The Skinny September 2012 by The Skinny

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Issue 84 September 2012

S U N D AY 3 0 D E C E M B E R 2 0 12 - T U E S D AY 0 1 J A N U A R Y 2 0 13

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Contents

In association with Coda Music Agency

BILLY BRAGG & KT TUNSTALL

CELEBRATE WOODY GUTHRIE’S CENTENARY

FRI 14TH SEPT 02ABC GLASGOW

karine polwart

l l e l Ham a i r T n O

photo: Georgia Kuhn

Wed 19 Sept Glasgow Oran Mor

EDINBURGH VOODOO ROOMS

SEPT

26 WED

GOWR S a GL N MO ORA

photo: Ross Gilmore

SUNDAY 23RD SEPT

p10 Why?

p22 Chvrches

p36 Showcase: Nick Lynch

p61 Fletch vs Hoff: The Hoffspring

IN CONCERT

FRIDAY 12 OCTOBER

GLASGOW

CONCERT HALL GLASGOW CONCERT HALL SUNDAY 21ST OCTOBER 0141 353 8000

JUST ANNOUNCED

Sun 11th Nov EDINBURGH Queen’s Hall

0141 353 8000 www.ticketmaster.co.uk JUST ANNOUNCED

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING

GLASGOW Nice ‘N’ Sleazy TUES 23 OCTOBER JUST ANNOUNCED

Tuesday 11th December Edinburgh Liquid Room

HEY ROSETTA! Edinburgh Voodoo Rooms Tues 13th Nov

10TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR PERFORMING ‘FIRE’ IN ITS ENTIRETY

THUR 29 NOV O2 ABC

THURS 06 DEC

GLASGOW CONCERT HALL 0141 353 8000

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

RUFUS

W I

G A

September 2012

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

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NEW ALBUM OUT OF THE GAME IN STORES NOW

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Glasgow, Rose St Edinburgh & Ripping Records and all usual outlets

THE SKINNY

Editorial

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

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GLASGOW

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON IN CONCERT

September 2012

printed on 100% recycled paper

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Sales/Accounts Sales Director Marketing Executive Sales Executive Accounts Administrator

Lara Moloney Michaela Hall George Sully Tom McCarthy Solen Collet

Publisher

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FRONT

contents

Skinny on Tour; Shot of the Month; Hero Worship from Grizzly Bear; Stop the Presses; Deviance ed Ana takes on the equal marriage consultancy; former Editor Xavier shares his tale of Fringe despair.

Up: Daily autumnal delights taking you 8 Heads from Perfume Genius in SWG3 to A Play, A

Yoni Wolf introduces new album 10 WHY?'s Mumps, Etc, and gives us a run down of his

Wolf Tuton takes a walk down memory lane. xx - Jamie xx on the recording of the 17 The band's new album, Coexist. of the release of her new album, 18 Ahead Theatre Is Evil, Amanda Palmer talks

and collage dealing with the nature of memory.

Martin Doherty and Lauren Mayberry explain why their feet remain clamped firmly to the ground.

programme designed to prompt you into world-changing action. Carolee Schneemann (most famous 20 Artist for 1975 performance Interior Scroll, in which she read from a scroll she had pulled from her vagina) talks us through her current Summerhall exhibition.

Hammer Studio chief Simon Oakes talks to The Skinny about the British horror institution's resurrection.

Maddin introduces his latest film 24 Guy Keyhole, a psycho-sexual riff on Homer's

The Odyssey by way of film noir and haunted house movies. month in the People’s Palace, Scotland 26 This Can Make It! presents an alternative approach to the craft of souvenirs. We spoke to organiser Catriona Duffy and designer Beca Lipscombe to find out more. month Turing Festival came to Edin27 Last burgh to celebrate digital creativity. Here's a report from the ground.

Three movies under his belt and Rian Johnson is proving a tricky filmmaker to pin down. The Skinny caught up with the genre hopping director to get the lowdown on his latest film, Looper.

a brief post-Edinburgh Festivals rest, 30 After the Autumn Theatre season kicks off mid September. Here are the highlights. club night promoters 34 Charity Philanthrobeats tell us about their unique clubbing projects ahead of this month's Optimo event.

Fri 28th September www.richardhawley.co.uk

between being a father and a dad. and Drink: The Skinny Food Survey 42 Food returns, opening up voting for you to have your say on where the best Scottish chips are found. Food News rounds up this month's events, while Phagomania puts the crazy back in cuisine.

PLUS SUPPORTS

GLASGOW GARAGE FRIDAY 5TH OCTOBER

Review

FACEBOOK.COM/LOWERTHANATLANTIS WWW.LOWERTHANATLANTIS.COM

Gaslamp Killer, plus a look at the Chess Box Edition re-release of GZA's Wu-classic, Liquid Swords. Glasgow's Battery Face tells us about new album Addams Family Values and why they're not called Barry Face.

Clubs: A DJ Top Ten from HARA alongside highlights for your September night times from Quabalala! to a Psychedelic Forest Carnival.

WITH

SOULFLY.COM

Kadare, Greg Cox and Denis Johnson. Tech: Takes on Windows 8 (it's aright) and Guild Wars 2 (it's guid). Elaine C. Smith introduces a new 60 Theatre: musical about SuBo; The Static reviewed;

ABERDEEN THE TUNNELS

ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS:THE TOUR

Glasgow Oran Mor Thu 11th October

THE DÉBUT ALBUM - OUT NOW SPECTOR.CO.UK

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O2 ABC GLASGOW

Art: Reviews of exhibitions at the Duchy and the Glue Factory, and a celebration of 40 years of Glasgow Print Studio.

This month we rate new works by 59 Books: Lisa Ballantyne, Walker Hamilton, Ismail

FRIDAY 5TH TUESDAY 30TH OCTOBER OCTOBER

PLUS GUESTS

the latest releases, including Tabu, Looper and Lawless.

SUNDAY 14TH OCTOBER + WE ARE THE IN CROWD + YOUR DEMISE + MARMOZETS

WWW.WEAREYOUNGGUNS.COM THE ALBUM BONES IN STORES NOW VIA PIAS RECORDINGS. FACEBOOK.COM/YOUNGGUNSUK TWITTER.COM/ YOUNGGUNSUKPIASRECORDINGS.COM

GLASGOW THE ARCHES FRIDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

relationship developing between resident nutter Fred Fletch and international legend The Hoff. Here's what happened when they met.

back WIN! A special Sub Club pass, 62 Competitions: or tickets to Efterklang at the Usher Hall. Your essential guide to what's 63 Listings: happening across music, clubs, theatre, comedy and art in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee. Baws returns from the Paranor71 Crystal malymics with fresh predictions of your untimely demise. The Hot Club's Andy Wake and Hrafnhildur Halldorsdottir select their top ten tunes ahead of Sleazy's garage rock social's fifth birthday.

FORRES THE LOFT

FRIDAY 2ND NOVEMBER

ULLAPOOL VILLAGE HALL SATURDAY 3RD NOVEMBER NINANESBITTMUSIC.COM

O2 ABC2 GLASGOW

MONDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER STAR OF CHAPPELLE’S SHOW UK COMEDY TOUR DEBUT!

CHARLIE MURPHY

SEATED COMEDY SHOW

THE ACID TRIP TOUR

O2 ABC GLASGOW WED 10TH OCTOBER

MARC ALMOND POP TROUBADOUR, HITS & MORE

O2 ABC GLASGOW

SUNDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER MARCALMOND.CO.UK

FAT H E R S O N

and the return of Arches LIVE. Comedy: A highlight of August Fringe 61 coverage included a particularly batshit

SUNDAY 28TH OCTOBER

THURSDAY 1ST NOVEMBER

A guide to the best cinematic events 56 Film: coming up near you as well as reviews of

DVD: Movies coming out this month to be watched in the comfort of your own home include Shooters, Breathing and The Agression Scale.

ST ANDREWS ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY

GLASGOW STIRLING TOLBOOTH CLASSIC MONDAY 29TH OCTOBER GRAND INVERNESS IRONWORKS

New releases from Vcheka, Divorce, 45 Music: Laibach, Stanley Odd, The xx and The

debut album. One Action Film Festival returns 14 Take to Scotland with another cinematic

+ KILLER KITSCH DJ’S

+ LISA HANNIGAN GLASGOW Barrowland

A bit of a pro-choice special, 41 Deviance: with debate on abortion and the distinction

the lows and the holograms.

features

LIVE

Travel: Looking forward to a trip into space with Richard Branson, Glasgow Open Doors days and French music festival Trans Musicales.

Pout, Scotland Can Make It! and the Glasgow School of Art Fashion and Textiles Promenade.

writers take a look back over the 25 Music 2012 Festival season and share the highs, Killer – Brainfeeder's most 33 Gaslamp psychedelic artist discusses his stunning

wewerepromisedjetpacks.com

EDINBURGH Queens Hall Thu 11th October

Event highlights for September 40 Fashion: include Edinburgh Online Fashion Week,

crowd-funding, house parties and her newfound invincibility. the hype machine sends them 22 Before skywards, Chvrches, aka Iain Cook,

THURSDAY 11TH OCTOBER

Glasgow's Nick Lynch 36 Showcase: presents a spread of photography

top lyrical inspiration. the day after they announce their S.S. 12 On Coachella cruise ship bow, Yeasayer's Ira

O2 ABC GLASGOW

lifestyle

Pie and A Pint in Oran Mor.

autumn music special

DF CONCERTS & EVENTS PRESENTS… DF CONCERTS & EVENTS PRESENTS…

+ MIDNIGHT LION

Dumfries, The Venue

GLASGOW THE GARAGE

Selkirk, Victoria Hall

FRIDAY 12TH OCTOBER

www.frightenedrabbit.com

Glasgow The Arches Friday 12th October

O2 ABC Glasgow

Thursday 20th September

Album ‘Lonely Are The Brave’ out now www.mavericksabre.com

For tickets call: 08444 999 990 or online: www.gigsinscotland.com www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Follow gigsinscotland on twitter @gigscot September 2012

THE SKINNY

CHAT

Editorial

As if the increasingly chill air wasn’t insult enough after this year’s lacklustre attempt at a summer, this month we have chosen to really hammer home the fact that winter’s just round the corner with a special issue celebrating the autumnal delights of 2012’s music release schedule. We’re leading with Why?’s Yoni Wolf (yes that is the correct presentation of their name – no regard for the challenges of punctuation, these musicians) who spared us some time to introduce new album Mumps, Etc, as well as providing a little insight into his poetic inspirations with a guide to a few of his favourite ever lyrical couplets, by authors ranging from Silver Jews’ David Berman to Jay-Z. We also loitered in a hotel lobby with a highly caffeinated Ira Wolf Tuton, he of Yeasayer fame, who tells us about growing up on a boat (sort of), new album Fragrant World, and why Brooklyn is a cultural Mecca. Jamie xx trails the release of The xx’s second album, Coexist, with a look into their recording process – three people alone in a studio for a year, shit gets weird – his growing confidence as a producer, and the oil-and-water inspiration behind the new release. Other interviews falling into our autumn music special include Amanda Palmer, Scottish band of the moment Chvrches, and ‘neo-Beatnik shaman’ The Gaslamp Killer. Film kicks off a season of issue-led homegrown film festivals (of which more in October) with a preview of Take One Action, running this month in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The ethos of the programme is to use cinema to spur the audience into taking actions, large or small, to effect global change. It is also home to some superbly crafted, affecting films, so definitely worth a bit of your time. We also take a look at the rebirth of the Hammer Studios, they of horror renown, and speak to directors Guy Maddin and Rian Johnson about their new films, Keyhole and Looper respectively. An artist famous for Interior Scroll, a 70s

performance where she regaled the audience with a reading from a scroll, which she had first pulled from her vagina, Carolee Schneeman is currently exhibiting in Edinburgh’s Summerhall. She tells us about making art with her cats, and why she’s over performance art. Elsewhere in the Art section, we examine alternative approaches to Scottish souvenir production ahead of new People’s Palace exhibition Scotland Can Make It! Theatre drags itself out of its post-EdinburghFestivals pit and sticks with those autumnal vibes by presenting a rundown of the highlights in the new thespian season kicking off mid month. In Clubs, we talk to Philanthrobeats, a Glasgow promoter duo putting on nights that are both guid and raise some charitable funds, thereby assuaging your decadence guilt. Travel looks at space flights, while Comedy rounds off an exhausting summer by presenting the final part of our FletchHasselhoff triptych in which our resident internet troll and Knightrider fanatic tracks down his idol to apologise for asking him questions about fucking the A-Team. Good times. [Rosamund West]

THIS MONTH’S COVER Georgia Kuhn is a London based photographer who shoots portraits, music & fashion for clients like the Telegraph magazine, Evening Standard, B magazine, Sleek, Freundevonfreunden.com, record companies and various others. www.georgiakuhn.com

SHOT OF THE MONTH

Morrissey at Usher Hall, 27 july By Sol NIcol

Hero Worship: Mark Hollis He might be late to the party, but Daniel Rossen of Grizzly Bear has come to appreciate the understated genius of Talk Talk’s remarkable leader in recent times

A recent obsession for me is the band Talk Talk; their singer Mark Hollis has become a real hero. Just him as a character, his career and what he chose to do with it. Their approach relates in some ways, I think, to our new record too. When we first started as a band we were doing shows around Europe. People kept telling me, and the whole band for that matter, to check out Talk Talk. Some of us in the band had listened to them but never fully. They weren’t really from our era; when we were kids, especially when me and Chris [Bear] were young – I think Ed [Droste] too, we were a little too young for that to really be part of the music that we were exposed to... I grew up on jazz and classical music in the 90s – a lot of music that was outside the sphere of indie rock. Finally, a couple of years ago, I heard [1988’s] Spirit of Eden – it just blew me away. I didn’t quite know what to expect, but there was a real sense of space in the music – there’s a quality to it where it doesn’t feel like any particular genre. It’s kind of a rock record, but not really. You don’t get a sense that they’re really trying to make a rock record at all, they’re just trying to make music! I became obsessed with that record; Talk Talk’s early music

Enter your guess at www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions and you might win a bottle of wine courtesy of our expert friends at VINO WINES. Closing date: Sun 30 Sep 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? 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

THE SKINNY

September 2012

Grizzly Bear’s new album Shields is released via Warp Records on 17 Sep. They play Glasgow Barrowland on 20 Oct www.grizzly-bear.net

SKINNY ON TOUR Bethany and Russell sent in this holiday snap for you to ponder. Sunglasses? Sun? So, it must be somewhere abroad… but where?

is great too, but there’s this inspiring trajectory of being this pop band and having success doing that, then completely ignoring that in their later period. You get the impression that, as Hollis got older, music just became this very meditative exercise. As the records went on they got quieter, more open, and more peaceful, until eventually you reach this point where you get to Mark’s solo album and he’s essentially sitting at the piano playing two notes – it’s almost a jazz record. He just completely let go of anything that would even be considered a song. For Grizzly Bear especially, we have a tendency to make very dense records, I found it inspiring to listen to music that was that sparse. I even like the fact that he reached this pinnacle where he was making his life’s work – these really interesting and slightly crazy records, unlike anybody else – and then he just walked away and said ‘I’m going to focus on my family’ and left the industry. It was a case of ‘here’s my music, goodbye.’

Chipping Off Little Pieces of My Soul – A Fringe Diary Comedian Xavier Toby gives an insider’s view of the soul-crushing financial gamble involved in putting on a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Fuck you, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. If I knew it was going to be this shit, and cost this much, I would’ve gone to a tropical island for a month and drunk myself stupid. At least then I’d have a tan. Instead, every day of August the Edinburgh Fringe has chipped off more pieces of my soul. Flyering on the Royal Mile, I was subjected to this conversation on endless repeat: “Is it free? Why would I pay for your show, when I can see someone else I’ve never heard of for free?” People told me that they’d heard my show was good, that it sounded interesting. They liked the name, ‘Binge Thinking’ and thought it was cool that I’d printed beermats instead of flyers. I resorted to handing out free tickets to every show, just to get an audience. After every performance, people told me how much they enjoyed it, and promised to tell friends. One woman even pressed her spare change into my hand. When I refused it, she left it on a table. “That was such a great show. You’ve got to make a living,” she said. She’s right, but her one pound in change wasn’t going to make much difference. Overall, I’ve lost thousands. So why not perform in a free venue? I’m an artist, not a beggar, and at least with a paid venue, at the start of the month there was a sliver of hope that I’d break even. A week in, that hope

had been crushed to dust. People keep telling me that just getting an audience to every show was a huge achievement. That it’s wonderful that I didn’t have to cancel a show, and the experience is invaluable. That the large majority of artists who come to Edinburgh lose money. So Edinburgh is an arts festival where everyone makes money except the artists? The people who actually create the art? Which is supposed to be okay? Think about it for a second. It’s really fucking stupid. It’s like a farmer paying a butcher to sell his meat. As an artist, I’m not doing it to make a fortune. I’m doing it to make art, and make a living, so I can keep making art. Not to make a huge loss, so I have to go back to being a wage slave. Which is now looking very likely. Free venues emerged because ticket prices and venue hire rates got out of control, but free performances undervalue the artist. What’s needed is a venue that is zero risk for the performers, which works with them and audiences to provide lower rents and ticket prices, at the same time as offering a quality product. Share the risk, share the profits, and maybe one day we might have an arts festival that’s for everyone, including the artists.

Selling Dreams: 100 Years of Fashion Photography is opening in Dundee’s McManus Galleries on 28 September, the second in a series of exhibitions leading up to the opening of the city’s new Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibition features work by giants of twentieth century photography including Edward Steichen, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and David Bailey, alongside contemporary images by Corinne Day, Rankin, Tim Walker and Steven Meisel. 28 September-6 January 2013, free entry.

Somewhereto_ are holding an exhibition in Edinburgh’s Summerhall from 27 September. Organised by a crack team of young curators, the show features work by Sarah Boulton, Hannah Topalian, Saule Zoukaityte, Rosie Shepley Yuan Zhang, Sam Derounian, Martina Martin and Hannah Reilly. Until 9 October, free.

Xavier Toby is a former Editor of The Skinny pio abad

Scotland Supports Equal Marriage?

GSA graduate Pio Abad, previously featured on these pages as both an interview subject and cover artist for our April issue, has been shortlisted for the Converse/Dazed Emerging Artists Award 2012. His work will be on show in the prestigious Whitechapel Gallery in Laaandaan’s East End from 25 October, alongside that of fellow short listees Leslie Kulesh, Myles Painter and Samara Scott.

So our Government (the Scottish one) has decided to push ahead with plans to legalise gay marriage, bringing the rights of homosexual couples who want to make a legal and emotional commitment into line with those of heterosexual couples. They’re thinking of having everything sorted out by around 2015, which is nice of them. Except… Well, I feel a bit conflicted about all this. On the one hand it’s fantastic news – this will get rid of all the little problems with having one contract for heterosexuals (civil marriage, religious marriage) and another for, um, The Gays (civil partnerships). For instance, couples where one partner is transitioning from, say, female to male. As the law currently stands they would have to divorce and re-marry under their ‘new’ gender. Once things are equalised a sex change will make no difference to marital status. Hallelujah! But, and this is a bit of a but, the consultation came back negative. 77,133 people and 375 organisations responded. A majority of 67% did not want the law to be changed to allow same sex marriage. There were some positives. The majority of respondees thought that civil partnerships should remain an option even if same-sex marriage is introduced, and it was suggested that straight couples should be allowed to enter into civil partnerships. Since some opposite couples may object to the term ‘marriage’, and prefer their union to be wholly secular, this is definitely a progressive idea and one it would be good for the Government to act on. Okay, yes, the Catholic Church was putting postcards in every parish and bullying its worshippers into signing them. But so were we. The Equality Network, a pro-gay organisation, generated more postcard replies and amended forms than the Catholic Church, The Christian Institute, or Muslim Council of Scotland (though together religious opposition swamped the efforts of the

It’s Doors Open Day time again! Yes, it’s that time of year when you are suddenly gifted free rein to poke your nose in where it’s not wanted, rummaging around backstage in theatres, stately homes, swimming pools and broadcasting corporations. Doors open in Glasgow on 15 & 16 and in Edinburgh on 22 & 23 September. You’ll find more info at www. doorsopendays.org.uk

gay rights ‘lobby’). So we can’t really turn around and say that postcards don’t count. The only way to interpret the data so that the response becomes positive is if you take the people in Scotland who filled out ‘Standard or Amended Forms & Prepared Letters.’ If you do that the answer to the main question of legalising same-sex marriage becomes a ‘yes’ of 65%. So at least we can say that 19,566 people in Scotland support same-sex marriage. Unfortunately that seems to be cutting the answers to deliberately fall on ‘our’ side. What about just standard forms? We want the legislation put in as soon as possible. But if the public mood is not on our side then we need to persuade them. Why do certain religious bodies hate us so much? There must be a way to change their minds. Disregarding their opinion (however much we disagree with it) is not going to endear them towards us. Surely to proceed anyway and bring in same-sex marriage would be undemocratic? Even changing the law so that civil partnerships can be registered through religious ceremonies… we can’t really. Of the 44,801 who answered that question, 52% did not want the law to be changed to allow religious civil partnerships. That’s not too much of a difference, though. Except only 39% said ‘yes’. The rest? They put ‘don’t know’. Helpful. Everyone I know may completely support marriage equality, but some people don’t. Those people voted against us. And they won. To legislate anyway doesn’t get to the heart of the problem – that there are people out there who don’t want us to have equal rights. Hell, some of those people don’t want us to have rights at all. Ignoring them will just make them more convinced that they are right, and my god they aren’t right. Right? [Ana Hine] The whole final report is a pretty depressing read. You can have a look yourself at www.scotland. gov.uk/Publications/2012/07/5671 and please do let me know if I’ve misinterpreted any data ana.hine@theskinny.co.uk

Take One Action, now in its fifth year, again brings together audiences, activists and filmmakers to help shine a torch on the challenges facing people across the globe. Taking in both documentary and fiction films, its programme covers a wide range of issues, including The Arab Spring, the phenomenon of child soldiers in sub-Saharan Africa and IsraelPalestine tensions. As ever, the festival is more than just a collection of film screenings. Practically every event in this year’s calendar has some sort of discussion or debate connected, giving audiences across Scotland the opportunity to reflect on the films they’ve just watched. Proceedings kick off with the UK premiere of Surviving Progress, a cinematic wakeup call to the consequences of humankind’s insatiable growth and consumption, on 21 Sep at Filmhouse and runs to 8 Oct. See www.takeoneaction.org.uk for more details.

Last month, in the midst of the Edinburgh Festivals madness, we loudly invaded Fresh Air radio station for a series of weekly magazine-style shows, imaginatively entitled The Skinny Fringe Radio Hour. They’re up on our site now, and you can listen again to highlights including acoustic performances from Rod Jones and East End Cabaret, comedians Felicity Ward and Dana Alexander debating the British immigration process, and literary types Mark Buckland and Allan Wilson being interviewed through the machiavellian medium of a fortune teller (remember those paper things aye?). Go to www.theskinny. co.uk for more. Opening after water-based delays led to an already lengthy rebuild of a former university building, Brew Lab, the self-professed ‘new style of coffee shop’ is finally opening in Edinburgh. So much hubris and hot milk? Possibly, but with a hand-built coffee machine of the first of its kind in Scotland and an emphasis on old-school techniques, it may be worth visiting when it opens this month. On 23 September you can celebrate Bi Visibility Day, aka Celebrate Bisexuality Day. Events happen across the world to promote understanding of bisexulity. There should be some in Edinburgh – the internet can tell you more. See www.facebook. com/bivisibility The Clipperton Project is currently docked at the Glasgow Sculpture Studios, with an exhibition documenting the complex multidisciplinary arts-science project’s last adventure, a voyage to Clipperton, an uninhabited French atoll off the coast of Mexico. They are also currently seeking applicants for their next voyage, a two month journey to South Georgia in December 2013. Go to www.clippertonproject.com for more information. Applications close 30 September.

The clipperton project – battery by naim manzanilla rahal

September 2012

THE SKINNY

HEADS UP

HEADS UP We Kick off the month with some No Mean City Festival action, before fitting in Arches LIVE, Doors Open Day, a Psychadelic Forest Carnival, and a whole lot of bird art...

TUE 4 Sep Kicking off our month with some hauntingly beautiful chamber pop is Mike Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius), who takes to the suitably echoey warehouse space of SWG3 as part of No Mean City Festival, which also has Patti-bloody-Smith playing at O2 ABC the following evening (see listings for full details). SWG3, Glasgow, 7pm, £10

wed 5 sep Sylvia Dow previews her first play – at the grand old age of 73, no less – A Beginning, A Middle and An End, a touching tale of how time passes for a family as they travel towards what will be a new beginning, or an old ending. Tron Theatre, Glasgow, 5-8 Sep, 8pm, £10 (£7). Also showing at Edinburgh's Traverse, 18 & 19 Sep

COMPILED BY: ANNA DOCHERTY

sun 9 sep

mon 10 sep

tue 11 sep

Back open after their summer break, The Common Guild commence their new season with the first ever presentation of work in Scotland from Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, featuring a group of 59 near life-sized bird sculptures reconfigured specifically for the domestic space. Ornithophobics need not attend. The Common Guild, Glasgow, Tue-Sat, until 17 Nov, Free

The truth of the matter is that we will simply never tire of re-watching Ghostbusters, so along to the Filmhouse we will head as they dig out the Bill Murray gem for a chilled Monday night airing, And, yes, that boney-assed ghost in the library still makes us shit it. Filmhouse, Edinburgh, 8.40pm, £7.50 (£5.50)

E'er the ones for a themed knees-up, the i AM boys (aka Beta & Kappa) will be converting Sub Club into a visual representation of Lisberger's celebrated sci-fi classic, Tron, for a one-off evening at which they promise to take the production to the maximum. Beware the grid. Sub Club, Glasgow, 11pm, £5

sat 15 sep

sun 16 sep

mon 17 sep

Kelburn Castle and Country Park goes tropical for one final 2012 party, hosting a one-off Psychedelic Forest Carnival inspired by the sounds of Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Guests include London-based Nigerian rapper Afrikan Boy, Kelburn favourites Samba Ya Bamba, and ever-reliable locals Auntie Flo, and Argonaut Sounds. Kelburn Castle, Fairlie, 6.30pm, £23

In celebration of the bank holiday weekend, EH1 Live returns to Edinburgh, taking over five central music venues with a 50-strong line up of unsigned bands. The familiar faces of The Phantom Band will headline proceedings, alongside the likes of The OK Social Club, The Machine Room, The Stagger Rats, and, ooh, 46 others. See listings for details

With Edinburgh safely out the way, Glasgow, or more specifically The Arches, fight back with their own eclectic festival offering, Arches Live, featuring brave new work by Scotland’s emergent artists. Victoria Bianchi leads the way with God Loves a Trier, her attempt to learn three skills previously given up on – playing piano, speaking Gaelic, and tap dancing. Arches Live, 17-29 Sep. See listings for full programme

The phantom band

fri 21 sep

sat 22 sep

Fife dweller and sometime Fence Collective dabbler James Yorkston takes to Edinburgh's Queen's Hall to play tracks from his emotionally-charged, autobiographical new album, I Was a Cat from a Book (given a glowing review in these very pages not so long ago) with the full band treatment. Support comes from fellow folkie Kathryn Williams. Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 8pm, £15 (£13.50)

Broodingly evocative Edinburgh trio Hiva Oa (haunting vocals, a fragile sense of meloncholy, and the mourning call of the cello – check) launch their debut album, The Awkward Hello, Handshake, Kiss in suitably magical style, taking over the part-venue, part-installation space of Inspace for a night of music, installations and live projections. Inspace, Edinburgh, 7pm, £5

sun 23 sep The annual programme of Doors Open Day events (also Glasgow, 15 & 16 Sep) finds a selection of buildings and venues putting on a little something special for visitors, of particular note being the Filmhouse's special screenings – moving from a selection of shorts from the Scottish Screen Archive to a screening of Sylvian Chomet's animated Edinburgh-set gem, The Illusionist. More info at www.doorsopendays.org.uk

filmhouse

thur 27 sep

fri 28 sep

Ninja Tune veteran and regular deck wizard Mr Scruff takes to Edinburgh's Potterrow to play one of his trademark marathon five-hour sets, mixing up a junkshop bag of sounds and bringing his beats to life with squiggly, scribbled animations. Potterrow, Edinburgh, 10pm, £12. Also playing Dundee's Reading Rooms the following evening

There’s not much danger of a limb staying still when Yeasayer crash-land in Glasgow this week previewing tracks from their latest album, Fragrant World, which deftly morphs their previously tribal sound into something altogether more lovestruck and danceable. And dance we will. The Arches, Glasgow, 7pm, £14

sat 29 sep Celebrating the lead up to the opening of the V&A in Dundee, The McManus play host to Selling Dreams, a sumptuous round-up of the work of international fashion photographers from the early twentieth century to the present day – featuring work by such luminaries as Helmut Newton, David Bailey, Corinne Day, and Rankin. McManus, Dundee, Mon-Sun, Until 6 Jan, Free Rankin photography

THE SKINNY

September 2012

HEADS UP

fri 7 sep

nice 'n' sleazy

Local screamers Divorce host their official album launch party, as they prepare to (finally) unleash their self-titled debut LP on the world (out 19 Sep). Joined by No Island, Neighbourhood Gout, and Hivver, we're in no doubt this'll escalate into an all-out rammy of a thing. Nice 'n' Sleazy, Glasgow, 8pm, £5

divorce

ATELIER EB

wed 12 sep

thur 13 sep

fri 14 sep

South London spectral popsters The XX take to Edinburgh's Usher Hall two days after their second album, Coexist, drops, so it's safe to say gig-goers' lugs will be treated to a selection of tracks from that, alongside favourites from their 2009 debut. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 7pm, From £18

The Optimo lads take to the decks for Philanthrobeats' third outing, where the club night with a heart of gold will this time be raising funds for Médecins Sans Frontières. Able support comes from local talents HaHaHa, Tarantism and Denney & Fortywinks. Go support the cause. Chambre 69, Glasgow, 11pm, £4

Paisley Arts Centre play host to the first in a trio of Scottish label showcases as part of the mighty Paisley Underground, with this edition curated by micro DIY label Gerry Loves Records, who bring with them The Phantom Band's Rick Redbeard (aka Rick Anthony), and experimental freak-folker Wounded Knee. Paisley Arts Centre, Glasgow, 7pm, £5

tue 18 sep

wed 19 sep

thur 20 sep

Maverick Brooklyn producer El-P takes to the road on the back of his new album, Cancer4Cure (which we heaped a full house of stars on back in May), demonstrating just why he's at the pinnacle of modern hip-hop. So, erm, this'll be us suggesting you seek him out in a live setting. Pronto. Stereo, Glasgow, 8pm, £12

Glaswegian funnyman Kevin Bridges treats his hometown to not one, not two, but three consecutive dates at the SECC, where the show'll be recorded for his forthcoming DVD due out in November. SECC, Glasgow, 18-20 Sep, 8pm, £30. Also playing Edinburgh's Playhouse on 15 Sep. See listings for full details

Spreading the hip-hop gospel to the masses, Stanley Odd move from chopped electrofunk to crunchy 8-bit, via well-constructed vocal flows from Solareye and Veronica Electronica. And they come resplendent with new LP, Reject, and new bloody tour t-shirts to boot! Stereo, Glasgow, 7pm, £6.50. Also playing Edinburgh's The Liquid Room the following evening

tue 25 sep

Weegie funnywoman Keara Murphy hosts her regular Monday fun night, Fit O' The Giggles – showcasing a handpicked selection of all-new material from a host of acts taking in sketches, stand-up, mime, musical comedy, poetry, magic, cabaret, and, well, pretty much anything else they damn well fancy. City Cafe, Edinburgh, 8.30pm, £3 (£2)

California-born, Manchester-based songstress Jesca Hoop takes to the road this September to showcase her third album, The House That Jack Built, as rich as ever with hauntingly intimate vocals, layered harmonies, and slow, slow, sombre seduction. Oh so much more than just the one-time nanny of Tom Waits, y'hear. Electric Circus, Edinburgh, 7pm, £7

Keara Murphy

wed 26 sep Scarily, more birds (see 9 Sep – Hitchcock would approve) in the name of art, with this time being the turn of Edinburgh's Dovecot studio to introduce a flock of handmade creatures of the flying variety. For their two-day workshop-cum-exhibition, Bird Yarns, knitters from Mull and across the UK will work with local wool to create a flock of ‘lost’ arctic terns. Dovecot, Edinburgh 26 & 27 Sep, Free

photo: matthew beech

mon 24 sep

rick redbeard

photo: sol nicol

optimo

sun 30 sep

mon 1 oct

After its Edinburgh outing last month, Classic Album Sundays makes its way to Glasgow with Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon still firmly in their grip. For the uninitiated, it's essentially a mass listening session where the lights dip, the volume slides to max and they play said classic album in its entirety via a suitably pimped-up sound system. Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, 5pm, £6

Regular saviours of lunchtime boredom, A Play, A Pie and A Pint continue their current run with The Great Disappointment of Santa Muerta (given a work-in-progress showing at REVEAL earlier in the year), a darkly humorous piece combining puppetry and stand-up comedy as heroine, Amanda, rehearses for a role as the Saint of Death. Òran Mór, Glasgow, 1pm, £10

photo: alex woodward

sat 8 sep

Glasgow's People's Palace plays home to a unique collaboration between Scottish curatorial team Panel and Creative Scotland, entitled Scotland Can Make It! For it, they've commissioned a series of souvenirs – designed and manufactured entirely in Scotland – to be ready for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the prototypes of which will make up the body of the exhibition. People's Palace, Glasgow, Tue-Sun, until 13 Jan, Free

photo: ingrid mur

Thur 6 sep Brightening up Thursday nights with an eclectic new residency, Nice 'n' Sleazy host the first edition of Shore – where a selection of Scotland's best disco, house, electro and genre-defying DJs will dig out everything from Drexciya to Sun Ra. Amen to that. Nice 'n' Sleazy, Glasgow, 11pm, Free

September 2012

THE SKINNY

music

F E A T U RE S

Mumps, Rhymes, and Life After a few years out of the spotlight, Why?’s Yoni Wolf steps inside the confessional booth, sort of interview: Dave Kerr

There’s a telling line on Why?’s latest LP that gets to the guts of frontman Yoni Wolf’s cryptic lyrical appeal: “Keep your producer guessing when you’re in the booth confessing,” he rasps over sombre strings. “And say it was mostly fiction if they ever come to get you.” It’s lodged in the back of The Skinny’s mind as we sit down to talk to the man for the first time in a few years; trading a Glasgow hotel suite with a leopard print sofa and questionable décor (“It wasn’t my room!” he protests) for the bustling lobby of a less Pat Butcher-esque London hotel. So what else has changed in the world of Why? “A lot, dude, a lot!” For starters, Mumps, Etc – the Cincinnati trio’s fifth album in nine years – has spent a proportionately long time in the pipe. “I started in ‘07 with this one,” says Wolf. “Shortly after we finished the last two records [which were written and recorded simultaneously], I started writing little bits here and there. I was making demos in late 2007, then there was more touring – that’s when the touring for Alopecia started, and then Eskimo Snow came about. There’s a lot of collecting. Amongst all that, there’s still a lot of scrutinising over the material.” As a writer who often carries a Dictaphone around for fear of an idea slipping by, Wolf conveys the sense that each release is as much a bastardly jigsaw as a collection of songs – was putting the puzzle together a solitary practice? “This one was a little more my thing,” he confirms. “I felt like I needed that for some reason. Initially, I had all this material I’d been collecting for the last few years, I needed to figure out how to put this stuff together and overcome something that was

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September 2012

inside me and find discipline. Josiah [Wolf, older brother and bandmate] put me on this path of ‘ OK, you’ve got to turn in one demo every week.’ So I did that for the winter of 2010-2011. In the end, of course Josiah and Doug [McDiarmid, Why?’s resident multi-instrumentalist) were integral in the recording process. I’ve now made a conscious decision to change things and to move into a more positive way of working, but this was a hard one, man – possibly the hardest record I’ve ever made.” At the heart of Why? is an obvious desire to connect with the people who subscribe to their music that goes beyond the joyous live experience their shows offer, from floating ‘Golden Ticket’ contests where songs are tailored specifically for individual fans, to inviting them out en masse to participate in their videos. Even while we talk, there’s a camera lens focused on the conversation to document the minutiae of promoting his latest LP. More than most, and without some cynical street team campaign backed by a major with too much money, Wolf independently seeks out new ways to keep his fans engaged. As a band that has grown somewhat in tandem with the popularisation of music blogging culture, it seems only right that Wolf drags the bastard that made him “a minor star” (as he sees it) kicking and screaming into his twisted lexicon, paying a wink to ‘a hundred bucks worth of wordy blogger thugs’ on lead single Sod in the Seed. Does he pay close attention to his press? “Yeah, I do, and you’re right, there are a lot of references to where I’m at in my career, the press and the modicum of fame I have. All that stuff has made its way onto this

photos: Georgia kuhn

album way more than ever before, purely because my career has advanced beyond what it was.” This is not to say that Wolf has taken the topic of fame to some overblown, Kroger-like extreme in song. “I could try to avoid it but I like to write about what’s real and what’s happening. I tried to write about it in a way that’s not shut off and behind a glass wall. I tried to make it relatable. I really do try to be close to people and I want to be close to people in this world; I want to feel like I can relate and people can relate to me. I try to make sure of that. In a way that’s what I’m trying to do with the writing in general, it’s to have some kind of bridge.”

“This is the hardest record I've ever made” yoni wolf While Ghostface Killah uses YouTube to nag fans when album sales are insufficient and P.Diddy films himself rolling around in cash, Wolf embraces the medium by uploading diary entries and outlandish comedy skits, perpetuating a more positive idea of what an artist can offer their community by talking to it directly. “As far as putting myself out there goes… it’s a new world with Twitter and Facebook and all that stuff,” he nods. “But I do like that – like getting on Facebook to [motions to the camera] find these guys to film this. And then there are the

golden tickets. I enjoy that sense of community.” Wolf often finds humour in the darkness and absurdity of the human condition with his couplets and rhyming remains typical of his lyrical vocabulary. Significantly, Mumps, Etc signals a clear return to straight up rapping for the sometime MC; measured verses on tracks like Waterlines and White English bring an understated complement to their melodic choruses. “It was just a natural thing,” shrugs Wolf. “I was writing that kind of stuff. You get into this zone of thinking in rhyme like that; my brain was in that mode. If a lyric would come to me while I was walking down the street, in the shower or wherever, it would come to me in a rhyme form, and then I would carve it out. I was doing a lot of crossword puzzles all the way throughout, so it was like an extension of that in a way.” Although barely into his thirties, Wolf muses on the idea of retirement on yearning lullabies like Strawberries and Distance, perhaps taking cues from his idol David Berman, who put his career to bed in 2009 after a 20 year run with Silver Jews. Is it another character talking, or can he already envision a time when he’ll walk away from all this? “I felt old quite a lot when I was making this stuff,” he hesitates. “It was a strange time for me… I think I’ll always do something in the arts; it’s in my nature to do that… can’t say for sure. I could foresee maybe not making music one day.” With lyrics that gravitate towards the distinctly unpopular topics of illness, depression, and now retirement – it’s fortunate that Wolf’s wit and his band’s musical palette offer a little levity. Is this a balance he works hard to maintain? “Nothing’s conscious like that,” he rolls his eyes at the notion.

F E A T U RE S

Lyrical Assassins

As a man who appreciates the form more than most, we asked Yoni Wolf to compile some of his favourite lyrical verses. “Feel free to edit the fuck out of this,” he said. We never touched a thing... Madvillain (MF DOOM) – Figaro (from the album Madvillainy, 2004) I knew I wanted to choose something from MF DOOM as he is, in my mind, one of the best rap writers of all time. Always so good with the word play, double meanings, intricate internal rhyme schemes and of course always with a great dry sense of humour. There are so many great lines by the Metal Faced villain but a song that I constantly find myself going back to is on the Madvillainy album – Figaro is just one long disgusting verse. The first time I heard it, I had to rewind it and listen ten more times. I couldn’t pick a couplet but I chose the run that starts with:

‘Too hot to handle, you got blue sandals…’ and ending with ‘Off pride, tikes talk wide through scar meat, Off sides, like how Worf ride with Starfleet.’

Mumps, Etc is released via City Slang/anticon on 8 Oct Why? play SWG3 on 12 Oct www.whywithaquestionmark.com

Another one that Doug recommended. An excellent line from one of Neil Young’s underappreciated albums in my opinion. Kool Keith – Women Turn On Your TV (from the album Lost Masters Vol. 2, 2005)

‘That watch on your arm; you said it was real. You lied you know, acting like a Spanish guy, going crazy over one girl.’

Just a sick barrage of ‘ooh/aah/andle/oh/ill’ sounds and beautifully dry wit. The stanza that starts with ‘Do not stand still.’ but then ends with the opposing cautionary line, ‘Not supposed to overdose ‘No Doze’ pills’…Genius! Silver Jews (David Berman) – We Are Real (from the album American Water, 1998)

Outkast (Andre Benjamin) – Elevators (Me & You) (from the album ATliens, 1996)

An elevated Zen idea said in such a down-toearth pedestrian manner. That’s what David is so goddamned good at. Sort of an I Am the Walrus mantra for thoughtful Kentucky pot-heads. And in that same vein, I gotta give it up for another one of Mr. Berman’s lines that comes to mind. It’s a classic line off of the Starlight Walker song Trains Across the Sea. We played with them in Chicago back in 2006 and when they opened with this song, my weeping in the front row could be heard over the band in the balcony. In my mind, the pivotal line is: on some of these next ventures. When it comes to Why? stuff me and Shaun are hand in hand talking about what we’re gonna do. Adam’s the same with his stuff. We take a bigger role than an artist might normally.” After the initial underground boom of its co-founders’ output, a move from San Francisco to Los Angeles has helped assure its continued diversity in recent years. Wolf speaks about its achievements with pride, but he’s not arsed about platinum discs. “I feel like we’re putting out pretty good stuff now,” he enthuses. “I do yoga and this one teacher always plays Baths, every time I’m like ‘I know this guy!’ It makes me proud, like this is something our label did. When I think back, my most cherished memories aren’t really even about making good music but just that exploration of ideas. It’s the idea that, when we first started out, me, Adam and Dave [Odd] Nosdam [as cLOUDDEAD] were really exploring stuff in the early days… it was just like we could do anything. Everything was new… I enjoyed that period a lot. In the here and now, The Skinny reminds Wolf that when we first talked in 2007 he confessed: “I don’t know what the fulfilment in singing my songs to people is exactly.” Has he got to the bottom of that yet? “I really don’t think I knew back then,” he says. “A lot of times, at my worst I feel very distant from the world, and I think it’s my attempt to try and bridge a gap between myself and everyone else.”

