Yesterday saw the release of ‘Burning’, a live DVD from Scotland’s most epically noisy, delicately beautiful rockers Mogwai. Shot over 3 nights in Brooklyn by Vincent Moon, there’s no bells, no whistles, no colour even. Just the roar of a band who started out a long time ago, like every other band in Glasgow, selling 7″ singles in Missing. There’s not much I can tell you about them that you don’t already know. They’ve started a record label, annoyed Blur, ridden a million lazy Slint comparisons, and soundtracked 90 minutes of the greatest footballer of this generation’s life on film.

Premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival in February, and showing at the Glasgow Film Theatre tomorrow (Weds August 25 – get along if you can, as the acoustics in the GFT are excellent), ‘Burning’ is available to take home from all good record shops. Or it would be, were there any left. Missing’s still there. They sold me Thee Silver Mt Zion’s last LP second hand for a fiver at the weekend. God bless them.

Tags: Pulled Apart By Horses

There’s not much that unites the Shout4Music.com staff, other than willingness to take up offers of free booze, and an envy of dogs, for being able to lick their own downstairs, but we will never get bored of telling you how good a band Pulled Apart By Horses are.

We told you how good forthcoming single ‘High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive’ (out Sep 6 on Transgressive Records) was. We even blew our working class credentials by admitting that we’d read The Guardian, and that they liked it too. So it is with some delight that we can show you the video for it just underneath here. And if you like that, you can search them on this here site and find out what venues they’ll be bringing their brand of all-out-mental-bastardosity to next month as well. More fun than attempting to copy your dog. That hurts.

Tags: American Music Club, Calamateur, Elliott Smith, Sparklehorse

Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve seen the scenes of Madchester, of Seattle, the psychedelics of Brooklyn and the electro of Hoxton. Shout4Music is proud to bring you Inverness. Is there a scene in Inverness? I’m preparing myself for a siege of angry emails from up that neck of the woods, but I’m buggered if I know. There was a cartoon about a family of Loch Ness Monsters that ate musical notes for tea a few years back…What there undoubtedly is in Inverness, is a talented chap going by the name of Calamateur. They’d have dined like gourmets from him…

Having ploughed away up in the Highlands for a fair few years now, building up celebrity admirers like Gideon Coe and the incomparable John Earls, Andrew Howie is releasing fourth long-player ‘Each Dirty Letter’ this month thru Autoclace records. Comprising quiet bits, noisy bits, and a smattering of electronica, it’s a more ‘proper-song’ led affair than previous outings where his use of texture was given foreground. Any fans of American Music Club, Elliott Smith or Sparklehorse should find much to love in his heartworn tunes.

Have a listen to him do a live take of ‘Perfect Moment’ on the video below. And if any bands from Inverness see me later in the month, mountain biking in Rothiemurchus; any and all demos most welcomely received – please don’t set fire to me, or throw poo, or point out that smoking and cycling is a really stupid plan….

Tags: Marina & The Diamonds, Moshi Moshi, T33TH, Teeth

Bit of a scoop here, as it’s not out till next week, but Shout4Music are delighted to bring you the new single by electro-bleep monsters Teeth, or T33th, or TEETH!!!!…let’s refer to them as the best thing to come out of Dalston for a long time…

If you don’t know Teeth, they’re bleepcore, but with a human heart, and it’s probably this fusion of awkwardness with sheen that’s attracted Moshi Moshi to punt ‘See Spaces’ out on their singles club, which they’re doing on the 16th of this month. And if you’re going to entrust talent-spotting for ace new bands to anyone, then surely MM have to rank up there very highly.

As with most things we waffle on about in blog posts, you can actually see what we’re trying to get at via the video below. We’re told it features Veronica from the band covered in ‘pixelated green slime’ whatever that is…..all we know is that Al watched the video 4 times on the bounce and then gave himself a migraine…try to have it on in the background…you’ll hear the sound of a slightly gimpy robot, built by a man in a shed in Norwich, talking to his creator, telling him in a stuttering fashion that he loves him. And as far as robots go, that’s a much better plan than some Welsh girl pricking on about how she isn’t one.

