The Skinny July 2012

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Issue 82 July 2012

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SH A DOW F IL M T HE S TAT E OF HOL LY W OOD C OME D Y BOBC AT GOL D T H WA I T ON GOD BL E S S A ME R IC A MUSIC OF F !

P U R I T Y R ING T IN T HE PA R K SHI R L E Y M A NS ON BE N BU T L E R & MOUSE PA D W IC K E R M A N F E S T I VA L : T HE S OL US T E N T

ART FOREST PITCH E DINBU R GH & GL A S GO W D E G R E E SHO W S

T HE AT R E S U R GE

BOOK S UNBOUND 2 0 12 P R O G R A MME C L UB S A MBI VA L E N T SNE A K Y P E T E ’ S 4 T H BI R T HD AY C OME D Y F R INGE C OME D Y A C A D E M Y JE L LY BE A N M A R T INE Z

MUSIC | FILM | CLUBS | THEATRE | TECH | ART | BOOKS | COMEDY | FASHION | TRAVEL | FOOD | DEVIANCE | LISTINGS

somewhereto_ show off is a national competition giving 16-25 year olds the chance to win one of ten once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to perform at a famous, secret somewhereto_ location during the Games in August.

One of the final ten acts will feature in their very own show off film to be directed by BAFTA-winner Adam Deacon in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, home of the 2016 Games.

Whatever your passion, go to somewhereto.com/showoff and upload a 60 second clip of yourself showing off your skills.

"I’m a massive believer in giving young people the chance to show off what they can do because there’s so much undiscovered talent out there. somewhereto_ is helping to solve this problem and I’m really excited to be part of a competition that is supporting young talent around London 2012 and Rio 2016."

- adam deacon

You can even show up and show off in person when we come to a town near you.

Check somewhereto.com/showoff to find out where we’re landing next. It’s that simple.

The closing date for entries is 10 July.

find a space to do the things you love_ visit somewhereto.com for more information somewhereto_ finds free space for young people to do the things they love within arts, culture and sport. somewhereto_ is funded by Legacy Trust UK, creating a lasting impact from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by funding ideas and local talent to inspire creativity across the UK.

CONTENTS

at

The Fringe 2 SHOWS ONLY

THE UNSPEAKABLE

a REGULAR MUSIC & MZA presentation

EDINBURGH QUEEN’S HALL

FRI 3 AUG & SUN 26 AUG

9:45PM

0131 226 0000

In association with WME

2 SOLD OUT RUNS SOHO THEATRE, LONDON (2011/12)

WED 8TH • THU 9TH • FRI 10TH AUGUST

EDINBURGH QUEEN’S HALL PHOTO: TUOMO LAMPINEN

PAUL KELLY Sun 26th August

Lost in the 80s (by The Assembly Rooms)

EDINBURGH Queen’s Hall

P.10 TWIN SHADOW

P.17 BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT

Doors 6pm (show 7pm)

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

A REGULAR MUSIC / TRIPLE G PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH PRIMARY TALENT INTERNATIONAL

W

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RUFUS

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N

H

W I

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B

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IN CONCERT THURS 06 DEC 0141 353 8000

NEW ALBUM OUT OF THE GAME IN STORES NOW

THURS 13 DECEMBER

FRI 14 DECEMBER

0131 228 1155

0844 477 2000

USHER HALL EDINBURGH

O2 ACADEMY GLASGOW

by arrangement with Primary Talent International

PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND

Photography: Steven Sebring

IN CONCERT FRIDAY 12 OCTOBER

GLASGOW WED 5TH SEPT CONCERT HALL 0 ABC GLASGOW 0141 353 8000

Nanci Griffith

EDINBURGH QUEEN’S HALL

MONDAY 30TH JULY

Thu 2nd August Nice & Sleazy Glasgow

CELEBRATE WOODY GUTHRIE’S CENTENARY

FRI 14TH SEPT 02ABC GLASGOW

karine polwart Wed 19 Sept Glasgow Oran Mor

vid Bridie Da (My Friend The Chocolate Cake) & Frank Yamma Sun 15th July

EDINBURGH Rooms Voodoo

plus Orange Claw Hammer

Sunday 29th July

J U LY 2 012 Issue 82, July 2012 © Radge Media Ltd.

EDITORIAL

Get in touch: E: hello@theskinny.co.uk T: 0131 467 4630 P: The Skinny, 3 Coates Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7AA

Editor Music & Online Editor Art Editor Books Editor Clubs Editor Comedy Editor Competitions Editor Deviance Editor DVD Editor Fashion Editor Film Editor Food Editor Heads Up Editor Listings/Cyberzap Editor Performance Editor Tech Editor Travel Editor

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 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.

Printed by Mortons Print Limited, Horncastle ABC verified Jan – Dec 2011: 32,162

EDINBURGH Voodoo Rooms

Production Manager Designer Sub Editor

+ SPECIAL GUEST

DEAN OWENS

WED 18TH JULY

EDINBURGH

EDINBURGH QUEEN’S HALL

Voodoo Rooms

www.ticketmaster.co.uk www.regularmusic.com 0844 844 0444 or in person from Ticket Scotland: Argyle Street Glasgow, Rose St Edinburgh & Ripping Records and all usual outlets

4

THE SKINNY

JULY 2012

Rosamund West Dave Kerr Andrew Cattanach Keir Hind Neil Murchison Bernard O’Leary David McGinty Ana Hine Keir Roper-Caldbeck Alexandra Fiddes Jamie Dunn Peter Simpson Anna Docherty Anna Docherty Gareth K. Vile Alex Cole Paul Mitchell

PRODUCTION

JOHN HIATT Friday 20th July

P.70 GUEST SELECTOR: SHIRLEY MANSON

P.33 UNBOUND

2

In association with Coda Music Agency

BILLY BRAGG & KT TUNSTALL

ILLUSTRATION: DAVID LEMM

GLASGOW CONCERT HALL

printed on 100% recycled paper

Peter Marsden Lewis MacDonald Bram Gieben

SALES/ACCOUNTS Sales Director Marketing Executive Sales Executive Accounts Administrator

Lara Moloney Michaela Hall George Sully Tom McCarthy Solen Collet

Publisher

Sophie Kyle

Contents

FRONT

6: The Skinny’s youngest reader is snapped on holiday with the

magazine, but where? Shot of the Month; Stop the Presses; GKV takes on the controversial debate on Creative Scotland funding changes; Bram Gieben introduces a new column on netlabel music; Jamie Dunn delivers his verdict on this year’s EIFF. 8: Heads up: July’s daily treats include Thistly Fest (a music

festival on a cider farm – a perfect symbiosis) and an all-night

Batman marathon in the Cameo.

FEATURES

10: Our July cover star Twin Shadow comes clean on his nomadic

existence, hating the 80s and the length of time it takes to sculpt that exquisite mane – it’s a hell of a tale.

12: Canadian synth-pop duo and internet sensations Purity Ring tell us

about their thrilling debut album for 4AD. 15: As Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s turns four we have a chat with owner

Nick Stewart about why he’s not worried about Edinburgh’s clubbing scene.

16: An analysis of comedy in Hollywood today, and exactly why Adam

Sandler in a dress is not inherently hilarious.

17: Bobcat Goldthwait (aka Zed out of Police Academy) on new

directorial work God Bless America.

19: He’s taken a bit of a beating in the tabloids for his Cultural

Olympiad artwork Forest Pitch – Craig Coulthard gives us a detailed

rundown of what to expect from the forestry football event, finally

being unveiled in July.

21: Balado bound? Our Muzak hacks advise you who to look out for at

this year’s T in the Park.

24: This year’s Solus Tent at the Wickerman festival is a literal

who’s who of Scottish up-and-comers, featuring United Fruit, Hector

Bizerk and Human Don’t Be Angry.

26: The physical theatre festival Surge returns to Glasgow with an

incredible lineup of homegrown talent.

29: We visited The Stand’s comedy course to get a sneak peek at some

of the emerging talent they’re going to be showcasing on the Fringe.

LIFESTYLE

30: Deviance: A feminist debate on the acceptability of lads’ mags and

some exciting news from the front line of male contraception.

31: Travel: How far can you go with a budget of nothing? Pretty far

if you’re in the Jailbreak challenge (it’s for charity you know). Plus a look at some summer festivals abroad.

41: Fashion: New Glasgow designer David Black looks to the future.

42: Showcase: Our pick of the Glasgow School of Art degree show,

graphic designer Gabriella Marcella Ditano.

44: Food & Drink: Tips on how to have a foodie summer, including

burning meat and impersonating tramps.

REVIEW 46: Music: New releases from Meursault, Doseone and BEAK>, plus the

jaw-dropping live return of perennial NYC cool bas, Nas. 54: Clubs: It’s birthday time for Numbers, Kapital and Bogfoot’s.

Plus- uber-cool label Hyperdub take over the Sub Club.

56: Film: Lovely Molly, Detachment and Dr Seuss’ the Lorax get the

review treatment, plus a roundup of July’s Film Events.

57: DVD: Classic war film The Battle Of Algiers reviewed, plus 21 Jump

Street, Rampart and more.

58: Art: Reviews of Lis Rhodes at Tramway and Infinite Jest in DCA. 59: Tech: Alex Cole brings us the highlights from E3, plus a look at

the new Microsoft tablet device.

Books: New novels by Mario Vargas-Llosa and Ben Lerner, plus poetry by

Ash Dickinson.

60: Theatre: Previews of Bard In The Botanics and Stones In His

Pockets at The Tron, and other upcoming shows.

61: Comedy: Jellybean Martinez celebrates a preview of his comedy show with a

terrifying photo shoot up Calton Hill.

BACK

62: Competitions: This month you could win a membership of the

Pronto Mama + Brazil Exists + The Little Kicks + Lost City Soul

Hector Bizerk + Madhat McGore + Gasp + Becci Wallace & BilL Breaks John Wean + The NK Jays + Seed + Minor Delilah X a v i a + L o s t i n A u d i o + A t l a s : E m p i r e + S e a m s **over 14’s Daniel Docherty + Craig Fagan + Chloe Latimer + Anna Shields**over 14’s Beerjacket & friends play The White Feather Trail & some favourites + Quickbeam + Mike Nisbet

Brown Bear and the Bandits + The Sea Kings + Aaron Wright + Lovers Turn To Monsters

M i d n i g h t

L i o n

+

G a l l e r i e s

+

A a m e s

Holy Esque + Queen Jane + The Mirror Trap + The 10:04s Jack Butler + Selective Service + Mickey 9's + Kobi The Recovery! + Hunt / Gather + Fat Janitor + No Island The Unwinding Hours + Olympic Swimmers + Dead Electric Fires Attract + Scarlet Shift + The Darien Venture + Crusades**over 14’s Randolph's Leap + Jonny Jack + Blue Sky Archives + Bronagh Monahan Darc + The Mouse That Ate The Cat + Johnny And The Giros + TeKlo

GOLDEN TICKET AVAILABLE - ACCESS TO ALL SHOWS

Edinburgh International Festival’s INsider scheme or even get to meet the cast of Sesame Street!

63: Listings: What’s on where and when throughout July, taking in

Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.

70: Guest Selector: Garbage’s Shirley Manson offers her pick of albums

from a few of her favourite female vocalists.

71: Phagomania breaks out of its normal column in the Food section for

an expanded guide to deep fried iPods. Mystic Mark celebrates his

newfound fame as a social networker by predicting a terrible month of

July for all concerned.

June 2012

THE SKINNY

5

CHAT

E d itori a l

This July we lead with an interview with Twin Shadow. He tells us about new album Confess, and shares his strong views on irony, the 80s and hairstyling.

In other Music, we have some words with Purity Ring, who are keen to point out they’re not that similar to Grimes, actually, even though they’re pals and that. We also take a closer look at some of the Scottish festival treats in store this month, with a detailed run down of our music journos’ picks of the Wickerman and T in the Park line ups.

Out the back, our Gest Selector Shirley Manson gives us a run down of ten favourite albums by a slew of the female vocalists who have influenced her over the years.

In Art, there is a definite sense of ennui surrounding reviews of this year’s Glasgow and Edinburgh degree shows, which seems to reflect the general reception of the graduate exhibitions across the country. Was it a mediocre year or are we all just jaded? Sometimes it’s too close to call. We also took the time to speak to Craig Coulthard, who received half a million pounds to create a football pitch in the Borders as part of the Cultural Olympiad, an artistic associate of the London Olympics. He’s already received the ultimate accolade of being demonised in the tabloids. We thought it was time to find out what the work really intends to do.

Clubs celebrates Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s as it reaches its fourth birthday. Film casts a scathing eye over the comedic offerings of mainstream Hollywood, while offering an alternative source of dark humour with an interview with Bobcat

Goldthwait on the subject of new movie God Bless America.

Once again our July issue offers the exclusive release of the programme for the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Unbound strand, the series of free late night events that run every night of the Festival in the Spiegeltent in Charlotte Square. Our centre eight pages include full listings as well as added insight in the form of interviews with some of the star acts, all in a beautifully designed and illustrated Newtro teal dream.

[Rosamund West]

THIS MONTH’S COVER Tuomo Lampinen is a Helsinki based photographer who has worked within the graphic sector since 1998.

He basically saved our bacon this month with this excellent shoot in his home town.

More of his photography can be seen here: www.tuomolampinen.com

SHOT OF THE MONTH

Ital @ 100% Silk Showcase, Nice N’ Sleazy, 7 June

By Gemma Burke for more original photography go to www.Theskinny.co.uk

6

THE SKINNY

July 2012

BiZarre Events, the sex party hosts specialising in super-inclusive kink, are back for Pissor on 13 July. At a secret location in London's SE5 this watersports event is members only... but all you piss fetishists need not worry, you can sign up to become a member at bizarre-events.com.

The student gays of Stirling Uni will be descending on Glasgow on 14 July for this year’s Pride. If you’re coming to the small Scottish town this September then join them at their casual gathering and check out the talent before you even enrol. The X-Factor’s Joe McElderry and the Cheeky Girls are headlining! Admit it – that could be worth a laugh. facebook.com/stirling.lgbt After Conversations With Carmel (picked as one of the Guardian’s Best Dance Events of 2011), Barrowland Ballet continue their work with older dancers in Dancing Voices, a large-scale performance designed to challenge our preconceptions of age and the ‘elderly’, and the company’s most ambitious work to date including 150 dancers over the age of fifty. Sun 29 Jul, the Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 3pm. Part of the Merchant City Festival Over the seven decades since the Olympic Games last came to the UK, society has gone through extensive political, digital and social revolutions. Working closely with a team of dancers and performers aged fifty and over, Barrowland Ballet director Natasha Gilmore has created a series of interlinked dance pieces, reflecting the shifts and social changes underpinning each decade.

A truly eclectic Glasgow soundclash, featuring an eclectic showbill of electronica, punk, dark Ayrshire hip-hop and upbeat techno-folk. Hordes Of Unstoppable Skeletons, The Girobabies and Roscoe Vacant & the Gantin' Screichs will be bringing their unique and distinct styles of celebratory sonic and verbal attack while Black Lantern's Texture showcases tracks from his new dark hip-hop album Neuroleptica.

20 Jul, The Art School, Glasgow, 8pm - 12am.

Tickets £5. Info: http://www.facebook.com/ events/383308535058559/ The EIF INsider scheme is going strong – to get involved and bag discounts on tickets at the Edinburgh International Festival, backstage access and invites to other exclusive events sign up at http://www.eif.co.uk/INsider. Members receive 50% off the ticket price for selected performances, as well as invitations to exclusive parties, dress rehearsals and backstage tours.

Barrowland Ballet

SKINNY ON TOUR

Kids these days, with their hula hoops and their culture magazines, you just can’t get their noses out of the blasted things! This young fella is engrossed in his Skinny, but where is he?

Enter your guess www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions and you might win a bottle of wine courtesy of our expert friends at VINO WINES. Closing date: Tue 31 July

Winners will be notified on the day of closing and will be required to respond within one week or the prize will be offered to another entrant. For full terms and conditions, go to www.theskinny.co.uk/ terms and www.drinkaware.co.uk for the facts.

Going somewhere nice this Summer? Why not take a copy of The Skinny and perhaps you can be in next month’s Skinny on Tour. Submit your entries to competitions@theskinny.co.uk

C HAT

Critical Roles

Supportive Funding: Implications of Creative Scotland’s funding adjustments Gareth K Vile Even before the current argument about Creative Scotland’s approach to supporting the arts and communicating with artists, state funding of theatre was problematic. Whispered conversations in Green Rooms and auditoriums questioning the validity of Creative Scotland have been happening for years: it is the announcement of a change in procedure that has brought the discussion into a more public arena.

As pointed out by David Greig – one of Scotland’s finest playwrights – and acknowledged

by Creative Scotland themselves in a recent apology – it isn’t the structure of the funding that is the main concern, although it is an issue.

The failure to engage the artistic community in the reforms, precipitating a panic for companies currently receiving flexible funding, questions the relationship between funding body and creative community.

Aside from the perceived threat to established companies, there is the worry that Creative Scotland is setting itself up as the final arbiter of Scottish arts. This is not a new concern. State funding always implies a degree of state control and even a country with a strong tradition of political performance could be undermined by the need to conform to state-imposed funding regulations.

In the years of the Labour Government, the arts were relatively well supported: some political theatre became fascinated by questions of national identity, which matched the atmosphere of a devolved Scotland. But tough questions about the rise of multi-national corporations or the pervasive influence of free market philosophies could be side-stepped. When the work is state supported, it’s not unfair to wonder how far this suited the government.

Of course, many theatre makers did address these concerns – Greig himself wrote a superb ‘sequel’ to Macbeth that thoughtfully considered the relationship between Scotland and England, as well as having an active interest in the political tensions of the Middle East; Kieran Hurley’s Hitch visited the G8 summit, and Gary McNair took a close look at the power fantasies of money. But reliance on state funding is an uneasy compromise between the artistic vision and the necessities of political economics.

In the current economic climate, a new approach to funding was inevitable. Andrew Dixon, Creative Scotland’s CEO, has admitted that the announcement back in May, which sketched out the future of grants in Scotland, was ill-timed.

Reel Talk

EIFFing good festival Jamie Dunn I’m sitting in the Filmhouse bar in Edinburgh and I feel enveloped in a kind of cinephilic bonhomie. Two swishy haired hipsters to my right are practically vibrating with excitement as they clutch their tickets for Kotoko, the new film from Japanese cyber-punk maestro Shinya Tsukamoto.

At an adjacent table a trio of filmmakers are arguing about a movie I don’t think I’ve seen yet – something about human trafficking, I think.

One of them loves it, another hates it, and one of them is flirting outrageously with the one in the pro camp and so sides with him. Behind me a sweet middle-aged couple are tucking into a late supper and discussing Mark Cousins’ penis, which I presume they just witnessed on screen at the world premiere of his indulgent, playful, open hearted and charming new feature What Is This Film Called Love?

A couple of hours later I chat to an EIFF programmer who’s delighted that a film she selected has just gone down well at its first public screening; all the staff at this year’s festival have

It was criticised for encouraging a competitive mentality and suggesting a shift from long term support to an event-by-event application process.

Although the message was not entirely clear, it provoked an angry response.

Yet the mistake has been positive. Not only did it bring the debate into the wider discussion about the economy, it threw up questions about the way that theatre is made, who it is made for, and how it ought to be supported.

Devoted and Disgruntled, who have been talking about these issues for years, have arranged an event at the Lyceum (see website for details): what was once a minority interest might now have a larger, more receptive audience. And while there is no ultimate solution to funding that will please all the parties, the debate is valuable in itself, feeding into the sort of drama that is created and setting up dialogues between artists and audiences.

On a simple level, the theatre community is fortunate to have any state funding: bands don’t tend to get grants to follow their muse (unless, like FOUND, they can connect to visual arts).

There are the grand shows, mostly musicals, that are commercially viable, and the spectaculars that have emerged from the Vital Sparks commissions, which sell out quickly. The emphasis on financial return – again implied in the May announcement – seems to fit in with the Darwinian ethos of modern economics, and is hard to reject in a predominantly consumerist society.

But this is not enough. Those awkward shows, attended by the enthusiast or fellow theatre makers, that mess around with the form of theatre; the left-wing festival that is as interested in the post-show row as the on-stage business; the highly personal monologue, the half hour of Live Art Mayhem, the self-financed comedy at Cottiers: all of these contribute to the climate that allows the big shows to evolve and thrive, and develop the techniques that make popular, accessible theatre that can make money. The strong DIY ethic, notably endorsed by Buzzcut or at Arches Live! are crucial to the growth of Scotland’s culture, and funding is pretty much irrelevant at this level.

The first principle of the Jesuit Spiritual Exercises is to find the best possible meaning of any statement, and for Creative Scotland’s statement, the best meaning is that they hope to stimulate debate. Regardless of the problems of state funding, the failures of the system and the lack of trust between artist and funder, the discussion is happening – and it has inspired fine critical writing of the twenty-first century, aligned critics alongside artists and opened up a dialogue that can include those artists working on the margins, as their strategies for survival will become all the more vital. www.devotedanddisgruntled.com/about

The Rise of Netaudio

Netlabels and free music versus the traditional industry – the debate rages on. But if you’re looking for good net-based releases, where do you start?

Bram E. Gieben Across the fields of traditional publishing media, a debate is raging, and its most hotly contested battleground is music. On one side, the old guard – those involved in the entrenched power structures of traditional labels. On the other side, the rising tide of musicians who release their work independently, either through platforms such as Bandcamp and Soundcloud, or through their own boutique netlabels.

So what is the value of a netlabel, or a music career run entirely through social media and websites? Does sidestepping the traditional industry offer artists more creative freedom, or merely a life of being underpaid and exploited? 2011 saw Death Grips release an incredibly popular debut album for free via their Third Worlds site. Subseqeuntly they signed to Epic Records; part of their deal involved Epic making their album The Money Store available as a torrent. Interviewed this issue, Ben Butler & Mousepad sells some of his music via Bandcamp, some via labels; meanwhile Canada’s Purity Ring have gone from blog-hyped independent artists to 4AD signings in less than a year.

Boutique labels run online, via sites like Bandcamp and BigCartel, are successfully selling both physical and digital downloads – Phantasma Disques and Clan Destine Records have made a name for themselves releasing short runs of deluxe vinyl, tapes and other specialist formats, by artists like Mater Suspiria Vision, Ela Orleans and I††. California’s Tundra Dubs recently had their albums listed for sale on music site Boomkat, further blurring the line between traditional

and net-based labels. Other labels such as Aural Sects (and, incidentally, my own – Black Lantern Music) release both physical albums and digital, some being offered for free, and others for a small fee. The money tends to go straight to the artist.

There is anxiety attached to the netlabel model – it is hard for artists to make serious money unless their music is virally embraced by the online community, and even then, making a profit is still difficult. Mainstream press often have a policy of not reviewing free releases, even though they now account for a huge proportion of the music being made worldwide. A netlabel release carries no guarantee of quality, but netlabels are beginning to function less like traditional labels, and more like magazines or blogs; curating the work of bedroom producers and bands, becoming trusted brands.

So if you’ve not really dipped your toe into the world of netmusic, where should you start? First of all, Soundcloud is the main place where independent artists showcase their new work. Create an account and search for your favourite music by genre – you’ll find more established artists on there, whose work will lead you to the up-and-comers.

Secondly, check out local bands you may have seen in support slots or at smaller gigs – you’ll find many of them, like Glasgow’s spectacular CUR$ES, offer their music for free on Bandcamp.

Check out US site Free Music Archive for a wealth of independent and established artists’ work.

Finally, check The Skinny next month, where I’ll be starting a new online column running through some of the best netlabel music available. You’ll find that beyond the scenes covered in traditional media, there are a wealth of microgenres and miniscenes, and of course artists in a category all their own, just waiting to be discovered. Good hunting!

Bram co-runs the netlabel Black Lantern Music.

He reviews music for The Skinny and Shallow Rave. www.blacklanternmusic.com

Death Grips: walking their own path

smiles on their faces, in fact. If I’d had a similar night observing Filmhouse last year I’d have found about as much love and goodwill as there is in the average Richard Littlejohn column.

It’s tempting to heap the praise for this turnaround on to incumbent artistic director Chris Fujiwara. The festival team is pretty much unchanged from last year, but under his cineliterate guidance the curation feels confident – everyone seems like they’re pulling in the same direction.

Praise should also go to the paying public. I’ve not heard any official word on box-office figures yet, but judging from the public screenings I’ve attended there’s an adventurous audience in Edinburgh willing to shell out £9 a ticket on hard sells like late night screenings of punky satires from the Philippines, documentaries on coal mining from China and a retrospective of a Japanese filmmaker (Shinji Somai) who’s even less well known in the UK than the contestants from Big Brother 4.

There’s still room for improvement (for example: the once great Night Moves strand was pretty shoddy this year – Irish creature feature Grabbers being the exception), but I’m happy to report that EIFF looks to be off the ropes and finding its feet.

kotoko

July 2012

THE SKINNY

7

HEADS UP

TUE 3 Jul

WED 4 Jul

We start the month in suitably gory style, as the GFT dig out George Romero's flesh-eating zombie fest, Dawn of the Dead, for a Tuesday night airing – as you do. They then screen its equally-gory sequel, Day of the Dead two Tuesdays later (17 Jul, 6.30pm), officially making Tuesday the new Watch A Zombie Film day. Amen. GFT, Glasgow, 5.45pm, £7 (£5.50)

Set in the creative hub of WASPS Dundee, brand new jewellery studios Vanilla Ink open their doors for the evening with a selection of work from DJCAD's recent jewellery graduates, which they've been creating on-site over the past month. Join 'em for a glass of wine, cake, and a nosey at the lovely new studio spaces. Vanilla Ink, Dundee, 6.30pm, Free

sat 7 jul

sun 8 jul

mon 9 jul

Highlife and Optimo join forces for a celebration of one of their favourite record labels, Comeme, kicking off with an all-day party at Mono – where label boss Matias Aguayo will headline – before relocating to La Cheetah for the after-bash, where Comeme releasee Christian S, and Highlife's own Auntie Flo will join 'em. See listings for full details

The comedy gold that is the Found Footage Festival makes its way to Scotland for the first time, with hosts Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher cherrypicking found VHS gems of the obscure and reliably hilarious variety – having been painstakingly unearthed in thrift shops and garage sales throughout North America. Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow, 8pm, £10

New York performance artist Markus Makavellian (he of the glittery make-up and every-colour wigs) hosts a special Good Housekeeping Day edition of The Love Club, for which the foyer will come to life with a selection of local craft sellers, alongside the usual dose of tea, cake, music, spoken word, and knitting. The Arches, Glasgow, 7pm, £4 donation

HE A D S UP This month starts with zombies and ends with Morrissey. There's no correlation there, other than to say it's a damn good month...

COMPILED BY: ANNA DOCHERTY

Matias Aguayo

Sat 14 Jul

Sun 15 Jul

King Tut's Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July, see listings for full programme) continues with Glasgow-based alternative hip-hop duo Hector Bizerk taking centre stage (in their own words: DRUMS. RAP. YES), alongside support from Edinburgh MC Madhat McGore, and the seven foot beatboxer behemoth that is Bigg Taj. King Tut's, Glasgow, 8pm, £6

Slabs of the Tabernacle bring the fun as they host what will be their fifth Slabs Summer Party, with Norwegian mixmaster DJ VLR on decks with an all-encompassing set of underground electronica handpicked from the past three decades. Minibuses will be on hand to ferry folk from the city centre to the venue. The Big Joint, Glasgow, 11pm, £5

Lining up a rather fine Sunday‘s-worth of extraterrestrial viewing, the Filmhouse dust off a 70mm print of Ridley Scott's Alien – featuring Sigourney Weaver in full alien-fighting, gun-totin' glory as Ellen Ripley. And, just for good measure, they'll also screen its sequel, Aliens, straight after. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, 5.30pm/8.20pm, £7.50 (£5.50) each

Photo: Nick Milligan

Fri 13 Jul

Game over, man

Fri 20 Jul

Sat 21 Jul

Cameo don their bat capes for a Batman all-nighter, where they'll commence with a late night double billing of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, followed by an early doors screening of The Dark Night Rises the following morning at 6am. Book for all three and they'll throw in breakfast (as in, we're there). Cameo, Edinburgh, 11.30pm, £12 (£10) double bill/£6 (£4.50) 6am screening of The Dark Night Rises

Any of you lucky enough to have secured tickets for Away Game – allocated via 'email lottery' back at the beginning of the year – are in for a treat, as Fence Records plonk a selection of their number (and pals) on the Isle of Eigg for a musical weekender like no other. As per, the line-up is being kept hush-hush, but suffice to say there'll be a familiar face or two. Isle of Eigg, 20-22 Jul, £sold out

Those literal saviours of abandoned 16mm film, the Screen Banditas, surface again for one of their once-in-a-not-very-often screenings. Titled Ritualised Freuqencies, it'll comprise a curated selection of archival anthropological films with specially composed live soundtracks from Tattie Toes and William Bennett.

BYOB. Church of the Scared Heart, Edinburgh, 7pm, £7

Thu 26 Jul

fri 27 jul

As part of Merchant City Festival's diverse programme, the vegan gigger's haven that is Glasgow's Mono host a sprawling four-day event – The Big Mono Happening – for which they've invited proposals from bands, video artists, and performers alike, who'll then fill the space with cross-arts collaborations of many and varied turns. Mono, Glasgow, 26-29 Jul, Free

Foals' Edwin Congreave and Friendly Fires' Jack Savidge bring their new collaborative club night Glasgow-way, after premiering it in London in February. Laying their musical emphasis on deep and intense party music, they'll blend all types of house and techno into one danceable mix. Going by the name of Deep Shit. Obviously. The Arches, Glasgow, 11pm, Free (£5 after midnight)

Neu! Reekie! Records - Jesus, Baby

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THE SKINNY

July 2012

Photo: JOHN LEWIS

Australia’s tactical media art group, pvi collective, take to the streets with their unique site-based intervention, Deviator.

Blending altered versions of children's games with subtle live performance, a pre-downloaded app will lead participants through an interactive session via hidden instructions. The Arches (meeting point), Glasgow, 23-29 Jul, various times and prices (see listings). Part of Surge 2012

Photo: Ryan McGoverne

wed 25 Jul

Photo: Jemma Ridley

King C Might be there

Photo: takeshi suga

Thu 19 Jul

HEADS UP

fri 6 jul

The reliably offbeat pairing of Lucy Deacon and Moritz Linkmann (aka Strange Bird Zirkus circus company) combine their trademark contemporary circus tricks and knack for theatrical narrative in Ornithology; an absurd comedy that takes in acrobatic stunts, Chinese pole, and ill-fated gardening as it goes. That do ye? The Arches, Glasgow, 7.30pm £8 (£6)

A biggie on the Scottish summer (we use that term loosely) calendar, T in the Park returns for its 19th year, where the likes of Snow Patrol, New Order, and The Stone Roses jostle alongside a healthy dose of local favourites – amongst them Django Django, We Were Promised Jetpacks, and the whole o' the T-Break stage. Balado, Kinross, 6-8 Jul, £179 (weekend) Photo: Sam Brill

thu 5 jul

tue 10 jul

wed 11 jul

Paying tribute to the late Nick Drake, Kent singer/ songwriter, guitar-playing supremo, and analogue tinkerer Keith James brings his acoustic tribute concert, The Songs of Nick Drake, to Glasgow's GFT, where his live set will be preceded by a documentary about Drake’s life and music. GFT, Glasgow, 8pm, £10

Despite constant bothering of our caps lock key, we are more than a little fond of tUnE-yArDs (aka Merrill Garbus) and her charming brand of lo-fi pop, inventively bursting with distorted ukulele, horns, bass, drums, and whisper-to-a-scat-rap vocals. Definitely one to seek out in a live setting... Òran Mór, Glasgow, 7pm, £12.50

Thu 12 Jul

Photo: Tom Manley

Photo: takeshi suga

A selection of the Wu-Tang Clan mainstays take to the road as Wu Legends, for what will essentially be a mighty bill of, well, Wu legends, boasting yer men Method Man, Ghostface Killah, GZA, and Raekwon, likely playing all the hits your ears want to hear... and then some. O2 ABC, Glasgow, 7pm, £24

Stephen Carlin

Tue 17 Jul

Wed 18 Jul

Brightening our Tuesday nights in his own beardy way, Kilmarnock's hairy disco legend, David Barbarossa, digs out a selection of eclectic vinyl gems for his regular midweek party starter – Wild Combination – down at Nice 'n' Sleazy's. And best of all? Everyone goes free!

Nice 'n' Sleazy, Glasgow, 11.30pm, Free

Glaswegian jubilant pop meisters par excellence, Mitchell Museum, return for their first headline hometown gig since they called time on their hiatus period. It'd be rude not to go welcome 'em back, especially with stellar support coming from new Fence signee Jo Schornikow (of The Shivers). Captain's Rest, Glasgow, 8pm, £5 advance

Photo: Markus Thorsen

So, yes, Fringe season is most definitely nigh, with The Stand hosting a series of comedian double bill previews over the course of the month (Edinburgh: 15, 24 and 29 Jul), which even sees Glasgow get a look in tonight, with Carey Marx and Stephen Carlin previewing the shows they'll debut in Edinburgh come August.

The Stand, Glasgow, 8.30pm, £8 (£7)

Photo: www.ashleypenny.co.uk

Mon 16 Jul

Sun 22 Jul

Mon 23 Jul

Tue 24 Jul

NYC dream-pop duo School of Seven Bells (aka Benjamin Curtis and Alejandra de la Deheza) take their newest album, Ghostory, on the road proper, an otherworldy set of tunes glazed with complex harmonies and effects-sodden chords likely to radiate in a live setting in suitably dreamy ways, more‘s the joy. Stereo, Glasgow, 7pm, £10

As King Tut's Summer Nights schedule draws to an end, for their fourth last night they welcome the Aerogrammeformed duo of singer Craig B and guitarist Iain Cook, aka The Unwinding Hours, with support from Olympic Swimmer, and Dead Electric. The next three nights then see Fires Attract, Randolph's Leap, and DARC headline.

King Tut's, Glasgow, 8.30pm, £6

Joe Acheson and his Edinburgh-based outfit, Hidden Orchestra enliven the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival with their duelling acoustic and digital percussion, piano, violin, bass and samples, joining forces with cinematic jazz composer and producer Floex for an evening of genredefying musical merrymaking. Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 8pm, £12.50

Those two happiest of bedfellows – music and cider – combine for Thistly Cross's inagural one-day festival outing, Thistly Fest, where Belhaven Fruit Farm's shed will become home to a hefty-load of Skinny faves in the form of Meursault, Woodenbox, Remember Remember, FOUND, and Bwani Junction. And cider. Loadsae lovely cider.

Belhaven Fruit Farm, Dunbar, £20 earlybird

Woodenbox

sun 29 jul

mon 30 jul

Dingying his right hand man for the evening, Optimo's JD Twitch goes it alone for the duo‘s monthly Optimo Presents night at Sub Club, hosting a Jamaican Soundsystem edition, where he'll basically play all kinds of Jamaican music – from dub to dancehall. ska to sleng-teng – accompanied by a bank of Sonic FX and dub delays. Sub Club, Glasgow, 11pm, £7 (£6)

With all rumours of a Smiths reunion being staunchly denied, a chance to see Morrissey with his current band of choice is the best you're likely to get. So, yes, here's your chance to see Morrissey with his current band, playing one of only two UK dates for 2012 before spoiling America with a 30-odd date tour come October. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 7pm, £32.50

Photo: Kenny mccoll

sat 28 jul

Photo: Robbie Dickson

Nick Drake

July 2012

THE SKINNY

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FEATURES

10 THE SKINNY

July 2012

FEATURES

As he gets prepared to unleash one of the albums of the year, George Lewis Jr., aka Twin Shadow, outlines his musical manifesto Interview: Finbarr Bermingham

George Lewis Jr. is a serious man. “I don’t do irony,” he says, setting the tone early on. “I don’t really believe in it.” As the conversation unfolds, it’s clear there are some subjects to be treated soberly. There’s his music, of course, and by extension, his fashion. “Unless I’m going to really psychoanalyse myself and ask why I dress and why I wear clothes as a human being, I’m pretty sure they come from the same place.”

So when he tells The Skinny that it once took him four hours to do his hair, it’s fairly clear he isn’t joking. How long does it take him to get dressed in the morning? “It depends,” he says, deadpan.

“Sometimes I’ll get nerves and I’ll know that some beautiful girl’s going to be at the show and it’ll take me an extra hour or something. But it really depends on my mood.” But boy, does it show. Lewis is a spectacular looking man. He’s tall, elegant and infuriatingly handsome. His dress sense draws a dandy line between Prince and the Cat from Red Dwarf. He looks, walks and talks like the epitome of cool. Seriously cool. Serious, and cool.

“I hear it’s pretty shitty over there at the minute,” he says, semi-sympathetically from his sunny Madrid base, as he receives a report on the climate malaise enveloping the British summer. “That’s too bad. I hope that it’s good for my show, and then gets bad for the Olympics.” He’s in Spain to kick off the European leg of his tour. His second album under the Twin Shadow moniker, Confess, is set to hit the shops in mid-July, right about the time Lewis rolls into town. He’s excited to bring his new songs to the stage and if his forthcoming dates are half as exciting as his latest record, we’re in for a treat.

“This is the Wild West of the world!” he says, when asked what we can hope to expect. “You can do whatever you want!”

Lewis’s disdain for irony extends to his lyrics, which, he says, are always unflinchingly honest.

Yet, it was left to a friend to dream up the title of the album. “When he said Confess,” explains Lewis, “it made sense, because it seemed like a culmination of what all the lyrics seemed to be about – kind of letting out an honesty. It’s challenging to tell the truth and to say what you want.” The music on Confess, too, is more direct than what we’re used to hearing from Twin Shadow. Building on the synth-based platform of debut Forget, the record maintains the elements of funk and soul, but is rockier enough to recall – sometimes even simultaneously – TV on the Radio and Bruce Springsteen. It’s ironic, given that the record was partly inspired by a move away from New York City to the glistening surrounds of Los Angeles, a place that allows Lewis to indulge in his newest preoccupation: riding his motorcycle all day long.

“It only rains about once a year,” he explains. “It’s perfect.”

Whereas the first record earned Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear a production credit (although George is adamant that his input was mainly to tweak a near-finished product), this one is Lewis’ baby, from start to finish. “It was certainly exhausting,” he says of the effort required. “But I’ve found that I prefer to be responsible for everything. I like to feel at the end of the day that everything is up to me and I don’t have to depend on anyone else. That’s very important to me.”

Indeed, this need for control is what led to the inception of the Twin Shadow project a few years back when Lewis was living between Berlin and Copenhagen, working for a theatre company. He’d spent his formative years playing in punk bands – a fact that’s hard to to come to terms with, given his standard getup, and one that raises a wry chuckle even from the man himself. “Yeah, that was me,” says he. “It’s hard to believe in bands anymore, because we’re very different people nowadays. We spend a lot more time alone – everyone’s on his or her computers and things like that. It just made sense, in a way, to create music alone. It’s a cultural thing which is happening; which has happened.”

If there’s one consistency to have bridged both records, then it’s the manner in which they’ve been received: with universal praise. Where Forget helped give Lewis the independence, freedom and wherewithal to do as he pleased, Confess looks set to bring him to a much wider audience.

You will struggle, however, to find a single review that doesn’t mention the 1980s, either implicitly or via an obscure, sepia-tinged cultural reference. It almost certainly initially stems from Twin Shadow’s sonic template: drum machine, synthesiser, and Morrissey-esque vocals.

Yet, there are many things about George Lewis Jr. ‘The Package’ that reinforces the aesthetic.

There’s the enormous, immaculately sculpted hair; the pornstar moustache; the image of him speeding down the Californian freeway atop a Harley Davidson in a tight leather jacket and, of course, the front cover of his new album, with his mug beaming back at you, kitted out like an extra from the Rockers. While Lewis insists he’s keen to distance himself from the comparison, in reality, he seems to be doing everything he can to perpetuate it.

“Yeah,” comes his resigned response. “This thing comes up a lot. It’s usually the people who I really feel understand the music a lot that never once mention the 80s. They only take it in as songs and listen to the lyrics first and not the production.

The production is just atmosphere – it doesn’t matter. It’s like asking what kind of camera you shot a beautiful scene on. Unfortunately a lot of intelligent people love to hate something because of a description that somebody they admire has written. So I hate to lose these people before they even try it [the music] out, because of people saying ‘it’s 80s this; 80s that.’ The truth is, I don’t even like the 80s… I couldn’t give a fuck about the 80s!”

It is, indeed, unlikely that Lewis remembers much about the 1980s. He was born in 1983 in the Dominican Republic, but left as a child after his mother was mugged at a service station. His parents have since returned to Hispaniola and his homeland has assumed more prominence in Lewis’s life. “There’s a thing about Latin blood,” he says, thoughtfully. “I truly believe there’s a spiritual connection to your homeland that’s unavoidable.

When I go there, I feel like I’ve returned home.

Photos: tuomo lampinen

The people are so kind and very different from Americans. They’re real salt of the earth people.”

For many in the UK, the Dominican Republic represents a cheap Caribbean getaway: a land of white sands and turquoise coral. For the locals, however, the reality is much harsher – 10 per cent of the population live on less than $2 per day.

Lewis, though, is a realist. “I don’t diss the resorts at all. It’s a tough country; a very poor, poor place.

But the resorts are just as important to that country as the shitty parts. That’s how a lot of people there make a living.”

It’s hard to believe in bands anymore. We’re very different people nowadays; we spend a lot more time alone George Lewis Jr.

Upon leaving the Caribbean, Lewis’s family rocked up in Venice, Florida – a place he recalls in less glowing terms. I put it to him that Florida is like LA: a sunny getaway; a Tropicana of palm trees, patrolled by scantily-clad rollerbladers and perfect for riding his motorcycle. “No,” comes his curt reply. “It’s a strange place. It’s just like the South, but it’s more like the South than the South. When people think of the South, they think of ignorance, but at least it has culture and a lot of character.

Florida has some character, but it’s just a bunch of ignorant people and lots of old people, lots of shopping malls and lots of alligators, just behind the shopping malls.”

Lewis goes on to describe the Sunshine State (to give it its euphemistic nickname) as “uninspiring” and “devoid of good music.” His memories, far from being filled with sunshine, are dreary and depressing. The KKK, for instance, once confronted him at a party at which he was playing guitar. He never goes back, despite the “load of friends who love to get married and call me up for their weddings.” Yet, it was in the jam bars of Florida that he took his steps into music and as unlikely as it may have seemed to him at the time, his first record, Forget, turned out to be an ode to his childhood home. “There’s no such thing as Florida music,” says Lewis, “but if there was, I think my music would be it. It’s music for people who understand how strange Florida is. When I listen to Forget now, I picture everything about the place. If you listen to that record in Florida, you’ll know what I mean.”

His adult years have been nomadic. At various points, he’s been “settled” in Boston, Europe, New York and now, of course, Los Angeles. “Nobody knows I live in LA,” he says, somewhat cryptically. “My friends all think I still live in New York, so it’s kind of a secret that I live in Los Angeles.” It’s the fear of boredom that keeps Lewis on the move: when somewhere stops interesting him, he simply packs up his stuff and heads for pastures new. So does he view himself as some sort of wandering minstrel; collating a scrapbook of stories and music from wherever he lays his hat?

“Well, I really believe in storytelling through songs,” he says. “Even in the 80s, they had amazing songwriters who were writing songs similarly to the Beatles or Harry Nilsson. They had that type of songwriting, but production that was of the time period – the drum machines and synths. I’m from the same songwriting schools as those people. I really believe in the complete song: not just a mood song, or a song that’s just about the beat or some repeated hook.

“I believe in storytelling and that’s something that isn’t done a lot these days. People think of it as being old school, but it isn’t: it’s something that will continue forever and ever. Storytelling will never change, but its popularity wanes and comes back again. I’m going to keep doing it until it becomes popular again and then they’ll say: ‘You know what? I guess he wasn’t so 80s after all.’”

Confess is released on 9 jul via 4ad twinshadow.net

July 2012

THE SKINNY 11

FEATURES

music

Future Pop Fables On their debut album Shrines, Canadian duo Purity Ring showcase their subversive take on pop, with sticky-sweet, dark-aspitch lyrics and forward-looking electronic beats

Purity Ring’s Ungirthed became a viral sensation when it burst onto the collective consciousness in January last year via the band’s Tumblr page, with the brief announcement: ‘We are birthed.’ Immediately snapped up by the ravening blogger hordes, the track did the rounds from Pitchfork to the Guardian, eliciting fevered responses from critics hailing the band’s sound as ‘future pop.’

Formed in Edmonton, Alberta, the band combine the highly polished, hip-hop and R&B-influenced production of Corin Roddick with the exquisite voice and deliciously dark lyrics of Megan James.

On first listen, the band are all sheen – stop-start beats constructed from shimmering, sidechained synth lines and pitch-bent vocal samples, with James delivering her lyrics in a bright, childlike voice. Listen closer, and James’ songs reveal a sinister, phantasmagoric world; a fairytale landscape where mutilation, dismemberment and a recurring, archetypal grandmother figure tell strange, subversive stories.

“I’m writing my own fairytales,” Megan confirms. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of that; the feeling that there is a world within [the lyrics].

All the characters and symbols which I speak of are representative of something.” Was this a conscious choice, to allude to the archetypes and psychological darkness inherent in the old tales?

“I don’t intentionally make it that way – it’s not like I say to myself ‘I’m writing a fairytale.’ But it’s the same sort of format, I think.”

Megan is an incredibly good storyteller – tracks like Belispeak contain powerful narratives and complex characters – but she is modest about her abilities. “You may think that I’m a good storyteller, but if I were to tell a story publicly, straight from my head, it wouldn’t go very well.”

She laughs nervously. “I’ve thought recently about perhaps publishing some poetry, or doing zines... I have issues with that being egotistical.”

Her lyrics are confessional in an oblique, abstract way, with an emotional intensity that is rarely found in commercial pop. “I usually don’t write them with the intention of having them be given away in the way that they are right now,” she explains. “They are all from my journals. I mean, I’m happy to share what I’m saying, and I feel like all of it is cryptic enough that it feels comfortable for me to put it to music.

It’s an interesting process, mentally, for me, to understand what is going on in my lyrics. They are very personal.”

The band are inspired by modern pop music, unlike many others in the vibrant neo-synth movement who fetishise the early synth pioneers.

“There have actually been some cool things happening in pop music in the past couple of years,” says Corin. “The music we make is a very natural channelling of all of the things that we like.” They didn’t set out to subvert pop: “We didn’t expect it to turn into what it has,” insists Megan.

The band formed while Corin was drumming for Edmonton electronic band Gobble Gobble (now known as Born Gold). While touring, he began to tinker with his own productions, and was surprised to rediscover his early love of hip-hop and R&B: “I wasn’t even listening to that much of it at the time. But as I was finishing a few tracks, I noticed that the hip-hop vibe in the drums was really starting to develop. I used to listen to a lot of that kind of music when I was maybe twelve or thirteen, but I didn’t really realise that this style of drumming had really stuck with me. Once I realised that, I started going back and listening to more hip-hop and R&B, and being re-inspired.”

“I’ve never really been a piano player – I’ve always been a drummer,” Corin continues. The

12 THE SKINNY

July 2012

Photo: Sebastian Mlynarski

Interview: Bram E. Gieben

I’m writing my own fairytales Megan James

prospect of playing live on keyboards didn’t appeal, so he decided to get creative: “For our live show, we built this instrument... It’s like a series of lanterns, which are arranged spread out around me. It kind of works a little like a xylophone. You hit each lantern with a mallet, it connects to a synthesiser and triggers certain notes or melodies for those songs. The lanterns also respond and light up. It’s a more visual rendition of the music being made, and it’s an interesting addition to our show. It feels a lot more natural for me to be able to hit things on stage, instead of playing keys.”

This inventive setup has helped Megan get accustomed to live performance as well: “I can’t say that I was ever really uncomfortable, but looking back over the past year, I think both of us

have definitely progressed a lot,” she says. “We did that through the live setup – we set it up a lot like the way we record. The lights create this warm atmosphere. So the lights are not just for show; it’s so that we feel that there’s a constant thread of sustaining our own level of comfort.”

Having spent a year and more working on their debut album, and retaining an almost phantomlike air of mystery about the project, the band are now keen to push things as far as possible, but creative control is paramount: “We’re interested in expanding, and people hearing what we’re doing, of course, but it’s far more important for us to pursue our own interests,” says Megan. “As far as our sound and appearance goes, we’re not planning on ever catering to anyone but ourselves, in order to be more successful.”

Given that both acts are electronic, femalefronted and Canadian, many journalists have compared Purity Ring to Grimes. “We know her,” confirms Corin. “We are part of the same scene, in that we have a ton of mutual friends, and there are a lot of the same ideas going on,” agrees Megan. “But we don’t bounce off of each other’s music. It’s not like we’re inspiring each other, as far as what we make goes. But we are in the same world, and we see each other a lot.”

“Grimes is really amazing, and I see where some of the comparisons are coming from,” says Corin. “As far as the production goes, I personally don’t hear many similarities. I feel like what she is making is much more like dance music. I feel like our music is more moody – all her music has that kind of very four-to-the-floor feel. You could hear it in a club. I don’t feel like our music is really that danceable.”

Shrines is coming out on veteran indie label 4AD, also home to Grimes – the final step in a dance which has seen Purity Ring go from blog sensations to a signed band, ready to tour the world. How has the transition affected them?

“When things are on the internet, and are only sold or distributed online, it doesn’t feel real,” says Corin. “It’s sort of... wizardry. I think there comes a point where an internet artist has to translate that into something that’s a bit more like real life. Something you can see in front of you. I think it’s easy to become trapped on the internet.

We have been releasing our music very slowly, not feeling the pressure to have a new song up every week. We’ve been more focused on keeping the quality really high, and then developing it to the point where we are really proud of it.

We’re hoping that the music will transcend the internet.”

And what of the ‘future pop’ tag? The band take the transgressive, avant-garde aesthetics of Lady Gaga costumes, the dominatrix dynamics of Rihanna videos, and place all that subversive style front and centre in the music itself. It’s a thrilling, revolutionary template for pop, avoiding crass exploitation in favour of psychological depth and potent, archetypal imagery. Are Purity Ring trying to bring about the next stage in pop’s evolution?

“That is exactly what we’re trying to do,” says Corrin. “If people acknowledge it, that’s a huge compliment. One belief we have is that we don’t write music in a nostalgic way at all. We don’t feel like we’re looking back, trying to reproduce or recreate a certain sound. We’re constantly trying to push things forward and look to what’s next.

We want to keep pop music exciting. We just want to make music that we haven’t heard yet, and that excites us. I do feel like Purity Ring could be described as the future of pop music. We’re happy with that comparison!”

Purity Ring’s Shrines is released on 24 Jul via 4AD thepurityring.tumblr.com

AS IF LYNCHBURG DOESN’T GET HOT ENOUGH IN THE SUMMERTIME. Come July in Lynchburg, building a fire taller than a man just seems downright crazy.

But it’s all part of how we make Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. We harvest hard sugar maple from the hills and then carefully stack it into neat piles we call ricks. Once these are lit, the men in the rickyard tend to the ricks closely, spraying water on the burning wood so we end up with charcoal, not ashes. It is this charcoal we use for our unique mellowing process, which gives Jack Daniel’s its distinctive taste. And it’s also what makes Jack a Tennessee whiskey and not a bourbon. A difference that’s certainly worth a long, hot day’s work in the rickyard.

J A C K D A N I E L’ S

TENNESSEE WHISKEY

Your friends at Jack Daniel’s remind you to drink responsibly. ©2012 Jack Daniel’s. All rights reserved. JACK DANIEL’S and OLD NO. 7 are registered trademarks.

clubs

FEATURES

Sneakin’ Around One of Edinburgh’s best clubs, Sneaky Pete’s, is four this month. We ask owner Nick Stewart about the secrets of its success.

Interview: Neil Murchison

Nick Stewart, the owner of Sneaky Pete’s and the man who decides which bands and DJs play there, is wondering how the club, which sits on the Cowgate in the heart of the Old Town, has managed to get the label of ‘underground’. “I don’t feel our music is underground and it’s certainly not aggressive. Most of our music is actually very celebratory. I love it when our DJs make people have the best ever time and it does happen a lot all the time in fact.”

The origins of the club’s name go back to a prohibition term in the States that refers to the practice of hiding a bottle of spirits in a brown paper bag when drinking so as to avoid the eyes of the police. More locally, the club’s name has a history going back a few decades and is still well remembered by music lovers across a few generations for when it used to be a spit ‘n’ sawdust club, which ultimately led to the name being revived.

“When I first got a taxi to Red Vodka Club [the previous name] no one knew where it was until the driver dropped me off and said “oh, it’s Sneaky Pete’s,” which it hadn’t been called for 15 years.

When it was still Red Vodka Club it started to turn into a fairly good place and then after we bought it there were about six months when it was in transition before it officially became Sneaky Pete’s. It just seemed obvious to call it that again, especially if there is a folk memory of it. It was a dive bar and I am quite happy to call it that... a lot of my favourite places have been dive bars.”

Much has been made of the apparent demise Edinburgh’s clubbing scene but Stewart is quick to defend it while shrugging off any expectations that his club has any wider duty to the city beyond the people who regularly pack it out. “I think Sneaky’s is independently busy because it is good. We didn’t really see an upsurge in trade when Cab Voltaire shut for a few months; we were full then and we are full now and it’s probably the closest to us in music policy. I would like every club to be full of amazing music, people and culture and I can only keep my end up of that. What anyone else does is their business and we only have room for 100 people so I can’t fit the entire club scene in there! Edinburgh’s scene is a thriving one and there are nearly 40 nightclubs in the city. A lot of them are full a lot of the time, it’s just that not all of them are music focused the way ours is.”

For a club that is in many ways all about the music there is very little pretension when it comes to talking about how what is played there is decided.

“I am not a music snob at all, I think I just like what most people like except it’s my job to seek new music out. A lot of what I’d like to put on won’t work to 100 people but occasionally someone who is really big wants to take a step down to play us, and we have had quite a few shows that are far too big for us. Drop the Lime will be back for the fifth time on the 5th August and it’s the smallest club in the world he ever plays.” The size of the club, which initially would appear to be a hinderance, has actually become one of the key features for creating an atmosphere where people want to dance. “You will never get two people dancing right next to each other on an empty dancefloor but it’s never too hard to get a party started in Sneaky’s. People come here to dance whereas

Photo: Kat Gollock

People have danced so long and so hard on the dancefloor they’ve gone through the 25 year lino flooring, through the concrete screed that’s on top and now it’s revealing the cobblestones underneath Nick Stewart

other clubs might be about different things. We don’t have the functions for anything else – there’s a bar and dancefloor and that’s it.”

“We wanted a place where it looks like a lot of people hang out and kind of smash it up a little as long as you don’t feel that your feet are sticking to the floor. At the moment we are replacing the dancefloor because people have danced so long and so hard on it that they’ve gone through the 25 year-old lino flooring, through the concrete screed that’s on top and now it’s revealing the cobblestones underneath. That’s just rubber trainers dancing that has caused it. It’s a shame to cover it but in ten years time it will be uncovered again!”

Being a venue that can host bands earlier in the night and then pack out a club later has led to the creation of an interesting blending of the two called Night Music. “There’s loads of really exciting and amazing electronic music that we love that has too much going on for it to be played exclusively between the hours of 1am and 3am.

We wanted to make an environment that was late enough to make it seem right but also not so late that you might just have had a Jägerbomb and want to dance and instead this will be playing.

Also, we do recognise that frequently a lot of people who will be huge electronic fans will be slightly older and might have to go to work the next day, but who can still stay out till midnight on a weeknight in order to catch a really exciting show. We have also been producing these two minute films of each show that manage to capture the essence and the intrinsic vibes of the night far better than photographs do, and it means there is something to take away.”

In August there will be three big guests for Night Music and the price will still be £5 in. “Com Truise, whose drummer is amazing, and Koreless, who makes brilliant music but not for a club at 1am, are both returning and we have Factory Floor playing too, who I’ve been trying to get for two years, all of which is happening during the festival. We’re lucky that we get to put on shows like this as we know we are going to be full most nights later on, so why have a crowd that only wants to party when we can give electronic artists an audience who will offer a different attention span.”