‘All the Bushleague batters are left to die on the diamond. In the stands, the home crowd scatters for the turnstiles.’

This song is on a sort of B-sides compilation called The Lost Masters. It was put out in Japan by a label called Contrarede, who brought out Why? a couple of times. The guys from the label were so proud of this release and gave us a copy. I instantly fell in love with this line. It just feels so visceral, real and funny.

‘My ski vest has buttons like convenience store mirrors and they help me see everything in this room right now is a part of me.’

“It’s all gut stuff, like ‘this seems right.’ As far as the lyrics being that way goes… I think dark. But it’s funny too, y’know? And then I feel like there’s also a glimmer of hope in it; it’s a record with a lot of sickness and depression, but I think, in the end…” he pauses to recall the most appropriate lyric: “‘I’ll hold my own death as a card in the deck / To be played when there are no other cards left.’ We all go through trials, tribulations and tough times. In the end, it’s about what you do, where you go from there. I’m working towards positivity now, moving towards living and being healthy.” With Mumps, Etc under their arm, Why? make their return to Scotland this autumn. When the subject comes up, Wolf speaks fondly about his first excursion here with his former group cLOUDDEAD in 2002, playing the much-missed Venue in Edinburgh and striking up a friendship with Boards of Canada that would spill over into a mutual exchange of remixes between the seminal ambient duo and several members of the anticon Records collective, of which Wolf is still a part. Besides providing a comfortable infrastructure to release his music, what is Wolf’s involvement in anticon nowadays and how much creative licence does it afford him? “I was never too hands on involved,” he insists. “But if we sign a new act I still vote yay or nay. I have the option to A&R new acts too, though I haven’t in a long time. Shaun [Koplow]’s the main guy, he runs the label day-to-day, and a lot of the new acts are his signings. Baths is him. I think Adam [AKA Doseone] Drucker brought in Serengeti, which is a great addition. I produced on that album; I like him a lot. We bring him on tour a lot. He’s coming

Neil Young – For the Turnstiles (from the album On the Beach, 1974)

‘In twenty seven years, I drunk fifty thousand beers, and they just wash against me like the sea into a pier.’ Themselves (Adam ‘Doseone’ Drucker) – Poison Pit (from the album The No Music, 2002)

‘For some reason changing selves is twice as hard as situations. We couldn’t run a single solitary X-mas light with all our put-together patience.’ I knew I had to pick a Doseone line, not because he is one of my best homeys, but because he’s one of the most imaginative and original lyricists in music ever. My bandmate Doug always liked this line a lot off of The No Music from the early 2000s. Such an awesome line, I wasn’t gonna turn it down. Joanna Newsom – Jackrabbits (from the album Have One On Me, 2010)

‘I was tired of being drunk. My face cracked like a joke. So I swung through here like a brace of jackrabbits with their necks all broke.’

‘…True I got more fans than the average man, but not enough loot to last me to the end of the week. I live by the beat like you live cheque to cheque. If it don’t move your feet then I don’t eat, so we like neck to neck. Yes, we done come a long way like them slim-ass cigarettes from Virginia. This ain’t gonna stop, so we just gonna continue.’ This was my favourite line from my favourite song from one of my favourite albums of my late high school days. The stanza comes right after a guy comes up to him in the mall asking him how rich he is. Hard to separate the lyrics from the way Andre delivers it but I think it stands on its own on the page pretty well. Of course the preferred way to experience these lyrics is loud as fuck from the mouth of the man. Rihanna – Birthday Cake (from the album Talk That Talk, 2011)

‘cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake cake’ If you please, I’d like to lick the icing off. Jay-Z – Thirty Something (from the album Kingdom Come, 2006)

‘I’m a bully with the bucks. Don’t let the patten leather shoes fool you, young’n, I got the fully in the tux.’ Though I hate to pick something so thoroughly mainstream and over played, I have to admit that Jay-Z has some really clever couplets. I’m sorry but that couplet is hard as fuck. I first heard this song in 2007 on the radio in my rental car driving from the studio in Nashville where I was mixing Eskimo Snow. I had to turn it way up. He’s so acidtongued and sharp on this song.

Don’t really have to say too much about that one. She is just so good with the vivid imagery and evoking a feeling from that. I love her. I can’t wait for another album to devour. I must have listened to Have One On Me 500 times. She is just such an ambitious song writer. She’s like the rap-game Homer (Odyssey-fame, not Simpson).

September 2012

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F E A T U RE S

The Good Ship Yeasayer

music

On the day after they announce their cruise ship bow, Yeasayer’s Ira Wolf Tuton takes a walk down memory lane Interview: Finbarr Bermingham

Ira Wolf Tuton is slouched in an armchair in the corner of the lobby of an East London hotel. He’s just finished his umpteenth coffee of the day, and as The Skinny takes a seat next to him, he orders another Americano with milk. “You sound like my mother,” he says, jokingly, as we admire his tightly-coiffed haircut and sculpted moustache. He’s wearing a checked shirt, with jeans and Reebok hi-tops. The only tell-tale sign that this is the giant-haired scruff that was, visually at least, the focal point of Yeasayer’s early shows is the trademark white wife-beater, visible underneath his half buttoned shirt. And he’s talking boats. Yeasayer have just been unveiled as one of the senior shipmates on the inaugural S.S. Coachella, a musical festival on a cruise ship. Along with PJ Harvey, Hot Chip, Grimes, Pulp and a host of other indie heavyweights, they’ll entertain passengers sailing around the Caribbean, hopping from island to island. It sounds surreal, but Wolf Tuton – an experienced mariner – is looking forward to it. “I was raised on a boat,” he exclaims, scanning the urban lobby wistfully, when we ask if he has his sea legs. “I used to go up to Maine every summer to work at a marina when I was kid. They built boats and sometimes I’d help with rigging. My grandparents were up there, so for a kid from Philadelphia, to be able to go up there in the summer was pretty amazing.” He acknowledges, though, that there’s something slightly different about a cruise ship. “It’s a different scale. I’ve never been, but I guess this is my chance. My grandfather taught me navigation and I always loved the dead reckoning of it: from point to point on a chart, correlating that with where you are in the world.” And did he fish? “I never really did. I had family that fished, but I just loved being in the water

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September 2012

and swimming, I mean, we would hang hooks off the back and catch some mackerel, but it was all about the moving adventure for me. I didn’t want to stand still. I wanted to explore.” Nobody that’s heard any of Yeasayer’s albums to date will be too surprised to hear of childhood Ira’s agitation. Each record is rammed with ideas, jumping impatiently from one to the next, one part thrilling, and one part thrill-seeking. And while

“Our outtakes album would be a nightmare” Ira Wolf Tuton they’re way too complex and professional to be deemed 'childlike' there’s a refreshing, youthful exuberance and inquisitiveness present on each. There’s a willingness to chuck ten things together in the hope that they fit. Where many bands will make a conscious decision to change their sound from one album to the next, for Yeasayer, the decision comes in microform. “There are songs that don’t end up on the album because we’ve already done it. You know, that idea’s already been expressed. You don’t need two chapter twos, you just need one to get your point across. Maybe some people find it hard to make decisions like that… it can be difficult to separate yourself from the material. You’re so connected to it personally and you work so hard on it, that it can be hard to realise that it’s just not that good. That’s why the three of us work together well. We produce each other and are able to say whether it’s good enough. Maybe we’ll piss each other off,

but the mission is to make a good album, not to keep each other happy.” Nor is it a surprise to hear that sometimes the band have to purposely rein themselves in. Ira jokes that the next album will be the “classic three piece,” but agrees with The Skinny when we tell him that we’ll believe it when we see it. “Our tendency is to keep on putting more and more in the arrangement,” he explains, when asked about the band’s recording process. “I mean, it’s obvious that we love layers and orchestration. But in some ways, having too much is good, because then you can scale back in different ways. You can mute three elements that have been the core to a song by accident and all of a sudden have something weird that’s floating off into the distance, which may end up being the track. We can abandon that other shit. A Yeasayer outtakes album would be a nightmare. It would be just 64 hours of horrific music.” The new album, Fragrant World, was mixed in London, with parts being recorded in New York. In his current garb, Wolf Tuton looks like he’d be equally at home in either and he says that it’s strange seeing elements of London starting to influence Brooklyn, when the opposite has been true for so many years previous. He describes Brooklyn as an “artistic and cultural Mecca” but as with his bandmates, grows frustrated when the “scene” is depicted as a living organism, the parts inseparable from the whole. “It’s more complex than that,” he says. “Any scene that’s going to be written about is the creation of a journalist and is for the convenience of telling a story. Most of my friends are musicians and we had some come in and play on the record when we were in New York. That’s the world we exist in, but it’s not like we’re all meeting up in the bar and working on our rock and roll Magna Carta.”

But he freely acknowledges that many Brooklynites, like many Londoners, seem to be cut off from the rest of the world. “Of course it’s a bubble. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he says, with a booming laugh. “It’s a bubble politically and culturally, for better or worse. Mostly for better.” Since he divides much of his time between these two “bubbles,” then, does he find it difficult to keep his finger on the pulse of the general mood among wider society? “No. It’s pretty clear: it [the mood in America] stays the same pretty much wherever you go. The loudest voices in the room tend to change, but the undertones are always there. It just depends on whether or not they feel comfortable enough to express their opinions or not. Having a black man as president has galvanised those sides to be overt in very ugly ways and that can be disappointing and disenchanting. But it’s part of our country. It’s part of our history. It’s incredibly inspiring and incredibly tragic, but that’s the basis of who we are as a people, if we can be called ‘a people.’” But despite what he says, there’s nowhere else in the world Ira Wolf Tuton would rather live and had he and his bandmates hailed from elsewhere in the world, there’s no way they’d be making the kind of music they do. “There’s incredible wealth in America, alongside incredible poverty,” he explains, on a roll now. “There’s everything in between, but most importantly, the cultural diversity creates inventiveness and innovation on an artistic and cultural level that doesn’t exist anywhere else. I find that to be so life-giving. I love being a part of it.” Playing The Arches, Glasgow on 28 Sep Fragrant World is out now on Mute www.yeasayer.net

Make Mr. Jack’s Birthday a memorable one. Please drink responsibly. *18+ only, terms and conditions apply, see online for details. Copyright © 2012 JACK DANIEL’S. All rights reserved. JACK DANIEL’S and OLD NO.7 are registered trademarks.

September 2012

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The Revolution’s Here

film

Take One Action film festival returns for a fifth year and is a powerful reminder of the part cinema can play in people’s fight for freedom and equality across the globe WORDS: Jamie Dunn

Five inexpensive digital cameras lay strewn on a table, their lenses smashed, their casings cracked, their circuits shorted. These battered bits of tech have played a part in defying a powerful regime and helped defend a defenceless people’s right to protest, and in the process captured some of the most startling images you’ll see all year. The documentarian who wielded this quintet of cameras is Emad Burnat, a Palestinian farmer from Bil’in, a tiny village butt up against the West Bank. In collaboration with Guy Davidi, a Jewish Israeli filmmaker, Burnat shot 5 Broken Cameras (28&29 Sep, Filmhouse; 29 Sep, GFT), an essay on the first five years of his youngest son’s life, which coincides with a local conflict that arises when a large Israeli settlement encroaches on to Bil’in farmland. Modest in its production values but rich in bravery and emotion, 5 Broken Cameras is the kind of gutsy filmmaking that should be shown in every cinema across the land but is unlikely to

be. Rejoice, then, as Take One Action returns for a fifth year with screenings of Burnat and Davidi’s extraordinary film – and plenty more besides. Following the Arab Spring, dissidence is in the air. The awe inspiring protests of Tahrir Square are captured in ½ Revolution (26 Sep, Filmhouse; 27 Sep, GFT) with all the ground-level intimacy that was missing from the God’s eye news coverage; This is Not a Film (26 Sep, Filmhouse), meanwhile, is a personal protest by Jafar Panahi, the great Iranian director of The Mirror and The Circle, who’s been banned by his government from working in his chosen art form; and more courage is on display in Call Me Kuchu (5 Oct, Filmhouse), which follows David Kato, an openly gay man and LGBT activist from Uganda whose life is in constant threat from the country’s fierce anti-gay front. There are works of fiction playing at the festival too. Kim Nguyen’s dream-like War Witch (2 Oct, GFT; 3 Oct, Filmhouse) deals with the phenomenon of child soldiers in an unnamed

African country; and Lucky (22 Sep, GFT; 22 Sep, Filmhouse) is a look at the HIV crisis in Africa filtered through an odd-couple relationship between a young South African boy and an elderly Indian woman. If worthy films dealing in developing world hardship have you rolling your eyes you might want to check out The Woman in the Septic Tank (25 Sep, Filmhouse; 26 Sep, GFT). From Filipino director Marlon Rivera, it follows a scurrilous film team as they cynically attempt to produce a masterpiece in misery set in a Manila slum. Rivera’s farce is an acerbic takedown of the middle-brow poverty-porn movies that get festival juries salivating and, like the great Philippine New Wave films screened at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, a slap in the face to the simplistic view westerners have of this part of the world. It’s also hilarious. Opening with sobering ecological doc Surviving Progress (see interview below), Take One Action

has films for every taste, each one in its own way trying to change, if not the world, then our limited perceptions of it. Take One Action film festival opens 21 Sep with Surviving Progress and runs until 8 Oct in venues across Scotland. See website for more details www.takeoneaction.org.uk

Win one of 4 pairs of tickets to Take One Action Film Festival's opening screening Surviving Progress, featuring a Q&A with co-director and writer Harold Crooks. One of last year's Take One Action highlights was the UK premiere of Even the Rain, which starred Gael García Bernal as a Spanish filmmaker shooting a historical epic in Bolivia about Columbus's entry into the New World, only to have modern-day imperialism disrupt production. Who wrote the script? Tell us at www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions. Competition closes Wed 19 September, full Ts & Cs www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms

Harold Crooks on Surviving Progress

Is civilisation doomed? The stakes don’t get any higher than in Take One Action Film Festival’s opener, Surviving Progress. The Skinny speaks to Harold Crooks, one of the film’s directors, ahead of this UK premiere

surviving progress

interview: Danny Scott “Conventional economics is a form of brain damage,” states scientist David Suzuki in Harold Crooks’ co-directed new film Surviving Progress. Mapping our current economic, environmental and consumption-drunk madness to the rise and fall of previous civilisations, this suave, calm, visually stunning documentary raises the curtain on this year’s Take One Action festival. It shows the human race running 21st century software on our brains’ hardware, which hasn’t been updated for 50,000 years. In short, we are going to crash unless we reboot our systems. And soon. Taking its inspiration from Robert Wright’s bestselling book A Short History Of Progress, Crooks and Mathieu Roy’s co-directed feature documentary shows how our fallen ancestors have repeatedly destroyed themselves through “progress traps” – enticing technologies or advancements with short-term gain precipitating long-term decline. They show how the self-made cluster-fuck we find ourselves enduring is no different from, say, the last days of the Roman Empire, only now we’re all in. As Crooks states, “previous civilisations have always been local civilisations…one could go down but the baton of civilisation could be passed on somewhere else on the planet. But now we are one global, interlinked civilisation…if we were to fall into the same progress traps as previous

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civilisations did, it would be catastrophic.” Executive-produced by the goodfella of modern cinema, Martin Scorsese, Surviving Progress calls upon an impressive network of the world’s leading thinkers, including Margaret Atwood, Stephen Hawking, Jane Goodall and leading economists to put forward a strong case, with added extra weight provided by an arresting visual aesthetic. Shunning voiceover, Crooks and Roy rely on expertly edited footage to show humanity’s achievements as both beautiful and absurd. As Crooks reflects, “Mathieu has a special gift for marrying visuals, sound and music, creating here a very unusual, meditative kind of space for audiences to enter into… with one film reviewer describing it as ‘Koyaanisqatsi meets The Corporation.’” This space is needed as there is enough raw material to digest in Crooks’ documentary to cause western audiences some discomfort. We learn, for instance, that until recent times it took thirteen centuries to add 200 million more lives to the world’s population. Now it takes three years. Before the early 1980s this burgeoning population was living off nature’s interest, but since then, fuelled by rapacious consumption and growth, we have been eating into her capital. As Goodall says plainly in the film, “unlimited economic progress in a world of finite natural resources doesn’t make

sense. It’s a pattern that is bound to collapse.” With the rising economic power of China, Crooks sees our appetite as far from satiated. “What fascinates us about China is that in becoming the world’s workshop and embracing growth as an economic model we are now one single growth-driven system. The 'special significance' of this is that global capitalism is revving up its engines as we near the planet’s carrying capacity.” Visiting China and Brazil, Surviving Progress admirably doesn’t rely solely on the talking head but uses its feet to venture into China, the Congo and the Amazonian rainforest on a dangerous foray to the frontline of the logging wars. “It was only after a long and arduous negotiation that we were permitted to travel with IBAMA [Brazil’s environment enforcement agency] to Colniza in Brazil. Only after arriving did we learn Colniza was, at that time, the country’s murder capital. Of course, this explained the presence of military assisting the lightly-armed IBAMA, whose efforts to monitor and curtail deforestation always have the possibility to provoke outrage.” The press reaction in North America has also been similarly unpredictable with high praise tempered by complaints of the film’s depressing future vision and lack of proffered solutions. But through his measured, fluid arguments Crooks comes

across as more optimistic than that. “Am I an optimist or a pessimist? I always answer this question by quoting the mid-20th century Italian philosopher who talked about the ‘pessimism of the intellect’ and the ‘optimism of the will.’ But there is no question our current dominant economic ideology is failing us badly and our world is going to have to be radically re-imagined.” One of Surviving Progress’ reasons to be cheerful is the power of the internet, lit up in an animated sequence like the nervous system of humanity. For Crooks, the documentary is his contribution to this “growing global consciousness.” “The 20th century’s great anti-capitalist experiments taught us little about creating a sustainable, advanced civilization. In this sense such a world remains to be invented. And it begins with each of us working, according to our own strengths, to participate in what has been called the ‘meme war,’ or battle of ideas to shift Western minds away from an ideology that makes corporate profit the measure of all things. Surviving Progress is our humble contribution to this war.” Take One Action kicks off 21 Sep, 8.15pm with a screening of Surviving Progress at Filmhouse. Surviving Progress also screens 22 Sep, 3pm at GFT Harold Crooks will be in Scotland for Q&As following the screenings in Filmhouse and GFT survivingprogress.com

A classic silent horror film with live organ music

28TH SEPTEMBER - 7TH OCTOBER 2012

More than 175 events including: Sue Black, Ron Ferguson, William Fiennes, Janice Galloway, Natalie Haynes, Tom Holland, Richard Holloway, Douglas Hurd, James Kelman, AL Kennedy, Brooke Magnanti, Sara Maitland, Alexander McCall Smith, Denise Mina, Jan Morris, Jon Ronson, Trevor Royle, John Simpson, Marina Warner, AN Wilson and James Wong

Sunday 28 October I 7.30pm £12 / £10 concession

A literary celebration in Scotland’s National Book Town www.wigtownbookfestival.com 01988 403222

usherhall.co.uk 0131 228 1155

Charity No. SCO37984

2012

That Festival may contain... THEATRE, FILMS, GIGS, READINGS, PARTICIPATION, INTERVENTIONS, IPADS, NOISES AND A GREAT BIG PARTY.

FRI 5 - MON 8 OCTOBER

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Of Natural & Mystical Things

AN ARTISTIC INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURAL & SUPRANATURAL ADMISSION FREE

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01786 466666 | MACROBERT.ORG Copy of Skinny - Of Natural & Mystical Things.indd 1

22/08/2012 12:48:19

SEPTEMBER 2012

THE SKINNY 15

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September 2012

music

Great xxpectations

Ahead of The xx’s feverishly-anticipated follow-up to xx, Jamie xx talks to The Skinny about his production, the future of electronic music, and how the band continue to coexist Interview: Bram E. Gieben

Coexist is the second album from London three-piece The xx, combining the melancholic, minimalist production work of Jamie Smith with the intimate, spectral songwriting of Oliver Sim and Romy Madley. Their critically-lauded debut, xx, won the Mercury Prize in 2010, catapulting them into a sellout worldwide tour, and focusing the scrutiny of fans and journalists alike on the often shy-and-retiring band members. Since xx, Jamie Smith (working under the moniker Jamie xx) has become an in-demand producer, remixing everyone from Radiohead to Adele, and releasing a seminal reworking of tracks from Gil Scott Heron’s final album I’m New Here. Did his newfound status have an effect on Coexist – was there any tension between these two facets of his career? “Not really – I’ve tried to take a break from producing and DJing since we started recording Coexist,” says Smith. Softly-spoken and modest to a fault, Smith explains that the effect of working on so many remixes, and on his solo tracks, was simply to find more confidence in himself as a producer. As such, the recording of Coexist was very different to that of xx. In the early sessions for the first album, the band worked with Diplo and Kwes on certain tracks. Although that work didn’t end up on the finished article, except as an influence, by the time the sessions for Coexist came around Smith felt ready to helm the recording sessions solo. “The recording process for Coexist was a communal activity,” Smith explains. “It was just the three of us, locked in the studio for a year, with noone else even in the building. Sometimes I would record Romy and Ollie separately, sometimes together. When you record two singers together using the same microphone, it gives a very different effect to recording them separately. So we had the chance to experiment on this album with different approaches and recording techniques.” This hits on the element that is key to The xx’s appeal – the lyrical and musical back-and-forth between Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim. According to previous interviews with Sim and MadleyCroft, the lyrics for xx were written separately and then collaged, with meaning and symbolism often emerging through the contradictions and coincidences within their writing. For Coexist, the pair experimented with writing together for the first time. Furthermore, particular songs feature a single voice – the heart-stopping Fiction, which features Sim on vocals, is a big departure for the band, but Sim artfully carries the tender, regret-filled lyrics on his own. In the run-up to the release of Coexist, it has been mentioned in the press that the second album would be more influenced by ‘club music.’ While traces of house and other electronic forms can be heard on tracks like Try and the sublime Sunset, they are subtle, delicate traces rather than broad strokes. Smith was keen to avoid listening to anything that would influence the album: “It moves so fast,” he explains. “The sound and style of the music that is popular right now will be very different to music that is popular next year. If I was listening to new electronic music while recording the album, it might have ended up sounding dated by the time it came out. Now the recording is over, I’ve been listening to some new stuff again.” These electronic influences may well be fleshed out live – while touring xx, many of the songs underwent a process of evolution, with Smith creating a more sturdy, beat-based framework using an MPC drum machine. “I used the MPC in my live set up on our first tour, but not in the studio,” says Smith. “For this tour, I have a lot more stuff on stage – I have keyboards, drum pads, synthesisers. So there’s a lot

“Oil and water don’t mix, they coexist” JAMIE XX more for me to play with. In the studio, I still write beats using Logic.” His sonic pallette is understated, but strongly recognisable, from the reverb-drenched guitars that lend the band their atmospheric sense of space, to the delicate, muted kicks of tracks like Missing, or the steel drums on Reunion, a signature sound which appears on several other Jamie xx productions. The title Coexist suggests a commentary on relationships, but also on humanity, finding a way to live in the world together. This seems very much to define the lyrical concerns of Sim and Madley-Croft. Why did the band choose the title and what does it mean to them? “We are not a political band, so for us the title really doesn’t have anything to do with politics, or the state of the world,” Smith clarifies. “It’s much more about our relationships with each other as friends, and as a band. We’ve known each other for so long, but we’ve had to find ways to coexist that complement each other. It’s about relationships in a wider sense, too – the idea of sharing your life with someone, becoming a part of them. It’s also got a lot to do with the artwork – we got some concept artwork for the album which was produced by mixing oil and water, and we found a quote about that which said something like: ‘oil and water don’t mix, they coexist.’ That’s where the title comes

from. We liked the artwork so much that we have based a lot of the art and videos from the album on these visuals.” Some of Jamie xx’s solo material has been released on Young Turks / XL, the same label that initially gave The xx a home. Two EPs have also been released via Numbers, a musical collective and record label with deep roots in Glasgow. What was it that attracted Smith to Numbers? “I was looking around for a place to put my first EP, and I was aware of some of the artists on their label. I sent them a demo and they liked it, and since then I’ve played at their nights and we have become friends,” Smith explains. “I just really liked what they were putting out, and they throw really good parties, so it was a good fit.” Smith talks of his growing confidence in his abilities as a producer, but in early interviews there was a strong impression that the band found dealing with press attention quite difficult. “I think we did find it quite daunting initially, but so much has changed since the first album,” Smith says. “We’ve all grown and changed as people, and speaking for myself, I can say that I have a lot more confidence in my abilities.” Does he feel that his fingerprints as a producer are more visible on Coexist than they were on xx? “I think that the music we make as The xx is different to the music we could make separately,” says Smith. “We all like different things, and we all bring different influences to the table. Together, we make music that sounds like none of us, but also like all of us.” The electronic influences which have always been a part of The xx’s sound have now infiltrated

the sonic architecture of many an indie and pop band – this is something Smith sees as inevitable, and to some degree welcome: “The majority of music you hear nowadays in the commercial pop charts is electronic,” he argues. “It has become the dominant sound, or genre. I think that because of this, it was inevitable that it would start to influence more traditional rock and pop music. I think now that’s happened, it’s here to stay – I don’t think that influence is going anywhere.” In terms of his own career, given that Jamie xx is at least as well-known as The xx now, is he ever tempted to go it alone? “The xx is my main focus – even in my solo work, I always use the ‘xx’ in my name,” he says loyally. “I have known Romy and Ollie for so long, and we have had such intense experiences together on tour and while making the albums, that I can’t really imagine going it alone.” This closeness, and the remarkable degree of intimacy that the band manage to capture and recreate in their music is the key to The xx’s appeal. With Coexist, they have produced a piece of work which celebrates, laments and evokes moments of union and disunion between lovers, friends and opposites. In the twilit world of Jamie’s production, Romy and Oliver explore every emotional texture of codependent relationships – it’s a thrilling and deeply personal experience, an opportunity to peer inside the emotional lives of a three-piece who really do function as a symbiotic unit. Long may they continue to coexist. Coexist is released on 10 Sep via XL / Young Turks Playing The Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on 12 Sep www.thexx.info

September 2012

THE SKINNY 17

Getting A Kickstart

music

With the help of her enthusiastic fanbase, Amanda Palmer has already made a splash this year. Ahead of the release of her new album, Theatre Is Evil, she spoke to The Skinny about crowd-funding, house parties and her new-found invincibility interview: Darren fucking Carle

Amanda Palmer and her fans don’t do things by half. In 2008 when her record label wanted to trim her Leeds United promotional video because she looked “too fat,” Palmer’s subsequent blogging ignited an online shit-storm that culminated in a published book with over six-hundred photos of loyal fans’ midriffs. When seeking to get out of her contract (due as much to musical and marketing differences as the ‘ReBELLYon’ incident) she played a song called Please Drop Me to the tune of Moon River at a gig, her fans ensuring the footage was uploaded on YouTube that day. And when the Dresden Dolls singer, free from the label, opted to launch her new solo album on crowd funding website Kickstarter, well, she only went and broke the site’s record for a musical project, raising over one million dollars. Sitting in the rustic garden of her adopted Edinburgh home, herbal tea in hand and dressed back in her civvies after an interesting photo shoot, Palmer is happy to reflect on the public chain of events that led to where she is now. “It

photo:Eoin Carey

just a voyeur in your own life.” That said, Palmer is aware that even if her proclamations are correct, it doesn’t mean the path she has forged for herself is open to all artists. Heads were certainly turned when she raised almost $1.2 million on Kickstarter in May, but, as ever, the devil is in the detail. Fans were able to pledge standard sums of one-dollar for a digital download or a crisp twenty for the deluxe CD, but the options didn’t stop there. $300 got you a ticket to an art opening and performance show, whereas $5000 would find the enigmatic singer and her band, The Grand Theft Orchestra, invading your home. Ten grand and they’ll even throw in a makeover and photo shoot. It’s all very... Amanda Palmer. “Not every musician on the planet has a structure built for it,” she admits. “Something like Kickstarter makes sense for me because I want to run my own label.” It also makes sense because she has fans willing to spend three months’ wages on her. “Yeah, but if you don’t have management

had planned from the start. “Doing [debut solo album] Who Killed Amanda Palmer was bizarre because that was supposed to be a little, acoustic piano record, and then I ran into Ben Folds,” she laughs. “He offered to produce it and from there it just grew and grew. It was like having a little cottage and then building all these additions onto it. “With [Theatre Is Evil], it was more like a mapped-out fucking mansion. Everything was strategy to serve the songs best. The album was finished in my head before we even entered the studio. I just had to have endless meetings with my ‘architectural plans’ laid out, telling people involved ‘no, this is the fucking colour of the wallpaper in the bathroom – it has to be this green.’ It was a totally different way of approaching record-making for me. It naturally follows that the album is exactly what Palmer wanted, from the ambitious and expensive art work of the now-mandatory accompanying book, to the lavish production and healthy

about making a record without thinking about touring it because, to me, they’re just opposite sides of the same coin.” This resultant tour will come to Glasgow in October, but for now Palmer is in town ahead of an Edinburgh show with her illustrious husband. “Neil gives me this weird, broad emotional safetynet where I feel like even if everything else goes to shit, this will be OK,” she says of the crossover influence of their respective careers. “He’s given me an extra shot of confidence, that I don’t know if I needed, but I got it and it’s made me feel invincible.” Having written the bulk of this latest album in the aftermath of her previous relationship breakdown, what does this new, contented Amanda Palmer mean for any future projects? “I’ll just have to feign a divorce,” she laughs. “I’ve been with Neil for four years now and my songwriting’s only gotten better, so I’m not worried. Some artists are at the mercy of their lives. If your early career is

that’s willing to organise forty house parties, then you need to scale differently or choose a different path. Figuring out how to monetise what you would do anyway is the key to being an artist. It’s one of those things you think about; what’s artistically-driven and what’s financially-driven? You can drive yourself crazy with those questions, but if I could get given a regular pay cheque and do what I wanted as an artist, I’d probably do a lot of the same shit.” The resultant core of all these endeavours is a new Amanda Palmer album, Theatre Is Evil, due for release this month. It was recorded with her hand-picked band, The Grand Theft Orchestra, in Melbourne, Australia and was a “lonely and depressing” experience according to Palmer, partly due to the lack of spotlight on the process. Yet the finished article is an ambitious, sprawling somewhat epic record, an outcome which Palmer

track-listing. “I had a moment while we were mastering it, where I thought about cutting the album down to ten songs, literally taking all the ballads off so that journalists could say ‘nice, tight, forty-five minute record, way to go!’ But I thought, ‘I’m finally in control of my fate, these are the songs, this is the record, fuck it.’ It’s not as long as The Wall and that’s one of the best records ever, so who cares?” With her previous studio album, Palmer enlisted a revolving door of musicians and toured with yet more. For Theatre Is Evil, a core band was formed, The Grand Theft Orchestra, comprising Jherek Bischoff, Chad Raines and ex-boyfirend Michael McQuilken. “It’s a bit awkward but we can at least make fun of it,” says Palmer, who married author Neil Gaiman in 2010. “I wanted a ‘band’ to go into the studio, make the record, be proud of it and then carry it out to the world on tour. I can’t think

dependent on you being angry or angsty or sad or even worse, being young, then you’re gonna have problems in your forties and fifties. If you’re still writing about partying, and dancing and fucking at that age then you’re clearly out to lunch. The artists who’ve always written weird and interesting music are more likely to be lucky as they age because their brains aren’t trapped in a particular songwriting box.” With that, she can rest easy. As someone who has always operated on her own devices, from the dark cabaret of The Dresden Dolls to her current incarnation as a solo provocateur, Amanda Palmer has never been trapped in any kind of box.

“If I could get given a regular pay cheque and do what I wanted as an artist, I’d probably do a lot of the same shit!” Amanda Palmer was a painful, long, excruciating and complicated process,” she begins of her spat with Roadrunner Records. “There was never a moment where I got that triumphant phone call from my lawyer. It was like I escaped my prison but then I had to get out of the house, then the yard and then down the street for several miles until I finally felt free. But life is infinitely better off without them, that is certain. Everything’s better. Nothing is worse.” As if to illustrate the point, Roadrunner all but shut down the very week that Palmer launched her record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. Validation enough it would seem, yet she isn’t one to gleefully ring the death-knell for record labels. “If they’re going to survive, they’re going to have to evolve,” she offers diplomatically. “There used to be a black and white divide between what your label did, what your management did and what your PR did. Now, with the internet, that’s all intermeshed. Your distribution is on the internet. Your PR is on the internet. You’re on the internet.” Palmer is certainly someone ‘on the internet.’ As well as being a consistent blogger, she has performed countless impromptu shows using her forums. She also released an EP direct-to-fans (her Radiohead financially-modelled ukulele cover of Radiohead songs, naturally) and even has a popular Twitter meet-up called Losers Of Friday Night On Their Computers, a group who hang out, make jokes and, apparently, buy individually chewed postcards from the singer. She makes no bones about the fact that she likes to Google herself. At the aforementioned performance of Please Drop Me, she instructed fans to immediately upload their footage so she could see it for herself. “Musicians are all online and they’re generally watching what’s happening,” states Palmer. “A lot of them will deny it, but if you’re on the Internet, you’re more or less paying attention to what’s happening in your music community. And if you’re not participating, then you’re

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September 2012

Theatre Is Evil is released via 8 Ft Records on 11 Sep. Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra play Òran Mór, Glasgow on 25 Oct www.amandapalmer.net

El-P + Speesixnine + Bigg Taj Stereo, Glasgow – Tuesday 18 September OM Stereo, Glasgow – Friday 28 September BALAM ACAB CCA, Glasgow – Monday 8 October AN21 & MAX VANGELI The Arches, Glasgow – Friday 12 October ERRORS + Dam Mantle Electric Circus, Edinburgh – Saturday 13 October THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH + Crooked Fingers HMV Picturehouse, Edinburgh – Saturday 27 October THE TWILIGHT SAD Barrowlands, Glasgow – Saturday 15 December Tickets from www.synergyconcerts.com/ ripping/tickets scotland

September 2012

THE SKINNY 19

art

Carnal Visionary

With a major new show at Summerhall, we meet Carolee Schneemann, the artist whose iconic performances shocked the art world with their depiction of female sexuality interview: Jac Mantle

To me, as to most who know her name, Carolee Schneemann is the artist who did Interior Scroll (1975), a naked performance in which she read aloud from a tiny paper scroll while extracting it from her vagina. Now prominent in academia, her nude action works were shocking at a time when the only depiction of female sexuality was the female nude rendered by the male artist, or pornography. Her film Fuses (1965), showing Schneemann and her lover having sex while watched by her cat, won a prize at Cannes Film Festival, yet was censored in Russia twenty years later. But these seminal – or rather, ovular – works were made in the 60s and 70s, and meanwhile, Schneemann is still making new work. She’s now seventy-three, totally ‘over’ performance art, and probably pretty tired of talking about that stuff she did back then. So I approach our meeting uncertain of what to expect. Despite having jet-lag, she launches into an amusing discussion about the works she is showing at Summerhall for Edinburgh Art Festival: three recent video installations, a collage created in situ, and a previously unseen photographic series from 1976 in which she ice-skated naked around London, holding her cat. Her beloved cats having long featured in her work, the series sounds gloriously oddball and typically Schneemann. Another work she will show, Infinity Kisses – The Movie (2008) compiles still images capturing the way her cat would greet her in bed each morning by putting its mouth on hers.

“It was such an unusual determination on the part of the cat. Cluny was a very delicate little kitten, and it was just like kissing. It wasn’t like it was licking my lips; its tongue was in my mouth, it was purring and its balls were on my chest. And I said to myself, well I know what it feels like – I wonder what it looks like. So I got a camera and started shooting.” The resulting photos, raw-looking with uncontrolled light and focus, were acquired by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through a circumstance Schneemann describes as serendipitous. From start to finish, the work illustrates her inclination towards the element of chance. A similar process dictated her selection of material for the video Devour (2003), which juxtaposes disaster footage of conflict in Lebanon with domestic harmonies, highlighting her experience of the conflict from a point of removal in her comfortable home. The harmonies are items that she chanced upon and snapped quickly, showing benign calm on the precipice of violence – the view into a barber’s shop of a man having his beard shaved while a sentimental rock song played – 'One slip and I’ll slit your throat.' Her attitude to making work sounds so playful that I make the mistake of asking whether she finds it just as easy as it ever was. “No, it was never easy! It’s always difficult, there’s always self-doubt. Most of the art world have rejected this work over and over again. In terms of collections, my work is only in two in the

Carolee Schneeman Eye Body, 1963 Image © Carolee Schneeman

United States. In Britain, maybe the Tate has a video or something. But what I consider the real work – no. It’s easy to buy a video. But that’s not the rigorous, intensive part of the work; a painting or an installation.” This surprising revelation perhaps explains Schneemann’s humble attitude and the lack of self-importance you might expect from an artist

of her stature. While her work may have been prematurely historicised, she is at the same time still living and working and her show at Summerhall is a rare chance to see a contradiction in terms – the work of a legend. Summerhall, 2 Aug-27 Sep, FREE www.summerhall.co.uk

DashnDem Imagine Being a World Leader Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen From the Edge Exhibitions in partnership with 8 September - 18 November 2012 Dundee Contemporary Arts

152 Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4DY 01382 909900 www.dca.org.uk Exhibition open: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, Sun 12:00-18:00, open late Thu 20:00. Open daily during Discovery Film Festival. Admission Free. DashnDem, Imagine Being a World Leader, 2008, video still, courtesy of the artists

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September 2012

Scottish Charity no. SC026631

film

Hammer Horror

Since rising from the grave in 2007, Hammer Films have embarked on a new afterlife, sweeping a further infectious wave of horror across the globe with virulence. Despite a few shuffling missteps, notably the gormless zomedy of Beyond The Rave and dull, neighbour-from-hell psychofiller The Resident, the company soon hit its stride commercially, first with Let Me In, and then the runaway ghost-train of The Woman In Black, which rapidly became the most successful British horror to perform at the UK box office. This, coupled with remastered versions of some of the studio’s most iconic films (Dracula, Prince Of Darkness; The Mummy’s Shroud) arriving on Blu-ray, suggest a studio almost untouchable. Simon Oakes is the MC behind this revamped Hammer, president of the company and a man branding the name on the foreheads of the next generation. What gave you the idea that Hammer Films might be worth rekindling? The first time I started thinking about it was in the late 90s. Another group had acquired the name but weren’t doing anything with it; they had big ideas about brand intentions but no film plan. And then in 2006, I was working for a large cable television company and looking to move on: within the space of a week, I read a couple of articles that used Hammer as a vernacular – Chelsea FC’s defence was described as a Hammer House Of Horrors, women at a society party were referred to as Hammer heroines. It was clear that the company hadn’t died. How did you approach the resurrection? Reviving it was about making new movies and deciding what we needed to do in terms of a reboot; a lot of people thought we were going to remake the old films but we were never going to do that. The more traditional monster movies are a well-trodden path: they are what they are, of their time. So we tried to imagine what Hammer would have been like had they stayed in business for another thirty years.

Hammer Studio chief Simon Oakes tells us about the British institution’s resurrection Interview: James Kloda

Your first project, Beyond The Rave (2008), was released online, which seems a rather low-key format to announce that you were back on the scene... I knew we already had an acknowledgement about what Hammer was amongst an older demographic, but we thought that there are going to be a lot of sixteen-year-olds who have never heard of the company. So I wanted to do some original content for a social media platform, use that as a way of exposing a younger generation to the history and the heritage. But I think we were a little ahead of our time: the platforms are more mature now than MySpace was then. And our biggest problem was that it got an 18 rating. For your first high profile feature, you decided to rebrand one of the most critically acclaimed horrors in recent years, Let The Right One In. Why did you opt for a remake? Well, I don’t think it’s a remake. When we acquired the rights, we knew that we had an intriguing and original take on the vampire mythology. What we didn’t know was that it would become such a cult ‘arthouse’ hit. But, at the end of the day, it still got a relatively small audience and we felt that it deserved a bigger one. Matt Reeves had a very strong take on it in where he was referencing his own childhood: it feels like the Spielbergian version of a mid-Western small town, where the extraordinary happens amongst such ordinariness. It wasn’t a cynical thing at all: the novelist, John Ajvide Lindqvist, said that Thomas Alfredson had made a great Swedish movie and Matt Reeves a great American one. So are you embracing a more pan-Continental approach to stories and style? It comes down to a clash of cultures. You’d have Michael Carreras [executive producer at Hammer through their golden age] who would say, ‘Give me a poster and I’ll make the movie on Monday.’ He had a methodology of getting films made, how to finance them and so forth, yet at the same time

The women in black

Dracula

was smart enough to get people involved who were incredibly talented. We want to maintain and rebuild this. If you look at the roster of directors and actors who worked in Hammer films, it’s like a who’s who of British cinema.

fits the label. But we have never set out and said, ‘Right, we’re going to make a 12A.’ It’s touch and go between what constitutes a 15 and a 12A film anyway. I believe one has to maintain an honesty about what 13-year-olds see today.