Tags: Arctic Monkeys, Inspiral Carpets, Orphan Boy

Things we don’t like this week – Scotland being thrashed 3-0 going on 6-0 by Sweden. The £85 – a pint it will inevitably cost in most pubs in Edinburgh on this weekend’s Festival jaunt. Mongrels finishing. Things we DO like this week  - your #InMyPants entries. The manky earwax cream ad on the TV.  Manchester-via-Cleethorpes band Orphan Boy, and their new single ‘Pop Song’ (which is one of the 1% of song titles that doesn’t work for #InMyPants).

Sounding a bit like the Arctics, and a bit like the Inspiral Carpets, had they realised that the Hammond Organ works better as a constituent part of your sound rather the whole bloody thing. They’re not big on choruses, or spending any more than 50p making videos. They play, as the title of this blog suggests ‘Two-Chord Council Pop’ (their words, not ours..) Which with a perverse logic, we admire them for. Here it’s here.

Tags: Rod Lethal, The Smoking Hearts

Umm….we’re not sure if The Smoking Hearts are winding us up here, but we got the folllowing email from them today…I’ll publish it in its entirety…..

It is with great sadness/anger/regret/sorrow that The Smoking Hearts have parted ways with vocalist Rod Lethal. After years of being in a band together, playing gigs, partying, wrecking venues/pubs/houses/each other, Rod has decided that… Well, that’s the thing. None of us actually know.

On July 12^th, 2010, after being friends for 10 years, Rod decided that he would send a text to the 4 other members of The Smoking Hearts that simply read: “alright lads, I’m quitting the band”. And that was pretty much the only explanation we ever received. He has turned his phone off, he won’t answer the door, and is not responding to any communication that we have sent his way.

So for the purpose of announcing to the world the reason behind his departure, please use any one of the following:

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts after a bizarre gardening incident.

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts after a game of “hide the sausage” went tragically wrong, and paralyzed his vocal chords.

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts after spontaneously combusting onstage.

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts to follow his dream of stalking a newly reformed “Take That”.

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts after joining the circus.

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts after being eaten by a lion in the circus he had recently joined.

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts to pursue a career as a gymnast.

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts to live on a farm in the Scottish highlands with his golden retriever named “Skip”.

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts after choking on vomit. The saddest thing of all was that it was not his own (you can’t dust for vomit).

Rod Lethal has left The Smoking Hearts to audition for nu-metal heroes “Taproot”.

The Smoking Hearts were forced to cancel their upcoming shows, including their appearance at the Boardmasters Festival in Newquay.

The band now intend on tracking down a dedicated, ambitious and exciting singer to front The Smoking Hearts. If you are interested and would like to get in touch, please email thesmokinghearts@hotmail.co.uk

Knowing Rod, any or all of these reasons could be true, and being big fans of The Smoking Hearts’ brad of scabrous noise, we’re quite sad….but fuck it – why don’t you aspiring frontpeople out there apply? Beats the shit out of buying Simon Cowell another house…

Have a wee look at what to expect just here…

Tags: Bill Hicks, Jay Leno, Kuskus, New Order, OASIS, Ride, You! My Bloody Valentine

If you haven’t heard of French imprint Kuskus, it might be because you’re like me, and you’re a sad old anorak that hangs around record shops, checks the spine of albums to see who they’re on, and could name you their favourite labels based on their physical collection. Kuskus are somewhat different – they sign young acts to a hybrid recording/publishing contract, and allow them to work on music for films/ads/corporates whilst building them up, experience and confidence-wise to get to the LP recording stage.