Stewart is also quick to pay tribute to the alternating, once a month nights showcasing LuckyMe and Numbers talent who both linked up with the club around nine months ago. “We’re really privileged that the two Scottish labels that are changing dance music all around the world right now are both really comfortable playing here. As far as I know it was Jackmaster’s idea and he just said ‘Let’s do some parties and let‘s just have a rammy.’ I had never heard of a ‘rammy’ before but as soon as we opened the door I realised that it was a case of ‘let’s have lots of people very close to each other, sweating and listening to amazing music.’ And that seemed to work. It’s good that we have them because if we didn’t we’d still be playing all those records because they are the best records around.”

Sneaky Pete’s Fourth Birthday with Coalition featuring Jesse Rose is on Sun 22 Jul Tickets available at Ticketweb and through the Sneaky Pete’s website www.sneakypetes.co.uk

July 2012

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film

Who’s L aughing Now? A G u i d e t o H o lly w o o d C o m e d y The sorry state of American film comedy laid bare Words: Kirsty Leckie-Palmer

There are not, and never should be, critical terms to dictate what is funny. Nonetheless, it’s a pivotal fact that when Zak Galafianakis allowed a tiny monkey to chomp on his sweating crotch in The Hangover Part II, a line was drawn in the sand.

There are those who will raise their frothing beers aloft and salute the chubby patron saint of boorish funsters. Others, meanwhile, will sigh and lament the scene as a degradation to the dignity of human – and monkey – kind. It’s of little consequence what camp you fall into, chances are you still saw the movie. Hollywood have made it their business to tell us what’s funny, and business is good. Audiences scrambled for seats at The Hangover Part II as though in the chill grasp of an incurable addiction to penis jokes, and it took $581 million, making it the most successful R-rated comedy ever. With every rumble from the recession thundercloud we run to hammer on popular culture’s door, weeping for an opiate to take the edge off. Like any vaguely aspirational drug dealer, Hollywood is only too eager to oblige.

The film industry’s most recent jackpot revelation: it is intellect, and not gender, that impairs an audience’s ability to laugh at spontaneous bowel evacuation. All for equal opportunity gullibility, there have been significant attempts to cater to women yearning for a Lambrini-induced Hangover.

Hollywood successfully sneaked another white, middle class, heterosexual wedding past the finish line in the form of Bridesmaids. Some critics deemed it refreshing; others called it progressive.

What’s certain is, while everyone quarrelled over feminism, anti-feminism and whether Kristen Wiig could be a well-disguised man, laundry facilities most proximate to Universal Studios were inundated with giddy producers wielding soggy sheets, keen to obliterate all evidence of their latest wet dream come true.

Although Bridesmaids merely re-bundled the male-oriented gross-out comedy with a pink crepe bow, it was at least successful. Crass attempts by the rom-com to woo male attendees have met with unrelenting failure. Stumbling into the spotlight: the stunted, interstitial prom-com, so named as an attempt to shoehorn promiscuity into a formula which has always depended on chasteness for its plot development. Emergent examples like Friends with Benefits and No Strings Attached peddle shallow, mannequin-people played, not incongruously, by beautiful, dimpled sorts like Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. Like sentient sex-dolls, they seek interludes of perfunctory copulation with each other before dismounting to continue their busy, soulless lives. It’s like watching the National Geographic channel, but with Justin Timberlake where a straining, grunting lion should be. Such films cleverly manage to splice together the more diabolical aspects of two genres, creating a perfect fusion of mind-crushing smut and diabetic slush which dispenses with formalities like plot and morality.

Because when all else fails, a concept is all a comedy film really needs to market itself. The highconcept-com is heavily reliant on the fallacy that singularity might lead to greatness. No idea is too ridiculous, and the genre often relies on bizarre, inexplicable sabotages of reality’s parameters.

Director Brian Robbins has made notable contributions to the cause, abetted by the relentless presence of Eddie Murphy, who has given up acting other parts permanently in order to focus on playing his own caricature. His most recent contrivance, A Thousand Words, sees literary agent Jack McCall doomed to silence by a cursed tree. It attained the rare accolade of being deemed the worst comedy of all time by critics. Meet Dave, another Robbins/Murphy-led humour-massacre

16 THE SKINNY

July 2012

witnesses a crew of tiny aliens living inside Eddie Murphy’s hollowed-out body. A poor hypothesis for a film, there is significant merit in it as a theory on what happened to the slick-fire Beverly Hills Cop who once thought up zingers faster than he could spit them out. Equally high-concept forays into inadequacy can be credited to Ricky Gervais, who in 2009 managed to both invent lying and talk to ghosts, and Paul, who to his credit is at least a CGI alien.

It’s cruel to single out individuals in this climate of pervasive banality, but one man has done more for the concept-com than the sum total of the remainder, and for this, deserves credit.

Adam Sandler is the emergency biscuit in every screenwriter’s desk drawer; his is the power to liberate capital from the basest scenario. In a career spanning 24 years, there are few films in the Sandler canon that can’t be reduced to a one line summary. Adam Sandler can manipulate the fabric of time (Click). Adam Sandler is given a small child to disappoint and annoy (Big Daddy). Adam Sandler’s girlfriend is blessed with nightly amnesia, which helps her forget she’s dating Adam Sandler (50 First Dates). The pinnacle of his career though, is 2012’s epoch-shattering Jack and Jill, in which Adam Sandler plays his own sister. The endeavour earned him no fewer than all ten Razzies. One exceptionally disturbing scene involves Al Pacino flitting around a Dunkin’ Donuts, singing with the manic enthusiasm of a man whose loved ones will be tortured and killed should he give pause to question why. Online theories for his complicity range between blackmail, drug abuse and the onset of dementia. All that remains to be said on the subject: Adam Sandler is Forbes magazine’s richest comedian.

Emerging from a chronic smog of weed fumes to the mellifluous thrum of Seth Rogen’s larynx: the comedy of Judd Apatow. The bromance oligarch might have been dabbling his toes in the custard pie as far back as the mid-nineties, but his breakthrough came with proto-failure Andy Stitzer, or The 40 Year Old Virgin. Andy spunked a flood of single-cell heroes and overnight rendered male underachievement as commonplace in film as in life.

In 2007 Knocked Up saw a man outsmarted by his own sperm. Superbad then posited a heterosexual male love triangle. Pineapple Express venerated a moronic bailiff, rewarding him for his fatuousness and drug abuse with blubberingly loyal chums and a lithe, forgiving girlfriend. Forgetting Sarah Marshall poked man-sponge Jason Segel into the role of an overeating, newly-single thirty-something who spends all his time weeping and successfully appearing less attractive than pirouetting pubis Russell Brand.

While many of these films suggest comedy’s spiralling descent into primordial slime, the trajectory isn’t all downward. Last year’s Submarine was a delicate jewel. Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom bursts with quirky panache. Tim Burton may just pitch back to pre-cliché with Frankenweenie this winter. Works like Pixar’s Brave and Disney’s Wreck it Ralph might prove animation a forgiving vehicle for Hollywood comedy, presumably because it demands time to produce, facilitating the formation of thought. So let’s forget nostalgia orgies (American Pie: Reunion) and haggard sequels (Men in Black 3) and joyfully embrace originality.

There’s a hopeful online murmur that remakes are plummeting in popularity, and after the indisputably hostile commercial reception of $6 million for A Thousand Words, there is also the outside chance Robbins and his ilk may be encouraged to return their delusions to the drawing board by an audience who still understand the concept of shame.

Guilty: Adam Sandler in Jack and Jill

Guilty: The Hangover Part 2

With every rumble from the recession thundercloud we run to hammer on popular culture’s door, weeping for an opiate to take the edge off. Like any vaguely aspirational drug dealer, Hollywood is only too eager to oblige

FEATURES

film

Dark Humour Bobcat Goldthwait is best remembered as ‘that shrill bloke from the Police Academy movies’. He also happens to be one of America’s most distinct filmmakers. The Skinny speaks to him about his latest black comedy, God Bless America Interview: Philip Concannon

Despite the evidence of his new film, Bobcat Goldthwait insists that he is not an angry person.

In God Bless America, the director lines up everyone and everything that he sees as being responsible for the cheapening of modern society, before enacting the violent retribution that many have surely fantasised about, but Goldthwait doesn’t want to give the impression that he’s a walking time-bomb of seething rage. “I don’t think of myself as angry and fed up, but maybe I am,” he says. “When I showed the movie the other night at a rock festival someone asked me if I had always been a misanthrope and I was like, ‘No, I like people!’” he adds with a laugh. Instead, Goldthwait simply sees this film as a disaster movie in a different guise. “There are all these movies about meteors hitting the world and the world ending and I think you can slide this movie in with those,” he says, before adding, “except I don’t see it as a meteor, I think the problem is our own behaviour.”

Back in the 1980s, nobody would have guessed that Bobcat Goldthwait would develop into such an astute chronicler of human behaviour. For most people, Goldthwait will always be the shrill-voiced, unhinged Officer Zed from three Police Academy films, or perhaps he is best-remembered as the anarchic comedian who set fire to his chair when he appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. These days, Goldthwait is a quieter, mellower and more thoughtful presence, and a steadily growing number of film fans are starting to recognise his as one of the most interesting and distinctive voices in American comedy. He made his directorial debut in 1992 with Shakes the Clown (described by Martin Scorsese as “The Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies”) but it has only been in the last six years that he has really found his groove as a filmmaker.

“The big change is simply that I started writing movies for myself,” Goldthwait says, when asked about his impressive workrate. “They were just movies I wanted to make and I stopped thinking about what would probably get made, what would make money, what would be a vehicle for myself, I stopped all that.” Nobody could accuse him of taking the easy route to getting films in production, as none of his pictures to date have been an easy sell. Sleeping Dogs Lie is about the shame of a young woman who once performed fellatio on a dog, while World’s Greatest Dad is the story of a man who fakes his son’s suicide note after the teen dies in an autoerotic asphyxiation accident.

Look closer, however, and you’ll see that there are complex and insightful analyses of universal themes tucked away behind these attention-grabbing premises. In keeping with this grand tradition, God Bless America begins with a violent scene that’s guaranteed to startle and potentially turn off the audience. This time, even he admits to being surprised that they went as far as they did (“When we edited it together my editor and I just looked at each other and went, ‘Holy fuck...’ “), but he feels such an aggressive approach is necessary. “The culture we live in is so shocking so that’s why my gimmicks or MacGuffins are so bold, but it’s funny that this is a movie about kindness,” he says. “If I had just made a non-violent movie about how we’re losing touch with each other, I don’t think it would have got the attention that this one has.”

Certainly, God Bless America has achieved a greater visibility than any of Goldthwait’s previous pictures, and much of the conversation will surely revolve around the movie’s attack on trash culture.

Rather alarmingly, the depictions of TV’s most shameful offerings are straightforward duplications of the real thing, with no exaggeration required, but the prime target for Goldthwait is less these

Bobcat Goldthwait

shows than the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for them. While Goldthwait does admit a weakness for RuPaul’s Drag Race, he says that he has made a conscious effort to avoid reality shows and the gossip that comes with them, but opting out of the national discourse proved to be harder than expected. “There’s no reason why I should know that Kim Kardashian got married but I know she got married and I know she got divorced, and I never even asked what people were talking about,” he recalls. “It’s just shoved down our throats. I think that may be the thing that I’m really tired of and frustrated with.” The question being posed by God Bless America is what effect all of this is having on the way we relate to one another, and what it has done to society at large. “I think the digital age has really deepened our narcissism and entitlement, so you’re not even aware of when you’re ignoring someone, you’re not even aware of when you’re being impolite,” he says. “For me the message is just asking people if they’re part of the problem or part of the solution, and I also include myself in that.”

God Bless America may display little optimism for the state of humanity, but the future seems bright for Bobcat Goldthwait. The director has

For me the message is just asking people if they’re part of the problem or part of the solution, and I also include myself in that Bobcat Goldthwait

carved out a niche for himself by working on a small budget with a group of friends, and while this approach means he doesn’t earn much from his movies – he still performs stand-up to pay the rent – it affords him a creative autonomy that is invaluable. Perhaps it’s time for Goldthwait to work on a larger canvas, though? His dream project is a musical based on The Kinks’ 1975 album Schoolboys in Disgrace, and he admits that realising this particular dream is a whole new challenge.

“I have been trying to make that movie and I will make that movie, it’s just trying to find the right cast,” he explains. “It’s not like me just going out with my friends and it will be a much larger movie with sets, a big cast, rehearsing, and all that stuff. I will make it but it’s a different way to go about it.”

Even if Schoolboys in Disgrace doesn’t come off, Goldthwait is not a man short of ideas, as he has spent the last couple of years writing a number of screenplays, but he remains philosophical about his chances of, as he puts it, conning people into giving him money. “You know, I said to my daughter, ‘When I die, all these screenplays are yours,’” he says. “And she just said to me, ‘Dad, you can’t get them made, why would I want them?’”

God Bless America is released 4 Jul

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jazz&blues EDINBURGH

festival

JAZZ TO A DIFFERENT BEAT....

Sat 21 July 22:30 and Sun 22 July 20:30 George Square

TIJUANA CARTEL UK debut from Australia’s biggest live dance act. Dub-step, flamenco, electro and Afro-Latin rhythms in a truly global sound. Unmissable.

Free d/l at soundcloud.com/tijuanacartel

THE STOOGES Sat 21 July 22:30 George Square

BRASS BAND New Orleans’ loudest, funkiest brass band, they’ve shared stages with Ray Charles and Mos Def & Talib Kweli to name only two.

Free d/l at soundcloud.com/hypersoul-llc

Cinthia Marcelle Rob Pruitt William Mackrell

Dundee Contemporary Arts

23 June– 26 August 2012 Exhibition open: Tue–Sat 11:00–18:00, Sun 12:00–18:00 Open late Thu until 20:00. Admission free

Tues 24 July 20:00 Queen’s Hall

HIDDEN ORCHESTRA & FLOEX Sensational double headline show, two acts who defy genres. Cinematic soundscapes, hip-hop, jazz and electro effortlessly combined.

Sat 28 July 20:30 Queen’s Hall

R U M B A CALIENTE INTERNATIONAL SOUL ORCHESTRA & EL TREN Lizzard Lounge/Salsa Celtica’s Toby Shippey presents two unmissable latin-salsa projects, featuring guests from across the globe.

PLUS: DR JOHN & LOWER 911 THE BAD PLUS POLISH JAZZ SEASON JOOLS HOLLAND & HIS RHYTHM & BLUES ORCHESTRA KYLE EASTWOOD BAND and many more...

Tickets: hubtickets.co.uk 0131 473 2000

U N B O U N D 2 0 12 Edinburgh International Book Festival's late night events programme, exclusively released on p33

For the full programme go to:

edinburghjazzfestival.com Twitter: @EdinburghJazz Facebook: EdinburghJazzandBluesFestival

18 THE SKINNY

JULY 2012

ILLUSTRATION: DAVID LEMM

F E A TURE S

art

Moving the goal posts Artist Craig Coulthard has built a football pitch in the middle of a forest where men and women from around the world will go head to head in what is one of the most ambitious public artworks in Scotland Interview: Andrew Cattanach

Craig Coulthard relishes the theatrical potential of his latest artwork, Forest Pitch, and takes great pleasure dwelling on the details of a commission three years in the making. “They’ll be gathered in small groups in the fields around the forest and then taken into the woodlands by a guide,” he says as though he had rehearsed the scene a thousand times over in his head. “While they’re on their way through the forest Edinburgh Brass Band will be playing in the distance, so there’s this gradual build up of music and atmosphere as people make their way to the pitch where the first team will be warming up.”

There, the gathered audience will take part in what is one of the most ambitious public artworks in Scotland for some years. They will watch two full-length amateur football games between two teams of men and two teams of women on a football pitch specially built in a clearing in a forest in the Scottish Borders. And unlike your typical Scottish football match, Forest Pitch will be inclusive. It will also touch on some of the most fundamental social and political concerns we face today.

Commissioned as part of the Cultural Olympiad – a celebration of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic Games – Forest Pitch came out of Coulthard’s ongoing interest in nationality and how sport often brings these concerns to the fore.

Coulthard was himself born abroad and spent most of his childhood in Germany where his father served in the British Armed Forces. And although he considers himself Scottish – he was technically born on British soil to Scottish parents – he is nonetheless alive to the arbitrary nature of nationality, the ambiguity of which is rarely reflected in the strict demarcation of nationality in sport.

The controversy around whether or not Team GB should have a football team in the London Olympic Games was one of the main considerations when developing Forest Pitch. An easily resolved debate, you might think, considering Britain is the host country and must surely be represented in every sport possible. However, it’s a matter that’s not yet been fully resolved.

“There’s an ongoing debate about a Team GB football team,” Coulthard says, “and the Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh Football Associations don’t want any of their players to play in it. They’re worried that if they do then other countries will say, ‘You were Britain before, so why don’t you just be Britain all of the time?’”

It seems that most other European countries have little truck with Great Britain’s national ambiguities when it comes to football. They would rather face fewer British teams per competition instead of wasting their time beating all four.

“So, I started to consider what it would mean to create a British football team that wasn’t made up of people that had this background of being part of one or other of the British countries,” he explains. “I decided to make it available to people who had become British citizens or had been given legal leave to remain in the UK. So, basically, none of the players taking part in Forest Pitch were born in Britain.”

They in fact come from an impressive variety of countries, including New Zealand, Canada, the US, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Somalia and Iran, with some of them refugees, and others supporting families back home.

“We also have an Iraqi guy who used to play professional football,” adds Coulthard, excited by the acquaintance. “There’s a Turkish guy who used to play professionally as well, and we have a woman called Shannon who’s Canadian, and whose parents are Scottish. She played football in Canada and America and was asked if she

It’s little surprise that an interest in nationality has led Coulthard to consider the importance of landscape. Often, when a country is on a campaign to bolster national pride it turns to romantic depictions of rugged, native landscapes – a technique used to lasting effect in Germany in the 19th century by artists such as Caspar David Friedrich. Typically dramatic, manipulated to the ideals of the artist and his nationalist inclinations, these landscapes show what makes us who we are, as though the native land was in some way a reflection of our DNA. It was therefore vital that the landscape Coulthard picked for Forest Pitch was not representative of Scotland or Scottishness. “Some people might think of Scotland as this beautiful, rugged place and these trees and this forest as very romantic, but I quite like the idea that the trees are not specifically Scottish. I wanted to use some woodland that would challenge people’s preconceived notions of the romantic landscape.”

But Coulthard is not entirely detached from the romantic potential of the project and hopes that Forest Pitch will leave a lasting impression on the landscape. Once the games are over the site will be returned to its owner who will plant more commercial spruce in the space left by the pitch.

However, not before Coulthard has planted native trees in a line around the edge of the pitch and along the pitch markings, such as the centreline and the penalty area. And while the non-native spruce will be cut down and replenished, the native trees will remain, appearing from the thicket every 20 years when the spruce trees are cut down to be sold.

Basically, none of the players taking part in Forest Pitch were born in Britain Craig Coulthard

Tree Pitch Formation (after match day)

wanted to come to Scotland and play a bit of football here. She ended up playing for Hibs and is now Scotland’s second goalkeeper. So, we have a Scottish international taking part, which is great.”

The matches will take place on 21 July in a forest near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. Buses will take visitors from Selkirk to the edge of the commercially-planted spruce forest – a tree not native to Scotland – where they will make the rest

of the journey through the wooded landscape on foot before reaching the open space where the matches will take place.

“I picked somewhere that wasn’t just entirely a block of spruce and was somewhere that might lull people into thinking it was a more natural site,” Coulthard explains. “Around its edges are planted other types of trees to make it look quite pretty.

But, when you get further into it you’re met with these really dense plantings.”

“I find this almost the most exciting thing about the project,” he says. “I want to go back and see how it has grown and see what it looks like once normal, economic plantation has resumed. I hope that this site will continue to grow into something interesting long after I’m gone.”

Forest Pitch tournament, Sat 21 Jul, near Selkirk. £5 (£3.50), family ticket £15 Call 01665 833751 or visit the website for tickets www.forestpitch.org

July 2012

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    

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    

Coming up at the fringe at the Queen’s hall mr mCfall’s Chamber Fri 3 & Sun 5 August Withered hand/darren hayman/ gordon mCintyre/josie long Sat 4 August skerryvore Thu 9 August loveboat big band Sat 11 August found the band & aidan moffat Wed 15 August peatbog faeries Fri 17 August suggs Tue 21-Fri 24 August king Creosote Thu 23 August treaCherous orChestra Sat 25 August tiCkets & information WWW.theQueenshall.net 0131 668 2019 20 THE SKINNY

JULY 2012

T i n t h e P a r k 2 0 12 : The Magnificent Seven For those making the pilgrimage to T in the Park this month, our Music team humbly presents seven bands you’d be a dipshit to miss

PHOTO: SAM BRILL

music

Features

PHOTO: SOL NICOL

3. We Were Promised Jetpacks

(King Tut’s Tent, Saturday) Edinburgh’s We Were Promised Jetpacks have released two excellent albums on FatCat, but they’re a band that’s really made for the stage. Every song they write is imbued with energy and purpose, so when they start off with quiet tension you know it’s going to build towards a frantic, furious finale.

When the Jetpacks hit their stride, they’re one of Scotland’s most thrilling live bands. [Ally Brown]

PHOTO: Sarah roberts

4. The Brian Jonestown Massacre

(Transmissions Stage, Friday) Back in 2008, hardly a soul knew that Anton Newcombe’s typically formidable psych rock outfit had been promoted to the last ever headlining slot at the much-missed Pet Sounds Arena in the eleventh hour; many of those who made it were there for a rumoured guest appearance from The View. Cue frustrated piss-jug lobbers, Newcombe in antagonist mode and a gig nobody wanted to be at. Fortunately, with 2012’s compact Friday night roster, there’s only room for redemption. [Johnny Langlands]

PHOTO: Erez Avissar

2. New Order

(King Tut’s Tent, Friday) Don’t let the still-surprising reunion of Saturday night’s headliners trick you into complacency. Most bands get sick of each other, have families, and drift towards reliable mortgage-paying jobs as they decelerate through their 30s and brake sharply after 40. New Order have had long splits before, and won’t always find a way back. They’d be an essential festival visit just for Temptation, but add others like Ceremony, Regret, True Faith, a few Joy Division plays, and a song you might know called Blue Monday, and it becomes a no-brainer. [John Wylie]

5. Teengirl Fantasy

(Transmissions Stage, Saturday) Should T’s trademark hullabaloo threaten to overwhelm, seek respite in Teengirl Fantasy’s gentle yet exhilarating embrace. Taking 2010 debut album 7am as the yardstick, the duo’s hazy dream-pop is primed to offer a warm, fuzzy envelope for the weary festival-goer to curl up and lose themselves in, as drowsy beats and entrancing, nostalgiainfused melodies borrow from vintage RnB, trance and chart botherers of yesteryear. Their set’s transportive potential is strong, but if that doesn’t appeal, there are plenty other teengirl fantasies onsite to select from: we hear The Wanted are just soooooooo gorge… [Chris Buckle]

6. We Are Augustines

(Transmissions Stage, Saturday) Brooklyn-based trio We Are Augustines were in their element when we caught them in a packed, sweaty bar late last year and indeed, their evocative, raucous sound has earned them comparisons to a host of bar-room bards, including the Boss himself. But there was enough fist-pumping on show that evening to suggest that the ‘Augustines could hold their own in a much larger venue. Their debut album, Rise Ye Sunken Ships – despite being based on heartbreaking real-life experiences – is loaded with anthems and frontman Billy McCarthy has lungs big enough for any arena.

[Finbarr Bermingham]

PHOTO: Emily Wylde

PHOTO: Pennie Smith

1. Stone Roses

(Main Stage, Saturday) For many music fans, T In The Park 2012 is all about the Stone Roses. The second coming of the legendary Mancunians will include a Saturday night headline slot at T, the first performance of the classic line-up in Scotland for twenty-two years. Here’s a tip: don’t be in, or friends with, any band that clashes. And another: get there early if you don’t want the curvature of the earth to obscure your view of the stage. It’s going to be big. [Bob Morton]

7. Alt+J (∆)

(Transmissions Stage, Saturday) This Cambridge quartet, whose name is literally the computer shortcut for a geometrical symbol, has attracted an enviable following almost overnight. Like the candy viscera from a genre piñata, they sport intricate bonbons from plucky jazz, sombre guitar, and dubby rhythms. Let’s see how the T crowd takes Joe Newman’s quivering silken vocals as they play tracks from praised debut, An Awesome Wave. [George Sully] T in the Park takes place in Balado from 6-8 July.

Tickets of all sorts are still available. www.tinthepark.com

July 2012

THE SKINNY 21

F E A TURES

art

N e w A r t G ene r at i o n A survey of the talent on offer at ECA and GSA’s 2012 degree shows Words: Andrew Cattanach and Jac Mantle

Edinburgh

G L A S G OW

Joseph Etchell

Frances Lightbound, Reality is Known by its Traces (Dancefloor)

Sam De Santis, Hand Compacted Sphere KIRSTY MACDONALD, Kinetic drawing no.25: Puckoon

Degree shows, degree shows, degree shows. They can be fatiguing affairs, them degree shows, what with all the art and stuff. All the art getting right into your eyes and making impressions on your brain like a bad dose of telly.

They’re full of stuff, degree shows. There’s a painting that is trying to look like a photo here, a convoluted reference to pop culture there.

There’s something that looks a bit like a geodesic dome in one room, while in another someone has made oversized notebooks and turned them into shelves. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Magnus Eriksen is an art school archetype.

He flies in the face of everything that is contemporary in art, probably taking little or no heed of his tutors, who recommend one considers the zeitgeist now and again. He’s a self-styled Salvador Dali of the northern hemisphere (Surrealism is a slow migrator, after all), sharing many of the Spanish poly-pervert’s concerns – an interest in his own self-mythology and breasts. He should have paid more attention in class.

Darren Nisbet is also a painter of things. But at least he has the decency to make them look less like other things extant in the world. Using a colour pallet one normally only sees in a certain kind of plastic object – 1970s Tupperware, perhaps – he paints large, simple forms. One in particular looks like a big, cartoon jobby, turtle-heading into the picture frame. It’s in every way good.

In a room that is otherwise starkly decorated with some stuff, Kirsty MacDonald’s machine draws a circle on the wall – or maybe it’s an ellipse. It does it over and over again, constantly drawing. On the floor are black pads that are connected to the machine, and when you step on them they change the behavior of the circle-drawing device. One makes it change direction while another makes it slowly and gracefully move to the right where it continues to draw more circles.

It’s conceptual art made contemporary. It’s the

22 THE SKINNY

July 2012

Sumin Bak, Too soon or too late

Maja Georg QUILLE, Shared Space

machine that Sol LeWitt himself dreamed of being.

You enter a doorway into the installation by Tom Clowney and find yourself in a small, dimly lit corridor. Following the corridor through the installation you get glimpses of adjacent rooms. A hole in the wall reveals a sink outside, somewhere in the real world. You’re frightened you might come across something or someone you don’t want to. Time passes quicker in here and you want to leave.

Joseph Etchel has made a fake bingo hall.

The wallpaper is similar to what you might find in a real bingo hall – yellow and dingy. There’s a bingo table, chair and obligatory ash tray (I assume this is a bingo hall from the past when people used to smoke). There’s also someone saying some numbers and a time-lapse video of someone sitting on all the seats in a real bingo hall, one after the other. Why, you might ask yourself, before moving on to something else, the fatigue pulling you down.

Maya Georg Quille has neatly built some glass cubes and mounted them on crisp, white plinths. They are familiar art gallery tropes – things you feel you’ve seen a hundred times before. However, these versions sit in a shallow pool of sludge, preventing close scrutiny. One of the cubes has a tantalising hand print on it, defacing its otherwise clean surface, as though someone has traversed the sludge, transgressed gallery etiquette, and touched the work.

You refrain from defacing some work yourself before leaving, tired and insatiable. You think about all the things you’ve seen in the show and find yourself struggling to get a grasp of anything, all your memories are vague and incoherent. Or is it the work that is vague and incoherent? You can’t tell. You think about the machine drawing on the wall and the big painting of a jobby and have a little laugh to yourself.

Degree shows, degree show, degree shows, you mutter, shaking your head. [AC]

Densely packed with room after room of individual exhibitions, degree shows are hard to take in. The only hope for veterans is to crudely brand it in their minds, making it distinct from past years, lest it meld with all the others they’ve seen. In which case this year’s Glasgowdegree show is marked by a rather serious, subdued tone. Perhaps that big pile of rubble out the front that used to be the Design School buildings (demolished as part of GSA’s redevelopment) has had a sobering effect on the students. It’s made them think about their own mortality or something.

Sam De Santis meditates on time in photography in his installation of camera-less works.

Examining the medium’s material qualities, the works have a compelling sense of the scientific.

Light-sensitive dust collected from the surface of fibre-based darkroom paper is at once earthy and cosmic. Pure black balls whose smooth surfaces have begun to crack are revealed to be soil. The white painted walls contain residue collected from the exterior windows of the main Rennie Mackintosh building – no doubt tiny atoms of the demolished Design School.

The demolition site has also inspired Karina Baillie. She has created an approximation of The Vic – the legendary student union bar of which only the façade now remains. The original skanky chequerboard tiles still reek with the sweat of a thousand hipsters, but the odour is a home from home for those who loved the place. In a video projection a girl dances. It’s unclear whether you’re supposed to join her, but a weird feeling of displacement pervades: it just wouldn’t be the same.

Hans Peter Auken Beck has also looked to his surroundings – then re-imagined them. Superimposing Google maps on top of each other, he offered free rickshaw trips to destinations all over the world within the borders of Glasgow, altering people’s perceptions of the known and

local. Videos of the trips show him delivering passengers to an unlikely spot down a back lane – apparently Cape Town. Fun, and avoiding the virtuous credentials of some psychogeography, the work has endless possibilities.

Frances Lightbound is also concerned with the urban built environment and our relationship to it. Striking screenprints on polished steel show Modernist tower blocks with bold geometry, reflecting the light. Their aesthetic seems at once highly stylised and incidental, suggesting a negative image or a brass rubbing. Lines of white gloss paint on the gallery floor bring the work into real space, the repetition and symmetry of the prints interesting to compare to that of the equally stylised surroundings of the Art School.

Sumin Bak’s exploration of architecture is more oblique. Her oil paintings are a delicate construction of lines and movement. The forms suggest factories and industry, but the overall effect is light and spacious. Despite being hung on the wall, you question their page orientation – architectural elevations and perspectives seem discernible from every way up. These are works that quietly demand repeat inspections.

More readily visually comprehensible but no less compelling are Robin Everett’s vast landscape paintings. Bold and impressive, they deserve to be appreciated in a lot more space – and no doubt, time – than the show allows.

Last but not least, Nick Thomas has made an intriguing installation of kinetic sculptures in a blacked-out space. An arrangement of wires and projector lights are suspended, while something is happening intermittently on a screen. You peer at the contraption to try to work out what’s going on – and flash! You’re momentarily blinded and disorientated. Just what’s happening is undisclosed, but it’s us, not the artist, who are groping around blindly. [JM]

25–29 July 2012

02 August to 08 September 2012 Images of apocalypse, 2012, the end of the world? Including original prints by Jake and Dinos Chapman, Gordon Cheung, Damien Hirst, and Andy Warhol.

For further information visit www.edinburghprintmakers.co.uk | 23 Union Street, EH1 3LR

THE SKINNY STUDENT HANDBOOK

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30,000 copies, September release Calling all advertisers: Taking bookings NOW

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2 August – 2 September 2012 New commissions by international and emerging artists, over 45 major exhibitions at leading galleries and free events every day. Follow us @EdArtFest.

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JULY 2012

THE SKINNY 23

FEATURES

music

A Lit tle Solus Since 2006, the Wickerman Festival’s Solus Tent has built a reputation as one of the finest summer congregations for new Scottish musical talent, with a simple ethos: If you’re any good, you’re in

photo: takeshi suga

WORDS: Chris McCall

The Solus Tent looks like a familiar festival platform on paper – get new bands in, stick them on a stage – but the thinking behind it is very different. “It’s a showcase stage,” explains curator Chay Woodman of the Wickerman staple. “But we’re not connected to an industry body.” Instead Solus simply wants everyone, bands and punters alike, to enjoy a weekend of quality bands.

Friday night headliners United Fruit were booked last August, one of the easier tasks Woodman faced in making this particular bill a reality. “It takes a huge amount of work to put together,” he admits. “But if I get pissed off, I just throw on some Beta Band and make myself another coffee.”

Part of the pay-off, Woodman says, is that he is personally looking forward to seeing each of the 20 acts. “Although I will say this: it disturbs me that a band like There Will Be Fireworks are not playing other new band stages. Some people are clearly not doing their homework.”

Here, we talk to the artists who will be taking the long road to Dumfriesshire later this month.

United Fruit at the solus tent, 2010

thought playing The Review Show on BBC 2 last year would probably be the end of the excitement, but very fortunately, I’m finding things are only getting busier and better.”

Bigg Taj

The skills of champion beatboxer Bigg Taj have impressed bloggers for several years, but he says he’s still learning – and is always on the look-out for ways to improve his style. Solus will provide him with the perfect opportunity. “I learn from watching other people perform,” he says. “I look at their stage presence, how they conduct a crowd and how they create the vibe. “I’m just looking forward to the whole experience.”

The Birthday Suit

The power punk band from long-time Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones, The Birthday Suit released their debut album The Eleventh Hour to healthy acclaim

Fridge Magnets

Bringing a welcome dash of electro to proceedings will be Glasgow’s Fridge Magnets. Describing themselves as “a mash up of Calvin Harris and Deadmau5,” the Magnets have already found themselves playlisted by Radio 1. “We have a tendency to really enjoy ourselves at festivals,” says frontman Winnie. “So more than likely we will be there partying till the bitter end.”

Hector Bizerk

photo: Sol Nicol

Beerjacket

July 2012

High octane rock n’ roller Chris Devotion is sure to work up a sweat when he brings his band The Expectations to Solus. They were “blown away” by the response to their debut album Amalgamation and Capital, which hit the stands in January.

Chris says they plan to spend the weekend at Wickerman, even if the main stage headliners leave him cold. “Texas aren’t really my thing – but I imagine their popularity, success and bank balance will inure them to such slights from indie poseurs like myself.”

This Glasgow-based progressive metal act pride themselves on playing especially loud and heavy music. “By the looks of the line-up, we are definitely throwing something very different into the mix,” says lead guitarist Scott Weild. “The tent is looking great this year and we’re excited to be part of it! We are looking forward to seeing Bigg Taj; he’s awesome at what he does.”

The musicians that comprise AMWWF are no strangers to Wickerman, having played there with various other bands over the years: “When we were asked to come down this year and perform together it was a no-brainer,” they say. “It’s a long drive but its certainly worth it.” The Dundee quintet class themselves as a songwriting collective, not a band, and with this much talent jostling for space, a lively set is guaranteed.

24 THE SKINNY

Chris Devotion and The Expectations

The Cosmic Dead

Glasgow space rockers The Cosmic Dead have been hard at work recording in 2012 and are eager to share the fruits of their labour. The band are building momentum ahead of a UK tour in August and Solus will provide a welcome pit-stop.

“T in the Park, to music, seems to me like what Magaluf is to holiday destinations,” reasons synths man Lewis Cook [also of Yahweh/Mother Ganga]. “The Wickerman is more in tune with what we’re about.”

Grant Me Revenge

Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher

Peter Kelly – as Beerjacket calls himself when he lays down his acoustic guitar – was name-checked by several of the Solus line-up when asked which fellow artists they were most looking forward to seeing. You get the impression that a man often compared to Elliot Smith would take this in his stride. “It’s been a fantastic year,” he said. “I

late last year. Idlewild have a substantial presence at this year’s Solus, with guitarist Allan Stewart appearing on bass duties with Holy Mountain. “It’s a really lovely setting,” Jones enthuses. “And as I remember – I was a little drunk last time – a very relaxed atmosphere.”

Fresh from supporting heavyweights such as EPMD and The GZA, hip-hop duo Louie and Audrey are excited about bringing their live drums n’ rap sound to Solus. “It has a genuine feel to it in terms of promoting new and interesting performances,” says MC Louie. “It’s nice to share the bill with such talented people.” He’ll also keep an eye on Texas over the main stage. “Remember when Sharleen collaborated with Wu-Tang Clan? I’m hoping for a wee surprise appearance from RZA!”

Holy Mountain

The LaFontaines

A band likely to draw a sizeable crowd to the Solus, The LaFontaines’ relentless touring has built the kind of loyal fanbase many acts would give an eye for. Blending hip-hop, pop, rock and electro, the Motherwell outfit are newcomers to Wickerman, but not to the area: “Oddly enough we played a gig in Dumfries on our last tour there,” say the hardworking lads. “And we’ve just been asked back to play an even bigger show.”

The Machine Room

Many of this year’s Solus acts rate Dumfriesshire as one of the more out-of-the-way places they’ve played. But when it comes to quirky bookings, Auld Reekie’s Machine Room must have a winner.

“We’ve got a gig in the Scottish Parliament during

There Will Be Fireworks

Festivals are meant to be about enjoyment, but for TWBF guitarist Gibran Farrah, their last Wickerman appearance was more about endurance, having broken his collarbone the evening before “during some amicable rough-housing”. Their anticipated appearance at Solus is likely to include much material from their forthcoming second LP, which they’ve been working on for most of the year.

“We’d hoped to have it out in time for Wickerman,” they offer, “but real life got in the way.”

United Fruit

Friday night headliners United Fruit are in no doubt about what gives Wickerman its edge. “Smaller festival are always much more relaxed and fun to play,” says bassist Marco. “What’s particularly impressive is the tiny origins that this one grew from.” The post-hardcore quartet (who claimed our July cover in 2011) have a rare fire about them, which they plan to document again with the release of album number two early next year.

Hector Bizerk

photo: Ricky Skinner

Julia and the The Doogans

Solus curator Chay says he’s especially looking forward to seeing this Glasgow-based folk-pop collective, who are centred around the mercurial talent of Julia Doogan. Wickerman promises to be a busy weekend for her: “I am a really big fan of Beerjacket. I would have been there front row but now, as luck would have it, I will be playing on stage with him as I stand in on backing vocals.”

There will be fireworks at the solas tent, 2010

Bigg taj

Vasquez

“We have played in some strange places before,” says drummer Jon. “Such as in an abandoned factory full of skateboarders. But this will be our first ‘off-road’ gig together.” Named after the hard-as-nails, machine-gun wielding Marine from Aliens, Vasquez are a three-man assault on the senses. Expect to be impressed. check out The Solus Tent at Wickerman festival, East Kirkcarswell Farm, Dundrennan on 20-21 July

Rod Jones

photo: Darren Carle

Malcolm Middleton says 2012 has “been a riot” so far, having moved to rural Fife before launching his latest musical project, Human Don’t Be Angry. The former Arab Strap guitarist is also looking forward to his debut Wickerman appearance. “I’ve never played the festival or anywhere near Dumfries, but I was actually born there – even though I haven’t been back since. Something of a homecoming gig for me, then.”

Salò

This time last year, Salò were not just unknown – they hadn’t even played a gig. Now the technically gifted Glasgow trio are one of the most hardcore acts booked for the Solus. Just don’t expect any shout-outs. “Even though we don’t interact with the audience, it’s good for people to be able to see what you do up close,” says guitarist Paul McArthur, intriguingly.

photo: takeshi suga

Human Don’t Be Angry

Martin John Henry

2012 has been a big year for the De Rosa frontman. When not promoting his solo album, The Other Half of Everything, Martin has found the time to contribute to Malcolm Middleton’s Human Don’t Be Angry. He’s also hard at work on a new De Rosa LP. “I’m over the moon about it,” he says. This will be his third Wickerman. “I like to watch the big man burn on the last night, but other than that, I don’t really wander far from the Solus.”

photo: Ricky Skinner

Holy Mountain

Described by fellow Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones as “pretty full on,” Allan Stewart’s other band Holy Mountain went down a hairy, wife-beater adorned treat at the Stag & Dagger festival in May. After their Solus appearance, the stoner rock disciples plan to “sober up” before “travelling back to the 1969 to record our next album to have it ready for the ‘70s.” Smashing.

Human Don't be angry

the Edinburgh Festival. I’m quite intrigued to see what that’ll be like,” says John Bryden. Formed from the ashes of several other bands, The Machine Room play the kind of shimmering pop that’s likely to win over many new fans. And possibly a few politicians.

photo: Eoin Carey

Hey Enemy

Hey Enemy are already thinking about their second album, having released debut The Wrong Songs To Right Wrongs in February. Given that it took seven years to reach that stage, 2012 must class as a burst of activity for the experimental hardcore outfit. Whilst they enjoyed playing the GoNorth stage at RockNess at The Skinny’s invitation a few years back, the family-friendly vibe of Wickerman is a bonus, says Chet Harbinger: “As it turns out, you can only be in a band so long before your drummer gets someone pregnant.”

photo: Justin Moir

photo: Gemma Burke

FEATURES

Martin John Henry

www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk

July 2012

THE SKINNY 25

FEATURES

theatre

S U R G E 2 0 12 SURGE FESTIVAL comes to Glasgow, celebrating the myriad forms of physical theatre with a selection of installations, performances and events to amaze and astound. Let’s get physical!

WORDS: GARETH K VILE & LORNA IRVINE

BIRD

SNAILS

Tel: 01786 27 4000

Tel: 01463 234 234

Tel: 01224 641 112

Tel: 01471 844 207

26 THE SKINNY

JULY 2012

WHILE EDINBURGH’S festivals may be channelled into a specific month of busy, high energy mayhem, Glasgow has always paced itself, with festivals popping up throughout the year. The Merchant City Festival – formerly staged during September but now the city’s last stand against The Fringe in late July – is more eclectic and quirky than the heavy bombardment of the West End’s June combination of classical music and community events. Two years ago, Surge debuted within the Merchant City Festival: this year, it builds on its success with a programme that promises to make physical theatre a famiiar form.

Curated by Conflux – an organisation dedicated to caring for physical theatre’s veterans and emergent artists – Surge incorporates street performance, circus skills, public games, interventions, installations and a cabaret hosted by the Marquis de Sade. There’s an elegant irony at the heart of the festival: physical theatre has a reputation for being challenging and experimental, yet it has roots in the most popular and accessible arts, including circus acrobatics and clowning.

This tension gives Surge its unique vitality, offering events, like Ian Smith’s solo My Hands are Dancing or Strangevird Zirkus’ Ornithology that are simultaneously the cutting edge of performance and emotionally engaging.

SHOWS TO LOOK OUT FOR...

PVI COLLECTIVE PRESENT DEVIATOR This Conflux commission has been made by the Australian provocateurs in assocation with local artists. Using a mobile phone application – a nod to consumerism that might undercut the collective’s avowedly anarchic approach to disrupting the easy flow of contemporary life – players are guided through the streets to audio instructions, and through the activities of various characters intent on fun and disorder. Like the best interventions, deviator takes the familiar – in this case, children’s games – and lends them a power that is challenging. Since pvi’s most recent activity was making a special set of cards to celebrate the Queen’s birthday (each card pointing out a problem in the behaviour of various Commonwealth nations), expect a political and engaged edge to the humour.

SITA PIERACCINI – BIRD Last seen at Arches Live!, this one-woman show Bird sees Pieraccini creating her own world through inventive mime and clowning. At times redolent of Theda Bara (not least because of those eyes), she portrays an unnamed feral child who befriends a songbird, thus learning the

FEATURES transient nature of everything. Pieraccini’s eyes are incredibly expressive – openly displaying joy, pain or vulnerability. Sweet, wry but heartrending, it lingers long, like another’s scent on your clothes.

Ian Smith of Mischief La-Bas presents My Hands are Dancing but my Heart is Cold Another former Arches Live! special, this time from the grand old man of Scottish Live Art. Smith has been busy making massive street theatre for decades – his company Mischief originated the Tom Jones Fan Club (often seen chasing innocent men and throwing pants) and the big parade that kicked off 2010’s Surge. Yet in this solo show, Smith shows he can do intimate theatre, in a five star five minutes of glamour-hiding-tragedy.

Ramesh Meyyappan and Iron Oxide present Skewered Snails The original Snails and Ketchup was Meyyappan’s virtuousic solo aerial show. “Italo Calvino’s Baron in the Trees was and continues to be the inspiration,” he says, but now he has expanded the cast to four. This is a natural extention of the piece. “I looked at creating four interesting family members, drawing some inspiration from the book, in particular their quirkiness,” he recalls. “I used this to make it darker and slightly more sinister, even giving the characters a ‘back story’ as a way of showing their journey.”

Strangebird Zirkus present Ornithology After 2010’s successful tour of Uncharted Waters, the Zirkus duo bring their latest absurdist comedy of Chinese pole, aerial hoop and floor acrobatics to the Briggait. Picking up on the popularity of the Silent Disco (the one where everyone has their own walkman-guided soundtrack), they are even offering a choice of soundtracks to make one show two. And like pvi, their show looks at how a delicate ecosystem can be easily disrupted.

Ali Maloney presents Ratcatcher Sometime hip-hop poet and sometime Skinny contributor Maloney goes grotesque in this modern day anti-pantomime. Deep in the earth, two ugly underlings fantasise about celebrity and food, aware of their own degradation only enough to wallow in the fetid consumerism that encourages cannibalism, fetishisation and brutality. Part of the Scope programme, which is designed to support emerging artists, it sees Maloney chart out the exact dimensions of a very personal hell.

Company of Wolves present Invisible Empire (a work in progress) Poland has always been a centre for physical theatre – The Company of Wolves show off the ensemble techniques of the Polish Laboratory Theatre, merging movement, live music and text to question why some people are willing to leave their ordinary lives behind to fight for a cause.

Until a few years ago, physical theatre was only represented by a few companies in the UK: the tradition of the script, made powerful by the importance of Shakespeare as part of the British heritage, ensured that theatre was seen as a matter of texts and words. Perhaps the post-modern disintegration of national identity undermined the central role of Shakespeare, or the uncertainity of economic security has encouraged a more pragmatic approach to performance creativity – or maybe audiences simply got tired of the same old plots. Whatever the reason, physical theatre is thriving in Scotland, and Surge combines the international with the local, showcasing the future stars of the art and placing them in their context.

SKEWERED SNAILS, Thu 26 Jul & Fri 27 Jul 7-8pm, Platform, The Bridge, 1000 Westerhouse Road, Glasgow G34 9JW ALI MALONEY: RATCATCHER, Fri 27 Jul 6.30pm-7.15pm, Sun 29 Jul 6.30pm-7.15pm, The Arches, 18+, £5 INVISIBLE EMPIRE – A WORK IN PROGRESS, DEVISED BY COMPANY OF WOLVES, Fri 27 Jul 8pm – 8.30pm, Sat 28 Jul 6.45pm-7.15pm For full details check www.conflux.co.uk www.thearches.co.uk

Ornithology

Deviator

Two years ago, Surge debuted within the Merchant City Festival: this year, it builds on its success with a programme that promises to make physical theatre a famiiar form

Ratcatcher

Featuring

e Atlas Francois & Th Mountains s & special guest sey Damien Demp on Band Karen Mathes s est plus special gu Craig Hill Roddy Frame re

and many mo

ts go to To book ticke cotland.com www.tickets-s at Find out more .uk/thespree v o .g e ir h s w e www.renfr /thespree

#TheSpree

Brent Stirton, South Africa, Reportage by Getty Images for National Geographic magazine Rhino wars

See the world from another perspective. That of 57 photographers of

24 nationalities covering news stories from around the globe. The renowned World Press Photo exhibition returns to Edinburgh this July.

5 - 28 July Open Monday to Saturday, late night on Thursday

The Scottish Parliament Free exhibition

www.scottish.parliament.uk

July 2012

THE SKINNY 27

comedy

FEATURES

Clown College

Can comedy be taught? The Stand think so – they’ve been training up twelve new hopefuls in the run up to a showcase gig during the Fringe

I’m at The Stand on a Saturday afternoon in June.

The doors are shut and the only people inside are The Stand’s gaffer, Tommy Sheppard, regular MC Susan Morrison, and twelve young, aspiring comedians who have been invited to participate in a ten-week standup comedy course, culminating in a special showcase during the Fringe.

I ask them how they’re feeling. “Scared shitless,” they reply in unison.

The twelve nervous students have varying degrees of experience. Most of them are regulars on the open spot circuit, doing unpaid gigs in the hope of sharpening their act and getting noticed by a promoter. Lindsay Duncan is the most experienced of the group, with twelve years working in theatre and sketch groups. “I’m hoping to improve my confidence,” she explains when I ask why she’s doing this. “I’ve been performing scripted material for a long time and this is a chance to get creative and try something new, maybe rediscover some of the passion that lead us all into comedy.”

At the other end of the scale is Liam Tait, whose first ever comedy performance is today in front of his classmates. “There are a lot of things I want to say,” he tells me, “things that I think could be really funny, but I just don’t know how to say them.

For me this is an opportunity to be around funny people and really think about that craft.”

After some icebreaking exercises, the course begins with a talk from Sheppard on his ideas of how comedy works. The most interesting thing about this is what he doesn’t say: he’s a promoter who makes his living from his comedy clubs, yet he doesn’t once mention money, or demographics, or how to appeal to any audience, or how to keep punters drinking at his bar. His lecture is a purist look at the most important thing in comedy: making people laugh.

I ask Sheppard what The Stand hope to gain from this course. “We’re hoping to find somebody great,” he says. “Throughout the year, we try to recruit talent through Red Raw [The Stand’s regular open spot night]. We have 30 beginners’ spots

INTERVIEW: Bernard O’Leary

Photo: Sol Nicol

the number of people competing for spots. Rory every week, with a six month waiting list. Everyone Telfer explains the life of an open spot: “You do has to start somewhere and we’re trying to give The Stand, which is so professional and always them that opportunity. has an audience, and you think, ‘This is amazing, I “This course will teach them what to do with could really make a living doing this.’ Then you do what they have, and to learn from the other another gig and there’s twelve old men in a pub, people in the group as well. As this goes on they’ll and you’re like, ‘Hey, I’m a student, do you want become each other’s critics and that makes for a to hear about my girlfriend?’ and they just couldn’t very intensive course over the next ten weeks.” give a fuck. That’s a bit And the intensity less glamorous.” begins in earnest shortly The competition for afterwards, with all twelve stage time creates a fertile asked to perform two environment for dodgy minutes of material in promoters who want to rip front of their peers. It’s an off naive comedians, and experience they all find Morrison takes a moment excruciating, but everyone to warn the class about agrees that the workshop some of the more common element of the course is traps: ‘Bringers,’ which are rewarding. “Some of us shows where the audience are in the comedy society are required to bring at Edinburgh University,” friends along; Vanity Gigs, says Rory Telfer, “and where failed comedians you notice up there that host a show purely to give the sketch groups are all themselves stagetime; and great at supporting each Pay-To-Play, where the other but the comedians promoter requests somejust have to figure it out by thing in return for stage themselves.”

Rory Telfer time, either cash or unpaid “It’s really great that work such as flyering. everyone’s at such a high One member of the standard,” says Struan class has a story that even Logan, “because it means shocks Morrison. They we can make something claim that they applied great at the Fringe.” His for a spot at a regular fellow student Jamie Grifshow, and were told that fin agrees but admits, “it’s they had to pay £120 for a comedy course before like any open spot gig, you’re still thinking, ‘damn, getting a gig.

I’m competing with these people and they’re really Sheppard knows that some of the comfunny.’ It’s a daunting task, but it could lead to edy courses available are suspect. “There is a something fantastic.” worrying trend out there. We’ve seen people This is the best and worst time to be attemptwho couldn’t get booked at The Stand putting ing to start a career in comedy. The number of themselves forward as experts on comedy and gigs available is growing every day, but so are

The sketch groups are all great at supporting each other but the comedians just have to figure it out by themselves

charging people hundreds of pounds for their classes. Courses aren’t inherently a bad thing but I would say ‘buyer beware’.”

Comedy courses are increasingly becoming a fact of life. There are some very good ones and plenty of successful comedians who’ve graduated from them, but there’s still a limit to what can be taught. Everyone in the class seems realistic about what the next ten weeks holds for them. Jamie Griffin says, “I met one guy who said, ‘I went on this course and they basically told me how to be a comedian’ and I thought ‘wow, where is this magical course?’ Then I saw him do his set and... yeah, you can’t teach someone to be funny. That’s what I like about this course, they’re offering to teach us structure and give us tools, but actually making people laugh is still up to you.”

James Macintosh agrees. “I admit, I was worried it’d be like we’d show up and they’d say, ‘Give us your script, we’re going to turn it all into puns’ and it’d be comedy by committee. I like the way that they start off by saying, ‘This is your own thing, so do your thing but just make it better.’ They’re not trying to push us into being what they want us to be.”

It’s been interesting to meet this group as they start out on a journey that’s going to take them right to the heart of one of the most important arts festivals in the world. As well as the showcase, many of them are taking advantage of the Free Fringe and Scottish Comedy Festival to put themselves out there, something which has been ironically difficult for previous generations of Scottish performers at the Edinburgh Fringe. All of them are clearly dreaming of being superstars. Perhaps some of them will.

The Fringe Comedy Academy: Class of 2012 will be at The Stand for one night only, Mon 20 Aug, 8pm. You can catch some of the students elsewhere at the Fringe including: Why Not Comedy? at Why Not, 7:45pm; The Edinburgh Revue at The Beehive, 2:30pm; The Bright Club on the BBC@Potterrow stage, 26 Aug only www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/ fringe-comedy-academy-class-of-2012

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deviance

for and against L ads’ Mags Two committed feminists battle it out over whether ‘lads mags’ are liberating... or not Words: Stephanie Torrance & Kate Pasola

Illustration: Andrea Moresco

M al e C o n t r ac e p t i v e s – B all s t o t h e Snip!

WORDS: Miriam Prosser

Against

A Woman is Worth More Than Her ‘Hotness’ Kate Pasola

For

We Should Celebrate our Sexuality Stephanie Torrance I’ve noticed that over the past few weeks the whole ‘young-women-up-in-arms about lads’ mags’ debate has come to the forefront once again (at least once a year, I see an article about a ‘refreshing‘ group of people who are ‘finally taking a stand‘). There was a big campaign by a young Oxford feminist group in January to ban lads’ mags from local newsagents. This has spawned several other campaigns, most notably in Southampton and Leeds Universities. Closer to home, a local feminist group in Aberdeen are currently boycotting the University newsagents who are choosing to carry FHM et al.

But the question is; what exactly is this ‘stand’ against? Is it really so terrible that a grown woman chooses to pose for magazines that will gladly pay her to do so? Is this oppressive? I’m not convinced that it is. If a woman can make a profit out of the idiocy of other people (I’m being polite when I say ‘people’ here, let’s be honest – it’s usually men) who will choose to pay her ridiculous sums of cash for a mere glimpse of her body… then is it not empowering if the woman chooses to do this? The woman is taking control of her sexuality.

We have this notion that modern day feminism is for white, middle-class schoolgirls on a prudish rampage against anything remotely provocative.

This is not what feminism is. There is no ONE feminism. It is outdated to say that a woman is a victim, or immoral, just because she chooses to be confident in her own body and proud of

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owning her own sexuality. Feminist education is stuck in a loop where the same beliefs are regurgitated as new theory time and time again.

It’s about time that we moved beyond this dated idea that to show one’s body is to be weak. In fact, to protest these images of women is to limit them by only seeing them through a patriarchal gaze. We don’t need to do this anymore.

More often than not, the celebrity covers of FHM are rather similar to the celebrity covers of Diva magazine. Ruta Gedmintas (Frankie from Lip Service) is shown on the front cover in a bra and see-through top in their aptly named ‘sex issue.’

She is clearly being objectified for the lesbian market in the exact same way as whichever Essex-reality-TV-star-in-her-underwear is on the cover of FHM. Even Sue Perkins’ front cover of Diva was with an unbuttoned white shirt and hint of black bra. We wouldn’t even think about seeing Sue Perkins as a weak victim of her own sexiness now would we?