And, mirroring its national cinema, it was a company that went into steep decline in the 70s... Admittedly, Hammer comes with a lot of baggage, in more ways than one. It’s similar to the way Burberry rebranded itself: a great heritage British label, but they had that period, if you like the ‘chav’ period of the 80s and 90s. But, fundamentally, Burberry had style. So they said, ‘Let’s go back to our roots’. And I think that’s what we’ve done with something like The Woman In Black.

As you have admitted, your primary aim is to appeal to a younger audience. Do you worry about alienating the fans of the classic horror period, your old-school Hammer-heads? Not really, because I think they came to see it. We’re not cynical about our demographics, we’re not looking at the 15-25 age group and solely considering what they do or don’t like. You just have to be realistic about who goes to the movies. I worry that some of the old Hammer fans might now go and see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel instead…

Ironically, the genre that was unable to sustain the appeal of Hammer during the 70s was classic Gothic, which has now yielded your biggest success. How do you perceive this shift in audience tastes over the last 30 years? I think because we don’t play it for laughs: if you’re going to keep a suspension of disbelief you can’t mess about and create misleading avenues. I think that Hammer by the end of its run was starting to send up, maybe intentionally or not, the Gothic schematic. We were very true to the story of Susan Hill’s book in that the scares aren’t laid on with a trowel and there is a strong thematic underpinning to it. Ultimately, it worked because people love an old-fashioned ghost story. The Woman In Black certainly favours more traditional ‘bump-in-the-night’ scares than a reliance on unsavoury gore, similar to the rest of the revitalised Hammer’s ouevre. Is this restraint a deliberate aesthetic beyond providing more accessible ratings? It entirely depends on the story. It’s unlikely we’re going to get into what I call ‘body count’ movies or torture-porn, whatever, because I don’t think that

What’s the next project to be released by Hammer Films? The Quiet Ones recently wrapped shooting, directed by John Pogue and starring Jared Harris and Sam Claf. It’s based on supposedly true events about a professor who’s a sort of maverick, who decides to create an entity from negative energy, i.e. a poltergeist. It’s a very cool script and cool environment, set in 1970s Oxford. Cool. So, if push came to shove, what is your favourite of the old Hammers? The Devil Rides Out probably. It’s the one I remember most as a teenager. I think it had all the right mix of Gothic, Satanic, sexy horror, and captured Dennis Wheatley’s slightly inappropriate writing. You felt it was very much alive and present in a way that the period ones did not, as if it could be happening in a house or field not too far away. The Devil Rides Out, The Mummy’s Shroud and Rasputin, The Mad Monk are released on Blu-Ray 22 Oct from StudioCanal after premiering theatrically at last month’s FrightFest. The Woman In Black is out now from Momentum Pictures hammerfilms.com

September 2012

THE SKINNY 21

The Pleasure Principle

music

As the hype machine attempts to send them skywards, Churches explain why their feet remain clamped firmly to the ground Interview: Rosie Davies Photo: Ross Gilmore

Once upon a time, two friends were sitting in a hotel room in middle America. They‘re on tour – the final tour of a band who’ve put out their final album (let’s call them Aerogramme), and it’s miserable. One of them says to the other – “let’s fucking just do something that people will actually enjoy, let’s do something that people can dance to!” Four and a half years later, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty do just that. They need a singer; the first one they interview is the perfect fit, bonding over Grace Jones, Robyn, Prince, Depeche Mode. A brilliant new collaboration emerges. They casually play one of their tracks to a hip music blog who offer to debut it and then BANG – they’ve racked up 47,000 YouTube views and counting, and they’re ensnared in the clutches of a salivating national hype machine stuck on the same line: ‘We don’t usually cover new bands after only one track, but...’ So begins the story of Churches – a modern indie fairytale which began with a song. And hype’s a funny thing, inspiring in the self-respecting muso a kneejerk reaction away from said object of slavering media attention and towards satisfying rounds of criticism in the pub. The problem is, Lies, still the band’s sole track online, is hard to find fault with. Despite its pretence as a perfectly rounded electro-pop hit, a few more listens convey the idea that they’ve created something far more knowing, crafting a melee of influences into something entirely new without any hint of crude imitation or one-off superficiality. Dizzee Rascal hides behind the bombastic drums; Gary Numan’s on synth duty; Jamie xx sneaks into the middle eight with tropical house chords and light, peppy snares, and Lauren Mayberry’s Scottish-inflected vocals channel The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson, creating a bittersweet discord as Gothenburg, Glasgow and 1980s London collide. It’s this assured duality which makes you realise that Churches are on it and, as such, they’re very, very aware of the potential backlash which comes from the media having a new favourite pupil. As we descend in the lift after a photoshoot, Martin

22 THE SKINNY

September 2012

speaks quietly with Lauren about a negative comment online, referencing the one-song factor and conceding that he’d probably feel exactly the same in the same boat. But, as he muses later, “is it not typical of musicians – or anyone else laying their creative pursuit out to the public – that they can read through a whole page of ten positive things and focus on the one single negative comment? Generally the responses have been pretty amazing, better than anything we’d anticipated.” Equally, the apparent shroud of mystery around the band and the fact that, shock horror, Cook and Doherty have changed musical direction might get the cynics clenching their teeth; no-one likes a try-hard. But when The Skinny thanks them for the interview, under the belief that they’ve been told not to do any – something we’ve read on more than one blog – we’re met with genuine bafflement, and the promise from Lauren that “a lot of

“It would be easy to get carried away; we’re very aware of what we have to do” Lauren Mayberry it is Chinese whispers. Because there’s been such an unexpected response, we’re trying to avoid certain negative aspects of it, keeping our heads down and keeping writing. The whole thing’s really flattering but it would be very easy to get carried away. At this point we’re very aware of what we have to do.” One of the things they “have to do” is very clear; if this is a fairytale, then Lauren is the princess. Taking centre stage for the first time in her career, she does so armed with a thick stripe of black and gold across one eye, her minute frame, rock-chick-next-door clothes and natural coyness balancing La Roux with Shirley Manson (who

herself recently surfaced as a fan of the band, likening Mayberry to ‘a young Claire Grogan’). But Lauren’s mission is to write her own narrative. During the shoot, arranged on a flight of stairs, the photographer asks her to stand forward, the boys lurking fuzzily in the background. Straight away, politely but firmly, she’s having to explain that they’re not about “that.” For all their innocent desire to “make music that people can dance to,” they all know what “that” is, and it’s certainly not in the plan. When asked if she worries about how she’ll be perceived, she replies immediately, her large eyes, now cleansed of make-up, wide and insistent: “Intensely. On a nerdy note, I did my Masters dissertation on the idea of femininity in women’s magazines. I know to a point I probably overcompensate because I’m aware of these things, but I’ve been through the looking glass, and I’m afraid. In this industry, if you don’t have your wits about you then you’ll probably end up doing something that you didn’t sign up for. If we did get successful at any level at all I want it to be on the merit of the music we’ve produced. “What makes it fun for me is having a certain idea of how I want to come across to young women. At the end of the day I want to go home and be able to look friends and colleagues in the eye and be like, ‘this is exactly how you would have wanted me to do it.’” It is about fun; it’s the building block on which their story began, and their live shows are the best place to see it. Seeing them support School Of Seven Bells at Stereo back in July, it was exactly as it should be for their second hometown gig, and their third ever – A&R men at the back, parents at the front, and an anticipatory crowd jammed in the middle. Bursting into their first song, it’s all confident, bold synths and a jealous sense of watching a group of friends having a really good time. “There’s far too many people literally going ‘bang’” – Martin mimes a ridiculous jump onto the keyboard – “and jumping around whilst riding one filter for half a tune. It’s just...” he laughs... “you can’t do that, that’s insulting to the people who come to see your band. I’m not the world’s

greatest musician, but it’s not supposed to be polished or slick.” Iain chimes in: “Yeah, it would be much easier for us to turn up and have all the synths turned off and just mime, but where’s the fun in that?” “Well, it’d be fine for you,” Lauren chides. “I’d get lumped into some sort of Ashley Simpsonstyle backing track...” Ashley Simpson she is not. Finishing their Stereo set with Lies, the bombastic drums sound brilliant, in the true sense of the word – alive, and strikingly clear – but as she steps towards the mic, it doesn’t work. It happens again midway through the song and, thinking fast, she grabs Martin’s. As they leave the stage, she mumbles her thanks, saying “If anyone wants a free microphone they can have it, I don’t want it anymore.” In that one human comment, any suspended disbelief dissolves and she reminds us that there’s no pouting, no constructed personas, it’s purely about the music. “When Iain and I started writing together, we wanted to find out if it was truly possible to write pop music without being a pop band,” says Martin. “We don’t hold half of those ideals. We just wanted people to come to our live shows and visibly enjoy it, rather than standing there stroking their chins and quietly being appreciative.” So what happens when it stops being fun? Martin (who recently departed The Twilight Sad after four years as their touring keyboardist), insists that he’ll “focus on [his] rap career. I’m 100% serious about that,” whereas for Lauren, she might have a go at giving lectures to young girls on the dangers of a career in pop. “I’ll use slides; ‘This is when I gave a double page spread to Nuts magazine and that’s when we should have known that the dream had died.’ No, that’s a joke, that has never come up at any point, it’s literally just a nightmare that I had...” Churches play the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh on 28 Sep www.facebook.com/churchestheband

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Music of unearthly beauty The Sydney Morning Herald **** Time Out

A feast for the imagination The Skinny MEDIA PARTNER

September 2012

THE SKINNY 23

Out of the Past

film

Guy Maddin’s latest film, Keyhole, is a psycho-sexual riff on Homer’s The Odyssey by way of film noir and haunted house movies. The Skinny spoke to this most unique of filmmakers Interview: Jamie Dunn

If, in a few years time, you find Guy Maddin’s Keyhole on late night TV while channel hopping you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled across an old Universal horror picture. It opens on a dark and stormy night. A gang of hard-boiled noir-types are holed up in a creaky mansion to avoid the law, but spooky apparitions walk the halls. It shouldn’t take you too long to realise that Bela Lugosi isn’t about to put the willies up Abbott and Costello anytime soon, though. If the naked old man chained to his daughter (Isabella Rossellini)’s bed doesn’t clue you into the fact that there’s something fishy about this black and white ghosts and gangsters mashup, the 13-year-old spectre wanking in the cupboard under the stairs who shouts “Yahtzee!” whenever anyone bursts in on his alone time definitely will. Since his early shorts – long before Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist charmed the world – Maddin has been appropriating the visual grammar and techniques of silent cinema to create dreamy, idiosyncratic films about memory and loss. Keyhole instead takes its iconography from genre films of the 30s and 40s, but the filmmaker’s same melancholic themes abound. The first half of the film follows Ulysses (Jason Patric) as he searches the crumbling house to reunite with his wife (Rossellini), whom he hasn’t seen in years, while in the second half we see the action through the eyes of Manners (David Wontner), the son Ulysses abandoned and can hardly recognise now. This is of course the Canadian filmmaker’s woozy take on The Odyssey. Maddinites will be delighted with Keyhole’s demented humour (Homer’s cyclops makes an appearance here as a dusty wooden dildo that guards the house’s labyrinthine corridors) and knockout visuals (Maddin using digital for the first time) but its familiar genre elements and semblance of narrative might also help this one-of-akind director find the wider audience he deserves. Maddin spoke to me from his home in Winnipeg about Keyhole ahead of its UK release.

On Homer’s The Odyssey: “When I read Homer I realised he’d been abandoned, either literally by a dad who split on him, or through his father’s death, because The Odyssey is the ultimate deadbeat dad story. A guy goes off to battle and doesn’t come home for nineteen years, meanwhile he’s getting his brains banged out by some woman on an island, and then he finally decides to go home and vaguely remembers his wife and his son.” On grief and abandonment: “My father died when I was about 21. It’s not a tragedy but it was sad for me. For some reason I was too cowardly to experience the grief straight out, and subconsciously I made some sort of deal with the devil, or some sort of dream director, that I’m going to grieve in tiny instalments spread out over a very many years. And so instead of feeling an overwhelming sadness the day he died I would feel this weird sadness mashed up with a kind of giddiness in dreams. I would have these dreams maybe two hundred times a year for a couple of decades afterwards where it turned out my dad never did die but had abandoned our family for a better one, and that he was just returning home for a couple of minutes to pick up a razor or some aftershave or a glass eye that he’d forgotten. And then I had a couple of minutes to convince him to stay, that his original family was better than this family that he had chosen when he abandoned us.” On the character of Ulysses (Jason Patric): “I thought that if you’re going to dream your father’s return you might as well make him some sort of dream alpha male and make him a man of danger and of great romance. Even though I’m 56 years old I had no trouble accessing my inner child for this one because it’s a real storybook dad that comes back, some sort of cool gangster, and his affections are kind of questionable. He’s quite chilly to his own son in the movie.” On Keyhole’s genre elements: “The gangster and the ghosts in the movie are strictly genre elements that I wanted to get in. I’ve been told for so many years that my movies are impossible to classify and that I’d be doing a distributor a favour if I could just make a genre picture – make a horror movie, make a sciencefiction film, that sort of thing. I considered making a gangster movie or a ghost movie, but then I decided to mix them together.” On Keyhole’s haunted house setting: “In Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space – god I love the way that guy writes – he can talk about any little corner in a house and what it means and what it feels. The phenomenology of it, a little space under a stairway, a basement, a closet in the kitchen, there’s just sort of a poetry to each of those spaces and the guy can really riff. I just thought that if I was making a story about a father returning home that I should try to poeticise the home somewhat.” On acting and naturalism: “I like the idea of casting actors just off the sidewalk with some of the best actors I can possibly find – putting stage actors with screen actors. To me it’s more dreamlike, where the sources are never limited and everything is kind of cobbled together. I like having the freedom to have the picture in focus sometimes and blurry sometimes; it’s the same thing with accents and acting styles.”

“There’s so much emotion saturating the film for me that I think I got kind of drunk on it, like a sponge cake with two gallons of rum in it or something – grief rum” Guy Maddin On the emotions in Keyhole: “There’s so much emotion saturating the film for me that I think I got kind of drunk on it, like a sponge cake with two gallons of rum in it or something – grief rum. I got so drunk that I kind of forgot the serious craft involved in getting those feelings up on the screen so everyone else can access them. So the film ends up being at eleven on the abstracto-meter. I’m proud of the tone, though, and I’m proud of the dreaminess of it. The movie does feel exactly like my dreams and I almost feel like warning viewers to just drop their expectations of following a story with conventional resolutions at the door.”

On shooting on digital: “A bit of my previous movie, My Winnipeg, was shot on digital but this is my first one going start to finish. I’d been dying to do it for a number of years and convinced myself that I would do it the instant I wrote a digital script. I felt that I’d written a film script with Keyhole, but then I finally decided that those distinctions were beside the point: we were seventy thousand dollars short and by coincidence we could save seventy thousand dollars by going digital. So I made the plunge; that was the big push between the shoulder blades and I shot digital. And I really liked it.” On contemporary filmmakers he admires: “I really like these Austrian/German guys Matthias Müller and Martin Arnold, experimental filmmakers. Sometimes they repurpose previously existing footage, sometimes they make their own films but, I don’t know, they are the only ones that really get my synapses going. And perhaps not surprising to you but I really like David Lynch and Terrence Malick. Tree of Life is such a direct shortcut to the director’s childhood that I thought it was pretty hard hitting. I love the directness. No irony. It’s beautiful and lyrical and all that but it just went straight back to that time. There are some embarrassing trip ups in the movie but there’s just something about that aim directly from the heart straight into the past that I really admired. I was shocked that Malick imitators have only started to proliferate now after he’s been in the business for forty years.” Keyhole is released 14 Sep by Soda pictures www.sodapictures.com

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September 2012

Coachella Festival (Indio, California), 13–15 April It’s hard to sum up what makes Coachella such an amazing festival. There’s no single element that elevates it to such legendary status, but when all the ingredients of this sun-drenched gathering in the Californian desert are combined, the results are truly spectacular. Admittedly, the weather helps, but it’s more than just the sunshine that makes Coachella sparkle. The grounds are littered with palm trees and 40-foot high sculptures; all framed by the red rock of the Santa Rosa Mountains. Sitting in one of the (surprisingly civilised) bar areas sipping a cold beer and watching the sun dip behind the hills is as good as it gets, especially as said bars are conveniently placed directly beside the stages. Coachella 2012 will most likely be remembered for Tupac’s (sort of) comeback. And whilst the collective confusion of 60,000 people watching a dead rapper appear on stage in holographic form was memorable in itself, the big name performances weren’t the stand out moments for this writer. Dancing under a desert sky filled with shooting stars to Justice was pretty special, and seeing Miike Snow followed on stage by Madness was as surreal as it sounds. Coming from the UK, where music festivals often feel like some sort of endurance test, Coachella is a welcome alternative; blue skies, dry feet, friendly crowds and absolutely no chance of being hit on the head by a flying pint of piss. God bless America. [Kate Small] Download (Donington Park, Leicestershire) 8–10 June In the absence of any open air rock festival this side of the border, the trip to Donington has become a must for Scottish metallers in the last three decades. This year’s pilgrimage was perhaps more epic than usual for most; the car park was delayed by hours, bands (including the mighty Europe – ye Gods!) were forced to cancel and the site was thrown into disarray by harsh weather conditions – we were skiing in chocolate mousse by the time we arrived for the headliners on Friday night. But all it took to restore balance to the universe was a sharp blast of Slash getting torn about the riff to Nightrain and a few nightcaps in

a wee onsite club (called Sanctum) that dared to play the Fresh Prince theme tune in full (yes, the whole house sang it). But beyond nostalgia, Download stays wired into recent developments, scattering young hopefuls who represent its infinite subgenres across a bill that’s always unquestionably heavyweight. Metallica rolled out a reassembled Black Album and a chorus of Seek and Destroy that recurred throughout the weekend. In some inspired billing, this year organisers resurrected Black Sabbath, reintroduced Soundgarden to the UK after a 15 year absence and had Kyuss play at breakfast time – all on the same day. And what better way is there to wake up on a Sunday than to hear Tony Iommi soundchecking Into the Void? Most importantly, it’s hard to find the kind of buzz and inclusive camaraderie that freely floats around Donington at any other UK festival. One for the fans, as opposed to the bawbags who shit in strangers’ tents. See you next year? [Dave Kerr] T in the Park (Balado, Kinross-shire) 6–8 July The 2012 instalment of Scotland’s biggest music festival had the misfortune to fall on one of the wettest weekends of an already rain-soaked summer. By lunchtime on the Saturday, the main arena was in places under a foot of thin brown liquid. And yet the mood of the mud-splattered punters remained positive and relentlessly upbeat. The Wailers played a main stage set of sunshine reggae during the worst of the rain, but every drenched member of the crowd still crooned along in time to the likes of One Love and Three Little Birds. The weather did force the temporary closure of the Slam Tent, but otherwise the festival’s infrastructure held up remarkably well given the circumstances. And by the time The Stone Roses arrived to play their first Scottish show in 17 years on the Saturday evening, the rain had stopped and excitement levels amongst men of a certain age at least - had reached fever pitch. The returning Mancunian giants looked like they might lose the typically well-refreshed T crowd as they indulged in the slow grooves of Something’s Burning, but a mass sing-a-long to Made of Stone quickly made amends. It’ll take more than rain to stop play in Balado. [Chris McColl]

away game

Away Game (Isle of Eigg) 20–22 July Away Game is just as brilliant in practice as it is in theory: take one small-but-beautiful island, inhabited by friendly, hard-working locals, and invite over a couple hundred fans of independent Scottish music for a long weekend of boozing, chat, and watching bands that prize immaculate tunecraft and leftfield ideas, in greater-or-lesser amounts. Add sun, and mix, everyone together, musicians and punters and locals the same. There are no VIPs, no logos, no rip-off burgers or queues for watery beer tokens. We’ve all made the same journey, through stunning west coast scenery to Arisaig, or Mallaig, for the boat to Eigg, and we’re all in it together. But then, it would all be just a camping trip if the music wasn’t up to it. This year’s line-up provided a run of highlights: from Slow Club’s euphoric love songs to the Twilight Sad’s angry a cappellas, Rob St.John’s precisely drawn arrangements to Babe’s clattering, weaving messes, sensational vocal performances from Ross Clark and Sparrow & The Workshop, and wonderfully propulsive rhythms from François & The Atlas Mountains and Django Django. Away Game was a blast from start to finish. [Ally Brown]

photo: dylan matthews

coachella

Wickerman 20–21 July The continuing success of Galloway’s Wickerman Festival is down to several factors: its beautiful rural location; its laid-back and welcoming atmosphere; and its ability to gather the greatest collection of the best new Scottish bands ahead of any other festival. The line-up of the Solus Tent is a thing of wonder – a tented carousel featuring the very loud, the very quiet and all styles in between. These extremities are summed up by two songs which sound like polar opposites, but are each great representations of the differing experiences Wickerman can offer. On the one hand, there’s ‘Swifty’ by the thunderous riff-merchants Holy Mountain, who deliver their set with the same kind of power required to demolish a house with a sledge hammer. And then there’s Diamonds by Julia & the Doogans, who draw an equally appreciative crowd the following day. Gentle, melancholic folk songs such as this are delivered with warmth and good humour. There is a home for all at Wickerman. The friendly atmosphere is most definitely helped by dry, warm conditions and short queues at the bar - although these civilised conditions can’t be of help to the critical faculties of the main stage crowd: nearforgotten 90s acts such as Texas and Cast are treated like returning heroes. [Chris McColl]

holy mountain

September 2012

THE SKINNY 25

photo: sol nicol

music

there goes summer

At times it felt like we were storm chasing, but we wouldn’t change a damn thing about festival season 2012. Tasteless holographic Tupac and all. Here’s five that tickled us

F E A T U RE S

Scottish Souvenirs

art

This month in the People’s Palace, Scotland Can Make It! presents an alternative approach to the craft of souvenirs. We spoke to organiser Catriona Duffy and designer Beca Lipscombe to find out more Interview: Rosamund West

Woven travel blankets, Atelier Eb

Common Wealth, Katy West

Golden Tenement

Beca LIPSCOMBE's blanket

Think of Scottish souvenirs and you’ll probably imagine an array of tartan objets, some shortbread tins, perhaps a Scotty dog magnet, accompanied by the distant blare of the hi-energy bagpipe techno remix of My Heart Will Go On. Scottish identity has long been a confused beast, with the merchandise touted as representing ‘Scotland’ being an increasingly baroque combination of bizarre signifiers – the kilt, the bagpipe, the haggis, Mel Gibson – with the only hint of modernity the deep fried Mars Bar, which few who live here have actually sampled. There is a disconnect between Scotland as it is commonly marketed, and Scotland as we are proud to see it – a contemporary society at the forefront of creative innovation. Scotland Can Make It! aims to gently challenge that orthodoxy. In light of the impending Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, local independent curator duo Catriona Duffy and Lucy McEachan, aka Panel, invited Scottish artists and designers to submit proposals for original souvenirs that could be created to go on sale alongside the Games. Aiming to promote both native design and industry, it was essential that each design be produced with a Scottish manufacturing partner. Says Duffy, “We were interested in looking to see what’s possible in Scotland now, what can be made here and what are the challenges in making something here that’s commercially viable but also made to high quality. And we were also interested in creating a dialogue between designers and industry. “We were looking at how objects can house memories. When they’re all considered together they’re a very diverse range of objects we’ve come up with, but when they’re presented together they display a very distinct idea about Scotland. That was presented through the quality of how they’d been made by the manufacturing partners but also the quality of idea that was presented through the

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September 2012

object by the artists and designers that proposed them.” Six arts practitioners were selected to develop their proposals, chosen by a judging panel including Turner Prize winner Martin Boyce. Prototypes of each of their designs go on display in the People's Palace this month. Their products are varied, ranging from an intricate golden necklace by Neil McGuire and Marianne Anderson commemorating a tenement razed to make way for the Games, to an app developed by the band FOUND which

“Without industry designers could design and design but with no one to make it there’s a real problem” Beca Lipscombe changes according to geo targeting. Duffy feels the inclusion of the app adds a crucial dimension to the collection. “FOUND have worked with Chemikal Underground as their manufacturing partner and their souvenir is slightly different from the others in the fact that it’s not an object, it’s an audio visual digital application. There’s something really interesting about that. What the app does is it responds to Glasgow by altering and changing and becoming more visually and musically complex the closer you get to [the city], so in a sense rather than being a memento or a keepsake of a place it’s kind of calling you back, inviting you to return to that place. It’s interesting

because more and more people store their memories and their ideas within cyberspace rather than housing them within objects, which is how we traditionally do things.” Another product has been developed by art-design-fashion collaboration Atelier, in this instance made up of printmaker-fashion designer Beca Lipscombe and fine artist Lucy McKenzie in collaboration with Marc Camille Chaimowicz. They’re developed a series of three blanket designs, bespoke images created by each and turned into high quality cashmere-lambswool blankets by Begg’s, a Paisley-based manufacturer who quietly work in the very high end of the fashion industry. Says Lipscombe, “We entered Scotland Can Make It! because the brief was about having something manufactured in Scotland, and that’s something that’s very important to us. We thought blankets were the perfect souvenir – you know, you wrap your tired kid up at the end of the festival or the event, put your picnic on it, it keeps you warm… There are so many ways of looking at it. And also we could have an array of graphical references – the functionality was the most important thing.” As well as the chance to redefine the common conception of the nation by presenting high quality designer merch, Lipscombe sees the industrial focus of Scotland Can Make It! as having a much wider resonance. “There’s a misconception that the designers are the pinnacle and industry is subservient to designers. It’s actually the other way round – without industry designers could design and design but with no one to make it there’s a real problem. And that’s what we’re finding, in Britain especially.” Other products going into production through the exhibition include Common Wealth, a pristine white ceramic jelly mould by artist Katy West. Produced by Highland Stoneware (a company

more commonly associated with fairly traditional ceramic goods decorated with paintings of Scottish wildlife) the moulds take their formal inspiration from the Art Deco ceiling of Glasgow restaurant Rogano’s, reaffirming the more visionary design influences that reside in Scotland’s past. Contemporary weaver Angharad McLaren and digital designer Emlyn Frith have collaborated with Johnstons of Elgin to produce a pair of merino sports scarves featuring a geometric pattern abstracted from the herringbone weave of traditional tweed. The final product on display comes from designer Claire Duffy, who’s working with the mighty Tunnock’s of tea cake fame to create a series of medals. It seems inevitable that an arts project related to the Commonwealth Games should present some level of ambiguity about the positive nature of a mega-event arriving in a city. While the collection of works do not overtly criticise, there is a poignancy to the Golden Tenement necklace, its commemoration of a little piece of Glasgow history ripped down in the name of progress, that suggests there is more to this than meets the eye. Catriona Duffy, however, refuses to be drawn into unconsidered negativity on the impending sporting bounty. “The souvenirs are definitely a celebration of what’s happening in the UK, what’s happening in Scotland in 2014. But they’re also exploring what happens around mega-events in cities. It’s a huge thing to happen to a city and a country, and there are positive outcomes but also other things that can happen through that and we wanted to be quite open and to allow the people we were working with to explore all of the different sides of a big sporting event coming to our country.” Scotland can Make It!, People’s Palace, Glasgow, 7 Sep - 13 Jan 2013, free www.scotlandcanmakeit.com

tech

Touring Turing 2012

Digital came to Edinburgh with last month's Turing Festival celebrating digital culture and creativity words: Alex Cole

“iPhone and server backend,” he said, after gamely agreeing to sign my Android phone amongst a slew of i-devices in the hands of the massive queue behind me. I’d asked Steve Wozniak what the teens and twenty-somethings of today should be playing with to get the same kind of progress on a new venture, application or idea that he and another famous Steve once had in a garage in in California. From a man who once set up a Dial-a-Joke line just to have a fun little business all his own, the answer well reflected his approach towards innovation: take advantage of an existing widespread platform, add a backend to handle the complex needs of numerous users at once, and most of all, take something big and complicated that only big business or governments can afford, break it apart, and put it back

together so that everyone can have it on the cheap. Steve Wozniak’s keynote address at the Edinburgh Playhouse last month kicked off the second annual Turing Festival, the brainchild of the Open Innovation Project, which aims to bring together academics, entrepreneurs, artists, technologists, industry experts and curious newcomers, all in a three day series of lectures, exhibitions and parties. As if Edinburgh didn’t already have enough going on at this time of year, the Festival is intended to showcase Scotland’s own talent in the digital landscape, as well and bring some of the best in the world to our doorstep. The event this year featured a little bit of everything, from a gaming workshop highlighting the best ways to build, structure and pitch games

(along with Rob Fahey’s passionate plea for games to be more than adolescent misogynists shooting terrorists), to National Geographic discussing how to bring science to the masses, to discussions on security, internet freedom, and 24-hour music hacks at the newly refurbished Summerhall building. Interactive Scotland put on a show at Dynamic Earth about the metric ton of data lying around just waiting to be used, and the whole thing capped off with a DJed party that was equal parts networking and nerds trying to remember how to dance socially. While more of an industry insider conference than a festival open to anyone who wants to wander by, the event did put some of Scotland’s successes like Skyscanner and Fanduel in the limelight, and the long list of Scotland’s digital

talent that comes out of the universities here was stacked up against the best of the south. A running dialogue on Twitter sent several hashtags to the top of the UK’s trending list, and several Fringe shows certainly got a decent boost on attendance. Ultimately the aims and results of the Festival are not unlike those of the Fringe itself – hopefully a boost to Scotland’s profile, some extra business and cash flowing through, and a few more souvenir Highland cow toys being spread around. While London’s Silicon Roundabout has been getting all the press for tech in the past few years, with Amazon and other big companies getting a foothold alongside one of the best start-up and spin-out communities in the UK, Scotland is starting to code its way onto the world stage.

September 2012

THE SKINNY 27

Modern Two Belford Road Edinburgh £7/£5

Supported by

28 THE SKINNY

September 2012 Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1895 (detail), Courtesy the Gundersen Collection, Oslo © The Munch Museum/ The Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO, Oslo/DACS, London 2012. National Galleries of Scotland is a charity registered in Scotland (No. SC003728)

Until 23 September 2012

C LA TOHA ST N SE C E E

F E A T U RE S

film

Genre Hopper

Three movies under his belt and Rian Johnson is proving a tricky filmmaker to pin down. The Skinny caught up with the genre hopping director to get the lowdown on his latest film, Looper, which opens this year’s Toronto International Film Festival Interview: John Nugent

How do you tamper with the very fabric of a dimension? Rian Johnson’s latest film deals in the business of time travel, a logical and causal roadblock that has furrowed the brow of many a science-fiction writer over the years. In Looper, Johnson pits a mob assassin against his future self, sent back in time thirty years hence. A standoff between the same person, then. How the hell, I tactfully ask, does one go about constructing such a mindfuck of a movie? “It’s almost like a magic trick,” Johnson chuckles, acknowledging the inherent paradox of a man confronting himself, face-to-face. “There has to be some misdirection. I did actually work out an internal logic, but narratively my approach was: these effects playing out are not the real drama of the story. The real drama of the story is tied up in these characters and the situation they’ve been placed in.” Or as Bruce Willis grumbles in the movie: “We’ll be here all day making diagrams with straws.” In fact, for an elaborate futuristic fantasy, there is remarkably little exposition in Looper. Dialogue is often sparse, and complex timelines are presented without much elucidation. “It’s so easy as a writer to suddenly want to explain everything,” Johnson observes. “It was pleasantly surprising how little the audience actually needed to know. People have seen enough time travel movies already to intuitively get how all this stuff works.” Indeed, Johnson’s trust in an audience’s intuition is evident throughout his short but fruitful career. It’s there in Brick, his groundbreaking 2005 debut which blended cigarette-chomping film noir procedurals with slouched, cliquey high school students, or as Johnson self-deprecatingly puts it, “a strange detective movie where people talk funny.” As a meditation on the teenage experience, it was fairly far-removed from your average Disney Channel output. Brick was taut, dense, angry and darkly funny, born of Johnson’s fondness for pulpy Dashiell Hammett novels. It electrified the indie film world and quickly cast Johnson as a director to watch – and launched its young star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as a credible actor beyond his inauspicious sitcom beginnings. Three years later came The Brothers Bloom, a comedy which wove a fanciful yarn of sibling con artists on one last job. Knotty narrative met wacky

humour with charm and zeal, though it received a somewhat muted critical reception and failed to break even at the box office. With Looper, however, Rian Johnson may have his first bona fide commercial hit. It’s his grandest and most outlandish effort to date, yet inversely also his most grounded. “It’s not worldbuilding sci-fi,” Johnson says. “Looper is near-future. It’s basically our world, but with some tweaks.” Unlike the “funny talking” of Brick or Bloom, Looper has a cold, tough realism offsetting the futuristic elements. America in 2047 has broken down, dominated by crime, poverty, and addiction. “There’s a very deliberate reason for that,” Johnson notes. “Making the world a very dangerous, threatening place was a way of playing up a sense of desperation for these characters.” Few are as desperate as the titular ‘loopers’, killers hired by the ruling mob bosses to efficiently assassinate targets sent from the future, so their bodies will never be found. The loopers are richly rewarded for their efforts; in return, they must accept that they may one day have to kill their future selves – ‘closing the loop’. Such a fate befalls our hero, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), when he finds himself eye-to-eye with his older, gruffer, balder self (Willis). It was this concept that first came to Johnson a decade ago, at that point merely a short film treatment. “The whole short was just going to be a foot chase between this guy and his future self across a city. It had the basic sci-fi premise and I always thought it had some promise. Then I ended up attaching these other, bigger themes that let me expand it into a feature.” It is Johnson’s most audacious outing so far, with a reported budget of $60m – over a hundred times the measly half a million he managed to scrape for Brick. Yet he seems largely unflustered by the exponential scale. It was “shockingly easy” to find funding – “once you have Bruce Willis in a science fiction movie you can get your financing pretty quickly” – and independently produced so there was no studio interference. Crucially, too, the route from low-budget indie to multimillion dollar blockbuster has been a smooth one because little has changed along the way. “It didn’t feel like a massive leap. It just felt like I was with the same group of people making another movie.” Johnson’s cinematographer, Steve Yedlin,

Rian Johnson and Joseph Gordon Levitt behind the scenes in LOOPER

“Every time I watch a movie, I think, My God, it’d be fun to do something in that world. I just love so many genres of film. I wanna do them all ” Rian johnson

Emily Blunt in LOOPER

has been working with him since their college dorm days at the USC School of Cinematic Arts; his regular composer, Nathan Johnson, is his cousin, and cinematic collaborator since they were 10. “Hopefully, working with the same group of folks gives you a comfort level to try bigger stuff and to go out on creative limbs.” Part of that group includes Joseph GordonLevitt, whose stock has risen considerably since he last worked with Johnson. Is the actor any different now he is a confirmed leading man? “Oh yeah, he’s become such an asshole,” he laughs. “Stretched limo Hummers... No, Joe is the same Joe I met ten years ago. He has a passion for the work and the thing that motivates him is working with creative people he really connects with and telling stories he cares about.” Bruce Willis, meanwhile, is a newcomer to the Family Johnson. Was there any apprehension having the world’s biggest action star in your movie, especially when audiences have a clearly defined

idea of what a Bruce Willis movie is? “Well, that’s partly why it was so exciting. There were specific reasons why having Bruce Willis, the guy who shows up with the plan thats gonna save the day, worked really well in this story, as a kind of leather against the audience’s expectations.” He pauses. “I was nervous as hell, of course. I mean, it’s Bruce Willis! But he ended up being so cool and so patient – he jumped into it with both feet. He was everything you would want from working with one of your heroes.” It dawns on me that Rian Johnson’s love of cinema is wholesale and unadulterated. His career trajectory seems unusual, but reasonably unpretentious. He seems happy to work down quite narrow, delineated lines, unfazed by the ‘genre director’ tag. “Genres give you a nice framework to work within, a chessboard to play on. I do tend to think in those terms. I mean, it’s not the starting point. But I guess I do tend to really like the restrictions that genre imposes on you narratively. I find that really useful.” So, somehow, Rian Johnson is an undercover indie director in a blockbuster world. Or perhaps he’s an art director making genre movies. Or maybe he’s just a straightforwardly sincere film fan making movies like he always dreamed. I ask him if he would be happy to continue hopping around genres for the rest of his career. “Oh my God, man, yeah! I would be thrilled!” He sounds genuinely excited and grateful, as if I have offered him a ten-picture deal. “Every time I watch a movie, I think, ‘My God, it’d be fun to do something in that world.’ I just love so many genres of film. I wanna do them all.” Looper is released 28 Sep rcjohnso.com

September 2012

THE SKINNY 29

F E A T U RE S

theatre

Autumn Theatrics Highlights of the upcoming season in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee words: Gareth k vile

The Fringe is all well and good – a cornucopia of international talent, comedians fighting turf wars and venues shouting that they represent the true spirit of the Fringe – but Scotland copes pretty well without the visitors. Although the theatres could probably do with a rest – and the critics need a month to pick the star ratings out of their hair – the new seasons are starting with Autumn’s arrival. Luckily, the first month provides a handydandy guide to the contours of Scottish theatre, as the various venues re-establish their individual identities and reveal that work made in the country is difficult to categorise. The diverse venues do have their own preoccupations and themes. The Arches covers that boundary between Live Art and theatre; The Tron and Traverse like new work; The Lyceum is known to be old school, and the Citizens is all about the adaptation. A brief survey of the coming attractions demonstrates how the theatres both embrace and play against their type. The Lyceum shakes off its image as a home just for classic adaptations with three world premieres this season: September has a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland of The Guid Sisters. Named as a Scots classic by Vicky Featherstone, the artistic director of NTS, it brings together the Canadian director Serge Denoncourt – most recently in Scotland working with Stellar Quines on Ana but perhpas best known for his productions with Cirque du Soleil – and a cast of fifteen women, including Scottish legend Karen Dunbar, and the Scots translation of the Quebecois original by Michel Tremblay. The mixture of Canadian and Scottish personality marks this production as a fine example of how Scottish theatre is defining itself not as a local phenonenon,

but as part of a broader, international stream. If theatre is an art form that values the past – reinterpretations like this fill auditoria across the world – The Lyceum is rightly celebrated for restoring classics to wider attention. Over in Glasgow, another company reiterates the trend. Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre received a great deal of critical enthusiasm following the appointment of Dominic Hill as artistic director: having made his name at Dundee Rep, his reputation for interpreting classic works with a hip style made him ideal to continue the legacy for the venue that was once known for pushing the possibilities of known scripts, but had settled into a more conventional role over the past decade. September does not start with Hill’s own works, but three plays that sketch out the boundaries of the Scottish touring scene. Communicado offer Tam O’Shanter, directed by the mighty Gerry Mulgrew and fresh from five starring at the Fringe; a new version of Euripides Medea comes from Warwick and Watford – the Greek tragedy may be familiar, but Euripides is still one of the most visceral and alarming voices; the perennial David Greig favourite Yellow Moon takes to the upstairs studio. Classic plays, and the new work that is moving towards classic status, are paralleled by performances that bring history to life. Up in Dundee, the Rep kicks off with The Mill Lavvies and She Town, two plays that celebrate the history of the city. Like The Guid Sisters, She Town rejoices in a female cast, including Barbara Rafferty out of Rab C Nesbitt and another Scottish legend. Based on the true stories of the 1930s, when women kept the city running, it recalls the successful social realist strand of Scottish theatre, where performance tom o'shanter

the cast of she town in rehearsal

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September 2012

becomes a way of connecting the present to the past and holding witness to the forgotten heroes and heroines – and villains – of the nation’s past. Sharman MacDonald’s She Town may use history as raw material, but this is a new play. There is a preoccupation with new work in Scotland – perhaps due to its rising sense of nationhood. The Traverse featured at least three productions led by the younger generation in its Fringe (Kieran Hurley, Rob Drummond and Gary McNair), and The Tron is leading with a new piece by Random Accomplice, who have repeatedly shown an enthusiasm for the script and new ways of using it. The Incredible Adventures of See Thru Sam has director and writer Johnny McKnight sharing the stage with animation in a story of “a typical 15 year old, who can literally turn invisible.” Typically for Random Accomplice, it deals with the mundane in a fantastic manner. McKnight has been reinventing pantomime up at Macrobert and RA alternate the serious and hilarious: their arch style allows them to tinker with the conventions of theatre either for laughs or to hit home. McKnight might be at the younger end of the new writing spectrum, but Sylvia Dow is at the older end. At seventy three, she has come late to scriptwriting, but her A Beginning, A Middle and An End has been co-produced by Stellar Quines and Greyscale. These two companies have supported the traditional craft of the script without rejecting contemporary issues and concerns: Quines explicitly encourage women’s work, while Greyscale are provocative in content and form. A Beginning... was given a rehearsed reading earlier in the year. It fits into the sparse, emotive tradition of writing that would include Harold Pinter, and is abstract enough to evoke various

possible readings without losing the emotional punch. And although the Traverse deserves a rest after the Fringe, it makes sense that this, alongside Peter Arnott’s A Number and a team-up with Playwright’s Studio, starts off their Autumn season. Identifying these particular venues – The Tron and Citizens in Glasgow, Lyceum and Traverse in Edinburgh, and The Dundee Rep, does not provide an exhaustive description of Scottish theatre. It ignores the good work in the Highlands and Islands, the Macrobert’s lively programming and the other venues that house the touring companies or the more marginal companies and artists. It does, however, locate the venues that are most likely to present theatre that is based on the expected – the script, the odd version of Shakespeare (absent in September but soon to arrive in October) – and twist it to more contemporary versions. There is also the sheer range and scale of the various works, each emerging from the new found national enthusiasm for experiment and socially engaged performance. The number of co-productions, the blending of different genres, the influence and support of the NTS, the bold artists going their own way and discovering new audiences: it may not cover the entire field, but September is, at least, a limited survey of a scene that does provide different voices, challenges and an eclectic selection of approaches. www.traverse.co.uk www.tron.co.uk www.lyceum.org.uk www.citz.co.uk For further details tickets.dundeerep.co.uk/public