Whilst this may sound like anathema to those of us who believe music shouldn’t be sullied by using it to promote product; I guess now that LP sales yield NO MONEY to artists, and the majors will drop acts after (or even before) single 1, then this business model may show a way forward. If a band make a royalty from an ad, they can use that to buy new kit, or get a tour on the road that’ll get them in front of us, and hopefully yield more money, hopefully start a career. We’re down to our last few pioneering indies (Chemikal, Warp, Ninja, Hyperdub) that’ll sign, promote and grow an artist simply because they believe in them. While this was the norm 20 years ago, if we take Creation as an example – they could recoup the vast sums My Bloody Valentine spunked in the studio thru the sales of more commercial acts like Ride, Teenage Fanclub, and then McGee’s cash cow to end all cash cows, Oasis. Has anyone heard a peep out of Rawkus since their hugely-fanfared relaunch?

 Whether we like it or not, the industry has changed so much that for new bands to launch and become the bands we pick up on and take to our hearts is harder than ever, given the lack of resources (read cold hard cash) to do it. Peely’s not here any more, and if we have to entrust talent-spotting to goons like Zane Lowe, then, to use a Scottish football-ism, then ‘the ba’s oan the slates’. (trans; ‘Our football has got stuck upon the roof of this building. Our game is effectively fucked.’)  If we leave the last word to Bill Hicks – which we always should because he got it spot on every time – he did opine that ‘if you’re a struggling young actor, I’ll let it go’, in the skit where he fantasised about Jay Leno turning an Uzi on his own head after ‘$3 million to hawk Doritos? You don’t have enough money that you need to hawk snacks to bovine fucking America?’ 

And isn’t Jay Leno turning an Uzi on his own head a lovely image? ‘Blood sprinkler’.

One thing indisputable, is that by following this blueprint, Kuskus are chucking some fantastic new acts out there – Housse De Racket (who have turned down more lucrative offers from Universal and SonyBMG), Rhythm Droid, DJ Tonka and now You!. There’s been an acoustic cut of their first single ‘To Disappear’ knocking round t’internet for a wee while now, and it’s lovely. Classic melancholy electro-pop in the New Order mould, with a guitar line that won’t come out of your head for weeks, no matter how hard you try. A&R’d for the label by Jamie Harley (who directs videos for Memory Tapes, so his taste can’t be questioned), the studio cut is now on its way out, and you can watch the accompanying video just as soon as you’ve lost patience reading this. It’s lovely. And hopefully, the first of many….and you can hope that with more confidence than you could anything on a major.

Tags: Avenged Sevenfold, Call Of Duty, Joni Mitchell, Oxfam

My sensory overload junkie days are over. Other than chucking myself down the odd hill on a snowboard come winter time (perhaps the only time the beer gut comes in useful, given gravity’s increased pull), I’d rather be sat with a cup of coffee, some Joni Mitchell and the cat.

However the ongoing renaissance in both metal and video games suggest I’m in the minority, and I’m told by younger relatives that blowing things up accompanied by thrashy noises is definitely the way forward. With this in mind, it’s no surprise that ‘Call Of Duty; Black Ops’ features a geetar-heavy score, including Avenged Sevenfold, whose track ‘Welcome To The Family’ from their upcoming LP, can be viewed as a sneak preview on this very blog post. Video editors Machinima have put together an exclusive video, showcasing in-game footage, soundtracked by the Californian rockers.

I must say, it all looks very impressive. You guys can have a squint here. Personally, as far as corporate tie-ins go, I’m going to ask Ash if I’m allowed to canvas biscuit companies to see if they’ll sponsor my reviews (particularly whoever makes the Fairtrade ones with the big chunks of stem ginger in them that you get in the big Oxfam shop in Partick, if they’re reading this…)

Tags: Dead Confederate, Dinosaur Jr, Meat Puppets, Palace, Will Oldham

There aren’t many original ideas left in music, but fusing alt-country to harder guitar lines remains an under-explored line of thought (and if you don’t believe me, go and listen to the blistering version of ‘Riding’ on Palace’s Lost Blues album – it’s one of the best things Will Oldham’s ever put out, and that’s not something that can be said lightly).

