Craig Dickson: My tip for 2010

Edinburgh's Come On Gang had a good 2009, winning hearts and minds all over with their own style of ragged pop-rock. A successful string of appearances at festivals such as Rockness, Reading & Leeds and T in the Park in the summer is already behind them, as well as a spot at Texas' SXSW showcase in March.

They play catchy melody-centred pop with a bit of edge, the kind of accessible indie that could quite easily garner mainstream attention. They may hardly be undiscovered, but I’ll be surprised if 2010 doesn’t see this trio take another step up the ladder to wider exposure.



Who is your tip for 2010? Let us know below...

Radar recommends: 28 June - 4 July

[There Will Be Fireworks: lighting the fuse on their debut album this week]

So farewell then, Michael Jackson. The twinkle-toed king of pop, who played Scotland just once at Glasgow Green in 1992, is no more. The question is, will any of our nation's up and coming musicians have a go at a Jacko cover this week? You'll have to get out there and find out for yourself.


Aberdeen

The Muscle Club, Get In Get Out, Come On Gang, :cryoverbillionaires
Wednesday @ Tunnels. Doors £
Welsh quartet headline, with support from local act Get In Get Out and highly touted Scots bands Come on Gang and :cryoverbillionaires.


Dundee

Unicorn Kid, I Wish I Was Weaver
Wednesday @ The Doghouse. Doors 6pm, £5
Sugar-fuelled electro-trancey-pop from teenage sensation Oliver Sabin, plus support from Arbroath-based I Wish I Was Weaver.

The Boycotts, Ross Clark and the Scarves Go Missing
Friday @ The Doghouse. Doors 8pm, £5.
The Boycotts’ hook infused indie-pop is as moreish as candyfloss, while UtR-touted RC&tSGM (nice acronym eh?) ply an eclectic brand of Americana.


Edinburgh

Duty Free: Lost Knives, Dupec
Sunday @ Cabaret Voltaire. Doors 7pm, £free
Mancunian pop from Lost Knives, plus talented Edinburgh indie-rockers Dupec, who we featured on this here blog last month.

I Heart Hirsohima, The Pineapple Chunks
Tuesday @ The Bowery. Doors 7.30pm, £6
Aussie slacker-rock from Hiroshima, with support from fruity Edinburghers The Pineapple Chunks.

We See Lights
Thursday @ Wee Red Bar. Doors 8pm, £4
We See Lights are "connected by the Forth River" and make chiming, folky indie.

Brother Louis Collective, Little Kicks, Saint Jude's Infirmary
Thursday @ Sneaky Pete's. Doors 7pm, £5.
Brother Louis Collective do polished indie with a Scottish accent, flute and piano, and will play the T Break tent at a certain festival next month. What's more, you get to see a band we recommended only last week, Aberdeen's Little Kicks, and perennial local favourites St Jude's.

The Skinny Dip: The Twilight Sad, Adam Stafford, The Foundling Wheel
Thursday @ Bongo Club. Doors 7.30pm, £10
We can hardly stop listening to the two new tracks that have appeared on The Twilight Sad's MySpace of late, and with a hugely anticipated album on the way, this is a real coup for The Skinny's fledgling gig night. As if that wasn't enough, you also get a solo set from Y'All is Fantasy Island's Adam Stafford and experimental sounds from The Foundling Wheel.

Dog Tired
Friday @ Bannermans. Doors 9pm, £free
For thrashing, shouty tattooed heavy metal, you can't beat Dog Tired. Screaming guitars, thrumming bass complimented by comprehensible lyrics - what more could a metalhead ask for? Well, a debut album due to be released this year is one thing, and a gig which promises a 'groove-ridden, train wreck of a sound' is another. An unrelenting, driving cacophony of pure noise should top that off nicely. Dog Tired are playing Bannerman's with Battle of the War Machines. Yes, you will want to start a pit, so get your metal groove on and check them out. [KS]

:cryoverbillionaires
Saturday @ Sneaky Pete's. Doors 7pm, £5
:cryoverbillionaires mix it up a bit; a psychedelic wall of sound battling with hints of dance, drum and bass and topped off with swooping choruses. Add to this their lyrical soundness and impressive skill when it comes to musical experimentation, and you have a band not to be ignored. [KS]

Neoviolet
Saturday @ The Ark Doors 7.30pm, £4
Neoviolet are an indie rock three-piece with a lightly folky tinge. Slowly but surely making their mark across Edinburgh's pubs and clubs, they combine relaxing, jangling guitars with intense, angsty lyrics. If you're a fan of pitch-perfect harmonies and fancy blending this with a smooth undertone of cello, then catch the band at the Ark on 4th July for a reassuringly laid-back gig from a band who have very much found and filled their chilled-out niche. [KS]


Glasgow

Limbo: Zoey Van Goey, Isosceles, Punch And The Apostles, Haight-Ashbury, A-lix, Cancel The Astronauts and Thieves In Suits
Sunday @ Stereo. Doors 8pm, £5
The lauded Edinburgh gig night moves west for a one-off special to give their recent live album an official launch in Glasgow, with a line-up that reads like a who's who of emergent Scottish indie-pop talent.

Jocasta Sleeps
Sunday @ Nice'n'Sleazy. Doors 7.30pm, £tbc
Glasgow alt-rockers launch their new single 'Crayfish'.