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September 2012

music

F E A T U RE S

Neo-Beatnik Shaman

The Gaslamp Killer wants to “lead the youth” to enlightenment. He explains how his epic, psychedelic debut album Breakthrough heralds the dawn of a new Beatnik era

Photo: Bplus

Interview: Bram E. Gieben

LA-based label Brainfeeder, home to Flying Lotus, Daedelus, Samiyam and a whole host of other artists, is among the best-known and most forward-thinking of experimental music labels in the world. Closely affiliated with legendary weekly LA beat session Low End Theory, every single one of the artists on the label creates music which defies easy categorisation. With his debut album about to drop, one of the label’s most fascinating characters has come to the fore: William Benjamin Bensussen, aka The Gaslamp Killer. His production on Gonjasufi’s A Sufi and a Killer, his collaborations with labelmates such as Flying Lotus and fellow traveller Prefuse 73, and his three solo EPs have all gathered flat-out critical adulation. His high-energy, often confrontational stage persona has made him a perennial favourite on the US festival circuit, and he is one of the much-loved residents at Low End Theory, which now has regular gigs in New York and Tokyo as well as LA. Breakthrough, which features collaborations with a slew of his Brainfeeder cohorts, is a sprawling psychedelic journey which Benussen describes as “head music,” taking in hip-hop, dubstep, jazz fusion, psych-rock and spoken word. He sees parallels between the Beatnik movement and the close-knit friendships between the Brainfeeder artists: “In the mid to late sixties it just exploded; everything exploded. But before that, in the late fifties, there were a lot of amazing things happening; people coming together and forming great collectives of thought, and of music, of creativity.” Like Flying Lotus, who is the great-nephew of John and Alice Coltrane, Benussen’s family have deep roots in America’s musical heritage. His mother worked at Columbia Records in the late 1950s: “She was hanging out with Thelonius Monk, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Alan Ginsberg... all these dope artists. Instead of it being a big protest, they would just get into groups and discuss things. Well, we get together and do the same things – me, Flying Lotus, Ras G... we get together and have good conversations over a smoke, just reflecting on everything that’s going on. I feel like a lot of us are all very ‘present’ – we’re not trying to escape anything; we live in the present, in the now. We’re trying to create positive shit for our generation and for future generations. I think we all recognise the responsibility we have as artists now. It’s a very special time: a crucial, fragile time, and we all recognise that.” Would he see the role he wants to play as being almost that of a shaman? “I do, but I would never define it as such – that sounds a little egotistical,” he says. “But I feel that my body, my soul and my spirit are conduits of energy for people. I’ve been trying to educate through music for a long time, but now that I’m getting older and I’m starting to find my voice as a human being, on this planet. I feel like I would like to lead the people in a more positive way.” Benussen launches into wide-ranging, expansive rant about dumbed-down ‘trap’ music, the sound dominating LA’s clubs: “In California we have this saying, ‘going dumb.’ That came from Mac Dre and E-40. What they were getting at is that all this ‘trap’ music – all this ignorant rap music by people like Juicy J, all that shit – that’s the same concept you see everywhere. Everybody wants to go dumb. When you hear the bass drum, and the crazy hi-hat sprinkler-sytem-ing around, that drum and bass sound – it’s not jungle, it’s hip-hop, but it’s just drums and it’s just bass. It’s straight 808. That’s the root – people don’t even realise. They think they’re going dumb, but what they’re actually doing is letting the drum free them from their bodies.” The power of rhythm, and the communal experience of dancing, is something Benussen believes fervently in: “We all want to escape our fucking stresses, and when you hear that big bass drum, it takes you out of your body for a second, and it makes you feel all these amazing feelings. You’re shaking from the bass and it just feels so good; it makes you disengage from your body. So, I feel like it is my duty to do that, but I’m trying to take it one step further.” Benussen has described Breakthrough as ‘head music’ – what does this mean to him? “I grew up with De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. The Native Tongues crew; the whole Jungle Brothers and

De La tribe. They have these skits and inside-jokes, these weird words. There’s this whole personality behind their music. That shit is raw! DJ Shadow had these incredible albums with these amazing drums, crazy basslines and awesome vocal samples... and out of nowhere you’d hear these weird quotes and stories, on the record. I used to listen to these musicians and just think, ‘Woah, that is so cool. These people must have such a cool life.’ I wanted to know these people, I wanted to be friends with them. There was so much personality

“I want to lead people into ecstasy; I want to lead people into insanity!” The Gaslamp Killer involved in these records, and for some reason, that’s just gone away. I want more personality from my artists.” He elected to make Breakthrough a very personal record: “I have samples of my father talking, I have my mother talking. I’m telling a story about me. There are my friends making animal sounds and stupid shit that I’ve sampled. And it’s shit like that which I just feel has been missing from the records of our time.” Breakthrough channels the spiritual, psychedelic sounds of the sixties, but it’s also plugged into the dark, dystopian, synthesiser-based music of later decades. Are these two sides of the same coin? “Yes, definitely,” he agrees. “I feel like that drum track, the rhythm track and the synthesiser, that’s all over my album. That’s a huge part of what all of us [on Brainfeeder] are doing – making it sound like hip-hop, or trip-hop, or dubstep, or whatever the kids are calling it nowadays. I just call it psychedelic beat music.” This focus on emotional honesty, personal history and transcendent rhythms is twinned with a belief in the power of the tribal experience Benussen tries to create at his live shows: “I want to lead people into ecstasy; I want to lead people into insanity,” he enthuses. “I want to lead people out of their bodies and their worries and their stresses, and into the void, man. Into their spirit.” He points to the dance rituals of tribal societies: “They have been doing this for thousands of years. They get together, they listen to the drum, and they do their dance. Some tribes even take psychedelic plants and do these ceremonies. Once a month – it’s like a sound lab, a human sound lab. I mean, this is what people were doing in Egypt. I believe the ancient pyramids were sound labs. They were conduits of such a supreme energy that they could actually heal the nation. That’s what tribes do – they correct the spirit with these sessions. They get together and they let go, and they cleanse themselves.” He believes this experience is essential for the modern world, and can be recreated at clubs, raves and festivals: “The crowd become one, and they realise that even though they might not want to sit next to that person on a plane, because they have BO; or they might not want to be stuck in traffic with a bunch of these people... you know: ‘We don’t want to carpool. We have our own agenda.’ But then you get them dancing and it’s like, ‘Holy shit, we are all the same, and we all want the same things. We shouldn’t fight each other. We should be friends, and we should try to be kind to each other, because the rest of the time, we’re being pretty fucking mean.’” Benussen is a man with a mission, but he remains humble: “I don’t even know if I’m the one to show people this – I might just be in this moment of my life right now, you know, like Saturn’s return, this age, where I feel like all of this crazy clarity is washing over me... this amazing sense of purpose and being. It’s scary, but if I can strengthen my mind, my spirit and my body enough, I can last a long time. I can learn a lot, and I can share what I’ve learned with the people, if they care to hear it.” Breakthrough is released via Brainfeeder on 17 Sep Read our extended interview online at www.theskinny.co.uk/music

September 2012

THE SKINNY 33

A FORCE FOR GOOD

clubs

Charity no longer starts in the home; it now begins in the club. We find out about PHILANTHROBEATS, a unique clubbing project bringing together good causes and some of Glasgow’s best DJs

PHOTO: RALPH THOMPSON

INTERVIEW: NEIL MURCHISON

LAST MONTH Channel 4 screened a pretty hokey documentary called How Clubbing Changed the World which detailed how dance music culture grew out of dilapidated warehouse parties to become a major part of our modern day culture. While we can thank it for providing us with some great records to go with some fun times and a booming market in glowsticks, what tangible good has it given the world? The medium that has good vibes at its heart and which connects people together under its umbrella has rarely shown its truly altruistic side; but now two friends are redressing this inequity by harking back to the days when the ethos of clubbing was less about turning a profit, with the music itself as the message. The realisation of this idea came from two friends, Marco Calzone and Owen Fenn, who wanted to put on a fundraiser for the Glasgow University Amnesty Society last December. It was held at Stereo right in the middle of the traditional exam season. “We didn’t really expect much for an all Glasgow line-up on a fairly competitive Thursday night so we were surprised to see a really busy dancefloor,” says Marco. “Seeing the reaction and the enthusiasm that it attracted made us wonder why this wasn’t a regular thing. If so many want to be a part of this, why isn’t someone trying to harness it?” The duo set about doing it themselves. With their friends and connections across the clubbing and charity communities they put together Philanthrobeats. The first official night was in April this year at Chambre69 (where their nights are still held) and, having already established strong links with Amnesty International, they decided to work with them once more. “We were gob-smacked when we counted the money at the end of the night and realised we had made £730 for the charity,” says Marco. “We carried on with this success into June’s second event where we raised slightly more for the Manchester-based charity Once Upon a Smile which helps people affected by terminal illnesses.” At the heart of this project is the belief that people care about these subjects and will proactively choose them if presented with

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SEPTEMBER 2012

the option. “You buy Fair Trade food, you wear ethically produced clothes, you know that even your mundane choices can have an effect, and naturally you want the effect to be a positive one. At root that is what our nights are about. You don’t have to switch that part of yourself off to have a good time. You don’t have to stop caring about the wider world when you’re in a club.” While the duo cite Live Aid as the primary large scale example of the ‘charity meets music’ format, their own nights have a better defined, idiosyncratic identity which has helped in attracting some of Glasgow’s most ear-catching DJs. “The music itself is really important to us and to the night’s success. We are lucky to be doing this in a city such as Glasgow with all kinds of musical talent seeping from every part of the city and we agree that a huge part of our success so far has been down to the brilliance of the musicians playing at the night.” The list of those who have played would be the envy of some of the city’s most prestigious nights with Mount Heart Attack, Mia Dora, Chungo-Bungo, Boom Monk Ben, Floyd and NoFace all having featured along with the Philanthrobeats residents of Tarantism and Denney & FortyWinks. A lot of emphasis is placed on the night being able to stand up for itself as a respected clubbing fixture in people’s calendars without needing to rely on the good intentions of the crowd to draw them in. “We want to make sure that people think of it as a quality night as well as a charity event, so they choose to add our events into their weekend of dancing as if it were any other club night with great music.” There’s little surprise that their enthusiasm for how that aim is achieved extends beyond simply cultivating the music side of things and there is a strong visual identity to the nights. “We spend a lot of time planning the aesthetic as we strongly believe that the atmosphere of a clubnight can be totally changed through a small amount of smart decoration or lighting. So far we have had everything from homemade banners made from recycled coffee sacks to complicated visual projects from two of our artists, Produ[k]t and

“We are lucky to be doing this in a city such as Glasgow with all kinds of musical talent seeping from every part of the city” MARCO CALZONE Optik.” Last time they decided to ‘videomap’ a projection onto the front of Chambre69’s amazing Funktion1 soundsystem; all these things are an attempt to make the overall night better by offering a more immersive experience. So far those who have joined the cause on the dancefloor have been in the mood to enjoy themselves, possibly even more than usual. “We don’t know whether the charitable nature of the events brings out the best in people or not, but we have been really lucky with the crowds that we have had. A whole club dance floor full of smiling faces and cheering voices really helps us and if the DJs enjoy what we are doing the whole experience is made even more positive. At our first night the reaction that Mount Heart Attack got after their final song was unbelievable. The crowd kept on cheering until they played not one but two more tunes before eventually being ushered away from the decks. We have had phenomenal support from our other friends as well; Boom Monk Ben, who played at our second event, really touched us when he said he was comfortable enough with the crowd that he felt he could play whatever he wanted and he even compared the atmosphere to that of the late Thursday’s Art School vibe, a compliment that we took very kindly!” The plan for the future is to grow the event even more with some more iconic names keen to be part of the project. 13 September will see Glasgow club heavyweights Optimo (Espacio) at

the controls at Chambre69 bringing their unique party vibe to raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), a charity dedicated to providing medical help to countries affected by disease, hunger or war. Additionally, Philanthrobeats will have the privilege of hosting a day event as part of the Glasgow University Freshers Fayre on 11 September which will involve a number of workshops, talks and music performance all focused on what they do and offer as an organisation. “We want to get more into that kind of stuff as time goes on. We recognise that art and music have a place outside the walls of a nightclub and therefore we want to use them as the amazing tools they are: universal languages that bring disparate people together. A short while back we threw around the idea of offering free music workshops to, say, disadvantaged kids. This idea has gradually developed into doing workshops for all kinds of art and creative practices by working with other charities, musicians and artists. We hope to bring their talents to good use by helping those who may not get a chance to play with decks, paint or cameras very often. Doing fundraiser club nights is one thing but we’d like to get these workshops on their feet soon and start helping people in more ways than one.” The final piece in the Philanthrobeats jigsaw, and another natural extension of their work, is the possibility of releasing some of their own residents’ EPs. “We know so many people who make amazing music, and it makes sense to collate some of this material and put it out there for people to hear. This wouldn’t be a record-label, as such, but more of a vessel to spread quality music to the people that come to our nights, or just want something nice to listen to.” PHILANTHROBEATS PRESENTS…OPTIMO WITH TARANTISM, DENNEY & FORTYWINKS (LIVE) AND SPECIAL GUEST. ALL PROCEEDS GO TO MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES CHAMBRE69, THU 13 SEP 11PM-3AM, £4 WWW.PHILANTHROBEATS.COM

A date for

FASHION LOVERS he first ever Designer Outlet Fashion Month launches at McArthurGlen this September… For fashionistas who love designer labels at a fraction of the price, Designer Outlet Fashion Month is the event of the season. Celebrating the thrill of hot labels such as L.K.Bennett and Phase Eight for less, September 2012 will see the launch of the UK’s first ever Designer Outlet Fashion Month at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Livingston. To launch the campaign, an exclusive style evening is taking place at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Livingston on Thursday 6th September,

“I’m inspired by the effortless way Parisian women dress. Their way of mixing contrasting pieces like a pair of neat cigarette pants worn with a slub t-shirt, or skinny ripped jeans with high heels and a tailored blazer, creates an easy cool vibe.” – Sandra Hagelstam

date for your fashion diary STYLE EVENING 6th September from 6pm

with unbeatable savings on over 70 fashion brands – including Karen Millen, Ted Baker and Phase Eight – in addition to the usual savings of up to 60% less. Continuing their on-going support of British fashion talent, McArthurGlen has also teamed up with Holly Fulton to create an exclusive tote bag to help celebrate Designer Outlet Fashion Month. Throughout September shoppers will have the chance to own one of the limited edition bags. Designer Outlet Fashion Month will be championed by model and Cultural Ambassador for the British Fashion Council Laura Bailey, singer/songwriter Delilah and top style blogger Sandra Hagelstam of 5inchandup. Each with their own unique style, the trio are self-confessed shopping lovers who share a passion for finding designer pieces with huge savings. All three ambassadors have been styled and snapped in their favourite finds from McArthurGlen Designer Outlets latest arrivals – and will share their ‘how to shop outlet’ tips and ultimate style advice for the new season. Visit the Designer Outlet Fashion Month website for more details and to claim your 10% voucher and Holly Fulton tote bag.

For more information visit mcarthurglen.com/dofm Phase Eight Lewisian pleat skirt RRP £69 OUTLET £48.30

mcarthurglen.com/dofm @liv_outlet #fashionfinds

Livingston Designer Outlet Junction 3, M8 EH54 6QX Telephone: +44 (0) 1506 423 600

Ted Baker Cream leather trim jacket RRP £169 OUTLET £109

L.K.Bennett Seymore black boot RRP £325 OUTLET £215

Phase Eight Cream lace blouse RRP £59 OUTLET £41.30

L.K.Bennett Scotney brown bag RRP £275 Outlet £145

DISCLAIMER: All prices are correct at time of going to print

LivingstonDesignerOutlet

livingstondesigneroutlet.com

Livingston

Showcase

N I C K LY N C H Nick Lynch is an artist based in Glasgow. He is also one half of Bronze Age Editions, an independent publishing platform specialising in zines, exhibitions and limited editions. The images on these pages are a mixture of original photography and altered found imagery. They explore and examine how we 'see' memories, how we visualise a past event or detail from our lives. Some are more literal then others. Some barely scrape the surface while others paint a rather clear picture. Some are abstractions and others are representations. Collectively, they inspect the idea that we do not view our past in just one particular way. It's not always sepia-toned nostalgia or even a photographic-like image. Memories come to us in a million and one shapes. Some more obvious then others.

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September 2012

SHOWCASE

September 2012

THE SKINNY 37

LIFESTYLE

travel

Virgin Territory For Extr a-Terrestrial Tr avel? Roswell – Numero uno destination for touristic E.T.s might soon be providing return tickets, courtesy of Richard Branson... Words: Kennedy Wilson

There are plenty of wide open expanses in the US where giant alien spaceship might land, and southern New Mexico is but one of these. What makes this part of the nation different is the 1947 Roswell Incident, when something crashed to Earth (a meteorite, a weather balloon, a piece of military hardware, a UFO?) and the authorities were seen to cover it up. Photographs of an alleged alien and the US government’s über-secret Area 51 have become part of one of the great American myths. Who can forget the movie Alien Autopsy, a reconstruction of the 1995 scandal when two Brits were accused of having uncovered footage of a dead alien? Ant and Dec starred which says it all, really. Ever since, the town in New Mexico’s southeast has capitalised on its associations with little green men and attracted fans who believe the truth is out there. There is a museum in a converted cinema – roswellufomuseum.com – and local souvenir shops keep Far East factories busy churning out Martian merchandise. The real truth can possibly be found in a funky nearby town called Truth or Consequences (yes, really). It changed its name in 1950 after a popular quiz show, something that could only happen in America. T or C (as it’s known) is the site of Spaceport America, Richard Branson’s visionary project which aims to be the first to offer space travel to the paying public. The PR value of Roswell and the name T or C can only be guessed at. New Mexico has a relatively long association

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with spaceflight which dates from well before the Roswell rumours. Back in the 1930s the state was a proving ground for early experiments into aeronautics. Later, astronauts were involved in simulated exercises and there were a number of experimental rocket launches. There are some 50 tourist destinations connected with space travel in New Mexico and the state is proud to have its own historic space travel map (look under the downloads section of nmspacemuseum.org). Some of the sites are open to the public; others are strictly off-limits. The New Mexico Museum of Space History at Alamogordo is 144 kilometres from Roswell and offers a scientific antidote to the X Files jabber. There is an Imax cinema and an array of fascinating exhibits including the International Space Hall of Fame, a piece of moon rock and the spacecraft that first inspired Richard Branson’s own experiments in sub-orbital flight. Spaceport America is 88 kilometres from Alamogordo. Branson’s space line Virgin Galactic hopes to launch next year. Much of the infrastructure is already built and although the cost of pushing the envelope is, well, astronomical (millionaires only need apply) it will be the first page of a new chapter in the history of aeronautics and manned spaceflight. Branson has the highest profile of investors in the project which has an estimated final bill of $209 million. A number of scientists, visionaries and (inevitably) politicians wanted this project

illustration: DANIEL SEEX

“Photographs of an alleged alien and the US government’s über-secret Area 51 have become part of one of the great American myths” to take off – and take-off in New Mexico. The financial payback if the area becomes a hub for international space travel will be huge and the place transformed. According to one observer: “the state’s clear skies and fairly predictable weather not to mention vast open spaces make it a natural for rocket launches. Proximity to the White Sands Missile Range [provides] airspace that is closed to commercial and private aircraft.” In the space of a couple of years hangars, runways (called spaceways) and the terminal building have taken shape in the desert. The mothership, the White Knight Two, on which the passenger-bearing Space Ship Two piggybacks, is currently being tested. There is already a waiting list of those wanting to take the trip of a lifetime. It is said that the celebrity payload includes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie,

Princess Beatrice and Ashton Kutcher. Branson and his two kids are at the head of the list. Paying passengers, stumping up $200,000 per ticket, will have to undergo three days of preparation (including medical tests) before enjoying zero gravity and out of this world views from the craft’s windows. The trips will not be entirely risk free. Didn’t The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy suggest it was hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards and management consultants that would be fired into space in the rocket that was thought least likely to succeed? All the useless people the world could do without. For those who can’t afford the ticket but still want to see history in the making there are tours of the facility operated by Follow the Sun – ftstours. com ($59 for a three hour jaunt that takes in other local sights). The dream is that within a decade affordable space travel will be the norm. Virgin Galactic’s tagline is 'space is Virgin territory.' Branson, however, has competition: a Russian consortium and CEOs of Microsoft and Amazon have all invested in different projects. In May a private spacecraft called Dragon successfully docked with the International Space Station. But, as Branson’s publicity states, no one has Spaceport America. The Bearded One is determined, he says, to have “the world’s first commercial space line.” Somewhere out there little green men with their superior technology must be having a good laugh.

LIFESTYLE

A good traveller, as someone else is likely to have said, far more eloquently and with much more effective philosophical impact, is not concerned with mere distance and destination, rather with openness to new experiences, the opportunity to alter perception, see things in new lig... OK, this month, the Travel section of The Skinny recommends going all the way, em, to our own back yard – specifically Glasgow – but like you’ve (probably) not seen it before. Doors Open Day (Glasgow Edition) is in its 23rd year now, and the weekend of the 15 and 16 Sep sees 100 buildings thrown wide to the unwashed masses (as in, it’s free to get in everywhere), and adorned with a comprehensive series of talks, walks and events designed to help celebrate the diversity of our largest city. A particular highlight is the opportunity to see The Arches in all its glory – sober. It’s their 21st birthday this year (bring cake) and they’re promising unfettered access to never before seen areas (except the offices, but who wants to see those anyway?) and are providing free tours every twenty minutes. That said, if offices are your thing, BBC Scotland will be giving tours of their impressive headquarters at Pacific Quay (advance booking essential). Footy fans will want to take in Hampden Park, while the Gallery of Modern Art and Glasgow Film Theatre will be offering exclusive, behind the scenes tours. [Paul Mitchell]

Colin Stetson steals teh show at transmusical 2011

The Arches

www.glasgowdoorsopenday.com

photo: Tom Clearwood

Tr ans Musicales

Seminars and talks, Sep 10-14; Doors Open, Sep 15 & 16 Full listings available on the website.

Les Rencontres Trans Musicales (‘meeting through music’, nicely literal) is the winter festival which has garnered the useful reputation for being the one which sets the soundtrack of the following summer (Northern Hemisphere rules apply). Held over three days in Rennes, northwest France, the indie/electronic/insert-any-obscure-genre-youcan-think-of festival has been in existence since 1979, when Jean-Louis Brossard (still the primary impresario) and Béatrice Macé founded the event designed to promote ‘a new vision of music’ away from the mainstream. Last year our discerning (read, tough to please) Music ed made the trip to Rennes. This ‘obscurity,’ almost ironically, often has a tendency to transmogrify into something approaching mainstream acclaim should an act be viewed favourably by the 30,000 or so attendees, including a sizeable number of music industry professionals (for better or worse). Notable acts who

have emerged from the festival with significantly more recognition include The Sugarcubes (and later, Björk herself) Einstürzende Neubauten, Massive Attack, Beck, Fever Ray, eh, The Ting Tings (hey, they don’t all becomes legends of their respective genres) and perhaps most famously, Nirvana (who garnered a rapturous reception in 1991, just before they went stratospheric). Line-up details are beginning to trickle through (with a comprehensive listing due in October) but to date, acts on the bill include Baltimore-based one-’woman’ band Phoebe Jean, Canadian Rockers The Sheepdogs, and from these isles goth-rocking Londoners O.Children and the exciting Anglo-Colombian ensemble Ondatropica. [Paul Mitchell] 7-9 Dec, Rennes, France. Tickets €75 until 15 Sep, €109 after Eurostar and Condor Ferries run specially chartered trips www.lestrans.com

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September 2012

THE SKINNY 39

fashion

GSA Textiles and Fashion Promenade

Pout Edinburgh: An Event For The Girls

Pushing boundaries and inspiring new generations of artists and designers, Glasgow’s School of Art has successfully honed the talents of many creative individuals over the years. This September, the public will see GSA’s very first graduate Degree Show from the textile and fashion school. A notable date in the diary for every Scot’s little black fashion diary! The fortnight-long event will run from the 15 to 29 September, with the fashion and textiles promenades taking place on the evening of Thursday 27 September. Housed over two floors in The Lighthouse, the Degree Show will feature the work from all disciplines (Fine Art, Architecture, Design Innovation, Communication Design, Sound and the Moving Image, Animation, Graphics, Illustration and Photography) with Textiles and Fashion in the 1st floor gallery and tower room. The annual Textiles and Fashion promenades will be staged in a catwalk format in the 1st floor gallery.

With Fashion Weeks all over the place in September, this year Edinburgh is joining the fashion party with its own take on the subject. Pout Edinburgh, a 3 day event hosted by the Edinburgh Corn Exchange from 14-16 Sep is specially curated for ladies aged 16-60 and promises to offer all the latest in fashion, hair, lifestyle and beauty – the first event of its kind in the capital. Already confirmed on the programme are brands like GHD and Odyssey Boutique, as well as many independent salons and brands offering pop-up shops, hair ups, nail and brow bars, treatment areas (sounds a bit scary), demonstrations and, hint hint, bakeries, champagne and cocktail bars (guess where we’ll be). One of the exciting services offered and worth mentioning is the fancy Ciate Caviar Manicure from Stockbridge-based Wo:mankind Beauty. While the trend has been all over beauty blogs for the past few months, only a handful of salons are offering the manicure in Scotland at the moment.

Previous fashion showcases have always shone a light on the captivating talent of the GSA fashion students. This year’s crop will feature work from an international group of designers, with students hailing from Colombia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan (and of course, Scotland!) Each student has designed 5 outfits (between 10-16 garments). Show highlights include a cotton menswear collection in tones of white and a womenswear collection inspired by 60s design and Soviet architecture. Expect a selection of beautiful textiles, inspiring silhouettes and intriguing colour palettes. [Nadine Walker] Follow Glasgow School of Art on Twitter @GSofA 15–29 Sep Mon-Sat 10:30am–5pm; Sun 12–5pm GSA Postgraduate Degree Show The Lighthouse, Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, G1. Free entry 27 Sep at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm Textiles + Fashion Promenades The Lighthouse, Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, G1 Tickets priced £10 From the GSA Shop www.gsa.ac.uk

Other confirmed stands include Mairi B’s World of Sewing with a wide range of sewing classes and ICE Jewellery. Tickets are £15 (£16.50 on the door) and include complimentary drinks and samples. Note the Friday exhibition is a preview and networking evening (£10). A Pout Party Bus will also be available from Le Monde, George Street for the Edinburgh Corn Exchange. [Adeline Amar] Follow pout edinburgh here @PoutEdinburgh or facebook.com/Poutevent Booking details, tickets and further information, along with the very extensive list of exhibitors for the weekend, available on www.poutevent.com

scarves by angharad mcclaren and emlyn firth

Scotland Can Make It!

Edinburgh Online Fashion Week

Opening on the 7 September, Scotland Can Make It! is a new exhibition of works from leading Scottish artists and manufacturers, which will be held in The People’s Palace, Glasgow. In 2011, curatorial team Panel began working with Creative Scotland to put out a call to artists and designers, all based in this fine land, to create a new type of Scottish souvenir. These fresh and unique artefacts would then be sold to locals and tourists alike at the coming 2014 Commonwealth Games. They’d be a stylish and chic alternative to the mass-produced (and more often than not, cringe-worthy) pieces that we’re used to seeing at large scale corporate events. Crucially, every souvenir produced would also have to be made by a local manufacturing company. The winning applications were judged by a group of experts, including the 2011 Turner Prize winner Martin Boyce and were submitted by a broad range of creatives from a huge range of disciplines. Pieces include Tunnock’s Teacake medals, sports scarves, an iPhone app and (my personal

The upcoming Edinburgh Online Fashion Week is a unique insight into the possibilities for fashion in a digital age. It will showcase the best of the city’s design, with everyone able to get a front row seat! To celebrate the end of the EOFW filming, the organisers are hosting a party at Quartermile One on the 7 September to give guests a preview of what’s to come. A catwalk show featuring the Autumn/ Winter 2012 collections of participating designers and graduates is a taster of what to expect. Limited to only 250 guests, it will be a celebration of the team’s hard work, and will provide a tangible event for what will otherwise be essentially a virtual experience. EOFW, broadcast in October, will be a five day affair of catwalk shows streamed live online. Participants include established fashion designers, students, high street stores and independent boutiques. Spectators will watch through their laptops, tablets or smart phones and thanks to the beauty

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September 2012

favourite) a piece of jewellery made in the shape of the East End tenement demolished to make way for the Commonwealth Games development. There certainly weren’t any see-you-jimmy hats or shortbread tins. Scotland Can Make It! will not only showcase prototypes of the souvenirs but will additionally tell the story behind each piece, in a film by Reset Films capturing the making process and by also celebrating the long history of Scottish manufacturing and its place in the city and the country as a whole. Artists involved in the project include fashion designer Beca Lipscombe, textile designer Claire Duffy, weave designer Angharad McLaren and jeweller Marianne Anderson. [Alexandra Fiddes] People’s Palace & Winter Gardens, Glasgow 7 Sep 2012 - 13 Jan 2013 Free admission www.scotlandcanmakeit.com

of the world wide web, the logistical nightmare of seating, venue space and mid-show mishaps will be neatly avoided. Instead, what is to be presented will be a perfectly curated, here’s-what-I-made-earlier composition that should represent exactly what the people behind the collections intended. What’s more, rather than being busy backstage in the typical manic rush to send their work down the traditional runway, designers will be able to relax and watch the show alongside guests on the same live streamed, most democratic front row of them all. So join EOFW for a unique opportunity to celebrate all the work done so far and to raise a toast to the future of fashion, in terms of both technology and talent. [Rena Niamh Smith] Follow Edinburgh Online Fashion Week here - @edinofw Quartermile, Edinburgh, 4 Sep. Doors open to guests from 7pm with the catwalk show starting at 8pm lasting approx 45 minutes www.edinburghonlinefashionweek.com

deviance

LIFESTYLE

Do You Know What An Abortion Looks Like?

How one female photographer set about putting a stop to the sensationalism of unborn foetuses, and why we need to talk about being pro-choice words: Kate Pasola

Of late, I have found myself increasingly in a situation to which all enthusiastic internetters might relate. Picture the scene, if you will. It usually occurs in the early hours of the morning, when a responsible human would instead be already carrying out some serious REM cycles. For whatever reason, at 2am, you’re at the peculiar end of the internet. Ordinarily, I’ll end up dry-eyeballed and achey-necked in avid observation of bizarre viral videos. Though agreeably hilarious, such videos are rarely enlightening, and it came to a point last week where I felt compelled to kick this habit, for the sake of both my sleep-patterns and sanity. Until I came across thisismyabortion.com. A poignant discovery, the website documents an American photographer’s abortion at the point of six weeks. Sounds rather graphic, perhaps? You wouldn’t be the first to jump to such a conclusion, I too felt rather apprehensive as the page loaded. Yet, I was instead surprised by a set of simple photographs, displaying the standard medical equipment involved for an abortion at that stage of pregnancy and a glass beaker containing the result of the process, which looks like few centilitres of red fluid. I don’t know what I expected to see – perhaps something derived from the sensationalist images of foetuses which seem a firm favourite with pro-life protesters? But the photos didn’t match up. And that’s exactly why the author of the website posted the photographs; not to shock, but to dispel myths and educate. To terminate a pregnancy might be one of the most important decisions a woman may have to face. Individual cases will obviously be very different, especially taking into consideration aspects like the stage of the pregnancy, but generally we

don’t know much at all about the experience until we’re in the position where it affects us directly. The topic is otherwise hardly discussed, and that’s worrying. Our culture isn’t all that keen on women who talk about sex openly. Women have sex. Some women have lots of sex. Wherever there’s sex,

“I don’t know what I expected to see, perhaps something derived from the sensationalist images of foetuses which seem a firm favourite with pro-life protesters? But the photos didn’t match up.” there’s usually contraception (unless decidedly or unfortunately otherwise). Just search ‘contraception’ on Google-images. Aside from comical-looking condoms in sunglasses waving emphatically and an unexpected picture of Obama, you’ll see a cornucopia of choice. There are over ten different types of contraception, each gorgeously suited to different lifestyles, preferences and circumstances. It’s come

a long way since Casanova dismissed lamb-intestine condoms in favour of ‘linen tied with a ribbon.’ If a woman were to discuss these contraceptive choices as freely and publicly as, for instance, the most convenient method of transport to work, just imagine the carnage that would surely follow. It’s only just acceptable to mention your period and even then, it is much preferred that one refers to such a subject in euphemistic terms only. To discuss these eerily taboo subjects is simply not worth the arched eyebrows and trembling teasaucers. Women who talk openly about contraception and admit to having regular sex are at risk of falling into society’s little category of ‘slut’. Yet those who don’t converse about the topic, and thus educate and protect themselves inadequately, fall to exactly the same fate. Because we mustn’t discuss abortion either. It’s pretty much lose-lose. Whatever they’re saying - if it’s about sex – it’s just more comfortable for everyone if they keep it to themselves. This ideology needs to stop, because the worst-hit areas for unplanned pregnancy are deprived places with less access to education on topics such as these. The solution? A little more conversation. But no less action. Let’s just open our gobs and talk about stuff – that way we won’t neglect conversations which could be life-changing for a person. Despite sounding like Samantha Jones smirking into a cosmopolitan, I implore everyone to get the ball rolling. When women start talking, and refusing to be shamed, we’ll all benefit. And for the love of all that is decent do not take heed of any advice Casanova offers regarding condoms. www.thisismyabortion.com

Why I’m A Father, Not A Dad

Becoming a father can be one of the most significant events in a man’s life. But what if you’re not that into it? words: Matthew Bobbu

When the girl I had been sleeping with sat me down for a serious talk, I knew something big was coming. What I wasn’t prepared for was the news that she was pregnant – and that she intended to keep the baby. I have never wanted children. The idea of introducing a child into this messed up world has never appealed to me. This, of course, wasn’t part of my thought process upon hearing the news that my close friend was carrying my offspring. In fact, my first thought was: “Shit.” Once I had collected my thoughts, my concern was for my friend. Thankfully our mutual friends had been taking care of her, so she had been supported since the beginning. I was thankful for that. Was I upset that she was going against the wishes that I had clearly expressed several times during our friendship? A little. But it was her choice, and one that she felt she had no alternative to: she had made attempts to have a termination, and found herself unable to go through with it. I could hardly be angry at someone for following their own moral compass, could I? Fortunately, we are both reasonable people. She understood that I have no desire to be a dad, and I understood that I need to take responsibility for my actions. After a fair amount of discussion we came to an agreement that suited us both. She would bring up the child, we would remain friends, stay in touch, and I would offer my financial support when I could afford it. She moved back to our home town, gave birth, and is bringing up our child with the help of her family and our friends. I’m still living in my city of choice, working and living happily, occasionally

“I know that having a dad who doesn’t want to be there is a horrible experience, and I wouldn’t want to put any child through that ” getting in touch to see how they are doing. I met my child last year, when he wasn’t yet a year old. He’s a baby, just like many other babies I know. I didn’t feel any special connection, nor any overwhelming desire to be a part of his life. He shares my genetic material, and that’s all we really share – for now, at any rate. People have told me, often with tones of disapproval or anger, that I should be there for my kid; or that I’m missing out on something wonderful. Some people have even pronounced that I’m a dreadful human being for not wanting to be a dad. I tell them all the same thing: I know that having a dad who doesn’t want to be there is a horrible experience, and I wouldn’t want to put any child through that. I would rather give my child the benefit of a loving mother, an extended family that cares for him, and a biological father who is happy to be his friend if he wants me to be. There is more than one way to be a responsible father.

September 2012

THE SKINNY 41

The Skinny Food and Drink Survey 2013

Last year, we ran a little survey to see what you thought about food. This year, we’re doing it again, but better. Our Food editor will explain the rest words: Peter Simpson

The Olympics, the Diamond Jubilee, the discovery of the Higgs boson, and the eventual destruction of the entire world as predicted by the Mayans. Important milestones, sure, but all of these pale into insignificance when compared to the most important event of the year, the launch of the second annual edition of The Skinny’s Food and Drink survey. OK, maybe not, but you can’t blame us for trying to hype this bad boy up. The alternative to doing so would be to simply print a web address in two inch-high lettering and tell you all to beat it. Or, y’know, to go out and review and rate everywhere ourselves. But we haven’t done that, and with good reason. Food isn’t like music or film, where everyone’s frame of reference matches up. Here’s an example: If a review of band X says that band X sound like band Y, you can go and listen to both of them and judge for yourself. The crucial part is that the comparison made, and the material reviewed, are easily referenced by you, the reader. Now try applying that to food: “This fish that you haven’t

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illustration: eva dolgyra

tasted was similar to the other fish I had, which you also haven’t tasted. Umm... three stars.” Much better, we thought, to get everyone’s opinions together and smoosh them all up to find out where most of you like to eat and drink. So that’s what we did last year, and what we’re doing again. See, now you’re on board. Maybe not with the ‘bigger than the Queen’ business, but we’ll see how you feel in a few hundred words’ time. After all, we did sift through around 1000 of your responses to last year’s survey and compiled them into lists of the best places for food and drink in Scotland. We also asked folk musicians about the magic of Fife chip shops, marvelled at the moustaches of coffee aficionados, and sent two of our readers on a blind date. We still can’t believe we pulled that off, and managed to get the photos to prove it. Tee-hee. Still, the survey wasn’t without its flaws. For starters, we managed to enrage a lot of you with a near endless stream of questions and categories to fill in, then we compounded the issue by creating fiddly categories to confuse you and defy your logical

ways of categorising things. Sorry ‘bout that. We’ve kept things simple this time around, and trimmed the survey down to the key issues; which are the good pubs, where can I go for a cheap bite to eat, who do I have to viciously shake to get a decent coffee, and so on. It’ll be a celebration of Scottish food and drink, and at the same time it could descend into a massive bun fight over who makes the best sandwich in a particular Glasgow street. Either way, it’s worth getting involved with. You can fill in the survey now at bit.ly/theskinnyfood, and if you follow us on Twitter or are our friends on Facebook then we’ll be along shortly to badger you into doing so. Once you have done so, just relax, safe in the knowledge that several months from now your opinion will be smashed together with all the others in a reconstructed knowledge slurry. So, that’s The Skinny Food and Drink Survey 2013: “Using unappetising metaphors to encourage audience participation.” Well, when you’re in charge of as big an event as this, you need a catchy tagline... bit.ly/theskinnyfood

Food News

With Peter Simpson

We begin this month with a scientific quest to create the perfect Irish coffee, as you do. The Science of Cocktails will see chemist and mixologist Noel Jackson attempt to answer the burning questions on the lips of the world’s scientists: Why exactly is Glen’s vodka so grim? Are whisky snobs onto something with their ‘water or ice, but not both’ gubbins? Is that a spiegeltent mirror, or someone who really really looks like me? Oh, there are six cocktails involved in the ticket price. Should’ve said that earlier... Fri 7 Sep, 8pm, King’s Lawn, University of Aberdeen, £20. Time for a momentary break from the boozing for Blasda, the annual celebration of local Scottish food. The Glasgow Local Food Network are joining in with an afternoon of workshops, stalls, and tastings at the Briggait, while the Edinburgh gang are running a similar event at the Drill Hall in Leith. An ideal opportunity to ingratiate yourself with the local food community, the days are capped by evening feasts packed with local organic ingredients, and ceilidhs at which to mortally embarass yourself in front of foody types. Sat 15 Sep, Briggait, 141 Bridgegate / Sun 16 Sep, Drill Hall, 30 Dalmeny St. It’s back onto the sauce for the remainder of this month’s Food News, as the Glasgow Beer Week brings a whole host of malty events into our lives. First up, it’s everyone’s favourite iconoclastic north-eastern hooch merchants, Brewdog. They’re hosting a all-day live brewing session in their Argyle St bar, with experts on hand to ask questions and sort you out with a refreshing beverage while you take in the hot fermenting action. Sat 8 Sep, BrewDog, 1397 Argyle St. Next up, a relaxing walk around Glasgow. This is no ordinary walk though, as it’s all about making a tasty beer. Beers Made By Walking is inspired by similar projects in America, and is a walkabout designed to find local plant life that can be used to put together a unique Glasgow beer. There will be local foraging experts on hand to make sure nobody accidentally puts broken glass or dog poo in the beer. Sun 9 Sep, start venue TBC. Finally, it’s time for a trip to the Death Star. OK, not quite, but it’s a rare chance for a glimpse behind the scenes at Tennent’s famous Wellpark Brewery. Talk to the master brewers, marvel at the size of the equipment, and put on your best ‘tasting face’ when offered a sip of a drink you’ve had hundreds of times before. Tue 11 Sep, 8pm, register at info@glasgowbeerweek.com

Photo: aoife mac

food & drink

LIFESTYLE: FOOD & DRINK

AROUND THE WORLD IN 20 DRINKS: GERMANY

After a month off, our regular look at booze around the globe returns, smelling strongly of ham.. WORDS: RICHARD TAYLOR NO GLOBAL drinking adventure would be complete without a tip of the booze-hat towards Germany. While the rest of the world thinks beer is merely cold, fizzy stuff that oils the wheels of social integration, the thirsty Teutons celebrate it as something far more important. We’ve all seen photos of Oktoberfest, but there’s much more to German beer culture than ruddy-cheeked Bavarians crashing giant steins together. Like the English and cheese – or the Scots and recreational drugs – each region has its own speciality. Take Leipzig, for instance. Order a beer there, and you may well be offered a Gose. At around 5%, these are wheat beers brewed with coriander and salt, then stored in wooden barrels with souring bacteria. Only one Gose brewer survived the Second World War, and when he died the secret was lost. Happily the recipe was discovered in the 1980s and Gose resurrected. I bet the Leipzigers love to watch the tourists as the sour, herbal, salty beer pummels every taste bud they possess. My advice is to take a few sips, nod your head, and move on – a great way to practise your poker face if nothing else. In Berlin there’s no need to hide your emotions, as they have a much more palatable version – the fabled Berliner Weisse. A similarly sour wheat

beer, fruit flavoured syrup is added to nullify the tartness giving a flavour like a mid-90s alcopop. German pre-teens must love them. Berliner Weisse is therefore the ultimate beginner’s beer – they are even served in fishbowlshaped glasses and drunk through a straw. The two most popular flavours are raspberry or woodruff (a strange, green herb). At only 3%, chances are you’ll pass out from sugar overload long before the alcohol catches up with you. If you’re after something a bit more challenging, head to the city of Bamberg – and the ultimate in acquired German tastes. Rauchbier may look like a normal brown bitter – but one sniff and you instantly realise it’s very, very different. The malted barley used in brewing is first dried over beechwood, making the finished beer smell (and taste) like smoky bacon. “It’s like hot-dogs in a blender,” was the opinion of a friend after their first, and last, sip. Sweet, smoked ham in a glass – Rauchbiers divide opinions utterly. As with Gose and Berliner Weisse, you have to work at them, but they are all worth trying if only to see that there’s more to German beer than lager.

