Archive for April, 2009
Step Away From The Computer #3: Big In Falkirk
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Music lovers, fear not the great outdoors with its helpless barrier against rain, wind and death by pig. Go forth and rejoice in the pleasure of a weekend of free entertainment at BIG IN FALKIRK, the third festival in our Step Away From The Computer series.
This year the event brings its customary diet of theatre, comedy, art, fireworks and, of course, live musicians, including arguably Scotland’s best hip-hop act, Young Fathers.
Location:
Callendar Park, Falkirk.
Fascinating fact:
Not one, but two 100ft high horse heads will be built next to the Falkirk Wheel. The £50million structures will rock backwards and forwards to displace water from a lock chamber allowing boats to move around Scotland’s canal network. Now that’s cool.
Date:
Saturday, May 2 and Sunday, May 3.
Weather forecast:
May 2:
May 3:
Festival history:
This is its 10th year.
Total number of acts:
16
Cost of a ticket:
Free
So each act is worth:
Nothing
Big-hitters:
Stereo MCs, Capercaillie.
Organiser’s propaganda:
“Drinking alcohol in public areas in not permitted in the Falkirk area. Deck chairs and picnic rugs are welcome.”
Must-hear:
4 Young Fathers – Straight Back On It
b May 2
4 Danse Or Die – Connexion (Electro)
b May 2
4 Ben Sturrock – I’m Sorry (live)
b May 3
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Step Away From The Computer #2: Hinterland
Monday, April 27th, 2009
Here’s part two of Step Away From The Computer, our handy at-a-glance guide to Scotland’s music festivals.
HINTERLAND expands on the template created by last year’s Sauchiehall Crawl by putting on over 100 alternative acts sprawled throughout 15 venues on the mean streets of Glasgow. The Pop Cop will be dividing and conquering in an attempt to cover both nights of this madness, as well as catching up with Broken Recordsto talk about their debut album (which is currently rocking our red socks off). We’ll probably need a good lie down after all that.
Location:
Glasgow city centre.
Fascinating fact:
Hinterlands is the title of a 1981 science fiction short story by William Gibson, whose novel All Tomorrow’s Parties was named after The Velvet Underground song.
Date:
Thursday, April 30 and Friday, May 1.
Weather forecast:
April 30:
May 1:
Festival history:
This is its first year.
Total number of acts:
116
Cost of a ticket:
£45.75
So each act is worth:
39p
Big-hitters:
The Fall, Tommy Reilly, Sons And Daughters, Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard, Metronomy, Broken Records, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Little Man Tate, The Xcerts, De Rosa, Beerjacket.
Organiser’s propaganda:
“Come armed with an attitude for discovery and you won’t be disappointed.”
Must-hear:
4 Beerjacket – The Truth Is A Ghost
b 20.50, Apr 30, MacSorley’s
4 The Xcerts – Crisis In The Slow Lane
b 20.50 Apr 30, Art School and 19.50, May 1, The Admiral
4 Tommy Reilly - I Don’t Like Coffee
b 22.00, Apr 30, King Tut’s
4 Little Man Tate – Reflection In His Sunglasses
b 23.00, Apr 30, MacSorley’s
4 Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work
b 19.20, May 1, The Arches
4 Sons And Daughters – Split Lips
b 21.10, May 1, The Arches
4 Broken Records – And They All Fell Into The Sea
b 21.50, May 1, Classic Grand
4 We Were Promised Jetpacks – Quiet Little Voices
b 00.10, May 1, ABC2 (technically May 2)
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Identity crisis
Friday, April 24th, 2009
You usually only get one stab at making yourself a star in the music biz. Such is the fickleness of fame that trying to forge a second career tends to be greeted with cruel indifference and the nagging suspicion that your best days are behind you.
To take some recent Scottish examples, in relative terms there has been little fanfare for anything that has been put on the table post-Beta Band, post-Bis or post-Mull Historical Society, putting to one side their actual critical merits.
The ashes of Arab Strap have thrown up a scenario few would have predicted, with Malcolm Middleton’s solo career giving him a platform to show just how talented a songwriter he is, while Aidan Moffat has gone through five different nom de plumes in what increasingly seems to be a desperate attempt to distance himself from what has gone before.
Perhaps the trick is to lay the foundations for your second project while at the peak of your first one. Biffy Clyro singer Simon Neil is enjoying a fair bit of exposure with MARMADUKE DUKE, in which he (just) manages to get away with an entire album of in-jokes and schoolboy French. The ability to come up with irresistible songs such as the Daft Punk-esque Rubber Lover certainly helps.
One of The Pop Cop’s most keenly-anticipated new chapters is that of former Delgados man Alun Woodward, now masquerading as LORD CUT-GLASS. His debut album is out in June and if the little music he has made available for public consumption is anything to go by (think skewed pop), it could well be a record to cherish. Here’s hoping.
Just to prove that reinvention can work, you need only look at the commercial success of DOVES, who haven’t done too badly after abandoning their previous incarnation as a dance group. We caught them at the Glasgow Barrowland this week and while they no longer close their sets with old Sub Sub tune Space Face, it certainly wasn’t missed.
Kicking off with Jetstream from their latest offering Kingdom Of Rust set the pace for a pulsating night which saw new material, particularly the album’s title track, received well. However, it was rousing renditions of crowd-pleasers Black And White Town and the anthemic Pounding which really got the fans going.
The best was definitely saved til last as the boys signed off with There Goes The Fear, which was met with a fervour that’s sure to keep the band’s love affair with the Barras fully intact.
4 Marmaduke Duke – Rubber Lover
4 Lord Cut-Glass – Even Jesus Couldn’t Love You
b May 16, Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline (tickets)
4 Doves – The Last Son
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