On the latest Scottish Fiction Podcast is the live session from Gav Prentice who very kindly joined us in the studio recently. Gav chats about his music, his influences, his début solo album 'The Invisible Hand' and his band Over The Wall. There's a smattering of music chosen by Gav as well as two live tracks.
On top of that there's the usual serving of new alternative Scottish music, this week provided by Frightened Rabbit, Queen Jane, Michael Cassidy, The Winter Tradition and plenty more! Enjoy!
Queen Jane are a band who continue to go from strength to strength. Their previous EP's, 'Confetti' and 'Denver' showed a tightening of sound and when they played at The Captain's Rest as part of Scottish Fiction Presents back in June it was evident to all that their live show showed there was much more to come from the Cumbernauld foursome.
'Romantics' is their latest offering, the six track EP is out on Monday 26th. Starting off with an intro that builds and then hammers intro 'Stop Pretending'. It's jangly, it's full of angular guitars and full of wishful lyrics. There's a great drum solo stuck right in the middle, showing the band are not afraid to break conventional rules of making pop music.
'Josephine' continues where the last track ends, with more upbeat, afro-pop influenced sounds. The rhythm section are tight as a badgers nut, providing the perfect backing to lead singer James McGarragle's punchy vocals.
Near enough title track 'Romance' brings the tempo down a little bit as McGarragle proclaims "we don't need love 'cause we've got romance". There's some brilliant off-kilter and catchy guitar hooks throughout this track, and this track serves as the staple showcase of Queen Jane's sound. I've heard them described as a Scottish Vampire Weekend, which has some truth, but they also echo the Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club and Two Door Cinema Club.
Having said that, next track 'Sometimes' veers off the guitar-pop track with a more solemn and darker feel. The guitars drone, the vocals reverb while the drums are that little bit slower, showing that Queen Jane can do post-rock too.
The EP ends with 'Fighting Man', which plays by the 'save the best till last' rule. It's an absolute joy of a track, seven and a half minutes of thoughtful lyrics culminating in an orgy of guitars and drums, akin to The National.
The EP as a whole is a complete package of summery up-beat pop music, featuring chiming guitars, angular beats and jaunty melodies. It further cements Queen Jane's status as heading for bigger and better things, and confirms that with each release they have honed and developed their sound.
'Romantics' comes out on Monday 26th November on Queen Jane's bandcamp page. Check out their EP launch on Sunday 2nd December at Glasgow School Of Art Student Union. Check out more from Queen Jane FacebookTwitterWebsite
The latest Scottish Fiction podcast, which aired on Pulse Community Radio on 7th November 2012, features an orgy of great new Scottish music. There's a first play of a track from Queen Jane's new EP, Trapped In Kansas, Magic Daddy and CHVRCHES. Boo-yah!
On top of that our Featured Artist is cult heroes The Vaselines, there's a track from Kid Canaveral's debut album 'Shouting At Wildlife' which features as our Classic Scottish Album. Our Re-Mixing It Up track is a smoking Discopolis remix of 'The Fog' by Rachel Sermanni and our Aye Tunes Friday Freebie track comes from The Douglas Firs. Enjoy!
Thanks very much to Steven for taking some pictures at the Scottish Fiction Presents Gig in The Captain's last Sunday. Here's what you missed if you didn't make it.
That's how the Scottish Fiction blog began a year ago*. Hardly
inspiring, yet I like to think over the past twelve months I've managed
at least somewhat to offer some interesting features, slightly coherent
reviews, and new enjoyable music to those hardy souls who have kept
reading these interweb pages.
*It's actually over a year now, nearer 13 months. Sue me!
The very first band I ever posted about were now (very) defunct I See Shapes
which gives me a lovely opportunity to post this video and also
encourage you to click on the above link to download their final EP for
free.
I'm not one for sentimental markings of passing of arbitrary time (despite hosting a birthday radio show and a gig to celebrate one year of blogging...) but I thought I'd use this opportunity to look back on some of the better things that I've managed to do whilst under this auspicious rank of 'blogger'. Here's our Scottish Fiction 'top moments'.
- Branching out further from the blog in July 2011 we put out the first Scottish Fiction EP comprised of Michael Cassidy, Night Noise Team, Adam Holmes And The Embers and Campfires In Winter. We started with an absolute belter of a line up and things have continued along the same vein. You can get all our previous EP for FREE right here. This coming July will mark 12 EP's released and we've got summat special in the pipeline for this. All will be revealed in due time, but trust me, it's gonna be huge.
