Gig Review - King Tut's Summer Nights - Pronto Mama, The Little Kicks, Dead Sea Souls & Brazil Exists

King Tut's Summer Nights kicked off on Thursday 12th July with a line up of Brazil Exists, Dead Sea Souls, The Little Kicks and Pronto Mama, with a pre-show DJ set from Weaver of Detour Scotland.

Chilling downstairs in the Tut's bar with a burger and pint was made much more enjoyable listening to the tunes being played by Detour's very own Weaver.  CHURCHES' 'Lies' got the feet tapping, and of course, the band play as part of Detour's CIRCA club nights during the Edinburgh festival.

Anyway I digress.  First up on the Tut's stage were Stirling five piece Brazil Exists.  I've been plugging these guys a fair bit recently, and it all stems from this show.  "Hello, we are Brazil Exists", lead singer Andy McAllister rather nervously proclaimed.  Their sound is at times rather Frabbit-esque, which is no great surprise given that Andy from the Selkirk band produced their recent EP.  'Echoes' in particular, a track about the cold Scottish winter, had the indie stylings of Frightened Rabbit circa 'Sing The Greys', whilst still maintaining that something a little bit different.  That je nais se qua comes from Michael Reade's trumpet, which helps build the sound of the band.  Unlike, the populous country from which the band draw their name, Tut's was, at this stage, slightly empty.  Which is a shame, because the upbeat Maccabees influenced sound was a cry to dance.  This was the band's Tut's debut, but which the strength of their new material we doubt it'll be their last.

Next on the bill were Bathgate band Dead Sea Souls.  These guys are no strangers to Tut's and indeed are probably at a level slightly bigger than tonight's billing.  However, they showed why they have built up such a strong and loyal fanbase with their brit-pop indie rock sound.  Coming after the soft indie of Brazil Exists, Dead Sea Souls are a different kind of band, and the confidence in their own ability showed in in singer Gary Burns stage presence, not to mention his impressive mutton chops!  The band have their new album 'We Were Always Electric' out on August 12th via Big Rock Candy Records, and their set was filled with tracks from it.

Following them were The Little Kicks, all the way from Aberdeen.  With their electro-indie they managed to tease the crowd forward a little bit, and enticed some swaying of hips with the pounding electro beat of 'Loosen Up', a remix of which by Discopolis features on a recent remix EP.  The band also played a new anti-war song, which had a sort of spaghetti western intro and a funktastic bass line.  Lead singer Steven explained that the band had not played Tut's in a while, and that their sound has grown stronger since the last time.  Certainly the band were very tight and musically assured, with a well honed electro-indie sound, akin to the likes of Discopolis or Delphic.  Closing with 'Call Of Youth' which is available to download for free from the band's website, Steven reminded us of the next Little Kicks gig in these parts which takes place at Flat 0/1 on the 15th September.

And so we come to the headliners, Pronto Mama.  The unfortunate thing from this review's point of view is that sadly I couldn't stay for them, having to get Mrs Scottish Fiction home for a 5:30 alarm call the next morning.  I was disappointed, but needless to say I know what's good for me.  I am told however, by none other than Scottish Fiction favourite Michael Cassidy, that the band were on top form, and that the live performance of 'Still Swimming' from the most recent EP 'Lickety Split' was spin tingling.

Scottish Fiction - 18th July 2012

A wee short short last week, means we're rattling through some of the best new Scottish music in just one hour flat!  What we lack in quantity this week, we more than make up for in quality with music from Holy Esque, WINTERS, Father Sculptor, Brazil Exists and more!

Muscles Of Joy - Room Of Our Own
WINTERS - Part II: Depths
Miniature Dinosaurs - Lemonade
Father Sculptor - Frances
Two Years In Russia - Greggs Run (feat. Lou Hickey)
Michael Cassidy - Meet You At The Corner
Beerjacket - Jack Chasing Jill
Brazil Exists - Cars And Aeroplanes
Zed Penguin - Tulip
Someone's Son - Out Of Time
Holy Esque - Rose

Scottish Fiction - 18th July 2012 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

Battle Of The Bands - Round 2

Two week's ago Scottish music saw the biggest, baddest, roughest brawl that it has even witness.  It was round one of Battle Of The Bands, David from Kowalskiy and I's fortnightly duel where we pit our music prowess against each other, with the help of our chosen artist, Top Trump style.

For a blow by blow account of the last outing, have a read here.  The short version is that despite the best effort of both sides, David with the help of French Wives, me with the assistance of Seams, came up as equals, meaning round two begins with both camps on level scores.

If you're a stickler for the rules then jog your memory right here.  The most important things to recall however are that as I picked first last week, David has first dibs this time out.  And he's going to need it, as this week I've recruited the finest geography students Stirling has ever produced.  Confirming, once and for all, the existence of the world's 5th largest country, backing up Scottish Fiction against David and his recruit, The Pictish Trail, are... Brazil Exists!

As mentioned, David had first picks this week, meaning he choose our three competing attributes.  Secretly I was hoping the combo of a 'Z' and 'X' would serve well in the Scrabble Score stakes, and felt that with a healthy five members and five SoundCloud tracks we should be able to compete there too.  From the band card above you can see our weakness was Twitter Follow Ratio, and with a youthful exuberance meaning an average age of 20, if David plumped for a more experienced (read auld fart) artist then we'd be knackered.