With this in mind, we’re quietly hopeful of Athens, GA outfit Dead Confederate’s new LP Sugar, which is due to drop on these shores on August 23. Having supported grunge royalty in the Meat Puppets, and straight-up royalty in Dinosaur Jr, they enlisted John Agnello (Sonic Youth, The Hold Steady) to produce, and holed up in New Jersey to record this, their second album.

 Indeed, they even managed to persuade J Mascis out of his bed to come and do a guest slot on one of their tracks; any guitar band that can spend time with him and not develop such an inferiority complex that they pack it in to go and become accountants is worthy of further attention, which you can give them by watching this here video:

Tags: Anathema, Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Foals, GodSpeedYou!Black Emperor, Mike Patton, Rage Against The Machine, Richard James, Simon Cowell, Sophie Hunger, Stevie Wonder, The Gaslight Anthem, The Kinks, tom petty, X Factor

It’s been a bittersweet couple of weeks for all of us – S4M Towers included. The news that Pete Quaife, the original bassist from The Kinks passed away bummed us out, but if you needed an excuse to dig out your old Kinks Best Of, you’ve now got one. Go do it. And a big congratulations to Stevie Wonder who redeemed himself from a shocking performance moonlighting as a Uruguayan linesman, to bomb it back from South Africa and close Glasto with an absolute stormer of a set.

On other news, I’m heartbroken that the X Factor auditions came to Glasgow without me knowing; my plans for making it big as a Mike Patton tribute act by pissing in my shoes and then hurling them at Simon Cowell’s face will have to wait for another year. I’m consoling myself with the new Sophie Hunger LP, which must be the best thing to come out of Switzerland since chocolate – find out more in Album Reviews. Roland McIntyre braved a Dublin moshpit to bring you a review of Rage Against The Machine, Anna’s been blissed out on the new Foals single, Jeeshan’s fallen in love with Richard James – no, not that one – that would be terrifying – and big boss Ash has come screaming out of the closet marked ‘Progressive Rock’. Never let it be said that perceptions of being cool will cloud Shout4Music’s judgment, although, given that you know what most of us look like, then you probably knew that…hmmmfff….

The rest of the week will mostly be taken up by launching ourselves at the postman, excitedly demanding if our God Speed You! Black Emperor tickets are here yet. It doesn’t matter that the tour isn’t until December – we want them NOW to be able to look at them, stroke them, and look at them again, and then show them to people more proudly than if they were pictures of our children meeting Barack Obama.

Talking of our American friends, they seem to have gone through a controversial period – they’ve elected a President with an IQ of more than 14, they’ve discovered hitherto unknown talents at the game of soccerball…Shout4Music is worried about this….particularly since we’ve put up a big sign saying OIL HERE in the back garden in the hope of being invaded…(there’s a bigger plan at work here; basically when they come to give us democracy and Jim Davidson comes out to do his troop-entertaining bit, we bundle him into a car, drop him into a Nation of Islam meeting and see if the horrible little racist dick gets out alive…we sincerely hope he doesn’t..)

On this note, it’s perhaps best to remember what out American cousins do consistently well through the ages – straight ahead rock music. The Gaslight Anthem have been touring over here recently, and are currently on the Eurofestival circuit, and are well worth catching. There’s bits of Springsteen, bits of Tom Petty, but with the distortion pedals working overtime and more tattoos on their bodies than candidates for compulsory sterilization / euthanasia on Jeremy Kyle….come the revolution….you fuckers just wait….we’re putting a bomb in the T4 studios…finally our vermin of a species will be forced to start evolving…anyway, yes, Gaslight Anthem! Well good. Have a snout at the title track from their new album ‘American Slang’ on this here video.

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