These latest ‘protests’ have come with the argument that lads’ mags should not be sold at eye level. It seems to have bypassed these so-called ‘feminists’ that to taboo the human body in this way is precisely why we have these magazines in the first place. If societally we were more accepting of the human body (the last time I checked, we all have one) they wouldn’t need to be showcased in special magazines. Until then, I personally celebrate the ladies with enough confidence and self-esteem to make a business out of their bodies and enough intellect to reject this idea that for women to be truly feminist, they must reject their own sexuality.

I’m unsure whether it was a break for freedom from sixteen years under the cyclical tyranny of ‘womens’ magazines,’ or just that I thought it might make me look a bit cool, but I guiltily admit that I used to read FHM. I really thought I was onto something. It was refreshing to read something other than how to exfoliate myself into meeting that phantom ‘Mr Right.’ The blitheness reminded me of the lads at school who I wasn’t really cool enough to be friends with. I’d turn a bashfully blind eye to the ‘top-milf-titsof-2006’ sections. Whenever I read something hideously misogynistic I assumed the twangs of alienation experienced were due to my intrusion into a place I wasn’t welcome. After all, isn’t it just for the ‘banter’? If I didn’t like it, I shouldn’t read it… surely?

Years later, succumbing to curiosity, I thumbed through a ‘lads‘ mag’ at a newsagents and had an epiphany - which can only be analogised to when I tried Sunny Delight for the first time in eight years – utter disbelief I’d tolerated such an assault on my senses. It’s not just that they insist on calling grown women ‘girls.’ Nor that they relentlessly feature somewhat-acceptable fashion advice alongside pictures of Emily Atack’s arse in a thong (helpfully educating readers that degrading women to flesh and lace is as socially acceptable as choosing what type of chinos to wear with your AllSaints deep-V).

What really vexes me is the ‘100 Hottest Honeys’ list. It comes with a side-order of a permanent sex-symbol rosette, inexorably linking the chosen victor’s credibility to her busty triumph in all future interviews. I’m sure Pippa Middleton is just as sick of this phenomenon.

Admittedly women’s magazines aren’t completely innocent of such frivolities either (I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Gerard Butler’s pecs emblazoned with ‘MAN OF THE MONTH’ in lilac italics). However, it seems women are much more haunted by the, seemingly ‘criticallyacclaimed,’ lads’ mag polling system. It’s slightly discomfiting that some now encourage readers’ girlfriends to submit snaps – in which they can only be compared to a Primark parody of a Victoria’s Secret campaign – in pursuit of ‘Hometown-Hottie’ status. And don’t naïvely assume a grand prize or some other worthwhile incentive is at stake for the winner – Maxim kindly reminds entrants that they are solely in pursuit of “the Maxim Hometown Hotties crown!

(Actual crown not included.)” Not only are the A-list dancing seductively to the tune piped by smug editors, but non-celebrities are stripping to the skin so they don’t get left behind. What’s worse is that this subtly persuades women that the process is emancipating, and that these naughty-boy magazines are really rather liberal arenas for self-expression. Those who object are just spoiling everyone’s fun.

Maybe someday we’ll universally realise that these ‘lifestyle’ magazines manipulate us, issue by issue, into becoming their loyal subjects.

They make us put our brains in our boxers and our money down their plughole. Perhaps one day readers who think they have some symbiotic relationship with a pixelated Tulisa will wake up and smell the printing ink. But, currently, sex sells. Until then, we can only hope Rachel Stevens doesn’t win ‘Hottest Female Alive’ again – for her sake.

I’ve been bitching about contraception for years, since in my experience it often ends up being the woman’s problem. Some blokes are still trying to wiggle out of putting on a condom, and in the 50 years since the pill went public women have subjected themselves to the ‘side effects’ of fucking with your hormones: depression, weight gain, skin problems, breast pain, loss of sex drive, and migraines, to name but a few. But I never considered how disappointing contraception options are for men. A guy who wants control of his sexual destiny is basically limited to a choice between abstinence, latex or The Snip: not an edifying selection. I mean, we’ve been to the moon, but we couldn’t come up with a male pill?

What if it didn’t have to be like that? What if 15 minutes would guarantee you 10 foetus-free years? Imagine a world in which sex could be enjoyed without the winkie-shrivelling terror of unwanted babies; without the endless series of modification processes: injections, implants, objects wedged in your cervix.

This may be possible, thanks to Sujoy K. Guha at the Indian Institute of Technology. His male contraceptive procedure RISUG (Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance) has been tested in India for over 30 years with overwhelmingly positive results. Here’s what happens: A doctor makes a tiny hole in your ballsack.

Through this he extracts the vans deferens, which is the tube sperm travels through to get from the testes to the penis. Instead of severing it as they would during a vasectomy, he injects it with polymer gel (named Vasalgel in the USA) made up of styrene maleic anhydride and dimethyl sulfoxide. The vans deferens is popped back inside your bollock, and the process repeated for the other tube. He sticks a plaster on your balls, and you go about your business! It’s a 15 minute procedure that lasts for ten years, and is easily reversible with another injection and a short wait (around 1-2 months).

Does this seem insanely simple? It is. The polymer gel hardens over 72 hours, coating the walls of the vans deferens but allowing fluids to pass through, thus avoiding some of the complications associated with vasectomy. When you ejaculate the positively charged polymer reacts with the negatively charged sperm to tear them apart like Dr Manhattan in Watchmen (but your sperm don’t come back as giant blue superheroes, you’ll be sorry to hear). With no pregnancies reported after RISUG injections, no adverse effects over time, and early trial participants still using their RISUG twenty years later, it starts to sound like the best thing since that smart chap Mr Fromm started dipping glass molds into latex.

The RISUG method moved to the States in 2010 as more research into it was sponsored by the Parsemus Foundation. Studies are under way aiming to have RISUG on the market by 2015. Are you as excited by this as my boyfriend is? Check out the Parsemus Foundation website (www.parsemusfoundation.org) for information and to make donations. If this thing takes off, we could be looking at a revolutionised contraception experience: fewer teen pregnancies, fewer unplanned babies, fewer abortions. The shadowy figures of STDs are still looming over our beds but, while we’re on the subject, the Parsemus Foundation is also exploring a male contraceptive called the ‘clean sheets’ pill, which has the possibility of reducing or maybe even eliminating all semen born STDs. Yeah, that’s right. You heard me.

Spread the word, and bring on the future. www.parsemusfoundation.org

travel

L I F E S T YL E

Jailbreak: All in the Name of Liber t y How far can you go with zero funds? And is it really worth it?

Words: Steph Abrahams

There have been four distinct moments in my life when I’ve thought, “I probably won’t live to see how this pans out,” and it is in no way coincidental that they have all been during backpacking trips (caught in the crossfire of an elephant fight in Chiang Mai, falling on a bend whilst cycling the World’s Most Dangerous Road, being led out to open water at night by an angry longtail driver after having haggled too far, and getting mugged at gunpoint on Copacabana Beach in Rio). I love telling these stories because they epitomise those things I love about backpacking: the risks, the chance encounters, the unpredictability... or so I thought until I met Jailbreak, backpacking’s even less predictable, more competitive little cousin.

I was invited to take part in the QMU’s annual Jailbreak challenge as a means of fundraising for a summer of volunteering with the charity Kenyan Orphan Project. The premise is simple: to get as far away from Glasgow as possible in 72 hours without spending a single penny. My head filled with Jailbreak folklore such as The Boy Who Got to Hong Kong One Year, I turned up to the union armed only with a backpack so well-stocked it would make a German blush, and a pocketful of dreams (...cereal bars). My team and I bid our rivals a somewhat insincere ‘good luck’ and headed off in the direction of Anywhere, quietly smug about the fact that we had enough backpacking experience between us to emerge victorious. I once dived the Great Barrier Reef on the mother of all hangovers; this would be nothing. Fast forward 2 hours and we were aboard a train headed for East Kilbride. I was beginning to wonder whether it had been wise to have discarded my map in favour of a bikini, and was desperately missing the maps and guidebooks and itineraries that make unpredictable backpacking... well, sort of predictable actually.

I don’t know exactly who came up with the idea of handing over money for a service and then receiving exactly what you paid for, but it really is a beautiful concept. This discovery comes on the back of another discovery: that Jailbreak is basically glorified begging. It requires breaking

Illustration: Kerry Hyndman

off a little piece of your dignity in exchange for every freebie train and bus ticket that you receive.

Luckily, my dignity was in relatively short supply to begin with, meaning that our team had soon found our way to the futuristic mothership that is Manchester Airport. From here we systematically made our way around every desk, delivering our spiel and being sent packing. In terms of life lessons, Jailbreak has taught me more about rejection than any boyfriend ever could. “But the orphans!” I wailed to a stony-faced employee, promising not to complain to the authorities if she let me stow away in the luggage hold (the story goes that this is how Hong Kong Boy did it). How could she give me a free flight? Her airline wouldn’t even pay for those little nets on the back of the seats to put your book in.

It soon became clear that just because I hadn’t heard of Jailbreak before didn’t mean that no one else had either. In fact, we were told that its growing popularity meant that these airlines were receiving around 10 requests per week and getting heartily sick of the experience.

Deflated, we spent the night under the fluorescent stars of Terminal 2 before dragging our collective wounded pride to London. This was where the journey would end. Or so we thought, until we met Kasia (her name is of vital importance as I have vowed to name my first-born after her), the celestial travel agent who found us four remaining seats on a bus that would have us in Warsaw a mere 26 hours later. Now, I am no stranger to longdistance buses – my last backpacking trip involved

spending 137 hours on them to be exact – but it became apparent very quickly that no one on this bus was going to offer me a beer and tell me all about the time they were nearly eaten by a shark in Byron Bay. Instead they would stare at me incessantly whilst eating giant sausages straight from the packet until the bus smelled like an abattoir.

My book choice of Animal Farm had perhaps been a foolish one.

We had left London barely able to stop smiling or contain our adrenalin, but a strange thing was happening with every border crossing we made; France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany... reality was setting in fast.

My giddy, unable-to-stoplaughing sentiment had gradually been replaced with something that can only be described as blind panic. I was due to sit the first of my Finals just three days later and failure to do so would cost me my degree. With no plan of action and no possible get-out clause, I was forced to sit back, shellshocked, and watch a film where Jennifer Aniston’s voice was dubbed by a Polish, male actor (a vast improvement on her recent body of work). As we travelled through the night past the lights of Berlin, I thought about trips I had made in the past. My memory was cast back to a night spent at a popular Irish-themed hostel in La Paz. I am standing on the bar, singing along to an Irish folk song at obnoxious volume. Around my head is a ninja-style headband that has been lovingly fashioned out of paper towels. My singing is momentarily interrupted by a barman dressed as a Smurf who wants to pour alcohol straight from the

I don’t know exactly who came up with the idea of handing over money for a service and then receiving exactly what you paid for, but it really is a beautiful concept

bottle into my mouth. Obediently, I comply. The following morning, I will cycle the World’s Most Dangerous Road. I will fall on a bend, inches from the edge of a 900m drop and I will think to myself, “I probably won’t live to see how this pans out.”

I’ll get back on the bike and keep cycling.

Why, then, did Jailbreak seem so much more risky?

You’ll be pleased to hear that my panic eventually subsided and I lived to tell the tale. In the early hours of the next morning we crossed the Polish border and decided to cut our losses at Wroclaw, where we made the winning call home from a payphone in a bus station. The rest of the day was spent walking aimlessly through the streets, taking in the sights and trying the local food. No maps, no guidebooks, no itineraries.

I recently watched The Beach for what must have been the fourteenth time. As always, I smiled when Leonardo DiCaprio’s character said “We all travel thousands of miles just to watch TV and check in to somewhere with all the comforts of home.”

The truth is that all backpackers are looking for The Beach, but we sometimes get sidetracked by the ‘2 for 1’ Happy Hours along the way. We like to think we’re treading virgin soil – and some of us have probably come close – but we are all too aware that for every authentic tea house there’s a Western Union to bail us out if it all goes wrong.

In Jailbreak I found the road less travelled, but it just so happens that the road less travelled is also often the road less welcoming, less fun-loving, and less comforting. It takes no prisoners.

As you read this, I am somewhere off the coast of East Africa, looking for The Beach and trying to avoid one of those “I might not live to see how this pans out” moments. Guidebook cold turkey might be the backpacking Holy Grail, but will it help when I’m walking straight into the path of some Somali pirates? It turns out that the planet is a whole lot lonelier without Lonely Planet. And as for Jailbreak – it was one of the most exciting, unpredictable adventures of my life so far, but the irony is that there’s a time and place for it. Trust me – three days before an exam is not it.

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Photo: Sol Nicol

travel

The Big Tent

Photo: Jussi_Hellsten

Go With The Flow In Helsinki

The ongoing enviromental crisis is no laughing matter. I mean this literally; try Googling ‘environment jokes’ by way of coming up with filler for an article introduction and the best you’ll do come up with is an image of Al Gore’s private jet; which probably explains the dearth of standup (boom boom) at this year’s Big Tent, Scotland’s Environmental Festival – back after a one year hiatus. This ‘festival of stewardship’ (I dinnae really ken) began life in 2006 at Falkland House, Fife, as a counter to the high-powered yet ultimately futile bluster of world leaders in Gleneagles, 2005 and has since become one of the most enlightening yet entertaining festivals on the calendar.

Yes, there are some serious issues to be dealt with, with a series of talks on biodiversity, sustainable transport and the future of farming all being

held under the general theme of ‘Think Global, Act Local.’ There are also craft fairs and some hands on activites, including the opportunity to build your own den as part of the ‘festival of huts’.

Then there’s the music, and as rambunctious and lively a line-up as will adorn any festival this year. All locally sourced and organically produced, the party is headlined by The Proclaimers and Salsa Celtica. The invigorating ensemble that is The Treacherous Orchestra, Karine Polwart and Woodenbox also feature prominently on a running order which proves that whilst tackling the serious issues of the environment isn’t funny, it can be fun.

[Paul Mitchell] The Big Tent Festival, Falkland Estate, Sat 21 & Sun 22 Jul, weekend camping £65 www.bigtentfestival.co.uk

Would you betray someone you love to give them what they want?

Pre-order your hardback now at www.canongate.tv ⁄ jamesmeek

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The former Suvilahti power plant will soon be buzzing again. From 8-12 August the ninth Flow Festival will take place on the historic site close to the center of Helsinki. Flow is Finland’s biggest music and arts festival. A glance at the A-Z list of performers and events is testament to the fact that the organisers pride themselves on juxtaposing local and international talent.

Main stage acts will include Björk, who has chosen Flow as one of the locations to showcase her new live spectacle touches. The Black Keys will remind us why their rootsy no-nonsense sound, refined to perfection on their last album, has won them legions of new fans. The stage will also be graced by Swedish pop sensation Lykke Li, France’s Yann Tierson and a number of UK acts, too. Four Tet and Caribou join forces for a very

special back to back DJ set. Heatsick aka Steven Warwick will share his project which is focused on repetition as a means of creating abstraction, improvising with organic variations of a theme, while embracing the artificial to facilitate a psychedelic mindshift.

The Flow experience is not just about music; it is also about visual arts, workshops, short film screenings and quality food and drink. The beautiful summer weather adds a touch of magic to the atmosphere. A 4 day ticket, which also includes the opening concert and Friday to Sunday costs 160 Euros. What are you waiting for? [Gareth Rice] www.flowfestival.com/en/

unbound L ate nights at Edinburgh International Book Festival

12–27 August 2012 UNBOUND 2012 • EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

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INTRO

W e l c o m e t o U n b o u n d 2 0 12 Unbound is back for a third year, offering a programme of free, nightly events of stories, performance and music. Roland Gulliver, Programme Manager of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, introduces the guide to this year’s line-up So what happens when you survive ‘second album syndrome’? Where do you go next – stadium tours, mid-table obscurity or fade into oblivion with the jazz folk fusion triple album experiment? It was questions like these, or their literary equivalents, that I asked myself after the success of Unbound at the 2011 Edinburgh International Book Festival. There was dancing, magic, mistimed fireworks and a man standing reading on a ladder. In amongst that, there was an array of beautiful music, and wonderful readings from writers and musicians both known and new. And, finally, there were our audiences, inspired, impassioned, excited and entertained by literature, crowding in night after night into our magical Guardian Spiegeltent.

For the 2012 programme, I have resisted the temptation to kick-back with cocktails and do the same again.

I have made some great friends over the two years of Unbound and as much as I would love to hang out with them every night, it is important to remember why we created Unbound: to challenge ourselves, our authors and audiences; to create something new, exciting and slightly chaotic. All of it inspired by storytelling and books.

So with that mantra ringing in my ears I set about creating Unbound in 2012. A lot has happened over the Unbound years with live literature continuing to evolve, the changing nature of performance, the differing dynamics of publishing, and the continuing revolution of how we consume our culture and literature.

For this year, we have brought a few friends back but we have also gone restlessly searching for new ones:

catching some of the best things currently happening in Scotland, inviting a few of the most interesting events happening around the country, and casting our literary scouts far and wide around the world. There must be something in the water in this Olympic year as Unbound 2012 is the most international yet.

From Scotland we welcome the return of Words Per Minute, Glasgow’s finest monthly literary salon who are coming back for a special one off show. We say a very hospitable hello to Illicit Ink, who will be bringing their own brand of storytelling magic to our Spiegeltent, and the Scottish Booktrust celebrating their New Writers Awards on stage, online and maybe even on a Post-It! We will begin Unbound by studiously doing our Homework, the night of literary miscellany created by the boys of Aisle 16 and to be often found in Bethnal Green. (You may have spied Aisle 16 veteran, Joe Dunthorne on stage last year.) There will be more Londoners loitering around the final weekend with the Faber Social presenting a heady line-up of international authors.

The international flavour is found throughout the Unbound programme: artists from Iceland will be smashing up myth, legend and stereotypes; our Dutch friends will be showing what is mixed together to make the colour orange; and finally it will be Last Orders with a collection of artists from Ireland. If this is not enough, our old friends Irregular will be hosting a night in partnership with the South Asian Literary Festival.

Collaboration continues as 2012 sees the publication of our amazing collection of short stories Elsewhere.

To celebrate the launch of this four book boxset we

welcome co-publishers – both with Unbound previous – Cargo and McSweeneys to fight it out on stage.

Yet more transatlantic battles are programmed with the return of the Literary Death Match; who will be bathed in glory, who will be left bloody and battered?

New technologies are changing how we interact with artists and this year’s Unbound reflects this. Kohl Publishing are launching their first book in October but will be premiering their free app in advance at Unbound.

And the multimedia experience that is Electronic Voice Phenomena will take your literary preconceptions and reprogramme them into a new piece of art.

And as ever, Unbound is a place for authors to do something a little different. So in amongst all this, Mark Haddon will be escaping his bestseller lifestyle to present his one-man show, music legend Nile Rodgers will be doing a very special gig, and Simone Felice and TM Wolf will be playing and reading together in a one-off performance.

So join us every night at 9pm. It promises to be another amazing 16 nights of having too much fun and staying up far too late, feasting on literature, music and all round good stuff in our Guardian Spiegeltent. What’s more, Unbound is still free! Thanks go to Culture Ireland, Dutch Foundation for Literature and The Icelandic Literature Fund for helping to keep it that way.

And remember many of the authors appearing in Unbound can be found elsewhere in the main Book Festival programme. Go and hunt them out, go to their events, read their books! I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

E d i n b urg h I n t e r n at i o n a l B o o k F e s t i va l 2 0 12 –

An Introduction

WWW.EDBOOKFEST.CO.UK

MEDIA SPONSOR OF UNBOUND

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Last year at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, James Robertson aired his Megrahi conspiracy, former CIA officer Michael Scheuer was heckled by a protestor and Gary Tank Commander made a surprise late night appearance.

This year between 11-27 August, debate and discussion is set to return to Charlotte Square Gardens as the world’s leading thinkers on art, music, politics, economics, theatre, philosophy and business, join with some of the finest novelists of our generation in the largest celebration of the written word in the world.

This summer the Book Festival will launch new novels from Howard Jacobson, John Banville, Pat Barker and Ian McEwan, as well as hosting some of Scotland’s leading writers such as Andrew O’Hagan, Alan Bissett, Jackie Kay, Irvine Welsh, Ali Smith and Iain Banks.

James Naughtie, host of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, and veteran broadcaster Sue MacGregor will act as Guest Selectors this year. Naughtie examines Britain Today with politicians Tom Watson, Paddy Ashdown and Alistair Darling along with writers Zadie Smith and Ruth Padel, while MacGregor explores A Survival Kit for the Information Age with Maajid Nawaz, Prue Leith, Charles Ferguson, Tessa Hadley, Sarah Hall and A L Kennedy.

Other highlights this year include former Prime Minister Gordon Brown who will deliver the National Library of Scotland’s Donald Dewar lecture; the godfather of

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL • UNBOUND 2012

disco and founding member of Chic, Nile Rodgers, will discuss his career in the music business; Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, will argue for a fresh perspective on the world economy and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Katherine Boo, will discuss the life of street children in a Mumbai slum.

Themes running through the Book Festival programme include Scotland’s Rich History, Russia Now and Then, Another Africa, Science Meets Fiction, We Are The War and in this, the year of the London Olympics, Sport: Mindgames featuring fact, fiction and personal stories about sport including the drugs, the cheating and the darker side of competing at a professional level.

Alongside the Adult Programme there is a lively RBS Children’s Programme featuring Julia Donaldson, Darren Shan, Jacqueline Wilson, Neil Gaiman, David Walliams, Cathy Cassidy and Vivian French acting as a Guest Selector.

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

Full details of the programme can be found online at www.edbookfest.co.uk, and tickets can be bought on the website or by calling the box office on 0845 373 5888

ILLUSTRATIONS: DAVID LEMM EDITOR: ROSAMUND WEST DESIGN: LEWIS MACDONALD

FEATURES

T h r e e N At i o n s This year Unbound features events from three different literary nations, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands. We take a closer look at what you can expect from each

DS AN THERL NE The country: The Netherlands has a rich literary heritage, and one that is strangely neglected in our country, as translated work often is. A 2007 poll of the best Dutch novels was topped by Harry Mulisch’s The Discovery of Heaven, a highly acclaimed work which has received little attention in the English speaking world, even if the film version did star Stephen Fry. The so-called ‘Great Three’ of

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general situation for black men in America at that time being an obvious thread. Nonetheless, for our purposes it’s useful to know that The Last Poets’ spoken word work was groundbreaking, which should augur well for this event.

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post-war Dutch Literature were Mulisch, Willem Frederik Hermans and Gerard Reve, none of whom are at all well known here. This indicates a need for knowledge about this subject, and this is all the more reason to have an event for Dutch authors.

The author: The primary performer at this event will be Christine Otten. Christine Otten is a novelist, but also a music journalist, currently with the Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad. Her books have mainly revolved around music in some way. Which brings us to…

Literary credentials: Otten’s debut novel, Blue Metal, is somewhat autobiographical, in that it looks at the influence of music on a young girl. “I’ve grown up with a lot of music.” Otten has said “My brother played in a band, his guitar was always there. I remember being four years old and singing along with the Beatles – phonetically of course; I learned from the single my mother gave to my brother for his seventh birthday, with a record player. Pretty cool present now I think about it. I can still sing it that way...” Her second book was more directly about music. “Lente van Glas [Spring of Glass] is all about music, and has John Cale in it as a fictional character,” Otten has said. “It has some autobiographical elements like my obsession for music and the search for the stories behind it. I had the same kind of feeling, like I could find out more about myself through his music.” She also became friends with John Cale. Her third book was a collection of short stories called Angel, and Other Music Stories. Can you spot a theme here?

Performance ability: Otten is maybe best known for a book called The Last Poets, a fictional account of the real group of that name, an African-American poetry and rap group from the sixties and seventies. The book is about things other than music of course – the

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The country: Iceland is of course a small nation, which has produced one Nobel Prize Winner to date, in the form of Halldór Laxness, who won the Literature prize in 1955. Technically this means that Iceland has more Nobel winners per head than any other country, although how much credence you want to put in that fact is purely up to you. Nowadays Iceland is probably best known here for volcanoes which delay planes, and Björk. If that sounds trite, it’s because our general knowledge of the country is lacking, not because Iceland isn’t culturally rich.

As this event will prove.

The author: The host at this event will be Sjón. Sjón is something of a jack of all trades, having written poetry, novels, children’s books and even songs.

Some of the songs were with Björk, yes, get over it. He helped establish a music label and publisher called Smekkleysa, which translates as ‘Bad Taste’. His first collection of poetry was published in 1978, when he was just 16, so he has a lot of experience. Which brings us to…

Literary credentials: Sjón has said that “I don’t know if it’s a specifically Icelandic thing, but when you’re writing in a language that hasn’t changed very much for a thousand years, and in which much has already been written, it’s very difficult to put down more than one sentence without entering into a dialogue with that literary heritage.” His work has generally been about the past, but in a way that has great resonance with the present. His best known work is The Blue Fox, a work Sjón has said is inspired by “Icelandic folk stories, my fellow Icelanders’ unshakeable and misguided admiration of brutes, the plight of children with Down’s

syndrome in modern-day Iceland, the Romantic poets of the mid-nineteenth century, my belief that our society being humane isn’t something we should take for granted...”

Performance ability: Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Sjón has said that “telling stories through lyrics was definitely a good exercise before sitting down to write The Blue Fox. Another thing that informed the writing was my collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet as I discovered the novel’s form in the romantic string quartet, the four movements, the recurring themes, etc. My willingness to work in different fields of writing (opera, film, theatre) and to collaborate with people between books is something that has constantly provided me with new tools for my novels...” This is an author for whom writing and music are closely linked.

As far as pure performance goes, he’s sung on a Sugarcubes record called Air Guitar, as well as playing air guitar. That surely can’t be that difficult, but shows an agreeable element of flair. We’ll see how he does on Tues 14 Aug.

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Interview: Keir Hind

The country: Who will be the final nation?

To fill this cross-cultural creation?

Ireland is planned.

The story is on hand.

So here is the revelation.

The author: First is Kevin Barry from Limerick Who fits with this lyrical gimm(er)ick Julie Feeney will follow Maeve Higgins – we’ve borrowed For a great night of Irishy shtick.

Literary credentials: Three Nobelists, Heaney, Beckett and Yeats, And they’re only some of the greats Joyce didn’t quite make it But sure he could take it, As they gave them to two of his mates.

Performance ability: The Irish have legendary wit, Always coming up with a bit, Innovation’s the norm The invented this form So you know they’ll be a good fit.

The Fall of the Hungry Icelander Tue 14 Aug, 9pm, free The Colour Orange Tue 23 Aug, 9pm, Free Last Orders Tue 16 Aug, 9pm, Free All the authors above are appearing in the main Book Festival programme

UNBOUND 2012 • EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

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LISTINGS

TH E EV EN TS

HOMEWORK

Cabaret, in case you ever wondered, refers to an intimate night spot where audiences enjoy alcoholic drinks while listening to short programmes of entertainment. It naturally entails then, as you will have deduced, that when cabaret features at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, literature is the entertainment, and there is no more natural home than the Guardian Spiegeltent.

Homework is a literary cabaret club housed in East London (yeah), but whose resident literary heavyweights regularly feature at the UK’s best festivals – Latitude, Port Eliot, Glastonbury to name a few. A bit like the Travelling Wilburys of poetry, the residents of Homework, also known as Aisle16, are a strong collective but redoubtable individuals too. Some of these fellows actually referred to themselves as a Poetry Boyband – fortunately they outgrew themselves pretty quickly.

Joe Dunthorne, writer of 2011’s indie masterpiece Submarine and whose latest novel, Wild Abandon is shortlisted for this year’s Welsh Book of the Year (winner announced in July).

In the footsteps of Dave Eggers’ 826 schools, Dunthorne helped to set up Hoxton Street Monster Supplies which, through its secret door, is also home to the Ministry of Stories where young people drop in to read and write and be encouraged to develop creative writing skills. @JoeDunthorne Tim Clare, poet – though this suffix is a misnomer, or at least an underrepresentation. Tim Clare is prolific and the best kind of eccentric: creator of the Poetry Takeaway, the world’s first ‘mobile poetry emporium’; the man behind the 101 Poems in a Day project; a Fringe debutant in 2010 with 5 star show Death Drive; blogger, author; musician. You get the drift. @TimClarePoet John Osborne, author of Radio Head, The New Blur Album and the poetry collection What If Men Burst In Wearing Balaclavas? is perhaps most curiously known for John Peel’s Shed.

Ten years ago Osborne won a competition by writing the best slogan for the John Peel show.

The prize, a box of records, was the impetus to muse on how radio has affected his life. And of course John Peel’s Shed has now been adapted for radio (BBC4). @JohnOsRadioHead The fourth resident of the East London literary collective is Edinburgh local, Ross Sutherland, who takes poetry to places unknown (ref: Poem for iTunes Shuffle, whereby Sutherland has created interlocking stanzas than can be shuffled and played in any order) and perhaps best known for How to Write Badly Well. @ RossGSutherland. [Renee Rowland]

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Become Unbound every night from 12-27 August in The Guardian Spiegeltent in Charlotte Square Gardens, as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

All the events are FREE, and no booking is necessary.

Each event starts around 9pm and the bar is open until the wee small hours, but turn up early if you want to get a seat as it can get very busy...

INK AND MAGIC

HOMEWORK SUNDAY 12 AUGUST Homework, a night of literary cabaret based in East London, relocates to Edinburgh for a night of obsessions. The four Homework residents, and a secret guest, will explore their compulsive sides: Joe Dunthorne writes a letter to the first girl at school he loved (and still loves); Tim Clare raps his favourite niche magazine, Tree News; John Osborne tries to fall in love with every seaside town; Ross Sutherland revisits, again and again, The Crystal Maze.

THE BIG TIME SENSUALITY SHOW MONDAY 13 AUGUST Glasgow-based lit night Words Per Minute (described by both Radio 4’s Front Row and GQ Magazine as one of the best literary salons in the UK) is back at Unbound, and ready to get you hot under the collar. This year, they’re all about sensuality, and have brought together a collection of writers and musicians who know how to make you feel... something. The lineup includes Bookernominated author Sarah Hall, Jenni Fagan (one of this year’s Waterstones 11), Scottish Writer of the Year Alan Bissett, and the gorgeous young Scottishbased band Two Wings. As ever, nobody gets longer than ten minutes...

THE FABLE of the HUNGRY ICELANDER TUESDAY 14 AUGUST Iceland: sagas & myths, geysers & volcanic ash, big jumpers & impressively long names, and that frozen food company. The stereotypes are many and probably very irritating for the people that live there, but in recent years Iceland has continually produced a remarkable range of new literary voices creating an exciting contemporary literary scene. This has been capped with Reykjavik, the city of the ‘jólabokaflód’,

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL • UNBOUND 2012

becoming UNESCO City of Literature in 2011. Sjón is an award-winning poet, musician, novelist and now Book Festival regular. Join him as he hosts a very special event with some of Iceland’s finest writers and musicians including Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir and Kristín Ómarsdóttir. Presented in partnership with The Icelandic Literature Fund’

MAGIC WORDS WEDNESDAY 15 AUGUST Edinburgh based Illicit Ink make their Unbound debut with Magic Words, combining spoken word, storytelling and stage magic. Established in 2011, the group has been hosting regular themed nights across the city inviting writers to present prose on particular topics focusing on the dark, the weird and the witty. Gavin Inglis of Underword and Writers’ Bloc fame will compère the evening and Ariadne Cass-Maran, one of Illicit Ink’s founding members and the director of Graphic Scotland will perform pieces with other visiting authors from the Festival.

LAST ORDERS THURSDAY 16 AUGUST Curated by Maureen Kennelly and presented in partnership with Culture Ireland, Last Orders is a special event celebrating Dublin’s shared status with Edinburgh as a UNESCO City of Literature.

We are telling stories, sharing songs, and carousing late into the night with Unbound. The lyrical genius of Irish writers is well known with song and story living tangled lives in their literature. This night celebrates these feisty bedfellows, bringing together authors and special guests, including amongst others, Julie Feeney Kevin Barry and Maeve Higgins, to share inspiration, soundtracks, stories and songs. All are the perfect excuse for just one more for the road.

Illicit Ink is one of Edinburgh’s home grown spoken word events, which started as “an accident,” says event runner Barbara Melville. A team-up between Writers’ Bloc and Napier University creative writing students for an anti-Valentine’s night started it all. “It was a smashing night,” says Melville “and people kept asking when the next one would be. So, a bunch of us decided to keep it going.” It’s that simple.

Gavin Inglis of Writers’ Bloc describes it thus: “Illicit Ink is doing something quite unique in Edinburgh; it has open submissions but a strong theme which changes every show.

This is a difficult thing to bring off because your average writer will just take their latest story about hubcap collecting and insert a couple of words to make it about medicine, or murder, or fairies. But II always seems to work.”

This year’s theme is magic. But why? “Where there is good writing, there is magic,” says Melville. “I work as a stage magic consultant (think Jonathan Creek but with less money and better hair). The idea of linking magic and narrative performance has been flapping around my head for years. Both forms lend themselves to making the impossible possible. Both share ground in terms of structure, and then there’re overlaps with other concepts and effects, like transformation and misdirection. And of course, both are fun.”

Both compéring and performing can be fun and Ariadne Cass-Maran, who regularly does both, says that compéring can be more difficult “because you’re never quite ‘off.’ At least with performing, you get to have a beer and relax when it’s over.” So she’ll be performing, reading a story which “should be a little bit magical, a little bit funny, and a little bit scary,” she says, adding that “Unbound is always amazing good fun, and it’s so exciting to be part of it this year.”

Gavin Inglis, who will take the role of comperé, says “Some magicians of the ‘pick a card, return it to the deck – look, I’ve found it!’ variety could learn a lot from writers about engaging their audience’s emotions. And of course writers strive for fictional moments of wonder that the best magicians create in the real world.” There will also be actual performing magicians at the event too, but when Inglis says “the audience can expect to see some proper magic on the night,” I’m not sure that he means the conjurors. [David Agnew]

LISTINGS

LITERARY DEATH MATCH

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE

Literary Death Match (LDM) pitches poets, authors and the literati against each other on a stage: a battleshow of words and talent, a global event on a local stage celebrating the best of local produce, and its ruthless nature means only the finest writers survive. If you’ve never been before, this is what you can expect: LDM takes place every few weeks in all the great cities of the world, from Tokyo to Toronto and including our very own Edinburgh. Your gracious host, founder and all round enthusiast, Todd Zuniga, chairs each event. To start the show, he’ll introduce the contenders (‘in the blue trunks, in the poets’ corner we have…’): four of the best up and coming writers, thinkers and wordsmiths from around the city and surrounds.

Once the talent has been introduced, Zuniga will introduce the judges: a panel of local critics, comedians and literati glitterati who have the grave responsibility of determining the winners of each battle round while entertaining the audience with their reasoning.

With the scene set, contenders and judges met, the battle can commence. Taken in rounds, a pair of contenders are pitted against each other, each with 7 minutes to read an excerpt from their work – poetry, short stories, excerpts of novels. The short, intense minutes under the spotlight are all they have to showcase their talent and convince the judges of their merit in order to win a place in the final. After the first round, the judges confer, confabulate and choose a winner, whether you agree or feel a grave injustice. With little remorse or grievance for the loser, round two swiftly follows with the final pair of contenders battling for a place in the final.

The final – the denouement – takes leave of the judges’ opinions and sensibilities and determines the winner based on other channels. Inasmuch as the location for each episode of the LDM changes, so too does the format of the final, but Zuniga ensures the unknown element always proves to be entertaining and creative. It might involve a basketball hoop, it might involve figurative revenge on book burners, it might try to put the world to rights via Scrabble: whatever it does, a winner will be found and celebrated. LDM has the ability to compress and showcase a spectrum of everything that is great about literature and the enterprising unexpectedness is the beauty of it.

[Renee Rowland]

FRIDAY 17 AUGUST In 2011 literary pugilists Chris Brookmyre and Billy Letford were embroiled in a numerical battle royal.

In 2012, the Literary Death Match returns to these shores from its international travels to see who can win the most sought after title in literature!

Four writers must compete to win the hearts and minds of the fickle all-star judging panel, including Greg Proops, Rory Skovel, Chris Brookmyre and Billy Letford, and you, the noble audience with only their words as their weapons. The two authors who succeed in deftly dazzling all involved go onto a death-defying final round where survival is down to wits alone. Readers will include Nikesh Shukla and Tupelo Hassman. Join your host and LDM founder, Todd Zuniga, for a ringside seat.

NILE RODGERS SATURDAY 18 AUGUST Le Freak, Everybody Dance, We are Family, Let’s Dance, Like a Virgin, The Reflex. All songs that define decades of our music history; all songs which Nile Rodgers played on or produced. Often described as one of the people who invented disco, to describe this man as a music legend is no exaggeration. His book Le Freak – An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco and Destiny is the story of his life, love and the music that defined it all. As part of his visit to Edinburgh, Nile Rodgers will do a very special solo show of songs and stories.

HIGH INFIDELITY SUNDAY 19 AUGUST Bringing a different vice to the Unbound canon, Glasgow-based newcomer Kohl Publishing presents High Infidelity – an evening celebrating adultery in literary fiction. Featuring new writing, scarlet literature from the past, live music with a sensual twist and wayward trivia, the Kohl girls promise to turn The Guardian Spiegeltent into a den of deviance.

Kohl will also unveil an enticing digital peepshow – a new reading experience of tantalising downloads, showcasing Elizabeth Reeder’s Fremont, their brilliant debut novel. Watch out for the scarlet letter for giveaways.

CARGO V MCSWEENEYS MONDAY 20 AUGUST What happens when you put the two lean mean fighting machines of modern publishing head to head on stage? They have worked together to produce a wonder collection of short stories from around the world, Elsewhere. Originally conceived and commissioned in 2010 by the Book Festival, the book is published this August as a specially designed four volume boxset. Each volume is entitled Here, There, Everywhere and Somewhere – it’s the literary equivalent of The Beatles. The Guardian Spiegeltent plays host to a selection of Elsewhere authors, plus a literary ringer, as members of Cargo and McSweeneys face off to decide who gets to be Macca and who has to be Ringo!

SOUTH ASIA UNBOUND TUESDAY 21 AUGUST South Asian writing in English is keenly attuned to the musicality of language. Inspired by a richness of cultures, origins, and global influences, the soundtrack to such writing is often wide-ranging and eclectic: Bach to Bhangra, Radiohead to Ravi Shankar. Taking over the Guardian Spiegeltent tonight will be the London based South Asian Literature Festival to create their mixtape of South Asian stories, unbound. Join music journalist Neil Kulkarni as he spins tracks with tales from Hari Kunzru, Kamila Shamsie, Preeta Samarasan and Gautam Malkani.

ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENA WEDNESDAY 22 AUGUST The idea of reading as a visual activity is being challenged by the rise of interactive and audio books. The Electronic Voice Phenomena present four unique performances addressing the nature of stimuli at the intersection of writing, technology and voice. Drawing on the work of Konstantin Raudive

and compéred by Nathan Jones, this evening of new-media poetry is hard to describe, not to be missed and impossible to forget. Hosted by Mercy and Trigger. mercyonline.co.uk / triggerstuff.co.uk

THE COLOUR ORANGE THURSDAY 23 AUGUST A colourful collaboration of music, spoken word, literature and poetry. Working with the Dutch Foundation for Literature we have brought together artists for readings and performances reflecting the historical and cultural influences that combine to create Dutch culture. From the historical legacy of its empire in South Africa and Indonesia, to the influence of American culture in the 20th century, and the impact of multicultural Europe in the 21st century. Amongst those performing is Christine Otten, poet and author of the fictional biography of The Ghost Poets, De Laatste Dichters / The Last Poets, the legendary group of Afro-American poets and performers.

SWIMMING AND FLYING: A TALK BY MARK HADDON FRIDAY 24 AUGUST Celebrated author, artist and dramatist Mark Haddon presents a one-man talk about great white sharks, cosmology, creative writing, engine fires and ice hockey. Haddon’s career includes fifteen books for children, two poetry collections, several adult novels and two BAFTAs. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, won seventeen literary prizes, including the Whitbread Award.

His latest novel The Red House is a wonderfully insightful novel about family, estrangement, secrets, loss and the persistent echoes of the past.

FABER SOCIAL SATURDAY 25 AUGUST Edinburgh welcomes the Faber Social for an evening of readings and music featuring some of the most exciting new names on the international literary stage. From New York, Nigerian writer, Teju Cole, whose debut novel, Open City, was one of the most talked-about books of 2011. And from Mumbai, Jeet Thayil, whose debut novel, Narcopolis, was described by Alan Warner as “a work we can place on our shelves next to Roberto Bolano, next to G.V.Desani and Hubert Selby.” From closer to home – Middlesbrough in fact –we’re proud to present the writer described by Irvine Welsh as, “the voice of working class Britain”, Richard Milward, reading from his outrageous new novel, Kimberly’s Capital Punishment. Simone Felice and TM Wolf complete a fearsome bill of literary outlaws. Music throughout the night will be provided by Heavenly DJs.

SIMONE FELICE & T M WOLF SUNDAY 26 AUGUST A special collaboration of literature and music.

Simone Felice appeared in the first Unbound in 2010; since then his reputation as a solo artist has continued to grow. Once of The Felice Brothers and The Duke & the King, his last, eponymously titled, album received huge critical acclaim. In addition, 2011 saw the publication of his debut novel, Black Jesus, the story of a young American soldier trying to find meaning on his return from the Iraq War. TM Wolf has published his debut novel Sound; built on musical notation and modeled after hip-hop beats, it is an innovative first novel set on the New Jersey Shore telling the story of a young man who returns to his hometown only to find that home is not what he remembers it to be.

ELECTRONS, BUT POSITIVE

Here’s the first question to ask Nathan Jones, compére of Electronic Voice Phenomena: When you say your event draws on the work of Konstantin Raudive, what does that actually mean? “Mostly what we are taking from him is this title,” he replies. “For us, the title works on two levels, at the point of the phenomenon of lots of artists using voice and technology in their work – and then the way that Dr Raudive was using it, as the name for a phenomenon where ‘voices from beyond the grave’ were heard in electronic noise.”

What makes this event distinctive? “Electronic Voice Phenomena presents artists who use and abuse the electronic interface as part of their performance making,” Jones says.

“From finding a ‘voice’ in computational error, to distorting their own voices in the performance moment. It’s only tangentially ‘literature’ in that it uses language as experimental form – more important is the newness of language in performance in relation to the internet, the ‘overcoding’ of the city, textual coercion, distortion.” It becomes clearer when you see the event itself – they’ll have online videos.

“We are also really pleased to be working with several artists who play at the outer edges of literature and the arts more generally,” Jones says. These will include “theatre-writer, performer and film-maker Ross Sutherland, and New Contemporaries artist Sion Parkinson.”

To give a clearer version of what actually happens at one of these events, let’s ask about the last one. “Probably the most memorable thing about the last EVP show was Steven Fowler kickboxing with a contact mic inside his wrestling mask, followed immediately by this really intense and thought-provoking lyric poem by Ross Sutherland, on death, but using the visuals from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air as his ‘form’. It’s a real combination of the visceral and cerebral, of the experimental and affecting.” Sounds like an understatement. All of this comes through Raudive’s theory, which is “fruitful territory for a poetic exploration, especially when you consider the way Raudive described these voices – as ‘schizophrenic’, fragmentary, and moving between languages – and how similar this is to a lot of contemporary avant garde writing/performance.” This all does sound genuinely intriguing, and then some.

“The main thing that I would say,” Jones says, “is people can expect the opportunity to feel involved in the creative moment as an audience – so many of these works use the performance as an opportunity for divining and producing new meanings and feeling from language”.

[David Agnew]

IT WILL BE ALL WRITE ON THE NIGHT… MONDAY 27 AUGUST Closing Unbound will be an evening of new Scottish writing with the winners of the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awards. Join comedian and host for the night Sian Bevan, to listen to new voices of literature in Scotland, George Anderson, Kirstin Innes, and R.A Martens as well as one of the country’s brightest new poetry stars William Letford and the multitalented Kirsty Logan, for an evening of home grown talent in Charlotte Square Gardens.

UNBOUND 2012 • EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

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Words Per Minute, Tested

Hijacked by the Book Trust In which your correspondent tries to interview a gaggle of the Scottish Book Trust’s Writers, but loses the battle when they commence interviewing one another

Kirstin Innes gets the Mastermind treatment

Interview: Keir Hind

Interview: Keir Hind Words per Minute is the Glasgow-based event which focuses on spoken word, but also can include music, film and other types of performance. The trick is that performers only get 10 minutes per spot, or else. Started in 2010, it operated every month until recently, when it changed to occasional performances, one of which will be at Unbound. The event was first set up by Kirstin Innes and Anneliese Mackintosh, but currently Kirstin Innes is the lone mastermind running the show.

Mastermind, eh? Well, since she helped hijack the other piece she features in on this page, it seems only right that we get her back, Mastermind style. This should double as a short exploration of what can happen at Words Per Minute. So: Name: Kirstin Innes Occupation: Writer Your Specialist Subject: Words Per Minute.

What, Kirstin Innes, has been the most random occurrence that has happened at Words Per Minute?

Occasionally the techies would be testing the sound system in the Arches and a pounding beat would burst through some emotional climax.

Correct, if a little non-specific. What has been the most unconventional performance?

When Ian Campbell sat and ate a packet of crisps, and played static on an old radio, then said ‘Hello Words Per Minute, I’ve made a piece for you’ and unwrapped a piece and jam.

And ate it.

Em, that one sounds pretty correct. Who has been the wittiest performer?

Martin O’Connor always tickled the funny bone. He does short monologues called The Govan of the Mind, which are five second to two minute stories, which are almost always hilarious. He’s the first person that comes to mind as the wittiest.

Correct. Which performer has gone longest over ten minutes?

Ewan Morrison. 26 minutes. In our first ever event. He promised me his stories, which were early extracts from Tales From The Mall, were the right length, but no. I should say that I love Ewan, and he’s great, and I’m not having a got at him at all. But from then on we were extra strict.

Correct. What has been the strangest coincidence?

[A long pause on this one only leads in the end to a…] Pass.

What will happen at your Unbound event?

It’s going to be about sensuality, about the things that make you feel… stuff. Not just in a sexual way, but all kinds of stuff, because sensuality can be about all the five senses, or emotional senses. We’ve done sexual themes before, so this time we’ve broadened the subject out. It should be pretty good.

Correct. Kirstin Innes, you score 5 points, with one pass. And yet time has run out before we could get to this year’s line up, So, a quick glance should mention that the event will feature Sarah Hall, author of two Booker nominated works, Jenni Fagan, writer of the acclaimed debut novel The Panopticon, Alan Bissett, who generally hangs about these things, and Two Wings with the music. Whatever you do, don’t pass on this.

Words Per Minute will be getting all sensual on Mon 13 Aug. It will be FREE!

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The closing event at Unbound this year will be a showcase for the writers who have been supported by The Scottish Book Trust in recent years, specifically George Anderson, Kirstin Innes, Billy Letford, Kirsty Logan, and R A Martens. I rounded up these writers, minus R A Martens, who was away, but with the event’s compére Sian Bevan on hand to make up for that. Bevan says “I very much love the work of the SBT, and have been along to drink wine at many of their events, but one of my main jobs in life is compéring and hosting events.

I mainly work on the comedy and cabaret circuits, but I have a big gaping space in my heart for the Scottish literary scene – a place I’d like to be properly part of when I’m a grown-up – and it’s nice to be able to combine the things I really care about.”

All of these writers have at one time won a New Writers award, in open submission competitions.

It’s a real boost for writers starting out. “It was nice to receive a cheque from them,” George Anderson says, “but even nicer that they have continued to take an interest in me. We are a little family now, the New Writers.” A family? “Ask Billy Letford if he ever regrets nailing a poem under a slate. Billy is a roofer and he writes one-off poems on the underside of slates for posterity. He then doesn’t repeat them anywhere else. It must be a strain to let some of them go.” Um, okay. Billy?

“If you let it go without anyone seeing it you don’t have to worry about whether it’s any good,” says Billy Letford. “Although, of course, they’ve all been masterpieces. The only thing I’ve actually regretted nailing to a slate is my finger.”

Letford performs poems too though, and he

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL • UNBOUND 2012

tells me “I read in Airdrie Observatory, which is placed above Airdrie Library. Imagine a telescope supported by a building full of books, beautiful.

After the reading the chairs were put to one side and everyone, audience and poets, had a look through the telescope. We saw Jupiter, and two of its moons, Europa and Ganymede. I’d never seen another planet in such detail. I felt like a god.”

Who wouldn’t.

Can you add to that, Billy? “Ask Kirstin Innes to imagine Kirsty Logan as a male character from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Which one would Kirsty Logan be… and why?” Not this again. Okay, can you get that out of the way Kirstin? “That’s actually pretty easy, Letford. Kirsty is Legolas the elf. Sure, she’s got that pretty, Elijah Wood look about her, but she’s not really that Hobbitty. Kirsty’s calm and feline; you can imagine her feeling spiritually at home in a forest.” Right, so moving on… “More interestingly…” Oh God. “…if Billy had to imagine himself as a female character from children’s literature, which would it be?” Billy doesn’t need to answer. But he does anyway. “I’d be Goldilocks.

I love porridge, I’ve always wanted to have curly blonde hair, and you can often find me sleeping in someone else’s bed.”

That done, it’s time to ask Kirstin about her upcoming novel. But no. “Kirsty, if you could run away with any fairytale character, who would it be and why?” she says. “I’m fascinated by mermaids,” Kirsty replies, “there’s a sexy red-headed mermaid in my novel, but The Little Mermaid is a bit sappy. Does she have a sarcastic, bookish older sister? If so, I’ll swim away with her.” Well, at least you brought up the novel. “It’s called Rust

and Stardust, and it’s a dark fairytale set on a Scottish island.” Chapters are available as a free ebook through Kirsty’s website.

Getting back on track, what of the night at Unbound itself? Kirsty says, “I have no idea what my performance will be like! I plan to write something brand-shiny-new, but I’m still playing around with ideas.” It’s a common problem. George Anderson says “I am very good at ideas but I really hate the actual writing. Loathe it in fact. So this event is perfect for me as it’s all about ideas and not much time to write.” Billy Letford, similarly, says that his poems “go from my head to a piece of paper then I thrash them out on a laptop or computer. Or they go from my head to a piece of paper then nowhere.” He is a very accomplished live performer though, reciting by heart. Lastly, Kirstin adds that “it’s great that the Book Festival does free events.” Any favourites, Kirstin? “Generally the events where people get a bit drunk and a bit saucy, start screaming and shouting. That’s always great.” It sounds like this interview.

How, then, will Sian Bevan do holding this lot together? “When a compére’s done their job properly, the audience should feel like a team – a wee family who’ve just had a marvellous adventure together. The Unbound events are brilliant for having this effect, and I just hope my compering will add to the magic.” Nice. Anything to add, Sian?

“Ask Kirstin how her hair always looks so nice…”

That’s it, I’m done.

The Book Trust writers will be hijacking the festival itself for the last event of the last night on Mon 27 Aug .

The event is called ‘It’ll be All Write on The Night’, but don’t hold that against them. It’s free, after all

FEATURES

Hopes For Haddon What’s up with Mark Haddon? Let’s speculate Words: Ryan Agee

Mark Haddon is still best known for his book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but he’s worked in most literary genres. As well as novels, he has written poetry, children’s books and even television scripts. Curious Incident was published in 2003, and it was Haddon’s breakthrough as an adult novelist. He’ll be in Edinburgh to give a talk on Friday 24 August, and it’s interesting to look at his career prior to and since Curious Incident as a way of knowing what to expect, or to hope for.

Haddon began his writing life as a children’s author, and a popular one at that. For over 15 years prior to the release of Curious Incident, Haddon wrote well-received books for children. Part of this was a series called Agent Z, where the eponymous agent was fictitious within the fiction, a character that some school kids can use to take the blame for the increasingly elaborate practical jokes they play. It was an appealing premise that spawned a TV series based on one of the books, Agent Z And The Penguin From Mars. I mention this because I can remember enjoying this very show as a kid, without knowing who Mark Haddon was at the time, but enjoying the show for its writing anyway.

Other kids have clearly enjoyed his writing too, such as the school class who all wrote to Haddon (though their teacher may have influenced this) to praise his book Gridzbi Spudvetch! Though this came after Curious Incident’s success, Haddon nonetheless revised and rereleased the book as Boom! It’s to be hoped that the sort of clarity and general entertainment value that Haddon brought to children’s books, which need a good helping of both, will be present during his event.

These attributes were present in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a book which is not too far removed from children’s fiction, in that the protagonist, Christopher, is only 15. However, the adult theme comes in because the book is told from Christopher’s perspective, and he has some kind of mental condition which

affects the way he thinks. The covers of the books did identify this as Aspergers’ Syndrome, and the symptoms are similar, but the condition is never named in the book. In looking at what interested Christopher, Haddon did hit upon one topic which caught the imagination more than most: the Monty Hall problem. Monty Hall was a game show host who would hide a prize behind one of three doors, the other two of which concealed goats. A contestant would pick a door, and without opening it Hall would reveal one of the wrong doors and ask whether he or she wished to change their choice. It works out that making another choice is more likely to win, but people have a hard time accepting that. It’s to be hoped then that Haddon – who included a version of the problem on his old website to convince people – will set up this game at Unbound, simply to convince people in person.

After Curious Incident, Haddon wrote some poetry, much of which is quite good and worth reading – so it could be hoped he’d recite some during Unbound. He also wrote his second novel, A Spot of Bother, which suffered from a critical backlash after the success Curious Incident had enjoyed. It’s not as good, but it’s not a bad book by any means – so Haddon could talk about wavering critical reactions, bolstered by the fact that his new book, The Red House, appears to be enjoying some measure of praise, out of the shadow of Incident.

Of course, Mark Haddon could talk about any of these things, but the title of his Unbound event, Swimming and Flying, doesn’t hint at these topics – it’s an exploration of common fears. Nonetheless, hoping for any of the above topics teaches us that Haddon is not short of quirky and fascinating material, expressed in a clear and concise way. So bring on the new stuff. Or maybe the Monty Hall thing.

Mark Haddon will be appearing in the main Book Festival programme on Thu 23 Aug. Haddon’s Unbound event will be on Fri 24 Aug, and it is free

At t h e K o h l- F a c e New event, new publisher, new book... what’s going on?

Interview: Ryan Agee

Kohl publishing are this year’s lively upstarts, a new independent publishing house started by Lesley-Ann Dickson and Leila Cruikshank which aims to produce ‘original literary fiction for the modern female.’ Lesley-Ann Dickson tells me that they had “a great idea to have an event based on promiscuity and adultery and the negative side of females, or the way they’ve been presented as such in canonical literature.” Why host an event when the company is so new? “The event will launch the company, announce us to other publishers, and to some readers,” Lesley says “and hopefully get us some press as well. After that our first book will be released in October, in ebook and paperback form, and so we hope to bounce off the event that launches the company to some traditional book launches.”

As for that first book, it will be Fremont, by Elizabeth Reeder. That is the author’s real name, but it seems ridiculously coincidental that Kohl, who are particularly interested in digital media, should publish an ‘E. Reeder.’ Lesley says that after working, with Leila, in publishing for years, “we decided we wanted to start up an innovative publishing house that embraced ebooks, and really figure out how you could play around with

delivery of content in exciting ways like the games industry is doing, or the way that social media is doing.” Fremont actually appealed “first and foremost because the standard of writing was amazing. Elizabeth’s prose is absolutely amazing, quite lyrical in many ways. So more than the plot and the story, at first I was just grabbed by her writing.” Elizabeth Reeder says of this process, “I wasn’t sure at first, but Lesley and Leila are really talented. I could have waited, because I’ve gotten really good reviews for Ramshackle [her debut novel, published by Freight], so you have choices.

I liked them and wanted to invest in them.”

It’s quite a thing to be a publisher’s first book. “It stood out,” Lesley says, “amongst – at that point I think we’d had about 40 submissions, which isn’t a lot, but we’d gone through a lot and had had chick lit or something that had shown promise but just needed too much work, like around a year’s editorial.” So Kohl isn’t chick lit? “It’s a great industry,” Lesley says “it does what it does and it does it well. There are a lot of people who have made a lot of money out of chick lit, and that’s great. But what I always find frustrating about those kind of books is that I read them and when I look at the characters particularly I think we would

never do that or act that way. And it’s frustrating sometimes to be in that position. So what we’re looking for from writers is something that’s risk taking, something that’s original, but something that’s got multidimensional characters.” Kohl are also looking for submissions, if you’re interested.

