wilderness Heart, a relatively punchy burst of classic rock templates that strips away much of the proggy excess that endeared us to 2008’s breakthrough In The Future to begin with. “This time we wanted to do something totally different,” Camirand begins. “We wanted to do some really concise, shorter stuff and just do a ten-song, 45 minute album you know? Just go in the opposite direction.”

Tracks like opener The Hair Song exemplify this, with its upbeat Californian slide-guitar riff, call and response vocals and Camirand’s nod to a certain bass legend. “It’s the worst title ever but it’s my favourite song on the record,” he beams. “The reason I like it so much is because I got to really release my inner John Paul Jones. I don’t particularly play bass like him but the riff, it just happened instantly – like there was no other bass part for that song. It was cool and very refreshing to hit on something new for myself.”

When a direction re-think is on the cards it no doubt helps to get in some outside ears to rein in your penchant for sixteen-minute prog epics. “It’s the first time we’ve hired an outside producer,” admits Camirand on the recording of the new effort, which saw alternative rock engineer Dave Sardy (Slayer, Nine Inch Nails) in LA and drone specialist Randall Dunn (Boris, Earth) in Seattle juggle production duties.

“It feels like having another member in the group and it’s challenging because it’s hard to let a ‘stranger’ into our world because we’re all so tight and have spent so much time together,” says Camirand. “It was a big leap of faith for us, but it was something we were all willing to do because we could easily have made the same record again otherwise.”

It’s a change that works, largely because In The Future was such a masterclass in various disciplines that there seemed little doubt Black Mountain were well-versed enough to hone their technique in whichever way they saw fit. It’s also likely to capitalise on the exposure they received with In The Future, being a more inclusive and less intimidating record. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t expect it a little bit,” admits Camirand of enjoying such success and hoping for a little more. “I’m 34, I’ve been on the road since I was 17 so it’s about fucking time! It’s pleasantly surprising but at the same time we’ve all been working really hard towards this for so many years that it’s like ‘fuck, I wish this had happened ten years ago!’”

“I got to really release my inner John Paul Jones" Matt Camirand Yet despite the fact that Camirand now describes Black Mountain’s status as “full-time”, all members of the group still manage to engage in a dizzying amount of side-projects, Camirand being no exception. “For me it’s more like ‘not work’,” he claims of one of his other projects, notably Blood Meridian. “It’s like getting together with some friends to have a few beers with no agenda whatsoever. It’s purely for fun and enjoyment.” And yet the man still finds time to put in shifts for Insite, an organisation that works with the poor and chronically ill in his hometown Vancouver. “For many years they gave me the time to do the band and always welcomed me back when the band wasn’t making any money,” he explains. “So I feel like I owe them a little bit of time, you know?”

Time he certainly doesn’t seem to have as our interview comes all-too-quickly to an end, with the rest of the band clambering into the modest tour van ready for the next stop. So what’s going on the tour stereo? I casually ask as we part. “Wu-Tang Clan is about the only thing we can all agree on,” is the swift and surprising reply. “But every time we do a tour, less and less music gets played on the stereo. This whole tour has just been silence,” jokes Camirand.

Given the thunderous noise we have just witnessed at their hands and the gruelling schedule that lies ahead, a little bit of peace and quiet does seem in order. That’s rock ‘n’ roll for you, kids.

Wilderness Heart is released via Jagjaguwar on 13 Sep. Black Mountain play Òran Mór, Glasgow on 14 Sep www.facebook.com/BlackMountainOfficial

Music

s ’ k c a Mr.J

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THE Tennessee WAY. All MONTH Long.

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Make M ake M Mr.r. Jack’s Jack’s birthday birthday a memorable memorable one. one. Please Please drink drink responsibly. responsibly.

Copyright Cop oppy yrriigght yri ht ©2010 ht ©20 2201 01 010 JJACK AC A ACK CK C K DA D DANIE DANIEL’S. AN NIE NI IIE ELS L’’S L’S L ’S. All Allll rig rri rights igght httss re hts reserved. ese seerrvved ser veeedd. d. JJACK AC ACK A CK D CK DA DANIEL’S AN AN NIE IIE EL L’S L’ LS ’’S S and and O an OLD LD L D NO.7 NO. NO N O.7 are O arree registered rreeeggist reg ist is ist stere ere er rreed trademarks. trad aaddema em m rks rrk ks. ks

www.jacksbirthday.co.uk w ww ww w..jja ac ck kssb biirrtth hd da ay y..c co o.u .uk

September 2010

THE SKINNY 37

Music

Libraries Gave Us Power Nicky Wire gives some insight into the books (and music) that helped shape Postcards from a Young Man Straw Dogs by John N. Gray Dubbed “the philosopher of pessimism”, John Gray's Straw Dogs attacks humanism, religion and science with equal fervour. “We cannot be rid of illusions. Illusion is our natural condition,” he writes.

“It’s philosophy for the masses,” says Wire. “But I like that. Lyric-wise, Straw Dogs was my main influence; a philosophical text on the dislocation of modern life.”

The Coming Insurrection by The Invisible Committee The Coming Insurrection proposes a push towards an anti-capitalist revolution through underground communes and networks that will strike at authority in times of crisis. “I guess it’s an updating of the Situationist International (a Marxist revolutionary group in the 1960s). It’s a really small, thin book that you can read in one sitting and every line just clicks with you in many respects.”

Down to the Wire Having exorcised their demons with 2009’s Journal for Plague Lovers, the Manic Street Preachers are setting their sights back on the charts with Postcards From a Young Man. Nicky Wire gives the lowdown on the band’s “last shot at mass communication”

Interview Darren Carle With their political sloganeering, dogged introspection and glam make-up, the Manic Street Preachers have long given their devoted fan-base a design for life, even before they gave them A Design for Life. Yet surely their most ardent acolytes have had their resolve tested by some awkward, self-reflective ‘wilderness years’ albums. At such times it seemed the Manics were becoming something once unthinkable: irrelevant.

Yet remarkably, 2007’s Send Away the Tigers and last year’s Journal for Plague Lovers saw the trio reclaiming their territory whilst clearing out their foreboding attic. Billed respectively as a return to ‘new’ and ‘old’ Manic sensibilities, Tigers and Journal weren’t so easily categorised, sharing more of a jagged, over-lapping line between them.

In that context, upcoming album Postcards from a Young Man is an assuredly ‘New Manics’ album of stadium-swelling choruses, lush orchestration and bold social statements. As an unapologetic paean to nostalgia, hence the title, Postcards is suitably informed by the music and ideals from times even before its obvious forbear, Everything Must Go. Poised as album number ten, the time seemed right to remind Nicky Wire, the group’s de facto mouthpiece, about his original agenda for the Generation Terrorists; “to make one great album then split up.”

“I must admit that me and Richey totally believed in that,” he begins, all too happy to reminisce. “Let’s be honest, we were pop strategists – we didn’t really see ourselves as musicians. We were lyricists and provocateurs. I don’t feel embarrassed about saying it at all, I think it’s just part of the ‘fabulous disaster’. I do feel a bit for James and Sean though because we made them go along with it. We were like the chief whips and they had to tow the party line.”

Initially seen as something of a joke band (lest we

38 THE SKINNY September 2010

forget Steve Lamacq’s ‘for real’ posit) it took some time for critical acclaim to accumulate, as well as time for the group themselves to break out of their self-constraining mould. “It was around the recording of The Holy Bible when we realised we could be another kind of band,” says Wire. “That jump from Gold Against the Soul, to Faster and then from Faster to A Design for Life, I think then we felt we could inhabit maybe one or two or three skins. Perhaps that’s what’s given us our longevity.”

Even in spite of their rhetoric and bold statements, it seemed inconceivable back then that the group would reach their current landmark. In keeping with Postcard's yearning for simpler times and disdain for modern culture, Wire contemplates whether the Manics could sustain such a career in today’s industry. “No, I don’t think so,” he states gravely. “I think we’d self-destruct pretty quickly. If your main avenue of making money is ringtones or doing links on adverts, that must be unbelievably demoralising. I can’t understand it when people make out that it’s a better place for musicians now.”

Wire claims they regularly turn down advertisement offers or huge sums of money to play The Holy Bible for one night. “We’ve never been part of what I call ‘subsidised pension music,’” he laughs.

“I’d rather be hated than be like that.” For Wire, it’s all about keeping things special. “I think there’s a lack of preciousness in today’s music, you know. Music is beyond throwaway now. It’s so disposable because it’s become so easy to steal. Whatever people think, that does end up demeaning the art itself.”

In these dark times, which Wire describes as “not even awful, just mediocre,” Postcards’ much-heralded statement of intent is “one last shot at mass communication.”

The man himself laughs at hearing the line yet again.

“It’s one of my best,” he proudly claims. “Up there with Peter Mandelson.” The statement is within the context of ‘the death of the music industry’, an outlook Wire finds infuriating but reasons that if so, they might as well “try

and infiltrate the dreadful charts one last time.”

With the contrasting styles of their last three albums, it’s tempting to draw parallels with an earlier period in the band’s career, something Wire is happy to agree with. “Yeah, I do feel it’s a kind of symmetry,” he agrees.

“Out of the brilliant ruins of The Holy Bible came Everything Must Go and out of Journal For Plague Lovers will come this.”

Culled from lyrics left by missing guitarist Richey Edwards, it would be fair to assume that Wire approached their previous album cautiously. “I was probably more scared of doing it than anyone,” he confesses. “Since Richey disappeared I’ve found it very hard to look at the words, collages and paintings he left behind. It all felt like an artefact and that my bedroom was the museum it was being kept in. But we wanted to try and frame Richey as a great writer again because the myth sometimes overtakes the substance, if you know what I mean?”

As was perhaps expected, Journal will spell an end to the band’s darker leanings. “We’re only convincing like that when it’s Richey’s words guiding us,” admits Wire. “I wouldn’t be convincing trying to fill that space. It’s one of those albums that’s just there now, like a tablet of stone.

If people want that version of us, the sort of post-punk, jagged Manics, then I’m happy for them to choose that.”

Which leads us nicely onto those who perhaps wish to choose the other version of the Manics, or sensibly, to choose both. Lead single (It’s Not War) Just the End of Love signals the band’s biggest volte-face since 1996’s A Design for Life. “It just feels like a classic version of the ‘other’ Manics,” says Wire on choosing it for release. “Full of vim and vigour, really precise strings, brilliant guitar and an awkward title – as usual!”

Postcards also stands as the group’s most collaborative album to-date. Firstly, Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch duets on Some Kind of Nothingness.

“He was brilliant,” enthuses Wire. “We treated it like an

Pacific Ocean Blue by Dennis Wilson Dennis Wilson’s only solo album has been referred to as a cult classic partly due to being out of print for 15 years until a 2008 reissue. “Pacific Ocean Blue was a huge influence on Postcards. The gospel choirs are beautiful; a kind of melancholia but done in a very uplifting way.”

Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen Recorded mainly in Paris with a 35-piece orchestra, the fourth album by Ian McCulloch’s influential Bunnymen is now looked on as their pinnacle by many fans. “I think, in terms of rock music, that it’s the greatest orchestration ever,” is Wire’s typically succinct critique.[Darren Carle]

old-school duet. He said I’ll be the boy and James can be the girl. He really delved into the depths of his soul and he got something really beautiful and rich and textured. It was a hell of a day to be honest.”

Also likely to have made an entry into the Wire diary was working with Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, on A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun. “When we asked him he said ‘Of course, I’ll just get my old rig that I used for Appetite’. We’re still in love with music, so that was a huge thrill for us.” Finally, Welsh legend John Cale worked on the song Auto-Intoxication with the band. “Those three guests, Duff, John Cale and Ian McCulloch; that pretty much sums up a nostalgic idea of musical touchstones for us, people who really impacted on us growing up.”

It’s a circle of rock ‘n’ roll that continues as the Manic Street Preachers influence a younger generation. Those who were with them in the beginning may have lost touch at times, they may even have felt the Manics were no longer relevant in their lives. However, in describing the very essence of Postcards from a Young Man, Wire inadvertently sums up the band’s own appeal. “In a very strong way, I guess I’m saying how grateful we are to have grown up when we did. I think that when you’re fifteen to, say, twenty-two, so much of what you are exposed to stays with you forever. You might go off it, you might change, but you always end up going back to the source.”

Playing O2 Academy, Glasgow on 29 Sep; Music Hall, Aberdeen on 30 Sep and The Corn Exchange, Edinburgh on 2 Oct Postcards From a Young Man is released via Columbia Records on 20 Sep www.manicstreetpreachers.com

TTHIS HIS

SEPTEMBER

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For F or y your our chance chance to to win win*, hhead ead over over to to

www.jacksbirthday.co.uk Make M ake M Mr.r. Jack’s Jack’s birthday birthday a memorable memorable one. one. Please Please drink drink responsibly. responsibly. **For *F Foorr T Terms eerrms ms aand nndd C Conditions oonnddiiti tioonns an aand nd P Pr Prize rriiz ize D De Details eta taiilllss aas associated sso soci ciaatteedd w with iitth tth this his is ppromotion rroomo moti tioonn see see e website. web ebsite siite te. U UK K rresidents eessid esid ideennts ts 118+ 8+ oonly. nnlly y..

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September 2010

THE SKINNY 39

Music

n A Prize Every Day i W

Music

Choose Your Reality: Alan Moore Unearthed The legendary writer, magician and cultural icon discusses his new album Unearthing, reinventing H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos for the twenty-first century, and the counter-cultural collaborations of his magazine Dodgem Logic Interview Bram Gieben You think you know Alan Moore. A visionary, and mad as a bag of hammers, right? The seminal author of comics classics such as Watchmen and V for Vendetta – his body of work a fecund corpse for the maggots of Hollywood. A reclusive genius, who sequesters himself in deepest darkest Northamptonshire, practicing arcane rites and worshipping a snake god called Glycon. True perhaps, but that’s a picture often painted and repeated in profiles of this seminal, controversial writer. In person, Moore is in fact gracious, eloquent, and unflinchingly rational: a long way from the mystical ‘old man of the mountains’ image he is often assigned by the unimaginative.

Moore has been busy of late – his semi-retirement from the world of comics has opened the door for a plethora of new projects, including the self-published counter-cultural magazine Dodgem Logic, now on its fifth issue. Then there’s the new collaboration with photographer Mitch Jenkins, alongside musicians Crook & Flail (plus a small cast of indie music legends

40 THE SKINNY September 2010

who jumped at the chance to contribute to a Mooreinspired musical endeavour). The album Unearthing was released last month, accompanied by two live performances at London’s Old Vic Tunnels.

Moore intentionally let Jenkins and Crook & Flail (a duo comprising Anticon rapper / producer Adam Drucker, aka Doseone, and Andrew Broder of Fog) take the lead when it came to interpreting the spoken word recording he had made for them. “That is really exciting...seeing other minds and other talents engage with something that previously had been just very personal to you. I couldn’t be more pleased with the way it’s all turned out. I only met Adam and Andrew just last Wednesday, before the two gigs. We were immediately in sync. We’ve all, in our own way, been preparing for this for a couple of years now, so it was nice to meet up and perform it. We got closure.”

The haunting, playful and evocative narration Moore brings to the recording reflects his deep interest in both the subject matter, and his own technique when approaching the piece. The subject of Unearthing is the life of comics artist and writer Steve Moore (no relation).

“He’s one of the most influential figures in my life, going back to when I was fourteen,” Moore explains.

“I struck up an unlikely friendship with him back then. Steve has accompanied me through most of my exploits and excursions, and vice versa. It was Steve who made the first introductions to the comic book world when I wanted to become a writer; he brutally corrected all of my early scripts. Later, it was Steve’s model I was following when I decided to plunge into magic and sorcery.”

Using techniques and theories from psychogeography (the study of the effects of the geographical environment on the emotion and behaviour of individuals), the story of Steve Moore’s life is told: “It was an unusual act, in that it was more psychobiography. Applying the same techniques to a human life as Iain Sinclair, or one of the other people who have delved into this area, would apply to a street, or a neighbourhood. Using poetry as a tool with which to shape the various facts that emerge from a person or a place. It enables you to see rhymes in a history.”

These ‘rhymes’ are the thematic patterns in Steve Moore’s life. “It was only when I’d written Unearthing that even he noticed how much of a part swords have played in his life. It was a kind of recurring motif that, if you were to be reading a piece of fiction, you’d spot it straight away. But when it’s just a series of things that have happened in your life, you probably won’t make a connection.”

The landscape of Shooter’s Hill plays a huge part in the story, emerging as a metaphor for both Steve Moore’s life, and the history of London: “It was an

“Unless we’re terminally stupid, we should be getting the hang of how this works by now” ALAN MOORE

brilliant! The first sentence is him talking to the great poet of the previous generation of Newcastle poets, Basil Bunting. The first line of the story is him saying, ‘Do you think this hashish is coated in opium, Basil?’”

Moore sums up the approach of the magazine: “It’s a matter of living up to the throwaway strapline on the first issue’s cover, where we said: ‘Colliding ideas to see what happens.’ As a strategy, that seems to be working out rather well.” Moore clearly relishes this kind of counter-cultural excavation and creation, and his latest (and possibly one of his last) comics projects is attempting similar things with the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. Neonomicon is a heady blend of body horror, magickal strangeness, word-virus mysticism and ultra-realistic ‘procedural’ detective fiction techniques.

“I wanted to do a story that modernised Lovecraft successfully... I was also thinking that it would be nice if you could bring some of the naturalism of shows like HBO’s The Wire to something so inherently fantastic and unbelievable as H.P. Lovecraft. It is one of the most unpleasant stories I have ever written. It certainly wasn’t intended as my farewell to comics, but that is perhaps how it has ended up. It is one of the blackest, most misanthropic pieces that I’ve ever done. I was in a very, very bad mood.”

Asked to elaborate on the mood that inspired the darkest piece of horror he has ever written, Moore does not hold back: “I had just quit DC over the horrific stuff that went on around the Watchmen film[Moore was vocally opposed to Hollywood's reworking of his graphic novel]. I had decided that these people were actually scum, and I don’t use that in a rhetorical sense. I mean quite literally that these were people who were exhibiting a completely subhuman level of behaviour. I’ve known better behaved crackheads than some of the people who are working at these big entertainment industry conglomerates.”

Avatar Comics, a publisher specialising in creatorowned works, offered Moore the right opportunity at the right time, and he poured all of his bile about the media into his script: “I was filled with a black rage, and I think it has leaked over into the story. It gets very ugly. I wanted to be unflinching. I thought, if I’m writing a horror story, let’s make it horrible. Looking back, yes, maybe I have gone too far – but it’s still a good story.”

I ask him about his celebrated prediction in the superb documentary The Mindscape of Alan Moore that as we approach 2015, our culture will be so saturated with information that it will pass a boiling point, and become a ‘culture of steam.’ When Moore filmed Mindscape, he commented that it was hard to envision human culture after this informational singularity, even for him. Is it any clearer to him now?

“More all the time. It was my suggestion that culture and everything in it – that means technology, human psychology – all of these things would be speeding up: that we were reaching a point where we would have more information every day than we would previously have had in the whole of human history. This is the logical end-point of the steep information graph that we seemed to be following as a culture. I would say, unfortunately – and I’m not proud of this – I was probably right. I do wish that I could predict something nice sometimes... but no, it’s all monitor cameras, dodgy, deceptive plots that involve lots of people dying in New York, and all the rest of it.”

Another patented Moore concept is Ideaspace – the plane of reality where all our culture, ideas, identity and experience are located. Is Ideaspace more tangible now, what with the internet, this emerging virtual space that we have been creating?

“I think perhaps people are noticing more that Ideaspace is what it is. I don’t see a huge movement yet, but if people were to actually start thinking about the world of the mind as being separate to the world of the material – connected to it, obviously, linked – but separate, with separate laws and a separate agenda, then I think things would be clarified for a lot of people. I think that it’s the confusion between the stuff in our heads and hard reality that causes problems. Especially when it’s our politicians and leaders who are getting confused – I think that’s very unhealthy. During the Bush administration, there was that famous quote, about perceiving themselves as a ‘faith-based presidency.’ One of the top members was decrying their opponents in the ‘reality-based camp.’ It was like the Bush administration seemed to think that they were in control of reality... that they could go to Baghdad and be in and out in a

weekend, with children draping garlands of flowers over the tank barrels. It was a disastrous attempt to affect reality. Or at least a certain kind of economic, petrochemical reality.” Moore laughs affably, pausing for a second.

“We’re still paying for it now, and we may well be paying for it for generations. I think that if people realised that the world inside your head is a valid world, and it’s yours... I think that could be very empowering for a lot of people. You don’t have to go along with whatever reality you’re being sold. Because there is nothing more inherently ‘credible’ about the born-again Christian, right-wing, repugnant, ‘neoconservative project for the new American century’ reality than there is about your reality. In fact there are probably a great many more inherent absurdities in the former worldview than in the latter.”

So what is the solution? Moore – a prophet to some – leaves us with something of a benediction: “People should trust themselves more. People should be aware of the incredible potentials that they’ve got in them, and I think one step towards that would be acknowledging that there is an Ideaspace, and that we are all kings and queens of it.”

For much more Alan Moore on Neonomicon, Cthulhu and Dodgem Logic, read the extended article online at www.theskinny.co.uk Unearthing by Alan Moore, Mitch Jenkins and Crook & Flail is available now on Lex Records.

Neonomicon Issue 1 by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows is out now from Avatar Press: available at Deadhead Comics, Edinburgh and A1 Comics, Glasgow, and at all good comic stores To read more of Bram’s journalism, go to www.weaponizer.co.uk lexrecords.com

Music

opportunity to not only excavate Steve and his life, but to also excavate the area that he is attached to.”

Steve Moore still lives in the same house he was born in: “That is an unusual human story. Literally, he is that house, and vice versa. He’s made himself a part of Shooter’s Hill, so you can’t really consider one without considering the other.”

The original script of Unearthing was commissioned as a piece of prose for London: City of Disappearances. The brief was to write about a place within the capital that was disappearing, or would disappear. “It struck me that, yes, all of us will disappear eventually, and all of the places we inhabit, but Steve Moore’s story is so peculiar, so unusual on all sorts of levels, that when his story is finished, we’re probably not going to be seeing another one.”

In a similar way to his friend Steve, Alan Moore has bound himself very tightly to his local community of Northampton. His new magazine project, Dodgem Logic, contains many descriptions of and articles about his home district of Spring Burroughs. This poverty-stricken area of Northampton is in the top two or three percent of deprived areas in the country.

Moore helped a group of young offenders in the area produce a youth magazine called Ovr 2 U, a textspeak name, of which Moore wryly observes: “I have no idea what it means, but I’m assured that young people are able to decipher this kind of cryptography.”

Moore stuck with the group after a piece he had written criticising the local council was held back from publication – hence Dodgem Logic issue one was born.

“The first issue is a bit of a mess, but it is a very well-intentioned mess. It is making a lot of things possible. Mitch Jenkins wanted to do a photoshoot, this time based solely on the people of Spring Burroughs: the idea was that he was not photographing them as victims. Not trying to elicit a response of ‘Oh those poor people,’ or ‘Jesus Christ, I’m glad I don’t live near them.’ He wanted to photograph them in the way that they see themselves: in a heroic light.

The way that we all see ourselves.” Moore laughs. “At least some of the time.”

Moore wrote a poem to accompany the shots: “I finally elected to write a three hundred line poem in heroic couplets, just because that’s about the most old-fashioned form of poetry you can get, unless you’re going to something unpronounceable and Anglo-Saxon. This fairly antique verse-form next to these cutting-edge photographs, and all dealing with a very emblematic modern neighbourhood. Very similar to neighbourhoods which, I’m almost certain, are featuring very near you, and near everybody, especially during the current troubles.”

Moore is deeply concerned about the privation in his home town, and in the rest of the country: “Everywhere is getting run down. Places like the Burroughs, which have already been run down for years are just kind of a taster for where a lot of our districts and neighbourhoods are probably heading.” Moore is refreshingly honest and lucid when talking about the circumstances in the Burroughs, and confident that Dodgem Logic can help, by: “...disseminating information, and giving a voice to various grassroots political movements.”

Although he describes himself as “not much of a joiner,” Moore has helped out local anarchist groups by gathering media attention for a picket of the local council, when they covered up an exhibition of Charles Darwin’s correspondence at the behest of a visiting fundamentalist Christian group. “I have been given this kind of unasked for clout, in terms of people who know my work. It’s not something that I’ve ever sought, but it is there, and if it’s needed in some way to help stem the tide of idiocy, then I can do that.”

Politics is outmoded, and Moore has some very specific ideas about why: “I think everybody should work more directly on the problems in the community around them. I think the days of voting for someone who says they’re going to fix these problems are long over... But unless we’re terminally stupid, we should be getting the hang of how this works by now. We are not being represented. Government is not doing us any favours. If we want something done politically, we should organise in whatever form suits us, and get it done ourselves. That is politics in the twenty-first century.”

Dodgem Logic allows Moore to rediscover for all the likes of Tom Pickard: “One of the greatest British poets of the 1960s, if not the greatest,” according to Moore, who will publish the first chapter of Pickard’s autobiography in the fifth issue of Dodgem Logic. “It’s

“I’ve known better behaved crackheads than some of the people who are working at these big entertainment industry conglomerates” ALAN MOORE

Crook & Flail

September 2010

THE SKINNY 41

MUSIC

In the Studio: Black Sun

Earlier this spring we spent time in the studio with Russell McEwan of local dirge metal overlords Black Sun as they tracked new album Twilight Of The Gods with guest vocalist and author/fighter Eugene S. Robinson of Oxbow. Here's how it went down...

Interview Eric Ledford Photo Crimson Glow How did the collaboration come about?

Russell: We found out we were both playing Roadburn [Festival] last year in Holland, and we’ve been fans of Oxbow for a long time. We got in touch with Eugene, who was there doing his spoken word solo…

Eugene:…for The Fight Book.

R: Yeah, so we thought it was a perfect opportunity – ‘any chance we could collaborate on something?’

– that was as far as I kinda said initially. We’ve been developing this album for quite a while, and we already had some demo versions of the song Tabula Rasa. It’s quite structured, so I was able to give Eugene my lyrics as well. I wasn’t really stuck on him having to use them or using his own lyrics or write anything necessarily. It was kind of a good, fun thing to do.

E: Yeah, but see, our idea of fun…

R: …is someone else’s idea of hell. (laughter) E: Usually, I refuse to sing someone else’s words. This is probably the first time ever that I’ve done that. It

42 THE SKINNY SEPTEMBER 2010

speaks more to my failure to have some sort of emotional connection to whatever’s going through your head when you wrote your words, but in their case the words and the music…it’s more like a wonderful propaganda speech. (laughter) R: I know that people think we’re on a downer all the time in Black Sun – that ‘they’re heavy guys and they’re from Glasgow and they fight’ and things like that. We may sing the blues, but we certainly don’t live the blues.

E: …because you can sing the blues.

R: Yeah we try and have a good time, all the time.

Anything else about the new record?

R: We’ve got two new labels – Future Noise and Head Of Crom from Manchester. Those guys are enthusiastic so it’s really refreshing. After the full-length comes out we hope to get over to Europe for some shows.

We’re also going to be doing some noise releases that will be coming out on cassette.

BLACK SUN LAUNCH THEIR NEW ALBUM AT CLASSIC GRAND, GLASGOW ON 25 SEP BEFORE PLAYING SUPERSONIC FESTIVAL 2010 IN BIRMINGHAM ON 22 OCT WWW.MYSPACE.COM/LEGIONOFBLACKSUN

Black Sun and Eugene Robinson

The Songs of Nick Drake Saturday 16 October 7.30pm

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2

Thursday 23 September

Monday 25th October

THE CHRISTIANS

MICHAEL MCGOLDRICK AND FRIENDS

Thursday 30 September

15th Anniversary Tour with Julie Fowlis & Guests Saturday 6 November 8pm

films worth talking about

TERRY CALLIER Doors:7.30pm £22.50

Thursday 7th October

The Secret in Their Eyes 13 Aug to 9 Sep

HOME OF THE EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Begins 8pm £10

recommends this month...

LEE NELSON’S WELL GOOD TOUR

SALSA CELTICA

KATHRYN TICKELL BAND Doors:7.30pm £14

HUGH MASEKELA

Friday 8th October

AN AUDIENCE WITH HOWARD MARKS

challenge each other, taking our disparate inspirations and finding ways to harmonise them. We enjoy sifting through the noise.” When the sifting is finished, nuggets of Lizard King stargazing, smooth 80s grooves, moody atmospherics, deadpan humour and prog-squiggles remain. The unorthodox blend slips through genres like cow lactose through fingers. “We converge in strange places,” they acknowledge.

Milk confound classification in part through tactical shyness. Their low-profile moniker and lower-profile web presence constitute a genuine attempt to avoid the pigeonholing that rubberstamps acts straight from the womb. Milk are leaving their options open and keeping followers guessing.

“We’re still in the formative stages of playing this music together, so anything that allows the freedom to go off on creative tangents is a must,” they explain. “The name gave us the blank slate. If you treat a band’s name as a statement of intent, then ours remains open to interpretation.” Refreshingly, in an age where choosing a MySpace background sits uncomfortably high on new-starts’ ‘to do’ lists, they’re uninterested in cultivating a potentially-straitjacketing online persona. “We want the opportunity to surprise others and ourselves.”

Live, they don’t let such opportunities pass them by. But what about recordings? Any releases on the horizon? “In this regard,” they assert, “we reserve the right to remain mysterious.” Seems Milk will be whetting appetites a little longer yet.[Chris Buckle]

& The Mahotella Queens Saturday 14 November 7.30pm

Edinburgh University Students’ Association

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Presented in association with

Saturday 25th September

Saturday 23 October 7.30pm

MILK SUPPORT FOUND AT THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS, EDINBURGH ON 7 AUG AS PART OF THE EDGE FESTIVAL

Begins 8pm £10

Doors:7.30pm £12

Thursday 28th October

MAMANE BARKA Doors:7.30pm £10

Thursday 4th November

BRIAN KENNEDY Doors:7.30pm £18.50

NUS D is On All counts E Buy O vents! nli Phone ne or Now!

Wednesday 17th November

DAN ANTOPOLSKI Begins 8pm £10

Thursday 18th November

MARTIN CARTHY Doors:7.30pm £12.50

Saturday 23rd October

AFROCUBISM

ROB DEERING Begins 8pm £10

Thursday 2 December 7.30pm

Pleasance Theatre, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ Ticket Scotland: www.tickets-scotland.com / 0131 220 3234 In Person: Tickets Scotland, 127 Rose St, Edinburgh, EH2 3DT

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Ticketline:

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www.usherhall.co.uk

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Doors:7.30pm £16.50

KODO DRUMMERS

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www.ticketline.co.uk / 0845 2 500 500

SEPTEMBER 2010

• Investigating Rebus's Edinburgh

WAY TO BLUE

M

• Tour Edinburgh's dramatic radical past

U

• Film premiere of 'Morticia' by Nabil Shaban

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August 7th-14th

U

“WE’RE GROWN UPS NOW, SO WE’LL PROBABLY JUST PLAY THE SET, DRINK SOME TABOO AND LEMONADE AND GO TO BED…"

Highlights from this year’s hugely successful two-week festival, which took place in March at BFI Southbank. The season includes LLGFF Closing Night Gala Children of God, a fascinating and politically bold study of sexuality in the Bahamas; lesbian comedy And Then Came Lola; erotically charged crime thriller The Fish Child; acclaimed Argentinian drama Plan B; and two programmes of shorts,

Series 2010

A

PLAYING ELECTRIC CIRCUS ON 16 SEP

London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival On Tour 10 Aug to 2 Sep

WORLD FOLK

Clockwise from top left: Pablo; Callum; Michael; Sam

www.theelectriccircus.biz www.theelectriccircus.biz

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/WEAREAMERICANMEN

A key work from an era that’s now considered the last Golden Age of American cinema, Bob Rafelson’s superlative character study established Jack Nicholson as the foremost actor of his generation. One of the few honest American films about social class, family and alienation. Don’t miss this wonderfully restored classic.

