The Good Pack Glasgow Edition

Christmas eh?  Seems like at this time of year there's a clutter of artists doing covers of Christmas classics, or putting out their own festive tinged numbers (both of which we heartly endorse here at Scottish Fiction).  In a kind-of Charlie Brown moment though, six Scottish artists have banded together with The Good Pack to remind us all what this time of year should be about.

My home city of Glasgow has a great music heritage, but sadly suffers from intense poverty in some areas, and the rise in foodbank use and numbers is a symptom of this.  The Good Pack is an organisation that bundles up 'packs' of music and offers them out at a fair price with proceeds going to a chosen charity.  The Glasgow Edition sees six artists make their albums/EPs available for a minimum of $6 (approximately £3.81) with 40% of proceeds going to Glasgow Northwest and Southeast Foodbanks to support Glasgow's hungry over Christmas.

The albums/EPs are:

Three Blind Wolves - Sing Hallelujah For The Old Machine
Algernon Doll - Omphalic
Pronto Mama - Niche Market
Poor Things - Poor Things
Carson Wells - Wonder Kid
BAD LUCK - Between Dog & Wolf

If you don't own these collections already then you're in for some great music with your donation.  Even if you already own all or some of the albums/EPs, hopefully worthy cause will prompt you to pick them up again.

Head along to The Good Pack website to donate and download.

Scottish Fiction Podcast - 8th May 2013

Another week, another dose of new Scottish music... Scottish Fiction style.  Might actually try come up with a dance for that and become a YouTube sensation.  Or not.  Anyway, back to the music, and this week you'll hear some stunning tracks from Discopolis, Hector Bizerk, Finn LeMarinel, Sparrow And The Workshop and more.  Aye Tunes Friday Freebie returns after a few weeks away, and Cover Lover, Re-Mixing It Up and Tweet-a-track all pop up too.

Week two of looking at The SAY Award Long List means another five albums, with a track from each.  This week it's the turn of Emeli Sande - 'Our Version Of Events', Errors - 'Have Some Faith In Magic', Paul Buchanan - 'Mid Air', Django Django - 'Django Django' and Human Don't Be Angry - 'Human Don't Be Angry'.


Sparrow And The Workshop - The Faster You Spin
Mogwai - Special N
Sacred Paws - Falling Over

Aye Tunes Friday Freebie - GUMS! - Luckless Days

The Deep Red Sky - Look On Your Face
Seams - Eight
Sonic Heart Foundation - Northern Lights
Errors - Pleasure Palace
Emeli Sande - Heaven
Human Don't Be Angry - Monologue: River
Django Django - Default
Paul Buchanan - After Dark
Finn LeMarinel - Garden
Adam Stafford - Please
Dead Sea Souls - Brave

Cover Lover - Trapped In Kansas - I'm Not Alone

Hector Bizerk - Orchestrate
Discopolis - Falling (Committed To Sparkle Motion) [Axwell Radio Edit]
Holobeams - Colour Motion

Re-Mixing It Up - Nevada Base - Foresight (Magic Daddy Quantum Enmanglement)

Sharfla - Build A Wall
The 10:04's - Throes

Tweet-a-track - Black International - The Sky's Falling In - As chosen by @ElecCompMusic

Three Blind Wolves - Gold On The Cross
Tijuana Bibles - Howlin' Moon


Subscribe/listen to the podcast via iTunes.

Scottish Fiction - 8th May 2013 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

Scottish Fiction Podcast - 6th March 2013

No live guests this week, just a orgy of wonderful new music from Scottish shores, including a track from the brand new Kid Canaveral album, 'Now That You Are A Dancer' (I might mention it's brilliant a few times), and also music from Three Blind Wolves, Man Without Machines, Walker Smith Jr., Golden Grrrls, The Darien Venture, and heaps more.

'Aye Tunes Friday Freebie' returns with a track from DanDanDan, there's a funky little jazz remix in our 'Re-Mixing It Up' feature with Bill Wells doing the remixing duties for A Band Called Quinn, and our 'Cover Lover' track is a Frightened Rabbit b-side.  On top of all that, let's welcome a brand new feature 'Tweet-a-track', which quite simply asks YOU to tweet your suggestion to @scotfiction984 during the week, and we will pick one to play.  Treat your ears and have a listen.


