Archive for September, 2010
Music Alliance Pact – September 2010
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
As much as this blog tries to add a bit of colour to Scotland’s music scene, there’s really only one day each month that is devoted to singling out a new Scottish artist for your listening pleasure… and it’s today.
On the 15th of every month, The Pop Cop’s favourite new Scottish discovery is served up on the Music Alliance Pact – a global project which sees music blogs from six continents collaborate to share one song from each our native lands before posting the full list on all of our sites, thereby maximising the exposure of every handpicked MAP artist.
The mp3s below are free to download so take a listen to our choices, starting with the exquisite sounds of Endor.
To download all 35 songs in one file click here
SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Endor – Chapel Doors
Modern technology has made it easier than ever before to make and distribute music. This is most definitely a bad thing. The deserving are being drowned out by a tidal wave of bands and bedroom musicians, and the din of mediocrity is deafening. One of this year’s finest albums came out in July and I never even saw it coming. At times it sounds like the missing link between Pavement and REM. It is engrossing, unpretentious and displays a real understanding of how to write a song that people will actually want to hear more than once. The band is Endor, the album is called Endor, and you can buy it here.
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Loopallu: Quite possibly the best small festival in Scotland
Sunday, September 12th, 2010
Whenever I’ve written about individual music festivals I’ve tried to look beyond the line-up to identify what it is they contribute to the ever-teeming Scottish music calendar.
LOOPALLU is one I’ve never actually been to, and every time it comes around I can’t quite figure out why that remains the case because I’ve heard nothing but enthusiastic feedback from both punters and musicians who have made the trip to Ullapool.
As well as having the distinction of being the country’s last outdoor alternative music festival of the year, it takes place in the dramatically picturesque surroundings of Loch Broom with its surrounding mountain ranges and is full of genuinely welcoming locals.
It’s pretty much the perfect size with a capacity of 2,500, and considering that’s twice the population of the town itself, it punches way above its weight when it comes to booking acts. In recent years Loopallu has hosted The View (2006), Franz Ferdinand (2007), Frightened Rabbit (2008) and Mumford & Sons (2009) and this year they’ve managed to lure Paolo Nutini.
Since the sixth annual Loopallu on September 17-18 is already sold out, if you don’t have a ticket you’ll also be missing The Magic Numbers, Idlewild, Turin Brakes, Mt Desolation, Aberfeldy, Kassidy, Silver Columns and Rachel Sermanni.
Once the last note is played in the festival’s solitary tent, the music carries on from 11pm to 2am (officially anyway) at various local bars under the Fringe banner, which this year includes Admiral Fallow among others. I still don’t know why I’m not going. I guess there’s always next year…
Paolo Nutini – Time To Pretend (MGMT cover)
Idlewild – Everything Flows (Teenage Fanclub cover)
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Live review: Freelance Whales, The New Pornographers @ Oran Mor, Glasgow
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
I’ve been waiting a long time for this – FREELANCE WHALES standing barely six feet in front of me, doing live versions of songs from the album I’ve been obsessing over all year.
The New York quintet immediately take the sequential route, playing Weathervanes’ opening three tracks in order – Generator ^ First Floor, the lush synthpop of Hannah and gorgeously pulsing ballad Location.
Often all five members harmonise with serene effect, but with Judah Dadone cast in the role of frontman, it’s noticeable that his singing voice doesn’t quite have the same quirky squeak it does on record.
The intricacies that make Weathervanes such a go-back-to listen can’t help but turn their live set into enchantment as lesser-spotted instruments are swapped, with Doris Cellar flitting between bass and harmonium, Chuck Criss occasionally favouring the rush of glockenspiel, and breakouts of banjo on delicate songs such as Broken Horse.
They end with Generator ^ Second Floor, and a rare opportunity to cut loose on electric guitar, which really is as boisterous as Freelance Whales get.
THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS are an altogether less twee prospect, and one I have to confessing being far less familiar with, despite a celebrated career now spanning five albums.
But the meaty guitar licks and hooks of the Vancouver collective are deeply addictive and each time I think about calling it a night, song after song pulls me back into their world.
The irresistibly dippy Crash Years, which prompts a spot of impressive mid-song whistling, sounds like vintage Fleetwood Mac, while Your Hands (Together) is an almost wilfully unfashionable slab of retro-rock.
Borrowing from the past is clearly something The New Pornographers do rather well, although one would hope that the riff of Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk which bears an uncanny resemblance to Black Eyed Peas’ infinitely more irritating I Gotta Feeling is purely coincidence.
Freelance Whales – Hannah
The New Pornographers – Crash Years
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