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PHAGOMANIA: BACK TO FUNKY SCHOOL

hotelchocolat.co.uk

WORDS: LEWIS MACDONALD SCHOOL DINNERS, school dinners, concrete chips, concrete chips, soggy semolina.... Okay nobody is going to sing 80s primary school Frere Jacques at these guys but for once in Phagomania land we are doing some good... and for the kids! Double cash back. A word from this month’s creators: “Funky Lunch started as a bit of fun, a grumpy 4 year old child inspired me to turn his boring sandwich into something more appealing. Over the past couple of years with the help of our recipe book and creative food workshops, we’ve encouraged children all over the world to eat healthy and try new food.” Mark Northeast Images courtesey of www.funkylunch.com

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SEPTEMBER 2012

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O2 ABC Love Music Column A big win and a night in. When the girls get together, nothing’s left to chance!

THE GUID SISTERS From the original French Québécois Les Belles-Soeurs by Michel Tremblay Translated by Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay A co-production between the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and the National Theatre of Scotland

Royal lyceum TheaTRe 21 September – 13 october Box office: 0131 248 4848 www.lyceum.org.uk/guidsisters

King’S TheaTRe, glaSgow 23-27 october Phone sales: 0844 871 7648 www.atgtickets.com/glasgow

CELEBRATING THE best in what might overall be termed Americana, the No Mean City festival rolls into Glasgow again this month. On one end of the spectrum, Los Angeles-based, one-time busker Frank Fairfield (8 Sep) will be transporting the O2 ABC2 back almost a century with his uncanny facsimile of bluegrass and country. A somewhat prodigious talent on fiddle, banjo and acoustic guitar, Fairfield’s anachronistic demeanour and faultless vocal placing should ensure a night out that’s a world away. On the other end of the curve, Zach Condon’s Beirut (O2 ABC, 11 Sep) will resolutely be pulling things forward a few decades with their modern, indie-influenced take on a similar field. Three albums and various EPs in, Condon is showing no lack of greatness as 2011’s The Rip Tide demonstrated. In fact, despite being seen as a magpie of eastern European influences, recent Beirut output has seen them plant firmer feet on their own native soil, while opening up a wider pop-sensibility. It’s a crossover par excellence and live, Condon and his troupe simply shouldn’t be missed. If country, blues and folk isn’t your thing, or if you just need a change of pace from the ukuleles and banjos, then genre-mashing Maverick Sabre (O2 ABC, 20 Sep) could be just the tonic. Sabre, or Michael Stafford to his Mum, cut his teeth collaborating with the likes of Professor Green and Chase & Status before releasing his debut album Lonely are the Brave earlier this year. Utilising elements of soul, rap, folk and big band, Sabre’s shows promise something for everyone and, on the heels of the likes of Plan B, is certainly a man to keep an eye on. She’s yet to release her debut album proper, but New York rapper Azealia Banks (O2 ABC, 29 Sep) has already made quite a splash. Finishing third in the BBC’s Sound of 2012 and topping the NME’s ‘Cool’ List for the previous year, Banks certainly has the pressure on. But she seems poised to handle it if this year’s effortlessly thrilling 1991 EP is anything to go by, while the no-holds-barred anthem 212 has proven to be electric in the live arena. With her strictly adult lyrics, mass crossover potential seems far off for now, so this really could be the place to catch the young rapper at the top of her game. [Darren Carle] WWW.O2ABCGLASGOW.CO.UK FACEBOOK.COM/O2ABCGLASGOW

Please note a fee will apply to all bookings at both venues. Royal Lyceum Theatre is a Registered Company No. SC062065 Scottish Charity Registered No. SC010509. National Theatre of Scotland is a Registered Company No. SC234270 Scottish Charity Registered No. SC033377.

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LIVE MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS From righteous blues rock sisters to the most vital man in hip-hop, we've got your September gig calendar all sussed out

Do Not Miss: EL-P, STEREO, 18 SEP Nobody does dystopian future-rap better than Jaime Meline, AKA EL-P. In Cancer4Cure, the former CEO and resident producer of his self-made Def Jux Records has turned full focus on quietly sculpting one of the finest hip-hop records of the year. Seldom has an MC sounded so increasingly furious and vital this deep into a career, and matched it with production chops. This tour marks El’s first appearance on these shores in five years; don’t sleep.

Omar Rodríguez-López

With two EPs to date (both available to stream on SoundCloud), the band have taken strides with each release, this date at the Electric Circus (6 Sep) should be a fine litmus test for progress. Following a Mercury win for their debut and a string of high profile collaborations in its wake, expectations are high for Coexist, the second album from London trio The xx. The result is a record that plays out like an invitation to eavesdrop on an intimate post-club conversation rather than a night of dancefloor hedonism, so there’s probably no better place to hear it debuted in these parts than the Usher Hall (12 Sep). Maybe the zeitgeist has fallen out of love with A Place To Bury Strangers’ perpetual psych rock revival, but that doesn’t mean you should. Broader success seemed assured back when the New York combo roamed the land under Trent Reznor’s wing during Nine Inch Nails’ enormo-drome ‘Wave Goodbye’ tour just a few short years ago; so what the fuck happened? You’d best believe popular culture’s loss is Nice ‘N’ Sleazy’s gain when they bring it to our favourite subterranean cellar (15 Sep). If you’ve read James Yorkston’s Touring Diaries of a Scottish Gent you’ll gather that headlining The Queen’s Hall with such regularity was probably an unfathomable pipedream for the Fife troubadour not so long ago. The sincere, heartfelt qualities of his first solo outing in four years (see the recently released I Was A Cat From A Book) should see to

it that it’s a tradition that continues for some time yet. Move quick for tickets (21 Sep). From their modest beginnings as earnest champions of hippy-dippy Gabriel-inflected world music to their latter-day status as synth-pop renaissance men, Brooklyn trio Yeasayer have proven quite the chameleons throughout their short lifespan thus far. Sounding more like label-mates Yazoo and Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode with each passing release, latest album Fragrant World plays like the darker, after-hours companion to 2009’s dancefloor-oriented Odd Blood. See the lot of it in a blender at The Arches (28 Sep). Like a modern day Zappa (maybe without the sense of humour), Omar Rodríguez-López is surely one of the most inventive and prolific composers functioning in modern rock today. Granted, the critical perception of his vast ‘solo’ catalogue has varied wildly from sheer noise (see Despair) to prog records deemed as Mars Volta releases in everything but name (Old Money, Cryptomnesia), but scratch past the surface (take this year’s haunting Octopus Kool Aid, his 22nd album) and we’re clearly still dealing with a talented maverick. Fresh off tour with Volta and At the Drive-In, here’s a rare chance to see the man lose his mind with a guitar in a basement like the good old days (Stereo, 30 Sep).

Creeps, it looks like Summer might just be over. Perhaps it’s time to step out of the shadows and rear your ugly mugs under the comfortable camouflage of those grim Autumnal vibes. You’re gonna need a soundtrack to that; luckily your resident metal correspondant can help... I’ll take a wild guess and presume that Glasgow’s blackened tech metal outfit Maelstrom will be at their usual, unrestrained best at the 13th Note (4 Sep). Man Made Origin, Norderobring and Desecrator join them on a bill which is not for those of a sunny disposition. If you’re over Auld Reekie way, you can catch the headliners again at the Banshee Labyrinth alongside Atragon and The Aversion Project (7 Sep). The repulsive band names probably speak for themselves, but in case you’re left in any doubt: Infanticide, Horsebastard, Scatorgy, Foetal Juice and Sufferinfuck are coming together to spread love and joy at Bannermans (12 Sep) through the medium of deathgrind. The former two mentioned will also appear at the 13th Note the next evening with powerviolence mob Coffinsplitter. We generally like our rock destructive and bleak round these parts, but we’re willing to make an exception for Torche, who bring their tongue-incheek, almost poppy approach to sludge rock to christen the newly relocated Captain’s Rest (15 Sep). Have you ever witnessed a grown man passionately hump a guitar on stage? Now is the time. Black metallers, take note: Denmark’s Hexis

torche

inject hardcore and post-metal ethics into their sound, resulting in a majestic and mournful take on the genre. Catch them live at the 13th Note (18 Sep) in the company of local kindred spirits Assynt and 4 Inches Ov Foreskin. Elsewhere on the spectrum, the Cathouse hosts U.S. death metal vets Dying Fetus, no doubt seeking to tear shit up with the similarly prolific Job For A Cowboy (21 Sep). It doesn’t end there – Revocation and Cerebral Bore join this vicious bill. Yes, veteran shock shockers W.A.S.P. (AKA We Ate Savory Pancakes) are still going. Flowing locks a little greyer, albeit, but the doomsayers continue to roll on. You can witness Blackie Lawless and co soundtrack the impending apocalypse at the HMV Picture House (22 Sep). If you’re noticing a distinct lack of thrash on the horizon for this month, dinnae greet – Malefice have your back. They bring their death-obsessed theatrics to the Garage on 23 Sep; Necrotize will also be thrashing out at Ivory Blacks on the same evening. Still not had yer fill? Glasgow’s Vale Bar hosts Welsh tech/death metallers Impaled Existence just a few nights later (26 Sep). Arriving in time to wash away all that gloom, super-daft power metallers DragonForce return to the O2 ABC (28 Sep), with equally unhinged Perthshire pirate rockers Alestorm in tow. Avast ye! [Ross Watson]

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photo: michael gallacher

Don’t let the title of Perfume Genius’s second LP confuse you – Put Your Back N 2 It is no fragrant tribute to Ice Cube. Rather, it’s like Mike Hadreas got carried away after a few too many chasers down at Club Silencio. A songwriter both simultaneously shy and fearless, his reputation for deeply affecting vocal performances guarantees you’re in for a good greet at SWG3 (4 Sep). Since meeting in needlework class, LA blues rawk duo (hang on, come back) Deap Valley have been busy casting their primal voodoo all over the road since forming a little over a year ago. First to succumb was Josh Homme, who invited the ladies out to support his Eagles of Death Metal. Understandable, given that Lindsey Troy’s screeching caterwaul calls too many greats to mind to be ignored (Karen-O, Robert Plant…), while drummer Julie Edwards brings the accomplished skill of a prog heavyweight. Take their cover of I Put A Spell On You; so deranged it would probably perplex Screamin’ Jay Hawkins himself. Apparently Fearne Cotton’s “well keen,” but don’t let that put you off. Nice ‘N’ Sleazy (4 Sep). Having kept a low profile over the past 12 months, we suspect that Linlithgow foursome Penguins Kill Polar Bears have been in the lab cooking up a fresh batch of post-rock face-melters since we saw them last. Singer Ben Proudlock’s emotive wail might steer the ship, but they’re at their best when the distortion pedals hit the floor.

The Metal Column

Words: Johnny Langlands

photo: David Anderson

music

RE V I E W : L iv e M u si c

THE SKINNY IS LOOKING FOR A NEW STAFF WRITER The Skinny seeks a staff writer to work with us creating bespoke content for our print and online editions. Supported and mentored by Stuart Cosgrove, the writer bursary is a unique opportunity designed to provide a supportive structure for an emerging cultural journalist to develop their skills in a fast-changing media environment. We’re looking for a talented writer with a passion for subjects across the cultural spectrum, seeking to develop their journalistic skills within an established media company. They will possess a working knowledge of a variety of the areas commonly covered by The Skinny (music, art, film, books, theatre, etc) and will be prepared to engage in research to increase their knowledge of a subject as and when it is required. An awareness of formatting for online, of working with content management systems and embedding multimedia content would also be beneficial. Our staff writer will be based primarily in our Edinburgh office but will also be prepared to work in Glasgow, Dundee and other locations depending on the cultural events happening throughout the year. They will be responsible for creating review, news and features copy across the sections, turning around news stories quickly for online publication. Writing at least one feature per month for print, they will work with festivals and media partners to generate expansive coverage online, in print and in our bespoke publications, for example the CineSkinny, our daily guide to the Glasgow Film Festival. They will be comfortable writing for print and online, and have an awareness of the differences in style across the platforms. Stuart Cosgrove, one of Scotland’s most prominent media personalities – working as a writer, radio presenter and a senior creative commissioner at Channel 4, where he is Director of Creative Diversity – will provide one-to-one mentoring alongside in-house editorial staff. Deadline: 1 October 2012 This is a paid role. Starting date – November 2012 Full details can be found at; www.theskinny.co.uk/about/get_involved

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records

RE V I E W : si n g l e s

The Dirty Dozen

Adopting some kind of variant on the ‘snog, marry, avoid’ critique, Amanda Palmer takes on September’s singles. Expect sex, nudity and strawberries. Interview: darren carle photos: Eoin Carey

We Are Augustines – Book of James/ Philadelphia (Oxcart Records, 3 Sep) Amanda: They’re American, eh? That’s a good start already. I’m just waiting for the chorus now [which doesn’t arrive]. I like it; it’s an anti-chorus song. Anti-chorus gets my vote every time. It sounds like a beautiful blend of rock ‘n’ roll and heart-breaking, screechy vocals that boys seem to be doing lately. But I’m actually a fan of emotional boys. It also sounds like it’s beautifully produced. I’ll give them a seven. Knife Party – Centipede (Big Beat, 10 Sep) Amanda: [Upon hearing the narrative opening which references centipedes and tarantulas] OK, well they’re dorks. We just have to decide which kind of dorks, the good kind or the bad kind. [Later] I feel like I was waiting just to see what was going to happen and now I feel like I’m in the nineties. I’m kind of allergic to music that is meant to be played loud and danced to. For its genre it sounds pretty good though. The Skinny: What genre would that be? Amanda: Nuevo techno? I’ll give that a five. Mumiy Troll – Hey Tovarish! (Mumiy Troll Music, 3 Sep) Amanda: The singer sounds as though he thinks he’s sexy. It’s a cross between Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, the voice, but not the music. He sounds kinda wanky. Russians are weird. I maybe shouldn’t say he’s wanky, just in case he likes me. Sounds standard – move on. I’ll give that a four. Hot Chip – How Do You Do? (Domino, 10 Sep) Amanda: This is kind of boring. I feel like if I’m going to listen to music like this, then I’d rather just listen to New Order. Can we skip it? I’ll give that a four as well. I give them a four for not being New Order. Blood Red Shoes – In Time To Voices (V2, 3 Sep) Amanda: They’re from Brighton. From the beach. The beach of rocks. I think it’s OK. I can’t really make out the lyrics, which always pisses me off. It’s kind of Elastica-y, as her voice reminds me of Justine Frischmann. They sound like they’d either be really great or really disappointing to watch live. It’s music that promises a really intense live show. I’d give that a seven. A seven is my ambivalently approving score.

Frightened Rabbit State Hospital EP Atlantic, 24 Sep

rrrrr State Hospital is Frightened Rabbit’s second EP since signing to Atlantic, and on both occasions the band have shown a propensity for a more rootsy sound, eschewing the polished production of third album The Winter of Mixed Drinks. And it suits them. Here, the Frabbits go through the gears of almost seven years of recording in just five tracks. There’s the rousing chorus and blinding lyricism

of the title track; the ragged, booze-fuelled folksiness of Boxing Day; the urgent, balls-to-the-wall indie pop of Home From War. But on both releases, it’s been their newfound taste for collaboration that has really caught the ear. Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell threatened to steal the show last time out, but it’s Aidan Moffat’s turn here. The superb, pseudo-gothic Wedding Gloves is one of the best tracks the band have recorded in years. Consider the appetite well and truly whet: now then lads, what about that album? [Finbarr Bermingham] Playing The Venue, Dumfries on 24 Sep and Victoria Hall, Selkirk on 25 Sep www.frightenedrabbit.com

TOY – Lose My Way (Heavenly, 3 Sep) Amanda: It sounds nice. I find this music inoffensive. It sounds pretty and it reminds me of The Shins a little bit. It has that sixties slap-back reverb thing going on. It’s bland, but not necessarily in a bad way. I genuinely like The Shins. If I were sitting in a café and it came on I might ask what it was. From what I’ve been able to make out of the lyrics, they don’t sound incredible though, so I’ll give this one a six. Vision – Orbit Motherfucker Part 1.0 (Big Dada, 3 Sep) Amanda: The press release says it makes you feel like you want to go ‘a little wild.’ The Skinny: Do you?

Amanda: Just a bit. A little wild like I might go over to the refrigerator and get that second box of strawberries. Once again, this is so outside my genre. I just never listen to music like this so I’ll give it an ambivalent five. The Skinny: I thought seven was your ambivalent score... Amanda: I have a few. Fans of Faye – Paint The Sun (Little Windmill Records, 3 Sep) Amanda: I bet they’re cute. They just sing like they’re really cute. And I bet they wear ironic clothing. They sound like they’re serious about rocking. I’ll give them another ambivalent five. Not really my thing. The Heart Breaks – Polly (Nusic Sounds, 3 Sep) Amanda: They’re playing the Burberry in-store in Japan. That’s quite a show. I’m trying to picture them playing this song in there. They’re also playing the Fuji Rock Festival and I’ve played there. The Skinny: Would you be happy playing next to these guys? Amanda: I’d be happy having sex with all of them, as long as they didn’t sing. They get a five as well. I just hate music, it seems. Dinosaur Jr. – Watch The Corners (Play It Again Sam, 3 Aug) Amanda: I definitely don’t want to make love to J Mascis! This makes me very nostalgic for the early nineties. This gets a seven for sounding classically early-nineties but no more because, essentially, it just sounds like a Dinosaur Jr. song. Lorn – Weigh Me Down (Ninja Tune, 10 Sep) Amanda: [reading the press release] Where’s the ‘driving beat and waves of falling chords’? The Skinny: This might be them now. Amanda: It’s good, but here’s the thing; I’d need to be dancing and on drugs to appreciate this. And right now, I’m so far from ‘on drugs’ and I’m not dancing at all. This is the wrong atmosphere to be listening to this kind of music. So let’s close our eyes, pretend we’re on ecstasy, we’ve also had four drinks, we’re naked in someone’s basement, we’re loving this, right? The Skinny: Um... Amanda: I’ll give it a six. Single of the Month: Woodpecker Wooliams – Sparrow (Robot Elephant, 3 Sep)

Amanda: I like her already. On her twentieth birthday she was initiated on a shamanic path which included an overnight earth burial. I feel the same with this as I did with the last song, in that I’d like to make passionate love to her. But this isn’t boring rock music like most of the others. Again, I’d love to see this played live and I think I’d be really impressed. I’ll give this one an eight. Amanda’s new album, Theatre Is Evil, is released via 8 Ft Records on 11 Sep. Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra play Òran Mór, Glasgow on 25 Oct www.amandapalmer.net

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Photo: Sol Nicol

Photo: Neil Jarvie

RE V I E W : L iv e M u si c

Holy Other

Morrissey

Stereo, 23 Aug

The Usher Hall, 30 Jul

rrrrr

Criminally under-attended, tonight starts out promisingly nonetheless with a streamlined, infectious and kinetic DJ set from Fort Romeau, dropping a blend of italo, synthwave and electro. Another TriAngle signing, Vessel’s ominous, reverb-heavy live set explores the outer realms of techno, hip-hop and dub, his intricate basslines setting up a satisfying echo in the cavernous chamber of a half-empty Stereo. Holy Other arrives sans the ominous, faceshrouding hood he wore when he played at Chambre 69 in May, and begins an emotionally-charged, hyonotic live recreation of tracks from his debut Held. Tense Past’s plaintive, looped vocal lifts itself

out of a delicate framework of pulsing cymbals and synths, evolving into an effects-drenched cry from the heart. Impouring’s stop-start, juddering rhythms and stuttering clicks, with its thrilling two-way temposhifts, chiming synths and breathy vocals, hits right in the chest. A thunderous, church-like reverence accompanies early track Touch, as Holy Other reconstructs vocal flourishes, held breaths and sighs into elaborate sonic sculpture. Breathtakingly beautiful... where were you? [Bram E Gieben]

With no current record deal and self-imposed retirement looming (2014, he says), Morrissey has everything and nothing to prove tonight. Recent reports suggest that the complaints of middle-age are forcing his hand out of the game for dignity’s sake, so it’s a surprise to find the 53-year-old in fine voice and cutting a healthier figure than the myth might have you believe. Cherry-picking from a career now in breach of thirty years, it’s a thrill to hear vintage Smiths staples like Still Ill and I Know It’s Over contrasting with the newer, roaring, I Will See You In Far-Off Places. “However, you don’t get away so lightly,” he warns before the bitter pill that is Meat Is Murder – delivered with sledgehammer subtlety and grisly old footage of farm animal cruelty. “KFC,” he shakes his head like he wrote the song yesterday, “it’s murder... d’you care?” A projection of Oscar Wilde asking ‘Who Is

Holy Other's album, held, is reviewed online at www.theskinny.co.uk www.soundcloud.com/holyother

Morrissey?’ takes on a bitter context when our host decries the state’s historical failure to recognise key romantic poets, whilst resurrecting the suspicion that he’s after a place on the honours list himself. “The British establishment still give prizes to the mediocre, and they hate people who are not mediocre,” he insists, before underlining the point with a majestic rendition of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want. Zealous fans accept a final encore of How Soon Is Now? as a challenge to invade the stage; with roses at his feet, he helps up the few who make it through the security scrum for one last cuddle. “If anybody needs me, I’ll be in the backyard,” he offers as this European tour comes to a close. If retirement really is around the corner, Morrissey’s got a funny way of queuing for his bus pass. [Dave Kerr] www.itsmorrisseysworld.com

Rustie / Ben Butler & Mousepad The Glad Cafe, 18 Aug

Photo: Ingrid Mur

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Grimes The Arches, 29 Aug

Glasgow’s Southside has been crying out for a dedicated independent venue for years, and in The Glad Cafe it has one at last. Tonight is the second of two launch nights, and with a club-oriented bill, topped by a DJ set from local hero Rustie, the versatility of the space receives an early test. Ben Butler and Mousepad, Joe Howe’s confusingly-named current solo project, builds upon his previous work in Germlin and Gay Against You; the hyperactive, addictive silliness that characterised those acts is still in evidence, coupled with a deceptive complexity underpinning each track. The set runs breathlessly through funk, garage, and cartoonish electronica, reminiscent of Squarepusher’s early material; this rhythmic diversity is offset, however, by Howe’s predilection for dizzily pitch-bent cheesy synths, which are gleefully scattered across the whole. It’s the perfect complement to a set from Rustie,

who shares Howe’s restless, omnivorous love of funk and early rave. Having garnered much critical acclaim for last year’s debut LP Glass Swords, he uses his set tonight to suggest some links between his own brand of dayglo, anthemic dubstep, and hip-hop, techno, house and plenty more besides; shifting from Cajmere’s classic Percolator into his own Ultra Thizz is one of the more inspired moves, emphasising as it does the utterly distinctive and contemporary quality of Rustie’s sound. It’s enough to overcome the constraints of the gig-style setup, and generates plenty of activity on the dancefloor. At just an hour long, the set leaves the crowd hungry, but that somehow feels appropriate tonight; it’s a brief-but-dazzling display of one Southsider’s talent, and represents an extremely promising glimpse of this venue’s potential to bolster Glasgow's music scene [Sam Wiseman] www.thegladcafe.co.uk

rrrrr Opening a three-act bill before 8pm is always a challenge, but Grimes’ fellow Montrealers Majical Cloudz captivate from the outset. The duo’s minimalist take on repetitive, operatic electroballads, fuelled by the magnetism of Devon Welsh’s tremulous vocals, conjures an intensity which silences the crowd. Some of that atmosphere dissipates during Becoming Real’s set. London’s Toby Ridler has forged an intricately-layered, high-BPM blend of post-dubstep techno and house; it’s a vibrant, buzzing mixture of ideas, but its insistent energy jars slightly with the spacious, dreamy textures of tonight’s other acts. Collectively, however, the two supports echo the polarities of Grimes’ approach, which draws

48 THE SKINNY

September 2012

equally upon the brooding, nostalgic synthpop of Majical Cloudz and the restless futurism of Becoming Real. These elements are fused by her instinct for cartoonish theatricality, evident tonight in the deployment of a hotdog stand, a hairy male dancer, and the return of a sunglasses-clad Devon Welsh. Grimes’ intuitive understanding of the allure of simplicity and spectacle, her ability to assimilate disparate visual and sonic gestures within a remarkably cohesive whole, subtly embeds her conceptual ambition within a genuine pop sensibility. Accordingly, tonight’s set is cannily concise, focusing on the recent material, and it receives a justifiably rapturous response. [Sam Wiseman] www.4ad.com/artists/grimes

Toots and the Maytals O2 ABC, 10 Aug

rrrrr Toots Hibbert has an infectious smile, and plenty of reasons to wear it tonight: his home nation celebrates 50 years of independence this month; a weighty haul of Olympian track medals has further boosted national pride; and to cap it off, Hibbert was awarded the Order of Jamaica earlier in the week, in recognition of a remarkable, near-fivedecade career. Not that these milestones are overtly referenced tonight (a nod to Bolt’s trademark victory pose from the backing singers aside). The evening has a sharper focus, on the here and now: indeed, from

the opening Pressure Drop to a closing call-andresponse-stacked 54-46 (That’s My Number), the ABC is animated and united in song and skanking. Clad in leather and shades and skilfully backed by the whip-sharp Maytals, Toots is a magnetic stage presence, with energy levels that put performers half his age to shame. As he presides over highlights like the tempo-raising Monkey Man, he personifies ‘crowd-pleasing’ and transfers that aforementioned smile from his face to everyone else’s. [Chris Buckle] www.tootsandthemaytals.com

RE V I E W : A L B U M S

records

ALBUM OF THE MONTH The Gaslamp Killer Breakthrough Brainfeeder, 17 Sep

rrrrr GLK’s full-length debut is a who’s who of the Brainfeeder roster, with appearances from Gonjasufi, Daedelus, Computer Jay, Samiyam and many others. It’s also a deeply personal album, featuring sampled speech from GLK’s parents, his friends and his peers. It’s tempting to jump in with the description ‘psychedelic’ – and the Beatles-esque strings of the Gonjasufi-assisted Veins, the garage-psych of Dead Vets, and Gonjasufi’s second contribution on Apparitions certainly do evoke the woozy joys of 60s psych rock. Elsewhere though there’s distorted breakbeat/dubstep on Critic (with Mophono); heavy wall-of-sound trip-hop and squalling guitars on Flange Face; stripped down beat-punishing hip-hop and loopy synths on the Daedelus-assisted Impulse; evil bass-heavy boom-bap on Peasants, Cripples and Retards (with Samiyam)... it’s an album of extremes, and yet it is incredibly coherent. The Turkish influence on

tracks like Nissim is intoxicating, while the jazz fusion drums of Keep It Simple Stupid are epic and wild. GLK weaves them together with consummate ease. It’s worth mentioning that, like many of his Brainfeeder peers, GLK plays nearly every drum hit, organ stab and bass riff on the album. Although Breakthrough is a sampledelic collage, its organic warmth and depth are produced by avoiding well-worn samples or even the overuse of rare breaks found in the back of record shops – GLK is less of a crate-digger, more of a musician. What shines through most vividly is his mercurial acid-head philosophy, his belief in the tribal, transcendental power of beats and bass. Breakthrough is a breathtaking, diverse and challenging piece of work from a truly unique producer. [Bram E. Gieben] www.brainfeedersite.com

Adrian Crowley

Deerhoof

Mala

Chemikal Underground, 14 Sep

ATP Recordings, 24 Sep

Brownswood Recordings, 10 Sep

I See Three Birds Flying

Breakup Song

rrrrR “And I tried to write the saddest song in the world,” croons Adrian Crowley on the second track of his excellent sixth album. The majestic burst of strings which follow, though, dash any hopes he had of ever achieving that, and set a pattern that emerges throughout I See Three Birds Flying. His lyrics are as poetic as Poe, and equally dour (if not quite as macabre). But they’re so invigorated by the beauty of his finely crafted songs, it’s difficult to feel anything but love for them. Crowley’s deeply pitched voice recalls, at various points, Hannon (Divine Comedy), Callahan (Smog) and Cohen (no introduction needed). The accompaniment is excellently balanced: elegant, without ever being flowery. And while the occasional track passes you by (Fortune Teller Song), the middle three of Red River Maples, Juliet I’m In Flames and The Mock Wedding are as evocative a trilogy as you’ll hear this autumn. [Finbarr Bermingham] myspace.com/adriancrowley

Mala in Cuba

rrrrR Eleven albums in, Deerhoof inhabit something of a paradox: they manage to be both predictable and unpredictable simultaneously. They remain wildly imaginative, their messy musical palette evincing a giddy disregard for convention. But at the same time, they’ve executed sharp left turns for so long that swerves have become their hallmark, rendering Breakup Song idiosyncratically familiar, despite its unfamiliar components. Thankfully, it’s not as confusing as it sounds, thanks to the quartet’s evergreen qualities: exuberance, innovation and a keen sense of fun. While the syncopated polyrhythms present a challenge, dancing is encouraged by the title track’s juddering melody and the samba horns of The Trouble With Candyhands, while Zero Seconds Pause sees Satomi Matsuzaki extend a more direct invitation (“Now I am going dancing / If you would care to join me?”). To paraphrase another track title, Deerhoof Do Parties, and they do it well. Unburdened by rules or expectations, they remain free to be themselves unreservedly, to everyone’s benefit. [Chris Buckle]

rrrrr Mala in Cuba finds the dubstep demi-god attempting to redefine his praxis through collaboration with a host of top-level Cuban musicians. Easing the listener in by way of the supple and evocative Mulata, Mala makes it clear that he’s not interested in compromising his bass weight and by the time we get to Changuito it’s obvious that something very special is going on, as claustrophobic high-pressure bass bridles moodily against frenzied percussion and layers of delirious, droning horns. It’s a delicious marriage of balmy euphoria and low frequency menace but it’s not the only trick Mala has up his sleeve: Calle F is an enveloping, jazzy workout whilst The Tourist is the sound of Mala letting his hair down, looping a gentle acoustic bassline and blissing out to some gentle Cuban vibes. Exciting, hypnotic and impeccably produced, what could so easily have been a curio is, in the event, something of a masterclass. [Mark Shukla] www.malaincuba.com

www.deerhoof.net

David Byrne & St Vincent

Efterklang

4AD, 10 Sep

4AD, 24 Sep

Love This Giant

rrrRR Annie Clark, aka St Vincent’s latest project is a collaborative work with David Byrne, in many ways the elder statesman of modern avant-garde pop. The results are a mixed bag; instrumentation is very traditional, and heavily reliant on a tight horn section, pushed right to the fore. Clark’s voice is a measured counterpoint to Byrne’s – on opener Who, and Lazarus, they trade lines and harmonise for each other, and the result is an engaging musical conversation. On other songs the lead alternates, with the Byrne tracks emerging as favourites due to a more nuanced, eccentric lyrical outlook. I Am An Ape is a particular highlight, a winding narrative with unusual imagery. The alternating urgent funk and funereal plod of I Should Watch TV has a skewed charm. But overall, Love This Giant isn’t careerbest material from either artist, sometimes lacking the kind of wilful experimentation we’ve come to expect from both. [Bram E. Gieben] www.lovethisgiant.com

Gallows Gallows

Venn Records, 10 Sep

rrrrR Instead of flickering out after the departure of intimidating frontman Frank Carter, Watford-based hardcore punks Gallows have decided to soldier on with the help of Black Lungs founder / former Alexisonfire member Wade MacNeil. His vocal approach is more guttural than snarling – think Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham in Hulk smash mode – fitting in with the darker tone of this self-titled album, which lives up to the promise of last year’s merciless Death Is Birth EP. Though the influence of classic UK-based punk bands like Crass and Discharge still shine through in the hooks, there seems to be a conscious effort on the band’s part to broaden their scope. Take Vapid Adolescent, which effortlessly dances between the melodic rock ‘n roll of Cancer Bats and the vicious powerviolence of Trash Talk. If this grimy, blackened reboot stands as a document of what’s to come, watching Gallows’ next chapter unfold should be a thrill. [Ross Watson] Playing Glasgow King Tut’s on 9 Oct www.gallows.co.uk

Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra

Piramida

Theatre Is Evil

rrrrR Efterklang’s intrepid ambition is perhaps their defining characteristic, as evidenced by fourth album Piramida’s titular birthplace: an abandoned mining facility in Svalbard. Decamping to the frozen archipelago for nine days, the Danish trio collected various field recordings, from which they built Piramida’s base – rusted iron struck like xylophone bars; birds and air taped and appropriated. It’s a severe environment from which to draw inspiration – a rocky landscape containing more polar bears than people – and the result is a sombre and gelid piece at odds with the charm and warmth of past releases. But repeated close listens restart the record’s heart, as it shivers off detachment to reveal an exquisite elegance. Caspar Clausen’s vocals sit clearer in the mix than ever, deepened in tone and evocatively pensive, while tracks like Apples demonstrate a typically opulent breadth of instrumentation. Though possibly their least straightforwardly enjoyable album, Perimida is a distinct and expertlyaccomplished advancement of the Efterklang sound. [Chris Buckle]

8 Ft Records, 10 Sep

rrrRR From the beginning, Theatre Is Evil sets out to be a big record in terms of themes, production and overall length. In part, it succeeds admirably but at times is hampered by disparate styles and an unwieldy tracklisting. The cabaret rock of Do It With A Rockstar and Lost are dizzy highlights, whilst the Cure-esque Grown Man Cry and the glacially gorgeous piano ballad Trout Heart Replica are a welcome respite from the previous bombast. Had the indulgent Bed Song or the bubblegum rock of Massachusetts Avenue been snipped from the line-up, it’d be to the album’s credit. Thankfully, Palmer’s voice and semi-autobiographical lyrics are in fine form throughout and her domineering presence goes a long way to papering over the cracks, slight though they are. Theatre Is Evil’s sheer scale and ambition will spell out love for her legion of devout fans, but for those casually looking in this is more of an enjoyable frisson. [Darren Carle] Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra play Òran Mór, Glasgow on 25 Oct

OneohtrixPointNever/ReneHell

Sic Alps

Music For Reliquary House / In 1980 I Was A Blue Square

Sic Alps

Drag City, 10 Sep

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NNA Tapes, 17 Sep

rrrRR OPN’s Music For Reliquary House finds Dan Lopatin revisiting the experimental modes of 2011’s Replica but toning down that album’s sense of rhythm and melody in favour of a more rigorous focus on extracting alien DNA from human speech patterns. In parts sounding like Farmers Manual jamming with Anne-James Chaton, Lopatin’s mishmash of stuttering electronics, spacey drones and hyper-edited chunks of spoken text exude a calming, meditative quality at odds with its chaotic structure; an unexpectedly soothing, though not particularly adventurous, excursion into the realm of glitch. Rene Hell’s side (entitled In 1980 I Was A Blue Square) features strangled electronic jams and drones laid atop a series of classical figures for piano and strings. It is, by turns, jarringly discordant and disappointingly polite, often coming across like a less elegantly realised take on Keith Fullerton Whitman’s Variations for Oud and Synthesizer. Its heavy-handed play of contrasts nevertheless makes for a strangely compelling listen. [Mark Shukla]

For their first LP on Drag City, San Francisco’s Sic Alps manage to shoehorn woozy violins, frazzled, treble-heavy guitars, and bursts of atonal feedback into a garage rock template. It’s an approach that somehow combines an authentically retro edge with flourishes of striking originality: Wake Up, It’s Over II, for example, fades out over a chord progression borrowed from Hey Joe, but overlays it with a gleefully strange, bruising clatter. Elsewhere, much of Sic Alps channels the rambunctious psychedelia of The White Album’s heavier moments: there’s an obsessive attention to detail on tracks like Glyphs, evident in the 60s guitar sound and deliberately wobbly, lo-fi production, but that care is offset by a playful imaginativeness, which ensures Sic Alps are never in thrall to their influences. And as the melancholy, spaced-out Rock Races shows, they have a charisma and assuredness that remains even when the wigged-out riffs are stripped away. [Sam Wiseman] www.sicalps.com

September 2012

THE SKINNY 49

RE V I EW : A LBUM S

Animal Collective

Grizzly Bear

Battery Face

Domino Records, 3 Sep

Warp, 17 Sep

Dirty Beard / Electropapknit, out now

Centipede Hz

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Shields

Addams Family Values

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Animal Collective must be sick of the copycats by now. Since 2009’s Merriweather Post Pavilion went stratospheric, their brand of cerebral electronic pop has been cut, pasted and plagiarised by scores of less accomplished drones. So much so that on first spin new LP Centipede Hz could easily be mistaken for yet another counterfeit, rather than the latest workings of the Baltimore quartet. Yet, in so many ways, these eleven cuts are unmistakably Animal Collective. Today’s Supernatural and the hyperactive Applesauce still swirl like a carnival carousel ride on overdrive, while familiar traces of melancholy flit through Panda Bear’s vocals, beautifully framed by the haze of Father Time’s woozy synthesizers and Pulleys’ brittle percussion. It’s often engrossing, but there’s a puzzling lack of depth to several of these offerings – a point underlined by meandering sprawls like Wide Eyed. While far from a failure, Centipede Hz still feels awfully like a diluted facsimile of its two predecessors. We’ve come to expect more from the real thing. [Billy Hamilton]

It’d be a tough ask for Grizzly Bear’s latest to match the meticulous, swooning highs of 2009’sVeckatimest, but it certainly has its moments. Though it lacks the initial stand-out singles of their previous record, album number four is perhaps a more consistent cursory listening experience, whilst eking out new highlights with each subsequent spin. Though the Brooklyn-based quartet only occasionally break out of a mid-tempo pace, Shields is certainly marked as a more propulsive listen whilst feeling a little looser and rawer in production. Highlights such as Yet Again and Half Gate embody this well, whilst the more languid moments, reminiscent of breakthrough Yellow House, are kept in check; an end coda here, a short, droning instrumental there. It doesn’t quite leave the mark you may have been expecting once the dust settles, but unlike their previous albums’ predilection with time and place, it’s the journey rather than the destination that matters. [Darren Carle]

Battery Face apparently recorded their debut album in less than six hours but then spent six months mixing it, stubbornly refusing to let any professional producer touch it along the way. This single-minded dedication has undoubtedly paid off – the Glasgow-based three-piece have created a singular sound of their very own at the first attempt. If anyone, Addams Family Values sounds like a proto-Can jamming in a basement while being secretly recorded in the next room. The vocals are buried deep in the mire, the drums thunderous yet distant. Each track takes its name from an Addams family member, a humorous touch on what transpires to be a very fun album. No track here is longer than three and a half minutes, and just as you begin to breathe in time to the music, the song comes to a juddering halt. This rough-hewn approach to recording may prove divisive at first – there are no pop hooks or sing-a-longs here – but give it time and you'll find that Battery Face have produced an exhilarating listening experience. [Chris McCall]

Playing Glasgow’s O2ABC on 7 Nov www.radio.myanimalhome.net

Playing Glasgow Barrowlands on 20 Oct www.grizzly-bear.net

www.facebook.com/BatteryFace

Dinosaur Jr.