Three Blind Wolves - In Here Somewhere
Tremors - Kisses In The Cinema

Aye Tunes Friday Freebie - DanDanDan - You've Wasted Fire

Fake Major - Little Researcher
Lenzie Moss - Kelvin British Summertime
Adam Stafford - Vanishing Tanks
Ardent John - In The Morning
Cover Lover - Frightened Rabbit - Don't Go Breaking My Heart

Golden Grrrls - Past Tense
Roy's Iron DNA - Under My Skin
Walker Smith Jr. - I Like Those Odds
The Darien Venture - Catapult

Tweet-a-track chosen by @AOTDFEst - The Jesus And The Mary Chain - Tower Of Song

Brown Bear And The Bandits - Olive Tree
Kid Canaveral - Breaking Up Is The New Getting Married
Le Thug - New Balance
Rick Redbeard - No Selfish Heart

Re-Mixing It Up - A Band Called Quinn - Ghosts From The War (Bill Wills Remix)

Machines In Heaven - Mumbo Jingo
Inuit - We Don't Go There In Winter
Man Without Machines - Falling Star

Subscribe/listen to the podcast via iTunes.

Scottish Fiction - 6th March 2013 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

Video Killed The Radio Star - Round Up

I did one of these a few weeks back which seemed to have been rather well received so as I've got some spare time today and there's a whole bunch of videos out recently, why not do it again!  Here's a selection of what people with video camera's have been doing recently.  Enjoy!

Failpopsters (yes I'm at a loss as well) So Many Animal Calls have a brand new single out on 3rd December via mega-brilliant Glasgow label Overlook Records.  'She Was Speaking From The Bottom Of The Sea' maintains the SMAC boy's excellent reputation for making music you can equally sway and rock out to.  Check out the video and grab the single when it drops.

Stanley Odd front man Solareye dropped his solo EP 'The Pageant' as a free download on Monday (pick it up here).  The EP features other Scottish hip-hop contributors Louie and Tickle, and this up close and personal video is for lead track 'The Pageant'.

Ahead of 'Pedestrian Verse' the fourth LP from Selkirk's finest Frightened Rabbit, the band have released a video filled with footage from their recent European and US tour for new track 'Dead Now'.  The album isn't out until 4th February 2013, but if you pre-order you will receive this track RIGHT NOW!  Woo!

If you like video's with tour footage then take a peek at Three Blind Wolves new video for their track 'Gold On The Cross' which features footage from their last jaunt to America.

Taking a pop shot at the need to 'invent' a benevolent all powerful creator and the promise of eternal bliss Admiral Fallow's latest single 'Isn't This World Enough??' features some wonderful scenery.  The single is out on 10th December. so in the meantime enjoy this video.

Last one this time round is The Winter Tradition with a video for their latest single 'Tides And Telegrams' taken off their album 'Gradients'.  It's a rousing track and the video features some rather epic instrument playing against the backdrop of a lighthouse.

Scottish Fiction Podcast - 17th October 2012

Took a while to get this podcast up (apologies) but you can forgive me as on this show we have a plethora of new music from the likes of Gav Prentice, Salo, Vasa and Three Blind Wolves. There's also all four of the Peenko Postcard tracks scattered across the show.

Our Aye Tunes Friday Freebies track comes from op, our Re-Mixing It Up track is a Discopolis remix of a Miaoux Miaoux track, our Featured Artists is the wonderful Withered Hand and our Classic Scottish Album is Admiral Fallow's debut 'Boots Met My Face'.


Johnny And The Giros - I Don't Need A Lover
The Douglas Firs - Backroads
Behold The Old Bear - C403
Three Blind Wolves - Parade

Classic Scottish Album - Admiral Fallow - Old Balloons - Boots Met My Face

Aye Tunes Friday Freebie - op - 4

RM Hubbert - Heisenberg
Kitty The Lion - Duck!
Thank You So Nice - Plasticine
How To Swim - It Doesn't Even Have To Be You
French Wives - Halloween
Gav Prentice - Give It Up
The Son(s) - All My Days Are Shorter
Sálo -  Without Skin

Featured Artist
Withered Hand - Religious Songs
Withered Hand - Heart Heart
Withered Hand - Inbetweeners

Vasa - Cynthia
Cancel The Astronauts - Seven Vices

Re-Mixing It Up - Miaoux Miaoux - Better For Now (Discopolis Remix)

Lovers Turn To Monsters - Rabbits
Very Well - Dead Happy
Randolph's Leap - This Ain't It
ANAKANAK - AGEOLD
Drunk Mule - Am A Hardcore Dancer

Scottish Fiction - 17th October 2012 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

Scottish Fiction Podcast - 3rd October 2012

As always if you missed Wednesday night's show then fear not as here is the show to listen to again!  This week's podcast see the return of new feature Re-Mixing It Up with a track from the forthcoming The Twilight Sad 'No One Can Ever Know Remixes' album. We also have an Aye Tunes Friday Freebies track from Arran Arctic, a track from our Classic Scottish Album which is Idlewild's '100 Broken Windows', and three tracks from our Featured Artist, Boards Of Canada.  There's also new music from PAWS, RM Hubbert, Emma Pollock, Errors and much more!  Enjoy!