The Darien Venture, We Are Trapped In Kansas, We Hung Your Leader and City of Statues
Sunday @ The Twisted Wheel. Doors 8pm, £free
The Darien Venture are in the melodic indie-punk racket, and they are joined by the superb math-rock outfit Trapped in Kansas, blistering rockers WHYL and City of Statues.

**UtR's gig of the week**
There Will Be Fireworks, Lions.Chase.Tigers, We Hung Your Leader
Wednesday @ Nice'n'Sleazy. Doors 7.30pm, £5
The thrilling TWBF launch their jaw-droppingly good self-titled debut album, with support from one of our favourites, Lions.Chase.Tigers, and the aforementioned We Hung Your Leader.

*Check the blog this week for an exclusive track-by-track album preview from Fireworks singer Nicholas McManus.

Jocky Ventakaram and The Mickey 9s
Friday @ Pivo Pivo. Doors 8pm, £3/2
Album launch for the enigmatic, Malcolm Middleton-influenced Ventakaram.


Words: Nick Mitchell, Kirstyn Smith

What have we missed? Tell us below, or add it to our gig guide by emailing utr.scotsman@gmail.com

On the radar: Sick Kids Sunday

This Sunday [10 May] sees a fantastic array of talent come together for ten hours of live music at Edinburgh’s GRV to raise money for the Sick Kids Friends Foundation.

Glasgow based quartet Frightened Rabbit will be along to play an acoustic set, which may well be worth the £8 admission fee alone. Their 2008 album ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ was a sensational collection of rousing tunes and a stripped down showing of these dark, and often hilarious, songs promises to be a fascinating listen.



The terrific Jesus H Foxx also join the bill, fresh from the launch of their limited edition EP ‘Matter’, while Edinburgh luminaries Chutes, Come on Gang, Withered Hand, Le Reno Amps and Cancel the Astronauts complete this stellar roster.

Members of Broken Records and FOUND will also be DJing during the event.

If you can’t find something you like in this line up, you may need to consider a trip to the audiologist.

- Stevie Kearney

Sick Kids Sunday runs from 1pm - 11pm on Sun 10 May at Edinburgh's GRV. Tickets are £8 and the full line-up can be found here

Scottish bands and musicians on Twitter

I realise you're probably fed up with the constant media coverage of Twitter by now. So Stephen Fry got stuck in a lift? So what.

Rather than be the umpteenth blog to preach about why it's probably so essential that you should sign up right now and start informing the world of your every move, I'm going to offer something a bit more useful (presuming you are indeed interested in Scottish music): a handy list of all the Scottish bands and musicians I could find on Twitter.

Other music blogs have done similar things, but as far as I'm aware no-one has done this for specifically Scottish acts.

There are some great bands in the list, and there's no better way to keep up-to-date with the latest news, announcements and mundane lifestyle details (there is even a Twitter account for Mogwai's latest dietary adventures) than following them.

Alex Cornish - Gifted English singer-songwriter who upped sticks to Edinburgh
Any Color Black - Glaswegian electro-rock duo recently featured on this blog
Attic Lights - Natural heirs to Teenage Fanclub's melodic pop crown
ballboy - Veterans of the capital's indie scene
Briganties, The - Indie rockers from the Borders
Broken Records - Hyped Edinburgh group with debut album on the way
Calvin Harris - Electro-popstar uses Twitter mainly to slag the NME
Camera Obscura - Makers of the finest indie-pop since Belle & Sebastian
Chris Flew - Glaswegian singer-songwriter
Come On Gang - One of the capital's most hyped bands at the moment
Copy Haho - Stonehaven's finest musical exports
Dan Lyth - Dunfemline singer-songwriter
Dananananaykroyd - Multi-syllabic Glaswegians make warp-speed pop-punk
De Rosa - Chemikal Underground-signed earnest indie rock
Dead Boy Robotics (Gregor and Mike) - Electro duo from Edinburgh
Epic 26 - Edinburgh band recently played the city's inaugural Twestival
Errors - Signed to Mogwai's label, adding electronica to their post-rock sound
Francis Macdonald - Ex-Teenage Fanclub man turned producer
FOUND - Quirky, art-school folktronica act signed to Fence Records
Isosceles - Art-pop tunesmithery from Glasgow
Hussys, The - Glasgow girl band and one of the first on Twitter
Jesus H Foxx - Edinburgh's prime exponents of Talking Heads-style punk-funk
Joe McAlinden - West Coast indie stalwart going it solo
Kid Canaveral - Gentle indie from Edinburgh
Luva Anna - Dundee psych-rockers who appeared on Orange Unsigned TV show
Louise Quinn - Singer-songwriter in Glasgow's A Band Called Quinn
Malcolm Middleton - Falkirk native and Arab Strap co-founder Malky Middleton
Manda Rin - Former Bis starlet now doing it solo
Mitchell Museum - Fledgling indie obscurities
Mogwai (Stuart Braithwaite - 'Gwai guitarist delivers band news and setlists.
Norman Blake - Another ex-Teenage Fanclub member
Proclaimers, The - Scotland's finest musical twins
RBRBR - Playful electro pop act from Edinburgh
Scottish Enlightenment, The - Dunfermline band
Twilight Sad, The - Awesome mix of post-rock and folk - with a heavy West Coast accent
Unicorn Kid - Teenage electro-pop prodigy from Leith
We Are The Physics - Manic punk from these Glesgae livewires
Y'All is Fantasy Island - The most prolific band in Scotland hail from Falkirk

And of course, we're on it too: Under the Radar

Have we missed anyone?
Leave your additions to the list in the comments below and I'll add them in.