MUSIC

AMERICAN MEN’S COOL WORLD EP IS OUT NOW ON LUCKYME

Five Easy Pieces 13 Aug to 19 Aug

PHOTO: ANGUS BEHM

American Men's Paul Carlin takes a break from puking to tell us what living in a cool world feels like

Directed by Juan José Campanella and showcasing two of Argentina’s biggest stars, this is a riveting thriller spiked with witty dialogue and poignant romance. Receiving rave reviews and awards, it was also the surprise winner of this year’s Oscar® for Best Foreign Language Film, beating off stiff competition from The White Ribbon and A Prophet.

(It's just a bit queasy)

ROCK ‘n’ roll myth: being a musician is incredibly glamorous. Rock ‘n’ roll reality: not so much, or so Paul Carlin would have us believe. Carlin is ill. He’s been snuggled up to the toilet bowl for most of the night.

Having now retreated to his mother’s house for some homemade chicken soup, the American Men – and, as it happens, Dananananaykroyd – drummer is soldiering on with our interview, apologetic and polite.

Known as ‘Scottt Chevrolet’ to the fans of Men, Carlin makes up one fourth of the LuckyMe collective’s silky electro dalliance, completed by associates ‘Claude Speeed’, ‘Alilloyd’ and ‘John Awesome’ on synths.

With modern and vintage electronica proving as inspirational as avant-garde rock to the American Men, their sound is melodic, layered and intricate, tied together by driving, syncopated drums. “I guess the sound is ‘mathy’ music,” starts Carlin. “But I see it more as laser, glassy synth music – futuristic sonically and visually.

“We’re all into very different things but come together over 90s alternative indie like Chavez and Sonic Youth, plus a couple of us are secret Devo and Phil Collins fans,” he admits, before crowbarring in Boards of Canada, Steve Reich and Don Caballero as particular touchstones that unify the group.

Carlin is convinced that an unusual setup gives them a distinctive live edge. “We have three synths which we play through laptops, but we put the drums in the middle of the stage to give it more of a visual focus,” he explains.

“We figured that people wouldn’t be too impressed if they were just watching three guys hunched over some keys.”

Signed this year to the aforementioned LuckyMe, the band – the constituent parts of which are currently dispersed across the land – have just released Cool World, their first EP. “We don’t technically fit with the sound the label normally puts out,” says Carlin. “So we are a bit like the cuckoo in the nest full of hip-hop, but we do fit with the ethos.”

Besides, American Men are hardly offering up your standard meat-and-potatoes rock. Four remixes on Cool World come from Ikonika and Optimum, Falty DL, Machinedrum and Hudson Mohawke, explaining why the band appeal to club DJs on the bleeding edge, as well as Radio One’s champions of the new like Vic Galloway and Mary Anne Hobbs.

Full-time in Dananananaykroyd, Carlin admits that American Men have not been able to play live as much as they would have liked. “I’m from Glasgow, Claude and John live in Edinburgh and Ali’s doing a PhD in Manchester. We’ve all got jobs and other things going on, so there isn’t the opportunity to play a huge amount,” he explains. The band did, however, find a way to play Sonar this summer in Carlin’s absence, roping in the thunderous skills of Laeto drummer Robbie Cooper.

Despite the nick he’s in when we talk, Carlin will be around next time something so cool happens. “We’re playing an electro festival in Amsterdam next month, and an NME weekender in Manchester in November.

“We’re not really that trendy, though,” he laments, possibly still depressed from the evening he just lived through. “We’re grownups now, so we’ll probably just play the set, drink some taboo and lemonade and go to bed… Cool people. Cool world.” So it’s not all sickness and soup remedies, this difficult business of rocking ’n’ rolling in the modern day.

MUSIC

Drum’s Not Dead

Interview Lauren Mayberry

THE SKINNY 43

Music

Sex With An X, Track-By-Track Although formed in the mid 80s, The Vaselines would become a heavyweight cult concern in the decades to follow. Founders Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee were a romantic item, and when they split, so did the band. Twenty years on, they're back with a new album. They talk us through the record We’ve been trying to ascertain over the past two years whether or not we could do this and if we could work together. We didn’t want to end up as a nostalgic ‘heritage’ band going out there and playing one album for the rest of our lives. Because the fame of the band really happened after we broke up, we’re getting to enjoy what we missed out on twenty years ago. The fans have been waiting quite a while and it’s been great because we’ve got an audience now. Before, there really wasn’t one.

We just knew we wanted to make a record that people would identify as The Vaselines – keeping the songs simple, not too many chords, repetition; we didn’t want to expand the sound. Lyrically, we try to say something interesting and also be amusing; we took a bit of time with that.

Ruined It’s about the rock ‘n’ roll cliché, the rock ‘n’ roll victim.

The people who think they have to walk the walk, take drink and drugs and live a certain lifestyle to be rock ‘n’ roll. We’ve had a bit of that in our life but we’ve never been victims in that we didn’t get hooked on any of it. It’s not about anyone in particular but just people in the last couple of years, some big celebrity drug-takers and their like. We’re saying ‘don’t fall for it!

Sex with an X Honestly, this is not about anyone in particular either.

All the songs are about our experiences in life, but we try to keep it general, and also people guessing. We had Feel So Good [a lyric from the song] as a working title for a while and then Frances suggested that we should have a title track. We wanted it to be this song so changed what it was called to make it a little more noticeable. It’s about giving in to temptation really, or thinking about certain people ‘Wow, they’re so great, there must be something wrong with them’ or ‘If I feel so great, something bad is definitely going to happen

44 THE SKINNY September 2010

to me.’

Frances: I think the lyrics are pretty explicit on this one. Anything that feels good surely is bad for you?

Especially the idea of...eek...sex with an ex. Is this autobiographical? Well, that is really between Eugene and I...but in the interests of my marriage I should say it’s all complete fabrication, just a story.

Devil Inside of Me It’s about doing bad things and then blaming it on something else. We used the man downstairs as a metaphor for this. Frances decided not to give The Devil a gender, because along with God, who knows what gender they would be? We went for trying to sound a bit like The Cramps, or Nick Cave; slowed down and with an ‘Evil’ atmosphere.

F: We all have that nasty bit inside if us. No matter how hard you try, it returns – bigger and better.

Such a Fool Frances is responsible for most of the lyrics on this and she said it’s about meeting the right person at the wrong time or the wrong person at the ‘right’ time.

We all meet people and in alternative circumstances things could be a whole lot different.

F: No, he’s got it all wrong! Do you know when you are completely smitten by someone, can’t get enough of them? Could eat them? And then you stop, come to your senses and realise it wasn’t worth all that trouble?

That’s what the song is about and feeling like a fool for ever having had those feelings in the first place Turning It On This one is the closest on the album to the whole Lee Hazlewood / Nancy Sinatra thing for us, which is what we were trying to go for; with twangy guitar, Duane Eddy style. Frances did the lyrics on this one too and I think it’s coming from a similar angle to Such a Fool. I helped with the chorus so it is another track whereby you don’t know if it’s a love song or not.

F: Yes, meeting the right person at the wrong time, but being tempted anyway and knowing that it’s not worth the effort as it will always turn out like the theme of the previous song.

Overweight But Over You It’s about trying to cure a broken heart by going to the fridge and eating lots of cake. I went through that a couple of years ago and I ate myself better. But then you put on a tonne of weight, so you feel better but you look shit and then start feeling rubbish again.

You have to look after the mind as well as the body. I think there’s nothing wrong with being overweight, especially if that’s what you do to get out of a heartbreaking situation.

Poison Pen A couple – it could be any couple, it’s not specifically about us – are having an argument and each is blaming the other person for what’s gone wrong.

I think in any situation like that, who’s to blame for what’s going wrong in the relationship can be difficult to work out. In this track it’s just the pair of them, they’re both to blame and they’re just having a good dig at each other.

F: This is apparently not autobiographical? Could have fooled me! Yes, a couple having an argument. They have of course split up, so it’s more like reminiscence.

I Hate the 80s That is just our comment on nostalgia. In the last couple of years there’s been a big return to the 80s in music and fashion – and politics now because we’ve got the Tories back. People are looking back with rose-tinted – or should that be dayglo – glasses and we’re just saying that there were lots of things that were really crap.

Duran Duran [namechecked in the track] were on the ocean surrounded by beautiful women while we were growing up in the East End of Glasgow. It had nothing to do with what we and our friends were into – we weren’t

exactly swanning about with silk suits on.

Mouth to Mouth A person, needing some love or attention is faking a heart attack to try and get some lip action. It was originally called Kissing With A K but we changed it to this title so that people would realise what we were singing. It’s really difficult to sing Mouth to Mouth to Mouth.... repetitively and quickly.

Whitechapel We both wrote what we sing on this and when I described it to her I suggested it had to be dark. I wanted to conjure up images of Jack the Ripper and foggy paranoia. You don’t know what’s happening as you walk down the lane late at night, is somebody going to jump you? There’s a creepy feel to it.

My God’s Bigger Than Your God Everybody seems to be fighting over whose god is the real god and whose doesn’t exist and we’re just saying that our god is Rock ‘N’ Roll and it’s the best god in the world. We imagined what it would be like if all the gods gathered together in a wrestling match and each had to give a big rant to the camera saying what he was going to do to the other god; before they get in a ring to kick the shit out of each other.

Exit The Vaselines This one is still a bit of a mystery to us. We wrote the lyrics in the studio, just before we had to sing them.

As you write those words you try to make sense of them and I think it’s like the book The Lovely Bones where the girl who died is looking down and commenting on everything that’s been happening.

F: This is the phoenix rising from the ashes... the vampire rising with the moon... The Vaselines returning to say Goodbye.

Interview with Paul Mitchell Sex With An X is released 14 Sep on Sub Pop

MUSIC

Divorce vs Comanechi Chaos will be the order of the day as the leading lights of modern punk get together to tour the land this coming month. We asked Divorce's Andy Brown to get Comanechi's Akiko Matsuura on the phone to hear her prediction for the fight Interview Andy Brown IT’S pretty sickening: my band Divorce and London’s Comanechi are in the middle of a musical love-in. The romance started by sharing stages in London and Scotland just under a year ago and it has now been consummated with the imminent release this month of our split 10” single on Merok Records. Not only have we got a song each on the A-side, but we both come together and play as one on a rather noisy cover of Sonic Youth’s Death Valley 69 on the flipside. Now we’re eloping together on a tour of the UK this month, spreading our sickly love around the country like an ear-splitting STD. To celebrate this exciting/disgusting marriage of filth, The Skinny want me to interrogate Akiko Matsuura, Comanechi’s vocalist and drummer. But before even a single question has been asked there are already problems.

“Please try and talk in a less in a Glasgow accent, so I can understand![laughs] It’s so hard talking to you and Vic [Divorce bassist]. It’s so funny sometimes when we hang out, I totally don’t understand!”

After two weeks of being in a van with us you’ll be talking in a Scottish accent, I totally believe it! At the last gig in London all your friends will be totally confused!

“That would be so cool! I love the Scottish accent, I just don’t get it!”

It wouldn’t be wrong to presume that Akiko might be wavering a little at the prospect of the tour. She’s spent practically the whole of 2010 travelling the globe drumming for The Big Pink. She has documented her experiences on her blog, giving specific attention to the catering at various festivals and on their numerous tours (it’s an undeniable fact that Muse give good catering).

But this tour will be a world away from the relative comfort of The Big Pink’s touring organisation. This tour will consist of two weeks in a small van, sleeping

on floors and eating pizza every night. Is she ready to go back to roughing it?

“Yeah I’m really excited. I did a much longer tour in America with PRE [her fantastic, old noise-punk band that also included future members of Male Bonding] and that was all with guys, so it was really smelly. We toured the West Coast for four weeks, but that was cool. But there’s lots of girls on this tour... like you! [laughs] I can’t wait!”

Having a new record to promote is only going to be beneficial too. People who are familiar with Comanechi’s previous releases might be quite surprised by their track on the 10”; Let Me Bloom is a five-plus minute sludge-rock bulldozer, quite a few

THREE VERY GOOD SPLIT RECORDS! Divorce and Comanechi follow a great tradition of punk bands who climbed into bed to make sexy split EP magic...

1. THE FAITH / VOID (Dischord) Often overlooked in general due to the overwhelming legacy of Black Flag and Minor Threat, this split album deserves to be considered a benchmark release in the history of American hardcore punk. It fermented the sound of the scene whilst also hinting at future musical routes; The Faith would later mutate into Embrace (substituting vocalist Alec Mackaye with his brother, ex-Minor Threat and future Fugazi member Ian Mackaye) and practically invent “emo”, while Void foretell the rise of screamo and artdamaged noise punk, all in 1982!

degrees away from the faster, trashier punk that dominated their 2009 debut album Crime Of Love. It’s a lot darker and more complex.

“Yeah yeah yeah, it’s like a step-up. Everything, like musically and lyrically, it’s got more to it in the composition.”

Is that the end of Comanechi doing shorter, simpler songs then?

“Yeah, kind of, we don’t want to be just loud, straightforward punk, I mean I don’t think we were ever just like that and nothing else, but I don’t want to just play short songs all the time, that period is over.”

On the recording there are more instruments too.

“Yeah there’s more guitars, more layers.”

2. NIRVANA / THE JESUS LIZARD (Touch & Go) Nirvana’s first post-”Nevermind” release was this filthy little single that paired them up with legendary noise-rock terrorists The Jesus Lizard, leading to the astonishing sight of seeing David Yow and co. perfoming their side of the split on Top Of The Pops since Nirvana make no attempt to promote the release.

3. BIKINI KILL / HUGGY BEAR (Catcall) When the mid-90s riot grrrl scene was at its most intense, its two most visible proponents from America (Bikini Kill) and the UK (Huggy Bear) unleash this breathtaking split album matching white-hot, serrated punk with a galvanizing polemical vitriol, turning the sexual political and giving a clear, no-bullshit voice to a generation of female punks. [Andy Brown]

Does this mean that Comanechi might be expanding its line-up?

“I’m not sure, it’s hard to decide because Comanechi kind of are me and Simon and it would be weird to break that, but at the same time experiences in my other bands have shown me that sometimes it’s easier to get ideas together and write songs with more people, I don’t know really. I think for the recording we wanted to have more stuff going on, but it’s different from playing live, you know. Me and Simon by ourselves, me playing drums and doing vocals live is a really important part of Comanechi, I don’t think we want to stop that.”

Since Comanechi released their debut album in December 2009 they’ve had precious few chances to promote it, outside some one-off shows in London and a quick trip to Scotland in January this year. In fact if anything, this tour will give them the first chance to play the songs on their album outside of the capital in years. Is it not frustrating that you’ll feel obliged to play these songs rather than try out new material?

“I think it would be stupid not to play songs from the album and just play new songs! I think if somebody comes to the show and they have heard the album and not seen us play, they will want to hear the songs they know and might be bored if they hear things they don’t.

Like in The Big Pink, there are people who just wait for Dominoes and are quiet for the rest of the time.”

But these gigs aren’t quite as large as Big Pink shows, the people who come along might just want to hear noisy music whether they’ve to the album or not – “Yeah, we don’t have the hits to start with!”

COMANECHI AND DIVORCE PLAY SNEAKY PETE’S, EDINBURGH ON 23 SEP WITH JACKIE TREEHORN & RUN OFF WITH GYPSIES AND NICE’N’SLEAZY, GLASGOW ON 24 SEP WITH PURPLE RHINESTONE EAGLE. THEY RELEASE THEIR SPLIT 10” EP ON 27 SEP VIA MEROK WWW.COMANECHI.COM WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/ PUREDIVORCED WWW.MEROKRECORDS.COM

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 45

RECORDS

THE DIRTY DOZEN This month we plonk our old-school ghetto-blaster in front of a napping Steve Mason.

It took the sound of the September singles to rouse him from his torpor Pulled Apart By Horses – High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive (Transgressive, 6 Sep) I like this, but they left too big a gap in the middle where they’re not singing the chorus. Again, I wouldn’t buy it but I’m sure a lot of people would like that. What was he talking about in the lyrics? His balls on fire? At least someone is dealing with the basic issues of life. Another 4.

Tricky – Murder Weapon (Domino, 30 Aug) (On hearing the Blues Brothers riff and Frankey Riley vocal) Are you sure that’s Tricky? I was expecting a bit more really. It is nice, but more chorus is needed, I think. The last thing I heard from him that I really liked was a Drums of Death remix, but this I would give a three to, just because he used to be so great, and now he’s disappointing me.

Pumajaw – Billy Rose (Bedevil, 20 Sep) Dreadful. This didn’t do anything for me or touch me in any way. Honestly, I’m trying to be positive. As I said, Sexual Healing is ten, so that’s 4, only because they put quite a nice delay on the snare drum.

SINGLE OF THE MONTH:

Crystal Fighters – Follow Swallow (Kitsune/Zirkulo, 20 Sep) This is probably the track I liked most, so I’m going to give that a 7. The vocals were enchanting, the beginning lulls you into a false sense of security because you think it’s going to be a terrible folk song and then it develops into a kind of Russian polka. So yes, really good. Good luck to them, whoever they are.

Text Paul Mitchell Photography Markus Thorsen Philadelphia Grand Jury – Going To The Casino (Tomorrow Night), (Communion Records, 13 Sep) I like this. It’s got a sixties garagey feel to it, with maybe a little Stooges thrown in. It’s good fun but there’s not much else I can say about it. I think the kids will love it. Given that ten is Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye, I think I’ll give this a 5.

Caitlin Rose ft Rayland Baxter – Shanghai Cigarettes, (Names, 27 Sep) Super retro here. It’s not the sort of thing I would buy, but I didn’t hate it. I do like a bit of country and western from time to time. I’ll give it a 5.

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip Feat. Kid A – Cauliflower (Sunday Best, 20 Sep) That’s Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip isn’t it? Yeah, I really like them a lot. I think it’s a good track and would really suit a club. Very danceable – for people who like

STEVE MASON PLAYS STEREO, GLASGOW ON 19 OCT

dancing. Nice crisp production and a nice vocal from the lady, whoever she is [that’ll be Kid A]. It’s a winner, I think it’s a 6. Ólöf Arnalds – Crazy Car (Indian, 6 Sep) [CD starts skipping] Interesting production, this is the re-edit? [Ten seconds of normal play later] I’ve heard enough. Make it stop, it’s not for me. Folk music drives me around the bend, especially really twee stuff like this. It sounds like an advert for fucking Orange or something like that. So I’m going to give them a 2.

Ramona – How Long (Play it Again Sam, 13 Sep) Again, it’s fucking retro. If she’s influenced by, whoever she is – let’s be honest, it’s definitely Blondie – well then the chorus just isn’t strong enough. Maybe it’s my age, because I remember Blondie, and maybe if you’re 18 or whatever and don’t then you’re going to be like ‘Fuck! What an amazing talent’. But it’s nowhere near as good, so I’m going to give that another 2.

David Lyre – Tear Them Down (East City Records, 6 Sep) The vocal melody isn’t strong enough for me but I like the drums and the rhythm is good. It doesn’t feel like there’s much of a song there though. And I thought it was a woman at first. He’s only twenty, can you put that in the review? So he’s got all his best years ahead of him...it’s still not too late to get a job, or a transgender op. But, it’s going to be four. As I said, nice rhythm.

The Coral – More than a Lover (V2 Records, 6 Sep) This is a bit of a step forward for The Coral, I think.

There’s a bigger production sound. I like it a lot. I’m going to give them 7 because I want a support gig with them in the very near future.

Silver Columns – Always On (Moshi Moshi, 13 Sep) Ok. Basically someone’s been listening to a hell of a lot of New Order and Arthur Russell. I know Johnny [Lynch] so I can’t be too horrible, and don’t put that in big words at the top. It’s alright. It didn’t blow me away and I wouldn’t buy it. What can I say? 4.

WWW.STEVEMASONTHEARTIST.COM

EP REVIEWS CANCEL THE ASTRONAUTS

COMANECHI / DIVORCE

LAKI MERA

FUNNY FOR A GIRL

COMANECHI / DIVORCE SPLIT 10”

CLUTTER

OUT NOW, RILEY

27 SEP, MEROK

6 SEP, JUST RECORDS

rrrr

rrrr

rrr

Despite being one of Edinburgh’s most underrated bands, Cancel the Astronauts like to sound mighty triumphant. EP number two, Funny For A Girl, finds the quintet pressing on from the indie-pop angles of their debut, adding an intelligent edge to their hook-friendly shtick.

Striding to infectious blasts of Korg and percussion, cuts like She Said She Loved Someone Else and Things I Shouldn’t Tell You have more surge than a jet propelled Usain Bolt. But it’s not all pedal to the floor; the beatific Standing Still is a honey-coated lament that suggests Cancel the Astronauts are ready to make their mark. [Billy Hamilton]

Road bound co-conspirators, Comanechi and Divorce have seen their working relationship blossom over the past year or so, returning here with a string of UK dates and a split 10” single. Divorce’s contribution, Amuse Bouche, is a classic example of the Glaswegians’ almost mechanical approach to building up layers of screeching noise, while regular bouts of uninhibited guitar chaos are steered home by a commanding rhythm section and Sinead Youth’s defiant vocals. Comanechi’s Let Me Bloom, however, takes its time to build whilst a wild haze envelops Akiko Matsuura’s seductive tones. Rounding it all out with a free-for-all on Sonic Youth’s Death Valley ‘69, this is but a sharp taste of a destructive double team and an unmissable live proposition at that. [Ryan Drever]

PLAYING ELECTRIC CIRCUS, EDINBURGH ON 11 OCT

COMANECHI AND DIVORCE PLAY SNEAKY PETE’S, EDINBURGH ON 23 SEP AND NICE’N’SLEAZY, GLASGOW ON 24 SEP WWW.MYSPACE.COM/COMANECHI WWW.MYSPACE.COM/PUREDIVORCED

WWW.CANCELTHEASTRONAUTS.CO.UK

46 THE SKINNY SEPTEMBER 2010

Trip-hop may be playing its last down-tempo notes before finally kicking the bucket, but its spirit will live on in the sound of Laki Mera.

The panoramic soundscapes that exude from the Glasgow quartet’s latest EP, Clutter, recall the hazy slopes with post-rock inflections of Mezzanine-era Massive Attack. At times it’s a suffocating ride, with introverted tracks like How Dare You and the key driven blur of Seagull’s Nex swamped in a heavy gloom of strings and Laura Donnelly’s misanthropic mew. But, beyond such overbearing sadness, these glossy numbers are beautifully poised and expertly executed.

Maybe that Bristol sound’s alive, well and still living in our midst after all. [Billy Hamilton]

WWW.LAKIMERA.CO.UK

RECORDS

All the Right Moves Presenting Mogwai's first full-length audio and televisual document of their intoxicating live show all at once, Stuart Braithwaite talks us through the creation of Special Moves and Burning Interview Chris Buckle “HOW’RE you doing? We’re Mogwai from Glasgow, Scotland. It’s nice to be here.” As they introduce a scorching Mogwai Fear Satan to the Music Hall of Williamsburg, it’s tempting to interpret the band’s conviviality as introspective, ‘here’ referring not just to the Brooklyn venue in which live compilation Special Moves was recorded, but to now, with Mogwai still hitting fresh peaks more than a decade after Like Herod first caused complacent listeners to spill their tea (particularly those that foolishly adjusted the volume ahead of the finale).

Not that the band’s first official live release should be seen as an attempt to define the Mogwai canon.

The way Stuart Braithwaite explains it, chopping up the recordings of the three-night residency and

reassembling the track-listing involved zero concessions to posterity: “We just listened to the recordings and chose the songs that sounded the best. Depending on how well (or badly) we’d played, the songs on the live record could have been completely different.”

It’s probably as good a selection method as any other when you consider the wealth they had to choose from. Ask fans to list their own contenders and you’ll likely end up with as many combinations as there are songs in the band’s repertoire, depending on whether the compilers attempt to representatively distil Mogwai’s career-to-date, or just go with their gut (incidentally, the organ with which many of their more explosive moments first register). Mogwai’s own choices incorporate tender cuts from Rock Action (2 Rights Make 1 Wrong, You Don’t Know Jesus) and early calling cards (Herod, Satan) alongside more recent

set-staples (Hunted By A Freak, Glasgow Megasnake).

Packaged together with Special Moves is Burning, a concert flick filmed over the same three nights.

Directors Vincent Moon and Nat Le Scouarnec were more proactive in constructing the finished film’s set-list, with its eight tracks designed beforehand to flow from a scene-setting The Precipice to a climactic Batcat. The results are lensed in suitably moody monochrome, with between-song chat excised from the mix to keep the atmosphere unbroken. The shots of fans lost in rapture make the biggest impact, their closed eyes and utter absorption a reflection of the armchair-viewer’s own delight.

Despite Braithwaite’s assessment that “if you want to be visually stimulated by a concert film then you’re watching the wrong band”, Moon and Scouarnec do a sterling job of rendering the performances in a

style both low-key – admittedly, it’s not exactly Stop Making Sense, but nor should it be – and compelling.

To an extent, the directors had a gift of a subject: chances are any old footage could be made striking with Mogwai on the soundtrack (proof: Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’s tunnel-vision football-repeat, transformed into a memorably cinematic experience by their score). Not that everyone has woken up to this fact: “We’d love to do more soundtrack work,” says Braithwaite. “The problem lies with fitting it into our schedule and the reticence of the moneymen in the movie industry to entrust scamps like us to make their expensive films sound beautiful.”

As is the nature of such releases, neither Burning nor Special Moves will exert huge appeal beyond existing fans, but they’re hardly meant to. These aren’t legacy-toppers or nostalgic goodbyes, just two more steps along the road. As Braithwaite reveals, the next full-length already looms large.

“The recording’s going really well. We’re into our third week and have the bare bones of twenty-one songs.

We should be finished sometime in October and it should be out in February. Lots of ‘shoulds’ in that last sentence…” Should be awesome.

SPECIAL MOVES / BURNING IS AVAILABLE NOW VIA ROCK ACTION AS A CD/DVD RELEASE PLAYING HMV PICTURE HOUSE, EDINBURGH ON 21 FEB 2011 WWW.MOGWAI.CO.UK

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 47

RECORDS

ALBUM OF THE MONTH: CHILLY GONZALES

IVORY TOWER 30 AUG, GENTLE THREAT

rrrrr Spectacle is something Chilly Gonzales doesn’t shy away from – an acclaimed virtuoso pianist, ‘super producer’, soft-pop crooner and super villain MC – he’s a peerless multifaceted “entertainist.”

Breaking records on his way (Gonzales holds the title for longest solo-artist performance, clocking in at a mind-boggling 27 hours) he never sounds like he did the same thing twice. So what move next? Writing and starring in his first feature-film, of course, an existentialist sports comedy about chess and success, which this album accompanies.

Much like the great game itself, Ivory Tower is complex and

brilliant. Knight Moves and Never Stop are deserved of dancefloors the world over. You Can Dance is the kind of funk-pop that Prince wishes he could still muster, and on I Am Europe outlandish humour prevails with declarations like, “I am gay pastry and racist cappuccino.” On centre-piece, The Grudge, our ‘pranksta’ pleads for enemies, but if Gonzales is looking for a nemesis on these pages we’re sorry to disappoint. This is superior melodic mastery from the ‘piano-playing Larry David’. [Alan Souter] WWW.CHILLYGONZALES.COM

ALBUM REVIEWS THE STEALS

ADAM FRANKLIN & BOLTS OF MELODY

STATIC KINGDOM

GRINDERMAN 2

13 SEP, FAUN

13 SEP, MUTE

20 SEP, SECOND MOTION

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I COULD SLEEP FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

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Having started his career back in ’84 with Shake Appeal – who would ultimately morph in to UK ‘shoegrunge’ stalwarts Swervedriver – Adam Franklin has been plying his wares in one form or another for almost thirty years now. But it’s only in the last decade that he’s evolved in to a self-assured solo artist, writing under the Toshack Highway and Magnetic Morning guises, and more recently as Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody, with 2010 seeing the release of his third formal LP under this newest misnomer. For Franklin, I Could Sleep for a Thousand Years provides a further trophy to place on the mantle, as he steps out with the masterfully wistful pop and granular guitars of opener Yesterday Has Gone Forever, following up with a superlatively subtle nod to Sonic Youth’s Dirty-era stylings through I’ll Be Yr Mechanic. Beyond these bold steps, I Could Sleep… barely falters, and ultimately delivers a sufficiently heavyweight blow from such a seasoned veteran. [Paul Neeson] WWW.TOSHACKHIGHWAY.COM

EDWYN COLLINS

The debut album from this Northern English quartet is so delicately poised it threatens to blow away on the slightest breeze; listening, you feel you have to hold your breath lest you miss something. Singer Jayn Hanna’s voice floats and glides on the same streams as HMS Ginafore, Alela Diane or First Aid Kit, and it’s matched perfectly by Mark Peters’ (of Engineers) production, which occasionally lets the simple fretwork and drum patterns swell into spellbinding, shoegazey mini-epics. It’s with these numbers that The Steals stand out from the rest of the new-folk pack, especially on plaintive opener Hope and moving closer All Coming Back, which lets a flickering organ build before clouds of gentle feedback bring it all back down. The middle order is a bit more recognisably folky, but there’s enigma enough to ensure the lasting impression is one of uncommon beauty. [Euan Ferguson]

GRINDERMAN

As The Bad Seeds fast approach their 30th year, their music has become naturally more bombastic and grandiose. The Grinderman offshoot was, in some respects, Nick Cave’s partial return to the feral violence of The Birthday Party in light of that stadium-esque pomp. At its best, Grinderman 2 is a magnificent cauldron of wailing raw boogie desert rock and soaring flights of sublime fancy. However, it frequently feels like a collection of Bad Seed cast-offs bordering on the redundant.

Cave has always been a better lyricist than a singer, and here his lyrics seem almost lackadaisical and unconsidered. The real star here is Warren Ellis’s brutally virtuosic buzzsawing violin; even sounding like an army of crooning Björks at one point. It’s obvious these guys are having great fun with the material; it’s just hard to see what function Grinderman serves as long as the Bad Seeds are flourishing. [Ali Maloney] GRINDERMAN PLAY GLASGOW BARROWLANDS ON 28 SEP

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THESTEALSMUSIC

ÓLÖF ARNALDS

WWW.GRINDERMAN.COM

DEERHUNTER

LOSING SLEEP

INNUNDIR SKINNI

HALCYON DIGEST

13 SEP, HEAVENLY

13 SEP, ONE LITTLE INDIAN

27 SEP, 4AD

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Indie-legend Edwyn Collins is pretty extraordinary by any yardstick. It’s disappointing, however, that recent expressions of amazement have focussed less on the quality of what he does, than on the fact he does it at all following 2005’s brain haemorrhages. Losing Sleep, by contrast, generates astonishment not because he’s ‘bounced back’ – let’s avoid patronisation – but because songwriters in their fourth decade of recording rarely sound so fresh. Credit goes partially to the young(er) guns enlisted to assist. They leave fingerprints – What Is My Role? features Ryan Jarman vocals, while Do It Again (co-written by Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy) has a Franz-esque beat – but considering Collins has influenced them and their kin for decades, a reversal seems fair. The results don’t always gel, but individually, songs stand proud: from the soul-stomp title track to closing ballad Searching For the Truth, Collins proves remarkable for all the right reasons. [Chris Buckle]

Holding true to the winning blueprint of debut album, Við Og Við,, Icelander Ólöf Arnalds once again employs Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Rós fame to produce her sophomore release, and as expected, Innundir Skinni continues to map her journey through some beatific, glacial folk. Opening with the comparatively vigorous, Vinur Minn, Arnalds isolated vocals give way to the patter of an acoustic pluck and a quickly ramping crescendo of choral brass, before the gentle thaw of Innundir Skinni begins. From then on, she mainly relies on simply an acoustic guitar and the rich texture of her native tongue to guide her unique brand of folk away from the pack; breaking momentarily to duet with fellow Icelander, Björk, on penultimate track Surrender. Innundir Skinni is an endearing album, for both its timid vulnerability and heartwarming intimacy, with the only issue being that such is its subtlety at times, it’s in danger of losing its message. [Paul Neeson]

PLAYING ÒRAN MÓR, GLASGOW ON 7 NOV

PLAYING CAPTAIN’S REST, GLASGOW ON 18 SEP

Deerhunter is no fan of the sudden, bloody kill.