- One of the most enjoyable and also nerve racking things about doing the live Scottish Fiction show has been welcoming guests onto the show. Luckily all these shows are archived* meaning you can listen to them all again! Whilst all have been great fun my personal favourites have been RM Hubbert, Where We Lay Our Heads and Beerjacket. Hopefully we'll have many more in the future!
*I'm currently in the process of moving all our archived shows from Soundcloud to Mixcloud, so some may not be available at the time of reading. Bear with me as this is both monotonous and time-consuming.
- Following on from the above, we had the very talented Michael Cassidy, Shambles Miller and Julia Doogan all in the studio for our first birthday show way back in January this year. It was an absolute pleasure and remains a highlight of doing the radio show. If you missed it, then listen back here.
- I've mentioned the Scottish Fiction EP's already, but December 2011's EP holds a special place, as we organised seven artists contributing a track each and raised £109 for Shelter. Incredible to be able to both spread new music and help a worthy cause.
- Perhaps more importantly than anything has been the sheer education I've had in the amount of outstanding music about at the moment. I considered myself well versed (why start a blog otherwise), but through doing this I've been introduced to more brilliant music than I could have imagined. You'll find reviews and mentioned through the blog history, but this 'Best Of 2011' post probably sums up things quite well.
- One particular feature I've enjoyed has been the rather self indulgent, if a tad infrequent, '31 Songs'. It's nice to be able to simply ramble about why I love a song so much once in a while. Have a wee read through if you haven't before.
- In terms of one of the most fun things I've done on the blog, the Scottish Fiction Words With Friends Cup has to be up there. It makes a change writing the blog being able to do something a little bit different, and hopefully for people reading it wasn't simply just geeky self indulgent fun. Re-live the drama and see our overall winner Boab Canavan of Campfires In Winter spell his way to glory.
- Officially we celebrated a year of the blog with our Scottish Fiction Presents Gig on Sunday 17th June. With a bill including Saint Death, Queen Jane, The Spook School and Michael Cassidy (we quite like him you know) we had a great night in The Captain's. So good, I might even be mad enough to do it again! Check out some pictures here, and also a lovely review from Songs Heard On Fast Trains here.
- Finally probably the most exciting thing that's happened via this blog takes place tomorrow night. Inexplicably I was asked to be a nominator for the SAY Awards, and have been lucky enough to be invited along to the award ceremony tomorrow night. I'll be oozing with excitement. I've also blogged a fair bit about the awards which you can read here.
So to the future, and hopefully another productive and fun filled year of blogging, presenting, reviewing and discovering new Scottish music. If you could grant me one birthday wish, it would be more interaction with the people who read this blog on a monthly basis. Leave a comment now and again, we'll be nice I promise!
Thanks to all who've read, downloaded, listened or came to our gig. Much appreciated.
Neil.
I leave you with this, my favourite song of 2011 and still going strong. xx
It's two weeks today until the very first Scottish Fiction Presents gig. Thankfully I've not resorted to either blackmail, begging or bribery to shift tickets yet, however given that there's still some available it is incumbent upon me to get those shifted!
There's plenty of reasons why you should come along. Here's some of them:
- The Captain's do bloody awesome food. I recommend the Chorizo & Cheddar Burger. Get down early for some scran and to catch Saint Death who'll be on first.
- Talking of Saint Death, they've just put some new tunes up on their Soundcloud page. They might even play them too. Here's one worth listening to.
- Did we mention that the gig is during the West End Festival? Well that means nice refreshing drinks offers whilst you wait for Queen Jane to come on next.
- Queen Jane you say? Well they are from Cumbernauld, they are riotious, and they will be playing stuff from their brilliant EP 'Denver' which you can download for free here and learn all the words.
- Still not convinced? Well clap your ears around the chirpy sounds of The Spook School and realise what a mistake you've made by not buying a ticket already. Also loads of tracks available to download for free here
- Tickets will only cost you £5 and you can get them online right here. Be a smart cookie and avoid all that faffing about getting a ticket at the door.
- And to round things off, finishing off our evening will be the fantastically talented Michael Cassidy. Stage banter, and good tunes to boot.
Convinced? I bloody hope so! We'd love to see you there and hope you can make it along for a great night. Tickets are available here or on the door. Doors are at 8pm. Remember to get there for 8pm as all four bands are worth seeing. If you like to make things official then say your coming on our Facebook Event.
Is it really sad that I'm actually swelling with pride that less than three weeks until our Scottish Fiction Presents gig to mark a year of the blog's existence, somebody spotted the above piece of graffiti in the ladies toilets at The Captain's? I've officially made it!