But what about the event? “We’re looking to get maybe about four new writers to come up and do a reading, including Elizabeth,” says Lesley.

Elizabeth will be “reading part of Fremont, and I’m going to be reading an extract from another book.

My book has loads of adultery in it too, which is why they chose that theme.” Lesley continues that “at the event, people will be able to download the first three chapters for free,” and the book will continue arriving at e-readers in a serialised fashion. There will also be “some kind of quiz, and there’ll be music. The quiz will probably be the first half, to allow people to have a drink in the second without fear of forgetting answers.” So, alcohol, adultery, audience participation and a free book – what more could you ask for?

High Infidelity will be on Sun 19 Aug. And it will be free. Really, what more could you ask for?

Reeder will also be appearing in the main Book Festival programme on Mon 20 Aug

UNBOUND 2012 • EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

THE SKINNY

7

FEATURES

Going Elsewhere Conceived and commissioned by the Book Festival, published by an international dream team of Cargo and McSweeney’s, Elsewhere brings together celebrated authors from around the world in a four volume wonder collection of short stories Interview: Keir Hind Nick Barley is the Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and he explains why the theme of ‘Elsewhere’. “I was chatting with Irvine Welsh,” he says “who lives in the USA at the moment. He told me how fascinated he is by the Chicago boxing scene – and that he was considering writing about it.” This started a whole train of thought, which was also influenced by the fact that 2009 had been governmentally designated the Year of Homecoming. “I began to wonder if there’s a difference between thinking about Scotland as a place to come back to, and Scottishness as a starting point; something to set out from,” Barley says. “If we asked authors to write about ‘somewhere else’, might it reveal something unexpected about ‘here’?” Talking it over with colleagues widened this angle. “It could be a state of mind; a memory; a place to go after death. This is typified by the rather brutal opening line of AL Kennedy’s story: ‘Because it’s a Wednesday, he’s shagging Carmen.’”

AL Kennedy is just one of many well-known authors to contribute to this project, and Nick Barley is obviously pleased. ”For the Book Festival to have commissioned brilliant new work by the likes of Alan Warner, Michel Faber, Willie McIlvanney, AL Kennedy, Don Paterson and Denise Mina is very important in terms of our relationship with them.

Equally, we now have a much deeper bond with major international authors such as Alberto Manguel, Roddy Doyle, Yiyun Li, Miguel Syjuco, Amy Bloom and David Vann because of this project.

And I hope we will be helping emerging authors such as Kirstin Innes and Eleanor Thom to reach the new audiences that their work deserves.”

The festival itself doesn’t have the facility to publish on its own though, and so, Barley says, “it was important that we should seek a Scottish publisher.” Not only a Scottish publisher, but fittingly, one from ‘Elsewhere’ too. ”The opportunity to pair up Glasgow-based Cargo with the US-based McSweeney’s as a publishing dream team became possible because of previous links we’d developed with McSweeney’s. I suggested to Mark that if he could bring together the high production values associated with McSweeney’s, and the exuberance, innovation and energy of Cargo, that would add up to a winning combination.” How did that work out?

“To his immense credit, Mark and the guys from McSweeney’s have surpassed all our hopes, producing something which I think is truly world-beating.”

Despite his confidence in the project, Barley remains cautious. ”I am realistic” he says, “this is one book of many thousands that are published.”

And yet he’s proud of the finished work. “This book is much more than a gorgeous thing to pick up and flick through; the publishers have developed a dynamic approach to the marketing and distribution which will give the project exactly the international attention I think it deserves.” And

E X T R A C T:

O f a l l t h e Face s in the World, Y o u r Face

by James Hopkin

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what are his hopes, however unrealistic, for this collection? “For starters, I hope every one of the authors feels proud of what they’ve been part of; and that the Edinburgh International Book Festival succeeds in bringing these great writers to a wider audience. And I hope that readers of The Skinny go out and buy one of these beautiful books”.

Here, There, Everywhere and Somewhere

Whilst interviewing Mark Buckland of Cargo, my mind was suitably elsewhere. Specifically in the works of Dr Seuss. Which goes a little like this: Sum up Elsewhere for me in one sentence please?

It’s the most mind blowing four books you’ll read this year.

What makes your cooperation with McSweeney’s so clear?

I’d love to call us the McSweeney’s of Scotland, but I know that’s not true.

What is it you like that they do?

I love McSweeney’s design, ethos, approach, I love everything about them.

Tell us something loveable, then.

Anybody with a Native American totem pole in their office has got to be good.

How did you get McSweeney’s to say that they would?

I promised them fun. I didn’t tell them I would be driving them insane.

What have your best experiences at Unbound been?

It’s an absolutely fantastic atmosphere.

What can we expect at your event this year?

Six writers from Elsewhere, two ringers from here.

What does this mean for Cargo this year?

It’s one of the most exciting things we’ve done.

How would you describe Unbound as a one?

Being very drunk, and laughing a lot.

How far, would you say, have Cargo now got?

Pretty good, because we’ve got a great team.

What does publishing Elsewhere mean, in the grand scheme?

In terms of scale it’s the biggest thing we’ve done, and probably the most revolutionary.

As a step, it is most evolutionary We’ve already signed up a lot of big authors for 2013, and I think it takes us on to a different kind of stage.

It seems like Cargo are all the rage.

Things are definitely on the rise.

What would happen, ideally, after this exercise?

I could start writing a petition to the Nobel committee.

Probably not, but isn’t that pretty?

If you don’t look, you’re probably crooks.

Couldn’t resist.

You can see Cargo take on McSweeney’s from 9pm on Mon 20 Aug. And yes, it’s free.

The book will be launched at an event in the Main Programme on Thu 16 Aug at 7pm

Speak to me. Ok, if you can’t speak, then sing, whisper, moan or sigh! I know you can do it!

You have been keeping me up at night with your curses and imprecations! With your… your holysounding lullabies (yes, just like nuns at 5am, bad breath and church varnish caught in their coifs).

Also, I should tell you, you make some pretty fearful smells in your sleep. Your breath blows hot and cold!

Call this a conversation? Why go quiet on me now when I’m ready to talk, to open up my heart, my soul, whichever you want, the one, the other, even both? So don’t go giving me those paintedout ears. (I know you can hear me.) Or that grimace you wear so well as if I’m the one responsible for everything bad that has ever happened to you.

Listen, that first day you appeared – or rather,

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL • UNBOUND 2012

that night – each breath of yours landed a whole sentence against my skin. And in this sentence each word was like a drop of dew you’d carried home from the city gardens. I’ll admit it to you now: I was a little scared. I pretended to be asleep. I couldn’t keep my eyeballs still. My shivers betrayed me. You must have noticed! And when you started your heavenly chanting, I could take it no more; the tears poured down my face, my pillows turned to puddles of longing. I turned away from you. I didn’t want you to see me reflected in my misery. Why? Because you had only just arrived in my life and I didn’t even know where from.

(Though I am aware that everything nocturnal comes from underneath.) I did not want you to witness – so soon, too soon! – the delicious torment you were already exerting upon me.

In another pathetic attempt to convince you I was asleep, I turned to my other side (yes, an insomniac develops an endless assortment of sides). This is a manoeuvre usually full of despairing promise, to find cool, soft bones, a fresh patch of slumber. But still I could feel the features of your face branding my back. Or else an eyeball on both shoulder blades, your nose at my nape – like a dog that has the bone before the scent – while your words counted out my vertebrae like the beads of an abacus, or worse, a rosary.

I confess, I trembled. I repeat: I did not know who you were or where you had come from.

You can read the rest of Of all the Faces in the World in Elsewhere, or online at www.edbookfest.co.uk/newwriting/of-all-the-faces-in-the-world-your-face The individual books and the complete boxset will be available to purchase from the Festival Bookshop

fashion

L I F E S T YL E

T h e H o u s e T h at B l a c k B u i lt It’s been a busy few months for designer David Black; finishing his latest collection, graduating from Heriot Watt University and being nominated for a Scottish Fashion Award. We caught up with him to have a chat about his work and to ask what’s next Interview: Alexandra Fiddes

Glasgow born David Black got into fashion at a young age, studying an NQ in Fashion Design and Manufacture at Cardonald College at 16, then progressing to Heriot Watt University, where he has very recently gained a BA in Fashion Design. He’s full of praise for the course and the in-depth training it gives its students – “Lecturers and technicians were wonderfully supportive throughout the whole process, each individual has been a massive help.”

But what inspired Black to choose fashion so early on? “I have always loved music videos and movies, I have always loved the escapism in them, I guess you could say it was that – music and film.

I was always a bit of a daydreamer, I still am.” This dreamlike quality is certainly seen within Black’s latest collection Sunday Morning, which is full of bright and striking colour combinations, Peter Pan collars and stunning kaleidoscopic prints.

“I’m inspired by so many things. It could be anything from a colour to a TV show, a video game, an artist or a song… really anything!” explains Black, “I always draw from things that are first hand so there are little touches of my personal life, but I prefer to keep those elements more subtle.”

He tells us that for this particular collection these

Photo: Daniela Flores

references were as diverse as childhood memories of Sunday School and the stained glass windows, Tarantino’s Kill Bill, paintings by Giovani Tipolo, Howl by Allen Ginsberg and even Grand Theft Auto produced by Rockstar Games. “I build a story around them, ending up with an entire world.” The religious influences are especially easy to see in the halo-like headpieces that adorn the models – straight out of a vision sent from heaven above!

However, this designer’s feet are firmly on the ground, with new technologies being a crucial part of the design process. “I use a lot of different software, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, but I also use many websites as online inspiration resources.”

The wonderful contradictions and feelings of escapism within Black’s work have already caught the attention of many, with his garments being included in a variety of catwalk shows and events like Bold Souls and Inspire The Attire. As well as achieving a prestigious Scottish Fashion Award nomination for Scottish Graduate of the Year 2012, where he came away with a ‘highly commended’ (an accolade, which, to my knowledge, has never been awarded before). “It was one of the most beautiful nights of my life, I have dreamt of going

to events like that since I was young, so to be in the same room with that much beauty and talent, it was really just wonderful.”

For the young designer there were definitely important insights to be gained from his participation in these events, notably the SFAs. “Mainly it gives me confidence in my work, to sit with such big names and be a nominee, it makes me realise that I must be doing something right.” Other designers involved have also made a big impact on Black –”There were so many wonderful people there and then to find out how down to earth and lovely they were, it was very refreshing!”

The whole experience has made him more determined than ever, and bursting with ideas of where his career could take him next. “I’d like to expand into evening-wear and one-off pieces,” adding that he would like to, “get myself a little studio and set up the House of Black with bricks instead of blogs!”

With enthusiasm and talent galore, the future’s bright for David Black.

On the 17 Aug, David Black will be taking part in Inspire The Attire 2, The Tall Ship, Riverside, Glasgow, G3 8RS For more information please visit www.thehousethatblackbuilt.tumblr.com

July 2012

THE SKINNY 41

showcase

L I F E S T YL E

Gab

a l l rie

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PRINT & DESIGN STUDIO

Gabriella Marcella Ditano graduated from the Glasgow School of Art Graphic Design department this year. Her work includes a range of event posters, carrier bag designs for Urban Outfitters, and independent publishing. She has recently won The Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Practice, which has allowed her to start up RISOTTO, a Print and Design studio, specialising in Risograph printing. It's the first time an undergraduate has won the award from GSA, and the launch of the studio will work to facilitate the creative community with an affordable and versatile one stop print shop, alongside a sprightly design service.

IST IM

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& & & &

2

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YEAR OLD MAN FROM YORK SEEKING A WOMAN

I TRUL

YEAH C’MON, KIND GIRLS!

July 2012

:SLIM :CERTAINLY

A LOVER

www.gabriellamarcella.com/

42 THE SKINNY

ODYTYPE EMPTED

ENCE

THE RIGHT ONE, SEARCHING FOR A LIFE TIME PARTNER FOR MARRIAGE

B T

I’M A MATURE MAN FOR MY AGE, WHO KNOWS HOW TO MAKE A WOMAN FEEL JUST LIKE A WOMAN AND ALSO COOL.

O Y L

VE

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S

THE_PUNISHER

I AM JUST SIMPLE AND NICE. MY FAVOURITE CUISINE IS AFRICAN-ITALIAN AND PORTUGUESE. I WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE I AM THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER WALKED INTO YOUR LIFE..

M A T C H:

IDEAL

MONEY, OBJECTS, BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN AND CARS ARE NOT IMPORTANT TO ME. I AM NOT A SHALLOW PERSON AND I AM NOT TOO MUCH.

ANY THING (MANNERS WITH SEXY)

LIFESTYLE

BIN GO Meet your local sweetheart

JULY 2012

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L I F E S T YL E

food & drink

T he H eat is O n: T he S kinn y G uide to S ummer F ood Confused and enraged by the annual emergence of the sun? Fear not, as we’ve put together the definitive guide to a Food & Drink summer. Well, we say definitive...

Words: Peter Simpson

When out and about in the past few weeks, you may have found yourself squinting whenever you look skyward. Gone are the grey skies sponsored by Dulux’s ‘Shades of Misery’ collection, and in their place someone seems to have left an oversized novelty light-bulb which radiates both light and heat. That, dear reader, is the sun.

Stop looking straight at it, you’ll just hurt yourself.

Instead, enjoy its rays through these various food-based endeavours.

BURNING MEAT

It’s summer, so why cook inside safe from the elements with easily-controlled kitchen equipment and access to soap and water, when you could sit in the cold trying to cook sausages over a foil tray filled with bits of charcoal? Barbecuing the crap out of suspicious meat is as much part of summer as pretending to be interested in sport, or wearing a wide-brimmed hat. There are right and wrong ways to do it, though.

The wrong way is to panic and head for the nearest park. Edinburgh and Glasgow’s parks are packed with obstacles to a perfect barbecue, such as alcoholics, insane dogs and Ultimate Frisbee teams. Much better to make a day of it and head either to the beach (Edinburgh) or a bigger, better park (Glasgow). Park-wise, our Weegie readers could do worse than Mugdock Country Park or Finlaystone Estate. Neither is much more than half an hour from the city, both can offer barbecue pits and other useful facilites, but Finlaystone’s tolerance of boozing swings it for us.

East Coast people are spoiled for choice when looking for a site to burn the crap out of their food, but North Berwick gets our vote for two reasons. You can get everything you need once you get there, saving you from smelling like raw meat on the train, and there’s more good ice cream on offer than you’ll know what to do with.

Seriously, Greco’s. Irn Bru ice cream, it’s just... you gotta try it. Plus, when your barbecue is done at the beach you can simply upend it in the sand

44 THE SKINNY

July 2012

Illustration: Nick Cocozza

that makes finding even the meekest and most uncooperative of friends a dawdle. Or you could do the opposite, and hide in the Beehive’s beer garden (Grassmarket). It’s a feat of engineering, with multiple floors, hidden tables, and more steps than most blocks of flats. Grab a pint and a hiding place, and wait for the heat-induced red mist to descend on your friends and loved ones.

and tidy up. Do that in the park and prepare for the indignity of a manslaughter trial.

MIMICKING TRAMPS

Yes, drinking in the outdoors doesn’t exactly scream out elegance and dignity, and there will be many people this summer who take the slightest break in the clouds as an excuse to wander around with their tops off swigging cider from plastic bottles and being belligerent towards passing children and animals. The Skinny does not advocate such crass behaviour, but has some suggestions to gentrify and generally improve the whole activity, giving your horrendous dehydration-powered hangover a vague semblance of acceptability.

The trick is to get yourself down to a beer garden. Glaswegians in particular, take heed, because you lot aren’t even supposed to be drinking outside in the first place. The Big Blue (Great Western Rd) offers a hobo’s-eye-view over the Kelvin, and the Big Slope (Kelvingrove St) has plenty of shade and lovely flowers to look at. Your best bet, however, is WEST (Templeton Buildings).

WEST (their capitals, not ours) brew their own beer and serve it up just off Glasgow Green in a bar that bursts out onto the grass outside, with plenty of room to fit everyone back in when it inevitably starts chucking it down.

As for the Edinburgh folk, it is true that you could wedge yourselves in to the remaining postage stamp of Meadows grass unsullied by crazy crusties with their fighting dogs or the sprawled idiots who insist on modelling their seating arrangements on a game of ‘duck duck goose,’ but we’ve just had this discussion. You can do better, and you’d hardly have to turn around. The Auld Toll (Home St) lies just beyond the Meadows, and has the same quaint charm but with a much more controlled clientèle, a wider selection of beer and much comfier seating, on account of actually having seats.

You could head just up the road to the Links Bar (Alvanley Ter), with its terrace out in front

MAKING ILL-ADVISED PURCHASES

Barbecuing the crap out of suspicious meat is as much part of summer as pretending to be interested in sport, or wearing a wide-brimmed hat

If sunstroke and food-induced diarrhoea haven’t sold you on this summer business, then how about a nice gadget to play with? Winter has sledges, spring has shotguns and Barbour jackets, and summer has solar-powered backpacks and USB fridges.

Picture this: you’re out in the park against our advice, and your illicit bottle of wine begins to get uncomfortably warm. What to do? In the past the only option would be to get over yourself and enjoy the sun, but now there are a whole host of products that solve this clearly-pressing problem.

Get your CrossKase backpack (for a mere £140!), with its solar panels and multiple USB adaptors, ally it with a USB-powered fridge, and your problem’s solved. Admittedly, you’ve just created several new problems, but hey! Cold wine!

And while we’re solving non-existent problems, what about a barbecue that you can take indoors? Yes, we have heard of an oven. Anyway, the Rondue (just £79!) can solve all your nagging worries around setting your friends alight, allowing you to cook indoors and outdoors in style on a device that looks like a cross between a gallstone and the disembodied head of one of the Smash robots.

Yes, summer is here. A season when companies can confidently pitch a product for cooking indoors in the way you would cook outdoors, if you weren’t indoors. This ‘summer’ is a strange and confusing time, but don’t worry. It never lasts much longer than a couple of weeks.

Summertime to enjoy organic fruit

A ROUND THE WOR LD IN 20 DR INKS:

SPAIN

Welcome to Spain, where the weather’s good, the drinks are cheap, and the cider is thrown from a height

• Fresh, Local & Seasonal • Fairtrade & Organic • Superfoods & Raw foods • Free-from foods • Vegetarian foods • Friendly advice

WORDS: PETER SIMPSON

ILLUSRATION: SARAH TANAT JONES

You might well be thinking ‘Spain, that’s the place with the sangria and the ticking time bomb of 50% youth unemployment, isn’t it?’ It is, but it’s also home of some of the top spirits in the world. Dos Maderas PX 5+5 might sound like CIA code for an assassination, but it was voted best rum in the world in 2011, and came second again this year. It’s aged for a second five years in Spanish sherry casks to take on extra flavour and character, as well as having time to perfect its Spanish accent.

Speaking of sherry, it is true that Spanish wine is incredibly diverse and ludicrously cheap. The reds are full-bodied, packed with berry and plum flavours, and going for a song, almost literally. A song on iTunes costs 79p; a bottle of Spanish red will set you back about £1. So a song and an extra verse.

But it isn’t just wine that’s outlandishly cheap and tasty. In Barcelona, an ice-cold can of Estrella Damm will set you back 45 cents. A soft drink, or a bottle of water, will put you out the best part of a

euro. Given those circumstances, it’d be positively foolish to do anything other than cut about the place constantly drinking beer, a view evidently held by everyone between the ages of 13 and 65.

The Basques have the right idea when it comes to taking the edge off, their kalimotxos blending the more suspicious of red wines with your everyday cola to create a stone-cold taste sensation. Wipe that look off your face, it isn’t trashy and shambolic at all. It goes very well with Basque tapas, and they always say you should eat when you’re drinking, so it all works out fine.

Basque cider, or sidra, is the perma-sparkling crispy taste sensation that makes our ciders taste even more like binbags and shame than usual. Sidra is also an event drink, in that it has to be poured over the shoulder à la Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Something to do with acidity, apparently.

After a few days of 45 cent beer, you’ll be ready to believe anything.

F R I N G E 2 012

Free delivery for online orders over £15

Shop online at

www.realfoods.co.uk 37 Broughton St, Edinburgh EH1 3JU 8 Brougham St, Edinburgh EH3 9JH

We're looking for writers to add to our crack team of comedy writers for the August Edinburgh Fringe.

Full info here: www.theskinny.co.uk/ about/get_involved

Vegetarian • Fairtrade • Special diet • Organic

FOOD NEWS WITH PETER SIMPSON

Now summer’s in full swing, it’s almost time for us Scottish folk to pretend to be civilised and cultured when all these London types come up for the Fringe. Taste of Edinburgh, then, couldn’t come at a better time to act as something of a dress rehearsal. The outdoor food festival is back with its pop-up restaurants, cookery demos, special one-off collaborations and stalls selling everything from olive oil to coconuts with straws in them. Remember, no biting or hair-pulling; there’s always plenty of stuff to go around.

If you don’t fancy behaving with any decorum until it’s absolutely necessary, then we’ve got just the thing: Go Native! It’s an ancient technology and cooking festival! It’s a real thing that we didn’t even have to make up! Learn how to catch fish, cook over open fires, and make your own utensils, all skills which are completely useful on a day-to-day basis and great for the CV. They’ll get you noticed, that’s for sure.

And they could actually come in handy at Thistly Fest, the music and food festival from Thistly Cross cider. Music from Meursault and FOUND amongst others, mass fruit picking and a litany of food and tasty, tasty ciders, all in the great outdoors. Sure it sounds fun and tranquil, but when the weather inevitably turns rotten it’ll be every man for himself, and some bush skills wouldn’t go amiss.

Now, time for a game. Specifically, Burns Stewart’s Blending Game, where learning about

MEURSAULT. DON'T GET YOUR EVENTS MIXED UP AND TRY TO HUNT HIM.

PHOTO: MARTIN SENYSZAK

The world of food outdoes itself this month, with whisky-based gameshows, caveman impersonation, and terrible, terrible puns... all part of July’s food news

how whisky works and amateurishly having a go yourself is fun. Or so we’re told, anyway. We reckon treating it like a cheesy 90s gameshow is the way to go, starting each of your sentences with a remark on how much of a good time you’ve had and taking five minutes to answer a simple question.

If there’s one group you can always rely on for a terrible pun that quickly loses any humour on repetition, it’s the ale enthusiasts. The Dumfries Folk ‘n’ Ale Festival (tee-hee-hee indeed) will see a whole host of special beers going to the Borders in tandem with a selection of indoor and outdoor folk gigs. Also, Folk ‘n’ Ale sounds like a swear, doesn’t it? They should do stand-up; who knows, come next month they may well be.

TASTE OF EDINBURGH, 6-8 JUL, THE MEADOWS, EDINBURGH, FROM £15.

GO NATIVE! 20-22 JUL, SCOTTISH CRANNOC CENTRE, KENMORE. £4.

THISTLY FEST, 28 JUL, BELHAVEN FARM, DUNBAR, £28.

THE BLENDING GAME, 27 JUL, WHISKY ROOMS, EDINBURGH, £10.

DUMFRIES FOLK ‘N’ ALE FESTIVAL, 12-15 JUL, VARIOUS VENUES

Skinny241-126x155-cocktail.indd 1

25/06/2012 14:17

JULY 2012

THE SKINNY 45

records

REVIEW: SINGLES

The Dir t y Dozen

Hailing from hardcore punk superpower OFF!, Keith ‘original Black Flag vocalist’ Morris and Dimitri ‘played guitar on a Bond theme’ Coats carry a special license to say whatever the hell they like about July’s single releases Conductor: Ross Watson

Photos: Michael Gallacher

Why would you want to come in here and subject us to horrible music?

Dimitri Coats

SINGLE OF THE MONTH Real Estate – Exactly Nothing (Domino, 2 Jul) Keith Morris: This is Real Estate?

I’ve seen them play. They were actually one of the best bands at the Woodsist Festival – it’s like a little mini-fest with Kurt Vile and some others. I could give this a seven. They’re pretty jangly; they sound like, if R.E.M. was still in existence they’d open for them. Pretty light, fluffy. Very unoffensive.

My mom would like that.

Keith: It’s not horrible...

Dimitri: You walk in to some like, trendy new sushi restaurant somewhere in L.A...

Keith: They would be playing that. Like a really bad version of Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Dimitri: I don’t even know what that is...

Keith: They were Japanese, probably listened to XTC...

Dimitri: [Motions to our magic sack of promo singles] Is there stuff in there that’s like, good? I mean, Keith’s wearing a Royal Trux shirt – let’s go!

Fránçois & The Atlas Mountains (Edge of Town, 23 Jul)

Dog Is Dead – Glockenspiel Song (Atlantic, 23 Jul)

Keith: This is Christmas Carols with saxophones.

We’ll have to give them an A for effort and a zero for conduct. It’s too nice.

Dimitri Coats: Animal Collective has started this fuckin’ thing that’s causing a lot of bad music to happen... this whole ‘world music‘ vibe.

Keith: Yeah, but Vampire Weekend were the ones that pushed that really bad Paul Simon fuckin’ world beat thing. We don’t need to listen to this anymore...

Dimitri: It gets black metal towards the end, you just gotta wait for it. Total shift in style.

Keith: The most that I could give that... I mean, I’d have to call my mom to ask her what she thinks. I mean, it’s great for all the people that love world beat, but I’m kind of beaten down by the world.

Dimitri: I guess I’d give this a two.

Grasscut – Pieces (Ninja Tune, 9 Jul) Dimitri: This is even worse, ‘cause at least the other band had instruments!

Keith: There was saxophone in the last one. [both laugh at one particularly quirky beat] Dimitri: This is a one.

Keith: This is office cubical music – this would be the music you’d play on your computer, working in your little cubical and your boss would tap you on the shoulder and want to know who this is and when they’re coming to town. Very friendly.

Dimitri: It’s horrible.

46 THE SKINNY

July 2012

Dimitri: I can see the video for this, you know, they’re playing volleyball and there’s this little tiny dog shaking the water off itself, and some kid’s blowing bubbles...

Keith: Bubbles is the nickname for the volleyball coach. Mr. Bubbles. [laughter] Dimitri: [sigh] Okay, that’s enough of that. One. Keith: We’ve got to give them credit for their creativity, but if we were in a record store and the guy behind the counter was playing this, trying to be Mr. “Hey I’m new and cool and this is the hot new thing,” he’d end up getting punched in the face.

Dirty Projectors – Gun Has No Trigger (Domino, 2 Jul)

Keith: So these are supposed to be the hot new singles in Glasgow?

Dimitri: This is horrible. The guy’s voice sucks. One. Keith: Yeah, that guy’s terrible. My mom would punch him in the face.

The Skinny: Your mum comes up a lot...

Keith: Yeah, my mom comes up a lot because this is like mother and father dinner time music.

Dimitri: We know an OFF! Record is hitting the mark if his mom doesn’t like it.

Enter Shikari – Warm Smiles Do Not Make You Welcome Here (Ambush Reality, 2 Jul) Dimitri: This is really bad, dude. It’s horrible.

Keith: ...but at least this one has drums!

Dimitri: Those aren’t real though. The drummer didn’t play that...

Keith: Aren’t they big in the Kerrang! world? So this is what the guy who paints his face and has big earrings and his hair’s gummed to the side listens to? You know, the one who looks like all the other guys you see in the magazine?

Dimitri: Why would you want to come in here and subject us to horrible music? This is a one.

The Temper Trap – Trembling Hands (Infectious, 9 Jul)

Dimitri: This is probably better than the last two things we heard, but just as bad as the stuff we heard three or four CDs ago.

Keith: This isn’t too bad, I mean, for this type of music. This is from the lovemaking scene from, uh...

Dimitri: This is what I want to hear when I’m reenacting the Titanic scene on the bow of the boat.

Three.

Deaf Club – Moving Still (Too Pure, 16 Jul) Dimitri: Jesus Christ, can you make the fucking snare any louder? Wow. Keith: Yeah, but at least there’s a snare!

Dimitri: The chick’s voice isn’t the worst thing in the world – this is better than a lot of the other stuff.

Yeah, this is not terrible – I’d give this a five.

My Goodness – C’Mon Doll (Division, 9 Jul) Dimitri: Kind of a Black Keys vibe, right? It’s like a Black Keys rip-off. I’m not a big Black Keys fan so I don’t really care about it.

Keith: At least we’re listening to something with some kind of rock vibe. That’s a six. A lot of this stuff is just sleepy and trendy and nobody’s stepping up and trying to hit a run, they’re just striking out.

The Invisible – Wings (Ninja Tune, 9 Jul) Dimitri: This is like “Hey, come up to my room, I’m in 324 at the Standard Hotel!” And you walk in and this is what’s playing in the elevator on the way up. And there are projections of fish instead of an actual fish tank.

Keith: No, you’re at the bar and you’re drinking some overpriced drink and everybody’s trying to look cool.

[Dimitri laughs] Dimitri: Let’s face it, we don’t like it – this is a one or a two. The problem is that this is what the majority of people in the world listen to. I already hear it more than I want to when I walk into these fucking restaurants and hotels... Television commercials... [imitates voiceover] “The new Acura Legend four wheel drive...”

Slugabed – Mountains Come Out Of The Sky (Ninja Tune, 16 Jul) Keith: This sounds like it could have been played in the Copenhagen airport.

Dimitri: I don’t really like hip-hop, but I want this to turn into like [imitates crude rapping style], just something to kick the doors in a little bit.

Keith: This sounds like the theme song for the Olympics that are gonna be happening over there across the border. This’ll be the BBC intro music. I can’t give this above a five.

Dimitri: Was there even any vocals? Do we care?

The Dirty Heads – Spread Too Thin (Executive Music, 8 Jul)

Dimitri: This is... This is horrible.

[OFF! drummer Mario Rubalcaba walks in, begins to dance] Dimitri: Let’s get the backstage vibe goin’!

Keith: What is this, new age reggae? He’s spread too thin but that shit’s way too thin to stick. Let’s say three.

Dimitri: Did somebody put you up to this? Did Trash Talk put you up to this?

Mario: [hums the tune] You guys are gonna put way too many bad songs in my head.

Stexis & Jonnie Common – Split AA side (De-Fence, 2 Jul)

Dimitri: Perfect hi-hat sound. [to Mario] Dude, this is the snare sound we were looking for.

Mario: [to the beat] Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish...

Keith: A five; that was an exercise in mediocrity. So you’re gonna take these home and listen to all of them in their entirety or are you just gonna put them in the trash? www.offofficial.com

100% Silk Showcase Nice N’ Sleazy, 7 Jun

rrrrr Los Angeles label 100% Silk are key players in the new wave of synth music currently sweeping the hipsterverse, and tonight’s showcase gig sets out to demonstrate the effectiveness of their delectably sleazy/beautiful brand of dance music.

Maria Minerva kicks off proceedings with a set that relies heavily on pre-made beats and synths, abandoning her laptop and MIDI controllers to dance on stage with a mic fed through some heavy reverb and distortion. The effect is somewhat underwhelming, with not much imagination on show in either the music – taking in hints of disco, Italo, 90s eurodance and R&B – or the frequently off-key vocals. A misjudged cover of the Spice Girls 2 Become 1 fails to inspire, although the crowd seem to enjoy the nostalgic vibes.

The retro-abuse of 90s dance continues with Ital’s set.

Screaming the lyrics of Corona’s idiotic Rhythm Of The Night over harsh, beatless synths, he quickly switches up into analogueelectronic heaviness, mercilessly pounding out chunky electro synth lines, distorted Chi-house claps and fat, sonorous 808 drums while dancing like a one-off man-mental. The new synth scene can be seen as a revivalist movement, often relying on hardware

The Field / Konx-om-Pax Glasgow Art School Union, 9 Jun

rrrrr In theory, Glasgow’s Konx-omPax is a fitting opener for The Field’s hypnotic, loop-based minimal electronica; Tom Scholefield’s mixture of aqueous ambient textures and slow-motion, dubby techno also skirts the boundaries between the dancefloor and more dreamy, introspective realms.

Tonight, however, the exploratory character of his set, which is unified by texture and atmosphere rather than generic touchstones, attracts less attention than it warrants from the crowd.

The contrast with the enraptured response received by The Field is striking, and emphasises the disjuncture between Axel Willner’s studio recordings and the

over soft synths, and frequently referencing mainstream pop from the 80s and 90s, putting it through heavy distortion and depthless reverb. Ital pitches his set perfectly, balancing ironic bass-thievery with upfront, dancefloor-destroying energy.

The highlight of the night is a truly original set of deep, laidback electro from male-female duo Innergaze, who trade harmonised vocoder vocals and building grooves over hypnotic, improvised synth lines and squelchy 303 bass.

It’s a captivating performance, and has the unpredictability and depth of a fully-realised live stage show, at times recalling another male-female synth duo, Xeno & Oaklander. Innergaze anchor the night, delivering the most accomplished performance, completely free of ironic musical nudges and winks.

Headliners LA Vampires bring back the heavy Italo influence, playing as a three-piece, with Amanda Brown upfront on vocals. It’s a lo-fi house take on the 100% Silk sound, with Brown’s whispered refrain of “the freedom, the ecstasy” recalling early Balearic vocal dance tracks.

It’s enjoyable, but somewhat wispy and insubstantial compared to Innergaze’s scintillating set. Over all, there’s just a touch too much retro and not enough impro on show tonight to truly impress, but Brown and crew certainly leave the crowd blissed-out and smiling.

[Bram E. Gieben] www.listentosilk.com

atmosphere of his live performances. Although there are no surprises in his set, which ranges over highlights from all three LPs, the entrancing asceticism of tracks like A Paw in My Face is transmuted in this context into full-blown anthemic house.

Some of the subtlety of Willner’s music is consequently lost; moreover, the embellishment of his tracks with live bass and drums can feel like an encumbrance, filling out the sound but sacrificing its razoredged simplicity. Konx-om-Pax is the artist exploring more new and interesting territory tonight, but the euphoria with which The Field is received demonstrates that, in a live setting, forging connections with the audience can reveal previously-unheard dimensions to familiar pieces. [Sam Wiseman] www.kompakt.fm/artists/the_field

Walls Sneaky Pete’s, 27 May

rrrrr Despite glowing album plaudits and back-slaps from the likes of Caribou and Battles, London duo Walls remain a cult concern.

Tonight’s shallow gig turnout emphasises this, though taking stage at eleven o’clock on a school night undoubtedly exacerbates things. It’s something of a puzzle, particularly when members Sam Willis and Alessio Natalizia hit Balearic-style plateaus time and again.

Squint at the double-whammy finale of Sunporch and Raw

Umber and you could easily imagine a throng of sweaty clubbers losing their shit to the madly euphoric peak of it all. Yet like listening to the source albums, Walls in a live setting easily transcend whatever mundane obstacles surround you. And so, the crowd dance in shafts of sunlight that punch through the venue’s flaky mortar whilst the band coax mass crowd participation to centrepiece and highlight Burnt Sienna. Well, in our minds at least. Walls? An ironic moniker for sure. [Darren Carle] Coracle Remixe is released on 4 Jun via Kompakt www.kompakt.fm/artists/walls

Chris Cornell O2 Academy, 15 Jun

rrrrr “I’m only here for the Timbaland era,” barks a man in the Academy’s gents room. A dozen patrons lining the urinal shoot the perpetrator a baffled look while a guy on the end chuckles away. Chris Cornell’s 2009 collaboration with the R&B über-producer was a bold evolution at best, but with the singer since taking his solo career back to basics while exhuming the incendiary band he made his name with, Scream has become a critically maligned moment he quickly walked away from.

Having already witnessed the enduring 90s rock god strip paint from the walls with Soundgarden twice in the week prior to this particular gig, tonight his acoustic performance is often heavy in itself. Wearing formative influences on his sleeve from the outset, a roaring turn at one of Syd Barrett’s laments (Dark Globe) nestles alongside faithful odes to Led Zeppelin (Thank You), The Beatles (You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away) and a sedate trundle over Billie Jean. Moments

Com Truise The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, 12 Jun

Photo: Gemma Burke

Photo: Gemma Burke

photo: Richard Ferguson

R E V I E W : Live M u s i c

Papa M King Tut’s, 28 May

rrrrr As a key member of both Slint and Tortoise, David Pajo can claim to be perhaps the single most influential figure in the post-rock world; and the myriad projects he has pursued since have taken some unpredictable turns. Tonight’s bizarre pairing of supports thus feels appropriate: De Selby combine a three-piece brass section with finger-picked guitar and hushed vocals; while Manky Savage are an unashamedly cheesy, sleazy classic rock trio.

It’s a disorienting start, and creates an atmosphere of expectation. There is, however, a slightly underwhelming feel to the initial stages of Papa M’s set, which runs

rrrrr

through some instrumentals from 1999’s Live From a Shark Cage: although the delicate fretwork and pastoral melodies of these pieces retain their gentle beauty, they can feel flickering and insubstantial in the live context.

Some of Pajo’s later, vocalbased material also makes an appearance, but the haunting, Leonard Cohen-esque atmosphere of the records is less evident tonight. It’s only in the closing 20 minutes, in fact, that the set really comes together. I Am Not Lonely With Cricket, a Terry Riley-style piece of intricately interwoven minimalism, is followed by the haunting fragility of Arundel; both pieces have endured as memorably as Pajo’s more high-profile work. [Sam Wiseman] www.davidpajo.com/

Whichever Gods oversee electronics and connector cables are not smiling kindly on support act Cru Servers tonight, although hints of squelchy acid bass and strange analogue noise provide a tantalising glimpse of their modus operandi. CUR$ES however are an absolute revelation: three hugely talented electronic musicians on MIDI pads, a Prophet 08 synth and a Yamaha digital drum kit, swapping instruments mid-track and creating a hugely exciting set of live electronic music.

The breadth of their sound is impressive, taking in tempos from witch house, purple-wow dubstep, techno, ghost garage and chopped-and-screwed hip-hop.

Seth ‘Com Truise’ Haley arrives on stage with a confession: “I’m a little drunk...” Cue huge cheers from a rammed-full Captain’s Rest crowd. Playing through an Akai launchpad, a set of MPD MIDI pads and the by-now-ubiquitous Prophet 08, his laptop is placed

from his own catalogue emerge as dazzling highlights when the full extent of that voice is unleashed for a back-to-back trio of Wooden Jesus, Call Me A Dog and Hunger Strike – poignantly underlining the bottled lightning that was Temple of the Dog. Elsewhere, stadium rock adventures from the Audioslave vault – like Be Yourself and Doesn’t Remind Me – are balanced by the ever-gloomy Fell On Black Days and a heroic, unplugged stab at stoner anthem Outshined. When I’m Down becomes a tribute to the late Natasha Shneider as Cornell, accompanied by a crackling record which plays her waltzing piano part, comfortably delivers the song like a bluesy torch singer. With the turntable still spinning, he even throws in the title track from the album those boys in the bogs can’t abide.

The versatility goes down well, but – as he follows up a raucous interpretation of A Day in the Life by signing off with Imagine – the bevy of covers becomes a slight detour from the nooks of his Songbook he could have explored further. [Dave Kerr] www.chriscornell.com

stage left, on the floor. Although computer software is used in his set, Haley likes to keep things as analogue as possible. Incendiary, heavily-glitched versions of tracks from his epic Galactic Melt LP dominate the show.

Cathode Girls is a juddering slab of electronic breakbeat and stuttering, Moroder-esque synths; an ecstatic, glitched-up, staggering Ether Drift raises the tempo; while an early and epic rendition of Brokendate (the peak moment of the set) causes shivers of ecstasy and euphoria in the crowd with its Bladerunner atmospherics and slick cyberpunk synths. A slightly poorly-judged performance of a recent remix – with the unwelcome intrusion of poptastic R&B vocals – slows the pace a little, but Com Truise ups the ante with an extended, blissed-out rendition of VHS Sex in his encore, proving that even half-drunk, he’s still one of the foremost names of the moment in modern synth music.

[Bram E. Gieben] Playing Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh on 16 Aug www.comtruise.bandcamp.com

July 2012

THE SKINNY 47

R E V I E W : Live M u s i c

Nas HMV Picture House, 26 Jun

rrrrr

with Hate Me Now, crashing in like King Kong. By contrast, new single Daughters is sedate and smoothed out, but tonight the man clearly wants to rock.

Nas himself acknowledges that he’s been questing to match the clarity and rawness of his debut for too long; in this live reinvention he’s found a new energy.

“All I need is one mic,” he rasps, finally, before the lights go up.

Sometimes a seven piece band helps too. [Dave Kerr] Life is good is released on 16 Jul via def jam

photo: colin macdonald

“Where all my Bravehearts at?”

Nas tasks this sleepy school night crowd from the get-go, arriving with a full band (simply known as ‘Z’) to sprinkle grit, funk and thrash over his back catalogue while offering a first look at the imminent Life Is Good. Jolted to life by a sharp blast of the Iron Butterfly-sampling Hip Hop is Dead, the audience is already ecstatic by the time he suggests we “take it back to the beginning.”

Launching into the heaviest

five-song salute to Illmatic you might never hear, the MC stands front and centre, pouring himself into the role of frontman with vigour. As if New York State of Mind couldn’t get any more sinister, Z’s percussive twists and razorwire guitar licks bring an extra layer of menace to the urban classic. Street Dreams and If I Ruled the World are similarly revitalised by a full instrumental workout.

With several of his aces already played inside the first 20 minutes, you wonder where Nas could possibly go in the next hour. But the tempo only builds on the way to a bombastic mid-way high

OFF! / Trash Talk King Tut’s, 21 Jun

rrrrr Trash Talk open up a night of quickfire hardcore with the menacing dissonance of Hash Wednesday – a sludgy, doomladen number far removed from the rest of their catalogue – but the tempo shoots up as frontman Lee Spielman emerges, initiating a frenzy of vicious circle-pit brutality. It’s a truly terrifying sight which prompts the less confident of tonight’s bystanders to take a few cautious steps backwards.

Spielman’s time is hardly spent onstage with the thrashy rhythm

Adam Stafford / Rick Redbeard The Captain’s Rest, 22 Jun

rrrrr The small basement stage at The Captain’s Rest makes a perfect setting for solo performers; Tonight we have three of them.

Each has no problem in capturing the audience’s attention and filling the room with their presence, proving there’s not always strength in numbers. Yusuf Azak opens the show with a short set of original material and a few choice covers. Eastern Sun is a clear highlight, a perfect marriage of his honeyed voice and firmly-played Spanish guitar.

This evening is a

48 THE SKINNY

July 2012

section; instead, he opts to get his face up in members of the rabid crowd who join in with the venom-spitting. The band’s set only lasts half an hour, but they feed the room with more than enough adrenaline to leave one feeling suitably violated.

Comprised of Black Flag, Hot Snakes and Goon Moon alumni, OFF!’s seasoned players rigorously plough through their riff-exalting micro-tunes with similarly breakneck speed, though it’s the catchier tracks from their First Four EPs (Poison City, Upside Down and opener Panic Attack) which garner a noticeably stronger reaction than the material from their fresh

self-titled album.

The sheer energy of their performance keeps the momentum steady regardless, and a mid-fifties Keith Morris is still as iconic (and pissed off) as ever – his tense stage presence and bizarre between-song banter will attest to that. The breadth of the music they’ve served up still feels a little underwhelming by the time the band abruptly leave the stage, but they re-emerge with an electrifying doublewhammy of Black Thoughts and Darkness. Tonight, it’s the only proof we need that punk’s not dead. [Ross Watson]

joint-headlining show to promote the latest split single from Edinburgh-based Gerry Loves Records. Rick Redbeard, familiar to many as the frontman of The Phantom Band, takes up one half of the vinyl release with the excellent Now We’re Dancing.

Some artists appear lost when they step out as solo performers, but Redbeard (now with a few years under his belt in this guise) appears quietly confident tonight. His songs are built on gentle structures, but contain some stinging lines: ‘Drop the blade and come to bed / I won’t take back the things I’ve said.’

Redbeard’s other half, for the purposes of this evening at least, is former Y’all Is Fantasy Island

mastermind Adam Stafford, who is confidently becoming one of Scotland’s most vital live performers. While his co-headliner plays an acoustic, Stafford (no stranger to these pages) prefers to use a Fender Jazzmaster. His method of slowly building songs, one layer at a time, by looping voice and guitar, is not unique – but seldom is the technique executed to such thrilling effect.

Those standing at the back could be forgiven for thinking they’re hearing the efforts of a four piece band. Latest effort, Vanishing Tanks, is a statement of intent; those present will be demanding to hear more soon.

[Chris McCall]

www.offofficial.com

gerrylovesrecords.com

music

PREVIEWS

LIVE MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS From Mozza to Wu-Tang, the titans come out to play this summer

Merrill Garbus blindsided us all with the sheer inventive strength of w h o k i l l in 2011; tUnEyArDs’ second album was a considerable step up and her live show clinched a rare five star review in these here pages when she swung through town last summer. A year on, who knows what fresh voodoo this woman’s hiding up her sleeves. Catch her at Òran Mór on 11 Jul. You’d imagine RZA must be raging at his absence from the forthcoming ‘Wu Legends’ touring roster, but Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon and GZA will be representing the Clan at Glasgow’s O2 ABC on 12 Jul. We’re jonzing for a few choice cuts from the criminally overlooked Wu Massacre, but hell – let’s just be thankful if they all make the flight.

It’s a pleasure to see Mitchell Museum back on the live circuit after possibly one of the shortest band breakups in recent history. The playful quartet – whose sweet harmonies land somewhere in the ballpark of Mercury Rev at their more playful – are said to be working towards a follow-up to 2010’s The Peters Port Memorial Service, so new material could well be on the cards at The Captain‘s Rest (18 Jul).

God damn, people. Could there be a more charismatic frontman in Glasgow today than Jacob Yates? Alright, Desalvo’s P6 is in with a shout

Do Not Miss:

– but Yates is more from the Alex Harvey School of Dangerous than the Texas Chainsaw University of Abject Terror. With last year’s debut Luck still fresh in the memory, expect swamp blues and rockabilly par excellence from the artist formerly known as Uncle John and his Pearly Gate Lock Pickers, 20 Jul at The Captain’s Rest.

Former Secret Machines (and more recently bandmate of NEU!’s Michael Rother ) man Ben Curtis returns with School of Seven Bells, minus one harmonising twin, to show off the recently released Ghostory in all its ethereal (we only use that word when it counts) shoegazey splendour at Glasgow Stereo (22 Jul).

With Jonah Matranga’s old band Far once again on hiatus, Edinburgh’s ever-dependable Electric Circus takes the honour of hosting his Scottish return to work as emotive lo-fi guru Onelinedrawing (some eight years after he put the guise to bed) on 27 Jul. By now a yearly occurrence, Morrissey swings

by The Usher Hall on 30 Jul to run through the hits (all but Dagenham Dave, sadly) and hold a séance for his quiff. Having recently announced plans to retire in 2014 (before The Smiths’ inevitable Coachella comeback in 2015, be that in holographic form or otherwise), you’d do well not to take these opportunities for granted much longer.

It’s easy to forget that summer doesn’t always have to be about twee pop, ice lollies and daisy chains – you’d need to look beneath the surface to unearth all that’s rotten and soulcorrupting. We can help with that. Feast your eyes, children of the night...

Kicking the arse off July is a diverse bill of punk rock, hardcore and grind at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, courtesy of The Colour Pink is Gay, Winters, Crusades, Party Cannon and Exile the Traitors (1 Jul). If that still leaves you thirsty for supreme powerviolence, head down to the 13th Note for a truly punishing lineup from The Afternoon Gentlemen, Weekend Nachos, WheelchairX4 and Sufferinfuck (5 Jul). Meanwhile, up on Sauchiehall Street, expect NYC’s daddies of post-hardcore Unsane and the no-less-abrasive Big Business to throw down something furious at Sleazy’s on the same night. Over in the East, Edinburgh locals Secta Rouge once again serve up their own kind of mathy spazzcore alongside Vasquez and the immodestly monikered El Schlong at Bannerman’s.

Also slaying our favourite Auld Reekie rock den, London doomsayers Serpent Venom’s brooding, retro-tinged live show is not to be missed (Bannerman’s, 7 Jul), especially with their allies – the skullcrushing Black Magician – on the bill. Later, Savannah sludge kings Baroness return to Glasgow for the first time since their now legendary Sleazy’s show in 2010. Expect material from their upcoming double album Yellow & Green when they claim Stereo on 10 Jul.

Jacob Yates and the pearly gate lock pickers

Baroness

photo: Tom Manley

Mitchell Museum

photo: Gemma Burke

photo: Markus Thorsen

Words: Johnny Langlands

Tune-yards

King Tut‘s summer nights: The Unwinding Hours

The Unwinding hours

photo: Sonia Kerr

photo: Sonia Kerr

King tut’s wah wah hut, 23 jul

As fate would have it, the new LP from The Unwinding Hours has just landed on the office doormat as we set about reminding you that they’re playing King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut with Olympic Swimmers (quite possibly still sharing their rhythm section) on 23 Jul. Former Aereogramme men Craig Beaton and Iain Cook’s second album under the moniker is typically layered, at times joyous and most certainly another firm foot forward for the Glasgow outfit. As part of Tut’s Summer Nights series (see listings for full details), this date makes for an unmissable preview before the record’s August release.

T he M eta l C o lum n

Olympic swimmers

If that’s too straight-faced for you, the irresistibly cheesy Crown Jewel Defense will likely encourage gratuitous fist-pumping at the Electric Circus on 12 Jul. Or, if beauty in brutality is more your gig, Vestiges and Downfall of Gaia team up to bring a mix of crusty hardcore, blistering post-rock and grim black metal to Stereo on the same night. Then it’s back to Sleazy’s at the middle of the month for some properly ferocious punk courtesy of Brooklyn crew Crazy Spirit, supported by Mob Rules and Clocked Out (15 Jul). Grindcore dudes Powercup will be taking the 13th Note’s basement hostage with a little help from contemporaries Pizzahifive and VCheka alum Fat Janitor (17 Jul).

Right, did somebody say Summer Punk Rock Party? Dundee’s Kage venue witnesses the convergence of some of the UK’s finest melodic hardcore acts together: Shields Up, Fights And Fires, Uniforms, Bear Trade, The Day I Snapped and MüG all in the one place (21 Jul). The next day, there’s some righteous prog-metal afoot in the West at the Captain’s Rest with As Cities Burn, joined by The Elijah, The Barents Sea and Violet (22 Jul).

If you’re often complaining about the lack of black metal shows in Scotland, take note: Sunderland’s Wodensthrone are taking their grim vibes to Stereo (27 Jul). They’re supported

by Victorian-era obsessives A Forest of Stars as well as local kvltists Haar and Maelstrom. You’d best get your cloak on. [Ross Watson]

July 2012

THE SKINNY 49

records

REV I E W : AL B UM S

ALBUM OF THE MONTH: Twin Shadow Confess 4AD, 9 Jul

rrrrr After debut Forget had us falling headlong in love with Twin Shadow’s intimate synth-pop, it’s hard not to approach Confess with seconddate jitters. It takes opener Golden Light mere seconds to steady the nerves and renew the crush, as soft wash synths blend with George Lewis Jr.’s tender croon to striking effect.

Lead single Five Seconds stokes emotions higher: a heart-bursting, air-punching, blood-rush anthem driven by addictive Billy Idol-esque guitar chugs, it encapsulates the album’s romantic, new-wave aesthetic and electrifies the senses. Elsewhere, ennui informs bittersweet ballads like Run My Heart (“you can’t run my heart/don’t pretend you can”) and the gorgeous I Don’t Care (“dance me round the room

and lie to me”), while The One matches candid amour with a melody straight outta John Hughes.

Other peaks include Beg for the Night – as suave and seductive as Gosling in a scorpion-adorned sports jacket – and Patient, which adds vintage Prince and a bitchin’ guitar solo to the palate. But the word ‘peaks’ is misleading: it implies corresponding troughs, of which there are none, the slight patchiness of his debut decisively remedied. Some will no doubt argue its retro-locked horizons are frustratingly narrow; the rest of us will clasp it close. [Chris Buckle] www.twinshadow.net

Purity Ring

Meursault

BEAK>

4AD, 24 Jul

Song, By Toad, 16 Jul

Invada, 2 Jul

Shrines

rrrrR Where Grimes’ work is all about ambiguity, fellow Canucks Purity Ring offer a vision of synth pop which is clear and polished as crystal. Corin Roddick’s productions incorporate the sugar-sweet melodies and dynamics of R&B and pop, with a liberal use of side-chained beats and synths, evoking bands like Blackbird Blackbird. His stuttering snare hits and clipped, jerking beats nod to dubstep and electro, incorporating an ethereal, jittery quality into the deadly hooks.

Above all this, the phenomenal voice and lyrics of Megan James.

She has the tone and range of an angel, voice buffed to a perfect-pop sheen, but it is her lyrics that will haunt you. Her imagery is stark and disturbing: “Cut open my sternum,” she purrs on Fineshrine.

Dismemberment and disfigurement are recurring themes: “Drill little holes into my eyelids,” she sings on Belispeak, “so I can see you when I sleep.” The stark menace of her words is such a contrast to her pop princess delivery that the disconnect is profoundly affecting. This is glistening, perfect pop music with a vein of cold, dark intelligence running through it. Utterly enchanting. [Bram Gieben]

Something for the Weakened

rrrrR Meursault’s third album exhibits much of what has made the band so appealing thus far: a broad range of beautifully arranged instrumentation; Neil Pennycook’s triumphant howl; folk music sensibilities that have been roughed up and pebbledashed with radio noise; but most importantly, just well-written, emotionally-engaging songs.

The main difference here is that it simply sounds more confident; fully-formed. Singer-songwriter, and head honcho, Pennycook has been joined by numerous able hands in the past but now, after a particularly solid few years on the live circuit, Meursault has become a truly cohesive collaborative entity. Five years deep and the quality of music has been audibly strengthened by numbers without overshadowing Pennycook’s individual, charismatic musical vision. The ‘Scottish Arcade Fire’ label may have been lazily bandied around in their presence, but if you listen to the likes of Flittin’ and Settling, you’ll find heartfelt anthems of similar, if not superior, multi-layered quality. [Ryan Drever] Playing The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh on 7 Jul and Thistly Fest, Dunbar on 28 Jul www.facebook.com/meursaultmusic

David Ward

Jeremiah Jae

David Ward Music, 23 Jul

Brainfeeder, 23 Jul

The Arrival

rrRRR Split into three sections of three songs each, which collectively forward a thematic progression, The Arrival is, essentially, a concept LP. Couple that with Ward’s Jeff Buckleyinfluenced guitar work, and you might expect a fairly adventurous, grandiose record. The concept is, however, pretty vacuous, detailing the three stages of a journey (Departures; Borders; Arrivals), and those guitar parts are held firmly within the confines of generic soul and rock.

Ward’s lush, honeyed vocals are easily the record’s outstanding element, and the odd mixture of influences that underpins The Arrival often sounds something like Radiohead, circa The Bends, as fronted by the young Michael Jackson. It’s particularly effective on tracks like Lost in Translation, which blends his soulful vocals with spiralling, angsty guitar crescendos. On more downtempo songs like Feel This Way, however, that emotional weight is lost, and the lack of depth or complexity guiding the record’s thematic approach feels uncomfortably exposed. [Sam Wiseman] Playing Bloc, Glasgow on 24 Jul

Raw Money Raps

rrrrR A psychedelic, multi-layered, intentionally awkward piece of work, Raw Money Raps is the direct descendent of Madlib and Dilla’s groundbreaking freeform approach to hip-hop. Rapper / producer / artist Jeremiah Jae blends avant garde song structures, wilfully esoteric samples and weirdly-pitched, abstract rhymes to produce a hazy, mesmeric witches’ brew of noise, beats and poetry, which only coalesces into coherence with repeated listens.