There’s no adrenalin-soaked chase across the hillsides with this bunch of self-proclaimed ‘ambient punks’ from Atlanta. Instead, new record Halcyon Digest less takes up from where 2008’s Microcastle left off, and eases the band’s sound back a notch, into a sleepy, swirling place where subtle tunes soothe unexpected prey, catching them off guard, bringing them down slowly but surely. But sometimes the approach is too gentle, like a nice dream in danger of slipping away as soon as you’ve woken up. Opener Earthquake is anything but: a soft, reassuring, laidback swirl. Stand out track Desire Lines adds a bit of tempo to a mix that subtly works its way into your head. Then, when in the psychedelic-sounding Basement Scene singer Bradford Cox opines “I don’t wanna get old/come out tonight and we’ll get stoned” you rejoice in the innocence of it all. You’re in. Shot dead. [PJ Meiklem]

WWW.EDWYNCOLLINS.COM

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/OLOFARNALDS

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/DEERHUNTER

WHO WE TOUCH

HELSINKI SEVEN

ENVY

THE CHARLATANS

DIVISIONS

RECITATION

6 SEP, COOKING VINYL

27 SEP, DAPSONE

22 SEP, ROCK ACTION

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Baggy survivors The Charlatans are back with their eleventh long-player. Once praised as a fine excuse to roll out the monkey-shuffling indie dance moves and have a laugh, those days have long gone – buried, as far as opener and single Love is Ending is concerned, behind garage-rock style guitars and serious lyrical concerns. Burgess and co give it a good go but they can’t pull it off; where once they shimmied and belted silly big-hearted choruses, now they only plod. Foolish Pride maybe a pleasant enough piece of guitar whimsy but the darker numbers serve only to highlight Burgess’ almost criminally nasal voice. When he sings Smash the System, you wonder if he’s got the will to break an obstinate Hobnob, never mind challenge capitalist hegemony. Who We Touch reeks of melancholy, and like the cape Burgess is seen wearing in the Love is Ending video, just doesn’t fit. I mean, north country boy, what are you sad about, really? [PJ Meiklem]

Helsinki Seven are purveyors of bombastic popular hardcore, the likes of which initially propelled Boy Sets Fire onto the Warped tour and wider acceptance. Certainly it’s a genre not renowned for producing the most musically diverse records and these fellas have clearly settled on a formula they feel comfortable with. The result is mosh-pit friendly yet peppered with the hooks and choruses necessary to ensure any kind of longevity. Pull The Ripcord is a particularly succinct chunk of rock, best combining the chops, melody and holler these guys specialise in. Hailing from the North of England, Helsinki Seven are busy boys on the European DIY circuit and if they can manage to stay sane in the back of their transit van for the next six months they might just have the songs to break through to a wider crowd. Certainly, for their tireless efforts alone, this mini-album is deserving of attention. [Austin Tasseltine]

PLAYING HMV PICTURE HOUSE, EDINBURGH ON 8 OCT AND FAT SAM’S, DUNDEE ON 9 OCT

PLAYING HENRY’S CELLAR BAR, EDINBURGH ON 7 OCT; DEXTER’S, DUNDEE ON 8 OCT AND CAPTAIN’S REST, GLASGOW ON 9 OCT

WWW.THECHARLATANS.NET

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/HELSINKISEVEN

48 THE SKINNY SEPTEMBER 2010

Recitation is an apt title for Japanese hardcore band Envy’s fifth long player, invoking the scene of a dramatic storyteller with an audience in the palm of his hand; sitting, waiting and needing to know what happens next. Signed to Mogwai’s Rock Action label, the songwriting’s tense, dramatic strength is no real surprise. But Envy is something else. Partly, it’s the Japanese language; vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa could be reading his shopping list over the quiet parts and they’d still sound like a sad evocation of a strange and foreign world. But then there’s the music. It’s a rare band that can tether such beauty and brutality together for such long stretches. Given the post-rock moniker, the lush cinemascapes are almost to be expected, but the rest is constantly refreshing and surprising, from the melancholic Your Hand to the At The Drive In-esque blast of Dreams Coming To An End. An emotionally affecting war-zone of a record. [PJ Meiklem] WWW.MYSPACE.COM/OFFICIALENVY

LES SAVY FAV

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

BLACK SUN

ROOT FOR RUIN

POSTCARDS FROM A YOUNG MAN

TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

13 SEP, WICHITA

20 SEP, COLUMBIA

25 SEP, FUTURE NOISE/HEAD OF CROM

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To be honest, it’s not even particularly surprising anymore – to learn that Les Savy Fav have recorded an excellent new album. They apparently don’t know how to do otherwise. Root For Ruin follows the same formula as much of their catalogue, sitting nicely alongside last opus Let’s Stay Friends in terms of pace and feel. Fourth track Let’s Get Out Of Here is an instantly delightful, energetic burst of indie rock that should certainly find its way onto many a DJ’s set-list and is immediately followed by the entirely infectious Lips ‘n Stuff. Excess Energies is as feisty as its name suggests, with a stomping rhythm permeating the verses thus making it another dance-floor contender.

The pace is slowed on Poltergeist, which invites comparisons with their native New York’s no-wave scene and is one of the artiest compositions on display here without sacrificing any quality. All told, LP number five is yet another bullseye from this prolific quintet. [Chris Cusack]

This is, according to Nicky Wire, the Manics’ “last chance to attempt to communicate on a mass level” – a peculiar statement, considering it follows the double punch of Send Away the Tigers’ streamlined pop and Journal For Plague Lovers’ abrasive yet widely-celebrated Richey-era throwback. Postcards has some fine moments, but falls short of its immediate predecessors: not a fault of the period they’ve dusted off this time round (their late nineties, grandiose orchestral phase), but of the bloated execution.

Most tracks come swamped in strings, while the arrival of a gospel choir on Some Kind of Nothingness overeggs an already stuffed pudding. Why they felt such a move necessary is a mystery; their late renaissance has thus far birthed a top 3 hit and some of the best reviews of their career. It seems that in trying to second-guess what the massed classes want, they’ve ever-soslightly taken their eye off the ball. [Chris Buckle]

PLAYING ABC2 ON 13 NOV

PLAYING GLASGOW O2 ACADEMY ON 29 SEP, ABERDEEN MUSIC HALL ON 30 SEP AND EDINBURGH CORN EXCHANGE ON 2 OCT

WWW.LESSAVYFAV.COM

WWW.MANICSTREETPREACHERS.COM

HIDDEN ORCHESTRA

WILDERNESS HEART

20 SEP, TRU THOUGHTS

13 SEP, JAGJAGUWAR

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PLAYING THE CAVES, EDINBURGH ON 17 SEP AND PERFORMING THE POWAQQATSI SCORE AT THE FILMHOUSE, EDINBURGH ON 25 SEP AND GLASGOW FILM THEATRE ON 27 SEP WWW.MYSPACE.COM/HIDDENORCHESTRA

INTERPOL

PLAYING CLASSIC GRAND, GLASGOW ON 25 SEP WWW.MYSPACE.COM/LEGIONOFBLACKSUN

BLACK MOUNTAIN

NIGHT WALKS

Following in the footsteps of hip-hop inflected brethren The Cinematic Orchestra, the similarly named, similarly styled Hidden Orchestra have set an Olympian bar for their debut LP by encouraging immediate comparisons to their long established and revered peers. Upon listening to Night Walks, it becomes instantly apparent as to why Joe Acheson and his Edinburgh based outfit have so fearlessly emulated their fellow electro-jazz purveyors – crafting an album every bit as assured as those which influenced it. Twisting a fundamentally classic jazz blueprint, the quartet have created their own kind of cinematic jazz-noir, with the addition of brooding, string-rich atmospheric sweeps, perfectly sliced samples, and a sense of drama tempered by carefully nuanced percussion. From the patter of rooftop rain which opens Antiphon, to the epic machinations of closer, Undergrowth, Night Walks proves to be a highly emotive, celluloid-inspired journey through one of the greatest films never made. [Paul Neeson]

Opening with Code Black – a track easily sitting on the more upbeat and melodic (if you an call it that) side of Black Sun’s destructive sonic spectrum – Twilight Of The Gods delivers 11 tracks flitting between shit-kicking head-bangers (Warhead, Black Angel) and ominous, slow-burning epics (Twilight Of The Gods, Transcending The Mire) with Russell McEwan and Keven Hare’s ear-blistering screams taking mere seconds to drop you to your knees. Still maintaining the doom-ridden brutality they’ve perfected over the years, the Glasgow trio are joined here by enigmatic fighting enthusiast and legendary Oxbow frontman Eugene Robinson, lending his impassioned, soulful howls to two tracks: Tabula Rasa is a sluggish cocktail of battle cries (“I’m gonna kill ya!”) and brooding, low-end riffs, whilst Baby Don’t Cry is even slower and more twisted but no less a fiendish pleasure. A difficult listen, in the best possible way. [Ryan Drever]

SWANS

MY FATHER WILL GUIDE ME UP A ROPE TO THE SKY 23 SEP, YOUNG GODS

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Unlike the musical trajectory of many of the influences Black Mountain happily wear on their sleeves, Wilderness Heart finds the Canadian troupe tempering tendencies of psychedelic excess for a relatively stripped back and focused third album. So, more Led Zeppelin II and Paranoid than Houses of the Holy and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath then? As broad touchstones, yes – with powerhouse cuts like the title track and Let Spirits Ride reflecting those perennial pioneers. Opener The Hair Song and The Way To Gone dabble in more country and blues roots with an acute pop sensibility whilst the beautifully ominous closer Sadie embraces that never-too-distant folk aspect that’s played straight as a die (rather than becoming one facet of a 12-minute opus). Coming on the swirling vortex coattails of In The Future, Wilderness Heart may initially pale by comparison, but it can’t detract solid work that should bring a few more followers to the cause. [Darren Carle]

Having previously shelved his seminal post-punk band back in 1997, Young God Records founder Michael Gira has continued to write under his Angels of Light moniker whilst floating the possibility that he may one day resurrect Swans. Come 2010 and Gira has made good – returning (sans Jarboe) with the epically titled My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. For those who invested in 2010 solo release I Am Not Insane, much of the material here will be familiar – albeit in a significantly reworked format – with You Fucking People Make Me Sick being the single previously unreleased track on show. In the context of Swans latter output, My Father… is typically challenging, with the lead-heavy opener No Words/No Thoughts treading over nine minutes of distorted abstraction; mixing imperial, instrumental ascents with Gira’s shadowed vocals. It’s a polarizing gambit, and a sure sign that Swans have returned with an uncompromising (and nihilistic) intent. [Paul Neeson]

PLAYING ÒRAN MÓR, GLASGOW ON 14 SEP

PLAYING THE ARCHES, GLASGOW ON 25 OCT

WWW.BLACKMOUNTAINARMY.COM

SWANS.PAIR.COM/

SEX WITH AN X

SOUNDGARDEN

INTERPOL

THE VASELINES

TELEPHANTASM

13 SEP, SOFT LIMIT

13 SEP, SUB POP

27 SEP, A&M

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For a band that sounds as though it’s been dredged from the murkiest depths of the Hudson River, the imperially dark Interpol have had surprising commercial success with their brand of introspective post-punk. Though, mixed amongst their mass of converts, lies a legion of detractors who deem the NYC-based band overly-indulgent, one-tone wonders. And whilst their heavyweight 2002 debut Turn on the Bright Lights set a surfeit foundation for the band, they’ve remained somewhat monochromic over the two ensuing albums. There has been scant change for their eponymously titled fourth offering, remaining solidly set in the absoluteness of the Interpol sound; dominated by the merciless monotones of Paul Banks. That said, it’s a formula which can still thrill – here in the form of debut single Barricade and the raucous Lights. Elsewhere, there’s a nonchalant sense of old ideas being reworked, and of a band slowly suffocating in its own vacuum. [Paul Neeson]

It’s not a record-breaker, but a twenty-year gap between albums warrants comment; to put it in context, a wall segmented Berlin last time The Vaselines had a new full-length in stores. Things change, in other words, and with Sex With An X’s arrival, two horrible possibilities suggest themselves: that they stubbornly haven’t developed at all or that they’ve changed absolutely. Thankfully, their re-emergence occupies a glorious middle ground – recognisably the same band yet far fresher than might have been expected (and hornier too – where debut Dum Dum led with Sex Sux (Amen), this record’s title track cheerily proclaims “Feels so good… let’s do it again.”). I Hate the 80s mines irony lightly, rapping the knuckles of every revivalist with selective memory (“What do you know? You weren’t there - it wasn’t all Duran Duran Duran Duran” they chide), one highlight amongst many. The prospect of another double-decade hiatus is hard to bear. [Chris Buckle]

PLAYING THE CORN EXCHANGE, EDINBURGH ON 27 NOV

PLAYING BONGO CLUB, EDINBURGH ON 15 SEP AND ÒRAN MÓR, GLASGOW ON 24 SEP

WWW.INTERPOLNYC.COM/

TRICKY

MIXED RACE 27 SEP, DOMINO

WWW.TRICKYSITE.COM

WWW.SOUNDGARDENWORLD.COM

OF MONTREAL

TOP FIVE ALBUMS

rr Like many of his associates in the mid-90s trip-hop scene, Tricky has struggled to develop his style beyond his first couple of great albums. Now onto his ninth, there’s no sign of any resurgence with Mixed Race, a largely forgettable collection of songs he could’ve recorded at any point in the last decade. First single Murder Weapon uses the famous Peter Gunn Theme bassline to support a lazily sung hook, Ghetto Stars’ overlapping vocals give the frightening impression of being surrounded by conniving Trickys, and Time To Dance briefly lets you believe our sedated hero has ventured inside a discotheque. To his credit, there’s a long way between the gruff Arabic vocals and fingerpicked guitars of Hakim, and the painfully sharp synths and tight rapping of Bristol To London. But despite its ten songs clocking in at under 30 minutes, the handful of ideas in Mixed Race are spread thinly. [John Wylie]

Serving as something of a commercial first, this career retrospective from Seattle’s ageing quartet will be bundled with the next Guitar Hero games package. With Soundgarden steadily acquiring one of the most heinously un-cool reputations in rock - thanks largely to Chris Cornell’s narcissistic solo efforts and the clunky, dunderheided Zeppelinery of Audioslave - presumably the hope is that some vitality might return to their recently-risen corpse. Whilst the multi-disc, limited edition version of the set contains a number of worthy rarities, this single disc boasts a carefully remastered version of their debut Sub Pop single and a powerful unreleased Badmotorfinger outtake (Black Rain) yet is rendered otherwise redundant by 1997’s more comprehensive A-Sides. Though comprised of some fundamentally great songs, Telephantasm inexplicably omits bona fide classics like The Day I Tried To Live. Combined with the fact that there is no better introduction to Soundgarden than their insurmountably impressive 1994 opus Superunknown, the exercise feels a little redundant. [Austin Tasseltine]

FALSE PRIEST 13 SEP, POLYVINYL

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1) CHILLY GONZALES IVORY TOWER 2) LES SAVY FAV ROOT FOR RUIN 3) DEERHUNTER HALCYON DIGEST 4) BLACK SUN TWILIGHT OF THE GODS 5) HIDDEN ORCHESTRA NIGHT WALKS

Credit the presence of Jon Brion (Kanye West) or cameos by pop singers, but False Priest is easily Of Montreal’s most accessible album since 2004’s Satanic Panic in the Attic. Squelching claims by naysayers of Skeletal Lamping, who suggested Kevin Barnes may have gone a bit too far off the rails, Of Montreal reels it in with a collection of largely chilled-out synth pop combined with a rich R&B influence. Songs like Sex Karma, featuring Solange Knowles (yep, that’s Beyonce’s sister), present listeners with what might be a top-10 single on an alien planet, with irresistible hooks and, in Karma’s case, the welcome back-and-forth between male and female vocals. Lead single Coquet Coquette’s where you hear the band’s return to live instrumentation best, but Priest isn’t one-step-forward, two-steps-back: While it’s a ‘safe’ album versus the wild sexcapades and depression of LPs past, there’s enough here to engage fans from all quarters. [Jason Morton] PLAYING QUEEN MARGARET UNION, GLASGOW ON 4 OCT WWW.OFMONTREAL.NET

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 49

RECORDS CLUBS

ALBUM REVIEWS

Beirut HMV Picture House, 22 Aug

rrrrr “I fuckin’ love you Zach!” shouts one punter near the end of Beirut’s stunning performance tonight.

“Ah luv yi too!” responds the slight, tousle-haired frontman in his best Scottish brogue. It’s a brash, hilarious exchange that flies in the face of the sublime set and reveals Zach Condon as being precocious but far from pretentious.

From the opening brass of Nantes, through a beautiful Postcards from Italy to the rousing finale of Gulag Orkestar, not a moment here is wasted.

Underpinned by some propulsive and mightily impressive drumming that gives these songs a live edge, Beirut’s melancholic home listening experience is turned into a Balkan-infused celebration, proving the old maxim that misery loves company. Among the sold-out crowd are several members of Broken Records, a band who have more than doffed their cap to Condon and his troupe in the past. Much like the rest of us, they no doubt leave elated at a humbling lesson from the master. [Darren Carle] www.beirutband.com/

PHOTO: Markus Thorsen

Newt The Lot, 7 Aug

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Tonight I figure out what’s so special about the Neu! beat: it’s the one groove that bypasses the hips altogether. Go to any club night and you’ll shake your ass, go see MotÖrhead and you shall headbang. But the only body parts getting a workout at Michael Rother’s celebration of his 70s body of work is the solar plexus, and maybe the back neck hairs as he teases out a familiar theme (eg Harmonia’s Deluxe or a severly twisted Dino) on his treated guitar.

Was the Neu! project to remove all tinges of soul or rhythm and blues from dance-based music? Why care when you can let That Beat lift you away from all quotidian concerns, wrap you up and elevate your being. Because you don’t dance to Neu! music, you levitate. Rother, pushing 60 and still one of the coolest men in music, carves skyscraping sounds from his instrument while bassist Aaron Mullan (Tall Firs) holds down his lines, freeing Steve Shelly (Sonic Youth) to lay down the most propulsive sound ever to be non-machine driven. At once primal and modern, it’s the sound of NYC punk if the Indians had never sold Manhattan to the white man. [David McNally]

Aberdonian guitarist Graham Stephen kicks off the evening in reflective mode, but soon enough he’s heating up an already temperate room; he’s got clean abstract John Abercrombie lines ranging to the full Sonny Sharrock fuzz-out, and his duels with burly polymath drummer Chris Wallace elevate this gig to the stratosphere. The other secret weapon is German saxophonist Silke Eberhard, whose high register flurries and sudden octave leaps will have you dashing back to your Eric Dolphy albums for impossible note for note comparisons.

Many of the compostions are by Wallace, showing a rare melodic sense as well as his evident propulsive skills. Trombone player Chris Greive is as ebullient in conversation with the audience as he is adept on his horn, and can more than keep pace with Eberhard’s angular excursions. Stephen is probably first among equals and takes the lion’s share of praise for tonight but they all shine.

[David McNally]

www.neu2010.com

www.myspace.com/newttrio

The Besnard Lakes

Steve Mason

PHOTO: crimsonglow

Hallogallo 2010 HMV Picture House, 17 Aug

Sneaky Pete’s, 17 Aug

The Liquid Room 18 Aug

rrrr A newly reopened Liquid Room tonight plays host to one of its favourite sons, and as reunions go, this would take some beating for emotional resonance.

Scene of the last ever Beta Band live performance, that collective’s frontman Steve Mason is greeted by a capacity crowd, whom, although comparatively restrained, are laden with unabashed reverence.

That restraint has much to do with the considered nature of Mason’s output. Drawing primarily on material from his latest release, Boys Outside Mason and co. deliver unadorned versions of tracks such as Lost and Found, Am I Just A Man and All Come Down; the understated nature of the delivery being somewhat undermined by an intrusively elaborate lighting rig. Thankfully Mason isn’t shying away from his impressive back catalogue. King Biscuit Time makes an appearance, and an acoustic, heartfelt Dr. Baker from the Beta Band days proves one of the highlights of a heartwarming homecoming. [Wilbur Kane]

It’s been three years since Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. Ample time for a trio of young lads known as Heart Beats (rrrr) to graduate from The Twilight Sad with honours. Not that this is to their detriment, as their bone-shaking, unrelenting bass salvos cut with straight up vocal melodies that wouldn’t sound out of place on a James record merge wonderfully throughout their tight set.

Quite what happens in the intervening half-hour remains unclear, but by the time The Besnard Lakes (rr) take stage the sound is somewhat muted

and on opener Like The Ocean, Like The Innocent, frontman Jace Lasek’s crunching guitar bridge is all but inaudible. The feeling is very much like listening to The Roaring Night through a dry clay wall. The sound issues are never satisfyingly resolved despite frequent shouts for “more guitar” from the crowd.

Huge gaps between songs to fix broken strings and suchlike hardly help matters. Light Up The Night finally manages to transcend such issues due more to its structure than anything else and in such moments its clear what we’ve been missing out on tonight.

[Darren Carle] www.myspace.com/thebesnardlakes

PHOTO: take shisuga

Music

Live reviews

www.stevemasontheartist.com/

Themselves Electric Circus, 24 Jul

rrrrr In the face of adversity – a venue bustling with hen parties, an atrocious sound system and delayed, lackadaisical support – it’s beautiful beyond measure to have Themselves back.

Last time they played Scotland, a power cut forced an impromptu spoken word set, and nothing brings out the consummate showman in Doseone better than when he raps like the proverbial motherfucker, acting out every word and image – even spitting a blow-by-blow commentary as The Running Man plays out on the screens behind him.

Jel is no background performer either: tapping out every beat and sample live in a frenzy of motion that would make most showcase drummers’ jaws drop.

Maybe it’s that special “last show of the tour” energy,

We Were Promised Jetpacks The Liquid Room, 21 Aug

rrrr To the uninitiated, We Were Promised Jetpacks' set tonight will likely come across as a bit ‘samey’. To those accustomed to last year’s debut These Four Walls, the Scots lads simply follow a rigid up-tempo colloquial rock template. Whatever your vantage point though, the Jetpacks give an exemplary performance in the newly refurbished Liquid Room.

50 THE SKINNY September 2010

Wu-Tang Clan PHOTO: Adrian Reilly

but when the soundman interrupts over the PA to call time and Themselves morph their two best songs into extended vicious freestyle jams, it’s clear this is a live act that can rival any great, regardless of location or genre. [Ali Maloney] www.myspace.com/themselves

As the second song in, Quiet Little Voices catches the crowd off-guard but it’s the only evidence of the band clocking one in tonight. New material pushes the quartet into post-rock territories before an end salvo finds them back on familiar and exhilarating ground, whilst effortless crowd pleasers such as Ships With Holes Will Sink and Short Bursts ensure fans are given plenty of second opportunities to get their dance on.

There’s sporadic audience chatter about ‘bigger things’ ahead for the Jetpacks, but from here it looks like the band have found their home. [Darren Carle] www.myspace.com/wewerepromisedjetpacks

O2 Academy, 1 Aug

rrrr Let’s get the negatives out of the way. First, reuniting the entire Wu-Tang Clan ‘In Full Force’ as billed was never going to be easy; tonight’s show goes ahead sans semi-permanent Wu member Cappadonna and, more annoyingly, Method Man (who allegedly flew home to film an episode of CSI).

Second, GZA still seems incapable of rhyming to the beat, looking static and disinterested as he slogs through classic verses from 4th Chamber and Reunited with one hand in his pocket, retreating to the shadows in-between; anyone to witness last year’s Liquid Swords tour already knows what I’m talking about. If you’re aiming for laidback mystique, GZA, it’s coming off as pure boredom.

But even those factors can’t detract: tonight marks Wu-Tang’s first Glasgow show in like, ever, and they come packing a discography that boasts more timeless hits than most rappers have

half-decent verses. Disregarding the guest heavy shenanigans of 2001’s Iron Flag and 2007’s 8 Diagrams, they stick to the classics, largely relying on the creative golden period of 1993-1997 to deliver a set no neck remains still for. The likes of Tearz, Bring Da Ruckus and C.R.E.A.M have the crowd throwing Ws and bouncing like fools as Mathematics plays pied piper with RZA’s grimy, soul and kung fu-sampling palette.

Elsewhere, solo highlights from the Wu library are sprinkled throughout the set; Ice Cream marks 15 years to the day since Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx was released, while Ghostface takes centre stage to blaze his way through Mighty Healthy and U-God flat refuses to leave until encoring with Dat’s Gangsta. RZA’s the last man on stage, hawking a new film and spraying the front rows with champagne. Throw an epic, shimmy-inducing O.D.B. tribute in to that mix, and what you’ve got here is a memorable Wu banga – Meth or no. [Martin Skivington & Bob Morton] www.wutang-corp.com

Music

September 2010

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MUSIC

Live Music

Highlights

by Mark Shukla

September’s gig schedule is completely stacked, and NYC posse Cymbals Eat Guitars will set the bar high at Glasgow Stereo on 4 Sep. With a fantastic debut under their belts these peeps have been (not so) quietly evolving into one of their homeland’s most unmissable bands. Put drag, chillwave and crab core on the back burner for one night and remind yourself how thrilling a thunderous guitar/drums/keys/combo can actually be. Few motherfuckers know how to cut loose like these guys – you may not see a better gig all month.

Changing the channel from the aforementioned incendiary rock action, Icelandic prodigy Jónsi will unfurl his lush, post-Enya soundscapes and spirited vocal contortions at Glasgow O2 Academy on 5 Sep. Recent gigs have seen his band experimenting with gorgeous theatrical set design – so fingers crossed we’ll be treated to more than de rigueur strobing gel filters.

Yet more theatrical art-folk this way comes – this time of a slightly darker hue – courtesy of Fever Ray who will perform at Glasgow O2 ABC on 6 Sep. Expect shadowy, brooding drama to pulse and ripple atop a framework of supple electro and portentous synthetic melody. Known for their love of performance and spectacle (i.e. drawing weird stuff on their faces), you’ll probably have summat to gawp at too.

Canucks Wolf Parade bring their thing to Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire on 8 Sep. Urgent rhythms,

SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO SAY: FUCK JAMIE OLIVER ALL THE WAY TO FIERY HELL

Fever Ray

ace keyboard lines and enjoyably Bowie-esque vocals all play second fiddle to this band’s amazing songwriting skills. This should be totally great.

Café Drummonds in Aberdeen and Duke’s Corner in Dundee play host to two mouthwatering nights of music on 8 and 9 Sep respectively. Highlanders Shutter will caress your senses with delicate post-rock melodies before trying to drown you with oceanic metal riffs whilst local favourites Pensioner can be depended on to unleash their spunky, spiky, punky inner beast.

I’m assuming you all know by now that Bronto Skylift are a fucking good live band: relentlessly exciting, magnificently aggressive and deeply sexy in a way that only the best two-piece bands can manage. Get yours at Dundee Doghouse on 10 Sep and Edinburgh Sneaky Pete’s on 12 Sep. Fantastic Edinburgh three-piece Come On Gang! are well on their way to becoming a classic Scottish indie-pop group. Chipper post-punk guitar lines, perky, throbbing bass and wonderful vocals that are slightly awkward without being affected have us convinced they’re something a bit special. The launch for their new single takes place at Edinburgh Caves on 10 Sep (with Found and Jesus H. Foxx) and the band will also hit up the Z1 Bar in Girvan on 3 Sep, Aberdeen Snafu on 9 Sep, Duke’s Corner Dundee on 11 Sep, Glasgow Captain’s Rest on 14 Sep, Inverness Hootenanny on 17 Sep, The Old Bridge Inn in Aviemore on 18 Sep and The Attic in Bathgate on 19 Sep. Electric Eel Shock are at it again at Aberdeen

ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN

JOANNA NEWSOM

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB

GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL, 20 SEP

ÒRAN MÓR, 17 SEP

Café Drummonds on 10 Sep and Glasgow King Tuts on 11 Sep. Deafening fuzz riffs, ridiculous lyrics (“I’m made of metal! You can’t hurt me!”) and shameless Sabbath-worship are all the ingredients they need to get cooking. It may not be the healthiest option on the menu, but sometimes you just have to say: FUCK JAMIE OLIVER ALL THE WAY TO FIERY HELL. British Sea Power may not be quite the same band that wrote The Decline of..., but they’ve still got plenty of romantic, pastoral longing left in them yet – not to mention some damn fine tunes.

Check them at Dundee Doghouse on 28 Sep. The Twilight Sad will round out this stellar month with a trio of gigs at Aberdeen Lemon Tree on 29 Sep, Dundee Doghouse on 30 Sep and Stirling Tolbooth on 1 Oct. Drama, intensity and blizzards of intoxicating noise shall reward the faithful. And rest easy my children – any deficit of understated electronic funk will be made good by co-headliners Errors who also appear at all three dates.

LIVE PREVIEWS FANG ISLAND CAPTAIN’S REST, 5 SEP

Fang Island describe their sound as “everybody high-five-ing each other”, a feeling which pretty much covers the stadium-sized guitar-shredding, clattering, upbeat drums and infinite “whoas” that litter the Rhode Island group’s self-titled debut.

The album, released earlier this year, has been met with impressive critical praise, even managing to breach the impenetrable fortress of musical opinion that is Pitchfork. The raw and energetic sound the band create on record is just begging to be heard loud in a packed-out basement, so for all those uninterested in Icelandic solo artists, the Captain’s Rest is the place to be on the fifth. [Ryan Drever]

There has always been something mildly perverse when it comes to the sight of the innocently framed Isobel Campbell sitting side by side with the vagrantly-suited, furiously-browed Mark Lanegan.

However, when Campbell’s sweet tones have met the sub-baritone rasp of Lanegan, it has largely been a decadently desirable meeting of heaven and hell.

With their third album, Hawk, released this month, the duo are becoming less of a collaborative collision of Grunge Godfather and Glaswegian girl done good, more a full-bodied, melancholy country amalgam, and with Campbell’s song-writing prowess going from strength to strength, there’s no better time to savour this duo. [Paul Neeson]

Having tempered her pixie-toned tendencies for this year’s epically ambitious, masterfully executed third album, Have One on Me, Joanna Newsom has removed the one point of contention surrounding her poetic folk-tapestries, rendering herself almost irresistible to those with an appreciation for the subtler end of the contemporary music spectrum.