tom - boy2
Errors - Relics
RM Hubbert - SG-666

Aye Tunes Friday Freebie - Arran Arctic - Covers

Lovers Turn To Monsters - Providence
Panda Su - Alphabet Song
DEATHCATS!!! - I Wish It Was Summer

Re-Mixing It Up - The Twilight Sad - Nil (Liars Remix)

PAWS - Sore Tummy
The Cherry Wave - Doe Eyes

Classic Scottish Album - Idlewild - Little Discourage - 100 Broken Windows

The Son(s) - Radar
Lenzie Moss - Where Eagles Dare
End Of Neil - Escape At The Zoo

Featured Artist
Boards Of Canada - Peacock Tail
Boards Of Canada - 1969
Boards Of Canada - Rue The Whirl

Emma Pollock - Dark Skies
Leftchild - P.S. I'm Dead
Three Blind Wolves - Parade
Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can't See Land

Scottish Fiction - 3rd October 2012 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

Doune The Rabbit Hole - Sunday Review

Bit of a delay with posting this for which I offer my humble apologies.  However, to steal the catchphrase of a famous Irish alcoholic beverage, good things comes to those who wait.  And that corny cliché was also true of Doune The Rabbit Hole, with some of the best bits of the weekend cropping up on Sunday.

There was some more scheduling problems, this time Olympic Swimmers who were scheduled to appear late morning / early afternoon on The Jaberwocky stage, didn't appear until much later on in the afternoon in The Baino stage.  Not entirely sure what the reason for this was, however it meant that I missed the band, as they were playing whilst I was escorting the tired and weary wife and kids home.

Before the drive back down the M80 though the four of us enjoyed The Second Hand Marching Band who crammed as much fun and instrumentation into their set as they did people onto the stage.  It was my first time seeing the band, and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest.

After a drive from Carron Forest Valley to Neilston and back, in what must be record time, I arrived back on site to catch the utterly brilliant Kid Canaveral who were playing the Tenement TV stage.  Again this is a first for me, having criminally never caught the cheeky Edinburgh gang before.  'You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night' packs a powerful indie-pop punch, 'And Another Thing' finished off the set with a loud volley of drums and guitars, and littered throughout the set are new tracks.  From the sound of the new material their second album will be along a similar vein as 'Shouting At Wildlife', which is only a good thing in my opinion.

Afterwards I swing down to The Jaberwocky stage for bluesy-rock quartet Three Blind Wolves who were already doing their thing by the time I got there.  The band represented Scotland this year over in Austin, Texas for SXSW and as they sound much like a Scottish Black Keys, I can only imagine the locals took very well to them indeed!  They manage to keep a country feel going throughout their incredibly heavy set, sounding well honed and very loud!

The night, and the weekend was close to ending, but before the curtain fell on my Doune experience for another year, there was time to catch the other half of the late Arab Strap.  Having enjoyed Mr Moffat on Friday night, it was the turn of Malcolm Middleton to take to the Baino stage in his current guise of Human Don't Be Angry.  After what seems like an age, the band headed up by Middleton take the stage kicking things off with two instrument tracks, the second of which was the sublime 'HDBA Theme', which was a four minute electro treat.  Middleton, with help from the HDBA band, which includes De Rosa frontman Martin John Henry, brought to life the '80's electro influenced sounds of the album, which still remains one of my favourite releases of 2012.  the set was up there as a highlight of the festival, with the emphatically rousing 'Monologue: River', which builds momentum throughout as my pick of the set.  My only quibble?  The band were not on stage for nearly long enough.

And with that, my Doune The Rabbit Hole ended for another year.  Overall I enjoyed the festival, which is now in it's third year.  The scenery was breathtaking, the kids enjoyed themselves, there was a feel good vibe about the place, and much of the music was worth the price of a day ticket alone.  Musical highlights for me were The Phantom Band, TeenCanteen and Human Don't Be Angry, all of whom were outstanding.  There were, as I've mentioned already in Friday and Saturday's reviews, some down points, namely the lack of published set times, but with the passion that organiser Jamie Murray and his team display, hopefully the festival can pick up on this when it returns next year and continue to offer a quirky alternative to the mass marketed festivals.

Doune The Rabbit Hole - Preview

Not too long ago we welcomed Jamie Murray, festival director of Doune The Rabbit Hole on to the Scottish Fiction radio show to convince us all why we should head on down to the Carron Valley Forest for the festivals third year.  And he did a fairly sterling job of it, so much so we'd recommend having a listen back to the show right here.