Like labelmate Flying Lotus, Jae has a family connection to the legacy of jazz – his father, Robert Irving III, was Miles Davis’s musical director. Like serious jazz, Jae’s music is complex, at times halting and disjointed, making rhythm and melody out of dissonance and contradiction. Nobody used to the stilted eights and sixteens of commercial rappers, or the unimaginative boom-bap and pseudo-crunk that passes for mainstream American hip-hop beats will understand this album; or if they do, that understanding will leave them forever changed. A slow burner, Raw Money Raps is soulful, difficult, heartfelt and utterly modern. Experimental hip-hop at its best. [Bram Gieben]

>>

rrrrR BEAK> could be considered something of a selfindulgent side project for Portishead’s Geoff Barrow; a jam-band for a frustrated krautrock afficionado to mess about with while his successful main project is on hiatus. Fortunately, this is far from true. From the creeping, understated atmospherics of opener The Gaol, the trio grip the listener by the hindbrain and refuse to let go.

There’s more than a hint of Can in the guitar playing on tracks like Spinning Top, but the half-heard, pedal-processed vocals owe more to stoner rock, while the steady pulse of analogue synths beneath tracks like Yatton and Ladies Mile bear the telltale signs of influence from Barrow’s recent DROKK project.

The band build up a real head of steam on tracks like Wulfstan II, throwing in throbbing traces of psych-rock, smouldering proto-industrial drums and fuzzed-out, echoing vocal harmonies. Closer Kidney sounds like early Pixies, with a thunderous, feedback-drenched climax. Throughout, BEAK> sound more like a proper band on >> than they did on their debut – there is a deceptively loose, tightly controlled flow to each track, and they never get lost in willfully abstract noise. [Bram Gieben]

Mike Patton and the Ictus Ensemble Laborintus II Ipecac, 2 Jul

rrrrR Mike Patton’s public love affair with Italian music continues apace with a fine performance of this seminal avant garde work. Ostensibly written to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante’s birth, the piece plays out like an elegant maelstrom of opera, free jazz, literary reference and experimental electronics.

Patton’s Italian-language narration is a pleasure and finds the inimitable vocalist endeavoring to get his money’s worth from every last syllable – but it’s really the Ictus ensemble and the Dutch Chamber Choir who do most of the heavy lifting, providing a breathtakingly dynamic range of instrumentation together with vocals that range from sinister whispers to aggressively barked chunks of text.

The recording itself is exceptionally clear considering how crowded the live mix gets and the performance as a whole certainly stives towards fulfilling Berio’s own assertion that such experimental work should serve as “a laboratory reduced to the dimensions of performance.” [Mark Shukla]

Wussy

Ondotropica

Shonen Knife

Damnably, 9 Jul

Soundway, 16 Jul

Damnably, 2 Jul

Buckeye

rrrrR

Ondotropica

rrrRR

Pop Tune

rrrrR

Though Buckeye is Wussy’s debut international release, there’s plenty else to explore should it connect with your tastes. Since forming over a decade ago, the Cincinnatians have released a string of acclaimed albums in the US, from 2005 debut Funeral Dress to last year’s Strawberry, and Buckeye packages choice cuts from across their discography for fresh ears.

Though we can’t equal Robert Christgau’s enthusiasm (the ex-Village Voice critic recently proclaimed them “the best band in America”), these seventeen tracks nonetheless feel like a significant discovery: an inexplicably-secret history for a band deserving widespread laudation. Core duo Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker share vocals, complimenting one another perfectly on songs with shades of IRS-era REM and Rilo Kiley (amongst others), and though they sometimes recycle a little too directly (Funeral Dress is basically Teenage Kicks with a new vocal line), this primer makes for a mighty fine introduction. [Chris Buckle]

This double LP showcases the vitality and diversity of the Colombian music scene, bringing together a total of 42 musicians to merge a mixture of modern and classical tropical genres. Overseen by Mario Galeano of Frente Cumbiero, the record draws upon cumbia, porro and other traditional genres, and cross-breeds them with hip-hop, dub and funk. It’s a blend that throws up some pretty bizarre results, including a mambo cover of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man that strays into novelty territory.

Galeano’s touch is more assured and distinctive when the record’s contemporary influences are allowed to guide the pieces - as on Suena, on which Chilean MC Ana Tijoux raps laconically over rolling cumbia rhythms, and Rap Maya, which features beatboxer El Chongo.

Perhaps inevitably, Ondatropica’s sprawling variety undermines the coherence of the project somewhat; but for anyone interested in contemporary Colombian music, it’s an impressively in-depth survey that joins some unexpected dots between genres. [Sam Wiseman]

Pop Tune is Shonen Knife’s 18th album. Ponder that a moment: the Osaka Ramones have now comfortably overtaken the actual Ramones’ recorded output, with only minimal variations to their kawaii-punk style along the way. And here they are again, for the third time in the space of a year, peddling characteristically irreverent songs about all-you-can-eat restaurants (sample lyric: “Don’t forget to take some vegetables/ vegetables/ vegetables”) and paperclips (“man fastens a document/ puts it in an envelope/ takes it to the post office to send it”).

Surely they’ve outstayed their welcome by now; pushed fans to the point of exhaustion with their incessantly cheery melodies and cutesy lyrical conceits? No chance: Pop Tune is their most irresistible offering in years, softening the heavier edge of predecessor Free Time and purifying their songwriting in the process. Fingers crossed closer Move On isn’t taken literally; they’re already covering precisely the right ground. [Chris Buckle]

www.wussy.org

www.ondatropica.com/en

www.shonenknife.net

50 THE SKINNY

July 2012

RE V IE W : ALBUMS

Doseone

Grasscut

Milk Maid

Anticon, 2 Jul

Ninja Tune, 16 Jul

Fat Cat, 9 Jul

G Is For Deep

Unearth

rrrrR Doseone is a phenomenal live hip-hop performer – a literal human dynamo who blows on stage in a torrent of manic, high-pitched rapping and a flurry of MPC hits, hyperactively engaging the audience with crazy stories, random snatches of acapella poetry and improvised freestyle rhymes. But that’s never been the limit to his talents – in collaborations with Boom Bip, he has showcased his love of electro, and recently he’s been exploring more experimental musical territory with Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio and Mike Patton, as Nevermen.

G Is For Deep manages to accommodate influences from all of these directions – the beats, which Dose produced, are heavily electroinfluenced, with a melodic pop sheen that suits his approach to vocals on this release. There’s little straight-up rap on the album, but Dose’s layered, breathy falsetto singing is definitely a product of incredible breath control and strict rhythmic pattern-generation. From the melancholy dream-pop of I Fall, to the hypnotic, stop-start disco of Dancing X, G Is For Deep is both complex and engaging all the way. [Bram Gieben]

rrrRR Grasscut’s follow-up to 2010’s 1 Inch: ½ Mile is accompanied by a book of pinhole camera photographs, and is also available - in an entirely different, remixed form – on a sequence of cassettes hidden in various geographical locations around England, with the first fan to find all ten tapes able to decode a secret message which will win them a performance by the band in their own home. The tracks reference TS Eliot, Philip Larkin, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Agatha Christie, and guest vocalists include Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine.

Ignoring the arguably pompous, pretentious overtones of the album’s genesis and inspiration, it is a good thing the music speaks for itself – joyful and melodic, with an epic sweep, Grasscut make Animal Collectiveesque experimental indie with electronic influences that at times recalls Boards Of Canada, at others cLOUDDEAD. It’s a bit twee, undoubtedly over-complicated in its ambition, and seemingly determined to be an album aimed at middle-aged Guardian readers with a fondness for early Warp Records, but it works nonetheless. [Bram Gieben]

Mostly No

rrrRR If it needed confirmation, Milk Maid’s second album firmly validates Martin Cohen’s decision to tap out from a waning Nine Black Alps to front a three-piece of his own. Mostly No follows debut Yucca closely, both in proximity (separated by a year), and in sound: distorted guitar pop with a sunshine glint, sailing on feedback and fuzz.

As with Yucca, the release date offers a persuasive serving suggestion, with the album’s grazed contents offering an apt summer soundtrack (and at little over half an hour, it lasts about as long as the average UK dry spell to boot…). Generally, the louder and faster Cohen and band play, the better they sound, with recent single Do Right brandishing an irresistible Wavves-ish hook and Drag to Find delivering a concise high. Slower, more spacey efforts have less personality, though No Goodbye is an exception, closing the album on a satisfyingly bittersweet note. [Chris Buckle] www.milkmaidmilkmaid.blogspot.co.uk

Cooly G

Dirty Projectors

Aesop Rock

Hyperdub, 16 Jul

Domino, 9 Jul

Rhymesayers, 9 Jul

Swing Lo Magellan

Playin’ Me

rrrrR

rrrRR Merrisa ‘Cooly G’ Campbell’s assured, slick productions effortlessly capture the sound of ‘funky’ – the post-dubstep scene which has embraced elements of vocal house, classic techno, soca and minimal dubstep – and translate it into a satisfying LP. Both producer and vocalist, Campbell’s approach for the most part eschews any naff pop pandering in favour of chopped, echoing vocals and smooth, complex electronic arrangements.

There’s a healthy dose of darkness in her lyrics and music: Good Times is a brooding, reverb-drenched gloom cookie, while opener He Said I Said is a pitch-dark take on R&B reminiscent of Rodney Jerkins. A more dancefloor-led approach dominates elsewhere: the two-step flavours and luscious bubbling synths of What The World Needs Now recalls first-wave Tempa producer Horsepower Productions, while the soca rhythms of It’s Serious could cause some serious outbreaks of shimmying. It’s not all perfect – Sunshine’s washed-out skank falls flat, and her cover of Coldplay’s Trouble, while inventive, is probably worth skirting over. Overall though, Playin’ Me is a strong, dynamic listen from a young producer with heaps of artistic courage and ability. [Bram Gieben]

Predicting the Dirty Projectors’ next step is a pointless task. Led by idiosyncratic frontman David Longstreth, the Brooklyn-based quintet explore rock’s more challenging catacombs, often teetering on the verge of prog. But this tendency to experiment is, almost always, infused with an easy sense of melody that opens up awkward affairs like 2009’s gorgeous Bitte Orca.

In this vein, album number six in the their prolific decade-long career to date is possibly the Projectors’ most accessible. Masterful cuts like Just From Chevron and the string-bleeding About To Die are still laced with pirouetting time signatures and matadorial guitars, but there’s a creamier feel to their delivery. Built entirely to entrance, Gun Has No Trigger’s hypnotic mist and the shimmering chimes of Impregnable Question’s are symptomatic of the album’s gentile – yet deceptively intricate – nature. Smooth and simple, Swing Lo Magellan has the makings of another Dirty Projectors classic. How utterly predictable. [Billy Hamilton] Playing The Arches, Glasgow on 15 Oct www.dirtyprojectors.net

Skelethon

rrrrR Skelethon is the first album from Aesop Rock to be entirely self-produced, but the template hasn’t fluctuated much from the mercurial, experimental approach he adopted on his groundbreaking None Shall Pass. There are flashes of less hip-hop oriented musical adventures on Crows 1, featuring a nursery-rhyme refrain from Kimya Dawson of twee-folkers Moldy Peaches. Scratch deeper, and many of Aesop’s productions are anchored in an indie-rock sensibility, from the picked, echoing guitar melody of opener Leisureforce, to the beatless, vibrato chords behind his emotional verse on Ruby ‘81.

It’s a method that works fluidly, allowing Aesop to indulge in half-sung choruses alongside his trademark stream-of-consciousness lyrics. His talent for surrealistic storytelling is undimmed; if anything, the phantasmagorical street scenes and adventures described in tracks like 1000 O’Clock and the bizarre Homemade Mummy are more packed with vivid metaphors than ever before. Aesop’s flow is supple and acrobatic, flipping between double time and run-on parallel rhymes. A satisfying and coherent album of hip-hop weirdness from one of the genre’s most interesting and enduring characters. [Bram Gieben]

Om

Mission of Burma

Konx-Om-Pax

Drag City, 23 Jul

Fire, 9 Jul

Planet Mu, 23 Jul

Advaitic Songs

Unsound

rrrrR

rrrRR Since splintering from stoner rock legends Sleep in 2003, Om have moved, with each passing release, further towards a sound that draws upon Eastern classical music as its primary inspiration. Advaitic Songs continues this trajectory: the drone metal elements of earlier work are conspicously absent for much of the record, eschewed in favour of tabla, violin and piano. The carefullylayered 11-minute closer Haqq al-Yaqin exemplifies this, building hypnotically through the entwining of delicate melodies rather than droning distortion.

This deliberately understated approach, however, often feels less convincing in its mystical aspirations than Om’s earlier records, which married the classical elements with murky, bruising noise to great effect. Advaitic Songs, by contrast, has a stateliness and clarity about its production and arrangements that actually impedes Om’s pursuit of transcendence much of the time. Nonetheless, the complexity of these compositions ensures that what they lack in intensity is compensated for in their ornate beauty. [Sam Wiseman]

The Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends Bella Union, 30 Jul

rRRRR In days gone by, describing a Flaming Lips album as “bewildering” could easily have passed as an endorsement, such was the dazzling nature of their pre-2010s output.

Since then, however, their star has fallen – coincidentally just as frontman Wayne Coyne’s head seems to have taken permanent flight for the clouds. ...And Heady Fwends was supposed to be a limited edition release for Record Store Day and, as such, has the air of an album that isn’t supposed to be heard by more than a few. There’s nothing on here that bears listening to more than once – and little that deserves to make it even that far. Turns from perennial guest vocalists Bon Iver, Nick Cave and Jim James are forgettable – lost amid the cacophonic, aluminium maelstrom of the Lips’ self-indulgent space-rock. So yes: it’s a bewildering ride, but only because it makes you wonder where the hell it all went wrong. [Finbarr Bermingham] www.flaminglips.com

Perhaps few would’ve predicted that Mission of Burma’s ‘one-off reunion show’ in 2002 would lead to anything beyond maybe a smattering of dates here and there, much less a full-blown tour or an album. But ten years deep and four albums down, the Boston post-punkers have far exceeded all expectations.

While there has been much speculation from the band themselves year on year about how long they’ll stay active, their latest album hardly feels like a curtain call.

From the slick, ragged dance of Dust Devil, to the melodic and brazen Second Television, there is no audible sign of a band relenting, but rather one at the top of their game. This Is Hi-fi is a blur of Bob Weston-helmed tape loops and unhinged, noisy washes, while Sectionals In Mourning is a flat out fist-raiser; two aesthetics that are regularly explored throughout what turns out to be one of their finest releases to date. [Ryan Drever] www.missionofburma.com

The Top five 1 Twin Shadow

2

Confess

Purity Ring

Shrines

3 Aesop Rock

Skelethon

4 Meursault

Something for the Weakened

5 BEAK>

>>

Regional Surrealism

rrrRR Having seen the videos he has made for the likes of Rustie, Hudson Mohawke and Martyn, you might have expected Konx-Om-Pax’s debut album to be full of hypercolour synths, space-age R&B funk and complex, morphing drum patterns. Instead, the sonic landscape of Regional Surrealism combines the minimalist, cold, atmospheric ambience of Music For Films-era Brian Eno with the lo-fi, found-sound approach to synth-and-sample-based music favoured by the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never or Pye Corner Audio Transcription Services.

Konx-Om-Pax favours spiralling melodic patterns and rhythms over linear structure, making this a true smoker’s delight of an album.

Repeated listens reveal strange intricacies and a warped pop sensibility on both Zang-Tumb (featuring Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai) and the shuffling, moist, dub-influenced Slootering. The exquisite Glacier Mountain Descent is the high point of the album, with digital bleeps and clicks bubbling underneath a wash of ethereal woodwind and floating synthetic voice. Too formless for some ears, but those with a psychedelic bent will find rich rewards. [Bram Gieben]

White Manna White Manna Holy Mountain, 2 Jul

rrrrR When a band calling themselves White Manna christen a track Acid Head, they risk flirting with parody. The Californian quartet’s mantric psych-rock sound, coupled with the nomenclature, paints a potent picture, but in reality they’re far from pastiche. Their clarity of vision is visceral and true: these guys know what they like, and chase it single-mindedly across five lengthy jams.

Only Don’t Gun Us Down breaks from the dense, guitar-abusing formula, its drifting introduction supplying a much-needed breather.

Tellingly, it’s also the album’s weakest track: the band’s keenest strengths lie at the more propulsive, noisy end of their self-restricted sonic spectrum; ease off the gas, and their spark dissipates into somuch bong smoke. But so long as it’s kept on the boil, their focussed psychotropism is expertly effective, with the driving Mirror Sky the pinnacle. They’re anything but jacks of all trades, but they’re evidently already masters of one. [Chris Buckle] www.facebook.com/whitemanna

July 2012

THE SKINNY 51

NEW BLOOD

music

S C A N D I N AV I A N CONFLICT R&B Meet Joe Howe, aka BEN BUTLER AND MOUSEPAD, formerly of Gay Against You. In the past few years he’s written music for conceptual operas, collaborated with music legend Momus, and brought the sound of Skwee to Glasgow INTERVIEW: BRAM E. GIEBEN

BEN BUTLER and Mousepad is the brainchild of musician and producer Joe Howe, formerly of Glasgow-based digital noiseniks Gay Against You. After an extended period living in the vibrant musical community of Berlin – a stint that saw him develop Ben Butler and Mousepad into a two-man band alongside German grindcore drummer Bastian Hagedorn, doing sound design and composition for a conceptual opera, and completing a collaborative album with itinerant musical outsider Momus – Howe has returned to Glasgow to begin a Masters degree in Sound For The Moving Image.

His latest collaboration, Bad Brain Call, saw him linking up with songwriter Annabel Frierson, and on the eve of a tour to promote the project, he is looking forward to getting stuck into new Ben Butler recordings, and rediscovering the joys of the collaborative atmosphere of Glasgow’s underground music scene.

First of all, where did the moniker for Ben Butler and Mousepad originate? “I’ve said before that the name and the loose concept came to me in a dream, but there’s no way of saying that without making it sound really wacky,” admits Howe.

“Sometimes your subconscious chews over things

PHOTO: NICK MILLIGAN

like that on its own. It was just too funny a name not to choose, especially since my name isn’t Ben, there’s nobody in the band called Ben Butler... even when there are two of us, it still doesn’t make any more sense. I love the fact that people always ask ‘Who’s Ben? Where’s Ben?’ I’ve been on tour with two people called Ben recently. It gets confusing, but it’s a good icebreaker.”

How did Berlin compare to Glasgow as a place to make music? “There’s so much going on [in Berlin], it’s incredibly freeing and inspiring,” says Howe. “There’s a massive amount of energy because there are so many people involved in creative work there. But people do tend to go there with a specific idea of what they want to do in mind, so they tend to be wrapped up in their own little world of work; there’s possibly not as much collaboration as there is in Glasgow.”

How did working and living in Berlin affect the sound of Ben Butler and Mousepad? “I was lucky to meet Bastian, my pal who plays drums on a lot of the Ben Butler stuff out there, and we work really well together,” says Howe. “But I knew a lot of people in Berlin who were really like hermits within this big party city. They’re really on their own thing.

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JULY 2012

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They’ll meet pals, but they won’t collaborate on anything. Coming back to Glasgow and remembering that everyone works together, that was really good. I kind of never thought that I would come back to be honest, but I think I had been away just long enough – about three years, all in all – for me to have changed, and for the place to have changed just enough for it to be fresh again.”

Howe has been part of a great number of collaborations in the past few years – has his more experimental approach helped with these projects? “I think the thing with a lot of the collaborations I’ve done with other artists is that a more traditional musician, if there is such a thing, might baulk at the things I’ve been asked to do,” he suggests. “Certainly with Bad Brain Call, the artist I was working with, Annabel Frierson, had no musical experience at all. She had a lot of ideas that she wanted to get across, and sometimes quite specific ways of doing it, but she didn’t really have the language to talk about it, she didn’t have the reference points. At the risk of sounding cocky, I think that perhaps someone who was classically trained, or who came from a traditional pop

background or something, might have struggled to get those ideas across in the way that I did. It’s to do with having a more fluid creative approach, or just a kind of weird approach; not being afraid to take risks or to do something in a way which other people might think is totally goofy. I haven’t sung in years, so that was really weird getting to grips with singing again, but also it was a lot of fun. To be able to approach the pop song format after a couple of years off was really refreshing.”

The musician has also released on several labels, from eclectic Norweigian label Dødpop, to the hyper-trendy L.O.A.F. label, to his critically acclaimed Gif N Run EP on Musique Large. He has also released several albums, including Bad Brain Call, independently, through Bandcamp. He’s open to working with all these labels again, but is enthusiastic about the opportunities presented by sites and services such as Bandcamp: “Their tools are very simple, and they’re pretty unobtrusive,” he explains.

“There’s not so much of a brand involved, which is really good: with a lot of sites you’re endorsing your work as a product, and I’m not really into that.

Bandcamp’s more like a blank canvas, with a very simple setup.” The ability to do limited edition runs of releases like Bad Brain Call is liberating for Howe: “There’s only a hundred of them, at the end of the day, the scale is really good. It’s not hard to sell all of a given thing on Bandcamp.”

For Howe, Bandcamp potentially provides a much fairer deal for up-and-coming musicians: “Although you’re giving a small amount of profit to the people who run these sites, it’s pretty different to these stories you’ve heard about bands in the seventies or whatever, with labels stealing fifty percent of their own stock, or selling it and then not passing on the royalties. To be honest I would rather avoid that whole structure, because I think it’s fundamentally dishonest. But also, there’s the whole thing of musicians being seen as some kind of godly figures, put on a ridiculous pedestal and expecting people to come to them because they do this kind of mellifluous thing that most people aren’t able to do... I don’t really buy into that. I

It doesn’t really matter what gear you use as long as you squeeze as much melody, as much energy, as many ideas as you can out of it JOE HOWE

believe you’ll get results if you work hard, and if you put in enough effort to make sure that people hear your stuff, that will come back to you. I quite like that idea that you can avoid the mechanism, but that if you do enough then people will still get to hear it.”

Howe’s work as Ben Butler and Mousepad has become associated with the musical microgenre known as ‘Skwee’ – he explains what the term means to him: “The best description I’ve heard of it was ‘Scandinavian conflict R&B.’ It’s the internal conflict, rather than like, war. I’d say it’s like very synthetic funk; influenced by hip-hop, and simultaneously very colourful and funny, but also icy and cold. The name comes from ‘squeeze’ – to squeeze as much as possible out of the smallest amount stuff, especially cheap-ass, rubbish equipment. That’s one aspect I like. Cheap, colourful sounds. I like that democratisation: it doesn’t really matter what gear you use as long as you squeeze as much melody, as much energy, as many ideas as you can out of it. The thing I like about Skwee is that it is really daft, and really funky – which was

a bad word until quite recently, but it’s something I say with pride, now!”

Talking about his influences, Butler reveals a passion for jazz (he was a saxophonist, and played in a “really awful” funk band while growing up in the Highlands), for the psychedelic sounds of Zappa and the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, and experimental German rock bands such as D.A.F.: “I love the kind of itchy, tense, paranoid music of that time,” he enthuses. “I remember reading something which said there’s a certain age which you get to – they call it the ‘age of magical realism’ – it happens when you’re about ten. At that point you still think anything is achievable in life, and apparently the influences which you have then are the ones which stick with you for the rest of your life. You can’t shake them. So I really like the idea of finding out what people were into when they were ten, when they still thought like that.”

In addition to several gigs in Europe over the coming months, Howe has a plan to release another collaboration, this time on some kind of ‘non-traditional format’: “It’ll be something with a download code attached,” he explains. “I’m trying to think about what I would like to buy, or to have. And, of course, it’s a great opportunity to collaborate with people whose work I like: doing the artwork, the photos, the promo material.

That’s a collaboration as well. It’s not just people fulfilling my ideas, it’s a partnership. I like the idea of making something which people will see and say: ‘That’s exactly what I’m looking for.’ Because the wide distribution of music almost takes some of the fun out of it, unless it’s like a really beautiful vinyl, or a cassette with really clever packaging.

I think often nowadays the thrill of owning something like that, of poring over it, is gone. I think it’s important to make something that makes people feel included. It’s like a totem.”

FOR INFO ABOUT SHOWS, PAST RELEASES AND UPCOMING PROJECTS, VISIT: BBANDMP.TUMBLR.COM AND JOE-HOWE.COM. READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW ONLINE AT WWW.THESKINNY.CO.UK/MUSIC

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JULY 2012

THE SKINNY 53

REVIEWS: PREVIEWS

clubs

CLUBBING HIGHLIGHTS WORDS: NEIL MURCHISON

KAPITAL 5TH BIRTHDAY WITH STEPHAN BODZIN

100 STOBCROSS ROAD, SAT 21 JUL

THE LIQUID ROOM, SAT 14 JUL

The first of Bigfoot’s summer parties graces us with its presence with M_nus mainstay Ambivalent lined up to send the place into orbit. And that place is 100 Stobcross Road, which usually functions as a reputable Indian restaurant-cum-karaoke nexus, but for the last few years has seen its alluring exterior and spacious multi-roomed interior commandeered and remodeled into one of the most exciting club environments to exist (for twelve hours at a time, for a few nights a year).

Kevin McHugh, aka Ambivalent, previously helped to blow out the candles on Bigfoot’s second birthday and his style and sound have evolved in recent years into a dark, grooving and often revelatory approach to modern techno which solidifies his live sets and infects his productions. This, coupled with an endlessly inventive approach to performance, makes him one of the most impressive artists in electronic music today.

Ambivalent is no stranger to Glasgow after supporting Plastikman at his recent Barrowlands show but this marks an opportunity to see him in another light altogether. Also on the bill is Esa (of Auntie Flo fame) and Fuad, alongside firestarter residents Christopher Kelly, Wrick and Dave Scott. Expect BBQs, a specially-sized Funktion One setup and plenty of surprises. [Calum Sutherland]

You only need to look at the sheer pedigree of recent headliners such as Michael Mayer and Mathew Johnson to get some idea of what Kapital is about, and so to celebrate reaching this milestone anniversary they have enlisted the undeniable and influential talents of Stephan Bodzin to blow out the candles on their fifth birthday cake.

Stephan, for the uninitiated, has been around since minimal techno’s inception and has been the production driving force behind major scene protagonists such as Thomas Schumacher, Marc Romboy and long term collaborator Oliver Huntemann. By his own admission he is first and foremost a producer, rather than a DJ. With this in mind, he will be utilising a serious armoury of hardware. Famed for his early endorsement of the Jazzmutant touch-sensitive performance equipment, his live performances are every bit as interactive as they are high octane.

Support on the night will be provided by none other than Bodzin’s own wife, Luna Semara and the ever present resident duo of Barry O’Connell and Brad Charters, coupled with a rare appearance by original resident Michael Ford to complete the line up. If you like techno, you owe it to yourself to make it down to this sure to be spectacular live show, the likes of which are rarely seen in Scotland. [Stu Todd]

2PM-12AM, £12 / £10 ADVANCE

10PM-3AM , £13, £10 ADVANCE

FACEBOOK.COM/BIGFOOTSGLASGOW

WWW.STEPHANBODZIN.DE

PHOTO: MARTIN SENYSZAK

BIGFOOT’S RIVERSIDE WITH AMBIVALENT

NUMBERS IS 9 WITH JACKMASTER, ONEMAN AND BEN UFO

HYPERDUB SHOWCASE WITH KODE9, LV AND SCRATCHA DVA

CHAMBRE 69, FRI 13 JUL

SUB CLUB, FRI 27 JUL

With the candle-count reaching nine, West Coastvia-London outfit Numbers are once again bringing out the paper hats, plastic cutlery and er... garage, for this year’s birthday celebrations. Born from the ashes of Wireblock, Dress 2 Sweat and Stuffrecords in the summer of 2003, Numbers have established themselves as a label-cum-promoter, foraging beyond the the murky waters of UK garage and grime to boast releases from the likes of Jamie XX, Taz Buckfaster and Rustie.

Numbers have an impressive roster and the outfit have proven themselves to be a collective dab hand when it comes to throwing parties. From the outset, the group have excelled at organising chaos and with past guests ranging from Modeselektor to Autechre, the eclecticism of their line ups is yet another point of distinction. The venue for this year’s shindig is the cavernous Chambre 69 and with celebrations featuring a triple-headed DJ monster comprised of Jackmaster, Oneman and Ben UFO performing back to back throughout the night, we are set once more for a night of pulsating glitches, old-school bass lines and a red hot atmosphere.

[Jamie Cameron]

Sub Club is not a venue which often strays from the familiar grounds of house-and-techno-land on a Friday night but as part of their quarter-century celebrations they’ve taken a calculated leap of faith by booking in a Hyperdub showcase this month. The label, started in 2004, has irrefutably evolved into one of the most exciting and innovative electronic music labels around and will will always be credited (and thanked) for unleashing Burial on the world.

Although well known for bringing underground artists to the public eye, Hyperdub is perhaps best known for its founder Steve Goodman’s alter ego Kode9 who will be bringing an eclectic mix of grime and dubstep, with heavy-sub bass, along with his two pals, LV and Scratcha DVA. As one of Hyperdub’s original artists, LV have been stamping their unique sound on a plethora of genres and you will either find a set full of nostalgia or a fully-blown education on British rave culture, while Scratcha will be mixing together songs that you had not only forgotten existed, but also the extent to which you loved them. The support is equally heavyweight with High Sheen’s poster boy Rakasha as the man tasked with luring the early birds to the dance floor. [Owen Fenn]

11PM-3AM, £10

11PM-3AM, £12/ £10 ADVANCE

NMBRS.NET

WWW.HYPERDUB.NET

54 THE SKINNY

JULY 2012

ILLUSTRATION: WWW.VERBALSPICKS.COM

This month’s best club event will not be happening inside any walls but instead under the protection of the massive blue expanse that is the Slam Tent at T in the Park and, as usual, the line up is pretty spectacular. You may remember 2004’s T in the Park being the ‘last ever show’ for the Hartnoll brothers, but they’ve been lured back to the action one more time. Orbital will have to put on some show to top that last one, so all eyes and torchequipped headsets will be on them come Sunday night. Other highlights for the final day include Dubfire, the project of Deep Dish’s Ali Shirazinia, plus Simian Mobile Disco, Maya Jane Coles, Pan-Pot and Joris Voorn, while Diplo’s Major Lazer project is the perfect explosive Saturday night material for a day that is divided between the electro of Erol Alkan and Fakeblood and the dubstep of Skream and Benga. Make sure you get there nice and early on the Friday for the double headline delight of openers Slam and Sven Väth.

This may not be a golden age of experimental electronic music but there are still a handful of artists bursting through with something interesting and Airhead (Rob McAndrews), who plays at The Berkeley Suite on Sat 7 July, is one such individual. Obligatory references to James Blake must be made as the two went to school together, but McAndrew’s music is less entrenched with fixed blueprints, and the general lack of a plan is refreshing as waves of beautifully textured noise crash down around the sparse but still rhythmically propulsive beats. As with the best electronic music, this is for your head and your heart.

Sneaky Pete’s celebrate their 4th anniversary on Sun 22 July when the supreme house talent that is Jesse Rose drops by Coalition for what will be

a pretty special session. Unsurprisingly for a guy who has had a residency at Berlin’s Panorama Bar and played to twenty odd thousand at Exit Festival there should be enough people in the queue outside to fill the place a couple of times over so it’s probably just common sense to get your hands on a ticket early for this one.

Optimo, Huntleys and Palmers and Highlife throw their considerable and collective weight behind the all day label showcase for Cómeme on Sat 7 July which will feature that essential element of any summer, a DJ set from Matias Aguayo. A whole day will be devoted to enjoying the spirit and music of a label that has always given people no other option but to dance and a handful of the label’s other DJs including Christian S and Ale Paz will play along with Auntie Flo and Esa in support. The party kicks off at Mono at 3pm with the afterparty at La Cheetah – twenty four hours will almost certainly not be enough.

Come Collective have been hosting parties and exhibitions since 2008 and have steadily grown into a record and clothing label. To celebrate their fourth birthday they have decided to let some of their best talent loose for free at The Annexe on Thu 26 July. Dandy Riots and Boko will be playing a live set to launch their new EP while Soviet Dance Party, who also launches an EP, will be dropping in for a set, as will G of Young Fathers.

Finally, Compakt have relocated to The Annexe and will be raring to bring you the best techno and tech house once more at their new spot. To assist them they have Harvey McKay on Fri 27 July whose releases on Soma and Drumcode show a diversity of production without moving far away from a central core of pounding kicks and bass.

Grounded

O2 ABC Love Music Column

Kevin McHugh, aka Ambivalent, returns to Glasgow to talk all things M_nus, his latest mix, and his recent tour of India

Raekwon

Gza

PHOTO: TAKESHI SUGA

Interview: Calum Sutherland

PHOTO: Euan Robertson

clubs

REV I EW : P REV I EW S

Wu Legends Tour feat. Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, GZA, Method Man

photo: Lars-Borges

O2 ABC, Mon 16 July, 7pm, £25

Ambivalent, less well known as Kevin McHugh, returns to Bigfoot’s Riverside party this month. A key figure in Ritchie Hawtin’s M_nus imprint, the past few years have seen him drop some of the most affecting and intriguing tracks on the seminal label, as well as helping to expedite Hawtin’s new Plastikman setup. He has recently completed a tour of India, and created the first mix album of his already illustrious career in the form of _ground. We caught up with him ahead of his Glasgow reunion.

What are you most looking forward to about coming back to Glasgow?

The Glasgow crowds have been some of the most demonstrative and outgoing I’ve ever played to. The people have such a warm and raucous energy, they’re so unrestrained and expressive. I remember dropping an Octave One track in my first set in Glasgow and people went nuts like I’d played Billie Jean. That shows you so much about the kind of people you can look forward to engaging in Glasgow.

How was the India tour? Do you have any particular highlights?

It might be hard to define a highlight of my India trip, because the trip itself was a highlight of my year and maybe my time as a DJ so far.

The energy of that country is so enigmatically contagious, and it has the same level of charm that you find in Indian people. I’ve felt warmly welcomed to almost every place I’ve visited but this was a kind of genuine openness that I don’t have a comparison for. I think the culture there has gone through so many shapes and phases that it’s a learning experience just going a half a mile down any street. I feel lucky that I went, and I’m desperate to go back.

What is the most intriguing record you own?

One of my favourite parts of my collection is all the old 60s synthesizer records — when synths were so new and edgy that you could just put

out a recording of experiments with the instrument, and not even worry about composition, just to let people hear the sounds. My favourite among these is Entropical Paradise by Douglas Leedy, a 6-sided vinyl box set made at UCLA on the legendary Buchla 200 synth system by Don Buchla. It’s just plain weird at times, gurgling

The Glasgow crowds have been some of the most demonstrative and outgoing I’ve ever played to Kevin McHugh

bleeping and whining with no discernible musical structure, and other times serenely beautiful.

What I love about the record is that it was released by Angel, the arch-historical classical label.

You have a new release coming out on Minus12 soon, can you tell me a little about the process of making _ground - the inspiration, the production of the mix and how you feel now that it is finished?

Well, I’ve been talking to Rich [Hawtin] for a long time about artists I like, and I’ve been trying to find ways to work with them. We batted this idea back and forth for over two years of doing a mix of unsigned tracks similar to what he did with Sound from Can Elles and later with New Horizons. It was an enormous challenge for me to figure out which tracks worked together, which ones were available, what best represented the artists I was selecting, what best represented how I’m playing in my sets. Then when Rich decided to do New Horizons and use it to christen Minus12 it made sense to build on that so in the end I settled on 21 tracks by 13 different artists, selected and mixed by me and released individually on Minus12. The mix will be published on a CD that comes out with DJ Mag in Germany. Apparently there are over 25,000 copies of it being printed, which is way more than anything I’ve ever put my name on.

What is your most thrilling musical experience?

Music constantly thrills me. When I saw Terry Riley perform last year I was so incredibly inspired I was completely speechless for hours afterwards.

When I heard Plastic Dreams by JayDee in 1994 I was totally thrilled. When I played in front of 6000 people before the Plastikman live show in Ibiza I was buzzing with excitement. But honestly, the pursuit of music is always the pursuit of the next big thrill, isn’t it? We’re all chasing the high we got from a record that warped our brains, or we’re all looking to perform that perfect set in the ideal moment. So in a way, the biggest thrill is the one you’re anticipating next. Because you always want to believe that there’s another big dream moment coming just around the corner.

These days it just takes two members of Wu-Tang Clan to stand in the same room as each other for it to be a story; when GZA announces for the hundredth time that Liquid Swords 2 has been delayed, once again, it still counts as a hip hop event.

Imagine then the meltdown that will ensue when four members of (arguably) the greatest rap group of all time take to the stage, together, miked up: all of a sudden the ‘Legends Tour’ title seems like a gross understatement. As always with a Wu-Tang tour a lot will ride on which members of the clan are scheduled to bring the motherfucking ruckus on that particular occasion. This time the pack has been well shuffled and we’ve been dealt a bloody good hand with Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, GZA and, the most elusive member of them all, Method Man all set to be unleashed.

Alarmingly we are on the verge of the twentieth anniversary of the undying classic Enter the WuTang (36 Chambers). A quick tally of some of the albums that these members have produced outside of 36 Chambers reminds you just how prodigious and prolific the group have been: Ghostface Killah’s Supreme Clientele, GZA’s Liquid Swords, Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Links and even Method Man’s Tical could easily go head to head for the best individual album, and a win would only be achieved on points alone. Hopefully they take this opportunity to state each of their respective albums’ cases along with a blast of some serious Wu classics.

Badmouth Battles #4 & Afterparty featuring Sonnyjim O2 ABC2, Sat 28 July, 6pm - 11pm, £6 advance Afterparty with Sonnyjim, 11pm - 3am, £5 advance (free with Badmouth ticket)

A double bill of emcees hits O2 ABC2 at the end of this month as Birmingham rapper Sonnyjim graces the Badmouth Battles afterparty once some of the best homegrown talent have taken on challengers from across the UK with some all out verbal warfare.

This fourth set of Battles, now getting fully into its stride, will be the perfect precursor to Sonnyjim, himself a past veteran ofthe battle scene but now doing what he does best by letting his extremely tight, expressive rhymes do the talking over shining and inventive production from the likes of DJ IQ. He’s been building his reputation since the release of his first album back in 2005 and his status as one of the UK’s hottest talents is unquestionable aftergetting airplay from Ras Kwame, Huw Stephens and Bobby Friction and sharing stages with The Streets and Foreign Beggars. www.o2abcglasgow.co.uk facebook.com/O2abcglasgow

Ambivalent plays Bigfoot’s Riverside on Sat 21 July. Tickets are available through Resident Advisor and TicketScotland m-nus.com

July 2012

THE SKINNY 55

REVIEW

film

J u ly E V E N T S Two events this month aim to reintroduce previously abandoned film footage to a new audience.

In Edinburgh, cinema collective Screen Bandita are hosting Ritualised Frequencies, a night of film, music, and art, on 21 July at the Church of the Sacred Heart. Archival anthropological 16mm films of different ritualistic activities will be screened, accompanied by live music by William Bennett (Cut Hands/ Whitehouse and Tattie Toes), which has been specially composed for the night, and a sitespecific installation by artist Ariadne Xenou.

Alternatively, the Found Footage Festival makes its Scottish debut at the GFT in Glasgow on 8 July. This one-night-only festival, hosted by Joe Pickett (The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show with David Letterman), showcases unintentionally funny footage discovered on VHS at car boot sales, rubbish dumps, thrift shops and warehouses across America and has already seen sell-out tours across the US and Canada. Consider this the anti-YouTube event of the month.

Detachment

Detachment

God Bless America

Director: Tony Kaye Starring: Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, Marcia Gaye Harden, James Caan, Tim Blake Nelson Released: 13 Jul Certificate: 15

Director: Bobcat Goldthwait Starring: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Mackenzie Brooke Smith, Melinda Page Hamilton Released: 4 Jul Certificate: 15

rrrrr When substitute teacher Henry Barthes (Brody) walks into a classroom of troubled teens, we are primed to expect a story of education and redemption, but that’s not the game Tony Kaye is playing with Detachment. His film is a portrait of a fundamentally broken education system, and there are no quick fixes. Making his first narrative feature since American History X, Kaye pours everything he’s got into Detachment, using all manner of directorial tricks to get his provocative ideas across.

With its overheated approach, the film risks absurdity at numerous turns, but the sheer force of Kaye’s direction and the efforts of his incredible cast (Brody hasn’t been this good in years; Gayle shines as a teen prostitute) makes the film an exhilarating and emotionally shattering experience. Detachment is a film about how a whole generation of American kids are being failed by their teachers, their parents and themselves, and while you may question Kaye’s stylistic choices or shock tactics, you can’t question the sincerity of his message. [Philip Concannon]

rrrrr Some satires exaggerate for effect, but God Bless America doesn’t really have to. The visions of trash culture in Bobcat Goldthwait’s film are recognisable facsimiles of the real thing, which makes this litany of all that’s wrong with modern society even more troubling. Tired of seeing shamelessness, ignorance and cruelty everywhere he looks, Frank (an excellent Joel Murray) finally snaps, and decides to take violent retribution against those responsible, with unhinged teen Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr) along for the ride. From My Super Sweet 16 brats to X-Factor judges, Goldthwait’s targets may be obvious ones but that doesn’t make his attack on them any less satisfying, and this subject matter is a good fit for his scabrous sense of humour, resulting in a number of darkly funny and taboo-challenging scenes. The second half loses some momentum, as Goldthwait lumbers Frank with a number of long rants that fail to move the film forward, but this is still a comedy with bite and purpose, from one of the most adventurous directors in American cinema. [Philip Concannon]

Dr Seuss’ The Lorax

7 Days in Havana

Director: Chris Renaud, Kyle Balda Starring: Danny DeVito, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms, Betty White Released: 27 Jul Certificate: U

Director: Benicio Del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Julio Médem, Elia Suleiman, Gaspar Noé, Juan Carlos Tabio, Laurent Cantet Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Emir Kusturica, Elia Suleiman Released: 6 Jul Certificate: TBC

rrrrr

Portmanteau films like 7 Days in Havana are inherently inconsistent, but while the bundling together of multiple short films precludes coherency, done well, they offer other attractions. Unfortunately, 7 Days... isn’t done all that well. Benicio del Toro’s opening segment is one of the better efforts (surprising, given he’s a debutant director amidst accomplished auteurs) – a charming but slight Cuban travelogue with a weak punchline. That it ranks among the highlights only emphasises the lack of spark elsewhere.

Applause is also deserved for Pablo Trapero’s Emir Kusturica-starring instalment Jam Session and Gaspar Noé’s Ritual – a nightmarish, hallucinatory vision of a witch doctor at work, which adds a darker current to the rum-and-sun vision on display elsewhere. But from the rest there’s coasting (a disappointingly flat offering from Elia Suleiman) and kitsch (Julio Médem’s melodramatic piece), while attempts to weave loose connecting threads are weakly realised. Consequently, 7 Days... remains significantly less than the sum of the talents involved. [Chris Buckle]

Your Sister’s Sister

Lovely Molly

Director: Lynn Shelton Starring: Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tom Birbiglia Released: Out now Certificate: TBC

Director: Eduardo Sánchez Starring: Gretchen Lodge, Alexandra Holden Released: out now Certificate: 15

rrrrr

rrrrr

Mumblecore king Mark Duplass (think of a smug, male Greta Gerwig) plays Jack, a 30-something slacker who’s struggling to get over the death of his brother, who died a year earlier. His gal-pal Iris (a luminous Emily Blunt), a serial dater with a major crush on Mark, sends him off to her family’s secluded cabin to have some alone time. But he’s not alone. Iris’s sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt) is also there trying to get her shit together following a messy breakup with her longterm girlfriend. A bottle of Jose Cuervo, ten seconds of love making and a night of snuggling later and the pair are in a predicament, as Iris (who Mark’s secretly in love with) turns up unexpectedly. Shelton is a wonder with actors and she mines some gold from this sitcom setup – DeWitt, in particular, showcases a spiky comic deftness. Shame about a soapy third act of melancholy set to acoustic guitar that’s as bland and shapeless as the vegan pancakes Hannah whips up for the trio. [Jamie Dunn]

With horror there are no second chances. That tight strung wire of terror and suspense can be easily cut; as is the case in this impressive but flawed new film from Blair Witch director Eduardo Sánchez. So much is performed well.

Sound design is exemplary, a foreboding mix of static and bass encompassing equine snorts and stamping hooves. Imagery again is well thought out. A toy lamb looks somehow sacrificial, dusty tools weapon-like. This is a film with serious intentions, amalgamating the sexual abuse of a revenant father with the self abuse of drug addiction. Molly is pursued by both on her return to a family home steeped in suffering. Are drugs feeding or starving her visions? Is that naughty horsey for real, or metaphor laid thick? As soon as we doubt her grasp on reality then that onscreen reality is up for grabs. As an originator of the found footage format, Sánchez uses the camcorder again, here moderately and effectively as a voyeuristic window into both past and present. If only he didn’t cut that wire. [Alan Bett]

July 2012

Club Noir continues to bring some glamour back to cinema with its film nights, showing two films from Hollywood’s golden age: Gigi, which won nine Academy Awards in 1959, is screening at the Grosvenor in Glasgow (8 Jul), and Some Like it Hot, voted the greatest American comedy of all time by the American Film Institute, is screening at the Perth Playhouse (29 Jul). Both films will be preceded by a special burlesque act by one of the Club’s performers, and guests are invited to dress to impress.

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Published in 1972, The Lorax is Dr Seuss’ least nonsensical story, a serious parable that warns of the dangers of corporate greed and its impact on the environment. This animated adaptation, from the writers of Despicable Me and Horton Hears a Who!, keeps the message but loses the fun and satire present in Seuss’ tales.

The plot has been expanded to include a plastic, seemingly idyllic town and a diminutive bad guy, Mr O’Hare, who has monopolised the community’s clean air supply, but the characters are tiresome, particularly the irritatingly wacky grandmother (Betty White). Cute, bland teddy bears replace Despicable Me’s stars, the minions, and some forgettable songs enable Zac Efron, as lead Ted, to once again exercise his vocal abilities.

While the world, pre-truffula tree devastation, is a visually pleasing candycoloured utopia, it cannot disguise the dullness of the film as a whole, which, unlike the similarly themed and far superior Wall-E, lacks both the entertainment and brains to make a lasting impression. [Becky Bartlett]

56 THE SKINNY

why would a guy wanna marry a guy?

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis

Author, comedian, singer-songwriter and now writer-director Tony Hawks (not the skateboarder) will be attending the Belmont in Aberdeen on 19 July for a Q&A session after a screening of his documentary, Playing the Moldovans at Tennis.

The film sees Hawks attempt to track down the entire Moldovan football team and challenge them to a game of tennis, but what begins as a silly bet becomes more serious when he is confronted with many problems in the country. The night celebrates a good cause also, with the film’s profits going to the Hippocrates Children’s Centre in Moldova.

You can't just walk out of a drive-in!

Finally, Grease is the word at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh on 20 and 21 July, when the cinema screens a special sing-along version of the iconic 1978 movie. After the success of previous sing-along screenings, including Calamity Jane, this promises to be a riotous and hugely entertaining evening – and if you don’t happen to know every word of every great song, the lyrics are projected on screen. There really is no excuse not to join in. [Becky Bartlett]

REVIEW: DVD

RAMPART

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS

DIRECTOR: OREN MOVERMAN STARRING: WOODY HARRELSON, SIGOURNEY WEAVER, ICE CUBE RELEASED: 9 JUL CERTIFICATE: 15

DIRECTOR: GILLO PONTECORVO STARRING: JEAN MARTIN, BRAHIM HAGGIAG, SAADI YACEF RELEASED: 9 JUL CERTIFICATE: 15

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A sinking familiarity greets Rampart’s setup. From its plot (corruption in the LAPD) to its players (internal affairs, district attorneys and no-good hoodlums), the film patrols oft-walked streets.

The Rampart Scandal alone (in which the endemic misconduct of the department’s anti-gang unit was exposed) has informed a plethora of bad cop/worse cop tales, from Street Kings to The Shield. Yet Rampart never feels stale, thanks largely to Woody Harrelson’s weighty portrayal of its fascistically violent central character, Officer David Brown.

With whiplash dialogue co-written by genre don James Ellroy, Harrelson has plenty to chew on. The character’s potent eloquence is a thrill, as Brown tries talking his way out of a deepening destructive spiral.

It’s Harrelson’s second outstanding performance in a row for director Oren Moverman (after last year’s Oscar-nominated The Messengers), and demonstrates just how compelling he can be when given an alltoo-rare starring role. Repulsive yet sympathetic, his committed turn ensures Rampart’s nihilistic tone stays palatable. [Chris Buckle]

Cinema so often instructs us what to think. Lighting, score, even camera angles push buttons in our minds, clearly identifying friend and foe. Then we have The Battle of Algiers. This re-released conflict classic is a masterpiece of objectivity in its reporting of the French occupation of Algiers during the 1950s. Rather than weave a tale, director Gillo Pontecorvo simply frames a reality. There is no excoriation, no manipulation of thought. The audience themselves must decide on deeply harrowing questions, a powerful and frightening responsibility. Shot in cold, unflinching monochrome we see every expression of pain, injustice and hatred etched into the faces of both the rebels and their morally wounded French opponents whose ‘state terrorism’ torture techniques are set against the Algerian bombing of civilian soda shops. Everyone touched by the conflict is irreparably stained. Originally released in 1966, it was made compulsory viewing for Pentagon officials involved in Iraq; obviously they were more interested in their popcorn. [Alan Bett]

THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE DIRECTOR: LUIS BUNUEL STARRING: FERNANDO REY, DELPHINE SEYRIG, BULLE OGIER RELEASED: 16 JUL CERTIFICATE: 15

rrrrr Six well-dressed figures stride purposefully down a road in the French countryside. Why are they doing this? What’s going on? You don’t get many answers in Luis Buñuel’s Oscar-winning comedy, but it’s a charming diversion and a good introduction to surrealist cinema. A group of well-to-do friends attempt to have dinner together, but time after time something happens that thwarts their plans. From platoons of soldiers gate-crashing the meal, to terrorists and the odd ghost, they never seem to get what they want. There are some clever things going on, and free of any real plot Buñuel uses the more fantastical elements and regular dream sequences to expose entitlement and hypocrisy in the middle classes. It’s likely to go over the head of all but the most devoted fans, but extras include a solid documentary discussing everything you might have missed. It may slightly overstay its welcome but its pleasant company and provides plenty of food for thought. [Scotty McKellar]

LICENSE TO DRIVE

21 JUMP STREET

THE LOST WEEKEND

DIRECTOR: GREG BEEMAN STARRING: COREY HAIM, COREY FELDMAN, HEATHER GRAHAM RELEASED: 30 JUL CERTIFICATE: 12

DIRECTOR: PHIL LORD, CHRIS MILLER STARRING: JONAH HILL, CHANNING TATUM, ICE CUBE RELEASED: 9 JUL CERTIFICATE: 15

DIRECTOR: BILLY WILDER STARRING: RAY MILLAND, JANE WYMAN, FRANK FAYLEN RELEASED: OUT NOW CERTIFICATE: PG

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In 1988 Corey Haim and Corey Feldman were bigger than high tops and heroin. License to Drive sees the two at their most potent. When 16-year-old Les (Haim) fails his driving test he must chose between a night in with his Walkman or an illicit date with smoking hot Mercedes (Heather Graham). It’s a no-brainer – Les puts on his oversized suit jacket and pinches his grandad’s Cadillac.

His night out takes a wrong turn when Mercedes gets wasted and Papa’s Caddy gets smashed up. With wingman Dean (Feldman) by his side, Les takes a tour of the American Dream – with house parties, burger joints, drag races and make-out points. It’s like The Great Gatsby without the clever shit. With its fruit punch parties and Billy Ocean tracks, License to Drive may be too wholesome for today’s teen audience. For the 80s generation, though, it’s a synth-filled trip down memory lane. [Alastair Roy]

I had a dream. Not the usual one where I’m sent back to school with – for an unexplained but apparently plausible reason – no clothes on. No, this one promised to be a real nightmare. I dreamed that desperate Hollywood producers had turned a rubbish, all-butforgotten TV series about cops sent undercover into high school into a gross out comedy. But – and this is where the dream turns really weird – it turned out to be pretty good. It was funny.

There’s so much about 21 Jump Street that could have gone wrong, but directors Lord and Miller are careful to keep the focus on their main characters while letting the gags flow. A slimmed-down Jonah Hill does his usual nervy shtick, while Channing Tatum reveals a decent gift for comedy first hinted at in the otherwise execrable The Dilemma. Ever reliable is Ice Cube as their always angry police captain: “Teenage the fuck up!” [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

From its elegant, telling opening shot – a slow pan across the New York skyline ending at an open window with a bottle suspended on a rope below – it is obvious that The Lost Weekend (1945) is not going to be a worthy-but-dull social problem film about alchoholism. Billy Wilder’s artful direction, along with a spooky, theremin-heavy soundtrack, takes us deep into the mind of the alcoholic. Ray Milland’s sweatily convincing performance as ‘the nice man who drinks’ grips our attention, while Frank Faylen’s role as Bim, a menacingly softly-spoken nurse in the alcoholic ward, is an object lesson in how even the briefest cameo can etch itself indelibly on the viewer’s consciousness: “It’s like the doctor was just telling me – delirium is a disease of the night. Good night.” Just don’t expect pink elephants, he warns: “That’s the bunk. It’s little animals! Little tiny turkeys in straw hats. Midget monkeys coming through the keyholes.”

[Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

batman be g i n s + t h e d a r k k n i g h t - d o u b l e b i l l 22a Thursday 19 July, 11.30pm

t h e d a rFriday k k night rises 20 July, 6.00am

The Cameo, 38 Home Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9LZ 0871 902 5723 www.picturehouses.co.uk

@CameoCinema

2a

CameoCinema

JULY 2012

THE SKINNY 57

ROB PRUITT NŒUDS BOROMÉENS, 2006 BLUE JEANS, COTTON, KAPOK 160 X 22 CM

INFINITE JEST LIGHT READING, 1978

LIS RHODES TRAMWAY

rrrrr Just seven works represent Lis Rhodes’ forty-year career in the exhibition Dissonance and Disturbance at Tramway, on tour from ICA, London. Rhodes’ radical and experimental films urge the viewer to reconsider film as a medium of communication.

After watching the mind-blowing Dresden Dynamo (1972), the heavy curatorial edit seems more reasonable – especially if you’re going to watch every film with the same rapt attention.

Made without a camera by applying Letratone, a kind of transfer for applying tone to illustrations, to the 16mm film reel, the dizzying coloured patterns pulsating onscreen are a visual representation of the atonal noise of the soundtrack.

On the same reel, Light Reading (1978) assembles various elements – letters, numbers, scissors, documentary footage and a woman’s voice narrating. Repetition, rapid-fire editing and unnerving

close-ups bring these together to imply a kind of narrative, but the prominence of form overrides the narrative itself.

Both films convey the sense that you must pay acute attention to each frame in order to get the meaning. Shown consecutively, they constitute an essay or demonstration of a progression in experimental thinking. The ‘language of looking’ is so persuasively put across that you bring the same way of looking to the rest of the show, too.

A two-screen installation presents three works centred around political protests, one providing a shared soundtrack. Despite a formal setup akin to the other works, the heightened awareness to form you have by now might tend to inhibit your appreciation of the specific content.

Altogether, the show is extremely coherent but demonstrates that sometimes, bulking out is good.

Were there a few more works to interrupt your finely honed way of looking, you might not come to each one like such a rapt and eager pupil, ready for instruction. [Jac Mantle]

DCA, UNTIL 26 AUG

rrrrr The word ‘epic’ was at one time used in the context of a film or poem, but these days it’s an adjective for anything, what the Urban Dictionary describes as ‘the most overused word ever, next to fail.’ What used to mean ‘grand in scale’ can now be applied to the most commonplace of activities or things, and so we come to this complex and beguiling show which is named after the thumping 1000+ page doorstop of a novel by the American writer David Foster Wallace.1 Across a diverse spread of works by three artists – Cinthia Marcelle, Rob Pruitt and William Mackrell – patterns and mirroring repeat themselves in art that finds the sublime in everyday materials, using what the gallery handout describes as ‘circular narration, infinite loops and möbius strips.’ On the opening night, DCA gallery assistants were kitted out in football strips for William Mackrell’s ‘performative tool’ 90 Minutes, a concrete ball in the centre of the first room.2 The video still Deux Chevaux pictures two horses struggling to pull a car of the same horsepower through Northumberland countryside, the artist teasing out poignancy from this futile act. Also

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND AIR DE PARIS, PARIS

art

REVIEW

in the first room, Cinthia Marcelle screens films of traffic being disrupted or disruptive in urban landscapes. In Volto ao Mondo (Round the World), white vans pour onto a tree-filled roundabout, and for Confronto fire jugglers interrupt a zebra crossing to the annoyance of impatient drivers. Rob Pruitt twists pairs of blue jeans into mathematical symbols with Esprit de Corps: Borromean Knot and its companion piece Esprit de Corps / Mobius Strip.3 Next door the artist shows Pop-Pop’s ChocolateChip Cookies. These are two huge MDF discs, and DCA staff bake cookies that are placed into the sculpture for a mise en abyme effect, another example of the mirroring process taking effect throughout the show. Wallace was always a champion of the heartfelt and the playful, even when speaking through several layers of irony. This show succeeds by finding the marvellous in the everyday, and that’s what makes for an epic win. [Ben Robinson] 1 A disclosure: your correspondent has never read the aforementioned book but I’m a confirmed DFW fan through his stellar gifts as a short story writer and essayist. Infinite Jest is regarded as a defining novel of the 90s and I fully intend to make a start on it during this exhibition’s run.