With the songstress’s appearance at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall in September being her first here in several years, it presents both the first opportunity for a Scottish audience to witness the vast and visceral material of her latest LP, and to savour a full body of work from unarguably one of the most unique voices around today. [Paul Neeson]

The only band from Northern Ireland to make the longlist for BBC’s Sound of 2010, Bangor outfit Two Door Cinema Club comprise Alex Trimble, Kevin Baird and Sam Halliday, and more than a whiff of teen spirit. Angular guitar pop with electro undertones, a bit like The Futureheads if they were actually from the future, Something Good Can Work and Undercover Martyn have been laying waste to Irish radio this summer, although it remains to be seen whether or not they can carry that success through to the UK. With infectious, soaring choruses and a good ear for a hook, they are well armed at the least. [Oisín Kealy]

8PM, £7

7PM, £16

7.30PM, £25

7.30PM, £11.70

HTTP://FANGISLAND.COM/

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ISOBELCAMPBELL

WWW.DRAGCITY.COM/ARTISTS/JOANNA-NEWSOM

TWODOORCINEMACLUB.COM

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS ÒRAN MÓR, 7 SEP

The other Canadian supergroup – which is in no way to say inferior, just less omnipresent – The New Pornographers’ fifth album Together seemed to showcase a more grown-up sound than previous releases, relying less on the swooping hoot of Neko Case for a killer chorus and more on thoughtful harmony with strong arrangements. That doesn’t mean they’ve lost any of their fun; Your Hands (Together) is a classic Pornos track, all stomping guitar and syncopated rhythms. Like any touring supergroup, it’s difficult to say who will turn up for this gig.

AC Newman is a sure bet, but odds on Case making it aren’t entirely hopeful. [Oisín Kealy]

O2 ABC, 8 SEP

WILCO BARROWLANDS, 16 SEP

Last Year saw Wilco (the band) release Wilco (the album) to typically effusive acclaim. I wonder if even Jeff Tweedy gets tired of being so good sometimes, there’s just no surprise anymore when they drop a new record. Despite the danger they may teeter off the edge of indie soft-rock into the cess-pit of adult contemporary pop, they possess a certain resilience to commercial appeal, and until that day we must claim them as our own. This a rare enough chance to see a band that would usually prefer to drop in on London on the way to Europe than brave the cold. Plus support comes from one Philip Selway.

[Oisín Kealy]

7PM, £13.50

7PM, £24.75

WWW.THENEWPORNOGRAPHERS.COM

WWW.WILCOWORLD.NET

52 THE SKINNY SEPTEMBER 2010

Music

Text Ryan Drever As a piss-poor summer gives way to the elemental gloom of the Autumn, you can take some solace in that, riff-wise, a particularly intense couple of months lie ahead – with November in particular already shaping up to be a beast. September itself has just about enough to offer on the heavy front to bridge the gap, giving the festival-weary amongst you a chance for those bruises to heal before the real carnage begins.

Kicking things off in Glasgow, a global cross-section of modern hardcore takes to Capitol, featuring Australian crew 50 Lions and New Zealand’s Antagonist AD, joining Glasgow’s own By My Hands who claim to be “too hardcore for the metal kids and too metal for the hardcore kids.” We’ll be down the front with a skinhead wearing an illegible tee-shirt.

Electric Eel Shock

The following night sees another packed bill in The 13th Note where Vancouver’s Shearing Pinx head up an evening of experimental noise rock, joined by the equally unhinged Ultimate Thrush, Mr Peppermint and our favourite discordant barbarians, Divorce. The latter make their first of three appearances this month here, before returning with disturbed kindred spirits, Japanese/London-based duo Comanechi, for a face-off at both Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s (23 Sep) and Nice N Sleazy (24 Sep).

With capable support from the likes of Jackie Treehorn and Purple Rhinestone Eagle, it’s worth a look whichever coast you dwell on.

Balls-out (literally) Japanese trio, Electric Eel Shock hit up Aberdeen’s Cafe Drummonds (10 Sep), before returning to King Tut’s with perpetual gig machines Bronto Skylift (11 Sep), whereas that same evening sees Ivory Blacks’ line-up take an unsurprisingly darker turn, with celebrated ‘trad-metal’ titans Beholder gripping the reins.

Gibraltan metallers Breed 77 make a return to the city too, bringing Malefice with them to the Classic Grand (13 Sep) before Ivory Blacks proves, again, that it’s not all avant-noise or hardcore on offer this month, suffering further desecration at the hands of the brutal double team that is Skeletonwitch

and Warbringer (14 Sep).

Elsewhere, an otherwise fairly quiet month in Dundee is lifted by the appearance of Ayrshire power trio Sucioperro (Dexter’s, 15 Sep) and Sneaky Pete’s again plays host to cockney hardcore troupe TRC, alongside the excellent Shields Up (19 Sep) whilst the mighty Oceansize bring the dizzying soundscapes of their forthcoming fourth LP to Òran Mór.

As the month draws to a close, Bring Me The Horizon roll up to the Garage with Canadian nihilists, Cancer Bats (24 Sep) providing fodder for the metalcore believers, before Black Sun make sure we enter these darker evenings in a suitably bleak fashion,

September 2010

THE SKINNY 53

Music

Arab Strap: An Introspection As part of the celebration of their 15 years of existence, influential Glasgow label Chemikal Underground are re-releasing Arab Strap's first two albums, The Week Never Starts Round Here (1996) and Philophobia (1998).

The iconoclastic observations of songwriter Aidan Moffat and suitably spartan musical accompaniment by multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton took wry navel-gazing in contemporary Scottish society to new artistic heights. Here, Moffat reflects on the beginnings of an intriguing relationship Text Aidan Moffat I must admit that I did think it was a little too early to get nostalgic about Arab Strap, and I was the most resistant to the idea. I always thought that I would be the one to lead the way in these things but it turns out that Stewart [Henderson, co-Chemikal boss] and Malcolm were very keen to do it, whilst I wasn’t sure I was ready for it. I hadn’t listened to these records since they came out, there’s no real reason to, but I’ve had to do so several fucking times recently to make sure they were alright; especially the vinyl for the box set, so I think I listened to Philophobia more than I ever have before. There wasn’t that much tweaking to be done with that album, it was pretty much perfect as it was. The Week Never Starts Round Here has a wee adjustment here and there, but there wasn’t much reason for remastering; I don’t see the point in tampering with these things.

We’re pretty intense guys, Malcolm and I; the music is a fairly accurate representation of our personalities. We’d known each other since we were teenagers but we didn’t really hang about at the time. One summer fate threw us in the same place and we ended up sharing a lot of good times and one particular girlfriend as well. We had a group of friends – very few of whom we talk to anymore – and it seemed like a very decadent time. I had more fun and a more rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle in the couple of years when we were beginning with Arab Strap than I ever did once we’d started properly. It was all very exciting.

We only tended to decide we wanted to make music in the darker moments; we weren’t people who wanted to sing about being jolly. Even with First Big Weekend – I don’t think it’s a particularly joyous song – there’s a certain irony we always thought existed.

I think people tend to think it’s a celebration of going out when I was actually getting really fucking tired of it. It certainly does stand out on the album as the chirpy one. It is a funny tune, there certainly is a lot of humour on all our records but you have to listen carefully and search for it sometimes, but with First Big Weekend it’s a bit more immediate.

I used to make songs on tapes. At the time I didn’t really play any instruments so a lot of the time it was just drums and singing. It was funny but it was never a serious pursuit of mine; making music was something that I never really saw myself doing. I gave some of those tapes to Malcolm during the magical summer I was talking about. We used to trade tapes with each other and The Week Never Starts Round Here just grew from that. I think the stuff that I write now is certainly a lot more sophisticated than it was back then – not necessarily any better, just more sophisticated!

There are certain songs on Philophobia, and also Blood from the first album, that I’d like to do again, certainly from a vocal perspective. We used to play them constantly right until the end of our career in 2006 and they just got better with time. Our performance and the way we played them improved, so there are certain things I would like to change but I’m not going to because it’s all about capturing the moment. Malcolm wouldn’t let me anyway.

Between the first and second albums I think there’s a natural progression. I seemed to have loads of songs ready for that album. The same sorts of things inspired me; usually hangovers, and Arab Strap music is very much a ‘morning after’ style of music. It’s all about what you should have done, what you should have said. There were limitations with the first one.

We recorded it pretty quickly and pretty cheaply. We kind of liked that and it can bring out a creative streak if you have limitations. With Philophobia we had a lot more money to play with in the studio; there was

54 THE SKINNY September 2010

more instrumentation but we were careful not to go nuts either. There were quite a few instruments we put on and then took off. For instance, the last song – and we almost put this on the reissue or the box set but looking back on it, it’s actually fucking hideous – The

"Perhaps when people listen to it they say 'At least I'm not as miserable as that c**t'!"

Aidan Moffat

First Time You’re Unfaithful was originally ten minutes long because we wanted to have a big, spectacular end to the album. And when the song ends . . . it explodes into this big churning rock monster with loads of instruments. We genuinely felt it was a good idea at the time to have this big finish but then when we got there we realised the best ending was quiet and understated, so I’m very glad we didn’t use that. That’s a good example of how we suddenly had money to spend but needed to be careful not to be too stupid.

It’s quite nice to hear it with older and fresher ears – if you can be old and fresh at the same time.

A lot of people say it’s a good break-up album, and has helped them through the bad times. I’m not quite sure. I’m very flattered and it’s a lovely compliment but it makes me slightly uncomfortable. Perhaps when people listen to it they say ‘At least I’m not as miserable as that cunt’! I’m just not sure that music is a cure for people’s problems, though. If you’re really sad and upset perhaps you should do something else other than sit in a house and listen to a record (laughs). Thing is, I used to do it all the time. Me and a friend used to drink a few in his bedroom and listen to sad tunes when we were single and broken-hearted. Sam & Dave’s Just Me was a favourite, it’s the perfect lonely drink song.

One of the reasons I started writing songs in the first place? . . . men, I find, don’t write very honestly. I was always more inspired by women writers. I loved Babes in Toyland who were really frank, screaming and

brutal. And PJ Harvey’s first two records were really honest and forthcoming with great attention to detail, but I always found that a lot of male writing tended to be a bit too florid without being particularly accurate.

It certainly didn’t seem to reflect my experiences of being a man, certainly not a young man in Scotland in the 90s. I couldn’t find anything that sounded like that, so that was the reason I started writing the way that I write. I suppose it was about the notion of being true to yourself and writing about what you know.

We had a couple of new offers to play the reissues live, but I don’t know if Malcolm or I are ready to do that yet, and I don’t know if we ever will be. I’m torn about that sort of thing. Reforming isn’t necessarily a bad idea, and Malcolm and I haven’t fallen out, in fact we’re probably closer now than we were ten years ago. We joke about it quite often in the pub, but I’m not quite sure we’re the sort of people who would reform to play old songs. We would maybe do something new together; but then again, maybe we’re better just leaving it dead. Arab Strap is a very specific part of our lives and it’s over now; I don’t think we’re the same people as we were then.

The Week Never Starts Round Here and Philophobia Deluxed Editions are available now via Chemikal Underground Aidan Moffat appears with The Best-Ofs and Bill Wells at Paisley Arts Centre on 17 Sep www.chemikal.co.uk

Clubs

September 2010

THE SKINNY 55

CLUBS

20 Years of Beats ‘n’ Pieces

PHOTO: STEVE DOUBLE

The seminal London label celebrates 20 years in the business with a spanking new box set this month. Ninja Tune and Coldcut's Matt Black unveils their 'Futurespective'

Interview David McNally DOING any job for 20 years can be tough, but when you’re known for innovation, there’s an inherent problem: how can one be venerable and bleeding edge at the same time? As one half of Coldcut, Ninja Tune boss Matt Black was present at the first couplings of indie and dance (see his work on The Fall’s Extricate) and was the first to put beats down over classical music (with Beats ‘n’ Pieces back in ‘87).

Yet Black’s also the first to admit that his label has come through changing times, their output not always being quite as vital as it could have been. “In the past we might have put out some beats with a nice loop over the top and let it run for 5 minutes,” he allows. “But I feel there’s a lot more to the stuff we’ve been putting out recently. We’re really lucky to be in the middle of a very exciting time for electronic music.”

Wary of being tarred with the chill out brush, this month they come out fighting with the 6 disc XX box set, containing a massive diversity of Ninja-affiliated artists like The Bug, Spank Rock and Bonobo – which more than proves their worth in a crowded electronic marketplace. It comes with a deluxe book which mixes up images in print in a unique way and contains 2 discs of remixes commissioned especially for the set from people who owe Ninja Tune a debt of inspiration, from Modeselektor right the way through to Tom Middleton.

It’s also bags of fun to listen to, and – it would seem – to promote. “We launched it at a gallery in London with a multimedia event,” beams Black. “It was great to see all the sleeves and memorabilia displayed, and to touch base with all the Ninja cohorts. There’s a feeling that rather than just a formality it’s a genuine celebration of who we are, and it’s an evolution for Ninja to do all this.”

Chris Duncan

ACADEMIC ENDEAVOURS CONGRATULATIONS freshers, if you’ve selected Glasgow for your base throughout your studies you may be aware of the recent demise of both weekly incarnations of Optimo and RPZ. Nice timing. Both nights soundtracked years of school night debauchery for weegie slackers, students and people who simply refused to act productively on a weekday morning. Never fear though, RPZ has now been reborn in Stereo as a monthly event, whilst Optimo morphed into Hung Up! not minutes after the hearse left Jamaica Street. Meanwhile, nights such as Numbers, Bigfoot’s Tea Party, OMT and one off Subcity events will give the new population of Glasgow plenty to enjoy, whilst the infamous LuckyMe parties happen in both Edinburgh and Glasgow on a fairly regular basis. Those feeling a bit more adventurous

56 THE SKINNY SEPTEMBER 2010

can always try Slabs of the Tabernacle, Wrong Island or Highlife, and new ventures I AM and Vitamins are well worth keeping an eye on.

Across in Edinburgh, the Volume night remains one of the stand out regular events in the city and Cabaret Voltaire is running an alternative freshers’ week whose guests include Foamo, DC Breaks, Slam and Gramaphonedize. Xplicit, Big ‘n’ Bashy and Coalition provide the foundation shattering bass whilst the bizarre Confusion is Sex focuses on the style as much as the substance as corsets sit alongside ADHD riddled electro.

Finally, Glaswegian midweek student haunts Killer Kitsch and Octopussy are still in operation and have advanced their frontlines to include Edinburgh. So there you have it, a list to explain your forthcoming third class degree.

"WE'RE STILL MAD, BAD AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW" MATT BLACK Indeed, the vast line-up is a veritable who’s who of current channels in electronic music. “That was a conscious decision not to do a kind of Greatest Hits, but instead a ‘Futurespective,’” he asserts. “A bunch of

us had the same idea which not to dwell on – it’s much better to prove we’re still mad, bad and dangerous to know. The music seems to go in cycles and at the moment with Fly Lo, dubstep, wonk... there’s a new flood of ideas and the box set is a nice sampler of where dance music is at and where it’s headed.”

With Coldcut currently on hiatus, a lot of Black’s time is spent seeking out new music and fortunately he doesn’t have to look too far. “I’ve been doing an EU-funded project on renewable energy (Energy Union), taking an audio-visual set around Europe, so I’ve encountered a bunch of new people through that like Gold Panda, Blue Daisy... wherever you go there’s a Ninja posse, they’re passionate and international and ‘cos I don’t actually buy too much music these days I rely on mates to feed me new stuff. It’s all about good instincts and good antennae.”

All of this globetrotting has made Black realise how interconnected the scene has become. “Going around Europe, I realised that when Flying Lotus farts in LA, they hear it in Austria. And you guys are lucky where you are too, Numbers from Glasgow – I fucking love what they’re doing, really mad tracks. A mate told me that at a Numbers night they dropped a Drexic track, like 10-15 years old electro, and all the kids knew it! So it’s been amazing, tracing how all these waves of connection travel through internationally. The great thing about the internet is that it links everyone in. People used to ask, ‘How do you do it?’ and the answer is just that – take what makes you who you are and manifest it in a way so that others take notice. The way to do that will be different for everyone and now we can see it all come out, whereas before these people would have been stopped at the door by the style police. That monopoly has largely been broken down.”

Without hesitation, there’s one particular name Black has on his lips as an artist he wished he signed to his respectable stealthy stable. “Flying Lotus. We share management with him, so he’s kind of an honorary Ninja – the stuff he contributes to the box set is mindblowing, breathtaking. I can’t get enough of his work.”

Amongst the many other delights from the set, Joe Goddard contributes a remix of Coldcut’s own This Island Earth from their 2006 album Sound Mirrors.

Referring to their collaboration, I ask Black if he sees any affinities between Hot Chip and Coldcut. “Just the obvious one, that we’re both music lovers who got lucky fucking around with sound.” Let that serve as a testament to both band and label.[David McNally] XX IS RELEASED VIA NINJA TUNE ON 20 SEP WWW.NINJATUNE.NET

DJ CHART ANJA SCHNEIDER 1. Gerd / In The Morning - DJ Koze Remix / Philpot This is an amazing record. Everything Koze touches is so magical and epic - for me this is one of the tracks of the Summer 2. And.id / Isalos / mobilee And.Id is on fire at the moment, and for me this is one of the best tracks on the Hi Five! mobilee Compilation. Keep an eye on him!

3.Davide Squillace / Cubism / Desolat This is a record that really surprised me. It takes you on a journey, changes direction in the middle completely and leaves you with the best vibe ever, I love it.

4. Digitaline / Rain In Sumer / Cityfox Digitaline are one of my favourite acts and they never disappoint me. This track has such a groovy, sexy and poppy sound.

5. Sebrok / The Pain / Paso This is the first track from the upcoming album of Sebrok which is going to be very interessting. I love his stuff and it always makes me dance.

6. Dapayk / Fawlty / Leena Motolee is my favourite track from Dapayk’s new release and I’m really happy it’s on our label Leena 7. High Com / Wild Life / Intacto This is a really groovy and techy record, and it really gets a party going 8. Anja Schneider / Something Left / Mobilee Check it out!

Clubs

Jack in the BumBumBox Street parties with bikers, Marxist club culture and freaky sort-of techno: The Skinny meets Matias Aguayo

Interview Ray Philp Ay Ay Ay is not, strictly speaking, a techno record.

And neither is Matias Aguayo, strictly speaking, a techno producer. If we take that to be fait accompli, then it’s still remarkable that his sophomore album just so happened to have been released by Kompakt, one of Europe’s foremost techno imprints. But Ay Ay Ay goes further than being an outlier; it’s a rebellious, even antagonistic statement, when taking into account both the context of its emergence, and developments surrounding its release last year – namely, BumBumBox. But first thing’s first.

Matias Aguayo’s follow up to his 2005 debut, Are You Really Lost, wasn’t so much a ‘progression’ as it was a metamorphosis. But more than that, Ay Ay Ay was fundamentally contrarian. Minimal and Walter Neff, two singles released in 2008, were supposed to preface Aguayo’s imminent foray into a clearly defined techno-pop crossover record. In retrospect, they instead signalled the flickering embers of what he was leaving behind, something that was increasingly evident by the time of the release of Minimal, a mocking reproach against the eponymous techno substrate for having “no groove” and “no balls”. I ask him, on the rather tenuous pretext of Kompakt figurehead Michael Mayer’s recently released Immer 3, if he plans to record anything further with Dirk Leyers (the other half of seminal Kompakt duo Closer Musik), to which he responds with a curt “no”. It’s hard to shake the notion that he feels thoroughly estranged from the genre.

“Oh I still love techno music, but [I think] techno music must be “crazy” or “freaky” and nowadays it seems more like custom made professional productions by very professional producers doing their professional music production in very professional studios that look like offices with speakers. Sometimes I can sense some techno ‘spirit’ in any music, like being

unpredictable, using technology against the way it was thought to be used, or in knowledge about the relationship between body and music. I love techno, but well, it is always a struggle of meanings and definition of what you understand as being ‘techno’”.

Ay Ay Ay’s “intuitive and joyful” nature, as Aguayo himself describes it, seems then to be the culmination of a desire for escape; Aguayo is unequivocal about what he’s escaping from, but of more interest is the nature of Aguayo’s bid for artistic freedom: the now-famed BumBumBox parties. Having helped curate the BumBumBox parties, or BBB for short – free street parties that had originated in Buenos Aires, and subsequently spread across other major cities in South America – Aguayo has slowly exported BBB to Europe, something he hopes will precipitate a more inclusive, liberated and spontaneous strain of club culture.

“Practically everything is more crazy than in a club on a BBB. In a club, you won’t meet old or underaged people, nor will some bikers suddenly appear and join the party, spontaneously doing the lights for the dancefloor from their bikes. Also it is very unlikely you will meet people in a club that don’t know what they are listening to, and music-wise obviously it is much more free and freaky than what you can hear in a club. Furthermore there is not a customer/service offerer relationship between audience and performer, it is all much more mixed up, participation is important, and you will never ever hear somebody complaining about the music or asking for a song, as it is free and it is a present.”

Somewhat implicitly, Aguayo raises the issue of the corporatisation of the contemporary club experience, and he has previous on the related and seldom discussed issue of ethno-tourism in dance music.

Having already been outspoken on what he sees as a phenomenon of “cultural colonialism” by European

dance producers – in its crudest form, the cuttingand-pasting of latin-lite rhythms onto generic techno templates (the combination of which, in another interview, he had asserted was in “very bad taste”) – he elaborates further: “You give your European music some “exotic” touch, [but] in the end it’s only Latino and African clichés not too far from Disney’s Lion King or the ‘Waka Waka’ song from the World Cup.” He does, however, preface this by saying (in a rather opaque way) that: “Many musical achievements come from a combination of different influences and also often ‘misunderstood’ influences.”

Citing cumbia as one of his many indirect influences (“I listen a lot to it and have a huge collection,

BumBumBox parties, or BBB for short – free street parties that had originated in Buenos Aires, and subsequently spread across other major cities in South America

especially of the original, Colombian Cumbia... I don’t try to do cumbia... but obviously if you listen to something so much it will obviously be somehow reflected in your music,”) Aguayo’s sound nowadays is heavily informed by fragments of South American subgenres, layered with playful and often sensual sing-along hooks and stripped down beatboxing riffs, a combination that he doesn’t always find easy to bring to fruition when DJing, as he explains when asked about the full band setup he is introducing into his live shows.

“Doing the band is really something that starts from my DJ sets... it’s really an extension to my DJ sets, or something like a next step for me. I sing and play a couple of instruments, and sometimes it is too much for just two hands to hold a mic, mix the CDs and play some percussion, so I invited my fellow musicians Diego Morales aka Diegors and Vicente Sanfuentes to participate and develop this idea further, to play the rhythms with me and sing along.”

Given that Aguayo’s focus is now firmly on Cómeme – a new label co-founded with Gary Pimiento – it seems that his relationship with Kompakt, while not exactly over, seems on an indefinite hiatus. “I don’t really feel like belonging to an aesthetic there, and if there is something like that I obviously see it more reflected in my [current] label.” It seems, sadly, that the end of the affair is imminent.

Matias Aguayo appears at Stop Making Sense Festival on 4 Sep and at The Wee Chill on 25 Sep www.weechill.co.uk www.sms-2010.com

September 2010

THE SKINNY 57

CLUBS

Slab Happy With two years under their belt and a new label launching this month, just what is the secret behind the success of Slabs of the Tabernacles?

58 THE SKINNY SEPTEMBER 2010

Text Chris Duncan THERE is a theory, that isn’t solely applied to club nights but rather life in general, that you can always tell who the good guys are, because they don’t make any money. There is certainly evidence to back this up when it is administered to clubs, with promoters and venues that show integrity and a drive to provide a particular musical output often struggling to break even whilst venues that push their drink promotions ahead of all else create monopolies.

It is then, a delight to see the rare occasion when a night not only survives but excels; cementing itself as an integral part of its locality, something that Slabs of the Tabernacle seems to be doing.

“The night has been going on for two years now, it’s been in Le Cheetah, The Universal and began in the Twisted Wheel when that was still open,” explains one of the night’s founders Brian d’Souza. “It’s certainly suited to a basement setting, people are there to dance.

“Musically Slabs is fairly label focused, we’ve had Chicago House orientated nights, italo nights and deep techno based one-offs,” continues Brian. “Some people think we are an italo night, others this ‘mad techno night’. We are just an old school type of party really – our guests normally play live on hardware and definitely use vinyl if they are Djing. It is this ethos that has helped us build relationships with likeminded folk across the UK and in Europe. ” Fellow resident and founder Andrew Cooke adds "It says on our website that we run a ‘party’ without reeling off a big list of subgenres. So although we ran three mainly Chicago-style parties a few months back, the next month we can switch it up to deeper and harder Detroit, italo the next and still get a committed crowd" Slabs of the Tabernacle’s strength lies within the diverse and brilliant record collection of it’s founders, the guests they bring to the city and the relationship they build with the artists they book. Previous guests include Ali Renault, Casionova, Tevo Howard, The Third Man, Scott McGill and Rude 66. This brief peek at the two year old booking history proves one thing, Slabs of the Tabernacle are bringing talent to the city on a regular basis that would otherwise likely never

be heard live in Glasgow.

The night now takes place every other month, moving from its former monthly slot whilst the other founders focus on different projects and the new Slabs of the Tabernacle label. As Brian says, “Most of the DJs we have had playing for us also produce so it makes sense to put out our own releases. It’s just an interesting project really.

We have forthcoming releases from Fancy & Spook/ Ditone, John Heckle, The Third Man and Xenogears.”

As for the future of the night, Andrew concludes that “For our next party we’re focusing on Abstract Forms. Over the past two and a half years this electronic UK label has put out a succession of beautifully crafted, trendfree releases ranging from soundscapes for home listening, to creepy club tracks.

We will be showcasing exclusive live sets from some of the artists who have released on this label plus a DJ set from the label boss Deixis himself.”

SLABS OF THE TABERNACLE TAKES PLACE EVERY OTHER MONTH IN THE UNIVERSAL, THE NEXT DATE IS AN ABSTRACT FORMS LABEL NIGHT WITH DEIXIS [DJ], MORPHOLOGY [LIVE], ARNE WEINBERG [LIVE] ON 2 OCT

"SOME PEOPLE THINK WE ARE AN ITALO NIGHT, OTHERS THIS ‘MAD TECHNO NIGHT’.

WE ARE JUST AN OLD SCHOOL TYPE OF PARTY REALLY"

Bla Bla Bla Hotbox celebrate their first birthday with an exclusive appearance from Italoboyz Garage Skinny_SEP_PRINT.pdf 24/8/10 16:18:38

MARCO Donato and Federico Marton have not always been at the forefront of our minds – forever on the periphery but always vital and refreshing, the wholly unique DJ/producer duo have proved a consistently quixotic party starting team at any venue they grace with their presence. Having already played some of the most important parties in the techno calendar including Miami’s Winter Music Conference, London’s Fabric, Tokyo’s Liquid Room and Detroit Electronic Music Festival, as well as receiving longlasting support from Claude VonStroke’s Ditybird subsidiary Mothership, it appears two of Italy’s brightest sparks are beginning to reach a new classic status.

In Marco’s opinion the duo are always delivering a “fresh, energetic and jacking sound” to dancefloors worldwide with a synthesis of real recorded music and analogue machines. An Italoboyz set is a revitalising venture with a distinctive flair few can recreate, without taking itself too seriously.

In the studio Federico believes the pair approach music making “in a very particular way”; starting from an idea and building a track around it. “We never start to build a groove if we don’t have a vision of what the character of the main track will be.” The manipulation of real instrumentation is an essential component of the Italoboyz sound, adding an immediately organic texture to their music and “going beyond the standards of using only plug-ins and computer programs.”

“There’s so much music out there that is really aseptic and boring - we try to exploit all the best that music can offer by combining the organic - pure elements with the warmth of analogue sounds,” says Marco. Having both relocated from their hometown of Mogliano Veneto to London in 2001/02 respectively, Marco and Federico began their careers as producers and were later christened Italoboyz by the promoter who booked them for their first FESH party at the “legendary” 333. Coming from “a different but similar background,” Marco concedes that he and Federico “end up on the same conclusion music wise… most of the time,” as their approach to production continues to grow. “We are (more) interested in experimenting in new ways and always trying to work with real recorded music – all the pianos, violins, bass, voices

"THE ITALOBOYZ SOUND IS PERHAPS A PERENNIAL ONE, DELIVERING A MODERNISTIC VANGUARD OF MINIMALIST TECHNO WITH A RESONANCE THROUGH MUSICAL HISTORY" etc are recorded from musicians and manipulated by us.

Sometimes it takes a very long time to finish a track.”

The result of these long production sessions is a charged fusion of sounds, ideas and influences which one can imagine easily extend beyond time spent as DJs and producers. Older releases such as Viktor Casanova and Hannibal come across as intense but with a semblance of delicacy, and denote perhaps not growth but progression in comparison to some of the more surprising and alluring tracks to be found on the first Italoboyz full length Bla Bla Bla, released on Mothership last year. “It was cool,” says Marco, speaking of the eight track LP. “Not our best I think, but a nice idea.”

The Italoboyz sound is perhaps a perennial one, delivering a modernistic vanguard of minimalist techno with a resonance through musical history, morphing effortlessly from ethereal sonic tapestries to pounding dancefloor smashes. Inspiring, elusive and essential, Italoboyz provide a soundtrack for a world outside of conventional club music; raising expectations, and with some “very twisted stuff” in the pipeline, showing no sign of stopping anytime soon.

ITALOBOYZ APPEAR AT HOTBOX AT THE UNIVERSAL ON 17 SEP, £TBC WWW.HOTBOXCLUB.COM

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SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 59

CLUBS

Text Calum Sutherland

Clubs

previews CloakXDagger presents Scratcha DVA, The Blessings, The Hidden Orchestra, Profisee/ Simba The Caves, 17 Sep

Mind Your Head Leave it aaht! MNDR are more concerned with midrange blips than wheeling and dealing Text Ray Philp So, turns out that MNDR is pronounced ‘mandar’. Soft, warm tears were wept all round as the disappointment began to sink in. We had a whole Minder riff all worked out, you know. The opening paragraph of this column would otherwise have been dedicated to a mid-market slice of 80s telly, which portrayed George Cole, used car salesman and prototypical Del Boy, being a bit of a rascal, while Dennis Waterman – the titular Minder – looked by turns stern and constipated and tisk tisked at his pal’s rascallyness. “Aarffahr!”, he would cry, “Aarffahr! Leave it aaht!”

Sigh.

Having cruelly dissociated themselves from the dodgy geezer demographic, MNDR are aspiring to far greater heights. Amanda Warner and Peter Wade are the duo behind the emerging New York dance outfit, and it hasn’t taken them very long to get a bit of momentum going. Warner has already lent her pipes to Mark Ronson’s lead single, the astoundingly decent Bang Bang Bang, from his forthcoming third album Record Collection. This comes less than two years after the release of C.L.U.B., a debut single that was followed by an EP released last April, E.P.E. MNDR cover quite a few stylistic bases – Warner has previously spoken effusively about her enthusiasm for German techno and early Detroit house – but chiefly cite Krautrock as a big influence. Warner’s catchy hooks and forthright vocals certainly lend MNDR an 80s synth-pop vibe, although their body of work doesn’t really fit

any of those categories – square pegs and round holes come to mind here.

At this point, MNDR still seem to be in the midst of pinning themselves down to a signature sound.

C.L.U.B., for example, boasts an ABC-style hook fed through a vocoder and a kazoo thing, with an otherwise scattergun array of midrange blips, tinny horns and buried coos. Meanwhile, I Go Away showcases a much leaner bit of songwriting, a downtempo effort with tribal kickdrums and washed-out Moog synthesizers that emphasise Warner’s wispy lamenting. They’re very different songs, basically.