Cat Power

The xx

PIAS, 17 Sep

Matador, 3 Sep

Young Turks, 10 Sep

I Bet On Sky

rrrRR It’s testament to the new-found harmony in the Dinosaur Jr. camp that J Mascis’s long-term nemesis Lou Barlow has not only been entrenched in the fold for longer than his original era with the group (having now equalled the number of records this incarnation made back in the 80s), but firmly entrusted with a share of songwriting duties and the occasional lead vocal appearance. Rude’s oddly melancholic rockabilly might jar a little, but the markedly better Recognition feels like vintage Dino. Then again, the absolute slacker mastery of album opener Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know – a career-equalling anthem complete with swirling, discordant organs shifting beneath a particularly woozy Mascis vocal – would be enough to eclipse an entire album of lesser tracks. Thankfully, Watch the Corners, Almost Fare and Stick a Toe In are there to complete an opening salvo which sets I Bet on Sky off to a nostalgia-tickling kickstart. They may stumble a little thereafter, but it’s staggering to think that – nearly 30 years later – these Boston legends can still kick back with the best of them. [Paul Neeson]

Sun

Coexist

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Despite an at times tumultuous personal life, Chan Marshall’s output has always been driven by an assured, direct artistic vision; from the sultry Delta blues-themed The Greatest, to the lo-fi purism of What Would the Community Think. Her latest outing is a somewhat less focused piece, which finds the chanteuse exploring new territory, though largely finding success in familiar places. For whilst the racing piano loop and chant-along chorus of Ruin proves that Marshall can again successfully turn a new trick, tracks like 3, 6, 9 – a slice of Prozac-pumped pop – and the electro bounce of Silent Machine have the feel of an artist hiding behind a mask. It’s when the mood darkens that Sun finds its stride and starts to truly resonate, with curtain-opener Cherokee, Human Being and Always On My Own drawing strongly on the confessional beauty that made You Are Free such a cathartic thrill. Snatches of this material equals it. [Paul Neeson]

The xx’s debut album was a thrilling affair: dark, playful and sparse. Since we last heard from them, they’ve shed a member and, it would seem, some of their sense of adventure. It’s apparent from the opening track and schmaltzy lead single Angels that Coexist is a more sombre, earnest affair; it’s mostly languid, without any of the dancefloor fodder that made the first such a joy. Even so: the beats and melodies are still, for the most part, neat and enjoyable, but they’re often let down by the lazy, sixth form poetry that sits atop them (“When I look into your eyes / I see no surprise,” from the potentially excellent Sunset is about par for the course). It’s hard to recall much of the tidal wave of praise for the first record being directed towards the wordplay: with its elevation to centre stage, we’re left with a record that impresses in spurts, but which ultimately frustrates. [Finbarr Bermingham]

www.catpowermusic.com

www.thexx.info

Playing The Usher Hall on 12 Sep

www.dinosaurjr.com

Stanley Odd

Band of Horses

Keser

Circular Records, 17 Sep

Columbia, 17 Sep

Alex Tronic, 21 Sep

Reject

rrrrR Stanley Odd’s second full-length album is a step up from Oddio, building on the politicised, hookdriven template they evolved on EPs Pure Antihero Material and The Day I Went Deaf. With an incendiary live reputation and a firm grip on songwriting, they’re the most fully-formed band to emerge from Scotland’s ever-burgeoning hip-hop scene in recent years. Not quite every track on Reject hits the sweet spot, but the tight funk of Killergram, the infectious electronic pulse of dystopian anthem Will the Last One Left Please Turn Off the Light, the majestic, epic, stringled sweep of Carry Me Home and the bouncing, pitch-bent synth-funk of Get Out Ma Headspace showcase the band at their eccentric, accessible best. Solareye is a rapper with something to say, but his rhetoric never overshadows the super-tight band, or the smoky, soulful delivery of singer Veronika Elektronika. This is intelligent, polished home-grown hip-hop with broad appeal. [Bram E Gieben] Playing Aberdeen Lemon Tree on 14 Sep; Glasgow Stereo on 20 Sep; Edinburgh Liquid Room on 21 Sep and Inverness Ironworks on 22 Sep

Mirage Rock

Audeamus

rrRRR Since relocating from Seattle to the American Midwest to record 2007’s joyous Cease to Begin, Band of Horses’ song craft has come to reflect the sextet’s geographical and social shift, with a more subdued, countrified lilt taking hold. Their fourth LP develops this idea to the point that, at times, they sound plain horizontal. Rambling, folksy ditties like Shut In Tourist, the woozy Iron & Wineaping Dumpster World, and the honky-tonk swing of Electric Music all provide some good, clean fun – conjuring the image of Ben Bridwell and co high-fiving, group hugging and generally seeming, well, perhaps just a little too happy. In direct contrast, Bridwell’s recurring chant of “I want you to fail!” on stand-out Feud lets out a little vitriol, whilst lead single Knock Knock – an uncomplicated nod back to their roots – thunders in with a story about “a ramshackle crew with something to prove.” It’s only a slight reminder of their former glory. [Paul Neeson]

rrrRR Audeamus is Keser’s third album, and this time round they have produced the work themselves. The result is a slightly more stripped-back sound than on 2009’s Robo Ghost, but the band’s formula remains the same – linear, minimalistic post-rock guitars meet ambient washes of electronic sound and understated beats, building subtly-shaded sonic cathedrals around simple melodic progressions. Moon House incorporates a heavier breakbeat and some interesting distortion effects, while Switch Into A Life has a bass-heavy, intricate broken beat at its core. The ambient wash of Safe Place For Ravers is pleasant, but unadventurous – and that’s a good description of the album as a whole. Inoffensive, soothing, it fails to surprise but not to engage. These realms have been explored before, by Keser themselves and other electronic artists, but there is a somnolent comfort in their ambient meanderings that many will enjoy. [Bram E. Gieben] www.keser.co.uk

Playing O2 Academy, Glasgow on 16 Nov www.bandofhorses.com

The Helio Sequence

Sycamore and Friends

Kinnie the Explorer

Sub Pop, 10 Sep

Ubisano, Out Now

Alcohol, 10 Sep

Negotiations

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Sycamore

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Kinnie the Explorer

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Much of The Helio Sequence’s fifth album was reportedly born from improvisation, with many songs beginning life as one-minute sketches, and others formed entirely in a single take. In certain circumstances, improv can be a liberating working method – encouraging the kind of open-minded imagination that corporate-speak would have us all call ‘blue sky thinking.’ On Negotiations it appears to have had the opposite effect, causing the duo (singer/ guitarist Brandon Summers and drummer/keyboardist Benjamin Weikel) to withdraw into conventionality, with largely tepid results. Summers’ vocals are as irreproachable as ever, floating and soaring over reverb-heavy guitar lines, and it’s testament to the band’s proficiency that nothing stands out as particularly poor; the problem is that little stands out at all. But if this is the sound of a band creatively treading water, they make the pools in which they paddle sound pretty inviting, with glistening self-production making the most of their obvious talents. [Chris Buckle]

Like the tree after which they are named, Sycamore’s branches extend far. Between them, core members Jer Reid, Stevie Jones and Shane Connolly have roots in El Hombre Trajeado, Issho Taiko Drummers and Tattie Toes, amongst others; the record’s guesting 'friends', meanwhile, include Bill Wells and The One Ensemble’s Daniel Padden. The six pieces that constitute their debut are subtly intoxicating – a rich mix of tricky melodies and heady textures that eschew straightforward structures. Opener New Cold is an immediate standout: one of the few tracks to feature prominent vocals, it buffets wordless wails (from Connolly’s fellow Tattie Nerea Bello) with exotic and propulsive twin guitars. The closing A Sun – with its droning, groaning interlude – also deserves mention, building to a noisy finish forged from percussive rattles and string whines. Sporadic lulls elsewhere do nothing to diminish the record as a whole, raising hopes this union is an on-going project and not a one-off. [Chris Buckle]

The debut from this Bournemouth indie/post-rock quartet is characterised by unexpected shifts in direction: lead guitars mysteriously recede just as songs reach apparent crescendos; narcotic slow-burners step startlingly into uptempo trad-rock rhythms. Throughout, Kinnie the Explorer demonstrate an admirable lack of interest in contemporary arbiters of cool, as their choice of veteran prog producer Bob Drake demonstrates; much of the record is guided by an affection for the grandeur and mystique of 70s psych and space rock. That unembarrassed engagement with epic atmospheres and themes, however, is offset by a relatively constrained sonic palette. At its most effective, this approach creates an impressively streamlined strain of neo-psych; but at other times it can feel lacking in inspiration. Kinnie the Explorer’s ubiquitous crystalline guitar arpeggios, for example, evoke Deerhunter’s neo-shoegaze textures, but lack their unearthly richness and variety. There is, nonetheless, an impressive, starry-eyed structural and thematic ambition evident here. [Sam Wiseman]

www.facebook.com/heliosequence

www.sycamoreband.co.uk

www.kinnietheexplorer.com

50 THE SKINNY

September 2012

RE V IEW : ALBUM S

Rudi Zygaldo

The Fresh and Onlys

Planet Mu, 17 Sep

Souterrain Transmissions, 3 Sep

Tragicomedies

rrrRR Any artist whose press release describes their music as ‘pop for people who read’ (cuz, like, Beyoncé is aight but she’ll never understand Joyce the way Rudi does...) is always going to be fighting an uphill battle against this particular hack, but Zygaldo has the sense to frontload his album with intoxicating tracks like Melpomene and Russian Dolls – a devestating slice of future pop that features an exquisitely treated vocal performance. They illustrate that Zygaldo is at his best when he focuses on quality vocal hooks and (relatively) straightforward compositions. That said, it too often feels like Zygaldo falls in love with his own production chops, which owe much to the glitchy rhythms of Jackson and His Computer Band and the ultra-mannered IDM stylings of Tim Exile. So we end up with, on the one hand, over-complex snoozers like Catharine, and on the other, Tragicomedy – which sounds like Vic Reeves singing James Blake in his ‘club style.’ [Mark Shukla] www.planet.mu

Laibach

Long Slow Dance

An Introduction to... Laibach / Reproduction Prohibited

rrrrR

Mute, 3 Sep

San Fransisco’s The Fresh & Onlys are old-fashioned songwriters – not only in the sense that their music evokes a panoply of traditions and styles, from fifties doo-wop to eighties indie, but in their prolificacy, releasing albums almostannually and slotting multiple EPs between. Despite this formidable pace, their batting average on fourth full-length Long Slow Dance is astounding; from the Felt-like 20 Days and 20 Nights to end-of-night lullaby Wanna Do Right By You, all hit home. The quartet’s second remarkable quality is that they can recall so many others (The Go-Betweens, The Beach Boys and REM all waltz into earshot) without rendering themselves redundantly over-familiar. This is, as promised upfront in the band name, a fresh sounding record, despite the obvious echoes of past practitioners. Small flourishes (like the horns of Executioner’s Song) produce significant ripples, while even at their most straightforward (such as on No Regards’ unadulterated pop), they prove utterly endearing. [Chris Buckle]

rrrRR As is fitting for a band who refute the idea of artistic originality, Mute’s latest Laibach compilation features no original compositions whatsoever. You see, Laibach REALLY, REALLY refute the idea of originality. We’re not just talking covers; we’re talking covers of covers; we’re talking covers of Laibach songs; we’re talking covers of songs inspired by Laibach songs. So far, so postmodern – but is it any good and does it work as a primer? Well yes and kind of. Laibach’s MO has long revolved around the frisson that occurs when a brutal adherence to stony-faced teutonic pomp is pushed way beyond design tolerance, resulting in a curiously ambiguous kind of pathos suffused with high camp absurdism. When the band is really on form (Germania, Geburt Einer Nation) the effect is positively psychedelic; the uncannily pleasurable sensation of feeling one’s emotional compass flutter thrillingly sans orientation. [Mark Shukla] www.laibach.org

www.thefreshandonlys.blogspot.de

Divorce

Vcheka

Night School Records, 17 Sep

Gamma Proforma, Out Now

Divorce

rrrrR

Vcheka

rrrrr

Like the verb itself, Divorce is not for everyone. Hardly surprising then that the sheer skull-fucking, raw intensity of this long-awaited debut suggests mass appeal was never on the cards anyway. Instead, the Glasgow quartet deal in stabbing, buzzsaw guitars and caustic, wailing vocals underpinned by skin-crawling, ambient drones. Admittedly, it takes the self-proclaimed ‘nae-wave’ pioneers a couple of attempts to hit full gear, but when the trilogy of Aids Of Space, Bill Murray and Pencils Giant Pencils kicks in, you’ll likely be in thrall to their manic, industrial riffs and pummelling percussion. The weightier end run may stretch the template a mite, but Divorce prove themselves far beyond one-trick ponies with the rebirthed Stabby (Stabby) Stab and it’s frankly disturbing free-form saxophone solo. With a strong constitution and a little perseverance, song structures seep out of the dense production fuzz to pay dividends; keep that in mind and Divorce could be the option for you. [Darren Carle]

It’s a ridiculous slogan on paper, perhaps, but Vcheka’s self-described premise of ‘Kraut math jazz’ seems astute to the ear. An anomaly on the Scottish music scene, this elusive, forward-thinking Glasgow quartet rarely sound like a band operating in the here and now. In essence, they’re not; with internal disputes leaving them in limbo, it’s a miracle this album even saw the light of day. Still, disciples of progressive instrumental rock of all eras are bound to find hooks for weeks on this irresistible debut. Its tendency towards muddy production is half the charm – see 1977 and Mesh – practically putting you in the room while they throw down an earthy, reverb-choked rehearsal. When vocals occasionally drift in they’re never the same on any two tracks; take the anguished wail of 1919, echoing Maynard James Keenan, or closing track Diminished, served with a snarling gusto frighteningly comparable to Alex Harvey. Whether Vcheka can find a way to resurface remains to be seen, but at last we have this absorbing document. [Dave Kerr]

Playing Nice’n’Sleazy with Neighbourhood Gout and Hivver on 8 Sep

www.facebook.com/vcheka

The Top five 1

The Gaslamp killer

breakthrough

2 vcheka

Vcheka

3 Deerhoof

Breakup song

divorce

adrian crowley

divorce

i see three birds flying

www.facebook.com/puredivorced

Flash em back

As GZA prepares his sixth studio LP, we examine the new 'Chess Box'edition of the classic that introduced him words: dave kerr

Nearly 20 years after the Wu-Tang Clan – that’s RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard – turned hip-hop on its head, put it on its arse and dragged it to Freddie Krueger’s crack den, the impact they’ve had on both rap music and popular culture as a collective has been nothing short of astounding. And, in a way, that was more of a happy accident than the grand scheme. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), their debut LP, was intended as a shop window, a way for all nine members to secure a record deal. Spearheaded by RZA’s production nous and industry savvy, the Clan were not just haphazardly talented. They had a business plan, too. Going by the first flush of LPs that sluiced out of Staten Island between 1994 and 1996 – from Meth’s tar-black ode to the green, Tical, to the rough-hewn 60s soul and verbose hi-jinx of Ghostface’s Ironman (an album he bettered four years later with Supreme Clientele), it was apparent that the Clan’s most charismatic MVPs – Meth, Ol’ Dirty, Rae and Ghostface – were to be the yokes that would pull the rest of the Clan out of obscurity. Plainly, Gary ‘GZA’ Grice had no interest in following the gameplan. As one of the founding members of the Wu-Tang alongside cousins RZA and ODB, he’d already been burned by his first record deal with golden age rap factory Cold Chillin’, the label through which his seldom-heard first album Words from the Genius emerged in 1991. While his debut, a decent if unspectacular boom-bap record, was hardly tailored for blanket radio coverage, GZA’s follow-up withdrew itself completely, cloaked in the shadows of RZA’s spectral soundscape. Liquid Swords has no ‘hit single’ comparable to Raekwon’s Ice Cream or ODB’s Brooklyn Zoo. It instead pursues a bloody-minded, thematic narrative to portray a world where GZA is a Keyser Soze-esque panopticon: scowling prophet in one instance, wily drug kingpin in the next, but always several steps ahead of everyone: “I use less men, more powerful shit for my team / Like my man Muhammad from Afghanistan / Grew up in Iran, the nigga runs a neighbourhood newsstand / A wild Middle Easter, bomb specialist

/ Initiated, at 11 to be a terrorist / He set bombs in bottles of champagne / And when niggas popped the cork, niggas lost half they brains.” Such moments of warped humour only serve to intensify Liquid Swords’ skulking, predatory menace, as if plastering the champagne suite with skull paste was nothing more than an occupational hazard. GZA’s sincerity and matter-of-factness is always world-weary – Liquid Swords has little of the earnest prolixity of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, nor the playful malice of Method Man’s Tical. GZA’s sword is swift, methodical, and surgically precise: “I’m deep down in the back streets / In the heart of Medina / About to set off something more deep than a misdemeanour / Under the subway, waiting for the train to make noise / So I can blast a nigga and his boys for what / He pushed up on the block and made the dope sales drop like the crashin’ of Dow Jones stock.” GZA wasn’t the Clan’s superstar; he was their assassin. RZA’s guiding hand was no less important in executing GZA’s vision. Saturating his MPC with bleached Motown loops and queasy, strung-out synths, plus an armoury of door creaks, kung-fu dialogue (all sourced from Shogun Assassin, a shlocky revenge flick that shares Liquid Swords’ visceral, rapacious realm of ultra-violence), explosions and other salvaged noises, RZA’s considerable source material was rendered utterly unrecognisable through the other side of the meatgrinder (for example, Duel Of The Iron Mic flips an innocuous loop of David Porter’s soul standard, I’m Afraid The Masquerade Is Over; if you listen to the original after having put your ears to DOTIM for a time, it sounds plain sinister). This month’s deluxe reissue of Liquid Swords, an album that has a strong claim to represent the most fully-realised document of the Wu-Tang Clan’s blend of mythopoeia and inner-city vignettes, is testament to its longevity. Moreover, while the mafioso rap innovated by Only Built 4 Cuban Linx was a blueprint Xeroxed by everyone from Notorious B.I.G to Rick Ross, there is nothing that compares to Liquid Swords. They don’t call him the Genius for nothing. Liquid Swords [Deluxe Edition] is out now on Geffen/Universal. GZA's seventh album, Dark Matter, is due for release this Autumn

September 2012

THE SKINNY 51

NEW BLOOD

PLAYING BY THEIR OWN RULES

music

Originally hailing from the northeast, BATTERY FACE don’t take themselves too seriously – instead they just want to play their own kind of “loud party rock” and make girls dance. But there’s still a hard edge to this resolutely self-sufficient power trio

Q-CLUB, ST GEORGES RD., GLASGOW

INTERVIEW: CHRIS MCCALL PHOTO: NICK MILLIGAN

               

 

 

  

  52 THE SKINNY

SEPTEMBER 2012

NICE N SLEAZY 421 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3LG, 0141 333 0900 Sat

1 6

� KMR presents...

Thu

� The Yawns + The Downs + Wall + Water Wolves

11 17 27

Mon

3 7

� Acoustic Open Mic Night w/Gerry Lyons

Tue

� Axenstar + Dakesis + Ascension + Farseerzalbender

Sat

Mon

(FREE ENTRY)

Fri

� Penguins Kill Polar Bears + The Darien Venture + more

4 5 8 10 Wed

� Deap Valley + Guests

� Divorce album launch w/No Island + Neighourhood Gout + Hivver

� Acoustic Open Mic Night w/Gerry Lyons (FREE ENTRY)

13 14 15 19 22 24

Tue

Thu

Fri

Sat

� The Temperance Movement + guests

� Husky + guests

� Finding Albert + guests

� A Place To Bury Strangers + guests

Mon

Wed

Sat

Mon

� Acoustic Open Mic Night w/Gerry Lyons

� Stinking Lizaveta + guests

� Blacklist Royals

� Acoustic Open Mic Night w/Gerry Lyons

(FREE ENTRY)

28 30

Thu

fri

Sun

� Raymond Meade + guests

� No Tolerance + Give + Clocked Out + No Island

� Man Like Me + guests

NEW BLOOD

because it’s called Gomez or something, certain songs suited certain names. I mean, Lurch is a pretty good Lurch. We were pretty conscious that we didn’t want Addams Family Values to have a message, we wanted it to sound loud, rockin’ and interesting.” And before you say it: there’s nothing creepy or kooky about this album. It’s built on the solid foundation of Rikki’s piston-like drumming, and powered by industrial-strength riffs from Gav and

“We’re pretty DIY, as in we do a lot of things ourselves – shows, recording, artwork, mixing, printing...” Alastair Chivers Alastair. The distorted, distant vocals add a slightly surreal edge, whilst the wailing organ that’s liberally deployed throughout sounds very much like the one last heard being brutalised by John Cale in the Velvet Underground circa 1967. With no track clocking in at longer than three and a half minutes, this is a short, sharp shock of a record that still sticks long in the memory. “We wanted something that sounded loud and live,” says Alastair. “We basically jammed a lot at the start of the band and songs came together quickly, which were refined by playing shows. After a while we thought, ‘man, we better record an

album or something.’ “It was a fairly easy choice to make,” he elaborates. “We booked out a practice room in Glasgow for six hours, spent ages setting the room up and then recorded every song we had using our own mics, a couple of laptops and our friend Sean Armstrong, who recorded the session on four track. All the overdubs we did at Gav and Rikki’s house. Mixing was a bitch though. “We’re pretty DIY, as in we do a lot of things ourselves – shows, recording, artwork, mixing, printing... which might not be as immediate as working with professional engineers and so on, but the finished album is something that sounds how we want it to sound and we didn’t spend ridiculous amounts of money on it.” Next on their agenda, Alastair is keen to embark on a tour that reaches beyond the Scottish circuit, a task that relative old hands Rikki and Gav have both completed several times with previous bands. With his contacts book at the ready, Gav is in the midst of organising their first full UK expedition, which is pencilled in for November. Alastair has also been playing his part in promoting the Battery Face brand. Whilst at a Kurt Vile gig in Manchester recently, he found himself face to face with Bury’s most famous son, the venerable Mark E Smith of The Fall. “I went over to say hello and he instantly said: ‘You’re in a band! What you called?’ I said Battery Face. He replies: ‘Barry Face?’ No, Battery Face. ‘Battery Face? Nah change it back to Barry Face, it’s much better.’” Smith has made a 30 year career out of music, but that doesn’t mean Battery Face will pay attention to his suggestions. This is a band that one imagines will always prefer to do it their way. Playing Pivo Pivo on 21 Sep. Addams Family Values is out now via Electropapknit. www.facebook.com/BatteryFace

CLU

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Drummer Rikki Wills pounded the skins for Copy Haho – who are now on “indefinite hiatus” following the release of their debut album last year – and Project: Venhell; the latter band also featuring brother Gav, the man responsible for DIY label Electropapknit, which released Addams Family Values last month. Alastair, who also records under the name Deathpodal, has been friends with the Wills brothers since attending the same school in Stonehaven – a town of less than 10,000 souls, 15 miles south of Aberdeen. All three have long since made their home in Glasgow, and it’s in the city’s 13th Note Cafe that The Skinny meets them for a beer and a blether one balmy Wednesday night. “With Battery Face, we wanted to do something pretty different, make it fucked up, but with a groove to it,” starts Alastair. “We’re not a serious band in the sense that we’re going to look moody in photos. This is fun for us because we’re playing music that we’re digging at the moment, and we’re trying to make it that each show is a party people can dance at – a loud party with girls.” “Although I’ve not seen many dancing girls at our gigs so far,” Rikki points out. “That’s definitely something we need to work on.” Each track on Addams Family Values takes its name from a member of America’s most famous fictional family. Opening number Gomez sets the tone, whilst Wednesday is left to bring the party to a close. Lurch, the band’s recent single, is one of several highlights, accompanied by an impressively original video filmed by one of the band’s many associates on a high-end digital camera paid for by poker winnings. “The name Addams Family Values was just something Rikki thought would be funny and we all went with it,” Alastair explains. “There’s no actual thought put in to lyrics for each song just

CUT HERE

Debate has raged in the northeast of Scotland as to whether it will see any lasting benefits from its time as Western Europe’s number one fossil fuel provider. Aberdeen councillors last month rejected a stupendously ambitious scheme, partly funded by oil tycoons, which would have swept away the city’s Victorian sunken gardens and replaced them with a multi-million pound city square, a decision which prompted much soul-searching about whether the city was taking sufficient advantage of its oil boom. But the region produces more than one precious resource – since around the turn of the century it has also been providing us with some of Scotland’s most dynamic musical talent. “Aberdeen was a good place to grow up and play music because at the time there were a lot of like-minded people doing cool stuff,” says Alastair Chivers, frontman of Glasgow-based Battery Face and former resident of Stonehaven. “Members of Found, Jesus H. Foxx, Douglas Firs, Moon Unit/Nackt Insecten, Super Adventure Club, Noma, and Copy Haho were all there around that time, and because it’s a smaller city and slightly isolated, the music scene incorporated everyone – so you would get this idea of DIY and helping each other out.” That can-do spirit is central to everything that Battery Face are about. Their electrifying debut album Addams Family Values was recorded and mixed by the band themselves, with the end result sounding unlike anything else you are likely to hear from these shores this year. The band are a power trio that came together in their adopted hometown of Glasgow at the tail end of 2010, having slowly built a reputation as “noise party boys” ever since. It would be a stretch to call them a super-group, but keeneyed fans of the local scene will recognise each constituent member from prior projects.

• Hand pulled cask ale • Food served from noon until 9.30pm (Sundays 12.30pm - 8pm)

• 20% Student Discount on all Food, all September, including our Famous “Big Nachos” largest Probably the inburgh! d E nachos in

• Metal, punk & goth jukebox 23-25 St. Leonard’s Street, Edinburgh EH8 9QN •

www.theauldhoose.co.uk

September 2012

THE SKINNY 53

clubs

PRE V IE W S

Animal Farm Label Launch with Bleak

CODE presents Juan Pablo Pfirter

Sub Club, Fri 7 Sep

La Cheetah Club, Sat 15 Sep

Originally just four degenerates with decks, Animal Farm have now been running parties and filling dance floors in nightclubs for almost eight years. Surviving for so long in Glasgow’s notoriously overpopulated techno scene is quite the feat, but what’s even more impressive is the following they have amassed over the years: legions of friendly punters who love getting smashed and listening to quality techno, basically. They must be something special, eh? Well, yes they are, and it seems they’ve come to the same conclusion because they’re launching a label, Animal Farm Records (AFR), which is going to be the home for the productions of their ridiculously talented residents Quail, Lamb, Turtle, and Ronin as well as other producers from further afield. For their launch EP and launch party at Sub Club, Animal Farm have solicited the services of Swedish production superstar Bleak who has been releasing atmospheric, dark, deep house and techno on Deeply Rooted House Records to much critical acclaim. As for the night itself, you can expect quality music, hordes of fucked punters and at least one play of their launch EP Distant Voice, which features tracks from the Swede himself and remixes by the Animal Farm boys. [Owen Fenn]

On the back of his Sessions EP release earlier this year, Juan Pablo Pfirter re-visits the La Cheetah basement to combine forces with CODE in a repeat of last year’s blistering event. As a much-revered techno icon throughout South America, Pfirter’s penchant for the genre’s undercurrent has led to him working on a glut of remixes in recent times, including a masterfully dark and edgy take on local boy Hans Bouffmyhre’s Demon Within. CODE attendees can expect a sonic shower of foreboding, hypnotic tones wrapped within an industrially-gripped undercurrent of bass, while the Argentine also displays a taste for slowly evolving and progressive builds that deliver with intent. With previous releases on Stockholm Ltd, Synewave and his own MindTrip label, on which he recently unleashed Fractales - an ill-tempered beast with a persistent and driving heart – the producer boasts regular plays from some of the best techno, minimal and trance DJs the world over including Sven Vath and Richie Hawtin. He is certainly in-keeping with CODE’s commitment to showcase both dark and innovative techno. [Jamie Cameron] 11pm - 3am, £10 www.pfirtermusic.com

11pm - 3am, £7 soundcloud.com/animal-farm

Photo: gemma Burke

CLUBBING HIGHLIGHTS Words: Neil Murchison

Qabalala! with Dave Maclean The Third Door, Sun 16 Sep

With live sets from Rudi Zygadlo and Auntie Flo getting things off to a smashing start back in April, Qabalala! returns this month for a much anticipated second run at The Third Door. The event, run by Hugo Fluendy and Ed Stack, the latter being the mastermind behind the innovative download portal Ten Tracks, will be a night of artistic exploration based on the pair’s ‘maximalist neo-psyche’ manifesto. “We embrace all manner of different musical genres and styles, as well as other art forms, with the intention of creating something totally new and exciting,” says Fluendy. Dave Maclean, the creative helm of Django Django, will take to the decks with a retro-inspired set, digging out forgotten dancefloor classics and left-field gems which conjure the funky, neo-psyche sound to match the Qabalala! vision. Following along similar sonic lines, art-rockers PET will deliver a live performance of their sun-drenched electronic and effects-driven arrangements. Fluendy will be warming up with his own eclectic array of records along with The Cosmic Dead, who tend to launch “an absolutely seismic sonic attack.” “They’ve got loads of spirit and seem to sum up our approach,” Fluendy enthuses. “Ultimately it’s about throwing a really great party, hence our credo: maximum enjoyment through more of everything.” [Rosanna Walker]

The Psychedelic Forest Carnival Kelburn Castle and Country Park, Sat 15 Sep

Wrapping up a trio of events being held over the summer at Kelburn Castle is The Psychedelic Forest Carnival, a party inspired by the sounds of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Headlining the event is London’s Olushola Ajose, aka Afrikan Boy. The native Nigerian will deliver jaunty grime tracks, characterised by autotune-inflected choruses and infectiously catchy club hip-hop rhythms. Ajose has found willing collaborators in established artists such as M.I.A. and DJ Shadow and, as a performer with swagger in abundance, he should possess enough in his locker to close the carnival in style. There is also plenty of home-grown talent on show, including Glaswegian dancehall outfit Argonaut Sounds and the ever lively Samba Ya Bamba, who will be showcasing their genredefying fusion of global party music. In a similar vein, the event will host another Scottish act with a fondness for melding far-flung musical influences together, Brian d’Souza, aka Auntie Flo, who has had a productive year, launching his Future Rhythm Machine album at London’s Fabric as well as treating Boiler Room viewers to a memorable live stream featuring energetic percussive accompaniment and electronically-manipulated vocals from Esa Williams. In short, there will be plenty of diverse flavours on offer all evening. [Ronan Martin]

10pm – 3am, £7/5 advance

6.30pm - 4.00am, £23 + bf

facebook.com/qabalala

www.kelburngardenparty.com

54 THE SKINNY

September 2012

Illustration: Andrew Denholm

The Ashton Weekender is like a Spotifyied version of a music festival where the initial cost is extremely low (or in this case free) and you are served up a cavalcade of exciting new bands and DJs interspersed with a sprinkling of big hitters. The only catch is that they want the punters who stream in over the three days to hang around for a good long while to make the tills ring happily into the night, which does not seem like a catch at all. Spread across three participating venues, The Grosvenor Cafe, The Lane and Nude between 21 to 23 Sep will be all manner of musical delights that will serve as a reminder of the diversity of the Scottish music scene. DJs are right at the heart of the festivities, with Optimo headlining and with Animal Farm, Bunty Beats and Hushpuppy also unleashing sets. We have a feeling you’ll want to hang around. La Cheetah Club continue with their schooling of your asses in the subject area of Detroit techno with their Motor City Electronics series. This second night covering Detroit electro on Fri 28 Sep will feature Keith Tucker, otherwise known as K-1, Optic Nerve and one half of electro group AUX88. Tucker spent his formative DJing years not just on the ground in the city that spawned techno but in its underground clubs where the scene was developing and mutating. His back history is that of a man who has not just lived and breathed every aspect of that music from playing in techno cover bands to releasing his own records and forming AUX-88 with Tommy Hamilton, which sealed both their reputations when techno went global. Compakt celebrate their fourth year in the business of making you forget about everything

else but the music on Fri 21 Sep at The Annex, when the exuberant presence that is Gary Beck of Drumcode and Soma takes control of the reigns and manages to launch his album at the same time. It goes without saying that Beck is in ultra-high demand at the moment, what with his debut release also marking Soma’s 100th, with the label now concentrating on its third decade of releases. i AM also have something to mark as the second anniversary of their revivification of Tuesdays nights continues, and they have some rather special guests appearing at Sub Club on Tue 18 Sep in the form of Artful Dodger. A group who helped define the sound of a whole period of British dance music, MC Alistair and DJ/producer Dave Low will no doubt be dropping some of their classics while handing out their birthday mixtape to the first 200 through the door. CAUSE IT having a very special guest in the shape of Utrecht techno master Invite ready to be let loose on The Annex on Fri 7 Sep for his Scottish debut, which will also be raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Support in Edinburgh. With techno support dealt out by Foxtrot and The Apprentice, this is shaping up to be a night of the most thumping beats to be found in the city. Finally, Claude Von Stroke rocks up in Glasgow for what is bound to be a night of ridiculous sessions of bouncing dance madness at Sub Club on Fri 28 Sep. The Whistler and Who’s Afraid of Detroit? may have been released a few years back now but they still define the signature manic energy that is the essence of his party style. With Mia Dora in support this will literally cause you embarrassment should you contrive to miss it.

REVIEW: PREVIEWS

Tim Burton

THE WAREHOUSE PROJECT

It is at this time of year that thoughts of winter once more begin to cloud our otherwise carefree minds but as the sun makes its annual latitudinal shift southward, the clubbing behemoth that is Manchester’s The Warehouse Project rises from its summer grave. With only a few years left to go before the government begins work on the 11 foot, razor wire-adorned fence that will inevitably be the outcome of a ‘yes’ vote for independence, this could literally be one of your last chances to sample one of the world’s most distinct electronic music experiences. The clubbing institution, now in its sixth year, has forged a reputation for bringing together some of the most mind blowing artists around and alligning them with a deep roster of talent that prohibits any labeling of them as mere ‘support’ . Previously this has taken place at a disused brewery and an old underground air-raid shelter but the Victoria Warehouse will now host the three month temporary club space that Mixmag last year handed the title of Club of the Year. The previous venues have been suitably grungy affairs which offered functionality above all else the perfect setting to host the vast number who come only to soak up the music and to dance.

Even with a 12 week run of nights beginning in late September, tickets go fast and a quick look at the line-ups will tell you why; exactly who doesn’t want to witness Orbital, Modeselektor, Chris Liebing, Julio Bashmore, Apparat and Joy Orbison (Sat 1 Dec) together? Unlike the summer festivals, which try to be all things to everyone, The Warehouse Project is more akin to a selectively curated, one night only mini-festival that is built around the aesthetic of the headliners. The night Sbtrkt headlines (Sat 6 Oct) is a case in point of this cohesiveness with his style of melodic and rhythmic sophistication being augmented by live performances from Four Tet and Tnght (Hudson Mohawke and Lunice), with further embellishments being provided by DJ sets from Caribou, Rustie and Jacques Greene. It would take the length of this page to list the highlights alone so you are advised to check details of each night and begin planning a weekend down south. Just remember to come back afterwards. [Neil Murchison]

Retrospective

7 Sep - 16 Oct

THE WAREHOUSE PROJECT RUNS EVERY FRIDAY AND SATURDAY FROM FRI 28 SEP UNTIL SUN 16 DEC AND WILL ALSO HOST CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR EVENTS. TICKETS RANGE FROM £20-£32 PER NIGHT AND RUN BETWEEN 8PM-5AM WWW.THEWAREHOUSEPROJECT.COM

DJ TOP TEN: HAR A INTERVIEW: OWEN FENN HARA ARE the combined talents and names of Glasgow based DJs and producers HaHaHa (Frazer Graham) and Raksha (Ragnar Rahuoja) who have separately been making a names for themselves through Sub City Radio and Raksha’s involvement in running Deadly Rhythm’s nights. Together with their dubby house/garage combination, they have teamed up with Mia Dora in April for High Sheen, the first release on the new Glasgow based label, also call High Sheen. 1 FLOATING POINTS – FOR YOU (Eglo) A great song to start a set, with a very interesting vibe which sort of jumps out of nowhere. Sounds like a soundtrack to a 1970s sitcom with this heavy groove that you can either float or bounce along to. 2 95 NORTH – LET YOURSELF GO (Kult) Sexy voices sending warm welcoming vibes wrapped in this bassline that keeps going around in circles. We both listen to a lot of 90s garage and this particular track is a nice little number to get people moving. 3 DJ VAGUE – PORSCHE TRAX (Forthcoming Templar Sound) We first heard this on Objekt’s Electronic Explorations mix and the Australian label wouldn’t tell us when it will be released but be sure to look out for this guy’s future work. 4 GEEEMAN – BANG’T (Clone Jack for Daze Series) We found this track a few months back and have been playing it non-stop ever since. We really rate Gerd but his productions under this alias are definitely our favourite. 5 HEAD HIGH – IT’S A LOVE THING (H2) This track blew our minds when we first heard it. Great drum work, an amazing build which just morphs into an anthem once the piano kicks in.

Shed and his work under numerous aliases has definitely influenced how we approach our own music. 6 STATIC_CAST – NUMBER FORM (Unreleased) Something that was made by TJ Hertz before he began the Objekt white label series. It sounds so organic and soft yet has a very industrial feel to it. His approach to production, which is very thorough and detailed, is something we can definitely relate to. 7 RUMAH – STUTTER (Unreleased) A new unreleased track by an up and coming producer that we recently stumbled upon. Sounds somewhere between Blawan and Joy O and Boddika’s productions and works great in a club. 8 RANDOMER – LOST EVERYTHING (Super) We’ve been following Randomer since he was releasing drum ‘n’ bass material on MedSchool records, although we prefer the direction of his more recent productions. This track is great because the synthesised leads sound like it’s being played on a harp, driven along by a heavy percussive groove and thumping kick drums.

ART WRITERS NEEDED The Skinny is looking for writers to review visual art in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee. If you're informed about fine art and want to communicate your enthusiasm for the subject in an engaging, accessible way, without dumbing down, we want to hear from you. Get in touch by sending a CV and a couple of appropriate writing samples to: rosamund@theskinny.co.uk.

9 HARA & MIA DORA – ? (High Sheen) The first track we made with Mia Dora before our debut release High Sheen which is out in August. We’ve become really good friends with the guys and love making music with them – they’ve now released their debut EP Romanticise on the label too which we suggest you check out immediately. 10 5 MOB – PANIC STATIONS (2tuf 4u) We don’t even know where to start, it’s just insane! WWW.SURUS.CO.UK/HIGH-SHEEN

ILLUSTRATION: WWW.VERBALSPICKS.COM

SEPTEMBER 2012

THE SKINNY 55

RE V I E W

september EVENTS

Holy Motors

Tabu

Director: Leos Carax Starring: Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue Released: 28 Sep Certificate: 18

Director: Miguel Gomes Starring: Teresa Madruga, Laura Soveral, Ana Moreira Released: 7 Sep Certificate: 15

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Holy Motors is the first Leos Carax feature since 1999’s Pola X, and it sometimes feels as if every single idea, dream and nightmare that he has had in those ensuing years has been thrown into this singular picture. Less a narrative than a series of increasingly surreal vignettes, Holy Motors relies on a spellbinding and awe-inspiring performance from Denis Lavant to hold it all together. He dons a series of elaborate disguises as a limousine drives him to various acting jobs – the true meaning of which are never explained – and he performs sexual acts in a motion-capture suit, kidnaps a supermodel (a very game Eva Mendes) and kills a doppelgänger, before running into a fellow ‘performer’ (Kylie Minogue). What all of this is supposed to add up to is anyone’s guess, but the film’s melancholy take on the nature of performance is oddly affecting, and on a scene-by-scene basis it’s surely the most surprising, imaginative and hilarious picture you’re likely to see for some time. [Philip Concannon]

Where The Artist recently resurrected antiquated filmmaking grammar for laughs, Miguel Gomes’ third feature Tabu parodies with more ambitiously philosophical aims. In an early scene, a tour guide intones “all I’m telling you is not reality, but tales,” allowing the script to highlight its central, redolent theme: the interlaced nexuses between memory, cinema and fable. An unconventional structure splits the film in two: the first part (titled ‘A Lost Paradise’) set in present-day Lisbon; the second (‘Paradise’) in a dreamlike vision of Africa, with dialogue muted and replaced by an extended voiceover that tells a tale both romantic, yet softly cynical. There are echoes of Almodovar’s Broken Embraces in Tabu’s heady mix of melodrama and meta-artistry, while its crisp monochrome cinematography and Spector-pop soundtrack provide more direct pleasures. Gomes takes multiple histories – cinematic, familial, colonial – and fashions something wholly fresh and innovative. The bifurcation proves especially effective, weaving a hypnotic narrative that lingers in the mind long after its subtly constructed conclusion. [Chris Buckle]

Holy Motors is released 28 Sep by Artificial Eye

Tabu is released 7 Sep by New Wave Films

Lawless

The Sweeney

Director: John Hillcoat Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce Released: 7 Sep Certificate: 18

Director: Nick Love Starring: Ray Winstone, Ben Drew, Damian Lewis, Hayley Atwell, Steven Mackintosh Released: 12 Sep Certificate: 15

rrrrr John Hillcoat’s thriller, from a messy script by Nick Cave, charts the exploits of a family of Virginian bootleggers during Prohibition as their operation comes under threat from corrupt officials. Suffering from a major identity crisis, the uneven picture lurches between violent, gritty crime drama, inappropriate comedy and romanticised outlaw fantasy with such ungainliness it’s difficult to credit this as a the work of the team of filmmakers behind the masterful The Proposition. Shia LeBeouf does well as the youngest of the clan, as does middle brother Jason Clarke, but Tom Hardy seems to have regressed to that habit of supplanting feral growls for emoting from his telly years. He reaches self-parody here as the near-indestructible Forrest. With Gary Oldman briefly on hand to add poise and steel as a rival gangster, and Guy Pearce chewing scenery as pantomime rozzer villain Rakes, the incompatible performances mirror the antagonistic tones. Throw in some eye-rollingly hackneyed imagery for good measure and you’ve got a bit of a stinker. [Chris Fyvie]

rrrrr It’s The Sweeney, son… and it’s nowhere near as bad as you fink it is. Ray Winstone is Regan, snarling and punching his way through a mission to rid Laandaan of all manner of slags by any means necessary, aided by Ben Drew as hot-headed George Carter and their fellow Flying Squad hardnuts. Unfortunately, Regan’s methods are drawing the attention of Internal Affairs square Lewis (Steven Mackintosh) just as a new team of high-end crooks needing a slap hit the town. Typical. Borrowing liberally from Michael Mann in aesthetic (and just plain thieving a setpiece from Heat), Nick Love’s film has a brutal intensity and unashamed machismo more akin to Walter Hill that makes this a rare geezer-romp to enjoy rather than endure. Delightfully po-faced, with a thumping score and a wonderful performance from Big Ray (although Renaissance chav Drew is less convincing), The Sweeney is a refreshingly unironic gruff-fest in the spirit of the 70s show. [Chris Fyvie] The Sweeney is released 12 Sep by Entertainment One

Looper

Keyhole

Director: Rian Johnson Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt Released: 28 Sep Certificate: 15

Director: Guy Maddin Starring: Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini, Udo Kier Released: 14 Sep Certificate: 15

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Rian Johnson’s third film is assuredly his best effort to date. The genre-bending director, having tackled film noir by way of adolescence (in Brick) and screwball comedy by way of conmen (in The Brothers Bloom), turns his hand to action by way of Philip K. Dick-esque sci-fi. In the future, time-travel has been invented, outlawed, and appropriated by criminal gangs who send marked men back thirty years in the past so their corpses will never be found. The assassins, known as loopers, go about their time-warping work aware that they may one day be forced to confront, and murder, their future selves. While the thrills are loud and bloody, the ideas floated are quietly philosophical. Some hefty ethical dilemmas amplify the ambiguity of our two leads, leaving us continually undecided as to which looper is the true hero: presentday Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) or future Joe (Bruce Willis). Muscular and consistently unpredictable, this is genre filmmaking at its most confident and sophisticated. [John Nugent] www.rcjohnso.com

Guy Maddin’s latest is, loosely, a haunted Odyssey set in a decrepit, (meta) physically imposing mansion and populated by ghosts and gangsters. Its allure comes not from plot, however, but execution: those already enamoured by the director’s avant-garde style should approach this return to feature-length filmmaking hungrily, laden as it is with his characteristic obsessions and trademark cinematic mannerisms. Maddin weaves a hypnotic psychodrama that is by turns unsettling, amusing, and provocatively enigmatic – though also, admittedly, occasionally tedious, with Keyhole’s vagaries ultimately paling next to the filmmaker’s best work. But even a relatively minor film from Maddin still has plenty to recommend. The present-tense dream-logic ruptures any firm sense of narrative continuity, as carefully stacked obscurities beckon to be unpicked – not so much a puzzle to be solved, as a febrile stew of interlaced symbolism. If you’re unfamiliar with Maddin’s askew vision, more accessible entry points exist elsewhere in his filmography. But for those with the commitment and patience to peer in, Keyhole is frequently mesmeric. [Chris Buckle]

Read our interview with the director Rian Johnson on p29

Keyhole is released 14 Sep by Soda pictures

Looper is released 28 Sep by entertainmentone

keyholemovie.com Read our interview with Guy Maddin on p24

56 THE SKINNY

September 2012

In Glasgow the GFT’s Out of Bounds season celebrates five notorious films, all of which were banned on release. First is Freaks (4 Sep), the film that ended Dracula director Tod Browning’s career. Unseen for over thirty years in Britain, this superb, horrific tale of love, jealousy and murder, starring real sideshow performers, remains the stuff of nightmares. Also showing is Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom (11 Sep), Pasolini’s adaptation of works by the Marquis de Sade (perfect for all you Fifty Shades of Grey fans), Titicut Follies (18 Sep), a documentary set in an American asylum, Marlon Brando’s erotic Last Tango in Paris (25 Sep) and cult classic A Clockwork Orange (28 Sep). Unmissable. Bad film fans should head to the Cameo in Edinburgh on 1 Sep for a special screening of The Room, a film by Tommy Wiseau that has gained a cult following for being completely and utterly awful. Audience participation is now encouraged, much like for Rocky Horror, so go, laugh, throw plastic spoons and decide for yourself whether this really is the ‘Citizen Kane of bad movies.’ Ed Wood who?

