Live Music
That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Best Band Of My Generation: The Twilight Sad, ABC, 02/04/10
- 08 Apr 10
Something about tonight feels epochal.
The Twilight Sad has firmly established itself as the greatest Scottish band of its time, the best to emerge since the late '90s boom that produced Belle and Sebastian and Chemikal Underground's early roster: Mogwai, The Delgados, Arab Strap. If its 2009 sophomore album, Forget The Night Ahead, doesn't quite match its 2007 debut, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, it's only because the latter is arguably the finest album of the past decade, Scottish, debut or otherwise, and to say that it remains the band's finest hour is to say that Radiohead has never really topped Kid A, or that Sonic Youth has never really topped Daydream Nation. The band is the figurehead of a revitalised Scottish indie scene, many of whom are present at tonight's gig, most notably label-mates and frequent tour-mates Frightened Rabbit and We Were Promised Jetpacks, and tonight, it's playing to a bigger audience than it ever has before.
Robot Rock - Japandroids
- 16 Feb 10
We don't usually preview upcoming gigs, because we're not in the habit of regurgitating PR pieces for bands that generally don't need it. When you get down to it, what can a preview really say? It can't talk about the gig itself, because that hasn't happened yet. It can't just be an interview with a band member, because interviews are their own thing. It can't just review the album, because a band's live show is by its very nature something entirely different. So for a preview to be of any use whatsoever, it has to carry the weight of a recommendation from a trustworthy friend. It has to make you want to get out of your seat and go buy a ticket. It has to convince you that this band, more than any other band playing in any given town on any given night, is worth your time and your money, and the only way for it to do that is if its writer is willing to get shamelessly personal about how much this band means to him or her. For now, Japandroids is that band and I'm that writer. Things might be about to get weird.
Hydro Connect Festival 2008 - A Review
- 27 Oct 08
John D, founder of Glasgow's own indie-tacular Pin-Ups Night, reports on his adventures at the Hydro Connect Festival 2008 in the company of Butcher Cassidy.
Neon Neon: in harsh light
- 09 Apr 08
Gryff Rhys sure is a busy bee. Following last year's solo brilliance Candylion and the hugely catchy Super Furry Animals effort Hey Venus, the Haverfordwestian is now focused on an electro-pop sideproject. Neon Neon (http://www.myspace.com/neonx2) is a fantastic mixture of syth pop and Vitalic-esque demented electro with a drop of hip hop, all loosely wrapped around the life story of 80s automobile icon John Delorean.
Connect Retrospective - An Old School Festival Diary: Part One
- 27 Jan 08
{smoothgallery folder=images/stories/music/connect_festival/jen_clark&sort=random} Chief Brazen Hack Chris Ward and Editor Gavin Summers spent the first weekend of September last year in fields around Inverary Castle, forced through their innate sense of journalistic integrity to listen to acts like The Jesus & Mary Chain, Beastie Boys and Björk at the inaugural Connect Festival. This is their diary, not just of the music, but of everything that happened that weekend, from Friday morning through Monday afternoon. Chris was there Friday through Monday; Gav came up for Saturday and Sunday. Here, in Part One, Chris Ward gives his informed perspective.
Photo slideshow by Jen Clark