Whichever direction they pursue in the end, their studio should certainly be well equipped to cope with whatever they throw at it. Warner is a self-confessed tech geek – the band’s official blog writes excitedly about obscure studio trickery like Shepards Tone, “a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves.” Don’t pretend you know what that sounds like.

Elsewhere, MNDR are getting busy on other projects too. Warner is producing an album for fellow alt-pop New Yorkers Silk Flowers (a record that’s already been lain down, according to the band’s Twitter feed), and the band themselves are in the process of putting together their debut album, although there’s no news as to when that’ll be out. One to watch out for.

18 Sept, 10.30pm-3am, £14/£7 www.deathdisco.info

For those who’ve been sleeping, CloakXDagger are rapper Profisee, and singer / producer Ema J. They’ve been mainstays of the Edinburgh hip-hop and bass music scenes for some time – Profisee’s impressive list of collaborators includes Hexstatic, Starkey, Poirier, Eprom and Neil Landstrumm (to name a few!), and a recurring guest spot with Edinburgh rap titans Capitol 1212, with whom Prof absolutely destroyed T in the Park this year.

Having previously been involved with the Volume! crew, they certainly know their bass, too – as the lineup for their inaugural gig at the Caves goes to show.

Headlining the night is Scratcha DVA, representing Rinse FM and Hyperdub, the UK home of intelligent dubstep. Expect crisp, ital funkstep and broken beat, rather than played-out whomp whomp noises.

Alongside him will be LuckyMe’s cosmic new jack swing button-fiddlers The Blessings with an AV set, plus a performance from Profisee and Ema, alongside their old Great Ezcape cohort Simba, who will be performing his new single Rubicon Donz.

Last but definitely not least, The Hidden Orchestra (recently signed to Tru Thought) will be in attendance, reprising their stunning performances at Kelburn Garden Party, and the recent Departure Lounge birthday bash. The whole thing is powered by the behemoth that is the ElecTrikal Soundsystem. With a very strong line up of local talent, a great rig, superb venue and an exciting guest to boot, this looks like the start of something special. Go and support. [Bram Gieben] 11.30pm – 3am, £7 ADV / £9 Door www.myspace.com/cloakxdagger

Tim Xavier @ bigfoots tea party The art school, 3 Sep

The ebullient beast that is Bigfoot’s Tea Party returns to stomp all over the Art School’s chequered floors on Friday 3 September with a special night set up in conjunction with Sleaze Records, property of the always impeccable Hans Bouffmyhre.

Both Bigfoot’s and Sleaze have become essential additions to Glasgow’s alternative club scene over the past couple of years, so it seems only right that the two should pair up to present Tim Xavier, a trend setting techno beast who has been smashing dancefloors sideways for over a decade now.

With a string of releases on a number of high profile labels including Sci-tec, Clink, Cocoon and his own imprint LTD400, as well as providing a masterful addition to Ambivalent’s R U OK Remixes release, Xavier is a much respected man about town. Formerly a proponent of a much harder techno sound, the American born audio wizard has since switched to a more minimalist sound, moving from micro house to minimal with an always underlying deep groove.

[Calum Sutherland] 10pm-3am, £7 advance.

Paul Woolford @Karnival Cabaret Voltaire, 25 Sep

As part of Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘alternative freshers week’ is Karnival, who welcome Paul Woolford to the decks on 25 Sep. Through his work as DJ, producer, remixer, and label owner he has succeeded in bringing a fresh take on modern dance music. Shying away from the easy option, Paul’s recent Renaissance Platform double CD doesn’t use previously available material; instead he chose to produce new material purely for use on this release, in the shape of exclusive re-edits and remixes.

The beginnings of Paul Woolford’s musical direction were created when a record-collecting addiction kicked in during his teenage years. This appetite for musical stimulation has driven Paul to explore far beyond the dynamic house and techno that he’s now known for and has led him down more experimental paths. He has embraced aspects of improvised jazz in his collaborative work with Paul Hession, as well as taking huge inspiration from the modern compositions of Steve Reich to create his varied works. [Anna Seale] The Arches, 253 Argyle Street, Glasgow 0141 565 1000 www.deathdisco.info

60 THE SKINNY September 2010

11pm-3am, £TBC

Scratcha DVA

Todd Terje @ Melting pot the admiral, 4 Sep

Those of you who thought the mighty Melting Pot crew would not be able to top last year’s appearance of French disco icon Dimitri from Paris should make room in your stomachs, as you will be eating a sizable portion of humble pie when Todd Terje takes to the decks next month.

Alongside fellow countrymen Prins Thomas and Hans-Peter Lindstrom, the Norwegian disco pioneer has been enthralling crowds the world over with his nu-Balearic sound and earlier this year he released the excellent remix album Remaster of the Universe on Permanent Vacation. The Oslo based disco prodigy is just as known for producing his own foot stomping floor fillers as he is for manipulating classic tracks from acts as diverse as Ace of Base, Guns ‘n’ Roses and Wham!

If you do not find yourself going positively spastic to the infectious hand claps and thunderous bass punches of Eurodans, chances are you are probably passed out. [David McNamara] 11pm-3am, £10

Redinho&Actress@Numbers Sub CLub, 3 Sep

Glasgow’s most influential club night and record label of the past few years must be feeling a little nostalgic after celebrating their seventh birthday back in July.

This month’s Glasgow event has Numbers hustle Actress down into the Sub Club, the very same man who appeared at their very first night back in 2003 in Ad Lib. Joining Actress in a shared ride along the crest of a wave titled ‘check out my shit hot new release’ is Redinho, whose debut EP Bare Blips sold out of its limited 300 press at an alarming rate that left Rubadub’s entrance swinging like a barn door in a gale.

Whether you secured Bare Blips in its rare format or not, the EP is still available for digital download and his live show promises to showcase hid forthcoming material. [Chris Duncan] 11pm-3am, £6/£8 www.nmbrs.net

Soul Clap @ subculture sub club, 4 Sep

With their re-edit of Jamie Foxx’s Extravaganza one of the summer’s biggest club hits, Soul Clap’s appearance at the Sub seems primed for maximum impact.

First meeting as 90s ravers, the Bostonian duo of Eli Goldstein and Charlie Goldsmith joined forces as a DJ and production-pairing in the early noughties; their initial artistic were forays heavily influenced by New York house, R&B and hip-hop.

Inspired by the sounds of 80s funk and electro as well as US West Coast hip-hop, they’ve since cultivated their own ‘Efunk’ sound, injecting productions, remixes and re-edits with the kind of super-elasticated basslines that make dancefloor booty-shaking an irrepressible compulsion.

Aside from output on Airdrop, Double Standard, Crosstown Rebels and Wolf + Lamb, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac and Womack and Womack are just some of the artists who’ve enjoyed the Soul Clap touch, while amazingly enough the pair still fit in time to run a music consultancy business and a podcast series. [Colin Chapman] 11pm - 3am, Entry £TBC www.soulclap.us

September 2010

THE SKINNY 60

GLASGOW MUSIC TUE 31 AUG MAGIC CARPET CABARET TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

REALITY KILLED US

BLOC+ JAM

THE FELICE BROTHERS

HALT BAR HIJACK

TUESDAY MUSIC CLUB

Emo rock.

Acoustic jam. Good with toast.

Dark-edged country rock Americana.

Underground band takeover.

Open mic night.

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £6

Singer/songwriters and bands.

BUTTERFLY FRIDAYS

THE PARTING

Resident bands and DJs.

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £TBC

Grunge-influenced night.

MIAOUX MIAOUX

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:30–23:00, £5

Single launch. In knitted cases!

TUESDAY MUSIC CLUB

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 20:30–12:00, FREE

Open mic night.

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 19:00–03:00, FREE

MUST BE SOMETHING, JACK THE WORLD, KEV HARPER NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

Relaxed night with guest musicians.

Rock and indie.

WED 01 SEP DOUBLE A

ABC, 18:00–22:00, £5

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

KIRSTY MCGEE AND MAT MARTIN

WOODEND BOWLING CLUB, 20:00–22:30, £10

Rich and textured songwriting.

Hip-to-the-hop.

CHIEF

ASPEN TIDE

Experimental types.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

Up-beat guitar pop.

LIVE JAZZ

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Jazz classics and modern standards.

NATIONAL YOUTH JAZZ ORCHESTRA OF SCOTLAND ORAN MOR, 20:00–23:00, £10 (£5)

NYJOS perform pieces by Julian Arguelles.

THE LIKE, HAIGHT ASHBURY, THE RUDIMENTS KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £7.50

Lo-fi pop, folk and acoustic.

THULA BORAH, 60 PERSONS, GLIDER

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £4

Acoustic rock and indie.

HAVE A QUACK

FLYING DUCK, 20:00–00:00, FREE

Creative challenges and music.

OPENMIKING

THE GLASGOW SLOW CLUB

Soulful pop.

Acoustic bluesy rock.

Relaxed night with guest musicians.

Live bands, beats and visuals.

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

STEREO, 21:00–03:00, £4

Acoustic acts; local and far-flung.

THE GLASGOW SLOW CLUB

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £7

THE DEPRECIATION GUILD CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £8

Synth-swathed dream pop.

THE CLANG, THE LANDELLAS, THE BLIND WATCHMAKERS BOX, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Indie and blues.

SAT 04 SEP FUTURES FEST (THE VIGO THIEVES, OSWALD, ELECTRIC BANGARANGS, THE MODE) O2 ACADEMY, 18:30–22:30, £10

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

MON 06 SEP FEVER RAY

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £18.50

Dark electro-folk.

POKEY LEFARGE AND THE SOUTH CITY THREE CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £12

Roots, jazz and blues.

MICHAEL SIMONS

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Folk and blues fingerstyle guitar.

ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00–23:00, FREE

Microphone free-for-all.

RAYMOND HACKLAND (AMY BELLE. ALAN FREW) CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £5

Guitar pop.

SPANGLED CABARET

CAFE RIO, 20:00–23:00, FREE

Brazilian two-piece.

INITIAL ITCH

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £2 (£1)

New bands mini fest.

Scratch, comedy, live music and poetry.

DEFINITELY MIGHTBE (JOHNNY REB)

BLOCHESTRA

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £7

Oasis tribute.

CYMBALS EAT GUITARS (WOMAN)

BLOC+, 21:00–02:00, FREE

Bring an instrument and join in.

TUE 07 SEP

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £7

FAT FREDDY’S DROP

PURPLE HEARTS, THE LAYNES

Powerhouse of soul.

80s mod and powerpop.

ORAN MOR, 19:00–23:00, £12

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £20

HALT BAR, 20:30–23:00, FREE

Experimental pop noisemakers.

THE BELLE HOPS, THE POWERCUT CHOIR

IVORY BLACKS, 19:00–22:30, £15

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS

KUNG FU, TINY LITTLE ROBOTS, BROTHERS OF CRAIG

Canadian indie featuring Neko Case.

Rock types.

Turn up and do your thing.

BLOC+, 21:00–02:00, FREE

Melodramatic pop.

VINYL NIGHT

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

Hip-hop, mod, funk and ska.

THU 02 SEP DOVES (PEARL AND THE PUPPETS, FIRST CHARGE OF THE LIGHTBRIGADE) ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £5

Intimate set from Manchester’s finest.

SINISTER FLYNN (TASTY JAILBAIT, THE DOTS, THE DUELLING WINOS) ABC, 19:00–22:00, £5

Rock, funk and ska.

ROYSTA, CLOCKED OUT, JACKIE ONASSIS

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

Punk rap and experimental.

DAVE DOMINEY

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Funked-up bass loops.

ROCK HOUSE PROMOTIONS MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

Live rock showcase.

C.W. STONEKING, STEVE SMYTH

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £10

DON COSSACK BALALAIKA CAFE COSSACHOK, 21:00–23:00, £6

Russian song and dance.

KOCHKA, BLUE SKY ARCHIVES, CAMPFIRES IN WINTER 13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £5

Alternative types.

TEN TRACKS IN STEREO (FRANCOIS & THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS, ROZI PLAIN, GRNR, LADY NORTH, BAG FOOT) STEREO, 23:00–03:00, £5 (ADV.)

Live music club, from Ten Tracks.

FRI 10 SEP

SKETCH

BOX, 21:00–00:00, FREE

Alternative rock.

HALT BAR HIJACK

HALT BAR, 20:00–00:00, FREE

Underground band takeover.

FORTUNATE SONS 1901, 21:00–23:00, FREE

Acoustic bluesy rock.

CITAY, JOHN KNOX SEX CLUB 13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Metal and lyrical folk.

THANK YOU SO NICE, THE GIFT HORSES, ALANA MCLERNON BOX, 21:00–00:00, FREE

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 20:30–12:00, FREE

Open mic night.

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Gothic blues.

THE GLASGOW SLOW CLUB BLOC+, 21:00–02:00, FREE

Relaxed night with guest musicians.

WED 08 SEP ISOBEL CAMPBELL, MARK LANEGAN ABC, 19:00–22:00, £16

Emotive duo.

1901, 16:00–19:00, FREE

Chilled out Sunday session.

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW (DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE) ABC, 19:00–22:00, £15

OPENMIKING

Punk, rockabilly and psych.

HALT BAR, 20:30–23:00, FREE

THE CAPTIVE HEARTS, FIGURE 5, THE GAZELLES

ACOUSTIC TRIBUTE NIGHT

Garage rock.

Indie rock and pop.

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £6

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £5

1901, 16:00–19:00, FREE

Chilled out Sunday session.

BLOC+, 18:00–21:00, FREE

Singer/songwriter pairing.

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £8

Russian song and dance.

JÓNSI

SHEARING PINX, BITCHES, ULTIMATE THRUSH, DIVORCE, MR PEPPERMINT

Sigur Ros vocalist gone solo.

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £18.50

FUR HOOD, TANGLES, NORTH AMERICAN WAR, SKELETON FAMILY NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £2

Pop and punk.

FLYING DUCK, 20:00–00:00, FREE

Building rock and tumbling jazz-pop.

Jazz guitar and violin.

Experimental types.

CAFE COSSACHOK, 21:00–23:00, £6

THE CLOCK (STOCKHOLM SYNDROME, STOLEN SUNDAYS)

MR FOGG, FIRE LIT SONGS

EP launch.

BLOC+ JAM

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £6

BUTTERFLY FRIDAYS

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 19:00–03:00, FREE

Resident bands and DJs.

TALK TO ANGELS, MEET ME IN VEGAS, CAN’T KILL THE HEAT NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £4

Pop and rock experimentalists.

MISSDAVINALEE

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

Indie pop.

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £6

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Indie pop and acoustic folk.

THU 16 SEP

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

Acoustic jam. Good with toast.

BUTTERFLY STRATEGY

PAGE 44, THE SHOWER SCENE (2 THIRDSOFYOUTH,THECORLEONES)

Acoustic acts; local and far-flung.

Indie rockers.

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

MON 13 SEP

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, FREE

Up-and-coming chaps.

BREED 77, MALEFICE

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £12

OPEN MIC NIGHT

CATHOUSE, 19:00–22:00, £TBC

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

Indian music on sitar and flute.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 20:00–23:00, FREE

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £8

Indie folk and DJs.

Experimental showcase.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £5

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 12)

SAT 11 SEP IVORY BLACKS, 19:00–22:00, £6

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

GLASGOW GOSPEL CHOIR Ambient gospel loveliness.

O2 ACADEMY, 19:00–22:30, £6

CATCHER, APERTURE, MIDNIGHT THURSDAY, VERSE METRICS PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £3

Indie and alternative rock.

BREL, 20:00–00:00, FREE

DROPPIN BOMBS, CLOCKED OUT 13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Punk and experimental.

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, FREE

FRI 17 SEP AIDAN BAKER (SIMON SCOTT, SMALL SCALE COLLISIONS)

BLOCHESTRA

BLOC+, 21:00–02:00, FREE

Bring an instrument and join in.

TUE 14 SEP

FLYING DUCK, 19:00–20:30, £5

Experimental Canadian singer.

MAKETHISRELATE (SACRED BETRAYAL, THE CELESTIANS) ABC, 19:00–22:00, £5

SKELETON WITCH, WARBRINGER

Alternative rock.

IVORY BLACKS, 19:00–22:00, £9

Thrash metal.

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £11.70

Electro-pop from Northern Ireland.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £4

ORAN MOR, 19:00–23:00, £11

A HOUND ENSEMBLE, LOST TENTAKILLS

MILK, FUR HOOD

Garage psych.

Alternative pop.

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

WRECKLESS ERIC, AMY RIGBY STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £10

Pop, rock and folk.

ROCK CHIC

SWG3, 19:00–02:00, £10

Bands, artists, DJs and designers.

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

SAN FRAN AND THE SISCOS

ANGRY VS THE BEAR, NO FXD ABODE, FOOL ON

Live music showcase.

FLORRIE

PERDURAMO

Raucous punk and rock.

Pop drummer.

Grunge rock.

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

DEREK FORBES, BRIAN MCGEE

FANG ISLAND

GONG

Ex-Simple Minds.

Post punk and rock.

Progressive psych.

Punk rock and indie rock.

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £18.50

Alternative rock and punk.

New indie night with bands and DJs.

ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK, AUGUSTA FIREBALL

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £7

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £5

SAY DIRTY RECORDS: WAKE THE PRESIDENT

Glaswegian garage rock.

Glam and classic rock.

HEALTHYMINDSCOLLAPSE,CULANN

SOCKS OFF

VINYL NIGHT

Acoustic pop.

Live grunge rock showcase.

THE PATTERN THEORY, APPLES OF ENERGY, THE HEARTBEATS

Experimental psych.

CLASSIC GRAND, 19:00–22:00, £9

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

Eclectic Freshers Week line-up.

CAFE RIO, 20:00–23:00, FREE

Canadian psych rock.

Local acoustic troubadour.

BREL, 19:30–23:00, £4

GRUNGE ROCK PROMOTIONS

Thrash blues and experimental rock.

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

THE MINOR FIFTH (CIRCA 88, ROOM 16, HUMBLE HOBOS)

BEERJACKET

Lovely acoustic rock.

THE FABULOUS GO-GO BOY, THE AMAZING ONE MAN BAND, GHOSTS OF PROGRESS

BLACK MOUNTAIN

DIRTY PENNY, FALLING RED, BLACK STARS

BARROWLANDS, 19:00–23:00, £22.50

SPANGLED CABARET (THE DIRTY DEMOGRAPHIC, SCUNNER, GLASGOW GLAM BANGERS)

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

TRUE BYPASS, EUAN MCMEEKAN

WILCO

Acoustic blues.

Former Dr Hook head honcho.

Rock’n’roll guitarist.

THU 09 SEP

THE RAY SUMMERS

NELL BRYDEN

THE FERRY, 20:00–00:00, £20

LUIS FRANCESCO ARENA (SUPER ADVENTURE CLUB)

Hip-hop, mod, funk and ska.

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £5

Microphone free-for-all.

DENNIS LOCORRIERE

ROBIN TROWER

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

Hip-hop, mod, funk and ska.

ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC

Turn up and do your thing.

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 21:00–12:00, FREE

Melodic indie pop.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £5

Rock and metal.

SISTER MANTOS

VINYL NIGHT

YAMAN

OPENMIKING

Understated folk-pop.

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

KID CANAVERAL (NIGHT NOISE TEAM, THE CINNAMONS)

BEHOLDER

BLOC+, 21:00–23:30, FREE

The Doors Vs Love acoustic tribute.

DETOUR

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £7

Creative challenges and music.

HALT BAR, 20:30–23:00, FREE

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

LEV AND NIGEL

Acoustic night.

ACOUSTIC BUTTERFLY

Turn up and do your thing.

SLARAFFENLAND

Electro and big beat.

HAVE A QUACK

Rock with a capital ‘R’.

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £4

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

RICHARD COBB

Pretty, cinematic pop.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £7

SCARLET SHIFT (DOWNFALL, ARCHIMEDES PRINCIPLE, FIRES ATTRACT)

THIS IS SICK

SUN 05 SEP

SKY LARKIN

Genre-specific line-up.

Ambient experimental.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £8

Lo-fi acoustica.

FEEVENTS PRESENTS

VOLTAIC

WOODPIGEON (EAGLEOWL)

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £10

MAD SKIN, THE TERMITES, GIN GOBLINS

SING-KILL-WORTH

Electro and IDM.

MT. DESOLATION

Country folk.

Indie pop.

BLOC+, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 12)

Alternative punk rock.

Jazz classics and modern standards.

ACOUSTIC BUTTERFLY

CAFE RIO, 21:00–00:00, FREE

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £4

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

SUN 12 SEP

EMILY JANE WHITE

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £6

Acoustic indie.

LIVE JAZZ

Lo-fi noise.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £7

DON COSSACK BALALAIKA

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £12

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

SYNESTHESIA, ALWAYS THE SIXTH, CONSTANT STATIC, GST CARDINALS

Open mic with a karaoke twist.

MIKE HERON, GEORGIA SEDDON

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £6

Alternative rock.

WED 15 SEP MACHINES FOR A DAY

Rock, minimal and indie.

Electro pop.

Alternative rock, pop and indie.

FRI 03 SEP

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £3

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

TUESDAY MUSIC CLUB

Eclectic live session.

Ones-to-watch eclectic showcase.

WOLVES, SNEAKY PETE, CONTACT LOST

ZOLA JESUS, CONQUERING ANIMAL SOUND, MIDNIGHT LION

THE WINTER TRADITION, LITTLE YELLOW UKELELES, GALLERIES

13TH NOTE, 21:00–23:30, £TBC

Alternative indie rock.

HOLD YOUR HORSE IS, SHOES AND SOCKS OFF, TRAPPED IN KANSAS

Folk rock and indie.

COLLECTIVE GETS ECLECTIC

CAFE COSSACHOK, 21:00–23:00, £6

GENERAL

BLOC+, 21:00–02:00, FREE

1901, 21:00–23:00, FREE

BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT, MOPP

Jazz blues and metallic rock.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £5

ELLIOT BROOD (JOHNNY REB)

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £8

Metallic rock and progressive.

MAGGIE MAY’S, 20:00–22:30, £5

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 20:30–12:00, FREE

FORTUNATE SONS

BUTTERFLY STRATEGY

Folky pop.

HALT BAR, 20:00–00:00, FREE

WINTERSLEEP (CURATORS)

JILL HEPBURN

TCHAI-OVNA, 20:00–22:00, £2

ORAN MOR, 19:00–22:00, £12

BLUE SABBATH BLACK FIJI, STREETS OF RAGE, GALOSHINS, SMALL SCALE COLLISIONS

Alternative rock.

KEAVA, ROSEWOOD, KNIGHTS IN ARMOUR

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

BLOC+, 21:00–01:00, FREE

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £8

BUTTERFLY FRIDAYS

BUTTERFLY & PIG, 19:00–03:00, FREE

Resident bands and DJs.

KING TUT’S, 20:00–23:00, £5

NICE ‘N’ SLEAZY, 19:30–23:00, £TBC

HERE WE GO MAGIC, COME ON GANG!

AIDAN MOFFAT (WITH BILL WELLS AND THE BEST-OFS)

Indie pop loveliness.

Falkirk’s bearded miserablist.

CAPTAIN’S REST, 20:00–23:00, £8

PAISLEY ARTS CENTRE, 20:00–22:30, £8 (£6)

MAKE LOVE

LEV ATLAS

PANIC ROOM

DENNIS LOCORRIERE

RIEID-VAN-SANT (LURACH)

ANNIE STEVENSON

Alternative Canadians.

Russian and Klezmer folk music.

Melodic guitar rock. In ABC 2.

Former Dr Hook head honcho.

Traditional folk.

Alternative rock.

STEREO, 19:00–22:30, £4

CAFE COSSACHOK, 21:00–23:00, £6

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £12

THE FERRY, 20:00–00:00, £20

PIVO PIVO, 20:00–23:45, £3

SOUNDHAUS, 20:00–22:30, £6

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 61

Glasgow music Maydays

Sing Like A Pirate Night

Ten Tracks Present

Grubby indie.

Pirate party, in honour of Pirate Day.

Picked by the Ten Tracks chaps.

Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £5

Selective Service (The Gazelles, Diamond Footprint) Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Soul, dub and hypnotic bass.

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £tbc

Lev and Friends

Cafe Cossachok, 21:00–23:00, £6

Classical, folk and jazz violin.

Sucioperro

LSD, Trippy Wicked, Perduramo, Marshan

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Alternative rock.

Bass, grunge and rock.

Always Until Victory, Black HeartFire,FirstSteptoFailure

Bloc+ Jam

Bloc+, 21:00–01:00, Free

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £tbc

Acoustic jam. Good with toast.

Dani Wilde, Mitch Laddie

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–12:00, Free

Punk and heavy rock rule.

The Ferry, 20:00–00:00, £10

Blues, soul and guitar.

She’s Hit

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Single launch.

The Fnords, The Waitawhiles, Dead Mens Shoes Box, 21:00–00:00, Free

Blues and punk.

Sat 18 Sep Blaze Bayley

Ivory Blacks, 19:00–22:00, £9

Metal noisemakers.

Josh Ritter

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £18.75

Americana singer/songwirter.

Tommy Reilly

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £10

Orange Unsigned winner.

Peter Molinari

Stereo, 19:00–22:30, £7

Country blues and folk.

Stockholm Syndrome (Rally, The La Barrons, Casino) O2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £6

Experimental electro.

Pete Rivett

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Alternative singer/songwriter.

Butterfly Strategy

Acoustic acts; local and far-flung.

Mon 20 Sep

Stereo, 19:00–22:30, £1

Diascorum, Sunsmasher

Indian and Scottish-style music.

Acoustic bluesy rock.

Down-tempo noise.

Aames, Chargrilled Squirrels, The Bastians of Good Health

Hard rock, soul and funk. In ABC 2.

Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £5

Indie rock, pop and punk.

Delta Spirit (Nathaniel, Jacob Yates)

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £6

Er, a night of punk.

Open Mic Night

Socks Off

Open mic with a karaoke twist.

New indie night with bands and DJs.

Cathouse, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Brel, 20:00–00:00, Free

MGMT

Ivy’s Itch, Caretaker

Experimental psych-pop.

Experimental soul and electronica.

Face Facts (The Lie Detectors, Awaken, Johnny Graham) Live music fundraiser.

Stereo, 14:00–18:00, £tbc

Open Mic Night

Cathouse, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Open mic with a karaoke twist.

Yaman

Indie punk and folk rock.

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £14

Indian music on sitar and flute.

Acoustic Open Mic

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 20:00–23:00, Free

Microphone free-for-all.

Framing Hanley

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £8

Alternative rock.

Andrew Duhon

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, Free

Acoustic night.

Blochestra

Bloc+, 21:00–02:00, Free

Bring an instrument and join in.

Fri 24 Sep Gothika (Surgyn, Anowrexiya)

Barrowlands, 19:00–23:00, £10

The Admiral, 19:30–22:30, £7

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £6

Indie, punk, rock and pop.

Metal noisemakers.

Kano

Special all-female line-up.

Silent in Action

Master of grime.

The Regiment, The Vespas

She’sHit,FurHood,Lasomnable

Hip-hop, soul and indie.

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £6

Pop punk fae Glasgow.

The Vaselines

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £15.25

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £12.50

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Green Door Studios showcase.

Feevents Presents

MGMT

Barenaked Ladies (Stevie and the Moon)

Genre-specific line-up.

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £16.50

Barrowlands, 19:00–23:00, £18

Resident bands and DJs.

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £3

Butterfly & Pig, 19:00–03:00, Free

Olof Arnalds

Tuesday Music Club

Icelandic folk.

Open mic night.

What’s the Noise?

Far From Finished, Wasted Nation

Double headliners of noise.

Hardcore punksters.

Alternative roots.

Butterfly & Pig, 20:30–12:00, Free

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Wed 22 Sep

Divorce, Comanechi (Purple Rhinestone Eagle) Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Figure 5

Brel, 19:30–23:00, £5

Wing and a Prayer

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £2

The Wilderness of Manitoba

Blues-influenced singer/songwriters.

Experimental folk pop.

Kings of Leon tribute.

Brel, 19:30–23:00, £5

dBass

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £3

Jazz and hip-hop collective.

The KOL’s

Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £5

Shout Out Louds, Plants & Animals

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £9

Emeli Sande

Alternative indie and rock.

Alternative acoustic.

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Box, 21:00–00:00, Free

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £7.50

Hey Vampires, United Fruit, Cuss Words

Erland and The Carnival, Young States

Hardcore disco punk and rock.

Acoustic folk and pop.

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £8

Widows In Paradise: A Tribute to Sufjan Stevens (Julia & The Doogans,OpenSwimmer,Esperi)

Acoustic Butterfly

Stereo, 20:00–23:00, £4

Zoobiezareta

Experimental new album tour.

Charlie and the Bachelors Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, Free

Classic swing and soul.

The Toxic Twins

The Ferry, 20:00–00:00, £8.50

Aerosmith tribute.

1901, 16:00–19:00, Free

Local bands channel Sufjan Stevens.

Latecomers

Chilled out Sunday session.

Revelations!

Lauries Bar, 20:15–23:00, Free

Furnace Mountain

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £3

Acoustic pop loveliness.

Indie, rock and pop night.

Folky bluegrass.

THE CHRISTIANS

Sage Francis

The Ferry, 20:00–00:00, £16.50

Famous Dave & His Strange Blue Dreams, Atlantic Massey, Tom Snowball

Live music.

Hip-hop meets indie.

Openmiking

Oceansize

Turn up and do your thing.

Raoul Duke, Sunset Strips, Sons of Liberty

Progressive rock five-piece.

Vinyl Night

Indie and alternative.

Dam Mantle, Becoming Real

Hip-hop, mod, funk and ska.

Halt Bar, 20:30–23:00, Free

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–12:00, Free

Thu 23 Sep

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Alternative trio.

Box, 21:00–00:00, Free

Goonies Never Say Die

Bloc+, 21:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Industrial rock.

I Am Arrows

Erotics (Falling Red)

PIN UP NIGHTS (Helicon, How Garbo Died)

Rock and pop.

Classic punk rock.

Indie pop and live bands.

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £8

62 THE SKINNY September 2010

Flying Duck, 21:00–03:00, £5

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £5

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £5

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £6

Bear Bones, Campfire In Winter, Dante Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £4

Folk and progressive rock.

Halt Bar Hijack

Dean Queasy, March Her to Norway

Underground band takeover.

Experimental rock.

Halt Bar, 20:00–00:00, Free

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £2

Microphone free-for-all.

Killing Machine

Ivory Blacks, 19:00–22:00, £10

The Arches, 19:30–23:00, £10

Acoustic Open Mic

Industrial electro.

Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £5

The Admiral, 19:00–03:00, £5

Contemporary traditional. In ABC 2.

September Girls (Lou Hickey, Kitty the Lion, Penny Black, Ramona)

Legendary Glaswegian band.

Tue 21 Sep

1901, 16:00–19:00, Free

The Jury, The Cairos, The Steals, Counterbalance

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £8

Folk and traditional.

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £10

Classic rock and blues.

Woozy folk showcase.

Glasgow thrashers.

Old Blind Dogs

Folk and blues fingerstyle guitar.

Album launch.

Alternative beats.

Scheme

O2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £10

Folk rock.

Butterfly Fridays

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

R’n’B and punk rock.

Hazy Recollections (Alex Cornish, French Wives, Kitty The Lion, The Hidden Lane Choir, The Cliftons)

Rockabilly blues.

Celtic folk.

Oran Mor, 19:00–23:00, £11.70

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

The Supernovas, Crow Road, The Mode

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £2

Traditional Sessions

Stereo, 19:00–22:30, £11

Sun 26 Sep

Mon 27 Sep A Loss For Words, Not Advised, LYU

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

Michael Simons

Chiara Berardelli

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £12

Indie and acoustic folk.