The Room

Orson Welles’ final film is showing at the DCA on 15 Sep. Less well known than his groundbreaking debut, F For Fake, partly adapted from an unfinished documentary about two con-men (including Clifford Irving, who later forged Howard Hughes’ diaries), is a thoughtful investigation into the art of deception and one of the director’s most personal films. Several cinemas, including the Cameo, Belmont (Aberdeen), Grosvenor (Glasgow), and DCA (Dundee) are screening Shut Up and Play the Hits (4 Sep), a documentary about LCD Soundsystem, who decided to disband while at the peak of their popularity. Their final performance at Madison Square Garden in April 2011 was an instant sell-out gig and an emotional event for all involved. Directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern provide footage of the concert as well as an intimate portrait of the band’s frontman, James Murphy. The film is followed by a special satellite Q&A with Murphy. Filmhouse in Edinburgh continues its celebration of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock this month, with eight more of his films showing between 1-13 Sept. Included in the selection is spy thriller Torn Curtain, starring Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, featuring one of the most realistic and harrowing murder attempts ever committed to celluloid, and Blackmail, Hitch’s first talkie. See Filmhouse website for more details. [Becky Bartlett]

F for Fake

REVIEW: DVD

SHOOTERS

BREATHING

DIRECTOR: DAN REED STARRING: JOHN WAYLAND, FRANNY BENNETT, DESMOND BAYLISS RELEASED: OUT NOW CERTIFICATE: 18

DIRECTOR: KARL MARKOVICS STARRING: THOMAS SCHUBERT, KARIN LISCHKA RELEASED: 10 SEP CERTIFICATE: 15

Roman Kugler (Schubert) is a 19-year old orphan locked up in a juvenile detention facility. As part of the requirements for his parole he is offered a job at the municipal morgue in Vienna, joining a team of grey uniformed men as they move corpses from the place of death to morgue, and from morgue to graveyard. “The right corpse in the right case at the right time and the right place,” as his boss puts it. At the same time the taciturn, withdrawn Roman begins to search for the mother who abandoned him. In his directorial debut the veteran Austrian actor Karl Markovics tells this potentially melodramatic story with great restraint. He elicits an impressively understated performance from his lead, while his camera precisely frames the anonymous, insitutional spaces of incarceration and death. But the emotional distance maintained by the film only serves to make its hopeful and ultimately redemptive message all the more satisfying. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

THE VICTIM

THE AGGRESSION SCALE

DIRECTOR: MICHAEL BIEHN STARRING: MICHAEL BIEHN, JENNIFER BLANC, DANIELLE HARRIS RELEASED: 24 SEP CERTIFICATE: 15

DIRECTOR: STEVEN C. MILLER STARRING: RYAN HARTWIG, FABIANNE THERESE, DANA ASHBROOK RELEASED: OUT NOW CERTIFICATE: 15

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When you’ve fought killer robots from the future, aliens with acid for blood and flesh-eating zombies what do you do next? Veteran genre actor Michael Biehn takes on a new challenge; writing, directing and starring in a nasty little grindhouse picture that feels like it slithered out of the bottom of the VHS pile. When a prostitute is brutally murdered by two dirty cops, a mysterious loner steps up to protect the only witness. Biehn and his crew, some doubling as actors, do a great job of replicating the feel of a forgotten 80s thriller on a low budget. The sleazy camera shots, cheesy music, sex and gore we might expect are all there, but there’s a sense that the obvious talent involved could be shooting higher. Despite a story that flatlines too often and a last second twist that comess too late this is still a nice first effort from Biehn who clearly has more to give us. [Scotty McKellar]

WAR TRILOGY DIRECTOR: ALEKSANDR DOVSHENKO STARRING: RELEASED: 24 SEP CERTIFICATE: PG

rrrrr Aleksandr Dovshenko may not carry the same name recognition as contemporaries like Sergei Eisenstein or Dziga Vertov, but eighty years on his best work remains as inventive and revelatory as that of Soviet cinema’s favoured sons. His three most celebrated works, Zvenigora (1928), Arsenal (1929) and Earth (1930) – commonly termed the Ukraine Trilogy, but more enticingly (if less accurately) re-christened the War Trilogy for this box set – collectively map key moments in the transformation of the director’s homeland. Naturally, some of the historical nuances resonate less clearly in a modern context, but the films remain engrossing at a more experiential level, with their imaginative edits and dramatic crescendos undiminished by time. Arsenal makes an especially pronounced impact, its visions of trench warfare retaining a terrifying intensity, though all three films possess their own distinct character and points of recommendation. Even those to whom the phrase ‘silent revolutionary montage’ is anathema would do well to take a chance at conversion. [Chris Buckle]

Didn’t you sometimes wish when you watched Home Alone that Macaulay Culkin would get a little more psycho? Make the burglars really suffer? Make them bleed? No? Well evidently writer Ben Powell and director Steven C. Miller did. The Aggression Scale is low-budget thriller that takes the home invasion flick and adds a nasty little twist. When bad guy Lloyd (Ashbrook) and his thuggish colleagues come looking for their boss’s missing money at a family’s secluded home they don’t count on the welcome they will receive from Owen, the family’s just-out-of-the-mental-institution son. All those survivalist manuals and a distinct lack of empathy serve 14-year old Owen well as he turns into a savant Jason Bourne. Initial premise aside, there’s nothing particularly original in The Aggression Scale, nor is it made with any great flair. But after this summer’s bloated, self-important blockbusters, there’s an undeniable pleasure to be had from the film’s gruesome efficiency. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]

opEn EaRly

8am

mon-FRI

The antithesis of the all too common ‘balletic’ form of cinema violence, Dan Reed’s 2001 feature Shooters is a raw slice of brutality set in a Liverpool underworld populated by ferocious men-children. These swollen balls of muscle fuel themselves with an explosive cocktail of cocaine and steroids and settle arguments with schoolyard-style ‘straighteners,’ only here with cocked pistols and teeth bared to tear off ears and faces. However, Reed refuses to revel in this tidal wave of testosterone, preferring to watch it crash on the shore and dissipate into fear and paranoia. Performed by non-professionals who actually lived the life, the ad-libbed scenes remain unpolished but have a frightening authenticity; perhaps one reason why Shooters caused outrage when originally shown on C4. This DVD release is welcome but perhaps it would be more valuable to screen the film again on TV as a rebuke to the glamour of gun violence hypnotising today’s disenfranchised youth. [Alan Bett]

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FRom

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ANTON CORBIJN: INSIDE OUT DIRECTOR: KLAARTJE QUIRIJNS STARRING: ANTON CORBIJN, BONO, LOU REED RELEASED: 17 SEP CERTIFICATE: 12

rrrrr Anton Corbijn: Inside Out follows the prolific Dutch photographer and filmmaker (Control, The American) whose unique visual style helped to define an era in music. Having photographed some of the biggest names in rock including U2, Nirvana, and Joy Division, Corbijn is the somewhat unlikely subject of Klaartje Quirijns’ follow-me-around documentary. Quirijns captures the usual fare: conversations with the artist about his process and his past, interviews with those with whom he is currently working (including Metallica and Lou Reed), while family members are invited to uncover hidden depths. But crooning praise from Metallica, who proclaim that Corbijn“can make anyone look cool, even us,” feels camera-pandering and – like much of the film – says more about the photographer’s visual style than the skill involved in creating it. Explorations of Corbijn’s quietly troubled family life and workaholic’s isolation are at times poetic, but overall there is no real match between the personality and the impressive and iconic work. [Nicola Balkind]

FREE WiFi

SEPTEMBER 2012

THE SKINNY 57

art

REVIEW

THE SWAN AND HOSTAGE

HOLOGRAPHY UNIT

THE DUCHY

GLUE FACTORY

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14 SEP – 6 OCT, FREE

James McLardy’s sculptures at The Duchy Gallery in Glasgow are familiar in shape, if not in scale. They resemble pieces of architecture or monuments. One could easily be taken for the corner of an 18th-century neo-classical doorway; another might be the pedestal for a sculpture, cast in black plastic; while yet another is perhaps the backing to some heraldic motif or other. They are mainly classical in form. That’s to say most of them look like they are in some way inspired by Greek architecture. It’s as though classicism has come back into vogue again, somehow slipping under the radar, as some kind of backlash against the omnivorous postmodern attitude that would have viewed such structures as mere signs of conservative authority. But despite being neatly arranged, as though conforming to a strict ancient order, McLardy’s sculptures are too small to truly imply classical authority – too colourful and too feminine to boot. They are pastiche, mimicking a given authority and implicitly undermining its integrity. James McLardy’s sculptures are not what they first seem. At a glance we see an arrangement of forms made from timber, plastic resin, glazed ceramic and bronze. The objects are in fact made from fibreboard, wax, copper leaf and paint – notable for being untraditional and inexpensive, and further undermining the classical presentation. They are in every way compelling, with the perfect measure of craftsmanship and intrigue, being at the same time both exquisitely made and elegantly indefinable. They are formal sculptures – that is to say abstract – that have come to meet the real world half way, only to recoil again in a gesture of mockery and pastiche. They are cheats, charlatans, fakes, frauds. They are utterly convincing. [Andrew Cattanach]

Do you remember the future? It took place some time between the late Victorian period and the invention of the internet and was a kind of cult led by prophets Wells, Ballard, Burroughs and Dick. Once the internet went mainstream things changed. The future was subsumed by the present to become just another aspect of our supermodern here and now. In the future every technological development was an attempt at prescience – to second-guess what the next big thing might be (the ill-fated Betamax videotape its best-known casualty) – and the art of Holography was one such conjecture. To help celebrate this aspect of our future, artist, curator and Glasgow School of Art graduate Alistair Frazer has brought together works produced at the Royal College of Art’s Fine Art Holography department. Founded in 1985 the department was the first of its kind, giving Masters students access to industrial technology that would help lead the way in a new art form. And despite the home computer being in its infancy in 1985 (the ZX Spectrum was first available in 1982) there was still a notable shift in our understanding of the ‘virtual’ during this period, with the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard the dominant prophet of the decade (although much of his work was translated into English a little later). Opening on 14 September, Holography Unit at the Glue Factory will look back at the life and work of the department, including 40 holographic works by 20 artists. It’s a rare opportunity to explore a fascinating microhistory and consider the contemporary implications and developments of a medium at once futuristic and retro. [Andrew Cattanach] WWW.THEGLUEFACTORY.ORG

WWW.THEDUCHYGALLERY.COM

ADVERTISING FEATURE: OWN ART

GLASGOW PRINT STUDIO: FOUR DECADES WORDS: ANDREW CATTANACH

DAVID SHRIGLEY, ‘UNTITLED’, 1999, ETCHING IN AN EDITION OF 50, COPYRIGHT THE ARTIST AND GLASGOW PRINT STUDIO, PUBLISHED BY GLASGOW PRINT STUDIO

GLASGOW PRINT Studio has been around for pure ages. In fact, this year sees the old print emporium turn 40, which, despite being relatively young, makes it one of the oldest art institutions in Glasgow. Not bad for an organisation set up in a flat by a bunch of graduates way back in 1972. The self-proclaimed home of print making in the west of Scotland, Glasgow Print Studio has shown some of the best-known Scottish and international contemporary artists around, including Douglas Gordon, Martin Boyce, Claire Barclay and the Chapman brothers, to name but a few. It’s admired for catering for a wide range of tastes and continues to promote several generations of Scottish artists at once – everything from Elizabeth Blackadder’s etchings of irises to Scott Myles’ screen printed text works. Housed in Trongate 103 in Glasgow’s Merchant City, and spanning some three floors, Glasgow Print Studio is a gallery, shop and print workshop all in one. The ground floor shop sells everything from Alasdair Gray to Toby Paterson and prides itself on being both diverse and accessible, making it an ideal place for anyone taking their first steps in art collecting, while nevertheless catering for the connoisseurs among us. As well as being a space for the production of cutting edge art, the workshop on the third floor offers a wide range of courses for those looking to try their hand at printmaking, including etching and screen-printing. Why not rub shoulders with some of Scotland’s finest artists while you get to know your hard ground from your soft ground? The gallery on the second floor, on those days when the sun momentarily breaks through the clouds, is bathed in light, making it one of the most welcoming spaces to see art. It has a diverse

programme that caters for all tastes – and doesn’t only show prints. Most notably, the gallery, along with the Glasgow School of Art, held an exhibition of unseen work by the recently deceased Steven Campbell in 2008. More recently, they were host to an audacious new show by Glasgow-based artist Scott Myles that included work made in the workshop itself. To celebrate their 40th anniversary, Glasgow Print Studio has teamed up with GoMA curator Ben Harman to produce the excellent new show, Medium is the Message: Words in Printmaking Since the 1960s. The title is a reference to a phrase coined by Canadian scholar Marshall McLuhan who claimed that the medium through which we communicate has a decisive role in the meaning that we convey – the medium, in this case written language, is not distinct from the message it broadcasts. The show boasts works by a wide range of artists who have all at some point made prints at the Studio, with many of the works on sale to the general public. As well as an exciting series of works by Edwin Morgan made in the 60s and 70s, the show includes work by David Shrigley, Christine Borland, Ross Sinclair and Bruce Maclean. Shrigley’s etching is typically amusing and includes drawings of things that scratch, such as pins and whores’ teeth. Meanwhile, David Sherry offers a print of him with a Post-It note stuck to the head reading ‘Just popped out back in 2 hours.’ Whether you’re looking to kick-start a career in art collecting, or fancy trying your hand at printmaking, Glasgow Print Studio is well worth a visit. And if you’re still not sure, head over and catch their current exhibition to get a taste of the sheer variety of printmaking available in Glasgow.

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

SEPTEMBER 2012

books

RE V I E W

The Guilty One By Lisa Ballantyne

rrrrr Solicitor Daniel Hunter is defending Sebastian Croll, an eleven-year old accused of murdering his eight-year old neighbour – a case with deliberate echoes of the killing of Jamie Bulger. Sebastian is a troubled child, bright and charming, but with a dark side to his character. The question of Sebastian’s guilt or innocence is artfully explored by first-time novelist Ballantyne, and as Daniel begins to identify more and more with Sebastian, he begins to unravel the secrets of his own past. His foster-mother Minnie has recently died, and Daniel struggles to forgive her for a past transgression. Ballantyne’s prose is literary without being ornate, and she handles potentially mawkish, sentimental scenes with the right amount of tenderness and impartiality. The characters, particularly Daniel and Sebastian, have convincing depth. Ballantyne’s switchback narrative plunges us in and out of Daniel’s past and Sebastian’s trial, asking interesting questions about guilt, innocence, and complicity. An assured, confident debut, combining the humanist outlook of Denise Mina with taut courtroom drama. [Bram E. Gieben] Out now. Published by Piatkus. Cover price £6.99

The Dark Knight Rises By Greg Cox

rrrrr

The Fall of the Stone City By Ismail Kadare

rrrrr

Novelisations of blockbuster movies are always going to suffer in comparison to the finished product. The Dark Knight Rises suffers especially, because it can’t adopt any of the approaches other novelisations have taken without damaging the final product. The novelisation of Flash Gordon is notoriously filthy (ridiculously so) where the film was laden with innuendo. The author of the Star Wars novelisation was contracted for two books, Star Wars, and a prospective sequel that could be made cheaply should the film fail. It didn’t of course, but the prospective sequel, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was still written, and is a sought after piece of Jedi apocrypha amongst Star Wars fans. The tone of The Dark Knight Rises would suffer from the addition of humour or innuendo, and the author certainly can’t produce a sequel. The book does contain some extended scenes from the film, but this extra content is generally dull enough to show why it was cut. This book, presumably written to a tight deadline, is a proficient page turner which races through its plot, but no more than that. [Johnny Chess] Out now. Published by Titan Books. Cover price £7.99.

There’s an old Albanian folk tale at the heart of The Fall of The Stone City where a dead man responds to a dinner invitation. The book’s plot revisits this tale several times as the situation in the stone city, properly called Gjirokaster, changes dramatically. Albania had a dramatic twentieth century, being invaded first by the Nazis, then the Soviets. This book dramatises that process, beginning in 1943 when the Nazis invaded. A number of hostages were taken, but the German commander releases them after dinner with one of the local doctors, Big Dr. Guarameto. It’s not certain why he did this, and since he dies soon after, the event remains uncertain. When the Communist regime arrives in Albania, they want to know what happened too. They torture Big Dr. Guarameto to find out, but the truth remains elusive. It turns out the German commander was impersonating a different deceased commander – a different dead man at dinner? This is a book that shows layers of change affecting a story, without clarifying it. A strange book, but a compelling one. [Ryan Agee] Out now. Published by Canongate. Cover price £14.99

All The Little Animals

Train Dreams

By Walker Hamilton

By Denis Johnson

rrrrr

All The Little Animals was first published in 1968, and is something of a forgotten classic. Alan Warner’s introduction to this reissue gives a summary of the background to this amnesia, pointing out that although author Walker Hamilton came from Airdrie, the book isn’t mentioned in any Scot Lit histories. A shame, as it’s a powerful fable-like tale, about the relationship between nature and consumerism. Bobby Platt is a 31 year old with a childlike mind, due to a car accident when he was young. He’s fled his home and his inheritance to get away from an evil stepfather who keeps him locked up. Making his way to a distant land – Cornwall – he takes up with a kindly man who calls himself Mr Summers, who looks for run-over little animals to bury them. The book is told in Bobby’s voice, and so the apparently simple storytelling method of fairy tales is used. But like all good fairy tales, there’s a lot of depth to be found behind the apparently simple. This is a fascinating short book, that really does repay re-reading. (Incidentally, it was filmed in 1999, weirdly making this the second book this month with Christian Bale in the lead.) [Keir Hind]

Denis Johnson’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated Train Dreams is the life story of a man called Robert Grainier, who ‘started his life story on a train ride he couldn’t remember, and ended up standing around outside a train with Elvis Presley in it.’ It’s a look at this working man’s life from birth to death, more or less. The death is in November 1968, but the birth is just assumed to be around 1886, and again assumed to be in either Canada or Utah. It’s significant that the details of one are fixed and not the other, because it’s an indication that Grainier’s life spans an era when America changed drastically. This is a process that Grainier helps along when he labours to build enormous train bridges, or to cut down forests. He marries, he has a child, but significant plot twists change this situation. It’s a hard story to categorise, and the better for that, where the plot is a life and one that struggles with the modern world – there’s a significant scene where Grainier takes and dislikes a flight in a biplane – and yet isn’t overcome by it. This is a short, excellent book, with a poetic quality that makes it oddly gripping. [David Agnew]

Release date: 17 Sep. Published by Freight. Cover price £7.99.

Release date 6 Sep. Published by Granta. Cover price £12.99.

Guild Wars 2

tech

rrrrr

Windows 8: Through the Looking Glass rrrrr

bite-sized tech nuggets with ALEX COLE

THE FEED

It’s been said that the age of the PC is already over, and that the laptops rolling out now are just the last gasp of what will become specialised tools for professionals. Most of us will move on to tablets and mobiles, which already do all the Facebooking and Tweeting for us anyway. The basics of Windows haven’t really changed since the first few releases – menu bar, movable windows, and programs and settings all thrown together in a heap. It’s grown more complex than that over the years, of course, cleaned up a bit, but basically the same deal. Keeping that kind of continuity has been what keeps people from generally complaining too much when there’s a new version. So throwing that to one side and introducing a new interface like Metro with the upcoming Windows 8 is, in a word, an adjustment. Metro is a new design philosophy for Windows, one that seems designed for touching, gestures and swiping, which makes it very much the kind of thing that makes sense on the tablet and somewhat less on a laptop, especially when the screen isn’t touchable. It is well put together, but relies on gestures to trigger multi-tasking, full-screen, custom designed apps, and centralised locations

for settings rather than menu bars for each window. There’s definitely a sense of integration and control, but in many cases the shift is radical enough to change your workflow entirely, so the learning curve isn’t quite as friendly as it could be. It’s worth noting that you can do away with Metro entirely and go back to the Windows you know already, and avoid the whole issue. Elaborate programs like Photoshop still live in that desktop environment and work just the same way. You can treat Metro like a glorified app drawer and leave it at that. But Windows is pretty eager for new users for to try its new tricks and work with them, and almost certainly banking on touchscreens coming to a laptop near you soon. Ultimately, Windows 8 feels good, but not a little strange, not unlike how Vista felt just a few years ago. There are enough changes in places that it’s likely that a good portion of the new features won’t get used enough to support after a while. It’s cheap enough that an upgrade won’t break the bank, but it’s probably different enough that you don’t need to be in any hurry to get it. [Alex Cole]

The original Guild Wars was one of those MMOs that patiently snuck under the radar for most people, boasting a modest but loyal fan base, great gameplay, but never the kind of explosive presence of Everquest, which came before it, or World of Warcraft, which came after. But GWII, which has been through a few open betas in the first half of the year, has taken the MMO community by surprise in its new approach towards multiplayer environments. Learning some of the best lessons from Rift, in terms of dynamic events and more personalised quests, and WoW, in the form of brilliant art direction and structured levelling, they also seem determined to put their own spin on things. That effort seems to have mostly gone into the subtleties, not any revolutionary changes. But there are a lot of subtleties. Your character has an ongoing series of personal quests along with one based on locations. Many dungeons are instanced and scale your level to the challenge, so that players of many levels can all go in together. Underwater combat is a whole other skill set for players to build up. There is a world v. world area where players from all over can engage in ongoing siege warfare. And all around, little touches make this feel very much like a 2012 take on the MMO, one that makes World of Warcraft feel decidedly dated and clunky by comparison. To be sure, there’s still a separate real-money store for perks and add-ons, many of the character classes are par for the course, and the spell and ability effects can sometimes be impossible to follow when too many players are in the same place. But ultimately, this is a fantastic refresh of a genre that was getting all too stale. [Alex Cole]

Samsung ordered to pay Apple a dumptruck full of cash for their iMoneyPit. • 4G finally approved for some UK carriers, not others yet, so your mileage may vary • LG launches super crazy big high res-TV, runs out of superlatives for it • US file-sharer ordered to pay almost half a million pounds for sharing 31 songs. Because Fuck You, says recording industry • Amazon release their own cloud storage system, so you can back up your Dropbox and Google Drive files at the same time • YouTube and Google Maps going away in iOS 6, Google to make their own instead of taking their ball and going home

September 2012

THE SKINNY 59

theatre

PRE V I E W

The Static rrrrr

The Arches LIVE The Arches, 18-29 Sep

September usually brings a heavy dose of postFringe relief mixed with melancholy, because, despite our complaints about aching feet and lack of organisation, the summer’s buzz is gone. Sinking back into routine can be soothing but also excruciatingly dreary. Planted in mid-September – not too soon and not too late – the Arches LIVE programme comes to remedy that, with what could be called the beginning of a wild birthday party for the Arches’ 21st. The ‘party’ runs from Tuesday 18 September to Saturday the 29th. As Jackie Wylie, Arches’ Artistic Director, explains: “Arches LIVE offers our most exciting performance makers the opportunity to try out fresh ideas and take risks. This year, as ever, the festival is defined by a determination to ask questions about ourselves and the world around us.” As always with the Arches, the curation of the programme is eclectic and daring. Acts range from a black metal version of Macbeth by Black Sun Drum Korps, to Peter McMaster’s all-male version of Wuthering Heights. McMaster is something of an Arches regular, emerging from the Conservatoire formerly known as the RSAMD and having the distinctive edge and feminist concerns associated with many of the Contemporary Performance graduates. The Arches also dips its brush in interactive theatre such as Marcus Roche and Frances Collier’s real life restaging of the board game Risk and Harry Giles’ one-on-one debt counselling service in What We Owe. Roche has recently returned from success at the Fringe, having directed The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. It is part of the Arches’ remit to give space to these more experimental approaches an open space.

60 THE SKINNY

September 2012

A theme runs through the core of this year’s works: the idea of masks, alter egos and adopted personae as artists explore the identities we create for ourselves, and those created by others. Perhaps echoing the various songs touted around the cabaret circuit (both Dusty Limits and Bourgeois and Maurice have warnings about Facebook profiles), an interest is evident in digital identities, as our use of technology and gadgetry draws us deeper into a virtual world. Ian Nulty’s Robinson Family Undercover Secret Agents involves Nulty introducing us to Robert Robinson, his fake online persona, a right wing fundamentalist Christian from North Carolina, with new and opinionated Facebook friends. Since this is the Arches’ 21st, the enthusiasm is not only restricted to the Arches LIVE festival, but promises to spill into the rest of the autumn season. It sees the return of scare attraction Alien War, as well as high profile gigs, theatre and club events. Having excavated their print archives, the Arches will also exhibit 21 years’ worth of posters and flyers, ranging from the theatrical roots of the venue, and the years where it was led by Andy Arnold, now at the Tron, till today. Finally, the Arches plan to show their gratitude to loyal fans, customers, staff and patrons with a party to remember on Saturday 20 October. But it is Arches Live that most captures the spirit of adventure and risk that is at the heart of their season and expressive of the venue’s provocative present [Daph Karoulla] Various times Festival pass: £32/£26 Day pass: £18/£12 Individual tickets available for all shows www.thearches.co.uk

When 15-year-old Sparky meets fellow problemchild Siouxsie, the two bond over a shared anger and frustration at the world around them. While the story is rooted in recognisable experiences of youthful disaffection and the effects of ADHD, The Static explores these sensations through angry phantasmagoria and manipulation of props, multi-media projections, sound and movement. Two large walls of lockers slide around the stage, dragging audiences abruptly and calamitously into the next scene. Tables, chairs and performers float, fly and crash into new positions and the projections are used to good effect not only depicting various backdrops, but also providing visual accompaniment to Sparky’s fantasies. The attempt to capture the onslaught of emotions is clever, both in the title of the play – the static being the strange, angry and almost supernatural energy he feels – and through the characters

themselves. Sparky wears a set of large red headphones to block out his troublesome thoughts and when they are removed, things quickly unravel. The story is clever though. It’s not content with merely exploring Sparky’s journey, it seeks to expose a sense of societal discontent. The composed demeanour of the teachers begins to fray at the edges and there is an interesting subplot with Sparky’s guidance teacher Mrs Kelly, expertly played by Pauline Lockhart. This is not merely a morality tale of one boy but rather an honest and decidedly-Scottish exploration of discomfort and anxiety in all its forms. Fastpaced, in-your-face and darkly comedic, The Static is powerful and moving theatre. [Rebecca Paul]

I Dreamed a dream: The Susan Boyle musical

wants to believe the fairytale has come true: she didn’t marry the prince but she got a recording deal. But in actual fact, there is no fairytale really; parts of the fairytale come true but other parts are still really difficult for her. You know, the terror of performing and all of that at times can really get to her, so I wanted to talk about that as well.” It may come as no surprise to Scottish audiences, and Glasgow panto audiences in particular, but it’s Smith who’s singing all the Susan Boyle classics. In addition to the titular song, one song Smith had to do was Wild Horses because she says, “I love the fact that of all people Susan Boyle is singing a Rolling Stones number, Wild Horses. It’s so bizarre but also so beautiful, and it was a stroke of genius to do it.” With talks of touring the show to Australia and the London West End being discussed, it’s now the Central Belt’s turn to be surprised by the West Lothian woman who surprised the world. Says Smith, “you’ll learn something, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and hopefully you’ll have a good night out.” [Susannah Radford]

It’s hard to conceive that there may be people in the world who don’t know who Susan Boyle is. Love her or hate her, with an audition that’s now part of YouTube history and showbiz mythology, Susan Boyle is a global phenomenon. When asked why Su Bo has such global appeal, Elaine C Smith, co-writer and star of I Dreamed A Dream: The Susan Boyle Musical says, “I do think that she was the tipping point for our obsession with celebrity. We didn’t care whether people had talent or not as long as they were fake tanned, blonde, with hair extensions. And I think Susan [prompted us] – and we all judged her when she walked on in that outfit, and then she opened her mouth and it stopped us all short – I think, to go, maybe talent does matter.” Determined that the show would neither be exploitative of the Blackburn local nor “a sugary, sweet, sing-along-with-Susan version of her life,” Smith spent a year and a half working on the script for no pay. Exploring both the light and the shade of Susan Boyle’s life, I Dreamed A Dream is no high kicking, jazz hands number. “Her story,” says Smith, “is a fairy story, it’s magical. I wanted it to be magical and theatrical but also to go into the darkness of her life as well; the bullying, the loneliness of it. Everybody, particularly the American audience,

The Static plays at the Arches 3, 5 & 6 Sep and Traverse Theatre 13-14 Sep www.thickskintheatre.co.uk

I Dreamed A Dream: The Susan Boyle Musical Festival Theatre, Edinburgh 21-29 Sep, times vary, £17 - £42.50 King’s Theatre, Glasgow 1-13 Oct, times vary, £12 - £34, www.atgtickets.com/glasgow www.edtheatres.com

comedy

PREVIEW

WHEN FLETCH MET THE HOFF 2: THE OFFSPRING

Last month, Fred Fletch drunk-interviewed DAVID HASSELHOFF on behalf of The Skinny, resulting in an epic orgy of A-Team fantasies and Barry Manilow songs. So what happened when the two met last month during the Fringe?

LOVE DANCE Thu 11 to Sat 13 October

EVERYTHING ABOUT my Evening With... David Hasselhoff was outstanding. After the show the queue to meet him was understandably massive and German and I was totally at the Non-Hasselhoff end of it. Vodka may be a sweet wingman but it’s a treacherous sat nav, and it had taken me far from the man I planned to meet. Luckily Shannon, my wife, stepped in. With balls that can only be measured in metric-fuck-tons, she strode up to a security guard who looked like what a Gorilla might produce if you asked it to draw ‘death,’ and announced “FRED FLETCH IS HERE TO SEE MR HASSELHOFF, COULD YOU GO TELL HIM PLEASE?” I’ve not seen such frantic walkie-talkie action since the remastered version of ET. As I was brought to the front, my whole life flashed before my eyes, which was pretty cool because I got to watch Timecop 385 times again. Security signalled me and David turned round. A God. A Legend. A man who could kick my ass so hard, nine months later Shannon would give birth to his shoe. This was happening.

Yes I was. I fucking loved it. Your show was amazing. It touched me deeper and more passionately than my gym teacher. I wish I knew you were in there. Where were you? FRONT ROW!!! NO! I would have gotten you up. Up on stage. For the Copacobana. You know, I did that because you suggested it. This show, it’s all based around you now. I rewrote it... Oh man, I told them, some drunk guy just told me to drop that song and do Copacobana and I was like ‘Hey. Let’s do Copacobana’ because, well you sold it to me. (pulling his musical assistant up) I told him about doing that song and he was ‘NO DON’T DO IT,’ but I insisted, because of you.

Um, I did a phone interview with you before you came to Edinburgh..... Oh... OH! YOU’RE THAT GUY! YOU’RE THAT FRED FLETCH GUY!!!!!

I was actually hoping to get you to come to Karaoke with me. TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART! Where?

Uh. Yes I am. And I’m sorry. [Signaling his team including a security guard who looked like every henchman in TANGO & CASH] HEY, HEY. Come over here and meet this guy.

[Names bar] OK. We are Karaoke Kings. Here, contact us. We’ll sort something out.

You don’t hate me too much do you? I was pretty smashed. [Grabs me] I LOVED IT. You were great. YOU WERE AMAZING. I’ll warn you though... My girl hates you.

The Dance Consortium presents

I HAVE THE POWER TO INFLUENCE KNIGHTRIDER! This show was about you man. But it had your name on the tickets! (Laughs, shaking head in disbelief) You coming back to the show? You going to get on stage?

...fuck one of the A-TEAM? And I answered YES to both... and you printed it.

Tue 23 October

Musical assistant: We had to re-write. Because of you.

Me: Hi. I’m Fred Fletch. The Hoff: Hi there.

You’re going to have me killed aren’t you? YOU!!! Listen, you phone me up and you ask me like two questions and you print every single thing I said. Son of a bitch. You only asked me two questions... and they were... um... Did I have sex with anyone in KITT AND... Would I, what was it?

ALSTON

Tue 30 & Wed 31 October

You are fucking amazing. (HUGS KNIGHTRIDER... and for those of you who are deaf, I’ll repeat that: FUCKING HUGS KNIGHTRIDER)

He spent time chatting with us and taking some photos, which by now are probably being distributed to Knightrider hit squads around the planet. The show is unashamably silly but 100% awesome. You spend an hour in the company of Michael Knight watching him kick the asses of some great songs and slow running to Baywatch. The only way I could make that sound better is if you replaced every letter of that last sentence with Giant anacondas and high-fives. Hasselhoff knows exactly what he is and he shares it all. He was and still is Knightrider.

BOX OFFICE

0131 529 6000* GROUPS 0131 529 6005

edtheatres.com

*Booking fees. Registered charity SC018605

Festival Theatre

edinburgh 13/29 NICOLSON ST EH8 9FT

Shit! [shouting] Sorry about the A-Team. Were you in the audience tonight?

SEPTEMBER 2012

THE SKINNY 61

comps

COMPETITIONS

FREE ENTRY TO SUBCULTURE THROUGHOUT OCTOBER

Subculture, as far as we know one of the longest running weekly house nights anywhere, turned 18 earlier this year. That's a long time to be doing anything. Bastions of the Glasgow underground and long time resident DJs Harri & Domenic Cappello hold down the fort, week in, week out, and play host to an array of choice guests, form the likes of Chicago legend Lil‘Louis and rare live sets from KiNK & Neville Watson and the truly unique Henrik Schwarz. So to celebrate their longevity and because they are damn nice folk, we are joining forces to give away two guestlist spaces for the whole month of October – that will get you and a pal in for free, no queuing, no hassle, every single Saturday in October. Sound good? 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:

WIN TICKETS TO EFTERKLANG AND NORTHERN SINFONIA

Q. On which street in Glasgow is the Sub Club located?

‘It’s a show that prompts goosebumps as well as laughter – a night that truly celebrates the transformative power of good music’ – The Vine To be in with a chance of winning tickets to the show head on over to www.theskinny.co.uk/competitions and answer the following question:

A. Jamaica Street B. Kingston Road C. Snoop Lion Terrace

Q. Which of the following bands have not released a record on Efterklang’s own label Rumraket?

Competition closes Sun 30 September

A. Grizzly Bear B. Amiina C. Sigur Rós

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.yoursubculture.com www.subclub.co.uk

Competition closes Sunday 30 September

Efterklang are bringing their exciting and innovative series of events in collaboration with Northern Sinfonia, orchestra of The Sage Gateshead, entitled The Piramida Concerts to Edinburgh’s Usher Hall this October (Wed 24). Their latest record, Piramida, is a remarkable epic scale project from Danish musical pioneers. This concert contains over 1,000 sound samples taken from Piramida, a former Russian Settlement in the Arctic. Efterklang have engaged classical arrangers Missy Mazzoli (Kronos Quartet, Victoire), Karsten Fundal (Under Byen, Oh Land) and Daníel Bjarnason (Sigur Rós, Múm) to help their new songwriting fully integrate with the 35-piece Northern Sinfonia, conducted by André de Ridder. The show also features legendary drummer Budgie from Siouxsie and The Banshees and The Creatures.

Winners will be notified on the day of closing and will be required to respond within seven days or the prize will be offered to another entrant. Entrants must be 18 or over. For full terms and conditions, go to www.theskinny.co.uk/about/terms www.efterklang.net www.usherhall.co.uk

STUDENT AMBASSADORS WANTED! The Skinny is looking for enthusiastic and passionate people to represent our brand as a Student Ambassador within your University or College. You will become part of The Skinny community and assist us in a number of tasks across our different platforms. Aside from working with Scotland’s largest entertainment and listings magazine you will also be privy to exclusive Skinny arranged events and parties. Oh and of course it will be something good to add to your CV. For more information and job description please visit theskinny.co.uk/about/get_involved To apply please send a CV and cover letter to jobs@theskinny. co.uk explaining why you would like to be a Student Ambassador for The Skinny, specifically highlighting your interests, what talents you can bring to such a role and the University or College you attend. Deadline for application: 24 September

62 THE SKINNY

SEPTEMBER 2012

LISTINGS

Glasgow music Tue 04 Sep

PET, The Apples of Energy

Beirut

Billy Bragg and KT Tunstall

The Glasgow Slow Club

Showcase night, with PET riding high on their glorious new single, Together Apart, alongside The Apples of Energy’s atmospheric compositions.

Musical journeyman Zach Cordon (aka Beirut) sings from his welltravelled songbook, fresh from his appearance at the mighty FYF Fest in downtown LA.

Billy Bragg and KT Tunstall celebrate the 100th anniversary of Woody Guthrie, playing acoustic instruments, singing from a book of archived lyrics and quoting from handwritten notes. Part of No Mean City 2012.

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Relaxed music night with live guests from the local scene.

Perfume Genius

SWG3, 19:00–22:00, £10

The Glad Cafe, 19:30–22:00, £4

Fri 07 Sep

Haunting chamber pop from the Seattle-based musician, aka Mike Hadreas. Part of No Mean City 2012.

Penguins Kill Polar Bears (The Darien Venture)

Justin Townes Earle (Warren McIntyre and the Starry Skies, The Big Nowhere)

The Linlithgow dense rockers make their triumphant live return.

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £14.50

Nashville singer/songwriter (and, yes, son of Steve Earle) infusing his songs with a Memphis-soul sound. Part of No Mean City 2012.

Deap Valley

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5 adv.

Bluesy rock’n’roll duo made up of Lindsey Troy and Julie Edwards.

Africa Express (Damon Albarn, Temper Trap, Tony Allen, Baaba Maal) The Arches, 19:00–03:00, £15

One-off festival-styled night with over 80 musicians performing together and separately, based around on-the-spot collaborations with everyone from Damon Albarn to Tony Allen.

Maelstrom (Man Made Origin, Norderobring, Descrator)

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £6

Tom Hingley (Rory McKee, The Brightsparks) O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £7

The Inspiral Carpets frontman takes to the road solo to peform the band’s second album, The Beast Inside, in its entirety, as well as reading excerpts from his new book, Carpet Burns.

Hellfire Club (Hoverboards, Foxbeef, The Untitled, The Cosmonauts, Eat Meat)

Patti Smith

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £25

The legendary rock’n’roller, poet and artist takes to the stage with her live band – that familiar yowl and husk well and truly in place – to showcase tracks from her new album. Part of No Mean City 2012.

Great Cop (Reginald, No Island) Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Glasgow-based punk-rockers led by Joe Campbell on vocals, drums and official sweating duties.

Axenstar (Dakesis, Ascension, Farseerzalbender) Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £8 adv.

Swedish metallers led by Magnus Winterwild on vocals and bass.

