Archive for November, 2009
Who says you can’t teach an old blog new tricks?
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
For a wee country, Scotland punches way above its weight in many areas, but one which is rarely acknowledged is its standing as a fertile breeding ground for music blogging. These shores can boast at least 10 established blogs, each offering a diverse, distinctive take on the best (and worst) of Scottish songmaking.
From a personal point of view, what continues to make this community so inspiring are the enterprising ways in which many of The Pop Cop’s counterparts are expanding their reach and taking what was once a geeky hobby (hmmm…. perhaps using the past tense is a little optimistic) into much more ambitious territories. Let’s call it ‘post-blogging’.
At the top of the tree of this boundary pushing is Song, By Toad, which is run by a guy who surely doesn’t sleep, since how else would he have time to record several local bands in session, do a regular podcast, DJ on Edinburgh student radio station Fresh Air and run his own label, Song, By Toad Records, which has brought out music by Eagleowl, Jesus H. Foxx, Meursault, Nightjar and Uhersky Brod. Their newest release is a split 12″ by Portland bands Loch Lomond and The Builders And The Butchers.
Another excellent Edinburgh blog with its own label is 17 Seconds and their in-house 17 Seconds Records, which represents Aberfeldy, Escape Act, Chris Bradley, X-Lion Tamer, The Dirty Cuts and, most recently, The Wildhouse.
Head north across the Firth of Forth and you’ll arrive in the welcoming bosom of Manic Pop Thrills, whose Fife-based author not only does the occasional podcast, but has also expanded into the world of gig promotion, the latest being tonight at The Westport Bar in Dundee featuring Saint Jude’s Infirmary, Kid Canaveral, Panda Su and Hookers For Jesus.
Similarly, the multi-talented man behind TheSteinbergPrinciple blog puts on concerts – at The Wee Red Bar in Edinburgh – under the banner of Trampoline. He also happens to be the singer of The Kays Lavelle, a tremendous band who you’ll be reading much more about on The Pop Cop in the next couple of weeks.
The Vinyl Villain have taken a different approach to the idea of post-blogging, memorably declaring April 6 ‘Paul Haig Day’ in a successful crusade that was supported by a number of other music websites throughout the world.
Peenko has also just launched a campaign of its own which is sure to stir plenty of interest. The blog’s Glaswegian owner has asked a plethora of web-based Scottish music peeps to send him their top 10 albums of 2009 which he will then compile into one definitive end-of-year list. It is destined to become an annual event to look forward to in the Scottish blogging calendar. Actually, if Peenko did have a ‘blogging calendar’ it would feature 12 gratuitous photos of Frightened Rabbit since the site also masquerades as a messageboard for the band’s fans!
Since this post has inadvertently turned into a beginner’s guide to music blogs in Scotland, we can’t sign off without encouraging you to pay a visit to the freshly-revamped Aye Tunes, podcasters-turned-promoters Glasgow PodcART, live review specialists Rokbun and Scotsman spin-off Under The Radar – all wonderful sites whose presence should never be taken for granted. Try finding an independent blog on the Welsh music scene, for example, and you’ll come up empty-handed.
The most important thing to remember is that if there’s a band in Scotland worth discovering, there are a heap of enthusiastic fans with keyboards just desperate to tell you first… and publishing a blog post is by no means the only tool at their disposal.
Loch Lomond – Field Report
Kid Canaveral – Smash Hits
Jesus H. Foxx – I’m Half The Man You Were
The Wildhouse – Ficca
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Andy Murray raps, a nation covers its ears
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Andy Murray will go down in Scottish sporting history as a legend but he really needs to work on his off-court personality. He’s so fucking miserable we’d assume he psyches himself up in the morning by listening to Joy Division on a loop, so when The Pop Cop found out Murray was about to unleash his first foray into the music world we didn’t expect it to be THE WORST RAP EVER.
Here for your displeasure is our tennis hero’s guest appearance on the new EP by guitar-toting doubles players, the Bryan Brothers.
If you want the full three-minute mp3 (seriously, why?) of Autograph, which also features a woeful rapping cameo by Novak Djokovic, then right-click here.
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Compact discs – goodbye and good riddance
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
The beautiful music of The Unwinding Hours will almost certainly get those who know their history feeling a bit nostalgic for Aereogramme.
It will be intriguing to see what kind of profile Chemikal Underground’s latest signing will attract outside of Scotland since Aereogramme, who released the last of their four albums in early 2007, enjoyed a cult following during a nine-year career that existed almost entirely outside the digital age as we know it.
Their glory days in the late 90s/early 00s remind me of a time when, if I fell in love with a band, I would collect their singles, albums, EPs, Japanese import CDs and even compilation appearances to ensure I heard everything they had to hear.
At the heart of those I obsessed over – Aereogramme, Biffy Clyro, Astrid, Belle & Sebastian, Glitterbox, Muse to name half-a-dozen that immediately spring to mind – was a proven track record of delivering excellent b-sides, yet I would never call myself a record collector.
I had no interest in a new release unless it promised songs that were not available elsewhere. That’s why I don’t subscribe to any kind of mourning over the death of compact discs and the sleeve notes and artwork they held. If your house is as small as mine, CD cases and vinyl records just take up precious space that could be better filled with electrical appliances, sofa beds and clothes horses.
Every CD I have ever loved has been ripped to my computer’s hard drive then binned or sold and I won’t miss a single one of them. In the words of your granny: ‘You cannae take it with you’.
Aereogramme – Black Path
Glitterbox – Still Breathing
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