Damien Jurado

Charlie and the Bhoys

Sun 19 Sep

Bloc+, 21:00–01:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Acoustic acts; local and far-flung.

IMELDA MAY

Soulful indie.

Bloc+, 23:00–01:00, Free

CastoftheCapital,CrowRoad

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–12:00, Free

Country blues rock.

Bloc+, 21:00–01:00, Free

Folk rock and minimalist thrashy pop.

Indie and alternative.

Indie and alternative.

Butterfly Strategy

Progressive punk rock.

Experimental folk harpist.

Acoustic rock.

Battle for 2nd Place, TvRevo, LK Audio, Cal Roberts

Box, 21:00–00:00, Free

Chilled out Sunday session.

Royal Concert Hall, 19:30–22:30, £22.50-£25

Paul Heton

Experimental country.

Acoustic jam. Good with toast.

We are Rudimentary, Inspired, Silver Screen

Bloc+, 21:00–01:00, Free

Acoustic Butterfly

Stereo, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £8 (£7)

Progressive space rock.

theblackhandgang(AmyBeskin andtheWayHome,Jumpersknee)

Jazz session with bassist Gus Stirrat.

Eugene Charbourne

Bloc+ Jam

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Carnivores, Pacific Theatre, Penguins Kill Polar Bears

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £2

Acoustic bluesy rock.

Vakunoht

Joanna Newsom

Aerials Up, Randolph’s Leap, Blue Sky Archives

1901, 21:00–23:00, Free

Kritikill Mass (Sinners Ensemble, Ape Man Alien, Always A.M., Forever Void)

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Barrowlands, 19:00–23:00, sold out

Gus Stirrat

Fortunate Sons

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £10

1901, 21:00–23:00, Free

13th Note, 21:00–23:30, £tbc

Alternative indie rock.

Underground band takeover.

Eclectic mini tour.

David Bowie tribute.

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £tbc

Eoghan Colgan

Halt Bar, 20:00–00:00, Free

ABC, 19:00–22:00, Free (but ticketed)

Punk Night

Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £5

Halt Bar Hijack

The Ourzone ‘Found’Tour (Adelaide, Amy Can Flyy, Living in Hiding, Hello Monroe, FutureProof) Tigers On Vaseline

Canadian rock outfit.

Indie, rock and pop.

ABC, 19:00–22:00, £20

Thrash four-piece.

Experimental psych-pop.

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £5

Jazz guitar and violin.

Cafe Cossachok, 21:00–23:00, £6

Glenn Hughes and Band

San Pan Disco, Madskull, Not Half Right, Marshall’s Place

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £7

Lev and Nigel

Bruce Springsteen tribute.

The Ferry, 20:00–00:00, £10

Album launch.

Tchai-Ovna, 20:00–22:00, £2

O2 Academy, 19:00–22:30, £25

The Glasgow Art Club, 20:00–23:00, Free

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £8

THE RISING

Fortunate Sons

JEM

Barrowlands, 19:00–23:00, £18.50

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Sat 25 Sep Black Sun

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, £3

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 20:00–23:00, Free

Darren Hayman (The Martial Arts, The Joan Sets) Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £8

Chilled folk.

Futures, 2 Thirds Of Youth King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Rock, pop and punk.

Acoustic Night

Pivo Pivo, 20:00–23:45, Free

All-acoustic performers.

Blochestra

Bloc+, 21:00–02:00, Free

Bring an instrument and join in.

Edinburgh music Tue 31 Aug Steven Osborne

Queen’s Hall, 11:00–12:45, From £7

Eclectic classical recital.

General Fiasco

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £7

Perfect rock’n’roll.

Leith Folk Club (Gavin Pennycook) The Village, 19:30–22:45, £6

Celtic/Scandinavian crossover fiddle.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Usher Hall, 20:00–21:45, From £10

Festival orchestra favourite.

Acoustic Edinburgh Medina, 20:00–00:00, £7 (£6)

Acoustic musicians perform live.

Wed 01 Sep Ars Nova, Copenhagen, Paul Hillier

Queen’s Hall, 11:00–12:45, From £7

Distinctive choral performance.

Andrea Baker

Usher Hall, 17:30–18:30, £10 (£5)

Andrea Baker backed by piano.

This Is Not A Toga Party (The Marvels, Casino Queen, Jump: Press A, The Deep Red Sky)

Maggie’s Chamber, 19:00–23:00, £3 (£2)

Live music showcase.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Usher Hall, 19:30–21:30, From £10

Australia’s premiere orchestra.

The Harlets, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Aperture, Supercolourplay) Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Up-and-coming local talent.

The Mine Presents (Sacre Noir, Lipsync For A Lullaby)

What Happens in Vegas, Felix Champion

Down-tempo alternative.

Bank of Scotland Fireworks Concert

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £4

Jakil, Danny Shah, Six Storeys High

The Liquid Room, 19:00–22:30, £6

Chamber music recital.

The Beau Nasties

Usher Hall, 19:30–21:00, £7 (£4)

Eddie & the Hot Rods Citrus Club, 19:30–22:00, £13

Pub rock.

String quartets from Debussy and Schubert.

Battle of the Bands 2 City, 18:00–22:30, £6

Live band battle, plus stand-up comedy and free pizza.

Homeless World Cup Charity Gig

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£3)

Live music fundraiser.

Corrie Dick Sextet

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–22:30, £4 (£3)

Modern jazz six-piece.

The Program Initiative, The Fatalists (Fighterplanes)

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Big Fat Panda

Rabble-rousing ska.

The Seraphs Revolt, Deco Arcade (Sonic Hearts Foundation)

Soul Foundation

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Indie, pop and electro.

Up-and-coming local talent.

Chilled soul.

The Chans

Buzzcocks Aftershow (Fireside Aliens)

The Jam House Experience

Supercharged electric folk rock.

Live bands and DJs after-party.

Jam House, 20:30–02:00, Free (£5 after 8)

Piano, drums and the house band.

Live Bandaoke

Electric Circus, 22:00–00:00, £5

Singalong, with free after club.

Evol

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Indie, pop and electro.

Sat 04 Sep Queen’s Hall, 11:00–12:45, From £7

The Jazz Bar, 15:00–18:00, Free

Bach, Monk & Co.

Usher Hall, 17:00–18:30, £6 (£4)

Improvisational jazz and piano.

Bloco Vomit

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £4 (£3)

Experimental types.

Dead Sea Scrolls, The Goods, Dirty Suits, Frantic Chant Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £6

Mixed four-band line-up.

The Nature Boys (The Heretics, The Laymanites) Bongo Club, 19:00–22:00, £5

EP launch.

No Drive Home, Jason Kyrone, Jack’s Big Break Electric Circus, 19:00–22:30, £7

The Winter Tradition (Lightguides, Your Neighbour The Liar) Veronique Vella Solo piano recital.

Mahler Symphony No 8 Usher Hall, 20:00–21:45, From £10

Usher Hall festival climax.

The Underground Jam (Glassface)

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Jam tribute.

WORLD PREMIERE QUINTET The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Hand-picked five-piece.

The Jam House Experience

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Tue 07 Sep

Afternoon Jazz

Kath Bloom

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Folk, country and avant-garde.

Leith Folk Club (Steve Turner)

The Village, 19:30–22:45, £6

Technical concertina player.

Iain Morrison

The Real Mary King’s Close, 20:00–22:30, £12.50

Intimate folk rock set.

Groove funk four-piece.

Fri 03 Sep Duo Sol

Queen’s Hall, 11:00–12:45, From £7

Flamboyant mix, from new world to Beethoven sonatas.

Sun 05 Sep

Brunch and music in the cafe.

The Jazz Bar, 15:00–18:00, Free

Free lunchtime jazz session.

Swap Shop (Black Diamond Express)

Roxy Art House, 19:00–01:00, £tbc

Clothes swapping and live bands.

Future Ruins, Afterbirth, Killing For Religion Henry’s Cellar, 19:30–23:45, £5

Hardcore crust from Sweden.

Graeme Stephen Band The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Creative guitarist and his band.

Indigo

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£1)

Indie and alternative.

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Album launch.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:30–22:00, £4

Rock with a punk edge.

Get Loose Promotions Present

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Scottish indie rock showcase.

WORLD PREMIERE QUINTET The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Hand-picked five-piece.

The Jam House Experience

Jam House, 20:30–02:00, Free (£5 after 8)

Piano, drums and the house band.

Sun 19 Sep TRC (Lower Than Atlantis, Shields Up!, Horrors You Have Seen) Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £6

Thu 16 Sep

Uncompromising hardcore, with rappers.

The Draymin (Rolled Up 20s, Maydays, Dead Generals)

Naval Cassidy (Usurper)

Restless indie popsters.

Experimental types.

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £6

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Boycotts

Edinburgh University Indie Social

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £4

The Last Battle

Davy Watson, Roddy Neilson and The Child Brothers (Shellsuit Massacre, Blue Flint) Voodoo Rooms, 19:30–22:30, £5

From soul to electro-folk.

Energetic, raggle-taggle pop.

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Fun Lovin Criminals (Chemists)

Live music and DJs.

Kathryn Sawers

Wreckless Eric, Amy Rigby

Acoustic set.

Cookie, 19:30–22:30, £3

Picture House, 19:00–22:30, £17.50

NYC rock and hip-hop favourites.

Glam pop and psych-folk.

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £5

Charlie Parr (Black Twig Pickers, Danielmutch)

Montreal-based four-piece.

Slow Motion Replay, Firebrand Super Rock (Driller, Lycanthrope)

Jammin’ at Voodoo Lounge groove jam session.

Americana folk.

Mission From Gadd

Hard rock and heavy metal.

Wed 08 Sep Wolf Parade

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

Corn Exchange, 19:00–22:30, £15

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

The Cathode Ray (Little Buddha)

Drummer extraordinaire.

WORLD PREMIERE QUINTET

Voodoo Rooms, 21:00–01:00, £3

Noiserv (Esperi)

Hand-picked five-piece.

The Freaky Family

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Alternative indie.

The Jam House Experience

The Toasters, Big Fat Panda

Piano, drums and the house band.

Citrus Club, 19:30–22:00, £10

Ska, pop and reggae.

The Phaetons, Killing Time Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Indie rockers.

Indigo

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£1)

Indie and alternative.

Mike Kearney KA-TET

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Original blues and funk.

Thu 09 Sep Call Me Ishmael, The Marvels, Donnie Willow, Penny Blacks

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £7

Jam House, 20:30–02:00, Free (£5 after 8)

Sun 12 Sep

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Groove funk four-piece.

Fri 10 Sep Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £4

Alternative electronic.

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £4 (£3)

Indie rockin’ blues.

Zola Jesus

American singer/songwriter does post punk.

Indie and hardcore three-piece.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:30, £5

Anthemic and melodic punk rock.

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Groove funk four-piece.

Fri 17 Sep

Summertime Blues (Earl Grey and the Loose Leaves, James Carr and The Engines) The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Elliot Minor (Energy)

Modern blues night.

Classically-influenced rock.

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Chamber music recital.

Freshers Free Friday Gig

Footstomping Celtic folk.

Bronto Skylift (Paws, Lady North)

Trio of lvie bands.

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, Free

Mon 20 Sep

Pete Molinari (Trapped Mice, Lousie McVey And The Cracks In The Concrete)

Aerials Up

Country blues from the Medway Delta.

Healthy Minds Collapse

70th anniversary concert.

Tommy Reilly

We Luv Musik

The Liquid Room, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Alternative rock and pop.

Acoustic pop.

Postmortem Promises

New live music night.

Droppin’ Bombs, Semtex, Overspill

Hardcore death metal.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £4

Lead-heavy rock riffs.

Phoenix Wind Band: Battle of Britain

Queen’s Hall, 19:00–22:30, £10-£15

Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–01:00, £5

Classic rock covers.

The Freaky Family

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

The Beau Nasties

Dovecot Studios, 15:00–17:00, £16

Panda Su (The Occasional Flickers, The Zephyrs) Electro-folk fae Fife.

Living Daylights, The Stay Gones (Moonshine Docks, Vegas Loft)

RSNO Chamber Series

CRANACHAN

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Alternative indie pop.

Roxy Art House, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £10

Up-and-coming local talent.

Hold Your Horse Is, Shoes and Socks Off

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 11:30–15:00, Free

Corn Exchange, 19:00–22:30, £22.50

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Citrus Club, 19:30–22:00, £13

The Remnant Kings

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Sat 11 Sep

Mad math-punk.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Scuzz rock and progressive punk.

Henry’s Cellar, 23:00–03:00, £4

Henry’s Cellar, 23:00–03:00, £3

Bruncheon!

The No.9s

Piano, drums and the house band.

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Super Adventure Club (Luis Franscesco Arena, Hopwood & Black)

Hosemox, Hippocampus, Ugly Baby

The Freaky Family

Glassface

The GRV, 19:00–22:30, £6

Alternative rocky pop.

Thursday Night Live Live band dancing tunes.

Melodic indie-pop.

Jam House, 20:30–02:00, Free (£5 after 8)

Evol

Jam House, 20:30–02:00, Free (£5 after 8)

Jam House, 20:30–02:00, Free (£5 after 9)

Frantic hardcore punk.

Manchester singer/songwriter.

The Script

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, Free

Kid Canveral (Night Noise Team)

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:30, £6

Singalong, with free after club.

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:30, £5

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

17-piece big band.

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Progressive post-rock.

Live music launch night.

Gideon Conn

The Jazz Bar, 19:30–22:30, £4 (£3)

Usher Hall, 19:30–21:00, £6 (£4)

Simple and bewitching songwriting..

Scottish legends tour new album.

Bongo Club, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

Bass, trombone, guitar and drums.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–22:30, £4 (£3)

Delicate, down-tempo folk.

The Village, 19:30–22:45, £8

Astpai, Shields Up, Brackets Closed (Nude Pilots)

New bands showcase.

Amy Duncan

Leith Folk Club (Kirsty McGee, Mat Martin)

Single launch, with guest VJs and DJs.

Alternative indie rock.

Amplified (Underclass, Curators, The Industry, 3 Long Words)

Electric Circus, 22:00–00:00, £5

Melodic rock.

Australia’s premiere orchestra.

The Caves, 19:30–03:00, £6

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

The Vaselines

Live Bandaoke

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Usher Hall, 19:30–21:15, From £10

Original blues and funk.

The Jazz Bar, 11:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Jazz Bar Big Band

Tough rock bill.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Come On Gang! (FOUND, Jesus H Foxx)

Ozjazz Quartet

Facehandle (Test Of The Empire, Daddy No!, The FDGTs)

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Mike Kearney KA-TET

Piano, drums and the house band.

Ambient pop and punk.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Trapped in Kansas

Legendary punksters.

Joyful electronic pop.

Free lunchtime jazz session.

Queen’s Hall, 11:00–12:45, From £7

The Liquid Room, 19:30–22:30, £tbc

Swaggering five-piece.

Wed 15 Sep

American mezzo soprano.

Usher Hall, 20:00–21:45, From £8

Indie and alternative.

Tokyo Quartet, David Watkin

The Buzzcocks

Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £6

Bluegrass and folk.

Miaoux Miaoux

Afternoon Jazz

Thu 02 Sep

Mon 06 Sep

Colourful indie pop.

The Stagger Rats (Brand New Bag, The Symptoms, Enter Empyrean)

The Village, 19:30–22:45, £8

The Afterparty, Precious and Grace, A Day Overdue, Try This At Home

Indigo

Original blues and funk.

Footstomping Celtic folk.

Roxy Art House, 19:00–23:00, £5

Leith Folk Club (Phil Rosenthal)

The Jam House Experience

Music from South America.

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Francois and the Atlas Mountains (Rozi Plain, Yusuf Azak)

Susan Graham, Malcolm Martineau

New bands showcase.

Mike Kearney KA-TET

Princes Street Gardens, 21:00–21:45, From £11

Tyburn String Quartet

Unpeeled

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£1)

Alternative rock and metal.

Rousing festival finale with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a lot of pyrotechnics.

Indie, pop and rock showcase.

Simon Bolivar String Quartet

The Jazz Bar, 20:15–22:30, £3

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, Free

The Beau Nasties

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Footstomping Celtic folk.

Mon 13 Sep

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £7

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Rough-as-you-like punk.

Haight Ashbury Love Music (Miyagi) Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £3

Hand-picked live music.

Limbo

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £5

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

Hotly-tipped indie from Glasgow.

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:30, £3

The GRV, 19:00–22:30, £6

Tiger Tow Present

Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £tbc

Live music showcase.

The Chans

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Supercharged electric folk rock.

Tue 21 Sep

Party Program, Knee Deep In The Dead

Top live music.

The Jam House Experience

Leith Folk Club (Drew Nelson)

Hardcore types.

Piano, drums and the house band.

Songwriter and storyteller.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £4

Adrenaline, Art of Privilege (Ashes From the Wake) Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Intense metalcore.

The Chans

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Supercharged electric folk rock.

Tue 14 Sep

Jam House, 20:30–02:00, Free (£5 after 8)

Live Bandaoke

Electric Circus, 22:00–00:00, £5

Singalong, with free after club.

Evol

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Indie, pop and electro.

The Village, 19:30–22:45, £8

Wed 22 Sep Reckless Love (Jet Black, The Black Lights) Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £10

Metallic hard rock.

Barenaked Ladies

Picture House, 19:00–22:30, £25

Sat 18 Sep

Pop and rock.

Singers Night

We Don’t Dance To Love Songs (Young States)

The Pattern Theory

Afternoon Jazz

Dum Dum Girls

Jazz vocalists.

Melodic rock.

Krauty post-rock.

Free lunchtime jazz session.

Fuzzy girl pop.

The Jazz Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £tbc

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:30, £5

The Jazz Bar, 15:00–18:00, Free

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:30, £8

September 2010

THE SKINNY 63

EDINBURGH MUSIC

September @

TOWERBLOCKS, THE BEGRUDGERS

JOHN PAUL JONES: A MUSICAL

JOHN PAUL JONES: A MUSICAL

Street-punk from Germany.

Orchestral musical.

Orchestral musical.

HIJAK OSCAR, MISSING CAT

WORLD PREMIERE QUINTET

Smoky blues.

Hand-picked five-piece.

BANNERMAN’S, 20:00–23:00, £5

INDIGO

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£1)

Indie and alternative.

MIKE KEARNEY KA-TET

THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Original blues and funk.

THU 23 SEP DARREN HAYMAN

WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £6 (£5)

A bit folkie, and a bit nice.

COMANECHI, DIVORCE (JACKIE TREEHORN, RUN OFF WITH GYPSIES) SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:30, £5

Double headliners celebrate split 7-inch.

GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE BANNERMAN’S, 20:00–23:00, £4

QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:30, £12-£16

BANNERMAN’S, 20:00–23:00, £5

VEGAS!

Piano, drums and the house band.

50s tunes, burlesque and showgirls.

JAM HOUSE, 20:30–02:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 8)

LIVE BANDAOKE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:00–00:00, £5

Singalong, with free after club.

EVOL

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Indie, pop and electro.

AZ-TECH

THE CAVES, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Techno, beats and breaks.

SAT 25 SEP

Intelligent post-rock.

THE FREAKY FAMILY

Free lunchtime jazz session.

Groove funk four-piece.

FRI 24 SEP HEART MUSIC FESTIVAL

ROXY ART HOUSE, 18:30–23:00, £10 (£6)

Traditional music from Afgan.

IVY’S ITCH, CARETAKER, SWEET CHIN MUSIC HENRY’S CELLAR, 19:00–22:00, £5

Alternative rock.

THE MACHINE ROOM, MY TINY ROBOTS, X-LION TAMER WEE RED BAR, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

THE JAZZ BAR, 15:00–18:00, FREE

STANLEY ODD

PICTURE HOUSE, 18:00–22:30, £5

Electro-funk and hip-hop.

POSE VICTORIOUS (THE WINTER TRADITION, KEAVA, SEA BASS KID)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19:00–22:00, £6

Hook-laden indie.

LITTLE DOSES, THE REMNANT KINGS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:30, £5

THE JAM HOUSE EXPERIENCE JAM HOUSE, 20:30–02:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 8)

Piano, drums and the house band.

SUN 26 SEP SIX STOREYS HIGH, FRANTIC CHANT, STREET LIGHTS, CLOG & QUIRKS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 19:00–22:00, £6

Local indie showcase.

ZOOBIZARETA

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

RSNO: NEW SEASON, NEW WORLD

MANDARIN

Symphony performance.

NICOLA BENEDETTI

Indie niceness.

ROXY ART HOUSE, 19:00–23:00, £5

Experimental rock.

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, £16.50-£33

Solo and chamber performance.

reGuLar bar eVentS: tueSDayS open from 7pm qu z starts at 8pm £1 to enter qu z CIrCuS arCaDe Test your mus c & pop cu ture know edge w th our week y

Edinburgh hardcore.

FrIDayS Bar open from 5pm free entry before 10 30pm/£5 10pm LIVe banDaOKe!

SNEAKY PETE’S, 19:00–22:30, £TBC

CRANACHAN

BANNERMAN’S, 20:00–23:00, FREE

Classic rock covers.

RENEE STEFANIE

THE JAZZ BAR, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

Jazz vocalist, plus backing band.

THE BLACK TARTAN CLUB

HENRY’S CELLAR, 20:00–01:00, £TBC

Celtic punk rock from Belgium.

Footstomping Celtic folk.

THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT

Open tue - Sat mIDWeeK DrInKS FrOm £1.50 COCKtaIL OF tHe WeeK £5

qu z up to £100 cash pr ze for the w nn ng team week y Fo owed by pr zes for MUS CAL B NGO!

THE CANDIDATES, ROAD RUNNER, JUNIOR SURF, ECHO SURF Great Junction Street Studios showcase.

bar / live music / club / private karaoke rooms

GHOSTS OF ELYSIUM (PARTY PROGRAMME, AS AUTUMN FALLS, YOUR NEIGHBOUR THE LIAR)

THE BEAU NASTIES

HENRY’S CELLAR, 19:00–22:30, £4

USHER HALL, 19:30–22:00, £10-£32

VOODOO ROOMS, 20:30–01:00, £5

Indie and rock.

Pop, soul and indie.

Epic rock EP launch.

THE JAZZ BAR, 20:00–23:00, £4 (£3)

THE JAM HOUSE EXPERIENCE

AFTERNOON JAZZ

THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

QUEEN’S HALL, 19:30–22:30, £12-£16

THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

MON 27 SEP THE BARENT SEA

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 19:00–22:30, £3

Scottish indie and rock collective.

THE NEW MUSIC EXPERIENCE QUEEN’S HALL, 19:45–22:30, FREE

Free instrumental concert.

THE CHANS

THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Supercharged electric folk rock.

Get up onstage &s ng w th our house band The Bearded Lad es!!!

eVerybODy

1960s - 2010 pop/rock/ nd e/e ectro/d sco/party

SaturDayS from 10 30pm £5 before m dn ght/£6 2nD SaturDay o FIrSt SaturDay o

His & Hers The bes n nd e & a erna ve rom c ass cs o presen

every mon h A decaden n gh MAGIC o g amour and re ro sounds

NOSTALG IC 3rD SaturDay o every

mon h Ar punk/e ec ron c ove/cu ndepend a Prev ous gues DJ se s rom We Were Prom sed Je packs Errors Dananananakroyd and Tw gh Sad

every mon h

LaSt SaturDay of every month: Spun every half ha hour, hour the he Musical Mus ca Wheel Whee of o Destiny decides what music we dance to, from 90s rave to power ballads, britpop to motown and more

SKINNY SPECIAL SEPTEMBER KARAOKE OFFER 2 hOURS FOR PRICE OF 1 n Our KaraOKe rOOmS tue – Fr juSt CaLL 0131 226 4224 tO bOOK quOt nG SK nny OFFer SubjeCt tO aVa Lab L ty OFFer Open unt L 30 9 0

LIVe SHOWS OnSaLe nOW: All shows 7pm doors. Tickets: Ticketweb.co.uk Ripping Records (South Bridge) & Tickets Scotland (Rose Street) 08444 77 1000 15.09 GIDeOn COnn Plays his quirky blend of acoustic/folk/hip hop 20.09 HeaLtHy mInDS COLLapSe Mix their grunge influences with pop sensibilities,creating a captivating and explosive sound

22.09 Dum Dum GIrLS Taking time out from their UK tour with MGMT to headline their own show

27.09 tHe barent Sea (free entry) Myspace.com/thebarentsea 30.09 FeneCH SOLer, epIC 26, mOpp “English electro-pop wonderkids” (DJ Magazine)

28.10 yOunG rebeL Set “Huge life affirming songs that nod Springsteen & Dylan” The Fly

06.11 6 Day rIOt “Fuzzy, expressive, eccentric earthy pop songs” The List

11.11 VenDOr DeFenDer & CanCeL tHe aStrOnautS (free entry) myspace.com/vendordefender

From Sub Pop’s Codeine/Matador’s Come/ Lemonheads /The Thurston Moore Group, here performing with Geoff Farina (Karate)

theelectriccircus.biz

facebook.com/electriccircusedinburgh JOIN

twitter.com/circusedinburgh US: 64 THE SKINNY SEPTEMBER 2010

NORTH BRIDGE

05.12:CHrIS brOKaW & GeOFF FarIna

WAVERLEY STATION

MARKET STREET

CO

CK

BU

RN

ST

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ET

SOUTH BRIDGE

“folksy, happy-go-lucky psych-pop songs” NME

WAVERLEY BRIDGE

18:11 bOrn ruFFIanS

PRINCES STREET

HIGH STREET/ROYAL MILE

Glasgow Clubs Tue 31 Aug Killer Kitsch

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Electro clash, 80s, and disco.

Wed 01 Sep Muso (Twisted Melons, Vigo Thieves, Jono) Buff Club, 21:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Burn

Riot Radio

Indie rock and roll.

Disco, funk and electro.

Indie rock and roll.

Killer Kitsch

Kino Fist

Electro clash, 80s, and disco.

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Damaged Goods

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free (£3 after 11.30)

Punk rock, reggae and NY disco.

Sat 04 Sep

Live indie pop, Freshers special.

Beatitude

Octopussy

House and techno.

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Student fun night.

Wednesdays

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Synth funk and urban jams.

The Mumble Club

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £tbc

Alternative hip-hop, and the promise of R Kelly.

Thu 02 Sep 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.

Feel My Bicep

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

80s sleaze, house and disco.

Ghetto

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Electronic sounds.

I.DJ

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Punter iPod playlists.

Misbehavin’ (Dolly Daydream, Drucifer) Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Electro, dance and dirty pop.

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

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Emo, punk and metal. Resident DJs.

Soul Glo

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Funk and R’n’B.

Thursdays

Fri 03 Sep Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Classic and underground disco.

Crash

Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11)

Pop, dance and hip-hop.

Audio Kandi

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Vocal house and mash-ups.

Ballbreaker/Vice

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Saturday @ Bookclub

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Funk, soul and hip-hop.

Butterfly Saturdays

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–03:00, Free Live music from the residents.

Infexious 3rd Birthday (Alpha Twins, Thera) Soundhaus, 21:30–03:00, £12

Tech trance and dance.

Yoyo Saturday

Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£6 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 with the residents.

Sabado

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, Free (£8 after 11)

Dance, R’n’B and chart.

Highlife (Bamboo Palace, LuckyMe, Fortified Audio, Brian d’Souza, Andy T) La Cheetah, 23:00–03:00, £5

Slabs of Tabernacle Vs Huntleys and Palmer.

Numbers (Actress, Redinho, Spencer)

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£6)

Mighty Numbers sesh.

Old Skool

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Funk, soul and disco.

House and techno session.

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Synth funk and urban jams.

In About It!

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £tbc

Techno and disco from Subcity Radio.

Thu 09 Sep 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.

Feel My Bicep

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

80s sleaze, house and disco.

Ghetto

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Electronic sounds.

I.DJ

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Punter iPod playlists.

Rubbermensch ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Indie night.

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Emo, punk and metal. Resident DJs.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Nu Skool

Soul Glo

Funky disco and soul.

Funk and R’n’B.

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Power Tools

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Italo, disco and house.

Rock Club

Ivory Blacks, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Thursdays

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Emo, punk and hardcore.

Black Sparrow, 21:00–01:00, Free

Octopussy

Butterfly Saturdays

Student fun night.

Live music from the residents.

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Granny Would Be LOUD!

Synth funk and urban jams.

Ice cream sundaes and retro pop.

Jilted

Soundhaus, 22:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Techno, house and electro.

Yoyo Saturday

Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Pop classics and hip-hop.

I.DJ

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, Free (£8 after 11)

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Half My Heart Beats

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Sun 05 Sep

Sleazy R’n’B, jump jive and exotica.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Request night with new hip-hop bar.

Hung Up

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Optimo-curated weekly party.

Shedkandi

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

House and R’n’B.

Sin City

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Soul, disco and house.

The Rock Shop

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 12)

Rock, indie and metal.

Mon 06 Sep

Common People

Flying Duck, 21:00–03:00, Free (£3-£5 after 11)

90s tunes and free bingo.

Current and classic indie pop.

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £7

Saturday night disco.

Nu Skool

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Funky disco and soul.

Power Tools

Punter iPod playlists.

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Rubbermensch

Italo, disco and house.

Ivory Blacks, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Singles Night

Nu Skool

Skint/Vengeance

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

Punk, soul and rock.

Saturday night disco.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Funky disco and soul.

Power Tools

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Italo, disco and house.

Pretty Ugly

The Hold, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Indie, post punk and alternative.

Ivory Blacks, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Subculture

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Dubbed-out electro.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free (£3 after 11.30)

Sun 12 Sep Sunday Sound Library

Hillhead Bookclub, 17:00–20:00, Free

Vinyl records social club.

Flying Duck, 19:00–00:00, Free

Flat 0/1, 21:00–03:00, Free

Nightwalk

Cathouse Sundays

Fashion, visual art and DJs.

Request night with new hip-hop bar.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Audio Kandi

Hung Up

Vocal house and mash-ups.

Optimo-curated weekly party.

Ballbreaker/Vice

Shedkandi

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Rock, metal and indie. Resident DJs.

House and R’n’B.

Classic Fridays

Sin City

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Aternative rock, metal and punk.

Soul, disco and house.

Festival Friday

The Rock Shop

Funk, soul and disco.

Love Music

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £7

Sleazy R’n’B, jump jive and exotica.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Groove-based electronic.

Classic heavy rock.

Digital art and underground DJs.

Old Skool

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, Free (£8 after 11)

Indie, rock and pop.

Button Up

Friday night party.

Sabado

Love Music

Exposure Glasgow

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Cathouse Saturdays

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

World music.

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Pop, punk, metal and rock.

Shake It Up

Pop, dance and hip-hop.

The Arches, 22:00–03:00, £10

Pop classics and hip-hop.

Rock Club

Elephant

Hummingbird, 22:00–03:00, £3

Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Indie night.

Crash

Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11)

Live music from the residents.

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £4

Fresh electro and club classics.

Cross-genre danceathon.

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–03:00, Free

Equalised 1st Birthday

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Sabado

Piece Together Sound System

Classic and underground disco.

Butterfly Saturdays

Stereo, 23:00–03:00, £3

Electronic sounds.

Wrong Island (Teamy, Dirty Larry)

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free (£3 after 11.30)

Funk, soul and hip-hop.

R’n’B and dirty chart.

Rock and punk with the residents.

Classic heavy rock.

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Dance, R’n’B and chart.

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £3

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Fun club night.

Pandemic

Saturday @ Bookclub

Satisfaction

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Carousel

Dubbed-out electro.