2 As punishment for failing to reach the 1994 World Cup finals, Saddam Hussain’s son Uday made the Iraqi football team play with a concrete ball. This knowledge makes the object appear both malevolent and absurd.

3 The iconic garment is made to signify the infinite and eternal, but the twisted legs are also a bit unnerving too, the cowboy limbs self-replicating endlessly forever.

ADVERTISING FEATURE: OWN ART

D AV I D F A I T H F U L L

This summer Traquair House and Edinburgh Printmakers bring seven contemporary artists to the Borders to display new work exploring Scottish history. David Faithfull explains the Art of Concealment INTERVIEW: ANDREW CATTANACH

DAVID FAITHFULL is one of seven artists commissioned to make new work at Traquair House this summer in an exciting new show called Reflective Histories: Contemporary Interventions at Traquair.

Along with Calum Colvin, Duncan Robertson, Helen Douglas, Lesley Logue, Nicola Murray and Rachel MacLean, Faithfull has produced work in direct response to the historically significant building that is said to have once slept Mary, Queen of Scots.

As part of a collaboration between Edinburgh Printmakers and Traquair House, the show will be open from 1 July–30 September, with the mixture of established and emerging Scotland-based artists producing a variety of work that includes print, video and sculpture.

Traquair House was a Stuart sympathiser in its heyday and was a refuge for Catholic priests, as well as the young pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie when he notoriously paid Scotland a visit.

Drawing on a variety of symbols that were once significant to those embroiled in the Jacobite Risings of the 17th and 18th centuries, Faithfull has made a number of interventions around the house.

“The title of the work is The Oak Gall Interventions or the Art of Concealment,” he explains.

“I’m concealing things around the collection at Traquair House, and by chance I seem to be looking at a lot of games – a chess board, a pack of Georgian cards and the maze in the garden.”

In one instance he has replaced the knights on a chessboard with unicorns, the heraldic symbol of Scotland on the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. “I’ve just been to the Lyceum this afternoon to pick up a Jacobite and Hanoverian costume,” Faithfull laughs. “With Rachel MacLean I’m reenacting the battle of Culloden on a chessboard.

“The unicorn is the symbol of Scotland,” says Faithfull, “and the oak tree is a symbol of good fortune for the Stuart Dynasty because Charles II hid in an oak tree after the battle of Worcester in 1651.”

The unicorn is made using a kind of three-dimensional printing process that can make solid objects from a digital file. “The chess piece is a three dimensional print,” he says. “The colour goes right the way through it, so it’s not a rapid prototype object that has been painted, it’s actually solid colour. If you cut it in half the oak leaves get smaller as you reach the centre.”

Along with the unicorn, Faithfull has produced a book and beer bottle labels that simultaneously utilise and obscure a symbolic code that he has derived from the period, deliberately confusing references to the Stuart Dynasty with signifiers of Jacobitism.

Faithful will also have a box multiple on sale during the exhibition, which includes a beer bottle with one of his handmade labels, a set of playing cards with instructions for the card game, a print and one of the unicorn chess pieces.

Alone, David Faithfull’s work would justify a trip to Traquair House this summer. Showing alongside the other six artists, Reflective Histories looks to be an exciting and diverse show, made all the better by being outside the main cities.

DEVELOPED AS PART OF ‘THE YEAR OF CREATIVE SCOTLAND 2012’ THIS IS A PARTNERSHIP PROJECT BETWEEN TRAQUAIR AND EDINBURGH PRINTMAKERS YOU CAN BUY DAVID FAITHFULL’S PRINTS THROUGH EDINBURGH PRINTMAKERS, WHICH IS SUPPORTED BY THE OWN ART SCHEME REFLECTIVE HISTORIES, TRAQUAIR HOUSE, 1 JUL - 30 SEP SEE MORE INFO AT TINYURL.COM/7VMY36O

Galleries across Scotland are members of the Own Art scheme. By offering interest-free loans of £100-£2,000 through Own Art, buying an original piece of quality contemporary art or craft couldn’t be easier. For more information about Own Art and a list of participating galleries see the Own Art website: www.ownart.org.uk

Offer subject to age and status. Terms and conditions apply. You will need a UK bank account that can handle direct debits, proof of identity and address, and you will also need to be over 18. Own Art is operated by ArtCo Trading Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arts Council. Registered address: Arts Council England, North East, Central Square, Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 3PJ

Look for the pink logo. (representative 0% APR)

249 West George Street Glasgow G2 4QE

58 THE SKINNY

JULY 2012

REVIEW

San Carlos

books

By Neil Forsyth

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Neil Forsyth’s sixth novel is set in 1989 – in the days of Wimpy, Teletext, Diana and Fergie. Initially San Carlos’s plot doesn’t quite work.

Location: Ibiza. Fair enough.

Never been there, but it’s intriguing enough. Male protagonist: Craig. He’s jetted over from Peterborough and is a former British fascist living under the Witness Protection Scheme.

Female protagonist: Ana – looking for a former World War Two Nazi commander who haunts her family’s past.

The book starts slowly with Craig in Ibiza for a week, while Hungarian Ana’s been searching the island for six months. But as things begin to unravel it all gets a lot more interesting as these two very different individuals meet and look for answers away from home. Ironically, Craig is trying to hide from his past, while Ana’s looking to uncover hers.

Eventually, the book becomes a page-turner. It may not be revolutionary but it’s an entertaining read perfect if you’re jetting off to a sizzling sunny-spot.

But if you’re reading at home please be warned: once you’ve finished San Carlos you’ll be drooling for a taste of sun, sea and sand. [Tina Koenig] Out now. Published by Jonathan Cape. Cover price £12.99

Leaving the Atocha Station

By Ben Lerner

rrrrr Is Adam Gordon a brilliant young poet, embracing the richness of a foreign culture and meditating on the profound experience of art? Or, is he a self-obsessed, pothead student, bumming his way around Madrid, and using pretentious phrases like ‘profound experience of art’? Although the answer is never fully resolved, Adam’s pseudointellectual posturing and laissez-faire approach to life might bring out the grumpy old man in some readers.

Adam’s fake façade attracts the attention of two young women, one of whom believes him to be a poetic wunderkind. Meanwhile, he bumbles onward, smoking dope in the park and neglecting his studies.

Mid-way through the book, I’d never felt older or grumpier. But slowly, the author’s poetic skills and sandpaper-dry humour mounted a charm offensive.

With the terrorist attack on the Atocha railway station, Adam’s ruminations on life take on a new significance, if not to Adam himself. By the end of the story, as Adam’s shaky grasp on contemporary literature risks exposure, there’s even some danger of a plot breaking out. But ultimately poetic ponderings overcome the narrative. When Auden observed that poetry makes nothing happen, this is the kind of nothing he might have had in mind. [James Carson]

The Dream of the Celt

Slinky Espadrilles

by Mario Vargas Llosa

By Ash Dickinson

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The Dream of the Celt is a re-imagining of the life of Irish nationalist Roger Casement. As a young man Roger believed in the ideals of the British Empire and left Ireland to fulfil his ambition of joining an expedition through the Congo. Quickly disillusioned by his experiences, Casement strove to expose the atrocities committed by European colonists against indigenous people of the Congo and the Amazon in the name of Christianity, civilisation and commerce. His success brought him fame in England as a great humanitarian and explorer but the time spent in the colonies awakened a fierce passion against the Empire, bringing him to the forefront of the Irish nationalist movement. Casement’s experiences in the jungle, often horrifying and brutal, are the most gripping parts of the novel. The bland account of the nationalist struggle pales in significance beside the rich details and individual stories that chart his time abroad. The Dream of the Celt itself solves Vargus Llosa’s claim that Casement’s story had disappeared from history as it charts his private and public life across three continents, exploring the contradictions that allowed a man knighted for his service to Great Britain, to later be hung for treason against it. [Rowena McIntosh]

Don’t be put off by the strange name – this is an extremely accessible, enjoyable collection of poetry. It’s the debut collection in print from Dickinson, but he’s been writing and performing for years, to some acclaim. This collection is a record of poems that Dickinson has performed, and the normal reservation about not seeing them performed occasionally rears its head.

However, this can generally be bypassed if you have an imagination, because these are very stimulating poems, and clearly a lot of thought has gone in to how they’re laid out on the page to reflect the way they should be read.

This is most notable in the poems which were (presumably) originally performed as a rap, which divide phrases with ‘/’ symbols, rather than different lines, to preserve some of the flow. The poems are often personal – indeed, Dickinson names himself in them on occasion – and usually relatably domestic, but this often takes a surreal turn. Dickinson has performed extensively at comedy shows, so his poetry needs to consistently hold the attention, and does, often with humour. This is an engaging series of poems that has managed to go from the mouth to the page while retaining their quality superbly.

[Keir Hind]

Out now. Published by Faber. Cover price £18.99

Out now. Published by Burning Eye. Cover price £7.99

tech

Release date 5 Jul. Published by Granta. Cover price £14.99

Three Es, Three Games

and machine mish-mash that looks drop-dead gorgeous, Dishonored seems to take gameplay cues from Their, Assassin’s Creed, Skyrim and BioShock. Take a good look at the trailer videos and try not to love it.

With lots of buzz and a bit of contention, the lads who run the Yogscast gaming video channel, made famous due to their Minecraft videos, have raised a trailer full of cash on Kickstarter to develop their own game, Yogventures. The games takes the environment building and custom mods and playthrough mechanic to heart, allowing players to both make and release their own custom maps. It will inevitably face comparisons to Minecraft’s massive community

A few small morsels from a gluttonous digital festival Words: Alex Cole

Things are up in the air when it comes to gamers for whom #fail is saved in their keyboard macros

Dishonored

bite-sized tech nuggets with ALEX COLE

THE FEED

Every year, games companies gather together in LA at the Electronics Entertainment Expo and cross their fingers as they show off what they’ve been coding away diligently at all year long.

For some, like big shots Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, things go mostly like any planned spectacle, with flashing lights, irrelevant music acts, and fairly predictable announcements for sequels of games already out. But for smaller developers, things are way more up in the air, especially when

your crowd is a bunch of gamers for whom #fail is saved in their keyboard macros.

This year, amidst the half dozen new FPS and yawns, there were a few standouts that promise something genuinely cool, if they can live up to it.

Published by Bethesda but released by the newly-acquired Arkane team, Dishonored looks like the kind of game that begs for awesome detail in every nook and cranny. A steampunk, new-Victorian, stealth, assassination, magic

about who’s stealing from who, but the idea of community-made mods and maps has kept even mediocre games alive long past their sell-by date, so that can only work in the guys’ favor here.

A blast from a past where games had no mercy on players and death meant gruesome, permanent death, X-COM is one of those titles that, for those who played it, has immediate resonance. The game is back now, in a new shiny package, though still just as turn-based, just as tense, and just as threatening to your precious characters. Aliens are invading the earth, and it’s up to you to find them, and stop them, if you can. An instant classic.

B e n e at h t h e Surface

Oh, isn’t this always the way? We’re all set to call it for Apple, with no Android tablets really making a dent in the market and leaving everyone feeling a bit silly about the whole thing, when who should walk up with a new tablet design but skinny, khakiwearing Microsoft, while Alex Clare plays in the background. Weren’t these guys getting beat up for their lunch money last time we saw them?

Still, they’ve definitely been busy. The new toy is called Surface (not to be confused with their experimental tables), and it’s built like a glasscovered tank. Designed to run the upcoming Windows 8 with the Metro interface, the tablets come in two flavours, one powered more like a mobile, and one like a laptop. And it’s the laptop one that makes this interesting.

The current use of a tablet is to consume media – read blogs, emails, check out websites, play a movie, ignore porn, that sort of thing. Sure, some DJs run a set off an iPad now and then, but it’s more of a novelty than a real tool, for which you still need Ableton Live and a decent laptop. But Microsoft is trying to make a tablet run full programs, sticking a kickstand and a real keyboard into the cover, meaning that the same things that run on laptops will run on this guy.

That’s killer news for students and workaholics who want to be able to carry real programs around with them on a device the size of a clipboard. The real question is whether buyers make that jump (and, ya know, what the thing costs). [Alex Cole]

iOS 6 promises some extra goodies for Apple toys, but really just pours more gloss on the lily • Habbo gets set to let users talk again after paedos ruin everyone’s fun – if you can call it fun • E3 pushes cloud gaming as the answer to PC woes, and we’ve all seen how well that worked for Diablo • Apple releases crazy-resolution laptop, charging about 50p a pixel for it all • New touchscreen design has vanishing tactile buttons, let’s hope they are never used for porn

July 2012

THE SKINNY 59

theatre

REVIEW

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show – Live!

The Theatre Royal

rrrrr Following the story of this futuristic Wiki’s previous incarnations as a radio show, BBC television series, trilogy of books (in five volumes), Dirk Maggs (who produced series 3-5 of the radio show) takes it to the stage featuring the original cast. It’s a great novelty to have them there, although sometimes the performances of leads, Simon Jones and Geoff McGivern, come across a little played out (after more than three decades) – they lack a little impulse and spontaneity. The performance of Mark Wing-Davey as two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox, on the other hand, stands out as distinguished.

Maggs cuts right to the chase – literally. Slashing popular but superfluous ‘set-up’ scenes, we find Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect hitching a lift on a

Vogon Cruise-Liner where they are pursued to be expelled into the cold of space (which is really, really big.) An almost slavish fidelity to forging out a narrative from the ragtag compilation of sketches, half-sketches, random asides and multiplying plot-points (many of which never resolve) that make up the body of the Hitchhiker’s Guide legacy, sees many hilarious scenes sacrificed or truncated, yet results in an impressively coherent compilation.

The second act is composed mostly of new material patched together from the notes of Douglas Adams posthumously, and proves far more entertaining. There are also some cute sing-alongs to make best use of the live band who give a stunningly dynamic performance. This is a get-in for HHG fans, and a get-in then get-out-and-readthe-books for those completely new to it. [Antony Sammeroff] The Edinburgh Playhouse, Sat 21 Jul 7.30pm, £19-£29.50 www.atgtickets.com/edinburgh

Zippo’s Circus presents Gold venues across scotland

rrrrr If variety is making a comeback, then the humble big-top circus remains its most glorious venue.

Free face-painting before the show, the chance to be photographed with a cute pony, audience participation through a comic remake of Star Wars, motorbike tricks, a man in a top hat charming budgies into acrobatic tricks, a woman dangling from ropes and troupe of dancing horses: now that the classic animal acts have disappeared, Zippo’s Circus manages to shove more spectacle into two hours than a season of Britain’s Got Talent.

Gold is not just for children – although a child-like appreciation of stunts and tricks will help – and ringmaster Norman Barrett (MBE) runs the show along at a fair clip. The first act finale – acrobats from Kenya – would shame most Fringe cabaret

slots with their pace, daring and precision: the grand finale, involving motorbikes, an iron cage and a brandished disclaimer signed by the artists, is more heart-stopping than Alan Cumming’s unravelling as Macbeth.

There is a rare moment of intimacy when the budgies’ routine evokes a specialist act from the vaudeville, but the grandeur of the circus’s ambition is most clearly embodied in the majesty of Yasmine Smart’s horses: the heavy rock soundtrack, the enthusiasm of the audience and the apparently magical skills of the jugglers, the limbo dancer and trampolinists merge into a jolt of vitality and fun.

Like cabaret, circus has become a source for experimental theatre’s quest to regain a primal energy. On its own terms, however, it still has a unique passion and power. [Margaret Kirk] Now touring Scotland until August 9: see website for times and details www.scotlandsfavouritecircus.co.uk www.zipposcircus.co.uk

Romeo and Juliet

Bard in the Botanics 2012

Following the success of Stephen Clyde’s Bottom in 2012 – he won the Critics Award for Theatre Scotland’s Best Male Actor – Bard in the Botanics returns to Glasgow’s West End for its annual summer season.

With Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and The Tempest on the programme – the latter including Clyde as Propsero – the vision of artistic director Gordon Barr to bring accessible Shakespeare out of the theatre and into nature focuses on England’s über-playwright’s popular and familiar works. As always, Barr is working closely with young artists: Romeo and Juliet is proudly advertised as a ‘new generation production’ and will, for the first time, be touring around Glasgow, including a visit to the Hidden Garden at Tramway.

As Alan Cumming’s one man spectacular Macbeth has demonstrated, Shakespeare continues to be popular and capable of reinvention: Bard in the Botanics, having created over forty shows since 2002, adds the excitement of the outdoors to plays that can be too comfortable to challenge audiences.

While Jennifer Dick’s show this year runs the risk of attracting headlines about The Tempest being stopped by rain, it is the remarkable committment of

60 THE SKINNY

July 2012

the company to supporting young artists and a belief in the potential of Shakespeare to remain relevant that makes the productions more than a novelty. And Barr himself promises, in As You Like It, to transform the Botanics into the Forst of Arden, making use of the environment to highlight the pastoral comedy.

Bard in the Botanics has always encouraged a direct response to Shakespeare’s texts: there is less of the trickery that is so common on the Fringe, and a dynamic use of the raw resources. As Clyde demonstrated last year in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, the raw ability of the actors is given pride of place. And while this festival may be in the shadow of that event on the East Coast, it has battled the elements and fashions to become a Glasgow institution. [Gareth K Vile] The Tempest directed by Jennifer Dick, Main Botanic Gardens, Wed 20 Jun - Sat 7 Jul at 7.45p.m. no performances Sun or Mon Romeo and Juliet, directed by Gordon Barr Botanic Gardens, (under cover), Fri 22 Jun - Fri 20 Jul (no performances Sun or Mon, or Tue 17 Jul) As You Like It directed by Gordon Barr Promenade Production, Wed 11 - Sat 28 Jul at 7.45pm (no performances Sun or Mon) Tickets £12 / £8 (previews) and £15 / £10 main performances from the Box Office: 0141 429 0022 or online www.bardinthebotanics.co.uk

The Tron's artistic director previews his new production Stones in His Pockets The Tron

When I came to the Tron, I was keen to develop the idea of an accessible summer show in July something that would attract new audiences and be entertaining, but with a bite. The first was Cooking With Elvis and the second was Valhalla - they’ve always been busy. This production of Marie Jones’ Stones in his Pockets will be the first staging by a Scottish company and fits in with that ethos.

It’s a brilliant play, and one which I knew we would have great fun developing and staging. It has a sense of anarchy about it and like all great Irish theatre its main ingredient is storytelling. When a story intrigues the audience wonderful things can happen. The play veers between comedy and dark

tragedy - again that’s a knack of great playwrights particularly such Irish writers as O’Casey, Singh and Brian Friel.

Stones In His Pockets is a very funny play with a very serious edge. Robbie Jack and Keith Fleming’s double act routines were sensational in our Christmas show Mr Merlin and I knew they would bring something special into the rehearsal room. I’ve not been disappointed. They were my first choices for this production and I was delighted that they were both available to do it. At times it’s hilarious and then in an instant becomes heartfelt and moving.

[Andy Arnold] 5 - 21 Jul , 7.45pm www.tron.co.uk/event/stones_in_his_pockets

comedy

REVIEW

B r i ta i n ’ s G o t F u c k A l l Ta l e n t If you’ve noticed that Scotland has been a bit more flamboyant recently, it’s probably due to the arrival of international pop sensation Jellybeen Martinez Words: Jellybeen Martinez

Photo: Damien McGlynn

After realising that I was bisexual at the tender age of 7, I knew that I was destined for show business. Rejected in my teens by my father and my homeland of Spain I set out for new pastures. My adventures took me to Bangkok where I scored a top 10 hit with my single Confused and also Venezuela where I endorsed a range of pan pipes on TV commercials. I finally decided to settle in the rustic streets of Edinburgh to try and rejuvenate your declining country with love, music and hot pants.

But then I discovered your Simon Cowell and the monster that is Britain’s Got Talent. Yes I’ll admit to auditioning for this programme, but I was young and desperate. I just wanted to entertain the beautiful people of Britain. The way they treat you in this capitalist machine that chews you up and shits you out is U.G.L.Y – no one’s got no alibi.

Losing out to a dog is like watching an anorexic win a pie eating competition

But I got a better deal than this year’s contestants. All that talent, and they were beaten by a fucking dog! It raises the question, are there any human beings in Britain with Talent? I think so, and for those people losing out to a dog is like watching an anorexic win a pie eating competition. It just shouldn’t happen. And what’s a dog going to do with £500,000 anyway, unless he’s going to start making regular sordid trips to a red light kennel?

This country has fallen prey to El Generalissimo Cowell’s grip on television and the illusion that we can all become famous, even if our only talent is playing Bohemian Rhapsody on the spoons. With Russia and China both on board the ‘...Got Talent’ train, God only knows what’s going to happen to the world. The Mayans predicted 2012 to be the year of the end of the world. Perhaps they foresaw the rise of Jedward?

So fuck Simon Cowell and his 1983 buzz cut. If I had one night with him in Edinburgh I’d firstly take him on a shopping trip to Topman were I would add some colour to his wardrobe and chuck in a trilby or two. We’d hit a tapas restaurant, guzzle down some sangria, knock back a tequila or ten Theatre and spend a few hours back at a Premier Inn – courtesy of Simon of course. (And who knows, maybe if I bring out my old €20 hand job speciality, then maybe I’ll get that record contract after all.)

Until then, I will be exploding right in the face of Theatre Friday 17 Edinburgh all of this August with my own show, august 8 called Britain’s Got Fuck All Talent in which you can Sunday 1 witness me perform my chart topping single while king’s Th marvelling at my killer dance moves. We’re also lucky to have Anthony the bouncer who will demonstrate Friday 17 – Monday 20Tickets his ‘fuck your ass up’ martial arts, Northern Irish £30 £24 august 8.00pm schoolgirl Scorchka O’Finnegan who hasSunday been 19 august 2.30pm 2 hours a physically removed from Britain’s Got Talent on four king’s Theatre, Edinburgh separate occasions, and Kenny Boyle children’s eif.co.uk author and cousin of SuBo. And you knowTickets what? £30 £24 £16 £12 None of them are dogs. Suck on that, Cowell.

Gulliver’s Gulliver’s Gulliver’s Travels Travels Travels

You go in thinking you’re the next SuBo or Twist&Pulse, but then you arrive on stage only for someone like Amanda Holden to take a big stinky turd on your chest in front of 10 million Britain’s Got Fuck All Talent, daily during the Edinburgh 2 hours approximately Fringe at The Shack, Rose St, 5pm. Tickets £5/£7 viewers. I went on that stage AFTER hoping JonaTHan to AFTER be the JonaTHan SWIFT SWIFT eif.co.uk/gulliver www.edfringe.com/whats-on/comedy/ next Connie Talbot and I came off feeling like britain-s-got-f-ck-all-talent the next Raoul Moat.

Gulliver’s Travels

AFTER JonaTHan SWIFT

‘purca˘mighty rete’s mighty Radu Stanca natio ‘purca˘rete’s show show Radu Stanca national Th

‘I may never see delivers visual and of Sibiu, of Romania Sibiu, Romania delivers a visuala and a grander more aural experience aural experience so jawso jaw performed inwith Romanian en in Romanian englishwith super theatrical event droppingly bold it performed droppingly bold that it that ‘purca ˘ rete’s mighty show Radu Stanca national Theatre in my life’ purca˘ rete director rete director most attempts Silviu purca˘Silviu makesmakes most attempts The Observer on Purcărete’s Faust Festival 2009

delivers a visual and of Sibiu, Romania Dragos¸Set Buhagiar ¸ Buhagiar designerSet designer at immersive theatre Dragos at immersive theatre Shaun Davey Music Shaun Davey Music aural experience so jaw seem like a performed paddle in seemthat like in in Romanian with english supertitles droppingly bold ita paddle the shallows’ the shallows’ Silviu purca˘ rete director makes most attempts After triumph the Festival triumph of Faust the Festival of Faust in 2009 dire Dragos ¸ Buhagiar SetAfter designer The Scotsman on Faust, The Scotsman on Faust, returns with the Radu Stanca nati Radu theatre Stanca National at immersive Shaun Davey Music returns with the Radu Stanca national Theatre the world premiere version To the world premiere of his versionofofhis Gulliver’s Festival 2009 2009 seem like a Festival paddle in Theatre of Sibiu, Romania Irish writer Jonathan Swift’s savag Irish writer Jonathan Swift’s savage political sa the shallows’ the eyes theatre of visionary theatre the of eyes of visionary maker Purca ˘make rete w After the Festival triumph Faust in 2009 director Silviu Purca ˘ rete Directed by Silviu Purcărete

by IrishShaun composer Shaun davey. d Irish national composer by dav The Scotsman on Faust, returns with the Radu by Stanca Theatre ofdavey.

Sibiu, driven Romania and Purca˘ rete’sgathers production gathers cu Purca ˘ rete’sofproduction the world premiere of his version Gulliver’s Travels. cultural and so FestivalMusic 2009by Shaun Davey contemporary society and explore contemporary society and explores themes of

exile, immigration, emigration, exile, immigration, emigration, solitude and solit tog

writer Jonathan Swift’s savage political satire is seen through Stunningly imaginative theatre Irish brings the eyes of visionary theatre maker Purca˘ rete with an original score Swift’s satirical classic to life. by Irish composer Shaun davey. driven by davey's musical journey, Purca˘ rete’s production gathers cultural and social aspects of Please note this performance contains adult contemporary themes that may not be suitable for themes children of voyage, dream, society and explores exile, immigration, emigration, solitude and togetherness.

Supported bySupported by Friday 17 – Monday 20 August 8.00pm Sunday 19 August 2.30pm

Supported by

Charity No SC004694.

Photo: Sebastian Marcovici

Supported by

Book now at eif.co.uk/gulliver or call 0131 473 2000

EIF-2012-6-17-Theatre-220212-Hi.indd 13 EIF-2012-6-17-Theatre-220212-Hi.indd 13

EIF-2012-6-17-Theatre-220212-Hi.indd 13

July 2012

THE SKINNY 61

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comps

COMPETITIONS

WIN AN INSIDER’S VIEW OF THE F E S T I VA L A N D L U N C H F O R T W O AT T H E L I V I N G R O O M

The Edinburgh International Festival and The Living Room are giving readers of The Skinny the chance to win two INsider memberships, the Festival’s exclusive members club for culture vultures in their 20s and 30s, and a delicious lunch at the very stylish George Street restaurant The Living Room.

With your INsider membership you can enjoy invites to VIP parties, 50% discounts on selected Festival performances, a year round programme of special events including behind the scenes access and backstage tours. You can meet Festival artists and gain exclusive access to money-can’t-buy experiences.

The Living Room are giving one lucky winner and a friend lunch for two people to be enjoyed with a bottle of prosecco. There are also two runner-up prizes of INsider memberships.

To be in with a chance of winning this exclusive competition, go to www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions and answer the following question: Q. Which New York dance school is performing at The Edinburgh Playhouse at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival?

A. Juilliard B. NYU C. Stomp College

M E E T Y O U R F AV O U R I T E CHAR ACTERS FROM SESAME STREET – ELMO MAKES MUSIC Sesame Street – Elmo Makes Music is coming to the Meadows Theatre Big Top from 5 – 12 August. During the 1 hour musical extravaganza, Sesame Street fans will see Elmo beating the drums, Oscar the Grouch’s stomping trash can lids, Cookie Monster’s crumbling cookies and much more.

The Skinny has teamed up with Premier Stage Productions to offer one lucky person the chance to win a family ticket (4 persons) and then meet your favourite Sesame Street characters after the show.

To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is scan our QR code or go to www.theskinny. co.uk/competitions and answer the following question:

Competition closes Tue 31 July

Q. Which beloved children’s entertainer created Sesame Street?

A. Jim Henson B. Rolf Harris C. Tony Hart Competition closes Tue 31 July A winner will be notified on the day of closing and will be required to respond within 72 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Prize is not exchangeable for cash and dates subject to availability. For full terms and conditions, go to www. theskinny.co.uk/about/terms www.sesamestreetlive.com/tickets-intl www.whatsontickets.com

A winner will be notified on the day of closing and will be required to respond within 72 hours or the prize will be offered to another entrant. For full terms and conditions, go to www.theskinny.co.uk/ about/terms For more information about INsider please visit eif.co.uk/INsider

AWARD-WINNING

REVIEWS

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EDINBURGH'S BIGGEST AND BEST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE IS BACK FOR 2012 Find out more or get involved online at

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JULY 2012

LISTINGS

Glasgow music Tue 03 Jul

Fri 06 Jul

Wed 11 Jul

Futures

Hellfire Club (Forgotten Empires, The Coffins, McCann, Void Pleasantries)

tUnE-yArDs

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £8.50

Melodic rock quartet headered by Ant West, touring their self-released debut album. Rescheduled date.

HyperFest (Azriel, By My Hands, Napoleon, Fathoms, Swallows, From Oceans Above) Classic Grand, 16:00–22:00, £8

All-day mini fest headered by melodic hardcore metallers, Azriel.

Arcane Roots (Constellations) King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Surrey-based rockers pushing the genre in fresh and unexpected ways.

Alan Tennie, Motherbone Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, Free

Local tunesmith Allan Tennie plays his own brand of smooth acoustic pop, with stoner rockers Motherbone messing things up nicely.

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons SECC, 19:00–22:00, From £35

Frankie Valli and his touring mainstays, The Four Seasons, celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first hit, Sherry.

Roxette SECC, 20:00–22:00, £35

A batch of 80s-tastic pop offerings from the Swedish pop duo of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle.

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Indie, grunge, pop and rock handpicked by emerging new promotions collective Hellfire Club Glasgow.

Vagabond Social Club (Firebugs, Stewart Traquair, Jim Dead) State Bar, 20:00–23:00, £4

The Americana night returns, soundtracked by Edinburgh’s own Firebugs, alternative folk singer/ songwriter Stewart Traquair and laconic purveyor of downbeat tales, Mr Jim Dead

Sat 07 Jul Eric Johnson O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £25

Electric guitar-playing legend taking to Glasgow as part of his globetrotting 2012 tour.

Psycho Dalek Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Rapping rockers Psycho Dalek lead an onslaught of metal and hard rock sounds right into your hearing bits.

Ceramic Hobs, FK Alexander, Gropetown, Lovely Assets and Lactations 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

Merrill Garbus’ charming lo-fi pop project, inventively bursting with distorted ukulele, horns, bass, drums, and whisper-to-a-scat-rap vocals.

Rams’ Pocket Radio (4 Day Weekend, Luxembourg) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

Experimental pop noisemaker (aka Peter McCauley) on drums, piano and lyrics.

Golden Grrrls (Sea Lions) Mono, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £4

The Ayrshire-based promoters present a hand-selected line-up of the best in West-Coast rock and punk.

Emo-centric bill headered by South Wales emo, pop and punk-straddling outfit, Forrest.

Gitane Ecosse Blackfriars Basement, 21:00–23:30, Free

Gypsy jazz guitar and swing band, now with added clarinet.

Sharon Van Etten Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £10

NYC singer/songwriter touring her third solo album, produced by none other than The National’s Aaron Dessner.

Wu Legends O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £24

Arnocorps (Bastards of Science)

The Wu-Tang Clan mainstays take to the road, with a mighty bill boasting yer men Method Man, Ghostface Killah, GZA and Raekwon.

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £9

The View (Sound of Guns)

Cast The Net

Mon 09 Jul

The Dundee indie-pop scamps preview their fourth album, Cheeky For A Reason.

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £tbc

Michael Simons

Wed 04 Jul Carly Connor (Anna Sweeny, Eilidh Hadden) King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Young Glasgow singer/songwriter who recently made the big move down’t London-way.

Bi-monthly showcase taking in a handpicked selection of exciting new Scottish artists and bands.

Garbage Barrowland, 19:00–23:00, £27.50

Shirley Manson et al take their newest album, Not Your Kind of People, to a live setting.

Lights (Ambassadors) The Arches, 19:00–22:00, £11.50

Canadian electro-pop songstress dirtying up her melodies with analog synths and retro electronics.

Disposable, Cammo Shorts, Cab Ride Home, Citizen Death, Circle of Tyrants 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Mixed showcase which takes in Glasgow thrash metal foursome Citizen Death, known for adding elements of jazz-funk to their mix.

Thu 05 Jul

San Franciscoan hardcore noise outfit big on the rockin’ and rollin’.

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Folk and blues fingerstyle guitarist.

Israel Nash Gripka (Anthony d’Amato) Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £11

NYC-based singer/songwriter known for his barnstorming gigs, strewn with rootsy rock and folk influences.

Black Manila (Piatcions) 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

London trio fusing psychedelia with rock’n’roll, original bass lines, pounding drums and big ol’ guitar licks.

Tue 10 Jul Of Monsters and Men Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £9

Lovely folk-pop Iceland sextet touring on the back of their full-length debut.

Jo Mango

James Morrison (Rainy Boy Sleep)

Mono, 20:00–22:30, £5

O2 Academy, 19:00–22:00, £sold out

The acoustic folk songstress does her, erm, acoustic folk thing.

Unsane (Big Business, Holy Mountain) Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £12

Influential noise-rock trio that formed in NYC back in 1988, touching on hardcore punk and metal as they go.

Dave Dominey Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Funked-up bass loops with laptop, electric bass and a featured guest soloist.

Alejandro Escovedo and The Sensitive Boys Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £14

Texan singer/songwriter, and onetime member of alternative punk group The Nuns, presents another slice of solid rock.

The Afternoon Gentlemen, Weekend Nachos, Wheelchair x4, Sufferinfuck 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Mixed showcase of noise which includes Glasgow grindcore lot, Wheelchair x4 (or Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair to give ‘em their full mouthful).

Solo singer/songwriter who started his days as a busker in Cornwall, before being propelled into the spotlight with his two-million selling debut album.

Keith James: The Songs of Nick Drake Glasgow Film Theatre, 20:00–22:30, £10

Kent-based acoustic singer/ songwriter Keith James presents his acoustic tribute concert, The Songs of Nick Drake, preceded by a documentary about Drake’s life and music.

NeedToBreathe King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £8.50

Charleston-based southern rockers led by guitarist and lyricist Bear Rinehart.

Yaman Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Indian classical music on sitar and flute.

Baroness Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £6

US-of-A hailing heavy metallers, traversing the line intelligently between melodic and ferocious.

Michael Simons

Modern rock trio taking their cue from Foo Fighters and the like.

Classic Album Night: Blur Maggie May’s, 19:00–22:30, Free

Sex Toys, Splinter, The Red Eyes, Spat Reliably mixed showcase down in’t 13th Note’s basement, bringing the joys of Sex Toys to our ears.

Nite Jewel Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £7

Sat 14 Jul

Thu 12 Jul

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Cathouse, 19:00–22:00, £5

A Plastic Rose (Part Wind Part Wolf) Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £3

O2 Academy, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

Assemblage 23 (Analog Angel) Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £15

Longstanding US-of-A electronic outfit founded by Tom Shear back in 1988, playing one of three special UK dates.

King Tut’s Summer Nights: Pronto Mama (Brazil Exists, The Little Kicks, Lost City Soul) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) kicks off with a headline set from Glasgow’s own polyrhythmic indie-rockers/super cool dudes, Pronto Mama.

Sneak (The Lotus Project, Black International) Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £tbc

Monthly visual/audio concept night featuring the lamenting haunt of The Lotus Project, plus noise scuzz supremos Black International.

Paul Tasker Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Fingerstyle blues guitar from the Doghouse Roses man.

Vestiges (Downfall of Gaia) Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £8

Washinton DC-hailing outfit influenced by hardcore, black metal, crust, d-beat, screamo and postrock. That do ye?

Fri 13 Jul Zak Zilesnick O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £7

Young London singer/songwriter of the bluesy melodies and heartfelt lyrics variety.

King Tut’s Summer Nights: Hector Bizerk (Madhat McGore, Bigg Taj, Becci Wallace, Bill Breaks) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from Glasgow-based alternative hip-hop duo, Hector Bizerk.

Majestic Dandelion (Dirty Sally) Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

The Paisley groove rock trio tour their new album.

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

Siphon (The Rain Experiment)

Original jazz compositions with a modern twist.

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Mon 16 Jul King Tut’s Summer Nights: Daniel Docherty (Craig Fagan, Chloe Latimer, Anna Shields) King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a fourstrong singer/songwriter showcase headered by acoustic chap Daniel Docherty.

Nashville trio making their own brand of countrified pop, playing as part of their Own The Night world tour.

Alias of LA-based singer/songwriter Ramona Gonzalez, deft at making pop-punk dance anthems with 80s bite and shimmery soundscapes a-plenty.

D-Bass

Sun 08 Jul US-of-A band of siblings combining classic country with an eclectic infusion of rock, gospel and soul.

SECC, 19:30–22:00, From £22.50

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Forrest (The Winter Passing, .Scores)

Lady Antebellum

Audio Ayrshire Showcase (The After Affect, I Said Goodbye, Gambit, These Little Kings)

Belfast quartet firmly rooted in the sounds of mid-90s post-hardcore.

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £13.50

Live mod spectacular featuring a selection of Glasgow’s favourited mod bands.

Various bands cherrypick songs from a classic Blur album.

Jamie Bell

The Band Perry

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Glasgow and London-straddling outfit firmly of the distorted noisepop variety.

Reliably mixed showcase down in’t 13th Note’s basement.

The talented fingerstyle jazz guitarist plays his own arrangements of standards.

Glasgow Ska Train

The Bad Men (The Day I Snapped) O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £10

The longstanding mock rock outfit bring their brand of comedy punkmeets-idiot rock Glasgow-way.

King Tut’s Summer Nights: John Wean (The NK Jays, Seed, Minor Delilah) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from the Scottish quintet with a penchant for writing about love, life and girls: John Wean.

Red Sands (The Merrylees) Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

West coast psych, with fuzzy acidfolk and prog stylings.

Spyritus, Let’s Play God, Deadly Inscription Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £tbc

A trio of high-energy UK metallers join forces for triple the thrash.

Includes free entry to The Cathouse after-club.

Bec Sandridge (Manta, Franny Mckeown, Cat Caldwell, Eilidh Hadden, Michelle Jean, Emma Davis) Maggie May’s, 19:00–22:30, £6

Fresh indie tunes from the Australian singer/songwriter, currently in the midst of her world tour.

Sun 15 Jul Cold Chisel O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £32.50

Adelaide-formed rock outfit making their first trip to the northern hemisphere in over 30 years.

The Bird Doggers Blackfriars Basement, 21:00–23:00, Free

Vintage mix of rock’n’roll and R’n’B aimed squarely at the dancefloor.

King Tut’s Summer Nights: Xavia (Lost In Audio, Atlas: Empire, Seams) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from Scottish ‘techtronika’ ensemble, Xavia.

Crazy Spirit (Mob Rules, Clocked Out) Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

Expect the usual twisted, raw punk attack from this NYC lot.

Toxic Rock Lives! (A Fable For The Curious, Empty Avenue, District 55, Fuck Yeah!

Molecules, Momentus) Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

After a month of rest, Pivo Pivo’s rock and punk regulars return with a bang.

Xharoldshitmanx, Wheelchair x4, Bobby and The Boys 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Mixed batch of noise with Glasgow grindcore ensemble Wheelchair x4 amongst ‘em, who sometimes insist on being called Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair Wheelchair.

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Folk and blues fingerstyle guitarist.

Tue 17 Jul King Tut’s Summer Nights: Beerjacket (Quickbeam, Mike Nisbet) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

The Impenetrable Click (Alan Scott, Chloe Philip, Geoff Gawler, Sarah Cassidy, Will Setchell) Halt Bar, 20:00–22:00, £3 (£2)

The experimental comedy troupe bring their surrealist blend of sketches, stand-up and puppetry to Halt Bar, with promised special guests and prizes.

Little Mill of Happiness (Analogues of the Sun, Sleeping machines) Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £3

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

Canterbury

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Mixed showcase of hardcore metal and grindcore, including the madcap duo that is Powercup (growls, strings, opera vocals and tiny shorts).

Wed 18 Jul King Tut’s Summer Nights: Brown Bear and the Bandits (The Sea Kings, Aaron Wright, Lovers Turn To Monsters) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from Largs trio Brown Bear and the Bandits, combining folk guitar, Celtic airs and pop hooks as they go.

Sing-a-long-a Abba The King’s Theatre, 20:00–22:15, £19

Abba tribute act in full-on singalong glory.

Cast The Net Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £tbc

Bi-monthly showcase taking in a handpicked selection of exciting new Scottish artists and bands.

Gus Stirrat Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Monthly jazz session with bassist Gus Stirrat and pals.

The Merrylees (Folks) 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

The country-tinged Edinburgh trio bring the retro vibes, chock with hallucinogenic riffery and a load of reverb.

Mitchell Museum (Jo Schornikow, Scott Rudd) Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £5 adv. (£6 door)

The Glaswegian quartet return for their first headline Glasgow gig since they called time on their hiatus period. Go welcome ‘em back.

Thu 19 Jul King Tut’s Summer Nights: Midnight Lion (Galleries, Aames) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from chilled oot Glasgow duo, Midnight Lion, combining their Scottish indie heritage with more spacious, lo-fi beats.

Bis (We Are The Physics) Mono, 19:30–22:30, £6

Manda Rin and her Bis cohorts play a special gig to launch Cover Versions and Other Hits, a new exhibition of artworks by Rin herself.

John Knox Sex Club Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Rather ace Glasgow quintet and their helter-skelter brand of art-rock.

Jo Schornikow (Scott Rudd) Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

New Fence signee Jo Schornikow (of The Shivers) tours her solo batch of material, alongside the acoustic songwriting talents of New York’s Scott Rudd.

North England band of black metallers touring their latest LP, Curse.

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £7

Brooklyn-based vocalist, songwriter and musician, formerly a member of acclaimed garage rock acts Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls and the Vivian Girls.

(£8 door)

Tue 24 Jul

Up-and-coming Glagsow rock’n’rollers formed in 2011.

King Tut’s Summer Nights: Fires Attract (Scarlet Shift, The Darien Venture, Crusades)

Avant Garde, 20:15–23:00, Free

Coffinsplitter, Pizza Hi-Five, Powercup

Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £6

Frankie Rose

Fri 20 Jul King Tut’s Summer Nights: Holy Esque (Queen Jane, The Mirror Trap, The 10:04s)

Latecomers

Acoustic pop loveliness from the Glasgow-based outfit.

VForVagina (The Fnords, The Bucky Rage) Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

A night of slimy, dirty and raw grrrl punk. Yes, with vagina in the title.

Ten84

Maggie May’s, 19:30–22:30, £5

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £7

London quintet mixing razor sharp guitar work and anthemic melodies.

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from the energetic pop-punk Glasgow foursome that is Fires Attract.

These Fading Polaroids, Death By Ambition, Moral Occult Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Veritale smorgasboard of rock, punk and indie for your aural pleasure.

Yaman

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Indian classical music on sitar and flute.

Heavy rock trio from Glasgow led by Ewan Morris on badass lead vocals and heavy riffs.

Filthy Little Secret (Yokozuna, Ragweed)

Cleavers, Bezerker 82, Vakunoht

Glasgow quartet delivering the brusing rock with a nip of blues.

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Pick’n’mix band showcase taking in riff-ready punk, 80s-styled hardcore and progressive space rock.

That do you?

Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lockpickers Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £4

Glasgow-dwelling quartet who describe their sound as ‘doom wop’: basically a bit rock’n’roll, a bit rockabilly and plenty dark vibes.

Sat 21 Jul King Tut’s Summer Nights: Jack Butler (Selective Service, Mickey 9’s, Kobi) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from wily retro guitar outfit, Jack Butler.

Trongate Rum Riots (The Coffins, The Mitre 5s)

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Scottish ensemble comprising seven lads and one lass making their own brand of folk-punk songs, or ‘hypersea shanties’ as they call ‘em.

The Rising

Maggie May’s, 20:00–22:30, £6

Bruce Springsteen tribute act.

Sun 22 Jul Fei Comodo (Paige, I Divide) O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £7

Post-hardcore outfit touring on the back of their latest album, Behind The Bright Lights. Rescheduled date.

King Tut’s Summer Nights: The Recovery! (Hunt/Gather, Fat Janitor, No Island) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from hardcore punk-styled Glasgow quartet, The Recovery! (exclamation mark obligatory).

School Of Seven Bells Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £10

NYC dream-pop duo made up of Benjamin Curtis and Alejandra de la Deheza, glazing their tunes with complex harmonies and effectssodden chords.

As Cities Burn (The Elijah, The Barents Sea, Violet) Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £8

Hard rockin’ Louisiana quintet still riding high post their 2011 resurrection.

Mon 23 Jul King Tut’s Summer Nights: The Unwinding Hours (Olympic Swimmer, Dead Electric) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from the mighty Aerogramme-formed duo of singer Craig B and guitarist Iain Cook, aka The Unwinding Hours.

Wodensthrone (A Forest of Stars, Haar)

Folk and blues fingerstyle guitarist.

Shadows Chasing Ghosts

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from Scottish indie-rockers par excellence, Holy Esque.

Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £8

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Grunge-pop ensemble from Inverness, deft at making small amps sound very loud indeed.

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from the one-man alternative folk band that is Beerjacket’s Peter Kelly (and pals).

Melodic rock quartet playing the first of three album release specials.

Michael Simons

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Wed 25 Jul King Tut’s Summer Nights: Randolph’s Leap (Johnny Jack, Blue Sky Archives, Bronagh Monahan) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from Glasgow ensemble Randolph’s Leap, charmingly twisting the folk-pop genre into odd earworms of joy.

The Rising Souls (Volition Empire, Punto the Feef)

The Modern Kind Maggie May’s, 19:00–22:00, £6 adv.

Sat 28 Jul Blackfriars Live @ Merchant City Festival Blackfriars Basement, 13:00–19:30, Free

Showcase of the best bands and the sounds that play year round at Blackfriars every Tuesday and Sunday.

Bap Kennedy (Tony Etherson, Andy Tucker) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £10

Belfast singer/songwriter who’s worked with a fair few musical legends in his time, most notably Steve Earle and Van Morrison.

Neu! Reekie! Records: Glasgow Launch Mono, 19:30–22:00, £5 (£4)

Favourited avant-garde noisemakers Neu! Reekie! launch their own record label (and their first single), with guests including Alasdair Gray, The Sexual Objects and TeenCanteen.

Lil Ze Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

Rather fine southside of Glasgow’s indie/hip-hop cross-over act.

The Plimptons (Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5, The Gastric Band) Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £5

Scottish acoustic rockers infusing their sound with blues and soul.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

Playful DIY pop offerings from the Glasgow-based mainstays on the go since 1999.

Rock Wednesdays

Chris Helme

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £tbc

Indie, grunge, pop and rock handpicked by emerging new promotions collective Hellfire Club Glasgow.

Thu 26 Jul

Maggie May’s, 19:30–22:00, £7

The Seahorse frontman plays a selection of solo material and old Seahorse favourites.

King Tut’s Summer Nights: DARC (The Mouse That Ate The Cat, Johnny and The Giros, TeKlo)

Citizens (What The Blood Revealed, Crusades, Jackie Onassis)

King Tut’s Summer Nights schedule (12-26 July) continues with a headline set from electronica-styled ‘burgh dwellers, DARC.

Hardcore Glasgow trio fuelled on raw aggression, rhythmical inventiveness and DIY aesthetics.

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

JEM

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Indian and Scottish music arranged for guitar and cello.

Tommy Reilly (Christopher Price, Mitchell Boyle, Waiting To Go) Maggie May’s, 19:30–22:00, £6

Young Glasgow singer/songwriter fresh from recording his third album, featuring playing from members of Admiral Fallow and Frightened Rabbit.

Savages (Parma Violets) Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £6

London-based foursome bringing the noise with their howlin’ mix of psychedelia, complete with dub-tinged rhythm section.

Fri 27 Jul Fury

Captain’s Rest, 20:00–23:00, £3

Sun 29 Jul Blackfriars Live @ Merchant City Festival Blackfriars Basement, 13:00–19:30, Free

Showcase of the best bands and the sounds that play year round at Blackfriars every Tuesday and Sunday.

Breadcrumb Trail (Alpha Male Tea Party) Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £3

Monthly experimental and progressive night, this month presenting Liverpool dischordant choppy alternative punk instrumentalists, Alpha Male Tea Party.

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £8

Katie Sutherland

Two Stripe, We Were Poseidon, Until We’re Heroes, Half Jacks

Former Pearl and The Puppets local girl Katie Sutherland showcases songs from her debut album.

Worchester outfit serving up their metallic thrash at power speed levels.

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Handpicked indie-rock blowout to shake up your weekend.

Wing and a Prayer

Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Live showcase of blues-influenced singer/songwriters.

Maggie May’s, 19:30–22:00, £5

Mon 30 Jul Michael Simons Tchai-Ovna House of Tea, 20:00–22:00, Free

Folk and blues fingerstyle guitarist.

July 2012

THE SKINNY 63

LISTINGS

EDINBURGH music Tue 03 Jul

Sat 07 Jul

The Strives, Raw Deal, The Diversions

Serpent Venom (Black Magician)

Whistlebinkies, 20:00–03:00, Free

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Relative newcomers to the British doom scene making their Scottish debut, no less.

Skippy Dyes

Nobles Bar, 21:00–01:00, Free

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

The tech-happy Glasgow fivepiece tour on the back of their new EP, a predictably genre-hopping mix of jazz, rock and powerpop.

Carly Connor (The Deadly Winters, Greg Pearson)

Wed 04 Jul Call Me Salvador (The Strives)

Dubravko Lapaine Voodoo Rooms, 19:30–23:00, £10

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Croatian didgeridoo artists making their way to Scotland for the first time. Look busy.

Relative newcomers to the local indie-rock scene cut their chops live.

Ged Hanley Trio, Main Street Blues, Jade and the Jacks, Jojocoke

Sing-a-long-a Abba Festival Theatre, 19:30–22:00, £19.50

Whistlebinkies, 17:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

Abba tribute act in full-on singalong glory.

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Jack o’ Diamonds Scrimshaw Shanties Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Weekly acoustic session hosted

by Toby Mottershead of Black Diamond Express, with various live guests.

The Hazey Janes (Sojourner, Small Feet Little Toes)

Chris Finn, The Future Capital, Splendid Gentlemen Whistlebinkies, 19:30–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5 adv.

Shiny Dundee four-piece trading in relentlessly upbeat rhythms and sweet boy/girl harmonies.

Sun 08 Jul CRANACHAN Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, Free

Thu 05 Jul

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

El Schlong, Secta Rouge, Vasquez

The Sunday Session

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Insane mix of metal, hardcore and jazz from three wildly-original bands of noisemakers.

Top quality selection of live blues and jazz with a rotating selection of guest hosts.

Stanton

The Johnson Brothers

Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Local bunch of musical merrymakers playing their own catchy, original material.

Blackjack, Killing Time Whistlebinkies, 21:30–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Tom Hingley (Paul Gilbody, Greg Pearson) Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £8 adv.

The Inspiral Carpets frontman takes to the road solo, playing an eclectic mix of old Manchester classics, blues originals and standards.

Whistlebinkies, 20:30–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Tue 10 Jul Black Manila Voodoo Rooms, 19:15–23:00, £6

London trio fusing psychedelia with rock’n’roll, original bass lines, pounding drums and big ol’ guitar licks.

Phrasement, The Diversions Whistlebinkies, 20:00–03:00, Free

Fri 06 Jul Cab Ride Home (Cammo Shorts, Black Talon, Torn Face) Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Southern-styled metal all the way from the US-of-A.

Indie Funday Friday (Aperture, Ded Rabbit, Little Love & The Friendly Vibes, Fireside Aliens) Monthly indie-pop night where a selection of, er, indie-pop acts play in aid of local charities.

The Sound Project (Thank You So Nice, The Omega Corridor, The Creeping Ivies) Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £6 (£5)

Bi-monthly music night, headered by experimental Edinburgh indiepoppers Thank You So Nice.

Whistlebinkies, 17:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

Electric Circus Live Lounge (Cammy Phair, Jamie Sutherland)

Savage Sound System, Nity Gritz, Deeko Henry’s Cellar, 19:30–23:30, £5

Mixed batch of live electronica and hip-hop, done mash-up style.

Lewis Gibson Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Rabble-rousing good time rock’n’roll from Midas Touch’s Lewis Gibson and his merry band of players.

Crown Jewel Defense (Summerlin,The Final Chapter) Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £8

Stadium-styled metallic tunesmiths straight from central California.

Fri 13 Jul The Playfair Orchestra Greyfriar’s Kirk, 19:30–22:00, £10

Christopher George tries his hand at conducting, leading The Playfair Orchestra in renditions of Haydn’s Cello Concert No.1 and Beethoven’s Symphony No.7.

Radio Pachuco Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

Dancealong seven-piece swing and blues outfit.

Trapped Mice (Sebastian Dangerfield, Plastic Animals) Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5

The Edinburgh quartet do their alternative folk-meets-indie racket of a thing, launching their new LP as they go.

The Demon’s Eye, Mad Ferret Whistlebinkies, 21:30–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Electric Circus Live Lounge (Michael MacFarlane) Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, Free

Acoustic-styled musical variety show hosted by HP ‘the sauce’ Neilson.

Sat 14 Jul Lord Rochester Nobles Bar, 22:00–00:00, Free

Local rock’n’rollers par excellence.

Guns 2 Roses (Pppeshow, Falling Red) Bongo Club, 19:00–22:00, £10

Wed 11 Jul

Sweet reggae rockin’ from the original sound system.

Nightmare Frequency (Trauma Inc, Alisdair Kampf)

The Homeless World Cup Charity Gig (Decade, Constant State, The Litigators, The Black Lights, Frantic Chant)

Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Edinburgh Unlimited #12 (Katie Forbes and The Dull Fudds, Calum Carlyle, Stevie B Good, Caro Bridges) The Third Door, 20:00–22:30, £3

Regular live acoustic session with a four-strong line-up of performers.

Jack o’ Diamonds Scrimshaw Shanties Weekly acoustic session hosted

by Toby Mottershead of Black Diamond Express, with various live guests.

Jammin’ at Voodoo Voodoo Rooms, 21:00–23:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Thu 12 Jul

Guns N’ Roses tribute act.

Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Chris Finn, Bluesoul, Rhythm Beats Working, Sea Bass Kid, The Pictoids

The Banshee Labyrinth, 20:00–23:00, £5

Amusement Parks On Fire frontman Michael Feerick returns to Edinburgh for a decidedly quieterthan-usual acoustic solo set.

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Local electronica abuse and brutal digital noise. Take cover.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £4

64 THE SKINNY

Meursault (Rob St John, Jill O’Sullivan, Jenny Reeve) Neil Pennycook and his Meursault cohorts launch their third album, Something for the Weakened, with stellar support from label-mate and musical collaborator Rob St John and long-time pal Jill O’Sullivan.

Young Glasgow singer/songwriter who recently made the big move down’t London-way.

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, Free

DJs Fuz ‘n’ Lee select a rich pallete of sounds, all spun from wax.

Queen’s Hall, 19:00–22:00, £10

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £6

Acoustic-styled musical variety show hosted by HP ‘the sauce’ Neilson.

Eclectic Mud

Michael Feerick (Now Wakes The Sea, Fuzzystar, Convex Mancave)

Monthly live jam session playing lounge grooves from myriad genres.

Callum Beattie, Huirricane Jack, The Splendid Gentlemen Whistlebinkies, 19:00–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

July 2012

Messenger Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£7 after 12)

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

Pretty much as it sounds – a charity gig in aid of the Homeless World Cup, with a quartet of bands coming out to play.