Well, what do you suppose happened then?  Clearly valuing age over the letters present in a band's name, David plumped firstly for Average Age, following up with Twitter Follow Ratio and completing his clean sweep of the points with Years Since Formation.  As you can see from the above band cards, David wins each point, meaning that after last week's stalemate, first blood goes to Kowalskiy.

I'd like to say he was very humble in his victory, but that would be lying.  All that I will warn, is that Scottish Fiction will be back in a fortnight's time.

Of course as aside from David and I's growing rivalry, the real focus as always is our chosen musicians.  Having had the pleasure of seeing Brazil Exists supporting Frightened Rabbit a few months ago in Dunoon, I was again wowed by their live performance on Thursday 12th where they opened the King Tut's Summer Nights.  They have a very Frabbit-esqe sound, no surprise given the links to Andy of Frabbit who took producer credits on their EP 'The Hermit'.  That very same EP can be found online at iTunes.



David's choice then was the excellent The Pictish Trail, a.k.a. Johnny Lynch.  A man who is a revered figure in Scottish music, responsible for Fence Records, a wealth of recording himself, and a new EP on the way in the shape of 'The Summer Is Empty Of Idiots'.  Check out all the vital stats as well as how to get ahold of the new EP right here.

Gig Review - Frightened Rabbit @ Queen's Hall, Dunoon

It's not often that I get to go on a boat.  Nor is it often that I get the chance to see feert small mammal emulators Frightened Rabbit for free.  And I've NEVER been to Dunoon before either.  So the coming together of all these events is some kind of cataclysmic event which can only harbour certain doom and destruction for the planet as we know it.  Given how good this evening was though, I'm saying it'll be worth it.

The whole affair was almost like a great big day out for me and hanger-on Marc.  As we disembarked the ferry we overhead one other, local I'm presuming, gig goer remark, "these indie-type city kids just lap up this type of thing".  True enough.  There was the almost inevitable getting lost in Dunoon as we searched for the Queen's Hall, the eerie feeling of feeling we've been transported back to the 1970's (The Queen's Hall was an incredibly kitsch novelty), and even fish and chips eaten hastily on the band stand.

Offered the enviable position of supporting Frightened Rabbit and opening proceedings were local boys The King Hats.  We've featured The King Hats on the blog a few times, most recently on our 'We're Only Here For The Banter' feature and Carlo's appearance in the WWF Cup, so it was good to finally be able to catch the lads live.  Their EP 'First Light' is bursting with post-punk tunes, offering a good ol' stomp and head bang when listening too.  Sadly, due to being a complete tourist and getting lost, I only managed to catch the last two tracks for their set.  Happily enough though one of those tracks was the excellent 'Happy New Year', performed with such gusto and passion from singer Alan Power's roaring vocals, to drummer Carlo Acosta's thrashing snare and high hats.  Keeping things close to home, and cleverly getting a cheer from the local crowd, many of who bore King Hats t-shirts, the band revealed the origins of their closing track which was written on a bench just outside the venue.  And with an all mighty climax that was that.

Following on from The King Hats were FRabbits touring partners Brazil Exists, who had followed the Selkirk band round their merry highlands and islands jaunt.  I had never much doubted the existence of the largest South American country, however given my interest in geography is minimal I'm glad that the Stirling 5-piece have affirmed this.  Other than the name, I hadn't heard Brazil Exists before tonight, and I have to say they have intrigued me enough to give their EP 'The Hermit' a listen (produced by none other than FRabbit's Andy Monaghan).   Their set was melodic, warm and had a certain hint of Teenage Fanclub (although maybe that's just me).  Most memorable was Jack Black look-a-like trumpet player Michael Reade who added that extra brassy oomph.

Arriving on stage to a rapturous applause, Frightened Rabbit ripped straight into 'Nothing Like You' off their most recent album 'The Winter Of Mixed Drinks'.  It would be from this album and seminal release 'The Midnight Organ Fight' that the majority of their set would be taken from.  Wasting no time in bringing out the big guns they blasted through 'The Modern Leper' before dedicating 'Old Old Fashioned' to lead crooner Scott Hutchinson's "average sized penis".  The band genuinely seemed pleased to be playing in smaller and more rural venues such as this and encouraged us to share in the happiness by dancing to 'The Twist'. 

After 'The Wrestle' came an announcement greeted with such excitement I honestly suspect a few people wet themselves.  FRabbit will be heading into the studio next week to begin recording their fourth album.  Canny wait!   And we didn't have to wait, as a few new tracks were given an outing including 'The Oil Escape' and an untitled track which featured a fair bit of synth.

Personal favourite 'My Backwards Walk' (incidentally also my 5 year old daughter's favourite song) was played with intimacy and beauty, before a crowd led intro of 'aaaaaaah' led us into 'Swim Until You Can't See Land'.  Another rare-ish track 'Scottish Winds', which comes from the recently released 'Frightened Rabbit EP' propped up the rip roaring stomp that is 'Living In Colour'.

Stood alone and acoustic, Hutchison treats us to 'Poke' whilst the rest of the band grab a well deserved rest.  None earned it more than drummer Grant Hutchison who powered his way through the set with the intensity of a man with a firework up his arse.  'Good Arms Vs Bad Arms' and 'The Loneliness And The Scream' led us sadly towards the encore and the end.

Even though the song relates to events many years ago, and was released near enough four years ago, the sheer emotion and hurt that pours out of Hutchison whilst performing 'Keep Yourself Warm' is incredible.  It's truly a spin tingling moment and the chorus of "it takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm" resonates with young broken hearted fans through the room.