Deep house and slo-mo techno.

Ghetto

Subculture (Soul Clap) Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Halt Bar, 20:00–00:00, Free

Cathouse Saturdays

Mutant disco, indie and punk.

Brunswick Hotel, 10:00–02:00, £tbc

Roc, metal and emo. Under 18s.

Rock and punk with the residents.

Thursdays

80s sleaze, house and disco.

Rock Club

Fri 10 Sep

Cathouse, 16:00–21:00, £6 (£3 members)

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Pop, punk, metal and rock.

Teenage Lust

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

Thu 16 Sep

Feel My Bicep

Dance, R’n’B and chart.

Sat 18 Sep Voodoo

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Absolution

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Good beats, bad style.

Absolution

Wednesdays

Glasgow University Union, 21:00–03:00, £6

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free (£3 after 11.30)

Yoyo Saturday

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–03:00, Free

Classic heavy rock.

Cathouse Sundays

Friday night party.

Wednesdays

Disco special guest.

D’n’B spectacular.

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Hotbox: Four To The Floor

Skint/Vengeance

Flat 0/1, 21:00–03:00, Free

Festival Friday

Student fun night.

House, disco and hip-hop.

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Melting Pot (Todd Terje)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Buff Club, 21:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Slow it Down (Dean Smith)

Indie, rock and pop.

The Admiral, 23:00–03:00, £10

Roc, metal and emo. Under 18s.

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Saturday night disco.

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £7

Symbiosis (Tez, Hex)

Indie pop, rock and hip-hop.

Buff Club, 21:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Shake It Up

Button Up

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11)

Muso (Suspire, Juan Pablo, Mr Kil, Anavaris)

Love Music

Aternative rock, metal and punk.

Cosy

Wed 15 Sep

Brunswick Hotel, 22:00–02:00, £3

Vinyl records social club.

Special guest edition.

Goth rock, disco and synth-pop.

Funk, soul and hip-hop.

Hillhead Bookclub, 17:00–20:00, Free

Club 69, 23:00–03:00, £8

Voodoo

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

Octopussy

Classic Fridays

Blink (Gary Beck, Nino, Mofo, Avon Kyyd)

Wed 08 Sep

Sat 11 Sep

Danse Macabre

Roc, metal and emo. Under 18s.

Sunday Sound Library

Soundhaus, 22:30–03:00, £5

Electro clash, 80s, and disco.

60s psych, new wave and sleaze.

Saturday @ Bookclub

Rock, metal and indie. Resident DJs. Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Live indie pop, Freshers special.

Cathouse, 16:00–21:00, £6 (£3 members)

Futuristic space rave.

Piece Together Sound System

Killer Kitsch

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free (£3 after 11.30)

Upside Down

Live indie pop, Freshers special.

Voodoo

Cheap ‘n’ Nasty

Disco, indie and electro-funk.

Tue 07 Sep

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Muso (Audio Model, The Underdog Theory, Pareto)

Emo, punk and hardcore.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £tbc

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Cathouse, 16:00–21:00, £6 (£3 members)

Brunswick Hotel, 10:00–02:00, £tbc

Orderly Disorder 2nd Birthday

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Tue 14 Sep

Riot Radio

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 12)

Rock, indie and metal.

Mon 13 Sep

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £3

Emo, punk and metal. Resident DJs.

Subculture

Soul Glo

Dubbed-out electro.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Funk and R’n’B.

Tictactoe

Thursdays

Minimal, techno and house.

The Ferry, 23:00–03:00, £10

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Emo, punk and hardcore.

Domino’s Meltdown Night

Best in Show

Pizza-eating contest, plus DJ Muppet.

Cathouse, 23:00–04:00, £5 (£6)

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

Indie, electro and pop.

Bottle Rocket

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free (£3 after 11.30)

Fri 17 Sep

Indie-pop, punk and motown.

Piece Together Sound System

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Sun 19 Sep

Classic and underground disco.

Sunday Sound Library

Poptabulous (Motherfunk, Paul Puppet)

Vinyl records social club.

Cafe Rio, 21:00–00:00, Free

Disco fun night.

Hillhead Bookclub, 17:00–20:00, Free

Button Up

Flat 0/1, 21:00–03:00, Free

Sleazy R’n’B, jump jive and exotica.

Crash

Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11)

Pop, dance and hip-hop.

Cathouse Sundays

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Request night with new hip-hop bar.

Audio Kandi

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Hung Up

Ballbreaker/Vice

Optimo-curated weekly party.

Rock, metal and indie. Resident DJs.

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Vocal house and mash-ups.

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Shedkandi

Classic Fridays

House and R’n’B.

Aternative rock, metal and punk.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Sin City

Festival Friday

Soul, disco and house.

Friday night party.

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 12)

The Rock Shop

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

Hotbox 1st Birthday (Italoboyz)

Rock, indie and metal.

The Universal, 23:00–03:00, £10

Italy’s hottest techno duo.

Kostas’ Eurodisco

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £tbc

Lock Up Your Daughters Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Straight-friendly gay night.

Old Skool

Pumping disco energy.

Mon 20 Sep Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Funk, soul and disco.

Only Fools and House Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

House, disco and electro.

Disco, funk and electro.

Tue 21 Sep

Only Fools and House

RUMBLE IN THE JUMBLE

Only Fools and House

Burn

Riot Radio

Killer Kitsch

House, disco and electro.

Jumble sale and club in one.

House, disco and electro.

Disco, funk and electro.

Indie rock and roll.

Electro clash, 80s, and disco.

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Flying Duck, 19:30–23:00, Free

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

September 2010

THE SKINNY 65

Glasgow Clubs Wed 22 Sep Muso (Reverie, Mickey 9s, The Secret) Buff Club, 21:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Live indie pop, Freshers special.

Octopussy

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Yoyo Saturday

Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Edinburgh Clubs Tue 31 Aug

Pop classics and hip-hop.

Antics

Absolution

Rock, metal and punk.

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Pop, punk, metal and rock.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Soul Jam Hot

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–05:00, Free

Student fun night.

Cathouse Saturdays

Funk and soul.

Wednesdays

Rock and punk with the residents.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–05:00, Free

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Synth funk and urban jams.

Thu 23 Sep 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.

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Death Disco

The Arches, 22:30–03:00, £tbc

Alternative electro disco.

Sabado

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, Free (£8 after 11)

Dance, R’n’B and chart.

Love Music

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £7

Feel My Bicep

Saturday night disco.

80s sleaze, house and disco.

Modern Lovers (Yummy Furs)

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Ghetto

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Electronic sounds.

I.DJ

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Punter iPod playlists.

Rubbermensch ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Indie night.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Funky disco and soul.

Power Tools

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Ivory Blacks, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Subculture

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Dubbed-out electro.

Thursdays

Thankyou Frankley (The Seventeenth Century)

Emo, punk and hardcore.

Local bands club night.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £2

Electronic workout.

Fri 24 Sep PieceTogetherSoundSystem

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Classic and underground disco.

Stereo, 23:00–03:00, £5

The Hot Club

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free (£3 after 11.30)

60s Kraut, psych and sleazy rock.

Sun 26 Sep Soundhaus Uberfest

Crash

Soundhaus, 15:00–03:00, £8 (£10 after 8)

Pop, dance and hip-hop.

Fundraiser with DJs and outdoor BBQ.

Audio Kandi

Sunday Sound Library

Shed, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11)

Byblos, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£4)

Vocal house and mash-ups.

Ballbreaker/Vice

Cathouse, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£5)

Rock, metal and indie. Resident DJs.

Classic Fridays

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Electro, fidget and bassline house.

JungleDub

Hillhead Bookclub, 17:00–20:00, Free

Vinyl records social club.

Button Up

Flat 0/1, 21:00–03:00, Free

Sleazy R’n’B, jump jive and exotica.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Synth, electro and house.

We Is Eclectic

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Funky sister club. In Speakeasy

Thu 02 Sep

Frisky

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Chart, indie and 90s hits.

T.R.L.

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£1)

Indie, pop and dance.

The Ferry, 22:00–03:00, £10

Cathouse, 22:30–04:00, £tbc

A Riot in the Rock Shop

Old Skool

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Funk, soul and disco.

Cathouse Sundays

Indie rock and roll.

Black Tent

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free (£3 after 11.30)

Bum-shaking indie and electro.

Sat 25 Sep Voodoo

Cathouse, 16:00–21:00, £6 (£3 members)

Roc, metal and emo. Under 18s.

Rock and indie bank holiday special.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Request night with new hip-hop bar.

Hung Up

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Optimo-curated weekly party.

Shedkandi

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

House and R’n’B.

Sin City

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Soul, disco and house.

Trash and Burn

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Glam and hair metal classics.

Saturday @ Bookclub

Wefunk

Funk, soul and hip-hop.

Funk upstarts.

Hillhead Bookclub, 21:00–00:00, Free

Butterfly Saturdays

Butterfly & Pig, 21:00–03:00, Free

Live music from the residents.

Soul Kitchen

Flying Duck, 21:00–03:00, Free (£3-£5 after 11)

Devil Disco Club (Epic 26)

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£5 after 12)

Disco and funk, plus live guest.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £tbc

Mon 27 Sep Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Disco, funk and electro.

Soul. In the kitchen bar.

66 THE SKINNY September 2010

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The Egg

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £1 (£3 after 11.30)

Weekly indie institution.

Beep Beep Yeah!

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–05:00, £3

Non-cheesy retro. In Speakeasy.

Fake

Breaks and techno.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–05:00, £5 (£8 after 12)

Underground house.

Sun 05 Sep Rock Show

Minimal and techno.

Dub Kaoss

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 12)

Indie and electro.

The Egg

Wee Red Bar, 23:00–03:00, £1 (£3 after 11.30)

Weekly indie institution.

Velvet

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£6 after 12)

Gay and bi-girl night. In Speakeasy.

Sun 12 Sep Rock Show

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Alternative metal and rock.

D’n’B and dubstep.

Coalition

Sick Note

Dubstep, breaks and D’n’B.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Indie and electro fave.

Everybody

Electric Circus, 00:00–03:00, £5

Pop, indie and disco.

Fri 10 Sep Reggae Got Soul Cruz, 21:00–01:00, Free

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Killer Kitsch

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dance music, old and new.

Mon 13 Sep Quids

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Hip-hop, chart and R’n’B requests.

Roots, funk and hippity-hop.

Nu Fire

Misfits

From hip-hop to dubstep.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Twisted disco.

Jackhammer (Radioactive Man, Stephen Brown)

Wee Red Bar, 22:30–03:00, £10 (£8)

Techno and electro.

Planet Earth

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Trade Union

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

From electro to ghetto.

Tue 14 Sep Circus Arcade

Electric Circus, 20:00–23:00, Free

Pop quiz and musical bingo.

Furburger

Rock, metal and punk.

Sick Note

Dubstep, breaks and D’n’B.

Lesbian night.

Soul Jam Hot

Funk, soul and hip-hop.

Indie and electro fave.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Skunkfunk

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dapper Dans

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–05:00, Free

Disco to soul.

Everybody

Electric Circus, 00:00–03:00, £5

Pop, indie and disco.

Fri 03 Sep Misfits

Magicians, a live psychic and prizes!

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Burlesque and retro sounds.

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £5

Coalition

D’n’B and dubstep.

Festival Friday

Riot Radio

Electric Circus, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 after 12)

Indie, pop and dance.

Sick Note Saturday

Antics

Citrus Club, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 12)

Deep house and techno.

House, disco and electro.

Animal Hospital

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£1)

Funk and soul.

Retro from 1970 to 1999.

Dub Kaoss

Fuse 2nd Birthday (Herve)

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Va Va Voom

Indie, rock and soul.

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Black Magic Night (Nicola Walker, Mythic)

Only Fools and House

T.R.L.

Saturday Nite Fish Fry (Asazi Space Funk Explosion)

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

BeDeep (Rene Breitbarth)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Ultragroove

Twisted disco.

Friday night party.

Chart, indie and 90s hits.

Chart, indie and electro.

Picture House, 11:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Eclectic beats.

ABC, 23:00–03:00, £5

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Tease Age

Octopussy

Slam

The Admiral, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£10 after 12)

Construction-themed saucy party.

Frisky

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–05:00, £3 (members free)

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Aternative rock, metal and punk.

Chart, indie and electro.

Picture House, 11:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £12

Funk and soul.

Nu Skool

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

The Pump Club

Axis

Thu 09 Sep

Luvely

Funk and disco.

We Are...Electric

Classic heavy rock.

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Electro, rock and cheese.

Funky sister club. In Speakeasy

Octopussy

Retro, funk and punk.

Skint/Vengeance

Funk and R’n’B.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11)

We Is Eclectic

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Lane Nightclub, 22:30–03:00, £9 (£7)

Saturday Nite Fish Fry

Indie, rock and pop.

Soul Glo

Bangers and Mash

Disco Den

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

Rock Club

Emo, punk and metal. Resident DJs.

Wed 01 Sep

Chart, indie and retro.

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 after 12)

Italo, disco and house.

Cathouse, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£2)

D’n’B, breaks and techno. Rotating DJs.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

Shake It Up

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, £5

Split

Sat 04 Sep Bubblegum

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Lane Nightclub, 22:00–05:00, £10

Varied electronic.

Planet Earth

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Retro from 1970 to 1999.

Confusion is Sex

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5 in costume)

Electro trash, Mad Max theme.

Dirt (The Setup)

The GRV, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£4 after 12)

Residents and guest night.

Skunkfunk (Raymond Harris Fusion Experience)

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Live funk and soul, plus DJs.

Inkling (MC Silver Tongue)

Alternative metal and rock.

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Killer Kitsch

Dance music, old and new.

Mon 06 Sep Quids

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Hip-hop, chart and R’n’B requests.

Nu Fire

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

From hip-hop to dubstep.

Trade Union

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

From electro to ghetto.

Tue 07 Sep Circus Arcade

Electric Circus, 20:00–23:00, Free Pop quiz and musical bingo.

GHQ, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Live funk and soul, plus DJs.

This Is Music

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, £3 (members free)

Indie and electro.

Touch (Kris Meja, Jakal)

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Techno, electro and house. In Speakeasy.

Split

Dayglow hippity-hop.

Sat 11 Sep Voodoo Rooms, 22:00–01:00, Free

Bubblegum

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 11)

Chart, indie and retro.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

Musika (James Zabiela)

Tuesday Heartbreak

Tease Age

Techno, electro and jungle.

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Driving funk and swirling soul.

Wed 08 Sep

The Liquid Room, 22:00–03:00, £15

Extra-special guest DJ.

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Indie, rock and soul.

THE BANG BANG CLUB

Bangers and Mash

Electric Circus, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 after 12)

Funk and breaks. In Speakeasy.

Electro, rock and cheese.

Bass Syndicate

This Is Music

Axis

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–05:00, Free

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–05:00, £3 (members free)

Indie and electro.

Tokyoblu 8th Birthday (We Play House, Nial & Denis McKervey, No Bad, David McGeorge ) Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–05:00, £8

Birthday celebration and live set.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11)

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Electro, fidget and bassline house.

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)

Synth, electro and house.

Tuesday Heartbreak

The Jazz Bar, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Driving funk and swirling soul.

Wed 15 Sep Melting Pot

Bangers and Mash

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 after 12)

Funky-edged soul gems.

Funk, soul and hip-hop.

Techno, electro and jungle.

Wonky (Dead Boy Robotics)

Synth, electro and house.

Rock, metal and punk.

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Split

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free

The Stand, Edinburgh, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£2.50)

Soul Spectrum

Soul Jam Hot

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £5

We Are...Electric

Antics

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Punk, glam and soulful pop.

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, £3 (members free)

Breaks and bassline.

Kidology

Lane Nightclub, 23:00–03:00, £8 (£6)

House sounds.

Messenger Sound System

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£7 after 12)

Rockin’ reggae and roots.

Comedy sketch show where you get to vote on the best.

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 11)

Electro, rock and cheese.

Zzzap! (Club Soda)

Wee Red Bar, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Fun club night.

Axis

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Electro, fidget and bassline house.

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)

Synth, electro and house.

We Is Eclectic

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, Free (£2 after 12)

Funky sister club. In Speakeasy

Thu 16 Sep Octopussy

Picture House, 11:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Chart, indie and electro.

Frisky

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Chart, indie and 90s hits.

Scream (Benga, MC Youngman)

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £tbc

House, electro and dubstep.

T.R.L.

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£1)

Indie, pop and dance.

DUB KAOSS

CITRUS CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

D’n’B and dubstep.

MON 20 SEP QUIDS

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

SKUNKFUNK (JAMES BROWN IS ANNIE) THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Hip-hop, chart and R’n’B requests.

Live funk and soul, plus DJs.

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

NU FIRE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

SUGARBEAT (FOAMO, THE LIVING GRAHAM BOND)

SNEAKY PETE’S ALL STARS

TRADE UNION

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

SICK NOTE

Indie and electro fave.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

DJs from across the genres.

EVERYBODY

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 00:00–03:00, £5

Pop, indie and disco.

FRI 17 SEP MISFITS

From hip-hop to dubstep.

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 12)

From electro to ghetto.

TUE 21 SEP

Indie and electro.

Pop quiz and musical bingo.

Indie and pop for dancing feet.

WEE RED BAR, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

ANTICS

PLANET EARTH

SOUL JAM HOT

BUBBLEGUM

Funk, soul and hip-hop.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 11)

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Retro from 1970 to 1999.

CLOAK & DAGGER

THE CAVES, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Live music club night.

Rock, metal and punk.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

SPLIT

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Techno, electro and jungle.

COMPAKT 2ND BIRTHDAY (GARY BECK, BRUNO FK, ANARKID, DAOIJIA, PHRASE)

TUESDAY HEARTBREAK

2nd birthday extravaganza.

AXIS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

SKUNKFUNK: HISPANIC FESTIVAL PARTY

THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Special party edition.

THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £2 (£1)

Driving funk and swirling soul.

WED 22 SEP SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Electro, fidget and bassline house.

FOUR CORNERS

SOULOCO

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

Underground house. In Speakeasy.

JUNGLEDUB

STEPBACK (WOLFJAZZ, ECLAIR FI-FI)

Dub, dubstep and jungle.

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 12)

WEE RED BAR, 23:00–03:00, £5

Techno, electro and bass.

TECHNO FOR BREAKFAST HENRY’S CELLAR, 23:00–03:00, £5

Techno and electro.

THIS IS MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Indie and electro.

XPLICIT (CAMO & KROOKED)

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £12 ADV.

D’n’B evolution.

SAT 18 SEP

Funk, jazz and hip-hip.

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE

WE ARE...ELECTRIC

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 12)

Funky sister club. In Speakeasy

THU 23 SEP OCTOPUSSY

PICTURE HOUSE, 11:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Chart, indie and electro.

BANGERS AND MASH

FRISKY

TEASE AGE

Chart, indie and 90s hits.

Electro, rock and cheese.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Indie, rock and soul.

SCREAM (STANTON WARRIORS)

WIRE

House, electro and dubstep.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £TBC

T.R.L.

Art punk, electronic and cult.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£1)

FIERCE ANGEL (MARK DOYLE, SORAYA VIVIAN, STUDIOPUNKS)

DUB KAOSS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £15

Indie, pop and dance.

CITRUS CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

Part of Fierce Angel world tour. In Speakeasy.

D’n’B and dubstep.

MUMBO JUMBO 2ND BIRTHDAY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£7 AFTER 12)

Funk, electro and disco.

SATURDAY NITE FISH FRY THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Funk and soul.

THE EGG

WEE RED BAR, 23:00–03:00, £1 (£3 AFTER 11.30)

Weekly indie institution.

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Indie, rock and soul.

Reggae, grime and jungle.

DARE!

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

Alternative and indie.

Freshers Week edition.

SATURDAY NITE FISH FRY (THE LEONARD JONES POTENTIAL)

LEGENDARY HIP-HOP PIONEER

THURSDAY 7TH OCTOBER TICKETS £14

Funk and soul.

THE EGG WEE RED BAR, 23:00–03:00, £1 (£3 AFTER 11.30)

SATURDAY 9TH OCTOBER £15 + BF | OVER 18’S

Weekly indie institution.

SUN 26 SEP RISE (THE CUT UP BOYS)

IS BACK!

OPAL LOUNGE, 22:00–03:00, £8 (£6)

Mash-up night.

ROCK SHOW THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

EVERY WEDNESDAY FROM 11TH AUGUST

Alternative metal and rock.

COALITION SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Dubstep, breaks and D’n’B.

KILLER KITSCH

SINCE DAY ONE (THE INCENDIARY BATS, BRAINZ IN JARS, SAFEWORD, SHATTERHAND)

FRI 24 SEP

SATURDAY 2ND OCTOBER £14.50 + BF OVER 18’S

THE JAZZ BAR, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Dance music, old and new.

Pop, indie and disco.

STEVE IGNORANT

HIS & HERS

SNEAKY PETE’S ALL STARS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 00:00–03:00, £5

Friday 17th September £10 + BF

Electronic dance. In Speakeasy.

Indie and electro fave.

EVERYBODY

TOMMY REILLY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £5

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

DJs from across the genres.

FRIDAY 10TH SEPT

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £8

SICK NOTE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

£15 + BF | OVER 18’S

BIG ‘N’ BASHY VS GHANTIN (TERROR DANJAH, SQUIRE OF GOTHOS)

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Chart, indie and retro.

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

TEASE AGE

WE IS ECLECTIC

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 11)

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Chart, indie and retro.

KARNIVAL (PAUL WOOLFORD)

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 11)

SAT 25 SEP

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 12)

Synth, electro and house.

£6 + BF | OVER 14’S

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

UNPOP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

FRI 3RD SEPT

THIS IS MUSIC

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 11)

Twisted disco.

PLUS DANNY SHAH & SIX STOREYS HIGH

Freshers Week edition.

CIRCUS ARCADE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 20:00–23:00, FREE

9c Victoria Street, Edinburgh | 0131 225 2564

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5

New night of music, DJs and live art.

THURSDAYS

10.30PM - 3AM

MASSIVE GUEST DJS EVERY WEEK FROM THE WORLDS OF HOUSE, ELECTRO, DUBSTEP & TECHNO.

h e d b l i s e s t a

1 9 9 1

MON 27 SEP

WASABI DISCO

REGGAE GOT SOUL

Cosmic house, punk and disco.

Roots, funk and hippity-hop.

QUIDS

MISFITS

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Hip-hop, chart and R’n’B requests.

THE LAST SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH

Twisted disco.

NU FIRE

10:30PM TIL LATE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

SUN 19 SEP ROCK SHOW

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative metal and rock.

COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Dubstep, breaks and D’n’B.

KILLER KITSCH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Dance music, old and new.

CRUZ, 21:00–01:00, FREE

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 11)

PLANET EARTH

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£6 AFTER 11)

Retro from 1970 to 1999.

MODERN LOVERS (VIC GALLOWAY)

THE GRV, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£5 AFTER 12)

Eclectic set.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

From hip-hop to dubstep.

TRADE UNION CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£2 AFTER 12)

Freshers Week edition, with surprise guest.

FOR FULL LISTINGS GO TO

www.liquidroom.com TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM TICKETS SCOTLAND & RIPPING RECORDS

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 67

dundee Music Tue 31 Aug

Sun 12 Sep

DEAF HAVANA

Adreneline, Core

Rock with a capital ‘R’.

Alternative rock and psych.

Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £6

Fri 03 Sep MacMillan Music Madness (Cha Cha Heels, The Killing Floor, Spectral Cat, New Times) Doghouse, 19:30–22:30, £4

Live music fundraiser.

Wed 08 Sep The Winter Tradition

Dundee University Union, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Alternative rock. Part of the Freshers Show.

Thu 09 Sep Buzzcocks

Fat Sam’s, 19:30–22:30, £16

Old punksters.

Fri 10 Sep Bronto Skylift

Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £5

Indie rock.

Flatlands, Kaddish, Sunset Squad, Dross Kage, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Metal, indie and rock.

TheLambrettas(BuckRogers) Dexter’s Bar, 20:00–23:00, £10

Dexter’s Bar, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Wed 15 Sep Tommy Reilly

Fat Sam’s, 19:30–22:30, £10

Acoustic pop.

Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £7

Led Zeppelin tribute.

08:00PM, 02 Sep—04 Sep, From £8

Chess- The Musical

Fri 17 Sep The Twist, Miniature Dinosaurs, Gypsy Sideshow Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Indie pop and fusion.

Eh! (Someone’s Son)

Dexter’s Bar, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Indie rock.

Sat 18 Sep Healthy Minds Collapse Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £6

Alternative rock and pop.

Sun 19 Sep She’s Hit, Manifesto

Dexter’s Bar, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Garage punk and ska rock.

Wed 22 Sep Country folk.

Levee Breakers

Paco Pena Flamenco Dance Company

Classic rock.

Dexter’s Bar, 20:00–23:00, £6

Transmission

Sat 11 Sep

Playhouse

Sucioperro

Mt. Desolation

Indie, pop, math and metal.

Edinburgh

Exclusive new work of flamenco music and dance.

Rocky powerpop.

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

theatre listings

Fat Sam’s, 19:30–22:30, £10

Fri 24 Sep

07:30PM, 21 Sep—25 Sep, £17.75

Kicks above the waist-line, buddy.

Festival Theatre Bliss 07:15PM, 02 Sep—04 Sep, not 3rd, From £14

Dance and electro

Geometry and Grace 07:30PM, 16 Sep—25 Sep, not 19, 20, 21, 22, from £10.50

Three new performance pieces.

King’s Theatre Bursting Out 07:30PM, 01 Sep, £18

Comedy with some nudity

Sin Sangre 08:00PM, 01 Sep—03 Sep, not 2nd, From £12

THE CHRISTIANS

Adaptation of a novella by Italian author and playwright Alessandro Baricco.

Melodic soul.

Gotta Sing Gotta Dance

Fat Sam’s, 19:30–22:30, £15

Sat 25 Sep

07:30PM, 02 Sep, £10.50

Singalong song and dance numbers.

Heathen, Cherry Bombz, The Jamie Harper Band

Yashin

The Man Who Fed Butterflies

Metal thrash and blues.

Alternative screamo rock.

Various times, 02 Sep—04 Sep, not

Dexter’s Bar, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Fat Sam’s, 19:30–22:30, £8

dundee clubs Thu 02 Sep

Sun 12 Sep

Original and poetic story blending film and live action.

Jesus Christ Superstar 07:30PM, 07 Sep—11 Sep, from £10.50

Irie Lion Sound

Atheist-penned Christian musical.

Rock and roll party night.

Reggae night.

Calendar Girls

PLASTIC SOUL

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Hip-hop, reggae and house.

Fri 03 Sep HEADWAY (Silicone Soul)

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £tbc

Underground techno.

Sankhara

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

Trance with Needles Van Gramme.

Sat 04 Sep Fever

Art Bar, 18:00–23:00, £tbc

Rock and roll party night.

Danfest

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £tbc

Mish-mash of beats.

Asylum

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

Alternative rock, metal and punk.

Thu 09 Sep PLASTIC SOUL

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Hip-hop, reggae and house.

Fri 10 Sep SPACEBALL

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £tbc

Wonk and dance.

Sat 11 Sep Mixed Bizness (Boom Monk Ben, Point to C)

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £5

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

Thu 16 Sep PLASTIC SOUL

Fri 17 Sep GLITCH (Milton Jackson) Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £5

Techno scoundrels.

Felt

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

Indie, electro-pop and rock.

Sat 18 Sep Neon Nights 4th Birthday Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £10

Fri 24th, meals from£10

£22.50

Nude fat chicks. Nice.

Royal Lyceum Diciembre Various times, 02 Sep—04 Sep, From £10

The Arches Contact Jam 02:00PM, 05 Sep, £3

Dancers are invited to hang and dance together.

Arches Live 07:00PM, 16 Sep—25 Sep, £28 (festival pass)

Cornucopia of fun theatre.

The Tron Theatre 07:45PM, 02 Sep—04 Sep, £8.50

Heuristics in the Diner by Peter Arnot; The God of Soho by Chris Hannan and Hartland by Nicola McCartney.

The Chocky Brae 07:30PM, 07 Sep—11 Sep, £6.50

DC Jackson gets festive.

Club Sublime 07:30PM, 12 Sep, Donation

Monthly alternative cabaret.

Scottish comedian gets back to his roots.

The Opium Eater 07:30PM, 15 Sep—18 Sep, £8.50

Old school drug abuse.

Not So Fatal Death...

07:30PM, 21 Sep—25 Sep, from £6.50

Man in freezer box causes festival.

Theatre Royal Geometry and Grace 07:30PM, 16 Sep—25 Sep, from £10.50

Three new performance pieces.

Shakespeare- The Man From Stratford 07:30PM, 21 Sep—25 Sep, from £10.50

Rent-a-quote tour.

Tramway Beautiful Burnout 08:00PM, 02 Sep—11 Sep, not 5th, £15

Dance meets script meets Big Fight.

Stars Over Kabul

glasgow

Young team action.

07:30PM, 23 Sep—25 Sep, £6

Tron Theatre Club Sublime 07:30PM, Sun 5th, Sun 26th, Free(Donation)

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

A monthly musical event hosted by award-winning cabaret duo Blind Gurl and the Crips, these evenings feature hot new local artists and bands.

Thu 23 Sep PLASTIC SOUL

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Hip-hop, reggae and house.

Fri 24 Sep CTRL*ALT*DEFEAT

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £tbc

Electro all the way.

Beartrap

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

Art rock, indie and punk,

Sat 25 Sep

Asylum

Classic disco, funk and house.

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £5 (£7 after 12)

Asylum

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

Alternative rock, metal and punk.

68 THE SKINNY September 2010

Citizens Theatre Carmen 07:30PM, 07 Sep—12 Sep, from £10.50

Feisty opera passion.

Tailor of Inverness 07:30PM, 17 Sep—18 Sep, £10.50

Hugely moving CATS winner.

Hit Me 07:30PM, 21 Sep—23 Sep, £10.50

Ian Drury gets revived.

What is the CyberZap? • Top ten events picked

by The Skinny • Weekly Thursday's • 5000+ subscribers

07:30PM, 15 Sep—18 Sep, £6.50

08:00PM, 02 Sep, £5

Alternative rock, metal and punk.

Advertise in The Skinny CyberZap. Prices start from just £50!

Jacobite Country

Asylum

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

Got a night to promote and a small budget?

New Works (One Academy)

Visceral, black comedy style, theatre.

CCA

CyberZAP

Live dance as you eat

Cryptic Nights

Devil Disco Club (RBRBR, Trouble)

Alternative rock, metal and punk.

08:00PM, Fri 3rd, Fri 10th, Fri 17th,

Electro all the way.

Hippity-hop and beats.

Kage, 23:00–03:00, £4

07:30PM, 13 Sep—25 Sep, not 19th,

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Hip-hop, reggae and house.

Bellydancing

3rd, From £12

Fever

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £3.50

Mirch Masala

Walden 07:45PM, 21 Sep—22 Sep, £8.50

Be sufficient!

Dundee Doghouse Club Wonka Burlesque Show 07:30PM, 25 Sep, £8

New and unseen burlesque.

Contact sales@theskinny.co.uk or call 0131 467 4630

COMEDY LISTINGS EDINBURGH THU 02 SEP THE THURSDAY SHOW (BRENDAN DEMPSEY, BERNADETTE PAULEY, PAUL MCCAFFREY, DANIEL WEBSTER)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Hosted by Raymond Mearns. Doors open 7:30.

FRI 03 SEP THE FRIDAY SHOW (BRENDAN DEMPSEY, BERNADETTE PAULEY, PAUL MCCAFFREY, DANIEL WEBSTER)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers. Hosted by Raymond Mearns.