Ged Hanley Trio, Blues Aces, Reload Alma Fiera Whistlebinkies, 21:30–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Steve Heron Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

The Edinburgh singer/songwriter plays a set of melodramatic pop, as is his way.

Sun 15 Jul CRANACHAN Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, Free

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

The Sunday Session Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Top quality selection of live blues and jazz with a rotating selection of guest hosts.

David Bridie and Frank Yamma Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–23:00, £12

Double dose of Australian singer/ songwriters.

Big Tuna Whistlebinkies, 20:30–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Mon 16 Jul The Milk Bar Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £4

Relocated indie-rock locals (yes, they left us for London) making their long-awaited return home.

Tue 17 Jul Still, The Rosettes, The Diversions Whistlebinkies, 20:00–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Wed 18 Jul Make Sparks Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, £5

Well-crafted, hook-laden indiepop from the Dundonian trio.

Ides Of Toad (Dolfinz, Honeyblood, Fantas Rainbow) Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Live showcase from local music blogger Song, By Toad, headered by grunge outfit Dolfinz, with a double dose of garage on support.

Jack o’ Diamonds Scrimshaw Shanties Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Weekly acoustic session hosted

by Toby Mottershead of Black Diamond Express, with various live guests.

John Hiatt

The OK Social Club

Tijuana Cartel

The Third Door, 19:00–23:00, £5

Teatro Spiegeltent, 22:30–00:00, £10

The genre-hopping Edinburgh trio launch their new single, their myriad influences – from 50s girl groups to 70s punk-rock – all well and in place.

A Free Gig In Leith Nobles Bar, 22:00–00:00, Free

Chris Bainbridge (of Bainbridge Presents) handpicks a couple of scene stalwarts to try their hand with a proper Leif crowd.

Danilo Rea and Flavio Boltro Queen’s Hall, 20:30–22:30, From £12.50

The virtuoso pianist and trumpeter combine forces to reinterpret a number of well-known tunes in a jazz setting. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Slim Chance The Caves, 19:00–22:30, £15

Returning to the stage, Slim Chance celebrate the spirit and songs of their departed bandmate, Ronnie Lane.

North Mississippi Allstars Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–23:00, £15

Southern rock-meets-blues jam duo, inspired by the Mississippi Hill Country Blues tradition. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

The Rising Souls Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Scottish acoustic rockers infusing their sound with blues and soul.

Bad Boogaloo, Gonzo a Go Go Whistlebinkies, 19:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Queen’s Hall, 19:00–22:00, £26

The Deep Red Sky (Kobi, Common Wolves)

Chris Finn, Splendid Gentlemen

Bainbridge Presents showcase headered by energetic Scottish alternative rockers The Deep Red Sky, chock with guitars, glock, keys and three-part harmonies.

American rock guitarist known for his sharp storytelling, blended into a classic Americana mix of blues, folk and country Whistlebinkies, 19:00–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

The Kennel Wages Whistlebinkies, 00:30–03:00, Free

High energy blues-styled rock from the talented Edinburgh outfit.

Thu 19 Jul Warbringer (Elm Street, Black Talon) Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £7

American upstarts bulldoze their way through their new album, thrash metal all the way.

The Winter Tradition (LightGuides, Sebastian Dangerfield) Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:30, £6

Noisy powerpop-meets-rock from the loveable Scottish quartet, launching their new LP on the night.

Click Clack Club The Third Door, 20:00–22:45, £4

Occasional experimental music club bringing the good times with their Beefheart-inspired experimental funk.

Victorian Trout Conspiracy Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

The lads from the Dark Jokes host a broken down set of original tunes.

The Lemonaids (Maxwell’s Dead, Dacehandle, FUCK!) Opium, 20:30–23:30, £4

Surf-power-punk fae Glasgow, playing their first Edinburgh show, no less.

Fri 20 Jul The Toasters Citrus Club, 19:30–22:00, £9 adv.

Longstanding ska ensemble formed in NYC by British frontman Rob ‘Bucket’ Hingley back in 1981.

Maggie Bell and Blues N’ Trouble Festival Theatre, 20:00–22:00, £12.50

The Scottish blues songstress sings a selection of classics, accompanied by Edinburgh blues outfit, Blues N’ Trouble. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

Fires Attract (A Balcony Scene) Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £5

Energetic pop-punk foursome fae Glasgow.

Niki King & The Elements Teatro Spiegeltent, 22:00–00:00, £15

Edinburgh-born, New York-living jazz vocalist singing self-penned tunes of 21st century love, life and loss. Part of Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival.

Sat 21 Jul Holy Esque (Blank Canvas, Edinburgh School For The Deaf) Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £6

The Scottish indie-rock quartet bring the intense sonic morass of distortion and atmospheric soundscapes, as per.

Dr John and The Lower 911 Festival Theatre, 20:00–22:00, From £22.50

The New Orleans maestro tours his newest album, a collaboration with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

The Last September Nobles Bar, 22:00–00:00, Free

Frontman Pete Deanes’ tender songs set to music by his indie-folk six-piece.

Colin Steele Quintet (Konrad Wiszniewski Quartet) Queen’s Hall, 20:30–22:30, From £12.50

A rare outing for Colin Steele’s acclaimed Celtic-tinged quintet.

Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

SoHo Dandy (The Holy Ghosts) Voodoo Rooms, 19:30–01:00, £6

Glasgow-based four, six, or sometimes even seven-piece of the alternative indie-blues variety.

Ged Hanley Trio, Safehouse, Bluesoul Whistlebinkies, 17:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Multi-layered electronica, synths, virtuoso flamenco guitar and driving Afro-Latin rhythms from the Australian outfit, making their UK debut. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

The Stooges Brass Band Teatro Spiegeltent, 22:30–00:00, £15

Eight-piece New Orleans brass band, keeping it big, loud and funky, as per. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Sun 22 Jul CRANACHAN Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, Free

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

The Manhattan Transfer Festival Theatre, 20:00–22:00, From £25

The American vocal ensemble play their only UK date. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Hyperbubble (Sacre Noir, Shock & Awe) Henry’s Cellar, 19:30–23:30, £5

Texan duo knocking out the punktronic future pop, ripe for our finest robo-dancng moves.

The Sunday Session (Alistair McEarlian) Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Thu 26 Jul Kyle Eastwood Band Festival Theatre, 20:00–22:00, £15

Whistlebinkies, 17:00–03:00, Free

Jazz-inflected bassist and composer, who also happens to be the son of a certain Mr Clint Eastwood. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

(£4 after 12)

Becky Gowans Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Edinburgh-based folk singer/ songwriter showcasing her seemingly constant stream of new material.

Marcin Wasilewski Trio Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, From £15

Young Polish jazz trio who honed their skills working with Poland’s iconic trumpeter Tomasz Stanko.

Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Cuban National Day Party Jam House, 20:00–01:00, £16 (£14)

Special Cuban National Day party with live Cuban band Sonora La Calle providing the tunes.

Jojocoke

Garaje Jack The Liquid Room, 19:00–22:00, £12

Fri 27 Jul

Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, From £20

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Tijuana Cartel

New Fence signee Jo Schornikow (of The Shivers) tours her solo batch of material, alongside the acoustic songwriting talents of New York’s Scott Rudd.

Mon 23 Jul Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, From £20

Fiery double bill of two bands currently shaping the contemporary New York jazz scene. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Tue 24 Jul Hidden Orchestra, Floex Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, From £15

Double bill of somewhat genredefying musical merrymakers; Floex (cinematic jazz and glitchy electronica) and Hidden Orchestra (electro jazz-noir). Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

The Diversions

Wed 25 Jul Bannerman’s, 20:00–23:00, £5

Garage rock-styled grimy guitars from down south, with superlative local support.

Jack o’ Diamonds Scrimshaw Shanties Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Weekly acoustic session hosted

by Toby Mottershead of Black Diamond Express, with various live guests.

Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, From £15

The Edinburgh Jazz Orchestra play tribute to the cool orchestral arrangements of Gil Evans, on the centenary celebration of his birth.

Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Radge Against The Machine, Splendid Gentlemen Whistlebinkies, 21:30–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Bannerman’s, 21:00–23:00, Free

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

Jools Holland

The former Squeeze piano tinkler does his thing, accompanied as ever by his 20-piece Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.

Favourited avant-garde noisemakers Neu! Reekie! unveil their very own record label, with their first C86 getting its grand unveiling on the night, with guests including Roy Moller, Alan Bissett and Jonathan Freemantle.

Callum Beattie, Size Queen, Dignan Dowell Whistlebinkies, 17:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Jonah Matranga (Cara Mitchell, Jonny Downie) Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £9

The frontman of onelinedrawing tours his latest solo album, which he first released as solo acoustic versions – inviting folk to add their own ideas to the basic tracks.

Sat 28 Jul

Ragweed (Yokozuna, A Ritual Spirit, Vasquez)

Sun 29 Jul CRANACHAN

Scottish Book Trust, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

World Jazz Orchestra

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £6

Avalanche Records, 14:00–15:00,

Edinburgh Playhouse, 19:30–21:30,

Oxjam Fundraiser Fundraiser night in aid of Oxjam, with a selection of live bands helping ‘em raise much-needed funds.

Neu! Reekie! Records: Edinburgh Launch

Neu! Reekie! Records Unveiled

Whistlebinkies, 20:00–03:00, Free

Alternative rock and classic covers.

All-day celebration of blues, with a BBQ and plenty o’ beer in Edinburgh’s outdoor haven, Pear Tree beer garden. Raising funds for CLIC Sargent.

Free

Jo Schornikow (Scott Rudd)

The Bad Plus, Jeremy Pelt Quintet

The Pear Tree, 14:00–22:00, £5 adv. (£7 door)

Favourited avant-garde noisemakers Neu! Reekie! launch their very own record label, with their first C86 – featuring the likes of Roy Moller, Davy Hendersen and Carla Easton – played live in-store.

Average White Band

Multi-layered electronica, synths, virtuoso flamenco guitar and driving Afro-Latin rhythms from the Australian outfit, making their UK debut. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Rollin’ N Tumblin’ (Safehouse, Fitzroy Soul, Black Diamond Express, Kennel Wages, Hot Tin Roof)

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Madrid-based Spanish rockers.

Teatro Spiegeltent, 20:30–22:00, £10

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Whistlebinkies, 21:30–03:00, Free

Top quality selection of live blues and jazz with original songwriter Alistair McEarlian and pals.

The legendary Scottish soulmeets-funk outfit play a potent mix for hits. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Ged Hanley Trio, The Midnight Blues Band

Festival Theatre, 20:00–22:00, £15

Unique jazz big band paying tribute to Duke Ellington. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Thirsty Dog Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Edinburgh-based revival band playing the rock’n’roll and R’n’B hits.

Bainbridge Music Showcase (Dave Archibald, Rory Spiers, The Blind Faiths, The Silver Birches) The Third Door, 19:00–22:00, £5

Monthly showcase selection of new bands who’ve been using Bainbridge Studios facilities this month.

The Kennel Wages Nobles Bar, 22:00–00:00, Free

High energy blues-styled rock from the talented Edinburgh outfit.

Rumba Caliente International Big Band Queen’s Hall, 20:30–22:30, £12.50

Specially-assembled Latin-jazz monster of a band led by Salsa Celtica’s Toby Shippey. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

Broken Records Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

The Edinburgh mainstays play an intimate set encompassing a selection of new and old material.

From £33.50

Austen George and Donna Maciocia Nobles Bar, 21:00–00:00, Free

Two local talents combine forces for a weekend songwriters’ special.

Blurt (Orange Claw Hammer) Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–23:00, £15

Minimalist post-punk from the South Londoners, fronted by eccentric-saxophonist and poet Ted Milton. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

The Cundeez Whistlebinkies, 21:30–03:00, Free

The usual eclectix mix of live bands taking in rock, funk, soul and blues.

See whistlebinkies.com for additions to the schedule.

Mon 30 Jul Mayors Of Miyazaki (Alpha Male Tea Party, Vasquez) Henry’s Cellar, 19:30–23:30, £5

Punk-y, all-shouting math-rock trio from London, thriving on angular grooves and crushing riffs. Amen.

Nanci Griffith Queen’s Hall, 19:00–22:00, £26.50

The longstanding American folk songstress tours on the back of her 20th album, Intersection.

Morrissey Usher Hall, 19:00–22:00, £32.50

All rumours of a Smiths reunion have been staunchly denied, so a chance to see Morrissey with his current band of choice is the best you’re likely to get. He might even play an old song or two.

Whistlebinkies’ Open Mic Whistlebinkies, 19:30–03:00, Free

Free, drop-in style open mic session.

LISTINGS

Glasgow CLUBS Tue 03 Jul Reprisal Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Tuesday nighter manned by DJ Mythic, playing the best in rock, metal, punk and ska.

Wild Combination Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Kilmarnock’s hairy disco legend, David Barbarossa, digs out some vinyl gems.

Killer Kitsch Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Electronic music of all ages, for all ages.

Junk Disco The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Hotch-potch mix of chart anthems, live video feeds, a dressing-up box and karaoke.

I Am Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3/free via iamclub.co.uk)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual mix of electronica and bass.

Wed 04 Jul

Soul Kitchen

Ad Lib, 22:00–03:00, Free

Soul Kitchen

Ad Lib, 22:00–03:00, Free

Ad Lib’s now staying open late on weekends, with a selection of Soul DJs playing you into the night (plus soul food served until 2am).

Ad Lib’s now staying open late on weekends, with a selection of Soul DJs playing you into the night (plus soul food served until 2am).

Hotwire (Manda Rin)

Reverb

Female-fronted rock sounds with special guest Manda Rin (of Bis fame).

Full-on techno dancefloor destruction with guests Terry Pussypower, Snook, Craig Donaldson and William Duran.

Blackfriars Basement, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Damnation

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £6

Alternative rock, metal, punk and ska.

Blackfriars Basement, 22:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Absolution

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £6

Forget About Pushing Your Cart

Metal, industrial and pop-punk over two floors.

Psychedelic sounds of Africa, dub, disco, proto house and post-punk combine in one glorious mish-mash.

Mono, 20:00–01:00, Free

Mono, 20:00–01:00, Free

David Barbarossa’s Thing Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Two floors of punk-rock, reggae and classic disco, with local scallywag David Barbarossa.

Old Skool

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul.

Subversion

Willie Thorn Massacre Local DJs Ian and Nicky present an eclectic night of barnyard funk, mystic soul, voodoo rock and a bit of Grandstand.

Highlife Vs Optimo: Comeme All-Dayer (Matias Aguayo) Mono, 15:00–23:00, £10 (£8)

Highlife and Optimo join forces for a celebration of one of their favourite record labels, Comeme, hosting an all-day party that kicks off at Mono, before moving to La Cheetah.

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Chart, indie and electro student favourite, with a bouncy castle an’ all.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

The Afterparty Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Euan Neilson handpicks a selection of classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

Boom Thursdays The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Chart and indie classics, plus a live Twitter feed where you can log tune requests (#Garagelive).

Up The Racket Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

DJ Paddy plays the newest in indie, rock, disco and pop. You do the dancing.

Feel My Bicep Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Cosmic and sweaty mix of 80s sleaze, house and disco.

Fri 06 Jul Propaganda O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Student-orientated indie night with guest DJs dropping by.

Instruments Of Rapture Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Choice nu-disco and house picks from the Instruments Of Rapture label, hosted by Ali OOFT and The Revenge.

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The Arches, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Considered mix of garage, post-punk and girl groups, presented by Adele of Sons and Daughters and the Sophisticated Boom Boom.

Resident Wee Cheesy throws in mash-ups, chart-attacks and more mayhem than should really be allowed on the Sabbath.

Space Invader

Octopussy

Boom Boom

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Long-running trade night with Normski, Zeus and Mash spinning disco beats.

Craig McGee’s staple eclectic mashup midweeker.

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Sunday Roaster

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/Free with wage slip)

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Monthly dose of industrial, EBM and electronic. We hear it’s very danceable.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £1

Electro, funk and disco soundtrack, plus a chance to win the door fees.

Burn

Garage Wednesdays

Cryotec

Quids In

Mon 09 Jul

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £3 adv. (£5 door)

Sun 08 Jul

Kinning Park Complex, 13:00–17:00, £5

Anything goes midweek party in the capable hands of Duncan Harvey and guests.

Chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

Much-hyped London producer Airhead plays a set of his inimitable sparse electronic explorations.

Cheeky Sunday afternoon clubber’s session with WTW exploring the roots and fruits of dance music.

Different Strokes

Jellybaby

The Berkeley Suite, 23:00–03:00, Free (£3 after 12)

Root2TheFruit

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Thu 05 Jul

Airhead

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

An unabashed mix of 80s pop, electro and nu-disco. They will play Phil Collins.

Flat 0/1, 21:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Rising electroniic star Koen Groeneveld fuses elements of techno, tech-house, house and minimal.

Chilled hip-hop and grime playlists from Subcity’s Jinty Gutter Riddim.

Take It Sleazy

The rather ace gig-in-a-club is this month headered by the powerhouse drums, soaring vocals and loud guitars of Glasgow’s Arches. Plus the usual milk cocktails, free biscuits and 75p cider.

Chambre 69, 21:00–03:00, £12

Jinty Inkke

Alternative pop from the 80s and 90s, with a bit of industrial dance and classic rock thrown in.

MILK (Arches, Archimedes Principle, Fantastic Man)

Strictly Tech-No (Koen Groeneveld)

Cross-genre danceathon with residents Noj and Mark. They will play The Fall.

Tuesday nighter manned by DJ Mythic, playing the best in rock, metal, punk and ska.

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Blitz!

Nu Skool

Wild Combination

Queercentric night with its focus firmly on 90s-inspired new romantic and danceable pop hits.

Nick Peacock spins a selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

Jamming Fridays

I Heart Garage Saturdays

Kilmarnock’s hairy disco legend, David Barbarossa, digs out some vinyl gems.

The Garage, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Student superclub playing everything from hip-hop to dance and funk to chart.

Electronic music of all ages, for all ages.

Maggie May’s, 22:00–03:00, Free

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s, with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

Sub Club: Fundraiser Night (MASH, Boom Monk Ben, I AM, Jasper James) Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £5

Sub Club host a fundraising event for Yorkhill Children’s Foundation, featuring some of Glasgow’s best DJs and Sub Club favourites alike.

Badseed

Slouch, 23:00–03:00, Free

Badass mix of indie, rock and electro with DJ Heather McCartney.

Fridays @ The Shed

Shed, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Pop and chart hits with Andy Robertson in the main room, plus hippity-hop in the Red Room.

Rumours

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

New monthly residency with the Rumours residents, special guests and extra bass bins.

Music Please (Hushpuppy)

The Berkeley Suite, 23:00–03:00, Free

Yer man Hushpuppy plays a rich mix of jungle drums, new wave, foreign disco and funk, with Joe Crogan providing the live visual accompaniment.

Sat 07 Jul Love Music

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11.30)

Saturday night disco with Gerry Lyons and guests.

Freakbeats

Flying Duck, 21:00–03:00, £5

Mod, soul, ska and groovy freakbeat 45s, with DJs Jamo, Paul Molloy and Gareth McCallum.

Highlife Vs Optimo: Comeme Party (Matias Aguayo, Christian S, Alejandro Paz, Auntie Flo) La Cheetah Club, 23:00–03:00, £8

Highlife and Optimo join forces for a celebration of one of their favourite record labels, Comeme, joined by Comeme releasee Christian S, and Highlife’s own Auntie Flo.

The Rock Shop

Maggie May’s, 22:00–03:00, Free

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

Subculture

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£5)

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic and a variety of international live guests.

Rip This Joint

Slouch, 23:00–03:00, Free

DJ Jopez plays a choice selection of indie, rock, blues and funk.

Shed Saturdays

Shed, 22:30–03:00, Free (£7 after 11)

Frothy weekend mix of commercial pop and cheese classics.

Rebecca Vasmant

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Jazz-inspired house from the Ministry of Sound tour resident.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Early-weekend party starter playing a genre-hopping mix of tunes, free for all to boot.

The Afterparty Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Euan Neilson handpicks a selection of classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

Boom Thursdays The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Chart and indie classics, plus a live Twitter feed where you can log tune requests (#Garagelive).

Up The Racket Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

DJ Paddy plays the newest in indie, rock, disco and pop. You do the dancing.

Feel My Bicep Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Cosmic and sweaty mix of 80s sleaze, house and disco.

Fri 13 Jul Propaganda O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Student-orientated indie night with guest DJs dropping by.

Soul Kitchen Ad Lib, 22:00–03:00, Free

Ad Lib’s now staying open late on weekends, with a selection of Soul DJs playing you into the night (plus soul food served until 2am).

ReFrame (Slick Dixx) Basura Blanca, 20:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 10)

ReFrame returns to The Brunswick Hotel’s basement club for a night of electro, house and techno, with Barcelona mash-up DJ Slick Dixx their guest for the night.

Unpop Glasgow

Damnation

Mixed bag of indie, rock, underground hip-hop and chart classics. Free before 11.30pm.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Free Thursdays

Tue 10 Jul Pandemic

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

Blackfriars Basement, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Booty Call

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £3 adv. (£5 door)

Andy R plays chart hits and requests past and present, with DJ Muppet holing up in The Attic.

Reprisal

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Thu 12 Jul Jellybaby

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Killer Kitsch Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Junk Disco The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Hotch-potch mix of chart anthems, live video feeds, a dressing-up box and karaoke.

I Am Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3/free via iamclub.co.uk)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual mix of electronica and bass.

Edinburgh indie-pop institution making their Blackfriars debut.

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £6

Alternative rock, metal, punk and ska.

Neil Flipsville Mono, 20:00–01:00, Free

Rock’n’roll-styled party tunes with yer man Neil Flipsville.

Kino Fist Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Genre-spanning mix of 60s psych, leftfield pop and Krautrock with resident Charlotte Prodger (of Muscles of Joy).

Old Skool Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul.

Booty Call The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Mixed bag of indie, rock, underground hip-hop and chart classics. Free before 11.30pm.

Common People

Fridays @ The Shed Shed, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Pop and chart hits with Andy Robertson in the main room, plus hippity-hop in the Red Room.

Dirty Basement Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Eclectic mix from the Dirty Basement duo, power mixing from across the spectrums of soul, funk, bass, techno and electro.

Numbers is 9 (Jackmaster, Oneman, Ben UFO) Chambre 69, 23:00–03:00, £10

Numbers’ annual summer birthday party at which they’ll be celebrating their 9th year with a triple header of DJs in the form of relative veteran Jack Revill (aka Jackmaster), Oneman and Ben UFO.

Sat 14 Jul Love Music O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11.30)

Saturday night disco with Gerry Lyons and guests.

Soul Kitchen Ad Lib, 22:00–03:00, Free

Ad Lib’s now staying open late on weekends, with a selection of Soul DJs playing you into the night (plus soul food served until 2am).

Slabs Summer Party (VLR) The Big Joint, 23:00–03:00, £5

Slabs of the Tabernacle host their fifth Slabs Summer Party, with Norwegian mixmaster DJ VLR providing an all-encompassing set of underground electronic from the past three decades.

Osmium Blackfriars Basement, 23:00–03:00, £3

Blair and Gary play Italo, disco, synthpop, funk and a whole bunch of other stuff aimed at making you throw yourself about with abandon.

Absolution Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £6

Metal, industrial and pop-punk over two floors.

Broadcast Beach Mono, 20:00–01:00, Free

Traversing the line between indie-rock, pop, country, new wave, hip-hop, garage and, well, anything else they damn well fancy.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Anything goes midweek party in the capable hands of Duncan Harvey and guests.

Garage Wednesdays The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Craig McGee’s staple eclectic mashup midweeker.

Octopussy The Arches, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s, with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

Return To Mono (Harvey McKay, Animal Farm) Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £5

Monthly night from Soma Records, with underground Glasgow DJ Harvey McKay taking a turn on the decks.

Badseed Slouch, 23:00–03:00, Free

Chart, indie and electro student favourite, with a bouncy castle an’ all.

Badass mix of indie, rock and electro with DJ Heather McCartney.

Duncan Harvey

Beach Party

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Midweek mix of soul, funk, motown and northern soul with Duncan Harvey.

Shed, 22:30–03:00, £7

Summer-themed beach party club night, where bikinis and Speedos are the attire of choice, naturally.

Resident Wee Cheesy throws in mash-ups, chart-attacks and more mayhem than should really be allowed on the Sabbath.

The Arches, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Chart, indie and electro student favourite, with a bouncy castle an’ all.

Duncan Harvey

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Thunder Disco Club

Midweek mix of soul, funk, motown and northern soul with Duncan Harvey.

The Thunder Disco Club residents churn out the 90s house, techno and disco hits.

Jellybaby

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Thu 19 Jul O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £3 adv. (£5 door)

Jinty Inkke

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Chilled hip-hop and grime playlists from Subcity’s Jinty Gutter Riddim.

Chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

Free Thursdays

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Mon 16 Jul Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/Free with wage slip)

Long-running trade night with Normski, Zeus and Mash spinning disco beats.

Early-weekend party starter playing a genre-hopping mix of tunes, free for all to boot.

The Afterparty

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Euan Neilson handpicks a selection of classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

Space Invader

Boom Thursdays

Andy R plays chart hits and requests past and present, with DJ Muppet holing up in The Attic.

Chart and indie classics, plus a live Twitter feed where you can log tune requests (#Garagelive).

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Tue 17 Jul

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Up The Racket

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Reprisal

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Tuesday nighter manned by DJ Mythic, playing the best in rock, metal, punk and ska.

DJ Paddy plays the newest in indie, rock, disco and pop. You do the dancing.

Feel My Bicep

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Wild Combination

Cosmic and sweaty mix of 80s sleaze, house and disco.

Kilmarnock’s hairy disco legend, David Barbarossa, digs out some vinyl gems.

Propaganda

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Killer Kitsch

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Electronic music of all ages, for all ages.

Junk Disco

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Hotch-potch mix of chart anthems, live video feeds, a dressing-up box and karaoke.

Fri 20 Jul O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Student-orientated indie night with guest DJs dropping by.

Soul Kitchen

Ad Lib, 22:00–03:00, Free

Ad Lib’s now staying open late on weekends, with a selection of Soul DJs playing you into the night (plus soul food served until 2am).

I Heart Garage Saturdays The Garage, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Student superclub playing everything from hip-hop to dance and funk to chart.

Back Tae Mine Flying Duck, 21:00–03:00, £5

House-party styled night, with a group of rotating DJs alongside regular guest DJs. Plus free toast for all.

Brand new night celebrating the very best in house music.

Maggie May’s, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5/£3 student after 12)

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Octopussy

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Subversion

Different Strokes

Sunday Roaster

Nick Peacock spins a selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

Jamming Fridays

Electro, funk and disco soundtrack, plus a chance to win the door fees.

Nu Skool

Raw Culture (Brawther)

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Wed 11 Jul Alternative pop from the 80s and 90s, with a bit of industrial dance and classic rock thrown in.

Craig McGee’s staple eclectic mashup midweeker.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £1

The legendary Teamy and Dirty Larry spin some fresh electronics for your aural pleasure.

The Rock Shop

La Cheetah Club, 23:00–03:00, £8

Garage Wednesdays

Wrong Island

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £5

Celebration of the 90s, with hits aplenty and a pre-club bingo session.

Sun 15 Jul Quids In

Maggie May’s, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5/£3 student after 12)

Subculture Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£5)

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic and a variety of international live guests.

Rip This Joint Slouch, 23:00–03:00, Free

DJ Jopez plays a choice selection of indie, rock, blues and funk.

Shed Saturdays

I Am

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3/free via iamclub.co.uk)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual mix of electronica and bass.

Wed 18 Jul

Damnation

Alternative rock, metal, punk and ska.

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £6

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Alternative pop from the 80s and 90s, with a bit of industrial dance and classic rock thrown in.

Shed, 22:30–03:00, Free (£7 after 11)

Jube

South African house, grime, jungle, R’n’B and hauntology. A tropical mix, ayes.

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dance music special from Thunder Disco Club’s resident hellraiser, Jube.

Jimpster The Berkeley Suite, 23:00–03:00, £7

Freerange Records’ founder Jamie Odell (aka Jimpster) mans the decks, emphasis firmly on the deeper end of electronic house.

Blackfriars Basement, 23:00–03:00, £3

Roots reggae, dancehall and rocksteady in original soundsystem stylee

Subversion

Not Moving

Frothy weekend mix of commercial pop and cheese classics.

Argonaut Sounds Reggae Soundsystem

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Different Strokes

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Anything goes midweek party in the capable hands of Duncan Harvey and guests.

Good Press and Friends Mono, 20:00–01:00, Free

The Good Press and Friends gang dig out the vinyl.

Black Tent

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Indie, electro and anything inbetween with Pauly (My Latest Novel), and Simin and Steev (Errors).

Old Skool

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul.

July 2012

THE SKINNY 65

LISTINGS

G lasgow C L U B S

Booty Call

Awesome Patch

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Mono, 20:00–01:00, Free

Mixed bag of indie, rock, underground hip-hop and chart classics. Free before 11.30pm.

Eclectic new monthly night with Monorail DJs Marc Chad Palestine and Rusty Studds.

Sensu Boat Party (Shonky, Dyed Soundorom)

Bottle Rocket

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

The Waverley, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Sensu set sail for a voyage down the Clyde, with guests Shonky and Dyed Soundorom on board. Pick up from Glasgow Science Centre (7pm, sharp), with after-party action at Sub Club (11pm-3am)

Indie dancing club, playing anything and everything danceable.

Nu Skool

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Nick Peacock spins a selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

Sunday Roaster

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5/(£3)

Highlife

Chart and indie classics, plus a live Twitter feed where you can log tune requests (#Garagelive).

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Music from across the globe with the ever-capable residents Auntie Flo and Esa Williams.

Jinty Inkke

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Chilled hip-hop and grime playlists from Subcity’s Jinty Gutter Riddim.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/Free with wage slip)

Long-running trade night with Normski, Zeus and Mash spinning disco beats.

Space Invader

Wild Combination

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Magnitude (Ikonika)

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £5

La Cheetah Club, 23:00–03:00, £8

New bass, house and techno-styled night, launching with Hyperdub’s first lady, Ikonika, at the helm.

Maggie May’s, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5/£3 student after 12)

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s, with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

Maggie May’s, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5/£3 student after 12)

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £tbc

Official after-bash for Sensu’s boat party down’t the Clyde.

Slouch, 23:00–03:00, Free

Badass mix of indie, rock and electro with DJ Heather McCartney.

Fridays @ The Shed

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Shed, 22:30–03:00, Free (£7 after 11)

Eclectic-themed shenanigans for the third Friday of the month.

Justin Miller and Jacques Renault

The Berkeley Suite, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 after 12)

Rip This Joint

Shed Saturdays

Midnight Cowboy

Frothy weekend mix of commercial pop and cheese classics.

Jube

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Dance music special from Thunder Disco Club’s resident hellraiser, Jube.

Supermax

The Berkeley Suite, 23:00–03:00, £5

Respected DJs and DFA contributors Justin Miller and Jacques Renault play back-to-back over a four-hour set.

A taste of the decadent sound systems of NYC’s disco era with yer main man Billy Woods.

Sat 21 Jul

Audio, 22:00–03:00, Free

Love Music

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11.30)

Saturday night disco with Gerry Lyons and guests.

Soul Kitchen

Ad Lib, 22:00–03:00, Free

Ad Lib’s now staying open late on weekends, with a selection of Soul DJs playing you into the night (plus soul food served until 2am).

Shout Bamalama

Blackfriars Basement, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Vintage 50s and 60s dancefloor sounds handpicked from genres of R’n’B, rock’n’roll and soul.

Absolution

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £6

Symbiosis

Innovative D’n’B beats in a relaxed, bass-rich environment complete with live visuals from Altronix.

Bigfoot’s Riverside (Ambivalent)

100 Stobcross Road, 14:00–00:00, £12 (£10) earlybird

The first of Bigfoot’s summer parties graces us with its presence with M_nus mainstay Ambivalent lined up to send the place into orbit, plus live visuals, a Tandoori BBQ and their lethal homemade vodka jelly.

Sun 22 Jul Quids In

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £1

Electro, funk and disco soundtrack, plus a chance to win the door fees.

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa play the usual mix of electronica and bass.

Wed 25 Jul Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

Gays In Space

July 2012

Propaganda

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £4

Student-orientated indie night with guest DJs dropping by.

Ad Lib, 22:00–03:00, Free

Friday Street: 12th Birthday Party

Blackfriars Basement, 23:00–03:00, £5

Classic mod sounds, northern soul and 60s R’n’B-styled night celebrating 12 years of being in the company of live guest, BIg Boss Man.

Damnation

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £6

Alternative rock, metal, punk and ska.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Mono, 20:00–01:00, Free

The Hot Club

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Hyperdub Showcase (Kode 9, Scratcha DVA, LV, Raksha) Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £12 (£10)

Sub Club and Deadly Rhythm team up to present a special Hyperdub showcase, featuring founder, and true ambassador of the underground, Kode9.

Badseed

Slouch, 23:00–03:00, Free

Badass mix of indie, rock and electro with DJ Heather McCartney.

Fridays @ The Shed

Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston’s rather ace London night takes a trip north, with the mighty duo playing back-to-back all night long.

Pollok Ex-Servicemens Club, 20:00–01:00, £5

Blackfriars Basement, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Sun 29 Jul

All things disco and danceable, with DJs Chris Smith, Eymard, Discetro and R-Bot.

Absolution

Metal, industrial and pop-punk over two floors.

Mono, 20:00–01:00, Free

Mixed bag of indie, rock, underground hip-hop and chart classics. Free before 11.30pm.

Globetrotting music, art and all-round party crew, now in their second year of great party-throwing.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

Banjax

Nu Skool

Wonky techno, acid and rave playlists, as is the Banjax way.

Nick Peacock spins a selection of vintage disco, soul and funk.

I

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Resident Wee Cheesy throws in mash-ups, chart-attacks and more mayhem than should really be allowed on the Sabbath.

Optimo: Jamaican Soundsystem Dingying his right hand man for the night, Optimo’s JD Twitch hosts Jamaican Soundsystem – playing all kinds of Jamaican music, accompanied by a bank of Sonic FX and dub delays.

Sunday Sale

Shed, 23:00–03:00, £2

Occasional weekend extender with Euan Neilson spinning all your favourite hits.

Jinty Inkke

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Chilled hip-hop and grime playlists from Subcity’s Jinty Gutter Riddim.

Mon 30 Jul Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3/Free with wage slip)

Duncan Harvey

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Long-running trade night with Normski, Zeus and Mash spinning disco beats.

Midweek mix of soul, funk, motown and northern soul with Duncan Harvey.

Space Invader

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Thu 26 Jul

Andy R plays chart hits and requests past and present, with DJ Muppet holing up in The Attic.

Jellybaby

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, £3 adv. (£5 door)

Indie rock’n’roll from the 60s to the 00s, with resident tune-picker DJ Jopez.

Heart Garage Saturdays The Garage, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Student superclub playing everything from hip-hop to dance and funk to chart.

Back Tae Mine

Flying Duck, 21:00–03:00, £5

House-party styled night, with a group of rotating DJs alongside regular guest DJs. Plus free toast for all.

La Cheetah Club: IF

La Cheetah Club, 23:00–03:00, £10

La Cheetah pull it out the bag with disco lord IF taking to the decks.

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £5

Favourited student midweeker playing house, electro and hippity-hop.

Witness

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

I AM Edinburgh

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£6)

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, £1 (£3 after 11)

Monthly glam trash and sleaze tease party.

Sunday Roaster

The Hive, 21:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 10)

Chart, electro, indie-pop and alternative anthems over two rooms.

Hideout

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Friday night party with Edinburgh DJs Mastercaird and Stevie C playing anything danceable.

This Is Music

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, £3 (members free)

Indie and electro from the Sick Note DJs.

Oh No!

HMV Picture House, 23:00–03:00, £3

American Prom-styled fun night celebrating all that is great about pop, new and old.

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

Trash & Burn

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £1

Misfits

Split

Sneaky’s resident bass spectacular of garage, dubstep and bassline house.

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £4

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£6 after 12)

Glam techno and electro night with the usual themed shenanigans, this time with a Rockstar Party theme.

Friday night student party with the emphasis on Skittlebombs... Don’t ask.

Mansion

Disco Teeth

Confusion Is Sex: Rockstar Party

Cut + Paste (aka Johnny Frenetic and Kon-tempt) mix it up on four decks and two laptops, selecting a genresplitting mix of the finest music to come out of the USA.

Pyramatrix welcome Italian up-andcomer Uto Karem to the decks for their second ever event, infusing cutting edge machine music with soulful grooves as he goes.

LuckyMe

Maggie May’s, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5/£3 student after 12)

Opal Lounge, 22:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Ad Lib’s now staying open late on weekends, with a selection of Soul DJs playing you into the night (plus soul food served until 2am).

Booty Call

Jamming Fridays

Rise: 4th July Independence Day Special (Cut + Paste)

Midweek student rundown of chart and cheese classics.

Chambre 69, 22:00–03:00, £10

Connoisseur’s mix of old-school jazz, funk and soul.

Foals’ Edwin Congreave and Friendly Fires’ Jack Savidge present their new club night laying emphasis on deep and intense party music. Amen.

Wed 04 Jul

Pyramatrix (Uto Karem)

Ad Lib, 22:00–03:00, Free

WCSP residents Erik and Bjorn play a selection of forgotten classics.

The Arches, 23:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 12)

Fresh mix of funk, soul, disco and hippity-hop from the Soul Jam Hot DJs.

Soul Kitchen

We Can Still Picnic

Deep Shit (Edwin Congreave, Jack Savidge)

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Bangers & Mash

Old Skool

La Cheetah Club, 23:00–03:00, £10

Soul Jam Hot

Saturday night disco with Gerry Lyons and guests.

Electro, funk and disco soundtrack, plus a chance to win the door fees.

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie and punk.

New weekly residence for the longrunning Edinburgh D’n’B night.

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Quids In

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £6

Antics

Dance music special from Thunder Disco Club’s resident hellraiser, Jube.

O2 ABC, 23:00–03:00, Free (£5 after 11.30)

Classic Grand, 22:30–03:00, £6

Tearin’ it up with 60s psych-outs and modern sleaze, provided by Rafla and Andy (of The Phantom Band).

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, Free

Selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

Jube

Sat 28 Jul

Chart, indie and electro student favourite, with a bouncy castle an’ all.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, Free

South Side Summer Soul

I Love Hip-Hop

Love Music

The Arches, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Free Thursdays

Frothy weekend mix of commercial pop and cheese classics.

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Electronic basslines allied with home-cooked house beats.

DJs Fraser Dunn, Felonious Munk and Alan McKenzie play an all-vinyl mix of soul, motown and R’n’B from the 60s and 70s.

Octopussy

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 23:30–03:00, £3

Subculture

Shed, 22:30–03:00, Free (£7 after 11)

The Berkeley Suite, 22:30–03:00, £8

Craig McGee’s staple eclectic mashup midweeker.

The Danse Macabre regulars unite those two happiest of bedfellows, goth rock and, er, classic disco.

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

Shed Saturdays

A Love From Outer Space

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Danse Macabre

Maggie May’s, 22:00–03:00, Free (£5/£3 student after 12)

DJ Jopez plays a choice selection of indie, rock, blues and funk.

Thunderous techno from three of Glasgow techno residents: Smiddy, Currie and Sewelly.

Garage Wednesdays

Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

The Rock Shop

Slouch, 23:00–03:00, Free

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Alternative metal and punk playlists with DJ Scapegoat on the last Thursday of the month.

The Swedish electro-house duo bring the anthems Arches-way, complete with the now-trademark inflatable bananas and champagne bottles.

Rip This Joint

Empty

Anything goes midweek party in the capable hands of Duncan Harvey and guests.

Contagion

Tue 03 Jul Hector’s House

The Arches, 23:00–03:00, £16

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic and a variety of international live guests.

Shed, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

Different Strokes

Chart, disco and party tunes. Can’t say fairer.

Dada Life

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£5)

Pop and chart hits with Andy Robertson in the main room, plus hippity-hop in the Red Room.

An intergalatic gay disco party, obviously.

Early-weekend party starter playing a genre-hopping mix of tunes, free for all to boot.

Metal, industrial and pop-punk over two floors.

66 THE SKINNY

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3/free via iamclub.co.uk)

Alternative pop from the 80s and 90s, with a bit of industrial dance and classic rock thrown in.

DJ Jopez plays a choice selection of indie, rock, blues and funk.

Pop and chart hits with Andy Robertson in the main room, plus hippity-hop in the Red Room.

I Am

Subculture

Slouch, 23:00–03:00, Free

Shed, 22:30–03:00, Free (£6 after 11)

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Subversion

Long-running house night with residents Harri & Domenic and a variety of international live guests.

Fri 27 Jul

Deena of Mono’s The Sophisticated Boom Boom plays some of her favourite vinyl from the Monorail Music shop.

Rock, indie and golden indie classics with resident DJ Heather McCartney.

Sub Club, 23:00–03:00, £10 (£5)

Badseed

Flat 0/1, 23:00–03:00, Free

Cosmic and sweaty mix of 80s sleaze, house and disco.

Electronic music of all ages, for all ages.

Hotch-potch mix of chart anthems, live video feeds, a dressing-up box and karaoke.

The best in European techno, in the safe hands of the Code crew and guests.

Feel My Bicep

Born To Bouffant

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Andy Divine and Chris Geddes’ gem of a night deciated to 7-inch singles from every genre imaginable.

La Cheetah Club, 23:00–03:00, £10

DJ Paddy plays the newest in indie, rock, disco and pop. You do the dancing.

Killer Kitsch

Junk Disco

The Rock Shop

Sensu Boat Party: AfterParty

Kilmarnock’s hairy disco legend, David Barbarossa, digs out some vinyl gems.

Singles Night

Code

Jamming Fridays

Maggie May’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Tue 24 Jul Classic Grand, 23:00–03:00, £3

The Garage, 22:30–03:00, £7 (£5)

Up The Racket

Ad Lib’s now staying open late on weekends, with a selection of Soul DJs playing you into the night (plus soul food served until 2am).

Tuesday nighter manned by DJ Mythic, playing the best in rock, metal, punk and ska.

Student superclub playing everything from hip-hop to dance and funk to chart.

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Soul Kitchen

Reprisal

Flying Duck, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Boom Thursdays

The Garage, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£3)

Andy R plays chart hits and requests past and present, with DJ Muppet holing up in The Attic.

The straight-friendly lesbian party returns for its regular themed shenanigans on the third Friday of the month.

Buff Club, 23:00–03:00, £3

Euan Neilson handpicks a selection of classic R’n’B and hip-hop.

Burn

I Heart Garage Saturdays

The Afterparty

Resident Wee Cheesy throws in mash-ups, chart-attacks and more mayhem than should really be allowed on the Sabbath.

Mon 23 Jul

Lock Up Your Daughters

EDINBURGH

Thu 05 Jul Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa make their now regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

Cream Soda

Electric Circus, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£4 after 12)

Sat 07 Jul Thunder Disco Club: Tom Trago Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

The first in a series of collaborations between Thunder Disco Club and Cabaret Voltaire kicks off with mighty Amsterdam producer, Tom Trago, providing the on-the-button electronic.

Tease Age

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £1 (£6 after 11)

Long-running indie, rock and soul night.

Dr No’s

Henry’s Cellar, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 after 12)

Danceable mix of the best in 60s ska, rocksteady, bluebeat and reggae.

Eclectic Mud

Nobles Bar, 21:00–01:00, Free

Frisky

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

DJs Fuz ‘n’ Lee select a rich pallete of sounds, all spun from wax.

Chart, dance and electro fare, plus punter requests all night long.

The Go-Go

Indigo

Studio 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 student after 11.30)

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£1)

Indie, pop and alternative favourites with a danceable beat, from LCD Soundsystem to The Ting Tings.

Dapper Dans

Long-running retro night with veteran DJs Tall Paul and Big Gus.

Studio 24 Rawks

Studio 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 student after 11.30)

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, Free

Rock, metal and alternative playlists.

Octopussy

Swinging soul spanning a whole century, plus live dancers a-go-go.

Disco, house and party classics from Picassio and D-Fault, with Decks FX and OSX. HMV Picture House, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Chart, indie and electro student favourite, with a bouncy castle an’ all.

Lafayette

Electric Circus, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£3)

Hip-hop and R’n’B-styled night inspired by the culture, fashion and night life of the Lower East Side of New York.

Fri 06 Jul XY

Cabaret Voltaire, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Anthology of house, electro and D’n’B for your aural delectation.

Planet Earth

Citrus Club, 22:30–03:00, £1 (£6 after 11)

Distinctly retro selection from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

ETC07: Rumble In The Jungle (Morphamish Vs Tactus, Mrs Magoo Vs Luka, Jamin Ninjah Vs ChopManD, Alias23 Vs Toxicologist) Henry’s Cellar, 23:00–03:00, £5

Edinburgh Tekno Cartel go jungle, pitching guest against resident and digital against analogue, while Cartel members fighting to the death...

Maybe.

Unseen (Iformat)

Studio 24, 22:30–03:00, £8 (£10 after 12)

Stripped-down techno with a backto-basics warehouse style, with Iformat (aka Joseph McGeechan’s solo project) providing the dark, industrial noisescapes.

Soulsville

Bongo Club, 23:00–03:00, £5

Bubblegum

The Hive, 21:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 10)

Handpicked weekend mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics as standard.

Old School

The Liquid Room, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£8 after 11.30)

Old school remixes all night long, selected by Kevin Jones, Fisher Price and Tommy Kay.

Fake: 6th Birthday

Sneaky Pete’s, 23:00–03:00, £3 (members free)

Bass, house and techno with residents Bus Daddy and Zombie Lover, celebrating the club’s 6th birthday on the night.

Propaganda

HMV Picture House, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Student-orientated indie night with guest DJs dropping by.

Speaker Bite Me

Electric Circus, 22:30–03:00, £5

New night from the Evol DJs valuing all kinds of pop music, as long as it’s got bite.

Ladies on Rotation

The Annexe, 22:30–03:00, £8 (£6)

A soul and disco selection from the Ladies on Rotation gals.

Sun 08 Jul The Sunday Club

The Hive, 22:00–03:00, Free

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of.

LISTINGS

EDINBURGH CLUBS MISFITS

ANTICS

Dubstep, breaks and bassline house from AF Meldrum and a cast of Edinburgh’s best underground DJs.

Chart, electro, indie-pop and alternative anthems over two rooms.

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie and punk.

HIDEOUT

SOUL JAM HOT

MON 09 JUL

Friday night party with Edinburgh DJs Mastercaird and Stevie C playing anything danceable.

Fresh mix of funk, soul, disco and hippity-hop from the Soul Jam Hot DJs.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Request-driven night of pop-punk, chart, indie and good ol’ 90s classics.

NU FIRE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Moving from hip-hop to dubstep with a plethora of live MCs.

TUE 10 JUL HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Electronic basslines allied with home-cooked house beats.

I LOVE HIP-HOP

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

ANTICS

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie and punk.

SOUL JAM HOT

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Fresh mix of funk, soul, disco and hippity-hop from the Soul Jam Hot DJs.

WED 11 JUL

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

THIS IS MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £3 (MEMBERS FREE)

Indie and electro from the Sick Note DJs.

OH NO!

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £3

Friday night student party with the emphasis on Skittlebombs...

Don’t ask.

CREAM SODA

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£3)

American Prom-styled fun night celebrating all that is great about pop, new and old.

JAKN: WARM-UP PARTY

THE ANNEXE, 22:30–03:00, FREE

JakN take to the Annexe space for a warm-up session, playing their mighty fine three-deck mix up of techno in all its forms. Free entry for all.

SAT 14 JUL TEASE AGE

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, £1 (£6 AFTER 11)

SPLIT

Long-running indie, rock and soul night.

New weekly residence for the longrunning Edinburgh D’n’B night.

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11.30)

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE

BANGERS & MASH

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £1 (£3 AFTER 11)

Midweek student rundown of chart and cheese classics.

MANSION

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5

LAND OF A THOUSAND DANCES Blues and soul from the 50s and 60s, handpicked by Tony ‘Two-Eyes’ and The Go-Go DJs.

STUDIO 24 RAWKS

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11.30)

Favourited student midweeker playing house, electro and hippity-hop.

Rock, metal and alternative playlists.

WITNESS

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Sneaky’s resident bass spectacular of garage, dubstep and bassline house.

THU 12 JUL I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa make their now regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

FRISKY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Chart, dance and electro fare, plus punter requests all night long.

INDIGO

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£1)

Indie, pop and alternative favourites with a danceable beat, from LCD Soundsystem to The Ting Tings.

SPARE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Danco and Kami play some hench beats. Nuff said.

OCTOPUSSY

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Chart, indie and electro student favourite, with a bouncy castle an’ all.

LAFAYETTE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£3)

Hip-hop and R’n’B-styled night inspired by the culture, fashion and night life of the Lower East Side of New York.

FRI 13 JUL XY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Anthology of house, electro and D’n’B for your aural delectation.

POCKET ACES

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Dance-inducing party with an anything goes attitude.

PLANET EARTH

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, £1 (£6 AFTER 11)

Distinctly retro selection from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

ROBIGAN’S REGGAE

HENRY’S CELLAR, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£4 AFTER 12)

Dub, reggae and dancehall clubbing spectacular.

BETAMAX

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

New wave, disco, post-punk and a bit o’ synthtastic 80s with your host Chris and Big Gus.

WONKY

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £TBC

Resident DJs Wolfjazz and Hobbes take care of all your bass ‘n’ beat needs.

BUBBLEGUM

Handpicked weekend mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics as standard.

KAPITAL: 5TH BIRTHDAY (STEPHAN BODZIN)

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £10 ADV. (£13 DOOR)

Prolific producer Stephan Bodzin takes to the decks to help Kapital blow out the 5th birthday candles, with a full live set-up combining his dark techno and trademark melodies via vintage Moog machines.

BASS SYNDICATE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £3 (MEMBERS FREE)

The regular Edinburgh breaks and bassline Manga crew takeover.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

WED 18 JUL

DR NO’S SPECIAL

The Dr No’s gang host a Ska and 2-Tone special. We’ll do the dancing.

Midweek student rundown of chart and cheese classics.

MANSION

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5

Favourited student midweeker playing house, electro and hippity-hop.

WITNESS (ANARKID, TINTINTIN, BOBBY LOVER) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Sneaky’s resident bass spectacular welcome a duo of live guests into their fold for the night.

THU 19 JUL I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa make their now regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

XPLICIT SUMMER SPECIAL

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4 ££6 AFTER 12)

Heavy jungle and bass-styled beats from the inimitable Xplicit crew, in a residents and friends summer special.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£1)

Indie, pop and alternative favourites with a danceable beat, from LCD Soundsystem to The Ting Tings.

DAPPER DANS

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Disco, house and party classics from Picassio and D-Fault, with Decks FX and OSX.

OCTOPUSSY

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

Chart, indie and electro student favourite, with a bouncy castle an’ all.

LAFAYETTE

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£3)

Hip-hop and R’n’B-styled night inspired by the culture, fashion and night life of the Lower East Side of New York.

THE ANNEXE, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

FRI 20 JUL CABARET VOLTAIRE, 22:30–03:00, £5

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£7 AFTER 12)

Party soundtrack of funk, soul, disco and house from Trendy Wendy and Steve Austin.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Handpicked weekend mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics as standard.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Sneaky’s resident bass spectacular of garage, dubstep and bassline house.

THU 26 JUL I AM EDINBURGH

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£3)

Resident young guns Beta & Kappa make their now regular trip east, playing the usual fine mix of electronica and bass.

FRISKY

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Chart, dance and electro fare, plus punter requests all night long.

RIDE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Ride girls Checkie and Lauren play hip-hop and dance, all night long.

LAFAYETTE

Heady bout of cosmic house, punk and upside-down disco with yer man Kris ‘Wasabi’ Walker.

Hip-hop and R’n’B-styled night inspired by the culture, fashion and night life of the Lower East Side of New York.

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £3 (MEMBERS FREE)

PROPAGANDA

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Student-orientated indie night with guest DJs dropping by.

POP ROCKS

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£3)

Pop and rock gems, taking in motown, 80s classics and plenty danceable fare (well, the Beep Beep, Yeah! crew are on decks after all).

FEVER

THE ANNEXE, 22:30–03:00, £5

Eclectic selections of house and techno from DJs Fisher & Price, supported by Miss Chris.

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Friday night party with Edinburgh DJs Mastercaird and Stevie C playing anything danceable.

WEE RED BAR, 22:30–03:00, £5

Mixed bag of electronic bass, from Baltimore to dubstep.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

THIS IS MUSIC

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £3 (MEMBERS FREE)

Indie and electro from the Sick Note DJs.

TUE 17 JUL

OH NO!

HECTOR’S HOUSE

Friday night student party with the emphasis on Skittlebombs...

Don’t ask.

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £3

CREAM SODA

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£4 AFTER 12)

American Prom-styled fun night celebrating all that is great about pop, new and old.

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £4 (£3)

COME COLLECTIVE: 4TH BIRTHDAY SHOWCASE

THE ANNEXE, 23:00–03:00, FREE (£3 AFTER 12)

Birthday showcase from the label and arts collective with founder, Dandy Riots, launching his new collaborative EP, plus Soviet Dance Reunion, Young Father’s G on decks and a preview of COME’s new clothing line. Phew.

FRI 27 JUL XY

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Anthology of house, electro and D’n’B for your aural delectation.

VIRGEN

PLANET EARTH

Alternative lesbian night with Glasgow’s Emma ‘Queercore’ Daye playing a mash up of electro, indie, fidget house and D’n’B.

Distinctly retro selection from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

FIDDLER’S ELBOW, 20:00–03:00, £3

SUN 22 JUL Mash-up master Kon-tempt (of AV8 Records) joins the Rise crew, taking over the decks for a solo show.

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, £1 (£6 AFTER 11)

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£4)

WASABI DISCO

PLANET EARTH

MIXED UP

Selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

MUMBO JUMBO

RISE (KON-TEMPT)

HIDEOUT

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Rock, metal and alternative playlists.

House and bass specialist Foamo (aka Kyle Gibbon) joins the XY residents for the evening.

MON 16 JUL

I LOVE HIP-HOP

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11.30)

OPAL LOUNGE, 22:00–03:00, £4 (£6 AFTER 12)

THE SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of.

SNEAKY PETE’S 4TH BIRTHDAY (JESSE ROSE) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5

Sneaky Pete’s celebrate four glorious years of being with a house, garage and bass-styled party, with LA-based house specialist Jesse Rose guest for the evening.

MON 23 JUL MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Request-driven night of pop-punk, chart, indie and good ol’ 90s classics.

NU FIRE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Moving from hip-hop to dubstep with a plethora of live MCs.

TUE 24 JUL HECTOR’S HOUSE

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

Electronic basslines allied with home-cooked house beats.

TEASE AGE

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, £1 (£6 AFTER 11)

Long-running indie, rock and soul night.

PAPI FALSO

HENRY’S CELLAR, 23:00–03:00, £3

LUCKY 7

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Chart, indie and electro student favourite, with a bouncy castle an’ all.

INDIGO

Dubstep, breaks and bassline house from AF Meldrum and a cast of Edinburgh’s best underground DJs.

Electronic basslines allied with home-cooked house beats.

STUDIO 24 RAWKS

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

Dance-inducing party with an anything goes attitude.

WITNESS

Journey back through the ages, digging out anthemic gems from the last 40 years.

STEPBACK

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £6 (£5)

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£4)

Surf, blues and rockabilly from the 50s and early 60s, plus free cake!

Nuff said.

SAT 28 JUL

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £1 (£3 AFTER 11)

BANGERS & MASH

Chart, dance and electro fare, plus punter requests all night long.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Chart, electro, indie-pop and alternative anthems over two rooms.

Moving from hip-hop to dubstep with a plethora of live MCs.

THE GREEN DOOR

THE ANNEXE, 22:30–03:00, £5

Sci-fi pop, outsider folk, soulful R’n’B, machine funk and a whole lot more with DJs from bETAMAX, The Gentle Invasion and FOUND, amongst others.

OCTOPUSSY

COALITION

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

HENRY’S CELLAR, 23:00–03:00, £3 (£5 AFTER 12)

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE

REWIND

MISFITS

NU FIRE

Long-running indie, rock and soul night.