Taking Hayley

13th Note, 19:30–23:00, £4

New York-hailing folk singer/ songwriter, all sumptuous melodies and cracked vocals. King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

Mother Ganga (Tangles) The Glad Cafe, 19:30–22:00, £5

The transcendental techno-pop Glasgow duo bring the lush soundscapes.

Sat 08 Sep

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £4

Winnipeg alternative noisemakers carried along by frontman Michael Petkau Falk’s insistent baritone.

Exist Immortal, Colours To Shame, Of One Blood, Sectioned, Crowned By Kings Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Toxic Rock present another showcase of hard rock, punk and acoustic sounds.

Thu 06 Sep Dave Arcari (Sleepy Eyes Nelson, Jim Dead)

Frank Fairfield (The Wakes, The Bovill and Harris Affair, The Levee Strollers) O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £10

California-based fiddle, guitar and banjo player moving from old time country to rambling folk as he goes. Part of No Mean City 2012. Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

Wife Vs Secretary (The Janes, The Dirty Cuts) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

Glasgow-based rock’n’roll outfit headered by Charlie Milne, who slaps a piano bang in the middle of the stage and lets a messy musical swirl unfold.

As The Crow Flies (Portionfed, Sergio-Sergio, Christopher Price) Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £tbc

The local hard rockers celebrate their last show with a stellar line-up of metal and heavy rock.

Cate le Bon (Body Parts, Marie Collins) The Glad Cafe, 19:00–22:00, £10

Talented blues rocker playing a mix of guitar-driven blues and trash country. Part of No Mean City 2012.

Welsh singer/songwriter with a rich vocal style, genteel warmth and a fine-line in lightly-weird alternative folk.

The Yawns, The Downs, Water Wolves

Sun 09 Sep

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £7.50

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £4

Slacker indie, post-punk and lo-fi sounds from the Glasgow undeground.

Modern English

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £13

English new wave ensemble.

Billy Kelly Songwriting Awards: Heat 4 (Seven Deadly Sins, Vagabond Poets, Jamie Flett & The Flaming Jets, Thula Bora, Chris Mossop) Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, Free

Fourth heat for the Billy Kelly Songwriting Awards, with the BMX Bandits’ Duglas T Stewart amongst the judging panel.

Wed 12 Sep O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £25

Gascan Ruckus

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Wiry Irish alternative rockers, visceral and frantic in their approach.

Thu 13 Sep Woodenbox

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £8

Ali Downey’s Americana-styled folk ensemble return with a clipped back moniker, but the same propensity for full-on barn-raising anthems, promoting their latest EP. Part of No Mean City 2012.

Sucioperro (Make Sparks, Hawk Eyes, What the Blood Revealed) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £7

Mono, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Dan Stuart

Les Jupes (Robin Adams)

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, free

Dundee-based melodic alternative with grunge-pop support from Rubber.

Glasgow quartet who’ve made it their mission to explore pop music in all its facets, playing what will be their farewell show.

Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £tbc

Local screamers Divorce host their official album launch, likely to turn into an all-out rammy of a thing, as is their way.

The Green on Red frontman does his solo thing.

Copper Lungs (Rubber)

Ayr and Glasgow-straddling alternative rockers led by JP Reid on vocals and guitar.

Divorce (No Island, Neighbourhood Gout, Hivver)

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £12

Edinburgh-based quartet of the sludge-noise-pop-punk variety.

Open Swimmer (Jo Mango, Dave Frazer and The Slave Labourers)

Classic Grand, 18:30–22:00, £6

The Birmingham-based quartet continue spreading the pop-rock gospel.

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

J. Allen (Stage Fright)

Wed 05 Sep Avant Garde, 20:15–23:00, Free

The Plastic Animals

The glam rockers tour their third album, with Justin Hawkins still very much on shrieking duty.

Americana duo made up of former Annie Christian frontman Larry Lean and The Felsons’ troubadour, Dean Owens. Part of No Mean City 2012.

Acoustic pop loveliness from the Glasgow-based outfit.

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £10

Australian cyberpunk ensemble concocting their sound from industrialstrength guitar riffs, clever hooks and pathologically disturbed synths.

The Darkness

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £4

Latecomers

Angelspit

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Indie, grunge, pop and rock handpicked by emerging new promotions collective Hellfire Club Glasgow.

Deer Lake (Quinny, Feet of Clay, Sienna)

Quite possibly Glasgow’s finestattired doom metal gents.

Barrowland, 19:00–23:00, £20

Root2TheFruit

Kinning Park Complex, 13:00–17:00, £2

A celebration of music and culture.

Pete Molinari (Gemma Ray) O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £10

Alarm Bells

New ex-Dananankroyd peeps play an early show down’t Mono before the bigger venues beckon.

Husky

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Alternative folk quartet hailing from the sunnier climes of Melbourne.

The State Broadcasters (The Machine Room) Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £6

The local folksters celebrate the imminent release of their forthcoming second album, Ghosts We Must Carry.

The Pineapple Thief

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £11

Progressive indie rockers formed by mainman Bruce Soord back in 1999.

Horsebastard, Infanticide, Coffinsplitter 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £5

Brutal death metal and grindcore from Horsebastard et al.

Mondegreen

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Relaxed music night with live guests from the local scene.

Stereo, 20:00–23:00, £5

Up-and-coming pop trio led by Georgia Smith on lead vocals.

Lords of the Underground

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £12 adv. (£16 door)

The New Jersey hip-hop trio return to Glasgow after 15 years with a celebratory evening complete with live break dancers, graffiti artists and DMC Champ DJ Bunty on decks.

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Toxic Rock present another showcase of hard rock, punk and acoustic sounds.

Fri 14 Sep Glasgow Ska Train (Capone and The Bullets) Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

Live mod spectacular featuring a selection of Glasgow’s favourited mod bands and free pizza.

Vex Crew

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £4

Rejigged punk outfit featuring original material by Glasgow southsiders The Vex.

Sat 15 Sep Ocean House

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £8

Hard rock squares up to post-grunge as the Glasgow foursome tour on the back of their debut LP.

A Place To Bury Strangers Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £8 adv.

The Brooklyn psych-rockers flex their chops with new bassist Dion Lunadon, showcasing songs from their most recent album.

Great Cop (Keeping Dirt Clean, The Lipstick Tearaways, The Vibe) Stereo, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Glasgow-based punk-rockers led by Joe Campbell on vocals, drums and official sweating duties.

Breaking The Barrier! (Ripped in Pieces, Kayce One and Toni Smoke, Hooked Up, Subkonsious and A-Macc)

The Garage, 19:00–22:00, £5 adv. (£7 door)

Urban hip-hop showcase featuring freestyle rap battles, followed by a series of live acts.

Motion City Soundtrack (Now Now, Me) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £13.50

Minneapolis quintet of the alternative indie-rock variety.

Sun 16 Sep O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £15

Crybaby (Sam Brookes, Star Wheel Press, Gonzo) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £8

Alias of Bristolian singer/songwriter Danny Coughlan.

Marc Evans (Martin Reilly, Ashley Christie) 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

The Glasgow-based singer/songwriter tours his latest EP, Chasing Daylight.

Scottish indie-rockers led by Robert Shields, and accompanied by a fourstrong string section.

Eugene Twist

The master craftsman brings it with ethereal lyrical sprawls and sophisticated Americana-tinged ballads, launching his new album proper down’t CCA.

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

London and Guilford-hailing garage pop quartet making their racket on vocals, drums, cymbals, organ and guitar.

Tue 18 Sep The Glasgow Slow Club Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Relaxed music night with live guests from the local scene.

The Cult (Gun)

El-P

The Ian Astbury led rockers take their ninth studio album, Choice of Weapon, on the road proper.

The maverick Brooklyn producer tours on the back of his new album, Cancer4Cure, demonstrating just why he’s at the pinnacle of modern hip-hop.

Barrowland, 19:00–23:00, £30

Wed 19 Sep

Stereo, 20:00–23:00, £12

MV & EE (Expo 70, Special Hits, Ancient Ocean) CCA, 20:00–23:00, £6

A spectral sound and cinema show from the visionary American freefolk duo, blending acoustic folk jams with rock and psych.

Underground Heroes (Law of the Chord)

Knuckledust (Divide, Pay The Price, Offside)

Chatham-based quartet straddling the line between ska, punk and indie.

London-based hardcore quartet who reckon they’re too punk for hardcore and too hardcore for punk.

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £7

Stinking Lizaveta

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

Power trio from Philadelphia specializing in heavy instrumental rock.

Natalie Pryce (The Downs, Black Jash, Allan Johnstone)

The Old Hairdressers, 20:00–00:00, £donation

The Mark Swan led band of weirdos launch their new album, with Swan likely rambling away into a vintage mic, helped along by murky projections and a bass-heavy rhythm section. Amen.

Karine Polwart

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £15

So Many Animal Calls (Campfires in Winter)

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £7.50

Mon 17 Sep

Retro hip-hop extravaganza for your Friday night pleasure.

The Copenhagen-based black metal outfit bring the noise Scotland’s way.

Nashville-hailing pop-rockers with anthemic hooks a-plenty.

Sissy and the Blisters (These Little Kings, The Collective, Evolution)

Bloc+, 22:30–03:00, Free

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

The Borders lass brings the loveliness with her provokingly poetic and bittersweet folk tunes.

Finding Albert

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £6

Hexis (This Gift Is A Curse, Assynt, Skullwizard)

The Features (Calum Frame, Willie Dick)

Codejack, Casey Ryback, Dead Medicine, District55, Acidious

CCA, 20:30–23:00, £6

Tue 11 Sep

Georgia

American rapper, singer/songwriter and record producer of the hip-hop variety, known to his mammy as Bobby Ray Simmons Jr.

The Calm Fiasco

The Glasgow Slow Club (Elliot Morris, Billy Bates)

Paisley Arts Centre, 19:00–22:30, £5

The first in a series of three label showcases as part of the mighty Paisley Underground, with this edition curated by Gerry Loves Records.

B.o.B

Dilated

Stereo, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Paisley Underground: Gerry Loves Records (Rick Redbeard, Wounded Knee, Deerhound)

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

The progressive pop Glasgow ensemble host their official EP launch.

Chatham-born young singer/ songwriter who’s already received his official note of praise from a certain Mr Bruce Springsteen. Part of No Mean City 2012. Glasgow-based indie-rockers.

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £16.50

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Glaswegian quartet who rather self-deprecatingly term their sound as ‘failpop’.

The Mathletics Team

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £tbc

Bizarre and light-hearted circus-pop from the Glasgow-based ensemble.

Thu 20 Sep Stanley Odd

Stereo, 20:00–23:00, £6.50 STBF

Inventive hip-hop musings as the Odd Squad move from chopped electrofunk to crunchy 8-bit, via well-constructed vocal flows from Solareye and Veronica Electronica.

Maverick Sabre

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £16

London born, Irish-raised, soulful hip-hop singer/songwriter discovered by Plan B.

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Sat 22 Sep Darren Hayes

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, From £25

One half of pop duo Savage Garden, and solo artist in his own right, currently on the road solo.

The Moons (Hooks N Crooks, No Feed For Idols, The Holy Ghosts) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

Northampton-based foursome, trading in psychedelic garage-pop beats, infused with a bit of indie and soul.

North Atlantic Oscillation (Without Aeroplanes, Israeli) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £6

The Edinburgh-based post-progressive rock and electronica troupe play their rescheduled Glasgow date.

Relatives

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £tbc

Brooklyn-based outfit doing a rather fine line in lo-fi folk pop.

Fri 21 Sep Three Blind Wolves (Carnivores) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £7

More singalongable, dancealongable alternative countryesque tunes from the Glasgow lads.

Charlie and the Bhoys

Barrowland, 19:00–23:00, £19

Another Barrowland singalong with the Donegal Celtic rockers.

Young Philadelphia (Owls In Antarctica)

Straight Lines (Evarose, Farewell Singapore) King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6

Welsh rock duo made up of Tom Jenkins and Dane Campbell.

Wed 26 Sep The Fratellis

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Glasgow indie-rockers led by lead vocalist and guitarist Jon Fratelli, who’s also forged a solo career for himself of late.

Jai McDowall

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £15

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £6.50

Modern rock ensemble made up of four guys with a penchant for Thin Lizzy guitar solos.

Er, a David Bowie tribute act. We hear they’re sensational.

The Horse Loom (Cathy and Phil Tyler, Wounded Knee)

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £10

Anneke van Giersbergen O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £10

Dutch singer/songwriter and former frontwoman of progressive rockers The Gathering, touring her recent solo release.

Beth Jeans Houghton and The Hooves of Destiny Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £9 STBF

Newcastle singer/songwriter in possession of some rather sweet nu-folk ditties, accompanied by her raggle-taggle live band The Hooves Of Destiny.

Blacklist Royals

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

The Old Hairdressers, 20:00–23:00, £5 (£4)

The Unit Ama, Four Frame, Kodiak and Crane man plays solo under his The Horse Loom guise, marrying British folk, avant garde guitar and punk rock spirit.

Hamell on Trial

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £15

Punk rock-influenced acoustic tunes from New York’s Ed Hamell.

Thu 27 Sep Cast The Net (Cuddly Shark, Black International, Rollor) Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Bi-monthly showcase taking in a handpicked selection of exciting new Scottish artists and bands.

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £6

Fluorescent Hearts (Trigger the Escape)

The Bismarck (Ex-Wives)

Glasgow pop foursome built of guitars, bass, drums and Chris Ashton’s vocals.

Wishaw alternative indie lot, rich with synthesizers and emotionallycharged vocals. 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Raggle-taggle Seattle rockers with a distinct punk sensibility.

Sun 23 Sep Marc Almond

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £23.50

The Soft Cell mainman tours solo in celebration of his forthcoming (once those legal issues have been cleared up) singles collection, on what is his 35th year in the business.

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £6

WeCameFromWolves Stereo, 19:00–23:00, Free

Perthshire post-rockers big on the euphoric choruses, hooks and harmonies, playing a special EP release show.

Washington Irving Mono, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

The local indie-folksters (whose story began in a basement flat back in February 2008) play an intimate set.

George Michael

Lionel Richie

The Wham man does his solo thing with a live orchestra, as part of his Symphonica tour.

Mr Smooth himself plays songs from his new album, Tuskegee, alongside a selection of old faves.

SECC, 18:30–22:00, From £51

Malefice (Silent Screams, Dana O’Hara) O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £8

The Reading-based heavy metallers bring the noise, as is their way.

Fidil

Stereo, 19:30–23:00, £12 STBF

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £4

Then Jerico

We Are The Ocean (Great Cynics)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £18.50

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

The young LA-based rapper, producer and songwriter brings his much-tattooed self to Glasgow for the evening.

Sensational David Bowie Tribute Band

Traditional Irish trio forging a reputation for challenging music that draws on the rich heritage of their native place.

The two-piece freakout enigma launch their new EP.

Kid Ink

Joyce Manor (Apologies I Have None, Murderburgers)

Vigo Thieves (The Begbies, Eldrich Scanty)

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £22.50

The Wham man does his solo thing with a live orchestra, as part of his Symphonica tour.

Glasgow pop-meets-rock quartet, playing a special hometown gig to showcase their new album.

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:30, £7

Northern Irish newcomers with healthy Biffy affection. The one time jazz-funk guitarist (and 80s idol) plays a rare gig, accompanied by full band.

Stoner metal from the Sleep alumni.

SECC, 18:30–22:00, From £51

Ayrshire singer/songwriter who won the fifth series of Britian’s Got Talent, if yer bothered.

Stillpoint (Blue Nova)

Nik Kershaw

Hip Parade (Dead Generals, Ripley)

Country-tinged melodic DIY punk rock’n’rollers straight outta Nashville.

Bloc+, 21:00–23:30, Free

Mon 24 Sep George Michael

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £12

SECC, 18:30–22:00, From £50

Aiden Grimshaw (Seye)

King Tut’s, 20:00–23:00, £11.50

Blackpool-born singer/songwriter and X Factor finalist.

Barberos (Poil, Mr Peppermint) 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Four fine young men with a fetish for hard drums and full body silver spandex.

Fri 28 Sep

Glasgow-based quartet mixing pop, rock and soul sounds into their tunes.

Richard Hawley

Mode Moderne

The Sheffield crooner melts some hearts with his trademark luscious odes.

The Poetry Club, 19:00–22:00, £7

Barrowland, 19:00–23:00, £20

Dragonforce

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

Terminal Oath, Lost Persona, Grey Caliber, Trauma Inc

London-based metal quintet led by Marc Hudson, touring their latest album.

Toxic Rock present another showcase of hard rock, punk and acoustic sounds.

Alavano

Pivo Pivo, 19:30–00:00, £5

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £15

The no-holds-barred rock’n’rollers continue to take the live circuit by storm.

Yeasayer

The Arches, 19:00–22:00, £14

The Brooklyn duo preview tracks from their latest album, deftly morphing their previously tribal-heavy sound into something altogether more lovestruck and danceable.

Elohym

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Northwest trio of the experimental and progressive variety.

Sat 29 Sep Muscles Of Joy

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

The seven-piece, all-girl, Glasgow ensemble stage their usual allencompassing take over.

Azealia Banks

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £12.50

The Harlem-based rapper tours her debut EP, most likely in hotpants.

Tracer (Virgil and The Accelerators) O2 ABC, 18:30–22:00, £12

Rock trio with a sound reminiscent of 90s grunge and stoner rock, mixed with some classic 70s rock, obviously.

Paul van Dyk

O2 Academy, 21:00–03:00, £12

The DJ/audio architect (yes, it’s a thing) plays his only Scottish show of 2012, introducing his sixth studio album, Evolution.

Jaill

Stereo, 19:30–23:00, £7 STBF

Wilwaukee-hailing trio who put themselves under the banner of ‘schlub-pop’, combining gentle psych leanings with offbeat punk.

Good Press and Friends (Sex Hands) Mono, 20:00–23:00, Free

The Good Press and Friends gang dig out the vinyl, helped along by a live set from garage noise quartet Sex Hands.

Now, Now (Eliza and the Bear, Slim Mistress) King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £5

Minneapolis indie-pop trio touring their second LP, Threads.

The Preventers

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £6

Retro sounds from the 50s and 60s spiced up with contemporary melodies and lyrics.

Andy McKee

Oran Mor, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

Acoustic guitar soloist with a dedicated online community of followers.

The Dead Agenda (Warflower, Joe Todisco) 13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £tbc

Classic Album Sundays: Pink Floyd

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

Acutones (Electric Vocation)

The favourited night of avant-garde poetry, music and film makes its Glasgow debut, taking to the rather cool surrounds of the Jim Lambie built poetry club for what will be its first opening to the paying public.

Dr Feelgood

Glasgow singer/songwriter whose uplifting and melodic brand of tuneage is steeped in classic rock’n’roll roots.

Neu! Reekie! (Michael Pederson, Kevin Williamson, JL Williams, Lomond Campbell, Edinburgh School For The Deaf)

Alternative-styled Vancouver outfit striking a sophisticated balance between darkness and light.

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £5

The hardcore quintet bring the noise via chunky guitars, crunching bass and drums from the depths of hell.

Raymond Meade

Essex-based rock quartet led by Liam Cromby.

13th Note, 20:00–23:00, £4

No Tolerance (Give, Clocked Out, No Island)

Alternative punk-rock quartet hailing from the fiery musical furnace of, erm, Motherwell.

The 80s rockers reunite to perform The Big Area live and in its entirety, plus selected tracks from their debut album, First.

Classic Grand, 19:00–22:00, £6

Stereo, 19:30–22:00, £13 STBF

O2 ABC, 19:00–22:00, £6

Glasgow-based rockers influenced by the rock gods of yesteryear, formerly known as Ruff Angel.

Sun 30 Sep The Berkeley Suite, 17:00–20:30, £6

A hit down’t London way, Classic Album Sundays like to dip the lights and play a classic album in its entirety – in this case Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.

The Last Carnival (Empty Avenue) O2 ABC, 18:30–22:00, £7

More pumping melodies and driving guitar from the energetic rock five-piece.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group Stereo, 19:00–23:00, £10 STBF

The multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, writer, actor and film director (i.e one talented bugger) tours with his live band.

Man Like Me

Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, 19:30–23:00, £6 adv.

The Camden duo of Johnny Langer and Peter Duffy plunder their back catalogue of floor-filling bangers.

Machine Gun Kelly

King Tut’s, 20:30–23:00, £12.50

Cleveland rapper known to his mammy as Richard Colson Baker.

September 2012

THE SKINNY 63

LISTINGS

EDINBURGH music Tue 04 Sep

Ded Rabbit, Plastic Babies, Black Riot Valves, Stoned Holy Rollers

Flercussion

Usher Hall, 10:30–12:00, £3 (free for students)

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Mixed showcase night featuring the eclectic indie and sax funk soundscapes of Ded Rabbit, amongst others.

Dynamic duo of Jo Ashcroft and Calum Huggan, bringing together their flute and marimba soundworlds. Part of the Usher Hall’s Emerging Artist series.

The Strands

The Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £7

Matt Norris and the Moon (Three Little Birds, Collar Up)

Scottish brothers Andrew and Steven Moore and co bring the raw, powerful soundscapes, at once melodic and bursting with grunge angst.

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–23:00, £10

Edinburgh-based modern folk collective resplendent with trumpets, fiddles, accordions and four-part harmonies.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

Thu 06 Sep

HMV Picture House, 19:00–22:00, £25

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £6 adv.

Wed 12 Sep

Amberkast, Pacific Blues, Cold Ethyl, Calm as the Colour

The xx

Usher Hall, 19:00–22:00, From £18

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £4

Mixed indie-rock showcase for your Thursday night pleasure.

The Electric Sugar Children, Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike, Edinburgh School for the Deaf Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, Free

Horsebastard, Infanticide, Scatorgy, Sufferinfuck Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £5

Dave McPherson

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £9 adv.

The ex-InMe frontman takes to the road solo.

Laptop Lounge

The Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–23:00, Free

Alternative live electronic night, ranging from experimental through ambient to electro and techno.

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £2

The Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £5

Edinburgh-based quintet layering dark, sombre ballads with a diverse range of live instrumentation, incorporating strings, guitar, trombone and piano as they go.

Bruce Cockburn

The Queen’s Hall, 19:30–22:00, £17

The genre-spanning Canadian singer/ songwriter and guitar virtusoso tours on the back of his 31st album. Props.

Furyon (Audiodriver, Falling Rain, Mair) Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £5

Brighton-based thrash metal quartet fueled on a diet of heavy metal, prog and classic rock.

Catchy melodies and quirky hooks from the self-dubbed ‘fun pop’ Edinburgh quartet, launching their new EP on the night.

Gascan Ruckus

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £4

Wiry Irish alternative rockers, visceral and frantic in their approach.

Edinburgh Unlimited (Echo Boomer, The Sunday Republic, Kit and The Crane) Meadow Bar, 20:00–22:30, £3

Regular live acoustic session with a four-strong line-up of performers, one of whom is remaining under wraps for now ready to play a mini secret set.

Christina Novelli (Nettles, The Directors, Daniel Scott)

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £8.50 adv.

Sound Project (The Cathode Ray, Roy Moller, Gigantic Leaves)

Southampton-born songstress of the pop-rock variety. Raising funds for Gracemount High School.

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £6 (£5)

Bi-monthly music night featuring The Cathode Ray, Roy Moller and Gigantic Leaves.

Fri 14 Sep Electric Circus Live Lounge (Jack And The’, Olivia Raffert)

Sat 08 Sep

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £2.00

Bruncheon!

Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 11:00–14:30, Free

Brunch and live music event in the Drill Hall cafe, featuring local musical talent.

The Lurkers

Acoustic-styled musical variety show hosted by HP ‘the sauce’ Neilson.

Indie Funday Friday (The Cosmonauts, Onzlo, Alex Foottit ) Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £4

Citrus Club, 19:30–22:00, £9 adv. (£12 door)

Monthly indie-pop night where a selection of, er, indie-pop acts play in aid of local charities.

The Australian punk-meetsbluegrass scamps make a welcome return.

Pussy Whipped Festival (Rauberhohle, Factory Arts, Executive Legs, Roseanne Barr, Her Royal Highness)

JWP BC, DJ Pryzmat

The Bongo Club, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Showcase evening of Polish rap and hip-hop.

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–03:00, £7 (weekend)

Hagana (Wildtype, The Red Show) Raw and eclectic alternative rockers, re-entering the live arena to preview their debut album.

The Fiddler’s Elbow, 19:00–01:00, £7 (weekend)

Unique two-day celebration of underground queer-feminist culture in Edinburgh, featuring ten queer and/ or female-dominated bands over the course of the weekend.

Crybaby (Lonely Tourist)

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £8 adv.

Alias of Bristolian singer/songwriter Danny Coughlan.

Limbo (Miaoux Miaoux, Homework, Indian Red Lopez) The Voodoo Rooms, 20:00–01:00, £7

Beloved gig-in-a-club night, this time awash with subtly layered beats and rushes of distorted guitar care of yer man Miaoux Miaoux (aka Julian Corrie).

Sun 16 Sep Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–23:00, £5

White Heath

Pussy Whipped Festival (ONSIND, Ste McCabe, Spat, Liz Cronin, Scragfight)

Edinburgh-based alternative rockers fronted by local singer/songwriter Norman Lamont.

Little Love and the Friendly Vibes (Thank You So Nice, Ded Rabbit, Gigantic Leaves, Those in Peril Out in Space )

Acoustic-styled musical variety show hosted by HP ‘the sauce’ Neilson.

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

Classic pop-styled Edinburgh all-girl seven-piece featuring the sonic pleasures of trumpet, accordion and violin.

The Invisible Helpers

Thu 13 Sep

Electric Circus Live Lounge (William Douglas)

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

CRANACHAN

The Voodoo Rooms, 20:30–23:00, Free

Fri 07 Sep

The Third Door, 19:00–22:00, £5

The South London spectral popsters take to Edinburgh’s Usher Hall two days after their new album, Coexist, drops. So, yes, expect plenty live tracks from that.

Brutal death metal and grindcore from Horsebastard et al.

Indie guitar tunes from a trio of bands from Scotland, England and USA in support of the launch of The Electric Sugar Children’s debut album, Tumbleweed.

Unique two-day celebration of underground queer-feminist culture in Edinburgh, featuring ten queer and/ or female-dominated bands over the course of the weekend.

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, Free

EH1 Live (Phantom Band, The OK Social Club, The Stagger Rats, AMWWF, The Merrylees, Modern Faces, La Fontaines, Hip Parade, The Rahs) The Liquid Room, 14:00–03:00, £18 (all access)

All-day mini music festival returning for its second year, showcasing over 50 unsigned Scottish acts across five venues.

EH1 Live (The Imagineers, Minature Dinosaurs, Selective Service, The Crayons, Greg Pearson, Detours, Six Storys High, Davey Horne, T Bird and Blonde Spirit)

The Cabaret Voltaire, 14:00–03:00, £18 (all access)

All-day mini music festival returning for its second year, showcasing over 50 unsigned Scottish acts across five venues.

EH1 Live (Vigo Thieves, Make Sparks, The Holy Ghosts, Lysergic Suite, Tommy Reilly, Joan Wean, Jack Rowberry, The Machine Room, The Gold Lions) Electric Circus, 14:00–03:00, £18 (all access)

All-day mini music festival returning for its second year, showcasing over 50 unsigned Scottish acts across five venues.

EH1 Live (Catfish and The Bottlemen, Aaron Wright, People Places Maps, Caravan Club, The Daytonas, Mass Consensus, Scott McWatt, Last Minute Glory) Sneaky Pete’s, 14:00–03:00, £18 (all access)

All-day mini music festival returning for its second year, showcasing over 50 unsigned Scottish acts across five venues.

EH1 Live (The Twist, Johnny and The Giros, The Marvels, The Jackals, Holly Drummond, Boot Magna, The Directors, Soho Dandy) Whistlebinkies, 14:00–03:00, £18 (all access)

All-day mini music festival returning for its second year, showcasing over 50 unsigned Scottish acts across five venues.

Brian Houston (Lins Honeyman) The Caves, 19:00–23:00, £10 adv.

The Belfast songwriter makes a welcome return to Edinburgh.

64 THE SKINNY

Tue 18 Sep Dexys

The Queen’s Hall, 19:00–22:00, £25

Kaiho

Steve Hogarth’s longstanding band of rockers, currently also writing and recording their 17th studio album.

The Linlithgow dense rockers make their triumphant live return.

Sat 15 Sep

Power trio from Philadelphia specializing in heavy instrumental rock.

Miniature Dinosaurs

Marillion

Penguins Kill Polar Bears (Gathering Lights, Donnie Willow)

The Liquid Room, 19:00–22:00, £15

The original punk rockers take to the road, a little balder but still in possession of all the hits.

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £5

Tue 11 Sep Indie-pop foursome hailing from the fiery musical furnace of Stirling. Part of the Usher Hall’s Emerging Artist series.

Edinburgh-based progressive rockers led by Jake Poynter.

The Buzzcocks

Northern Lights

Usher Hall, 10:30–12:00, £3 (free for students)

Hold The Suspect

Vakunoht (We Ate Them Off The Floor)

More hook-friendly indie-pop, as the chirpy Edinburgh quintet bring smiles to faces once more with the launch of their debut album, Animal Love Match.

The local covers band play all genres of classics, from ABBA to Public Enemy.

The Liquid Room, 19:00–22:00, £6

Sat 22 Sep

Stinking Lizaveta (Flux Velociraptor, Giant Monster Attack)

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:15–23:00, £12

The 80s pop sensation that is Dexys Midnight Runners, now going simply by Dexys, play in support of their first album in 26 years.

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £3.00

The Birmingham-based quartet continue spreading the pop-rock gospel.

Mon 17 Sep

Kinks hits from the band composed of former original members, plus guests.

Cancel The Astronauts (Shooting Stansfield, Letters)

Barabas

Taking Hayley

Kast Off Kinks (Safehouse)

September 2012

Usher Hall, 10:30–12:00, £3 (free for students)

Wind quintet in possession of a diverse repertoire, from the avantgarde to TV classics. Part of the Usher Hall’s Emerging Artist series.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Mysterious experimentalists playing what they term progressive space rock.

Cave Painting (Ancients) Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £6

Ambient Brighton band gently traversing the line between chilloot and tropical.

W.A.S.P.

HMV Picture House, 19:00–22:00, £19.50

The LA hard rockers play a set of three parts: an hour of songs from the first four albums, a mini version of The Crimson Idol, and finally a showcase of songs from their new album.

July

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £5

Eleanor McEvoy (Kat Healy, Caroline Gilmour)

Progressive rock all the way from Italy.

Stripped-down acoustic loveliness from the contemporary Irish singer/ songwriter.

Inspace, 19:00–23:00, £5 adv.

The Caves, 19:00–23:00, £10 adv.

Hiva Oa (Adam Stafford)

Lemonade

The dream pop Edinburgh trio launch their debut album in suitably magical style, taking over the part-venue, part-installation space of Inspace for a night of music, installations and projections.

Sneaky Pete’s, 21:00–00:00, £6 adv.

Trio of self-professed record geeks hailing from Brooklyn by way of San Francisco, fusing post-punk and Eurodance in one jolly whole.

Wed 19 Sep Vile (Lacerated and Carbonized, Nerrus Kor, Acatalepsy, Laceration) Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £10

Extreme metal mini festival for the hardcore amongst you.

Thu 20 Sep Warrior Soul

Bannermans, 19:00–23:00, £10

The political party rockers return to do their guitar-laden noise of a thing.

Woodenbox (Zopa and the Shakes, David Alexander) The Third Door, 19:00–22:00, £6

Ali Downey’s Americana-styled folk ensemble return with a clipped back moniker, but the same propensity for full-on barn-raising anthems, promoting their latest EP.

Divide and Rule

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Edinburgh-based electro-popmeets-modern folk ensemble led by Sarah Caltieri.

Zed Penguin (Mad Nurse, The Tide Inside, Now Wakes The Sea) City Café, 19:00–22:00, £4

The Moons (Last Minute Glory, Modern Faces)

Alternative Edinburgh trio led by Matthew Winter, with strong local support.

Northampton-based foursome, trading in psychedelic garage-pop beats, infused with a bit of indie and soul.

Session A9

The Caves, 19:00–23:00, £7 adv.

The Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:30, £15 (£12)

Martin Harley (Matt Norris and the Moon) The Voodoo Rooms, 19:30–23:00, £8

Acoustic guitar singer/songwriter taking in ageless blues and roots soundscapes.

Thu 27 Sep Fewsel

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £4

Australian rock quartet exploring the genre through psychedelic, progressive and stoner soundscapes.

Edinburgh Omid 2012 (Volitantes, GOL, Douglas Kay)

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Live music fundraiser in aid of Radio Lollipop Edinburgh and Nasser Khosrow Children’s House in Tehran.

Hey Sholay (The Marvels, Margeaux)

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £6 adv.

Promising young indie hopefuls made up of musicians, filmmakers and artists from Sheffield and Leeds.

Fri 28 Sep Dead Boy Robotics (Sebastian Dangerfield, Mad Nurse) Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £4

Edinburgh trio incorporating laptops, guitars, vocal yelps and tribal drumming into their rather epic brand of new wave.

For Those About To Rock 2012 (Livewire AC/DC, ZZTops) HMV Picture House, 19:00–22:00, £20

Rock tribute show featuring Livewire AC/DC and The ZZ Tops.

Nanobots, Shock and Awe

Neu! Reekie! (Jenni Fagan, Seafield Road, The Store Keys) Summerhall, 19:00–22:00, £5

The favourited night of avant-garde poetry, music and film makes the move to Summerhall, this time playing host to poet and novelist Jenni Fagan, singer/songwriter Andrew Eaton-Lewis (aka Seafield Road) and regular supergroup The Store Keys.

The Edinburgh-based dirty rockers launch their second EP.

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £5

Karima Francis

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–23:00, £8.50

Stanley Odd

Nest-haired, quirky-voiced singer/ songwriter from Blackpool.

Inventive hip-hop musings as the Odd Squad move from chopped electrofunk to crunchy 8-bit, via well-constructed vocal flows from Solareye and Veronica Electronica.

Wet Nuns (Blindfolds, Lords of Bastard, Pirate Sons)

James Yorkston (Kathryn Williams)

Communion: The Last September

The Liquid Room, 19:00–22:00, £7 adv.

The Queen’s Hall, 20:00–22:00, £15 (£13.50)

The Fife dweller and sometime Fence Collective dabbler performs tracks from his newest album, I Was a Cat from a Book, as well as some cherrypicked old faves.

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £6 adv.

Blues-punk red necks from, er, Wild West Yorkshire. Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–23:00, £5

Ben Lovett (of Mumford & Sons) brings his touring night Edinburghway, with a headline set from indiefolk six-piece The Last September.

Mon 24 Sep

Soulacoaster

Motorheid

12-piece monster of a soul ensemble, packed with classic hits made famous by the genres legendary singer/ songwriters.

Motorhead tribute act.

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:30–23:00, £tbc

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, Free

Tue 25 Sep

Lost In Audio

Rae Morris (Naledi Herman, Kat Healy)

Edinburgh alternative noisemakers known for their well-crafted epic rock anthems.

Young Blackpool singer/songwriter singing about love ‘n’ stuff.

HMV Picture House, 19:00–22:00, £5

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £6.50

Radio Pachuco

Jesca Hoop

The seven-piece swing and blues ensemble take over Henry’s wee basement.

Manchester-based, Californiaborn songstress rich with layered harmonies, cavernous production and slow, sombre seduction.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £tbc

Bandeoke Night (Sly Swiggs & The Warcorps, The Bearded Ladies)

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £7 adv.

Wed 26 Sep

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £5

Overoth, Necrotize, Rex Shagath

Clean George (PET)

Death metal tour headered by Belfast’s Overoth.

Edinburgh pop-rockers schooled in big riffs and catchy lyrics.

Sweep Across Horizons, Scotia, Benny Monteux

Live bandeoke night raising funds for Bowel Cancer UK. Leith Cricket Club, 20:00–22:30, £5

Mitchell Boyle, Stephen Armour, Craig McKerracher Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £5

Singer/songwriter showcase raising funds for charity.

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £5

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

Mixed showcase night featuring the hard-hitting rock sounds of Sweep Across Horizons, amongst others.

Fat Goth (The Sparrowhawk Orkestrel)

Usher Hall, 16:00–19:00, From £10

Wagner’s passionate love story, Tristan and Isolde, is given a reworking by BBC SSO chief conductor Donald Runnicles.

Cable 35 (Valentine)

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

Sheffield-based alternative rockers infusing their sound with touches of punk and grunge.

Pat Travers Band (Holy Ghosts)

The Caves, 19:00–23:00, £17 adv.

Canadian rock guitarist, keyboardist and singer who began his recording career back in the mid-70s, playing with his live band.

Andy McKee (John Gomm, Preston Reed)

The Pleasance, 19:30–22:30, £17.50 adv.

Mon 01 Oct The Liquid Room, 19:00–22:00, £17.50

The Smoke Fairies

The Pleasance, 19:30–22:30, £9 adv.

Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies sing the blues.

DUNDEE music Wed 05 Sep

Ian Siegal (Jed Potts and the Hillman Hunters)

Another high-tempo ska punk party from the Ayr nutcases.

The Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Thu 06 Sep

Chains of Love (The Seven Deadly Sins)

The Lurkers (Crimedesk, Thorn in the Face MacGowan)

60s girl group fuzziness filtered through a very dark lens.

The Australian punk-meetsbluegrass scamps make a welcome return.

Sneaky Pete’s, 19:00–22:00, £7 adv.

Sat 29 Sep The Imagineers

The Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £5

Glasgow four-piece offering an intriguing blend of 50s rock’n’roll, Scottish twang and cinematic flair.

Beat Generator Live!, 19:00–22:30, £8

Fri 07 Sep Courtney’s Chain (Mass Consensus, The Twist, Wobble)

The Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £5 adv. (£6 door)

Bainbridge Music Showcase

The Dundee-based soulful pop quartet launch their new album.

Monthly showcase selection of new bands who’ve been using Bainbridge Studios facilities this month.

The Electric Sugar Children, Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike, Edinburgh School for the Deaf

The Third Door, 19:00–22:00, £5

Plastic Animals

Wee Red Bar, 19:00–22:00, £5 (£4)

Edinburgh-based quartet of the sludge-noise-pop-punk variety.

Gallus Cooper

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £5

Alice Cooper tribute act.

Marc Almond

HMV Picture House, 19:00–22:00, £23.50

The Soft Cell mainman tours solo in celebration of his forthcoming (once those legal issues have been cleared up) singles collection, on what is his 35th year in the business.

Barabas

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £3

The local covers band play all genres of classics, from ABBA to Public Enemy.

Beat Generator Live!, 20:00–22:30, 4 adv. (£5 door)

Indie guitar tunes from a trio of bands from Scotland, England and USA in support of the launch of The Electric Sugar Children’s debut album, Tumbleweed.

Sat 08 Sep Guns n’ Roses Experience

Beat Generator Live!, 20:00–22:30, £8

Guns n’ Roses tribute act.

Fri 14 Sep Catfish and the Bottlemen (The Trade, Lincoln Rime) The Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £5 adv. (£6 door)

Trails, Taking Chase, Curators

Rock’n’roll quintet full of guitars and songs about love an’ that.

All genres of rock, taking in math, post-hardcore and melodic soundscapes.

The second round of the Scottish national metal battle of the bands.

The Banshee Labyrinth, 20:00–23:00, £5

Duke’s Corner, 20:00–22:30, Free

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde

Traditional Scots duo now in their 26th year of touring together.

The Hostiles (Bomb City 7, Maxwell’s Dead)

The Voodoo Rooms, 19:00–23:00, £10

Wed 19 Sep Clean George (PET)

Edinburgh pop-rockers schooled in big riffs and catchy lyrics.

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £4 adv.

Contemporary blues singer/ songwriter.

Beat Generator Live!, 19:30–22:30, £5

Two guys and two girls from Ayrshire, combining rock, pop and grunge to create their own melodic and pulsating sound.

The Queen’s Hall, 19:30–22:00, £21 (£17)

London-based singer/songwriter known for his guitar playing which involves rhythmically tapping and hitting his guitar’s body.

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, £4

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

Edinburgh alternative rockers chock with walls of vocal harmonies and driving guitar riffs.

Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham

Rock’n’roll specialists, playing old and new tunes.

Backlash (Emilio Largo, Blackjack)

Bannermans, 21:00–23:00, Free

Electric Circus, 19:00–22:00, £6 adv.

London rock-meets-grunge trio, chock with heavy drums and howlin’ vocals.

Newton Faulkner

CRANACHAN

Death Trap City (Stillpoint)

Bleech (Aperture)

Tinnitus Transfer (King Rockers)

Fri 21 Sep

Sun 23 Sep

Bannermans, 20:00–23:00, Free

Classic rock covers from the 60s to present day.

Henry’s Cellar, 19:00–22:00, £5

Electric space rockers Nanobots helps Shock and Awe’s guitarist celebrate his 22.5th birthday. Yes, 22.5.

Contemporary Scottish folk ensemble with an all-star cast of players churning out original tunes and intricately orchestrated arrangements.

The young Edinburgh singer/ songwriter launches his debut album of acoustic indie-pop gems.

Sat 15 Sep Mechanical Smile (Monaco, Athos, Death By Delorean)

Acoustic guitar soloist with a dedicated online community of followers.

The Cabaret Voltaire, 19:00–22:00, £5

Callum Beattie

Sun 30 Sep CRANACHAN

Molton Magazine Metal Battle #2

Beat Generator Live!, 19:00–22:00, £7

Thu 20 Sep Duke’s Corner, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Ex-Alamos members in a new alternative guise.

Underground Heroes (The new Times)

Beat Generator Live!, 20:00–22:30, £tbc

Chatham-based quartet straddling the line between ska, punk and indie.

Fri 21 Sep The Moons (The High Fevers, Sunrise in Shanghai)

The Doghouse, 20:00–22:30, £6 adv. (£7 door)