(On a side-but-related-note, have a read at The Pop Cop's cracking post about toilet graffiti. There's some belters in there.)
All this free advertising courtesy of the ladies of Glasgow, has given me an idea for a giveaway
for our up coming gig. Tickets are in short supply, and we'd love to see as many of you there as possible for what will be a great night of music. Feel free to share details of the gig and the competition to as many people as possible.
Winning couldn't be simpler. Across bars, clubs, venues and shops in
Glasgow (there's also a few in Paisley for those keen poster spotters) you'll spot posters advertising our gig. They look like this:
There are pretty well spread out, and we've put up close to 100, so finding one shouldn't be hard. Simply take a photo and post it on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thisisscottishfiction) or our Twitter (http://twitter.com/scotfiction984). We'll pick one winner at random on Wednesday 6th June and you'll get yourself two tickets for the gig.
If you can't wait until then, or you just don't think you'll win, then tickets will be available on the door for £5, and can be purchased online now from this link. (If you buy tickets in advance and then win the competition we'll refund your money, cause we're nice like that!)
The UK's finest small venue, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, unveiled the line up for it's Summer Nights run of gigs. Returning for a third year, and running for 15 nights starting on Thursday 12th July, in the past it's been a great showcase of the talent bubbling just under the surface in Scotland. This year proves to be no different. Here's the full line up, with our recommended favourites in red. (Mad props to the hip-hop crowd for playing the dreaded Friday 13th!)
Thursday 12th July – Pronto Mama + Brazil Exists + The Little Kicks + Lost City Soul
Friday 13th July – Hector Bizerk + Madhat McGore + Bigg Taj feat. Spee SixNine + Becci Wallace & BilL Breaks
Saturday 14th July – John Wean + The NK Jays + Seed + Minor Delilah Sunday 15th July – Xavia + Lost in Audio + Atlas : Empire + Seams
Monday 16th July – Daniel Docherty + Craig Fagan + Chloe Latimer + Anna Shields Tuesday 17th July – Beerjacket & Friends play 'The White Feather Trail' and other favourites + Quickbeam + Mike Nisbet
Wednesday 18th July – Brown Bear And The Bandits + The Sea Kings + Aaron Wright + Lovers Turn To Monsters
Thursday 19th July – Midnight Lion + Galleries + Aames Friday 20th July – Holy Esque + Queen Jane + The Mirror Trap + The 10:04s
Saturday 21st July – Jack Butler + Selective Service + Mickey 9′s + Kobi Sunday 22nd July – The Recovery! + Hunt / Gather + Fat Janitor + No Island
Monday 23rd July – The Unwinding Hours + Olympic Swimmers + Dead Electric
Tuesday 24th July – Fires Attract + Scarlet Shift + The Darien Venture + Crusades Wednesday 25th July – Randolph's Leap + Jonny Jack + Blue Sky Archives + Bronagh Monahan
Thursday 26th July – DARC + The Mouse That Ate The Cat + Johnny And The Giros + TeKlo
Tickets are on sale now from gigsinscotland.com or by calling 08444 999 990 and in person from King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. There will be a limited number of Golden Tickets on sale allowing holders entry into every show, with details available at kingtuts.co.uk.
Nearly the end of the month? Check. Needing some free music? You are in luck my friends because today we unveil the Scottish Fiction March EP which feautres four tracks from great Scottish musicians for FREE!
I've decided to use some nice photo's as our EP covers for the time being, so here's one I took a few days ago whilst out for a cycle.
Music wise, it's as good a line up as ever. Here's what you can get on this month's EP.
As always, thanks to all the artists for contributing, and thanks to you for listening. Don't forget to spread the word, and grab your copy of our FREE March EP below. Cheers!
Buzzing out of Cumbernauld are four piece Queen Jane, who put out their 'Denver' EP last month. The indie-pop sensations are fresh sounding and are taking their beats out on the road with shows planned for the coming months. Did we say gigs? No, we said shows, but still...
I'm super stocked to say that Queen Jane will be playing the maiden Scottish Fiction Presents gig on June 17th. Find out more about that here.
Hello, how are you?
Hello Neil. I’m pretty good thanks. Stuff has been pretty chilled as of late. Life was pretty hectic before the EP launch but now that’s by I can spend my nights drinking tea and chilling with the cat as opposed to making up CD cases with Craig and his mum or pestering people on Facebook about the gig.
It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences?