WED 25 JUL

FRISKY

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of.

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Fresh mix of funk, soul, disco and hippity-hop from the Soul Jam Hot DJs.

New weekly residence for the longrunning Edinburgh D’n’B night.

Midweek student rundown of chart and cheese classics.

Distinctly retro selection from 1960 to 1999, moving from Abba to ZZ Top.

Request-driven night of pop-punk, chart, indie and good ol’ 90s classics.

SOUL JAM HOT

SPLIT

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, £1 (£3 AFTER 11)

THE SUNDAY CLUB

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

POCKET ACES

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

BANGERS & MASH

XY (FOAMO)

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Alternative anthems cherrypicked from genres of rock, indie and punk.

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, £1 (£6 AFTER 11)

Retro pop stylings from the 50s to the 70s.

SUN 15 JUL

CABARET VOLTAIRE, 23:00–03:00, £7 (£5)

ANTICS

Techno showcase night, with underground Glasgow DJ Harvey McKay taking a turn on the decks.

TEASE AGE

BEEP BEEP, YEAH!

Special guests OVRKILL and Zuni join the regulars for a set of house and tech-house beats.

POCKET ACES

Selection of hip-hop classics and brand-new classics to be.

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Post-everything dub, house, bass, garage and hippity-hop from this promising young collective of artists and DJs.

THE ANNEXE, 22:00–03:00, £7

SAT 21 JUL

COMPAKT (HARVEY MCKAY)

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, FREE

New weekly residence for the longrunning Edinburgh D’n’B night.

Student-orientated indie night with guest DJs dropping by.

BAD APPLE

New monthly night placing its focus on bass-orientated beats, with a selection of Edinburgh residents showcasing their wares.

I LOVE HIP-HOP

Dance-inducing party with an anything goes attitude.

ZZZAP

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£4 AFTER 12)

THE ANNEXE, 22:30–03:00, FREE (£5 AFTER 11)

SPLIT

PROPAGANDA

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

49HZ (PARANOISE, SKANKY B)

CITRUS CLUB, 22:30–03:00, £1 (£6 AFTER 11)

DEFCON

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11.30)

New night playing the best in jungle and junglism (yeah, that’s a word).

FOUR CORNERS: THE SWEET VANDALS

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £5.50 (£7.50 AFTER 12)

The soulful Four Corners lot welcome a live set from The Sweet Vandals, Madrid’s premier funk and soul outfit. Part of Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11.30)

Ska, 2-Tone and early reggae from the Lucky 7 regulars.

STUDIO 24 RAWKS

STUDIO 24, 22:30–03:00, £2 (£5/£4 STUDENT AFTER 11.30)

Rock, metal and alternative playlists.

BIG ‘N’ BASHY

BONGO CLUB, 23:00–03:00, £4 (£6 AFTER 12)

Mighty mix of reggae, grime, dubstep and jungle.

BUBBLEGUM

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

Handpicked weekend mix of chart and dance, with retro 80s classics as standard.

VEGAS!

VOODOO ROOMS, 20:30–01:00, £5

50s-themed fun night, with Frankie Sumatra, Bugsy Seagull, Dino Martini, Sam Jose and Nikki Nevada. Plus Vegas showgirls a-go-go, natch.

INDIGO

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£1)

Indie, pop and alternative favourites with a danceable beat, from LCD Soundsystem to The Ting Tings.

PLAYDATE

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £3 (MEMBERS FREE)

House specialists Stewart and Steven play, er, some special house.

PROPAGANDA

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £5 (£4)

Student-orientated indie night with guest DJs dropping by.

MAGIC NOSTALGIC

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£6 AFTER 12)

A hodgepodge of quality tracks chosen by JP’s spinning wheel. Expect anything from 90s rave to power ballads, and a lot of one-hit wonders.

HEAVY GOSSIP VS ULTRAGROOVE (RICKY REID) THE ANNEXE, 22:30–03:00, £6 (£10/£6 STUDENT AFTER 12)

The heavyweights of Scottish house join forces, playing the most original music from the genre.

SUN 29 JUL THE SUNDAY CLUB

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Two rooms of all the chart, cheese and indie-pop you can think of.

HIDEOUT

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5 (£3)

Friday night party with Edinburgh DJs Mastercaird and Stevie C playing anything danceable.

MISFITS

COALITION

Chart, electro, indie-pop and alternative anthems over two rooms.

Dubstep, breaks and bassline house from AF Meldrum and a cast of Edinburgh’s best underground DJs.

THE HIVE, 21:00–03:00, FREE (£4 AFTER 10)

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

MANSION

RESIDENTS (BOY KID CLOUD)

Favourited student midweeker playing house, electro and hippity-hop.

Night of dubstep, electro and D’n’B from a selection of Edinburgh’s top DJs and upcoming talent.

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £5

LUCKYME (THE BLESSINGS, ECLAIR FIFI) SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, £5 (MEMBERS FREE)

Globetrotting music, art and all-round party crew, now in their second year of great party-throwing.

THE ANNEXE, 22:30–03:00, £5

MON 30 JUL MIXED UP

THE HIVE, 22:00–03:00, FREE

Request-driven night of pop-punk, chart, indie and good ol’ 90s classics.

OH NO!

MADCHESTER

Friday night student party with the emphasis on Skittlebombs... Don’t ask.

Indie classics and baggy greats, from Primal Scream and the like.

CREAM SODA

NU FIRE

HMV PICTURE HOUSE, 23:00–03:00, £3

ELECTRIC CIRCUS, 22:30–03:00, £3 (£4 AFTER 12)

American Prom-styled fun night celebrating all that is great about pop, new and old.

ILLUSTRATION: WWW.VERBALSPICKS.COM

CHECK OUT OUR MOBILE SITE

COALITION

THE LIQUID ROOM, 22:30–03:00, £6

SNEAKY PETE’S, 23:00–03:00, FREE

Moving from hip-hop to dubstep with a plethora of live MCs.

JULY 2012

THE SKINNY 67

LISTINGS

DUNDEE MUSIC Wed 04 Jul

Sat 21 Jul

Napoleon (Fathoms, The Weight of Atlas, Xeno, Above the Open Sky)

Summer Punk Rock Party (Shields Up, Fights and Fires, Uniforms, Bear Trade, The Day I Snapped, Mug)

Beat Generator Live!, 19:00–22:00, £5

Intelligent, melody-driven hardcore from the Exeter quartet.

Kage, 19:00–22:30, £6

Hardcore punk and rock-styled live battle, with three Scottish bands and three English bands going head-to-head.

Fri 13 Jul Crown Jewel Defense

The Doghouse, 19:00–22:00, £8

Stadium-styled metallic tunesmiths straight from central California.

Wed 25 Jul South of Summer

Dexter’s Bar, 19:30–22:00, £5

Mon 16 Jul Excellent Cadaver (Dividing The Silence, Rise with Honour)

Glasgow-based post-hardcore sextet with Mark Stewart on main screaming duties.

Beat Generator Live!, 19:00–22:00, £4

Metalcore Dundonians upping the noise levels with their hurricane-like brand of metal.

THEATRE GLASGOW Cottiers Theatre Coriolanus 3–7 Jul, 7:30pm – 9:30pm, £10 (£8)

New telling of Shakespeare’s last tradgedy, centred around near superhuman soldier, Caius Martius Coriolanus.

Old Fruitmarket Dancing Voices 29 Jul, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, Free (but ticketed)

One-off piece exploring the last six-seven decades of social change through the eyes, and physicality, of the people who’ve lived it, featuring 150 dancers aged from mid-50s to mid-80s.

Oran Mor The Kist

DUNDEE CLUBS Sat 07 Jul

Gorilla In Your Car

Asylum Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative.

Hardcore, emo, punk and scenester selections. Also perhaps the best-named club night in Dundee’s existence.

Fri 13 Jul

Sat 21 Jul

Kage, 23:00–02:30, £4

Bleep Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £5 (£7 after 11.30)

Ear-bleeding electronic beats ‘n’ bleeps with residents Light Nights and WeAreNotRobots.

New Noise Kage, 23:00–02:30, £4

Alternative mixtape night taking in rock, punk, screamo, electro and hippity-hop.

Lockdown Beat Generator Live!, 23:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

Metal, rock and alternative playlists all night long.

Sat 14 Jul Dare Does Dundee Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £8

John Pleased Wimmin brings his night of eclectic electronic and disco-tinged delights Dundee-way.

Asylum Kage, 23:00–02:30, £4

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative.

Fri 20 Jul Bass Orgy Soundsystem Reading Rooms, 22:30–03:30, £5 (£7 after 12)

Full-on electro, D’n’B and dub orgy, complete with a massive soundsystem and live visuals over eight screens.

Kage, 23:00–02:30, £4

Locarno

26–29 Jul, times vary, £15

New production celebrating music and stories both ancient and modern, performed by an array of singers and actors.

A Play, A Pie and A Pint: Private Lives 2–7 Jul, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, £12.50

Afternoon session showcasing a reworking of Noel Howard’s 1933 play.

Plus a pie and a pint, naturally.

A Play, A Pie and A Pint: Alice In Poundland 9–28 Jul, not 15, 22, times vary, £12.50

Rockabilly, doo-wop, soul and all things golden age and danceable with the Locarno regulars.

Afternoon session featuring Dave Anderson and David MacLennan’s parallel universe version of Alice In Wonderland. Plus a pie and a pint, naturally.

Asylum

Platform

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative.

Skewered Snails

Reading Rooms, 22:00–02:30, £5 (£7 after 12)

Kage, 23:00–02:30, £4

Fri 27 Jul Zazou

Kage, 23:00–02:30, £4

Forgotten classics from the seediest and most decadent dancefloors of the 70s, 80s and beyond.

Lockdown

Beat Generator Live!, 23:00–03:00, Free (£4 after 12)

Metal, rock and alternative playlists all night long.

Sat 28 Jul

26–27 Jul, 7:00pm – 8:00pm, £8 (£4.50)

Darkly comic tale of a dysfunctional family grown from Ramesh Meyyappan’s solo work, Snails & Ketchup.

Part of Surge 2012, with a free courtesy bus running from Merchant City.

The Arches Bird 28–29 Jul, times vary, £5

Sita Pieraccini’s inventive tale of a lone, feral creature starved of both food and friendship, told through clown and mime. Part of Surge 2012.

The Book Club

The Love Club: Good Housekeeping Day

Selection of DJs on rotation all night, covering genres of electro, disco, techno and anything else they damn well fancy.

Markus Makavellian hosts an evening of poetry, music, spoken word, tea, cake and knitting, this time celebrating official Good Housekeeping Day.

Reading Rooms, 22:30–02:30, £tbc

Asylum

Kage, 23:00–02:30, £4

Best of selection of rock, metal and alternative.

The Psychotic Reaction

Beat Generator Live!, 20:00–03:00, £4

Genre-hopping mix of garage, psych, soul, freakbeat, and plenty more besides, plsu live bands dropping by.

9 Jul, 7:00pm – 9:00pm, £4

Deviator 23–29 Jul, not 27, times vary, prices vary

Site-based intervention blending altered versions of children’s games with subtle live performance, for which participants download an app prior to taking part (performance leaves from The Arches). Part of Surge 2012.

The favourited musical tale of separated-at-birth twins who grow up on opposite sides of the tracks, with Marti-bloody-Pellow taking on the role of narrator.

Tron Theatre Stones In His Pockets 5–21 Jul, not 8, 9, 15, 16, times vary, From £7

A rural community in County Kerry is turned upside down by the arrival of an American film crew on location to capture the ‘real’ Ireland.

I Could Eat A Horse 20 Jul, 8:00pm – 9:00pm, £2.50

Work-in progress from A Moment’s Peace, charting our tumultuous loveaffair with the food we buy, cook, eat and share.

various venues Ornithology 29 Jun, 5 Jul, 7:30pm – 9:30pm, prices vary

Circus-styled encounter taking in absurd comedy, acrobatic stunts, Chinese pole and ill-fated gardening.

That do ye?

Red Raw The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Wed 04 Jul Wicked Wenches (Jan Maree, Sarah Cassidy, Eleanor Morton) The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£3 members)

All-female stand-up, with a suitably varied mix of headliners and newcomers.

Thu 05 Jul The Thursday Show (Mick Ferry, Marcus Ryan, Joe Heenan) The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7/£4 members)

Handpicked selection of headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Fri 06 Jul The Friday Show (Mick Ferry, Marcus Ryan, Joe Heenan) The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£9/£5 members)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Corinthian Comedy Club

EDINBURGH Edinburgh Playhouse The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: Radio Show Live!

21 Jul, 7:30pm – 9:30pm, From £19

Douglas Adams’ immortal creation is given a bit of a re-invention in the form of a surround-sound radio show, avec robots, naturally.

Starlight Express 3–14 Jul, not 8, times vary, From £19.50

The longstanding futuristic tale about love and hope in the face of adversity returns to the limelight, Andrew Lloyd Webber hits in tow.

The Magic of Motown 20 Jul, 7:30pm – 9:30pm, From £24.50

Singalongable motown hits, capturing the original Detroit sound of The Supremes et al.

Footloose 27–28 Jul, times vary, From £15

Crowd-pleaser of a musical, complete with singalong pop-rock score and nifty dance moves a-plenty.

The Corinthian Club, 20:30–22:30, £8

Jamie Dalgleish welcomes John Gavin, Chris Forbes, Lee Kyle and Nick Cranston for a top notch night of comedic shenanigans.

Sat 07 Jul The Saturday Show (Mick Ferry, Marcus Ryan, Joe Heenan) The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes.

Sun 08 Jul Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£1 members)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase with resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond.

Mon 09 Jul Improv Wars The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £4 (£2)

Improvised comedy games and sketches, with an anything-goes attitude.

Roll On The Floor Quizzing Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, Free

Pivo’s weekly pub quiz-cum-comedy panel show, featuring live musical comedy, sketches, stand-up, arguments, prizes and put-downs.

27–28 Jul, times vary, Free

Gutter Lane

Tue 10 Jul

13 Jul, 8:00pm – 11:00pm, £8

Red Raw

Monthly ye olde-styled circus night filled with weird and wonderful acts, this month headlined by burlesque beauty Daiquiri Dusk.

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £2

27 Jul, 29 Jul, 6:30pm – 7:15pm, £5

Pitch black panto taking a rumpus through fairytale plaguescapes, where obedient consumerism and celebrity worship are the whole of the law. Part of Surge 2012.

Transfiguration 28 Jul, 7:30pm – 8:00pm, £8 (£6)

French performer and sculptor Olivier De Sagazan uses clay and paint to perform acts of live sculpture in which, rather freakily, his own face is the canvas. Part of Surge 2012.

Hybridation 29 Jul, 7:45pm – 8:15pm, £8 (£6)

Artist Olivier De Sagazan is joined by Marie Cardinal for a double-hander where a man and a woman enter a dialogue in which the ground acts as a substitute for language. Part of Surge 2012.

The Briggait

July 2012

2–14 Jul, not 8, times vary, From £12

Tue 03 Jul

Jekyll and Hyde

Ratcatcher

68 THE SKINNY

Blood Brothers

GLASGOW

Invisible Empire Unique work-in-progress inspired by real life stories, fusing movement, live music and text using ensemble physical theatre techniques. Part of Surge 2012.

For full listings go to www.theskinny.co.uk/listings or scan above

The King’s Theatre

COMEDY

Circoscotia 28–29 Jul, 7:00pm – 9:00pm, Free

Live circus performance taking in aerial work, Chinese pole, acrobalance and floor acrobatics. Part of Surge 2012.

Traverse And No More Shall We Part: Preview 30 Jul, 7:00pm – 9:00pm, £13 (£6 unemployed)

Preview perfomance of Tom Holloway’s tender new play exploring what happens to a relationship when death comes into the room. Running throughout August at the Traverse (4-26 Aug).

DUNDEE Dundee Rep Dundee Rep Youth Theatre Showcase 4 Jul, 7:30pm – 9:30pm, £4 (£3)

Dundee Rep Youth Theatre present their newest work, including Peace

By Piece – about the questions that arise from violence.

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Wed 11 Jul The Fun Junkies The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£2.50 members)

Sat 14 Jul

Five Quid Funnies

Friday Live

The Saturday Show (Mark Maier, Quincy, Susan Morrison)

Charlie Ross presents a selection of live comedy for, yes, a fiver. As part of Merchant City Festival.

Resident host Jojo Sutherland introduces some of the finest stand-up talent from across the UK.

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes.

Sun 15 Jul Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£1 members)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase with resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond.

Mon 16 Jul Roll On The Floor Quizzing Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, Free

Pivo’s weekly pub quiz-cum-comedy panel show, featuring live musical comedy, sketches, stand-up, arguments, prizes and put-downs.

Fringe Preview Double Bill: Carey Marx and Stephen Carlin The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7)

Yes, The Fringe is nigh. Glasgow celebrates with a double-billing of two Fringe 2012 acts set to showcase their new shows in Edinburgh come August.

Tue 17 Jul Red Raw The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £2

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7/£4 members)

Handpicked selection of headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

The Impenetrable Click (Alan Scott, Chloe Philip, Geoff Gawler, Sarah Cassidy, Will Setchell) Halt Bar, 20:00–22:00, £3 (£2)

The experimental comedy troupe bring their surrealist blend of sketches, stand-up and puppetry to Halt Bar, with promised special guests and prizes.

Fri 20 Jul The Friday Show (Michael J Dolan, Raymond Mearns)

Billy and Des’ Geek Comedy Night Plan B Books, 20:30–22:30, £5

Des O Gorman and Billy Kirkwood host a night of alternative comedy, with special guests, games and prizes.

Part of Merchant City Festival.

Fri 27 Jul The Friday Show (The Rev Obadiah Steppenwolf III, Totally Wired, Martin Mor) The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£9/£5 members)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Sat 28 Jul The Saturday Show (The Rev Obadiah Steppenwolf III, Totally Wired, Martin Mor) The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £15

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£9/£5 members)

Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£1 members)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase with resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond.

Mon 30 Jul Improv Wars

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £4 (£2)

Improvised comedy games and sketches, with an anything-goes attitude.

EDINBURGH Tue 03 Jul Wicked Wenches (Jan Maree, Sarah Cassidy, Eleanor Morton) The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£3 members)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

All-female stand-up, with a suitably varied mix of headliners and newcomers.

Sat 21 Jul

Wed 04 Jul

The Saturday Show (Michael J Dolan, Raymond Mearns)

Broken Windows Policy

Packed Saturday bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes.

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £15

Fast-paced and anarchic skits and character comedy, just how we like it.

Sun 22 Jul

Funny Bone (Bruce Morton, Graham Thomas, Steven Davidson)

Michael Redmond’s Sunday Service The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£1 members)

Chilled Sunday comedy showcase with resident Irish funnyman Michael Redmond.

Mon 23 Jul Bright Club The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £5

Roll On The Floor Quizzing

The Thursday Show (Mark Maier, Quincy, Susan Morrison)

Pivo’s weekly pub quiz-cum-comedy panel show, featuring live musical comedy, sketches, stand-up, arguments, prizes and put-downs.

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, Free

Tue 24 Jul

Handpicked selection of headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Red Raw

Fri 13 Jul

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£9/£5 members)

Packed Saturday bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes.

Sun 29 Jul

Thu 12 Jul

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Handpicked selection of headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7/£4 members)

Thu 19 Jul The Thursday Show (Michael J Dolan, Raymond Mearns)

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £2

Wed 25 Jul Best Of Irish Comedy The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £7 (£6/£3 members)

Top comics from the contemporary Irish circuit.

Sat 07 Jul The Saturday Show (Tony Law, Jan Maree, Eddie O’Dwyer)

Packed Saturday bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes.

A selection of comedic academics do a stint of stand-up for your entertainment and enlightenment. Laughs and learning in one neat package: tick.

The Friday Show (Mark Maier, Quincy, Susan Morrison)

Thu 26 Jul

The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £8

The Thursday Show (The Rev Obadiah Steppenwolf III, Totally Wired, Martin Mor)

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Diverse offerings from the comedy spectrum, featuring stand-up, variety acts, sketches, musical comedy and, yes, magicians.

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7/£4 members)

Maggie May’s, 19:30–22:00, £5

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £4 (£2)

Fiddler’s Elbow, 20:00–22:00, £3

New comedy night with a trio of live guests your laugh-masters for the evening, alongside a promised special guest or two.

Thu 05 Jul

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £15

Saturday Live The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £8

Resident host Jojo Sutherland introduces some of the finest stand-up talent from across the UK.

Sun 08 Jul The Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£1 members)

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-to-work blues.

Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, 13:30–15:30, Free

Improvised lunchtime comedy favourite with resident cheeky chappies Stu & Garry.

Mon 09 Jul Red Raw The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

Fit O’ The Giggles City Café, 20:30–22:30, £3 (£2)

Keara Murphy hosts a selection of acts taking in sketches, stand-up, mime, musical comedy, poetry, magic, and, well, pretty much anything else they fancy.

Tue 10 Jul Electric Tales The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4)

Comedy meets storytelling, with the tease of a promise of robot badges.

We’re sold.

Belushi’s Tuesday Night Comedy Jam Belushi’s, 20:00–22:30, Free

Resident host Rick Molland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians and comedy acts.

Wed 11 Jul The Melting Pot The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4/£2.50 members)

Comedy sketches picked by the audience and performed by a troupe of actors and musicians.

Thu 12 Jul The Thursday Show (Jason John Whitehead, Stu & Garry, David Morgan, Martin Mor) The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4 members)

Handpicked selection of headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

The Gong Show The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £3 (£2)

Up-and-coming comedic talent compete against the clock for stage time, gong show style.

Fri 13 Jul

The Thursday Show (Tony Law, Jan Maree, Eddie O’Dwyer)

The Friday Show (Jason John Whitehead, Stu & Garry, David Morgan, Martin Mor)

Handpicked selection of headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4 members)

The Colour Ham

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5 members)

Voodoo Rooms, 20:30–01:00, £10

Friday Live

The Gong Show

Resident host Jojo Sutherland introduces some of the finest stand-up talent from across the UK.

Opportunity to see The Colour Ham boys try out a selection of new sketches ahead of Edinburgh Fringe 2012.

The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £3 (£2)

Up-and-coming comedic talent compete against the clock for stage time, gong show style.

The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £8

Sat 14 Jul

Fri 06 Jul

The Saturday Show (Jason John Whitehead, Stu & Garry, David Morgan, Martin Mor)

The Friday Show (Tony Law, Jan Maree, Eddie O’Dwyer)

Packed Saturday bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes.

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5 members)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £15

Saturday Live The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £8

Resident host Jojo Sutherland introduces some of the finest stand-up talent from across the UK.

LISTINGS

Art

Sun 15 Jul

Fit O’ The Giggles

The Sunday Night Laugh-In

Keara Murphy hosts a selection of acts taking in sketches, stand-up, mime, musical comedy, poetry, magic, and, well, pretty much anything else they fancy.

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£1 members)

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-to-work blues.

Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, 13:30–15:30, Free

Improvised lunchtime comedy favourite with resident cheeky chappies Stu & Garry.

Fringe Preview Double Bill: Simon Donald and John Scott The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7)

Yes, The Fringe is nigh. Celebrate with The Stand’s double-billing of two Fringe 2012 acts previewing their new shows.

Mon 16 Jul Red Raw

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

City Café, 20:30–22:30, £3 (£2)

Tue 24 Jul Belushi’s Tuesday Night Comedy Jam Belushi’s, 20:00–22:30, Free

Resident host Rick Molland introduces a variety of stand-up comedians and comedy acts.

Fringe Preview Double Bill: Ro Campbell and Gavin Webster The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7)

Yes, The Fringe is nigh. Celebrate with The Stand’s double-billing of two Fringe 2012 acts previewing their new shows.

Fit O’ The Giggles

Wed 25 Jul

Keara Murphy hosts a selection of acts taking in sketches, stand-up, mime, musical comedy, poetry, magic, and, well, pretty much anything else they fancy.

Best of Scottish Comedy

Tue 17 Jul

Thu 26 Jul

Jo Caulfied’s Comedy Collective

The Thursday Show (Fin Taylor, Phil O’Shea, Susan Morrison)

City Café, 20:30–22:30, £3 (£2)

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £5 (£4)

A bright collective of comedians experiment with the medium of stand-up, under the watchful eye of Jo Caulfield.

Wed 18 Jul Benefit for Ethiopia Link (Susan Morrison, Keir McAllister, Jay Lafferty, Gus Lymburn, Raymond Mearns) The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £10 (£8)

Comedy fundraiser for Ethiopia Link.

Thu 19 Jul The Thursday Show (Pierre Hollins, Dave Longley, Scott Agnew) The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4 members)

Handpicked selection of headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

The Gong Show

The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £3 (£2)

Up-and-coming comedic talent compete against the clock for stage time, gong show style.

Fri 20 Jul The Friday Show (Pierre Hollins, Dave Longley, Scott Agnew) The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5 members)

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Friday Live

The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £8

Resident host Jojo Sutherland introduces some of the finest stand-up talent from across the UK.

Sat 21 Jul The Saturday Show (Pierre Hollins, Dave Longley, Scott Agnew) The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £15

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£3 members)

Top comics from the contemporary Scottish circuit, aye.

Bongo Club, 19:30–22:00, £7

Sun 22 Jul

The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £3 (£2)

Up-and-coming comedic talent compete against the clock for stage time, gong show style.

Prime stand-up from the Scottish and international circuit, hosted by a rotating selection of Stand stalwarts.

Friday Live The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £8

Resident host Jojo Sutherland introduces some of the finest stand-up talent from across the UK.

Sat 28 Jul The Saturday Show (Fin Taylor, Phil O’Shea, Susan Morrison) The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £15

Packed Saturday bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes.

Saturday Live The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £8

Resident host Jojo Sutherland introduces some of the finest stand-up talent from across the UK.

Sun 29 Jul Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Stand, 13:30–15:30, Free

Improvised lunchtime comedy favourite with resident cheeky chappies Stu & Garry.

Rock and Roll Ping Pong Bongo Club, 19:30–23:00, Free

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £8 (£7)

Yes, The Fringe is nigh. Celebrate with The Stand’s double-billing of two Fringe 2012 acts previewing their new shows.

Mon 30 Jul

Chilled comedy showcase to cure your Sunday evening back-to-work blues.

Improvised lunchtime comedy favourite with resident cheeky chappies Stu & Garry.

Mon 23 Jul Red Raw

The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £2

Open-mic style beginners showcase, plus some old hands dropping by to roadtest new material.

City Café, 20:30–22:30, £3 (£2)

DUNDEE Sat 07 Jul Just Laugh Comedy Club (Dougie Dunlop, Danny Angelo, Scott Gibson) Fat Sam’s, 21:00–23:00, £10

Monthly comedy showcase hosted by regular ringmaster Bruce Fummey.

various dates between 28 Jun and 4 Aug, 12:00pm – 6:00pm, Free

New body of work from the Glasgowbased artist known for her mixed approach of using woodcut printing, painting and drawing as the basis of her practice.

Mono Cover Versions and Other Hits 19–25 Jul, times vary, Free

Collection of classic alternative album sleeves reworked by Bis member and solo artist, Manda Rin, responsible for all the band’s artwork.

Cyril Gerber Fine Art

Project Ability

The First of the Summer Wine: 2012 28 Jun – 31 Aug, times vary, Free

Annual collective summer exhibition taking in painting and sculpture, from artists including The Scottish Colourists, Elizabeth Blackadder and Ann Christopher.

David Dale Gallery and Studios 29 Jun – 8 Jul, not 2 Jul, 3 Jul, 4 Jul, 5 Jul, 12:00pm – 5:00pm, Free

Mark Campbell, Rachel Duckhouse and Bronwen Sleigh

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £10 (£9/£5 members)

Mary Mary Lotte Gertz

Eclectic and thought-provoking showcase of work from Giuseppe Mistretta, a recent graduate of the Glasgow School of Art’s prestigious MFA.

The Friday Show (Fin Taylor, Phil O’Shea, Susan Morrison)

Keara Murphy hosts a selection of acts taking in sketches, stand-up, mime, musical comedy, poetry, magic, and, well, pretty much anything else they fancy.

The Stand, 13:30–15:30, Free

17–28 Jul, not 22, 11:00am – 6:00pm, Free

Fri 27 Jul

Fit O’ The Giggles

Whose Lunch Is It Anyway?

The Braille Room

Glasgow Print Studio

The Sunday Night Laugh-In The Stand, 20:30–22:30, £6 (£5/£1 members)

Overview of work by Indian graphic novelist, artist, and filmmaker, Sarnath Banerjee, including both drawings and films.

The Gong Show

Fringe Preview Double Bill: Silky/Vladimir McTavish and Keir McAllister

Comedy quiz-cum-game show extravaganza, taking on an Olympian theme for the evening.

28 Jun – 28 Jul, not 1 Jul, 8 Jul, 15 Jul, 22 Jul, 11:00am – 6:00pm, Free

Double-header exhibition between Irish artist, Fiona Burke, and Italian artist, Marzia Rossi, both Masters of Fine Art graduates concerned with the history of painting.

Handpicked selection of headline acts and newcomers over a two-hour showcase.

Resident host Jojo Sutherland introduces some of the finest stand-up talent from across the UK.

It’s Funtime: Empire Games

History Is Written By Garment Exporters

Fiona Burke and Marzia Rossi

Saturday Live

The Shack, 20:00–22:00, £8

CCA

The Stand, 21:00–23:00, £8 (£7/£4 members)

The It’s Funtime jokers present a free, fun, table tennis evening, with dancing discs from DJ Ding Dong (ahem).

Packed Saturday bill of stand-up headliners and resident comperes.

GLASGOW

28 Jun – 15 Jul, not 2 Jul, 9 Jul, times vary, Free

Group exhibition of abstract work by three Glasgow-based artists, all of whom explore their own ideas of space, architecture and perspective through various print and drawing media.

Kevin Low 6–29 Jul, not 9, 16, 23, times vary, Free

Solo exhibition from the Glasgowbased digital artist known for his use of a digital tablet and pen, layering the colours to produce rich and powerful pictures.

The Medium is the Message various dates between 27 Jul and 9 Sep, times vary, Free

Special exhibition exploring the variety of ways artists have used words in printmaking from the 1960s to present day, helping celebrate the 40th anniversary of Glasgow Print Studio – with pieces drawn largely from their archive.

Glasgow Print Studio: 40th Anniversary Exhibition various dates between 17 Jul and 9 Sep, times vary, Free

Collection of photographs which celebrate 40 years of printmaking and socialising at Glasgow Print Studios.

Glasgow School of Art Studio 58: Women Artists in Glasgow Since World War II various dates between 9 Jul and 28 Sep, 10:30am – 4:30pm, Free

Exhibition and accompanying publication examining the period between World War II and the present day in relation to women artists at the forefront of the art scene in Glasgow.

In the Mackintosh Museum.

Good Press Fruit Salad 26 Jul – 26 Aug, times vary, Free

Group show from international artists marking the launch of a new publication from the Glasgow/ London imprint Bronze Age Editions, entitled Fruit Salad.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum 500 Years of Italian Art 28 Jun – 12 Aug, times vary, £5 (£3)

Summer exhibition showcasing the best of Glasgow Museum’s impressive collection of Italian art, taking in some 40 paintings dating from the late 14th to the 19th centuries.

Young Talent 28 Jun – 14 Jul, not 1 Jul, 2 Jul, 8 Jul, 9 Jul, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Annual showcase of artwork created by children and young people from Project Ability’s Create programme, bringing together a diverse assortment of painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, banners and figurines.

Recoat Gallery Ruins 28 Jun – 8 Jul, not 2 Jul, 12:00pm – 6:00pm, Free

First solo exhibition from Edinburghbased artist Al White, a series of drawings and collages exploring the dissolving structures and systems of half-formed utopias.

Street Level Photoworks Spirit Photography 28 Jun – 22 Jul, not 2 Jul, 9 Jul, 16 Jul, times vary, Free

Seven refugee photographers showcase the fruits of their time spent interviewing different refugee communities about what spirit means to them. Part of Refugee Week Scotland.

David Peat various dates between 28 Jun and 5 Aug, times vary, Free

Retrospective showcase of street photographer David Peat, who’s quietly built an impressive portfolio of images during a working life around the world.

The Arches Peter Iain Campbell: What Hercules Might See (Part III) 27 Jun – 26 Jul, not 1 Jul, 8 Jul, 15 Jul, 22 Jul, 12:00pm – 11:00pm, Free

Body of photography – part fictional, part documentary – that considers the metamorphosis of an area of land and the shift in human occupation as a result of industrial evaporation and post-industrial opportunism.

The Briggait Ask Me About Art The Joy Of Art 9–13 Jul, 11:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Solo show of new work from Aberdeenborn and based musician/artist, Sarah J Stanley, with 10 free limited edition screen prints to first 10 takers. In Studio 207 of The Briggait.

The Duchy The Swan and Hostage various dates between 28 Jul and 25 Aug, 12:00pm – 6:00pm, Free

Solo exhibition of new sculptural work by James McLardy, in which he explores hierarchies within the use of material, technique and effect.

The Lighthouse Input and Ideas: Rethinking Scotland’s Policy on Architecture and Place 28 Jun – 26 Aug, times vary, Free

Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres: Schools’ Competition 28 Jun – 2 Aug, times vary, Free

Over 50 secondary school students from across Scotland take part in a unique design exhibition featuring their own interpretation of what a Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre should look like.

Crab Apple Arts: Summer Market 14 Jul, 11:00am – 4:00pm, Free

Crab Apple Arts return to The Lighthouse with their summer market, which includes artist-led demonstrations, workshops, and a pop-up art market featuring over 20 designers and makers.

The Modern Institute Eva Rothschild 28 Jun – 7 Jul, not 1 Jul, times vary, Free

New body of work from the Irish artist, taking in sculptural pieces in a variety of forms and materials.

Katja Strunz various dates between 14 Jul and 18 Aug, times vary, Free

Solo exhibition from the Berlinbased artist comprising of her delightfully haphazard sculptural and installation pieces.

The Whisky Bond The Clipperton Project various dates between 19 Jul and 20 Oct, 11:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Glasgow Sculpture Studios collaborate with The Clipperton Project to transform The Whisky Bond into an international collaborative laboratory, housing a series of zones that host different components of activities.

Tramway Jannis Kounellis various dates between 20 Jul and 23 Sep, times vary, Free

Tramway is taken over by the grandiose sculptures of Greek artist Jannis Kounellis, drawing together significant works from the Artist Rooms collection, alongside new work.

E D IN B UR G H Amber Arts About Time various dates between 28 Jun and 21 Jul, times vary, Free

Edinburgh-based artist Trina Bohan Tyrie presents a collection of urban and rural oil paintings describing the surrounding landscape and seasons.

Bourne Fine Art Jock McFadyen: A Retrospective various dates between 27 Jul and 1 Sep, times vary, Free

Retrospective of Scottish artist Jock McFadyen, including his figurative works of the 1980s and his later-day full-blown urban landscapes. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

City Art Centre A Parliament of Lines 28 Jun – 8 Jul, times vary, Free

Collective exhibition from 15 contemporary Scottish artists, all of whom use drawing as an important element in their practice – including work from delightful Glasgow doodler David Shrigley.

Terrain 28 Jun – 8 Jul, times vary, Free

A selection of works from a unique artist collection amassed in 1963 – offering school children access to original art – taking on its first public display, with works from the likes of Elizabeth Blackadder, Barbara Rae and William Littlejohn.

Art and the Garden 28 Jun – 8 Jul, times vary, Free

Unique exhibition presenting a range of ground-breaking projects selected to influence the policy, and support the consultation process, by the Scottish Government concerning what their new architecture policy should cover.

New exhibition exploring the relationship between artists and gardens, including a variety of paintings, drawings and photographs amassed from the city’s fine art collection.

Briggs & Cole

Leslie Hunter

2–29 Jul, times vary, Free

Showcase of work by Glasgow-based product design/art partnership Briggs & Cole (aka Jane Briggs and Christy Cole), specialising in limitededition concept furniture.

21 Jul – 14 Oct, times vary, £5 (£3.50)

Major exhibition of over 50 works of varying sizes by Leslie Hunter, one of a group of four artists known collectively as The Scottish Colourists.

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

The Scottish Colourists: Inspiration and Influence 21 Jul – 14 Oct, times vary, Free

Showcase exhibition placing the work of the Scottish Colourists in a wider context, running alongside City Art Centre’s solo exhibition dedicated to Scottish Colourist, Leslie Hunter.

The Human Race: Inside Story of Sports Medicine 21 Jul – 9 Sep, times vary, Free

Unique exhibition of Scottish collections that explores the body as it prepares for, and competes in, sport.

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

Collective Gallery Simon Martin: Louis Ghost Chair

28 Jun – 22 Jul, not 2 Jul, 9 Jul, 16 Jul, 11:00am – 5:00pm, Free

New short film work by Simon Martin, laying its focus on the classic design of the Louis XV armchair.

Dovecot Studios Weaving The Century: Tapestry from Dovecot Studios 1912-2012

13 Jul – 17 Oct, 10:30am – 5:30pm, Free

Major Dovecot tapestry exhibition presented across all three of the public gallery spaces, bringing together the work of myriad artists including David Hockney, Elizabeth Blackadder and Cecil Beaton. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

Edinburgh Printmakers Dialogue

various dates between 28 Jun and 21 Jul, 10:00am – 6:00pm, Free

Touring group exhibition presenting the innovative and recent works of artists from the collective printmaking workshop Engramme, based in Quebec.

Fruitmarket Tony Swain

28 Jun – 8 Jul, times vary, Free

The Irish-born, GSA graduating, artist – best known for his paintings depicting complex private worlds painted over newspaper pages – presents a new body of work created specially for Fruitmarket Gallery.

Ingleby Gallery Callum Innes: Works on Paper

28 Jun – 14 Jul, not 1 Jul, 8 Jul, 10:00am – 6:00pm, Free

The Edinburgh-born artist shows an exhibition of three new bodies of work in watercolour, pastel and gouache shown alongside selected works on paper from the past 25 years.

Inverleith House William McKeown

28 Jun – 8 Jul, not 2 Jul, 10:00am – 5:30pm, Free

First posthumous exhibition of paintings from the Edinburgh-based, County Tyrone native, exploring his relationship with nature in both meticulous watercolour drawings of wild flowers and and expansive paintings of the light of day.

Philip Guston

various dates between 25 Jul and 7 Oct, 10:00am – 5:30pm, Free

First exhibition of late paintings by the great American artist to be staged in Europe, featuring major works from 1969 to 1978. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

Jupiter Artland Anya Gallaccio

various dates between 28 Jun and 16 Sep, 10:00am – 5:00pm, £8.50 adv.

Jupiter Artland opens for its fourth summer season presenting fresh work by Paisley-born Turner Prize nominee Anya Gallaccio, consisting of 10,000 red roses laid upon the gallery floor, left to decay over time.

National Museum of Scotland A Sense of Place: New Jewellery From Northern Lands

28 Jun – 16 Sep, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Selection of specially designed jewellery by 16 contemporary makers from Northern Europe, each asked to create pieces inspired by a place they love.

Melvin Moti: One Thousand Points of Light 20 Jul – 21 Oct, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

First ever solo show from the Dutch artist, working with UV light emitting rocks from the mineralogy collections at National Museums Scotland. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

Open Eye Gallery Leon Morrocco 28 Jun – 10 Jul, not 1 Jul, 8 Jul, times vary, Free

Vibrant selection of Leon Morrocco’s drawings and paintings, inspired by his travels through India, Malta, Morocco, Italy and Cuba.

Open Eye’s Summer Show 13 Jul – 4 Aug, not 15 Jul, 22 Jul, 29 Jul, times vary, Free

Summer exhibition of selected works by a collection of Open Eye artists.

From Copper, Wood and Stone 13 Jul – 4 Aug, not 15 Jul, 22 Jul, 29 Jul, times vary, Free

Showcase exhibition spanning two centuries of British printmaking, taking in a variety of etchings, woodcuts and lithographs.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Edvard Munch: Graphic Works from The Gundersen Collection 28 Jun – 23 Sep, 10:00am – 5:00pm, £7 (£5)

Collection of 50 works on paper by the famed Norwegian artist, taken from a private Norwegian collection, and showing in the UK for the first time.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery Legacy: Roderick Buchanan 4 Jul – 16 Sep, times vary, Free

Scottish artist Roderick Buchanan presents a powerful and thoughtprovoking installation which considers the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

In It To Win It

4 Jul – 7 Oct, times vary, Free

Display of new acquisitions showcasing some of Scotland’s most distinguished sporting talent, inspired by the up-coming Olympic Games.

Stills La Nostra Terra

28 Jun – 22 Jul, 11:00am – 6:00pm, Free

Patriothall Gallery Robert Ward: Antartica 4–25 Jul, not 9, 16, 23, 12:00pm – 6:00pm, Free

Photography showcase displaying images taken on Ward’s 2010 trip to Antarctica, retracing the steps taken

by Shackleton and Scott on their epic voyages.

Red Door Gallery Ewan John 28 Jun – 19 Jul, times vary, Free

Linlithgow-based artist Ewan John presents a delightful selection of his illustrated narratives, comprising of a selection of his new colour lithographs that expand his well-loved Regency Birds print folio.

Royal Over-Seas League East Neuk Paradise 25 Jul – 9 Sep, 10:00am – 6:00pm, Free

Scottish artist Hatti Pattisson exhibits her latest paintings, drawing inspiration from the land and seascapes around Fife.

Royal Scottish Academy (RSA)

Exhibition of Italian photography and video moving from the 1970s to present today.

The Institute Gallery The Doormen

29 Jun – 28 Jul, not 1 Jul, 8 Jul, 15 Jul, 22 Jul, times vary, Free

The Institute premiere young Journalism graduate turned photographer Robert Ormerod’s photographic series, The Doormen, based around the pastime of ‘doo flying’ (aka the flying of horseman thief pigeons, mostly from self-built lofts).

The Old Ambulance Depot Gold Sheep

3–9 Jul, times vary, Free

Double-header exhibition of new work by two up-and-coming Fine Art printmaking graduates, Andy Cumming and Lucie Hrnickova.

Whitespace Alexa Thomson and Julie Fleming 4–10 Jul, times vary, Free

New ECA graduates Alexa Thomson and Julie Fleming present a showcase of their current work, taking in an eclectic mix of drawing and painting.

Eccentri:city

Drawing From The Landscape 28 Jun – 22 Jul, times vary, Free

Highlighting the work of RSA members, alongside artists from the RSA Awards and Exhibitions Programme, with each of the exhibiting artists and architects using drawing as a direct means of recording their experiences.

TUTAJ/TERAZ 28 Jul – 9 Sep, times vary, Free

Survey of the work of six Polish-born artists who completed their degrees at Scottish art schools, including printmaking, drawing, photography and painting. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

Scottish National Gallery Giovanni Battista Lusieri: Expanding Horizons 30 Jun – 28 Oct, times vary, £7 (£5)

First ever exhibition devoted entirely to the impressive landscape watercolours of Rome-born artist, Giovanni Battista Lusieri. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

Van Gogh to Kandinsky: Symbolist Landscape in Europe 14 Jul – 14 Oct, times vary, £10 (£7)

First exhibition dedicated solely to Symbolist Landscape in Europe, the movement that developed after Impressionism as artists developed a more emotional approach to landscape painting. Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

13–26 Jul, times vary, Free

The Association for Contemporary Jewellery present a showcase of collaborative and new work by a selection of 17 Edinburgh jewellery designers, including Rhona Hogg, Caroline Cloughley and Jaimie MacDonald.

D UN D EE DCA Infinite Jest

various dates between 28 Jun and 26 Aug, times vary, Free

DCA present three exciting international artists – Cinthia Marcelle, Rob Pruitt and William Mackrell – each inspired by circular narration, infinity loops and mobius strips.

Hannah Maclure Centre Performing Worlds

28 Jun – 27 Jul, weekdays only, 10:00am – 5:00pm, Free

Mixed exhibition of work – from social sculpture to socially-engaged art – by Stephen Willats, Pete Horobin, Tracy Mackenna and Edwin Janssen, and Dundee Urban Orchard.

Vanilla Ink Vanilla Ink: Studio Opening 4 Jul, 6:30pm – 9:30pm, Free

Set in the creative hub of WASPS, brand new jewellery studios, Vanilla Ink, open their doors with a selection of work from DJCAD’s recent jewellery graduates.

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T H E O UT B A C K

music

Guest Selector: Shirley Manson Garbage’s ever-outspoken frontwoman presents a personal guide to ten essential albums by her favourite female vocalists Interview: Dave Kerr

released Debut, that was quite amazing. It was incredibly sophisticated; to me, she was the first artist that managed to create a new and exciting sound out of new wave and post-punk using a lot of the sort of beats that were coming out of the dance world at the time. It’s a very modern sounding record, still to this day. Debut was exquisite, just a perfectly curated record with incredible visuals – all her videos were perfect. She’s a master at what she does.

1. Siouxie and the Banshees – The Scream (1978) The first female artist that really blew me out the water was Siouxie Sioux. I used to hang out with two other girls and we hung out with older boys who came from a different school than us. These boys were basically responsible for introducing us to a whole load of incredibly cool records like London Calling by The Clash at the same time as Dirk Wears White Sox by early Adam and the Ants and then The Scream

by Siouxie and the Banshees. I just fell insanely in love with that band – Siouxie Sioux has remained a touchstone for me throughout my career and is still inspiring to me. I loved everything about the fact that she was in a band, she was a writer, that she sang completely differently from everybody else, that she was rebellious and intelligent and incredibly articulate. I still think The Scream holds up as a fantastic example of post-punk fury. I’ve met her and was invited to write the foreword to their biography; that was a huge honour. I’m in complete awe of her.

2. Patti Smith Group – Wave (1979) I was in a band myself by the point I heard this – an Edinburgh band called Goodbye Mr McKenzie. I used to date Martin Metcalfe, who was the lead singer of that band.

He basically gave me my musical education; he introduced me to Patti Smith and this record. I’d never heard anything quite like it before, it felt sort of androgynous to me in a way. I found it intriguing, mysterious…she’s another person whose been my lifelong inspiration. When I met her I burst into tears! She’s an incredibly serene individual; she’s very powerful. She’s never really compromised herself in any way, shape or form. As a result, she’s very pure. She still holds a lot of mystery, in a way, as an artist. I love the fact that she doesn’t just make music – she takes photographs; she makes films; she writes books; she writes poetry – she just won’t be confined by anybody’s expectations, criticisms or observations. She just does whatever the fuck she wants. I find that inspiring.

3. The Cocteau Twins – Head Over Heels (1983) Martin Metcalfe introduced me to the Cocteaus too, around about the same time; one of my all-time favourite bands and I probably want them played at my funeral, y’know, to see me out of the world. Again, they’ve stayed with me. The fact that they were Scottish too really had a big impact on me. For some reason I thought ‘if they can make music, so can I’ and ‘if she can sing, so can I.’ They are unique, timeless and they make incredibly beautiful music. Liz Fraser’s one of the greatest, most inventive singers I’ve ever heard in any genre. Her fragility is what I find so mesmerizing. Head Over Heels was the first album I became obsessed with, but their first five are exquisite.

4. PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love (1995) Well then, after a few years of being introduced to music by different forces, I started religiously buying NME, Melody Maker and Sounds – I was obsessed by music papers. It’s all I ever read, I poured over them and I discovered the incomparable PJ Harvey through

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July 2012

8. Peaches – Fatherfucker (2003) The record I’d pick is Fatherfucker, but when Peaches first came out with The Teaches of Peaches, she really caught everybody off-guard and has since probably influenced every hip-hop artist in America. All these highbrow producers who are making records for lesser artists than she have ripped her off for the last decade and she’s gotten no kudos for it whatsoever. You can hear her influence on so many records; she is a bonafide original and I really admire her. I think she’s brave, curious and irreverent – I can’t say enough good things about her. As an artist and as a person, she’s an amazing girl. Without dragging any names through the muck, everybody else has taken what she did with those two records, watered them down and made insane amounts of money off her ideas.

those three music papers. She was my first discovery on my own, so to speak. I just have immense respect for her; she was somehow incredibly sexual at the same time as being untouchable and impenetrable. I loved the fact that she embodied a sort of threatening, powerful sexuality that I’d never seen before, and had this incredible voice and was this great guitar player. She was the whole thing. I was incredibly jealous of her and still am. I think she’s a genius. I’d just started touring America at the point To Bring You My Love came out and had it on continual play, so I associate this album with getting out into the world and making music. She and Flood – his production style and her talent, her voice and all the instrumentation on that record – they managed to paint something almost like a Cormac McCarthy novel, that’s what it felt like to me. I don’t think you can really fail with any of her records. I don’t think she’s made a bad one – ever.

5. Hole – Live Through This (1994) This will be an unpopular choice, probably. It’s the voice of complete rage and rebellion – female rebellion. To me that’s a touchstone record for any girl that’s interested in starting a band and kicking against the pricks.

It’s a perfect record. I know she’s a very polarizing figure and gets a lot of flack, Courtney, but at

her height there’s never been a greater female rock star ever – as threatening, challenging and provocative. She’ll be the last one standing.

6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell (2003) My favourite contemporary female rock star would be Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

I’d also suggest that any girl looking to start a band check out this record. Joe Levy and Rob Sheffield at Rolling Stone in the US had said to me ‘Oh, we’ve heard this band, you’re gonna love them, you’re gonna die!’ They sent me a copy of that first EP that had Bang, Mystery Girl and Art Star on it through the post; I put it on the car stereo and just went away into some weird other world. I became obsessed with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and obsessed by her. She’s just an incredible rock star. In any other given age – if she’d come out in the 1960s she’d be treated like a precious artefact. She’s just incredible at what she does; she’s inspiring, energizing, she has great taste – she makes great records.

7. Björk – Debut (1993) I loved The Sugarcubes and still have all these original singles of theirs on vinyl; I think Birthday was the first time I ever heard Björk sing. But then when she

9. Sinéad O’Connor – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got (1990) This is a perfect record from start to finish. Sinéad is another original; there’s no one like her – there never will be. Her newest record was also incredible, but she’s come out at a time where nobody’s interested in hearing from anyone who isn’t under the age of 20, who isn’t making nursery rhymes fit for radio. I don’t know what’s going on with her, but she struggles, clearly – she’s fragile. Unfortunately the music industry, as it is right now, does not have any time for anyone who is fragile. She’s rarely given any radio play, but her voice is still perfect, beautiful, soulful…

I think she’s a jewel but we’ve trampled all over her because she’s a hot mess. But she makes amazing records, and this one – her second – is an incredible display of modern folk music. Great storytelling; exquisite voice, and she looked and sounded like an angel.

10. Marianne Faithfull – Broken English (1979) I could finish with Broken English by Marianne Faithfull for a million different reasons; there’s some great songwriting on there. To me, a song like Why D’Ya Do It is similar to 212 by Azealia Banks – it’s just that they came out at a different time. It’s the same venom, the same irreverence, the same determination to turn the tables upside down.

There’s some classic songs on that record, and you forget that songs like that and the title track were her songs.

Garbage play Barrowlands, Glasgow on 4 July www.garbage.com

THE OUTBACK

C R Y S TA L B AWS

food & drink

Phag oman ia

H e n ry Har g r e av e s

WITH MYSTIC MARK

Welcome to a land where deep-fried Gameboys and bacon letters can roam free... interview: Lewis MacDonald

This month’s Phagomania, normally a food and drink section regular, germinates and sprouts out across the magazine to say ‘hello’ to the creations of Henry Hargreaves. The Brooklyn-based photographer, originally from New Zealand, can certainly catch an eye with his unorthodox food photography projects. Behold, both food and less edible objects as you have never seen them before. Is it ridiculous? Is it amazing?

No, it is okay, you are in good company, you are in fact correct, it is ridiculously amazing. Intrigued to find out some more, I chewed the fat a little with Henry.

Clearly a big part of your food images are subversion and contradiction of expectations. But why food? Is there a particular attraction for you as a subject matter?

I just think it’s a really untapped genre.

There are a lot of people who shoot it to make it look tasty but few people who play with it to tell a story. It’s also easy to have access to, I see the supermarket as my art supply store.

Your food photography is clean, bright and fun, presenting the subject in a celebratory manner. But they could also be read as a commentary on consumerism and greed. Do you have an intended message?

Yeah I hope it gets people thinking, but I don’t try to preach a message. Say with the

deep fried gadget pictures, it could be seen as a comment about people’s consumption of the latest gadget, but fuck it, they are just fun images. Take from it what you want.

I’m not saying it’s bad to want the latest iPhone, I sure do. For me I just wanted to see what the results would be, to see something that looked like this deep fried because it was the most unlikely thing to go in a fryer.

Looking to the future, have you had food project ideas that have been too outlandish or wasteful to carry off? If there were no limits, have you had any bizarre concepts?

Of course, and I deliberately do not take on things that are a gratuitous waste of good food. I work on a very limited budget as these rarely generate any income. I shoot what I would like to see, and get a kick out of that which makes it worthwhile to me. Although I’m very conscious of waste. I try to reuse what I can and we do often eat the things I use. There is of course some waste, I’m always staggered by reader comments ranting about how there are people starving in Africa. I mean that gets to me as well, but that bacon was never going to find its way to the Congo.

I’m sure the food wasted over my entire career is a fraction of that wasted at a modest wedding reception.

some w over here th burg e er

ARIES 21 MAR – 20 APR Through your Fisher Price binoculars you spot more UFOs. This time there are thousands of them, looking almost exactly like love heart balloons.

You catalogue their appearance in your Big Book of UFOs and admire our visitors’ delirious array of craft, sometimes resembling seagulls or aeroplanes, at other times looking exactly like kites or clouds.

a

www.henryhargreaves.com

TAURUS 21 APR – 21 MAY Working on your Theory of Anything, you manage to pull together the remote theories of crystal energy, the JFK assassination, 9/11, Pleiadian channelling and the construction of the pyramids by skinny grey aliens into one super-theory, the implications of which are staggeringly incorrect.

b

c

GEMINI 22 MAY – 21 JUN You are a very tall woman.

CANCER 22 JUN – 23 JUL Worried that the CIA might be turning all your cats against you? You don’t need to strangle any more of them with piano wire, simply make them tinfoil hats to prevent the government’s instructions from penetrating their adorable skulls.

d

batter than mario w i- f r y

LEO 24 JUL – 23 AUG Like Leo’s ruling planet the Sun, you too are a dense, gassy giant who finds themselves being miscategorised by idiots.

e

VIRGO 24 AUG – 23 SEP In July your nightmares reach their apex, the intensity of the nightly low-frequency turbulence inside the dreamcatcher’s delicate web centre causes it to rupture. Now there’s nothing to halt evil turning your mind into a luxury hotel for demons.

f

ba me bcon ad ooft!

LIBRA 24 SEP – 23 OCT The studied way you replicate the emotions and

g

empathetic gestures of others somehow confirms that you’re not a psychopath.

SCORPIO 24 OCT – 22 NOV You might be the laughing stock of the office wearing your full-body chemtrail MOPP suit, but you’ll get the last laugh, when they’re all dead and you’re sat in the office maniacally laughing until you run out of air.

h

i

SAGITTARIUS 24 OCT – 20 JAN

After buying a 6-bed house on Skye to “get away from it all” the situation soon turns into a masturbation Gulag. You scratch tally marks into the walls as the tissues pile up, looking at your emaciated face in the DNAencrusted mirror, hoping against hope that one day Allied troops will come and save you from yourself.

j

CAPRICORN 22 DEC – 20 JAN

Single? That guy with the weird eye who’s been following you around for the last few days holds the key to a candle-lit weekend in an underground sex bunker.

AQUARIUS 21 JAN – 19 FEB Like the Elephant Man you have a heart of gold, but also a massive cranium filled with water.

k

PISCES 20 FEB – 20 MAR Trying to top your neighbour’s romantic gesture of releasing thousands of love heart balloons for their anniversary, you procure the heart of a blue whale from a Norwegian fishmonger and drive it in a leaking Transit back to your girlfriend’s house. Rigging the heart up to the Transit’s battery in the garden, you sit astride it singing love songs on an acoustic guitar as it rhythmically pumps blood all over the sodden grass. Her tears say it all.

l

July 2012

THE SKINNY 71