I'll be lucky enough to be at the festival next weekend (DTRH runs from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th) with my wife and kids; editors note DTRH has got plenty for sproglets so if you're looking for a wee family weekend away this would be perfect and under 12's are FREE!  The line up is packed full of talent, as well as plenty of artists I'm sure I'll discover and come away loving.  Check out the full line up right here.  In the meantime here's the Scottish Fiction pick of the bunch:



Friday 24th August

As Mrs Scottish Fiction is working until 3pm on Friday it'll be a swift pick up and dash to beat the motorway traffic to get to the DTRH site.  Hopefully we make it there in time to catch Behold, The Old Bear, who are of course lead by Mitchell Museum drummer Raindeer MacFarlane.  We are just waiting patiently for them to release some more material, although maybe the return of MM has delayed this slightly.  Whatever the reason, be sure to catch them performing on the Jabberwocky stage.  On the Baino stage Pumajaw will be plying their brand of electronica with songs from 2011's 'Demon Meow Meow' album at the front.  It's the main Jabberwocky stage however where my main attentions shall be and yours should to.  First up is SAY Award winning duo Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat.  Having seen the bearded gents three times now, I can vouch for the incredible live performance they, and their band, put on.  I'm extremely looking forward to seeing if they can recreate that intimate and cosy feeling on an open stage at a festival.  Following on from Wells & Moffat are Glasgow's finest and eclectic 6 piece,The Phantom Band.  Again I've seen them live recently at the Stag & Dagger festival and you can expect them to pull out some stonking tunes such as 'Mr Natural' and 'Halfhound'.  Last up is JD Twitch, one half of the famous Optimo, who will be taking the party on through to the late night. 

Saturday 25th August

Kicking things off nice and early on the Baino stage are Battery Face who no doubt will melt some faces with tracks from their album 'Addams Family Values'.  Later on the same stage is Neu! Reekie! w/Teen Canteen.  I'm not quite sure what the set up here will be, but hopefully it involves Teen Canteen playing some the wonderful dream-pop that is up on their SoundCloud page.  Blank Canvas are playing the Fruit Stand stage later in the day and are well worth visiting for some alternative indie rock.  The main Jabberwocky stage gets interesting when Withered Hand takes to it, equipped with a full band.  Expect to hear recent track 'Heart Heart' performed in all it's glory, plus inspired indie gems from his brilliant 'Good News' LP.  Fence supremo Kenny 'King Creosote' Anderson follows on from Withered Hand, in a bill of folk singer/songwriter indulgence.  With a fantastic back catalogue to pick from, plus Mercury nominated 'Diamond Mine', you can be sure that King Creosote will be a chilled out way to spend your Saturday night.  Elsewhere on Saturday Holy Mountain will be shredding it up on the Baino stage, and over on the Inspire stage you can find Sparrow & The Workshop followed by We Came From Wolves.  If you fancy some DJ action then pop yer noggin' into Vibes:  Below The Well where the Pin-Up DJ's will be spinning tracks.


Sunday 26th August

How's the hangover doing?  Need some melodic female led indie-folk to settle that bouncing headache?  Lucky for you Olympic Swimmers will be on the Jabberwocky stage fresh from the well deserved success of their debut album 'No Flags Will Fly'.  After them are The Second Hand Marching Band who, depending on how many of them turn up, number 22 musicians, all helping to create brilliant and reconstructed folk music.  Over on the Tenement TV stage are Edinburgh band Kid Canaveral.  As well as playing tracks from their cracking album 'Shouting At Wildlife', we can always hope that Kenny sticks around for a guest appearance, given the two artist penchant for working together.  Back to the Jabberwocky stage and you'll find Three Blind Wolves, who if my short glimpse of seeing them at Oran Mor recently is anything to go by, will rock the stage.  Sunday night for me though is owned by the next two acts, both who play the Baino stage.  Firstly Malcolm Middleton brings his Human Don't Be Angry alter-ego and album to the party.  Expect '80's influenced melodies and electronic beats. Then later is Miaoux Miaoux, a.k.a. Glasgow based Londoner Julian Corrie.  This man's music enthrals and encapsulates me, with his pulsating beats, rhythmic hooks and dreamy vocals.  Make a point of catching him if you can.  Elsewhere Pronto Mama are playing the Tenement TV stage, which is worth checking out if they don't clash with Miaoux Miaoux.


For full information about the Doune The Rabbit Hole festival, head on over to their website.  The festival takes place at Duncarron Fort, Carron Valley Forest, Kilsyth from Friday 24th August to Sunday 25th August.  Tickets are still available, priced £98 for weekend camping.  See you there!