We’re your typical ‘guitar band’. Two guitars, bass and a drummer. We describe ourselves as guitar pop with some heavier vibes. Bands like The Maccabees and Bombay Bicycle Club are influential in regards to our guitar sounds but we have some folky elements in there and also the addition of keys on our newer stuff. Born Ruffians are quite influential in regards to vocals, hitting the high notes and all that jazz! Bands that influence me personally are bands like Fugazi and that’s down to their approach to music more than their actual sound. They make me want to be in a band and make music. The hardcore D.I.Y ethos can be applied to anything and any type of music.
What's your song writing process like?
Our song writing process changed when working on the last EP. Before, I used to come up with an idea and go to the rest of the band with it fully evolved. Trying to get my whole idea across when we were paying £10 an hour to practice was never good for creativity. Now I come up with a basic idea for a song and take it to Harv and Mark and we build on it in a more relaxed environment. Then we’ll jam about and Craig is always super quick at coming up with drum parts. Since Craig usually hears the idea last he is good for pointing out bits we can work on which is a good way to work. It’s like a system of quality checks, sort of like a Toyota factory or something.
What could we expect to see from a live show?
A bit of everything really. We usually start our sets with some up-beat numbers. Then play some of the slower ones as folk will usually be paying attention by then. We always like to end with a big build up and a reverby overdriven explosion. We put a lot more energy into shows now, a lot of heart. Hopefully that comes across to the people watching it.
If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?
Playing King Tuts last summer was massive for us. We were all insanely stoked to be playing such an iconic venue. We’re coming up for our third support slot at Tuts now in less than a year. Putting out a record we’re proud of as well, that is a sort of ‘lasting’ achievement. We’re definitely proud of ‘Denver’. I’m just proud that we’ve lasted this long as we started messing about in school and the fact it’s evolved into what it is now with the same people is something I’d never have expected.
What have you got planned for 2012?
We’re supporting King Charles in March, we’re stoked on that. Hopefully we can land some more decent support slots this year. We also plan on putting on some more shows around Glasgow with bands that we like. We’re tired of being conned by promoters and really enjoy putting on our own shows with bands we really enjoy watching play. The support we get when going at it alone is so much better so we really appreciate that. Hopefully we can do a mini tour in summer, see some new places and play to some new crowds. Then we’re going to hit the studio in autumn to work on a mini album which will hopefully be released in winter. But for now we just want to play as many live shows and promote the new EP.
At Scottish Fiction we focus on new Scottish music, how do you as a band view the Scottish music 'scene'?
I can only really speak for the Glasgow scene but that alone is amazing. There are so many good bands, artists, venues, club nights, bloggers and small labels. For example you can go to Subclub on a Wednesday night and get blasted with the best dance music around. Or you could go to Milk at Flat 0/1 a few blocks up and witness some great live independent music, some weeks it’s electro other weeks it’s hardcore. There is so much variety in Glasgow, it’s very healthy for music. I love the way a lot of bands know each other and big each other up. It’s a really positive vibe. You get the odd bit of bearded folk standing looking cool at shows when really they should be dancing but you get that everywhere I suppose.
What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
From our neck of the woods there is a band called Campfires In Winter. They are always our first choice when we are putting on a show. A great mix of folk and post rock and they are great guys. So Many Animal Calls are friends of ours and they are doing really well just now. They are also on Glasgow based label, Overlook with a band called Salo. Salo are heaviness at its best. I’ve been really into Carnivores recently. Their last show at Milk put my faith back into going to small shows. They are definitely the best live band in Scotland just now!
Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?
‘I went to a fish disco last week. I pulled a muscle.’ It’s terrible I know. Someone prank called me last week and told that joke. I found out who it was and I’m going to phone them at 2am playing the Liam Neeson ‘I will find you and I will kill you’ speech down the phone. That’ll teach them!
Pretty big news! I'm positively, absolutely, thrilled to buggery to announce that on Sunday 17th June we are bringing a bevvy of talented individuals to The Captain's Rest as part of the very first Scottish Fiction Presents. For all of five of your shiny pound coins, you can see this quartet of musical delights:
I'm as excited as a school boy about these guys driving through from Edinburgh to play. Two guys, two girls is how The Spook School put out their quirky C86 infused music.
Drawing things to a close is none other than Paisley's own Michael Cassidy. As fine a singer/songwriter as there is, this'll be braw!
All of this is happening from 8pm on Sunday 17th June at The Captain's Rest and is £5 at the door or online. I'd be delighted if you can come along for a great bill and a great night too!