SAT 04 SEP THE SATURDAY SHOW (BRENDAN DEMPSEY, BERNADETTE PAULEY, PAUL MCCAFFREY, DANIEL WEBSTER) THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £13

Hosted by Raymond Mearns.

SUN 05 SEP WHOSE LUNCH IS IT ANYWAY?

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 12:30–15:00, FREE

Free improvised stand-up. Hot food available.

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGHIN (TEDDY, NIALL BROWNE, GUS LYMBURN, BEN VERTH)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£1)

Round off your weekend with a night of laughs. Hosted by Siân Bevan.

MON 06 SEP RED RAW (AL DUCHARME)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New talent and new material showcase.

Hosted by Bernadette Pauley.

TUE 07 SEP WICKED WENCHES (BERNADETTE PAULEY, VIV GEE, ISZI LAWRENCE, KIM MACASKILL)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£3)

All-girl comedy. Hosted by Susan Calman.

WED 08 SEP BROKEN WINDOWS POLICY

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £4 (£2)

Sketch comedy.

THU 09 SEP THE THURSDAY SHOW (AL DUCHARME, KEIR MCALLISTER, ISZI LAWRENCE, GARRY DOBSON)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Hosted by Joe Heenan. Doors open 7:30.

FRI 10 SEP THE FRIDAY SHOW (AL DUCHARME, KEIR MCALLISTER, ISZI LAWRENCE, GARRY DOBSON)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers. Hosted by Joe Heenan.

SAT 11 SEP HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (SMUG ROBERTS, RHODRI RHYS, ROGER D AND DAVE JOHNS) HIGHLIGHT, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, FROM £13

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (AL DUCHARME, BERNADETTE PAULEY, CAROLINE ROBERTSON, DEE CUSTANCE)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£1)

Round off your weekend with a night of laughs. Hosted by Scott Agnew.

MON 13 SEP RED RAW

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New talent and new material showcase

TUE 14 SEP JOSIE LONG: BE HONOURABLE!

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£8)

Another chance to see Josie Long’s Fringe show.

THU 16 SEP THE THURSDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY, ANDY SIR, GEORGE RYEGOLD, LUCY OLDHAM)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Doors open 7:30. Hosted by Sandy Nelson.

FRI 17 SEP HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (JANEY GODLEY, CHRIS HENRY, MATT KIRSHEN AND KEITH FARNAN) HIGHLIGHT, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, FROM £10

THE FRIDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY, ANDY SIR, GEORGE RYEGOLD, LUCY OLDHAM)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers. Hosted by Sandy Nelson.

SAT 18 SEP HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (JANEY GODLEY, CHRIS HENRY, MATT KIRSHEN AND KEITH FARNAN) HIGHLIGHT, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, FROM £13

THE SATURDAY SHOW (WITH RON VAUDRY, ANDY SIR, GEORGE RYEGOLD AND LUCY OLDHAM. HOSTED

BY SANDY NELSON.)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £13 (£13)

SUN 19 SEP WHOSE LUNCH IS IT ANYWAY?

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 12:30–15:00, FREE

Free improvised stand-up. Hot food available.

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGH-IN (PAUL F TAYLOR, STEPHEN CALLAGHAN, WOODY, NICK DAVIES)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£1)

Round off your weekend with a night of laughs. Hosted by Sandy Nelson.

MON 20 SEP RED RAW (PAUL F TAYLOR)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New talent and new material showcase.

Hosted by Davey See.

TUE 21 SEP ELECTRIC TALES

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£4)

Stand-up meets storytelling.

WED 22 SEP BENEFIT IN AID OF EDINBURGH CYRENIANS TRUST

THE SATURDAY SHOW (AL DUCHARME, KEIR MCALLISTER, ISZI LAWRENCE, GARRY DOBSON)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £7 (£5)

Hosted by Joe Heenan.

THE THURSDAY SHOW (BENNETT AARON, DAVID LONGLEY, STEPHEN CALLAGHAN, BEN VERTH)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £13

SUN 12 SEP WHOSE LUNCH IS IT ANYWAY?

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 12:30–15:00, FREE

Free improvised stand-up. Hot food available.

Fundraiser for Amber Mediation.

THU 23 SEP

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Hosted by Susan Morrison. Doors open 7:30.

FRI 24 SEP THE FRIDAY SHOW (BENNETT AARON, DAVID LONGLEY, STEPHEN CALLAGHAN, PAT BURTSCHER)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers. Hosted by Susan Morrison.

SAT 25 SEP THE SATURDAY SHOW (WITH BENNETT AARON, DAVID LONGLEY, STEPHEN CALLAGHAN, PAT BURTSCHER )

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 21:00–23:00, £13

Hosted by Susan Morrison.

SUN 26 SEP WHOSE LUNCH IS IT ANYWAY?

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 12:30–15:00, FREE

Free improvised stand-up. Hot food available.

THE SUNDAY NIGHT LAUGHIN (DAVID LONGLEY, BOB GRAHAM, JOHN GAVIN)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£1)

Round off your weekend with a night of laughs. Hosted by Rebecca Donohue.

MON 27 SEP RED RAW (MARK NELSON)

THE STAND, EDINBURGH, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New talent and new material showcase.

Hosted by Chris Henry.

GLASGOW WED 01 SEP

BRATCHY AND THE WEE MAN’S COMEDY PUB QUIZ THE ARCHES, 20:00–22:00, FREE

Comedy quiz.

MIDWEEK COMEDY CABARET (JOHN GILLICK, BARRY MCDONALD, CHRIS HENRY, INDER MANOCHA)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £4 (£2)

Hosted by Jeff O’Boyle.

THU 02 SEP WHOSE ROUND IS IT ANYWAY? HIGHLIGHT, GLASGOW, 20:00–22:00, £7 (£5)

FRI 03 SEP HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (QUINCY, GARY LITTLE, COLE PARKER, SMUG ROBERTS AND ANDREW LEARMONTH)

HIGHLIGHT, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, FROM £12

THE FRIDAY SHOW (AL DUCHARME, MICHAEL REDMOND, PAUL MCCAFFREY, THE WEE MAN)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers. Hosted by Susan Morrison.

SAT 04 SEP

MON 06 SEP

MON 13 SEP

TUE 21 SEP

DANCE MONKEY BOY, DANCE! (RAYMOND MEARNS, JOHN ROSS, ALLEN CHALMERS)

IMPROV WARS (GARRY DOBSON, STU MURPHY, CHRIS FORBES, BILLY KIRKWOOD)

Sketch and improvised comedy.

Brand new fast paced improv show featuring the nation’s top comics.

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £4

TUE 07 SEP RED RAW (AL DUCHARME)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New talent and new material showcase.

Hosted by Siân Bevan.

WED 08 SEP WICKED WENCHES (BERNADETTE PAULEY, VIV GEE, ISZI LAWRENCE, KIM MACASKILL)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£3)

All-girl comedy. Hosted by Susan Calman.

THU 09 SEP THE THURSDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY, BERNADETTE PAULEY, PHIL DIFFER, MIKEY ADAMS)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Hosted by Bruce Devlin. Doors open 7:30.

FRI 10 SEP HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (MARTIN MOR, ANTHONY KING, DAVID HADINGHAM AND BRIAN HIGGINS)

HIGHLIGHT, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, FROM £12

THE FRIDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY, BERNADETTE PAULEY, PHIL DIFFER, MIKEY ADAMS)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers. Hosted by Bruce Devlin.

SAT 11 SEP DANNY BHOY - BY ROYAL DISAPPOINTMENT ORAN MOR, 20:00–22:00, £15 (£15)

DANNY BHOY: BY ROYAL DISAPPOINTMENT ORAN MOR, 20:00–22:00, £15

Hot young comedian brings his new show to Glasgow. Part of a mammoth UK tour.

HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (MARTIN MOR, ANTHONY KING, DAVID HADINGHAM AND BRIAN HIGGINS)

HIGHLIGHT, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, FROM £15

THE SATURDAY SHOW (RON VAUDRY, BERNADETTE PAULEY, PHIL DIFFER, MIKEY ADAMS) THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £13

Hosted by Bruce Devlin.

SUN 12 SEP GLASGOW KIDS COMEDY CLUB THE STAND, GLASGOW, 15:00–17:00, £4

Best for 8-12 year olds. No under fives or unaccompanied children.

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£1)

Sunday Service, Thursday laughs.

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £4 (£2)

TUE 14 SEP RED RAW (RON VAUDRY)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New talent and new material showcase.

Hosted by Stu Murphy.

WED 15 SEP JOSIE LONG: BE HONOURABLE! THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£8)

Another chance to see Josie Long’s Fringe show.

THU 16 SEP WHOSE ROUND IS IT ANYWAY? HIGHLIGHT, GLASGOW, 20:00–22:00, £7 (£5)

THE THURSDAY SHOW (JASON JOHN WHITEHEAD, NEIL MCFARLANE, ED PATRICK, SIÂN BEVAN)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Hosted by Raymond Mearns. Doors open 7:30.

FRI 17 SEP

RED RAW (PAUL F TAYLOR)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £2 (£1)

New talent and new material showcase.

Hosted by Scott Agnew.

THU 23 SEP THE THURSDAY SHOW (SIMON BLIGH, JOHN ROSS, LIAM MULLONE, MARTIN MCALLISTER)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4)

Hosted by Susan Calman. Doors open 7:30.

FRI 24 SEP THE FRIDAY SHOW (WITH SIMON BLIGH, JOHN ROSS, LIAM MULLONE, MARTIN MCALLISTER)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers. Hosted by Susan Calman.

SAT 25 SEP THE SATURDAY SHOW (SIMON BLIGH, JOHN ROSS, LIAM MULLONE, MARTIN MCALLISTER) THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £13

Hosted by Susan Calman.

SUN 26 SEP

HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (MANDY KNIGHT, ANTHONY KING, DAVE LONGLEY AND CRAIG HILL)

GLASGOW KIDS COMEDY CLUB

THE FRIDAY SHOW (JASON JOHN WHITEHEAD, NEIL MCFARLANE, ED PATRICK, SIÂN BEVAN)

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (JOHN ROSS, PATRICK ROLINK, DANIEL WEBSTER, CAROLINE ROBERTSON)

HIGHLIGHT, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, FROM £12

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5)

Friday night special with a changing rota of performers. Hosted by Raymond Mearns.

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 15:00–17:00, £4 (£4)

Best for 8-12 year olds. No under fives or unaccompanied children.

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£1)

Sunday Service, Thursday laughs.

MON 27 SEP

SAT 18 SEP HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (MANDY KNIGHT, ANTHONY KING, DAVE LONGLEY AND CRAIG HILL)

HIGHLIGHT, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, FROM £15

THE SATURDAY SHOW (JASON JOHN WHITEHEAD, NEIL MCFARLANE, ED PATRICK AND SIÂN BEVAN)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £13

Hosted by Raymond Mearns.

SUN 19 SEP GLASGOW KIDS COMEDY CLUB THE STAND, GLASGOW, 15:00–17:00, £4 (£4)

Best for 8-12 year olds. No under fives or unaccompanied children.

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (NEIL MCFARLANE, ED PATRICK, VIV GEE)

ROBIN INCE’S BAD BOOK CLUB

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£8)

Examining the world’s worst literature.

DUNDEE SAT 04 SEP

JUST LAUGH ? DUNDEE (STU WHO, STEVEN DICK, CHRIS HENRY)

FAT SAM’S, 21:00–23:00, £9, INCLUDES FREE NIGHTCLUB ENTRY

SUN 19 SEP DANNY BHOY - BY ROYAL DISAPPOINTMENT DUNDEE REP, 20:00–22:00, £15 (£13)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£1)

Sunday Service, Thursday laughs.

MON 20 SEP HOW DO I GET UP THERE?

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£2.50)

FRI 24 SEP GILDED BALLOON LATE NIGHT COMEDY

DUNDEE REP, 22:30–23:59, £14 (£12/£10)

Sketch show hosted by Jeff O’Boyle.

HIGHLIGHT COMEDY (QUINCY, GARY LITTLE, COLE PARKER, SMUG ROBERTS AND ANDREW LEARMONTH)

HIGHLIGHT, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, FROM £15

THE SATURDAY SHOW (AL DUCHARME, MICHAEL REDMOND, PAUL MCCAFFREY, THE WEE MAN)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 21:00–23:00, £13

Hosted by Susan Morrison.

SUN 05 SEP GLASGOW KIDS COMEDY CLUB (BRUCE DEVLIN, MICHAEL MANLEY, JOE HEENAN) THE STAND, GLASGOW, 15:00–17:00, £4

Best for 8-12 year olds. No under fives or unaccompanied children.

MICHAEL REDMOND’S SUNDAY SERVICE (RON VAUDRY, ANDREW LEARMONTH, GORDON ALEXANDER)

THE STAND, GLASGOW, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£1)

Sunday Service, Thursday laughs.

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 69

Art Listings Edinburgh 3/3 Antigua St If I Jump Off A Bridge, Will You Follow Me? 12:00PM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

New work by Scottish-based artists Hendry, Sandy Hutton, Rebecca Milling, Valerie Norris and Lindsay Perth, addressing notions of threat and vulnerability.

Amber Arts The Space Between

10:00AM, 01 Sep—05 Sep, Free

A mixed printmaking show bringing together thirteen contemporary artists.

Atticsalt Mairie Gillies: Natura Sensus

Various times, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Edinburgh-born artist examines the relationship between plants and people, looking at how horticulture has become an intervention that has little to do with the survival of plants and more to do with gratifying the consumer.

Bourne Fine Art Alexander Stoddart: Cabinet Works and Studies 10:00AM, 31 Aug, Free

Showcasing the Paisley-born sculptor’s work on a domestic scale.

City Art Centre

Sitting and Looking

10:30AM, 31 Aug—03 Sep, Free

An interdisciplinary exhibition curated by furniture designers Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley.

Sitting and Looking

10:30AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Show curated by furniture designers Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley

Dundas Street Barbara Rae: Prints

Various times, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

New works in printmaking, taking inspiration comes from objects and landscapes of the wilderness areas of the southwest USA.

ECA Library

William Wegman: Family Combinations

Various times, 31 Aug—05 Sep, £8

Photographic documentation between Wegman and his beloved family of Weimaraners. It’s basially a family tree of his canine companions over 25 years.

Collective Gallery Hito Steyeri

11:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

First Scottish solo exhibition for the Berlin-based artist and theoretician.

Music Library

10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, £7 (£5)

Major exhibit of Surrealist art.

Richard Wright: The Stairwell Project

10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

2009 Turner Prize winner, Richard Wright, will compose a large-scale, wall-based work within the Dean Gallery. As part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

Dovecot Studios Dovecot Art and Making: A New Collection 10:30AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

A new collection of tapestries produced in collaboration with the William Scott Foundation, Barbara Rae, and William Crozier.

Printmakers Prints Of Darkness

10:00AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

10:00AM, 18 Sep—25 Sep, not 19th, 20th, Free

Group show of cutting edge digital prints.

Sculpture Workshop Magazine 10

12:00PM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

A series of three solo exhibitions, featuring new commissions from Katie Orton, Paul Rooney, and Kate V Robertson.

Fruitmarket Martin Creed: Down Over Up

10:00AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Various times, 31 Aug—26 Sep, Free

Mid-career show by British heavyweight.

Ingleby Gallery Iran do Espirito Santo

10:00AM, 31 Aug—25 Sep, not 5th, 12th, 19th, Free

Work by Brazilian artist with distinct minimalist aesthetic.

Inspace life.space

12:00PM, 01 Sep—05 Sep, Free

In collaboration with Blipfoto, this exhibition invites people to contribute an image a day. At the end of the exhibition the mass of images collected will be assembled into a film sequence.

Inverleith House

Keeping My Head Above Water

Joan Mitchell

UK sculptor Julie Westerman shows large cibachrome prints of swimming to celebrate the Dovecot building.

A selection of abstract paintings and works on paper by the American artist.

10:30AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Matter 5

10:30AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Adam Paxon continues a curated conversation with a selection of UK designers, through ?lm, photography and objects.

Life Drawing

Varied life drawing class. Relaxed environment.

Matthew Gallery

A critical exchange between the narrative apparatuses of architecture and the museum.

Martin Creed: Down Over Up

Another World

Collaborative body of work.

An anthology of images of local acts, photographed by the rather ace Markus Thorsen.

10:00AM, 31 Aug, Free

First UK solo exhibition by Japanese stone sculptor Atsuo Okomoto.

Dean Gallery

KOMACHI Change X

Curating The City: Representation and Seriality

Faraway Mountain

11:00AM, 31 Aug—03 Sep, Free

Jim Lambie is installing a vinyl tape floor into the gallery space, to complement his new permanent piece on the outside wall.

LIVE: Bands From The Edinburgh Music Scene

Major new work from the acclaimed artist, the highlight of which might just be his turning of the Gallery’s staircase into a synthesiser - with each step sounding a different note.

Corn Exchange

10:00AM, 02 Sep—05 Sep, £8.25 (£4)

Various times, 31 Aug—19 Sep, £5–£7-£10

In Our Own Images: Representing

A range of Scottish artists and sculptors pay homage to the artists’ preoccupation with the human figure.

Zobop (Jim Lambie)

A curated mise en abyme of artists’ bookworks. The result is a part archive, part exhibition and part pop-up theatre.

Various times, 31 Aug—03 Sep, Free

3D 2D: Object and Illusion in Print: Prints from the Centre for Fine Print Research in Bristol

Various times, 31 Aug—05 Sep, £8

A collection of sculptures by some of the world’s best known contemporary artists as well as some exciting British newcomers. Includes Antony Gormley, Andy Goldsworthy, Charles Jencks, and Peter Liversidge.

12:00PM, 31 Aug—03 Sep, Free

Various times, 31 Aug—05 Sep, £8

Vintage prints from the iconic American photographer.

10:00AM, 02 Sep—05 Sep, £8.25 (£4)

ShelfLife: A Biblio-sideshow

Original prints exploring record cover art, including work from multimedia artist Vicki Bennett, who has also been commissioned to produce a new LP of music for the exhibition.

Edward Weston: Life Work

Jupiter Artland Jupiter Artland: Year Two

10:00AM, 31 Aug—26 Sep, not 6th, 13th, 20th, Free

Joseph Pearce’s

11:00AM, 31 Aug—03 Sep, Free

National Gallery Complex

Robert Powell explores the mythologising of history via a series of sculptures and etchings.

Various times, 31 Aug—26 Sep, £5 (£3)

RSA New Works

Various times, 10 Sep—26 Sep, Free

Five artists who participated in the 2009 RSA Residencies for Scotland programme.

Scotland and Rome

Various times, 13 Sep—26 Sep, Free

A celebration of the links between Scotland and Rome.

Schop Tram Spotting / Train Stopping

10:00AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

This exhibition takes a fresh look at how to shape our towns and cities (and, yes, Edinburgh’s Tramgate will feature).

Poetry Library Plan B

Various times, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Collaboration between Irish poet Paul Muldoon and Scottish photographer Norman McBeath. The result is 28 perspectives of ten poems.

Sierra Metro

Two-hander exhibit of site-specific film installation, sculpture and drawing.

10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, £10 (£7)

Major international exhibition of around 90 impressionist works, including loans from collections around the world.

William McTaggart (1835-1910)

10:00AM, 11 Sep—26 Sep, Free

Oil paintings and watercolours by celebrated Scottish artist.

National Gal of Mod Art

What You See Is Where You’re At: Part 3 10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

Third wave of displays celebrating the 50th anniversary of the gallery.

The fourteen new displays feature masterpieces from the Gallery’s worldfamous collection, as well as new works and commissions.

Newhailes Subjects for Melancholy Retrospection

12:00PM, 02 Sep—05 Sep, £10.50 (£7.50)

Scotland-based artist Anna Chapman combines drawing, three-dimensional objects and sound in a solo show of work related to language and memory.

Open Eye Gallery Barbara Rae, Matthew Draper: Contrasting Landscapes, Painterly Abstractions 10:00AM, 31 Aug, Free

Split exhibition showcasing two distinct and individual responses to contemporary landscape painting.

Ecole de Paris

10:00AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Master printmakers with connections to Paris. In Open Eye’s sister gallery.

Drill Hall Life Drawing

Various times, Tue 31st, Sun 12th, Sun 19th, £5–£7-£10

Varied life drawing class. Relaxed environment.

Queen’s Gallery Dutch Landscapes

Photographic work by Gillian Hayes looking at the colour red.

Bringing together 42 works from the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting.

70 THE SKINNY September 2010

Braham’s series of photographs takes the theme of the brevity of our being, measured against the enduring nature of the landscape.

The most exhaustive selection of paintings by Christen Købke (1810– 1848), one of the foremost talents of Denmark’s Golden Age, ever to be shown outside Denmark.

Impressionist Gardens

09:30AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, £5.50 (£3-£5)

Kelvingrove Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880–1900

10:00AM, 31 Aug—03 Sep, Free

Gemma Holt, Richard Healy

10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, £7 (£5)

Henderson Gallery Macpherson’s Cave: Shadow and Enlightenment

Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light

The Colour Red

11:00AM, 31 Aug—26 Sep, Free

RSA Philip Braham: Falling Shadows In Arcadia

12:00PM, 02 Sep—05 Sep, Free

Shapes and Things

12:00PM, 02 Sep—12 Sep, not 6th, 7th, 8th, Free

Two London based artists show new workthat reflects on modern design.

St Margaret’s Ian Reddie: Dirt, Glue, Gluedust

10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

Edinburgh-based artist producing mixed media paintings, screen prints and digital art. In Art’s Complex 3.

Braw Presents: Floored 11:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

Collaborative project from ECA graduates. In Art’s Complex 1.

Perennial Art: A Drawback

12:00PM, 01 Sep—05 Sep, Free

Drawing exhibition by Perennial Art. In Art’s Complex 2.

Peter Mann: Wiz Dark, But No’ A ‘Dark’ Dark

Various times, 10 Sep—26 Sep, Free

11:00AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

The Jazz Bar Dr Sketchy

03:00PM, 05 Sep, £7 (£6)

Glam burlesque drawing class. GO!

Scottish Gallery Victoria Crowe: New Works

10:00AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Venice, the artist’s own garden and the landscape of the Scottish Borders form the main inspirations for this show of new work.

Total Kunst TKX

10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

Triple bill that will rotate over the course of the exhibit, from Katalin Hausel, to Szainer, and finally Mik Godley.

Union Gallery 7 Artists: Edinburgh Soul 10:30AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Collaborative project uniting some of Edinburgh’s finest contemporary talents.

Usher Hall Laura Green: Colony 10:00AM, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Curvaceous sculptural installation. In the Usher Hall Foyer/Cafe Bar.

The Lighthouse Granton Live

11:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

Offsite exhibit relating to three pop-up projects for Granton waterfront. A series of interactive installations form the exhibits within The Lighthouse gallery nearby.

Glasgow CCA

Fields Factories and Workshops

by Simon Yuill

11:00AM, 31 Aug—18 Sep, not 5th, 6th, 12th, 13th, Free

Glasgow based artist shows socially and politically engaged work in various media.

Flying Duck

Rage-fuelled, painful grotesqueries, it would seem.

All The Young Nudes

Yvonne Buskie: The Reader and the Cup

Drawing class with a backdrop of DJ beats and a bar to the side.

11:00AM, 10 Sep—24 Sep, Free

Work inspired by tea-leaf reading and board games.

Stills The Pursuit of Fidelity: A Retrospective 11:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

A journey through the last 20 years of the artists’ practice; moving across and between the mediums. Curated

by Lisa Le Feuvre.

Talbot Rice A Celebration: Craigie Aitchison

10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

An exhibition celebrating the achievements of the painter Craigie Aitchison.

Child: Julie Roberts

10:00AM, 31 Aug—05 Sep, Free

Julie Robert’s contrasts exquisitely painted surfaces and colour schemes against unflinching subject matter.

Tent Gallery Mini

10:00AM, 31 Aug, Free

Miniature and minimal exhibition.

08:00PM, Tue 31st, Tue 7th, Tue 14th, Tue 21st, £4

Former Print Studio Eduardo Paolozzi

Various times, 31 Aug—26 Sep, not 6th, 13th, 20th, Free

Print works by late Scottish artist.

Gal of Mod Art Fiona Tan: Tomorrow

Various times, 31 Aug—26 Sep, Free

Fiona Tan exhibits a two screen video installation that takes a look at youth and identity.

School of Art Robert Barry: Artist Talk 03:00PM, 03 Sep, free

Famous conceptual artist talks about his practice. Contact gallery to book a place.

Sculpture Studio Jimmie Durham: Universal Miniature Golf 12:00PM, 02 Sep—04 Sep, Free

American sculptor, essayist and poet, Jimmie Durham, shows a large-scale sculptural installation of work created during his studio residency.

The biggest Glasgow Boys exhibition in more than 40 years.

Market Gallery Studio Project 22 & 23 11:00AM, 12 Sep—26 Sep, not 13th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, Free

Kari Stewart and Kate V Robertson show new work in adjacent rooms after a one month residency.

Mary Mary Nick Evans: Anti Autonome 12:00PM, 18 Sep—25 Sep, not 19th, 20th, Free

New sculptural work.

The Arches Hole in My Pocket: Second Coming Various times, 10 Sep—26 Sep, Free

Artist duo make work about religion.

Common Guild-21 Wdlnds Ter

Robert Barry: Words and Music 12:00PM, Multiple dates, Free

Conceptual Art pioneer creates a new installation conceived especially for the gallery.

Modern Institute Richard Wright Various times, 04 Sep—25 Sep, not 5th, 12th, 19th, Free

New work by Turner Prize winner.

Touchbase Bus Cen Sensing Outdoors 09:00AM, 31 Aug—03 Sep, Free

Artwork created by Sense Scotland artists as a result of the last five years of the Outdoor programme at Sense Scotland.

Tramway GLORY: Pietro Fortuna 12:00PM, 31 Aug—12 Sep, not 6th, Free

Tramway 2 hosts Italian artist after a one month residency.

Dundee Central Library Rosita McKenzie: Edinburgh People Various times, 31 Aug—04 Sep, Free

Exhibition Edinburgh people, from blind photographer Rosita McKenzie.

Generator Projects Robin Thomson: By the Light of the Moon 12:00PM, 25 Sep—26 Sep, Free

Video artist shows new work following an extended residency

The Cooler GENERATORprojects: Fundraiser 10:00PM, 03 Sep, £3

Join the Generator crew to raise funds for the gallery.

PRIZES!

COMPETITIONS

WEALTH BEYOND MEASURE

WIN MUSIC EQUIPMENT WITH RUBADUB WORTH OVER £1000!

RUBADUB have teamed up with The Skinny to offer you the chance to win a complete Songwriter package: a Rode NT1A Recording Pack, Digidesign MBox 2 Mini audio interface, AKG K44 studio headphones, a Microphone boom stand, M-Audio BX5a monitor loudspeakers, Toontracks EZ Drummer with a whopping four expansion packs, plus ProTools LE recording software. You’ll be able to start recording just like a professional; all you need is some songs!

Over the next few months, in celebration of 18 years of business and the launch of RUBADUB’s forthcoming new website, The Skinny and RUBADUB will be giving away a series of professional, high quality music equipment sets.

Whether you’re taking your first steps as a musician or you consider yourself a bit of a whizz behind the boards, we hope this gives you a leg-up to bigger and better things.

ProTools LE recording software An industry standard, ProTools is the recording software that is used in pretty much every recording studio there is!

Rode NT1A Recording Pack A fantastically put together package from the masters of microphones; Rode. Including the superb NT1A microphone, a pop shield, shock-mount and high quality xlr cable.

Digidesign MBox2 Mini audio interface From the same manufacturers as ProTools, the MBox2 offers quality 2 in 2 out USB audio and Digidesign quality components in an incredibly compact box.

M Audio BX5a Studio Monitors A compact monitor loudspeaker that offers full, rich bass and detailed high tones so, you’ll be able to hear your latest composition in studio quality sound.

Toontracks EZ Drummer A multi-microphone based drum sampler, perfect for recreating the feel and sound of a live drummer in a project studio. With the four expansions packs provided you’ll probably never need to deal with real drummers again!

RUBADUB is an independent music store and distributor based in Glasgow, owned and run by music enthusiasts.

Specialising in all things underground and electronic, RUBADUB have been supplying music equipment, vinyl and CDs to musicians and music lovers alike for the last eighteen years. Whether you’re after the latest slab of vinyl or a full studio setup, the friendly and knowledgeable staff at RUBADUB will be able to help.

Q: In what year were RUBADUB estalished?

CLOSING DATE: TUESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER

VISIT WWW.THESKINNY.CO.UK/TERMSFOR TERMS AND CONDITIONS

WIN SUPRA SNEAKERS AND OTHER GOODIES The Skinny have joined forces with veritable skate emporium Focus to offer readers the chance to win two pairs of Supra sneakers and Focus gift vouchers.

Supra Footwear first appeared on the scene in 2006 and Focus have been there since day one. Four years on and Supra have become one of the hottest brands in streetwear, with the Skytop and Vaider singlehandedly giving footwear design a much needed kick up the backside. With that in mind, we're offering you the chance to win a pair of Vaiders and a pair of Skytops. Find these and other Supra models at our Glasgow and Edinburgh stores or online at www. focuspocus.co.uk. We're also offering a runner's up prize of a £50 Focus gift voucher and a Focus t-shirt, while another runner-up will receive a £30 Focus gift voucher.

Focus opened its doors in 2001 and have been supplying the good people of Edinburgh and Glasgow with the finest streetwear, skateboards and sneakers ever since. From brands such as Stussy, Carhartt, Volcom, Nike SB, Adidas, Supra, Obey, Palace, Blueprint, Girl and Chocolate, Focus have something to please the skateboarder, streetwear aficionado or sneakerhead alike.

Q: Where would you find Focus' Glasgow store?

CLOSING DATE: TUESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER TERMS AND CONDITIONS: VISIT WWW.THESKINNY.CO.UK/COMPETITIONS FOR DETAILS. AUTOMATIC ENTRY TO ALL COMPETITIONS IS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET BY EACH COMPETITION PROVIDER

WIN TICKETS TO THE JACK DANIEL'S BIRTHDAY GIG, "TENNESSEE IS COMING TO TOWN"!

September is Mr Jack’s Birthday and this year the good folk at Jack Daniel’s are bringing Tennessee to Town with a month of fantastic giveaways and an exclusive gig featuring Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley, Ellie Goulding and Tennessee guitar legend Duane Eddy.

In addition to their original material all four will bring the spirit of Tennessee to life when they perform a Jack Daniel’s birthday exclusive of very special collaborations themed around great Americana classics.

The Skinny have teamed up with Jack Daniel’s to give away a pair of tickets to attend this exclusive gig, which takes place at The Clapham Grand in London on 7 October plus a goody bag for the winner! The prize includes accommodation and £100 travel expenses per person.

For more information on the ‘Tennessee Is Coming To Town’ Birthday gig go to www.jacksbirthday.co.uk.

Q: In which US state is the home place of Jack Daniel’s whiskey? · Tennessee · Virginia · Texas

CLOSING DATE: FRI 24 SEPTEMBER TERMS AND CONDITIONS: VISIT WWW.THESKINNY.CO.UK/COMPETITIONS FOR DETAILS. ENTRANTS MUST BE OVER 18. COMPETITION DEADLINE IS FRIDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER. MAKE MR. JACK’S BIRTHDAY A MEMORABLE ONE. PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY. FOR THE FACTS, DRINKAWARE.CO.UK.

SEPTEMBER 2010

THE SKINNY 71