This month's EP is our twevlth FREE monthly EP. Who'd have thunked it! To help us celebrate this month, we've got tracks from our 'We're Only Here For The Banter' friends, The Seven Deadly Sins, Mad Nurse, Make Sparks and Aaron Wright. Stream the EP below and download it for FREE! Feel free to share it around and to dig into our archives as well!
The Seven Deadly Sins are a band from Edinburgh who have been snaking their way up through the live music scene in Edinburgh and beyond for about a year and a half now. They've just released their debut EP 'Misery Lake' and took some time to answer a few questions for us. Have a read!
Hello, how are you?
I'm good thanks.
It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences?
Sure! We are a four piece indie, alternative, country, grunge and early punk influenced band from Edinburgh.
My song writing influences are pretty vast and always seem to be changing; but at the moment they're
more the American indie/alternative bands of the 80's onwards like
Pavement, Sonic Youth, Whiskeytown, Death Cab For Cutie, Cat Power, The Pixies. But stuff like Nick Cave and The Clash too.
I will stop otherwise we will be here all night! Haha!
What's your song writing process like?
It begins with me and a guitar. But often its just a line of lyrics, a word or song title.
And then I will build it up until I have got the words, vocal melodies, chords and song structure which is the point I take it to the band
and they will add their parts and we will try things and work together to help improve, add to and flesh out the song.
What could we expect to see from a live show?
Erm... thats' a good question. We work very hard on our live set but sometimes like all new bands you don't have the best of luck with sound
so we are currently looking to add a sound tech to our live set up which we are hoping will help improve our live shows.
I always remember watching a Death Cab For Cutie documentary and Nick Hammer (bassist from Death Cab For Cutie)
saying, "we put the punk in punctual". That rings true for me, the hard work ethic. That said growing up one favourite live gigs was The Vines...
If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?
The last six months; self funding and self releasing our debut EP 'Misery Lake'. Its been so much hard work but its been so rewarding.
The last two music videos, 'Yesterday' and '21st Century Man', and playing Liquid Rooms three times and King Tut's in that period of time.
What have you got planned for the rest of 2012?
Really hone our live set and performance and then get back playing live at the end of the summer.
Currently it is promo for this EP and trying to gain more interest from the right management and labels.
At Scottish Fiction we focus on new Scottish music, how do you as a band view the Scottish music 'scene'?
Generally pretty good. A great history. But I'd like to see the British music scene in general be able to focus more on new and up and coming bands,
rather than the same safety net of acts from the 1960-1990's still clogging up the airwaves and festival stages.
But thats maybe unrealistic at the moment with the economy and music industry taking such a kicking.
What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?
In Edinburgh, Thank You So Nice and The Spook School.
Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?
You've not done one of these for a while, I hear you say. This is true, and whilst my inbox has been bulging with submissions I've been both busy and lazy. So I owe an apology to you for not passing on these fine pieces of music, and also to the artists who've sent me stuff. There's lots more still sitting in my inbox, but for the time being here's a short and sweet post about a few of my favourites.
(Some are relatively old news now, but still deserve a mention 'cause they are that good!)
This bad boy came out on 17th April (yes that's how far behind I am) and
is a behemoth of electronica and dance music. With the spirit of
Kraftwerk in his sails Craig, a.k.a. Satellite Dub, set off on an
intergalactic stellar trip. Mind that bit in the the song 'I Bet That
You Look Good On The Dancefloor' that says, "just banging tunes and DJ
sets"? This is that, but better. Get it on a 'pay-what-you-want' basis
or buy a CD with download for £4.
A new band from Glasgow, so new in fact that I can't find any information on them other than that Daniel Young of Where We Lay Our Heads is involved, and that there's four of them. I'm actually a fool for sitting on this track for so long and doing nothing about it. Consider myself well and truly scolded. This is really good. A little rough albeit, but good. With the female vocals they sound a little bit like my favourite band ever (ok not EVER, but I still like them) The Spook School but heavier. Terrible description I know. Just listen eh. And you can download this song plus another, 'Seven', for free on their Soundcloud. Braw!
Crikey! You though April was ages ago, try March when this brilliant EP came out. Further proof that my head is up my arse in terms of keeping up to date with new music (not good advertising for the blog). Anyhow now that I've devoted full attention to this, you should too. It's a four track EP from the Edinburgh band. They describe it as 'bewitching pop music' and that pretty much does it for me. (They also do a really good cover of Bronski Beat's 'Small Town Boy' which you can hear here.)
Finally a track which I haven't completely neglected! The lads from Wolves Of Winter featured on our February EP with their brilliant track 'The Art Of Temptation'. The follow up isn't half bad either, with it's other-worldly feel and dark beauty. I played the track on our radio show recently which shows that not everything passes me by idly. 'The Thaw' is available as a free download so you've no excuses.
Slightly more up to date now as this EP by Edinburgh's Plastic Animals was released yesterday. 'Automaton' is the band's first new material since their 'A Dark Spring' EP, and it's well and truly worth the wait. It's probably deserving of a bigger spot on the blog, and it may well get that if I can squeeze in some time amidst all the cucumber sandwiches and sub-servitude during the jubilee. For now though, I can tell you that this is good stuff. Available as a 'pay-what-you-want' download, you should give them some cash because it's worth it. 'Yellowcraig' itself is an atmospheric post-rock inspired doozy.
This is another submission which is definitely worthy of more attention, as it is the debut album from one of Scotland's most talented unsigned group Olympic Swimmers. I first saw them supporting Admiral Fallow some time ago in The Arches, and they've taken their time to produce a stunning debut album, full of melody, landscaped guitars, and shimmering strings. This one is released on Monday 4th June, but you can pre-order it now from the link above. Here's the track 'Where It Snows' to convince you why you should buy the album.
Another Edinburgh band, this time it's the biblical named The Seven
Deadly Sins. Despite being sinful, they are actually rather good, even if what they do is nothing new (I always wonder why that's a criticism).
Unless of course they sold their souls to the devil, Robert Johnson
style, in which case everything makes sense. Rambling? Me? Musically,
their EP is pretty strong, slightly darker indie rock. Below is a
video for the EP track 'Yesterday' and you can buy the full 'Misery
Lake' EP from the link above.
And to end this rather long (yet fully awesome) post of recent submissions, something that you can buy on 7" vinyl. North American War are a Glasgwegian based four piece making some rather good alternative pop/rock music. This double A-Side is a prelude to their forthcoming album, which I'm told is dropping in August this year, and showcases two different sides to their sound. 'Ivory And' goes down the loud '80's new-wave path that lots of people are treading currently, and 'Geraniums' is a softer approach. The 7" is available on a limited 250 run and can be found on the above link for £5, as can a download only copy for £2.
Aaaaaaand that's your lot for today. I promise the next Scottish Fiction Submissions post won't be too far off, mainly because there is plenty more excellent music lurking in the depth of my inbox. Toodles.
.JPG)
