Newsflash: Eurosonic | SL Records | Festivals latest | alt.music awards

Scots bands at Eurosonic

Two of Scotland's most blogged-about bands will be playing a music industry conference in Holland this week that acts as a showcase for summer festival bookers across Europe.

A disproportionately high number of agents, promoters and bookers will be in the crowd when Broken Records and We Were Promised Jetpacks (pictured) ply their live wares at the Eurosonic conference in Groningen, which takes place from Thursday to Saturday.

Developments at SL Records

Edinburgh-based SL Records have announced that they're now working with local anti-folk dude, Les Enfant Bastard. They have three of the songwriter's lo-fi albums available and reveal that he's currently working on a new, Gameboy-inspired LP. More info here.

In other SL-related news, Paul Vickers and The Leg are to return with a new album in February. Itchy Grumble is billed, intriguingly, as "a rock opera album concept; an epic in which an immortal anti-hero is given the task of revolving a lighthouse on the Firth of Forth."

You can listen to some of the album tracks on the SL Records site.

Festivals off

After a grim year for Scotland's major music festivals in 2009, it looks like 2010 isn't going to be a whole lot better. Connect, Outsider, Big in Falkirk, Live at Loch Lomond and EH1 are among festivals shelved in the wake of poor ticket sales and funding problems. The more established events, including T in the Park, Rock Ness, Wickerman and Belladrum, are to go ahead as planned.

Full story in The Scotsman.

Festivals on

But it's not all bad news, especially if you prefer a smaller-scale festival experience. Two such events which debuted in Glasgow last year are set to make their return. Stag & Dagger, a one-night, multi-venue event which last year featured the likes of Cold War Kids and The Phantom Band, returns on Saturday 22 May. And Hinterland, a similar event over two days which had well-documented problems with ticket sales, makes a surprising return, but (perhaps having learned their lesson) takes place on a single weekend day, Saturday 3 April.

And that's not all. Edinburgh gets in on the action with a brand new mini arts festival at the end of this month. Hidden Door takes over the Roxy Art House and The Bowery with a wide selection of leftfield delights, from the bright electro of RBRBR to the anarchic racket of The Leg.

Polls open in alt music awards

Promoter Richy Muirhead has launched his Scottish Alternative Music Awards for 2010. Anyone can vote in the four rock-focussed categories, with bands featured including UtR-tipped names like Trapped in Kansas, Bronto Skylift and The Darien Venture. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at Classic Grand, Glasgow on 24 February. More info here.

Words: Nick Mitchell

Got any other Scottish music news tips? Send them to utr.scotsman@gmail.com or get in touch via Twitter

Radar recommends: 16 - 22 August

[Frightened Rabbit: happy bunnies]

So the Scottish summer is in its last death throes and all we have to look forward to are shorter days and worse weather ahead, right? Wrong. Wrap up warm and get yourself down to one of the good-looking gigs happening in Scotland this week. One word of warning though: avoid Hampden Park like the plague on Tuesday.


Aberdeen

The Fire and I
Friday @ The Tunnels / 8pm / £4
Bathgate-based two-piece The Fire and I take their grungy power pop to the Granite City. One bass, one drumkit, a whole lot of noise.

Fudge Present: Element 106, Scandal Extracts, Ded Rabbit
Saturday @ The Moorings / 8pm / £3
Ear-splitting progressive death metal from local heroes Element 106. Lo-fi grunge rockers Scandal Extracts and Highland blues rock outfit Ded Rabbit round out one of the week's more eclectic gigs.


Edinburgh

Retreat!
Sunday @ Bristo Hall / 11.30am - late / free
Okay, here goes...Wounded Knee, Tisso Lake, Hexicon, Jo Foster, Moustache of Insanity, Allo, Darlin', Withered Hand, Rob St. John, My Tiny Robots, Enfant Bastard, Come In Tokyo, The Pineapple Chunks, Meursault, The Leg. You know there's only one place to be this Sunday.

Broken Records
Monday @ Queen's Hall / 7pm/ £10
Heart-string plucking lilts and bombastic throbs of instrumentation from the 4AD-signed local boys.

Frightened Rabbit
Tuesday @ Queen's Hall / 7pm / £11
Frantic guitar caterwauling? Check. Mushy lyrics bellowed by Scottish brogue? Check. Borderline irksome sing-a-longs? Check. Yep, that must mean Frightened Rabbit are back in town folks. Support comes from Meursault.

Alex Cornish
Tuesday @ Sneaky Pete's / 7pm / TBC
Acoustically strummed ballads from a man who continues to divide the UtR offices like a melody making fraction.

Snoopy!! The Musical
Wednesday (actually, every day until 21 August) @ Venue 45 / 10.35am / £6
Oh come on, don't be so po-faced. This is music. It's happening in Edinburgh. It gravitates around Snoopy. What's not to like?

The Phantom Band
Wednesday @ Electric Circus / 7pm / £8
Can't decide whether this mob are the next Beta Band or the next no-hit wonders? Here's your chance to decide.

Bang Bang Club: Paul Vickers & The Leg
Thursday@ Guilded Balloon / 12.30am / £7.50
Depending on which way you look at it, this is either a late or early showing from decibel-pushing psycho babblers Paul Vickers & The Leg.

Sparrow & The Workshop
Thursday @ Sneaky Pete's / 7pm / tbc
Another chance to see one of Scotland's finest purveyors of woodland pop

cryoverbillionaires, The Strands, I See Shapes
Saturday @ Sneaky Pete's / 7pm / tbc
We do like a spot of cryoverbillionaires' shake, rattle'n'rock here at UtR so this gig with The Strands and I See Shapes is just the ticket.

Zoey Van Goey
Saturday @ The National Portrait Gallery /5pm/Free
Sugar-coated folk-pop will be sprinkled all over the National Portrait Gallery by this long-touted Glasgow band. Be in attendance if you want a sweet little pick-me-up that could have you buzzing like a four-year-old who’s had his run of the treat cupboard.


Glasgow

Enfant Bastard, The Foundling Wheel, Asthmatic Astronaut
Tuesday @ Pivo Pivo / £3 / 8pm
A trio of Edinburgh acts invade Glasgow. Enfant Bastard and The Foundling Wheel make esoteric noise-core, while Asthmatic Astronaut deals in dark hip hop beats.

A Band Called Quinn
Thursday @ The Dive / 8pm / £5
One of the first bands 'on our radar', stylized glam rockers ABCQ launch their new single at this intimate gig.

Smiths/Morrissey Tribute Night
Friday @ King Tut's / £8 / 8.30pm
Even if you're not a devotee of Mozza, there's enough musical talent on offer at this charity gig night to entertain you, including UtR-tipped Miss the Occupier and Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers.

Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers, Ming Ming & the Ching Chings, French Wives and Sol Diablos
Friday @ Corinthian/Lite Bar / £5 (£4) / 8pm
On the same night those busy Woodenbox boys play another gig with two of our recommended bands in Ming Ming and French Wives, as well as Sol Diablos.

Words: Jodi Mullen, Billy Hamilton, Nick Mitchell, Aimi Gold

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

Versus: A night to prove that 3 really is the magic number

[From left: Enfant Bastard, Dead Boy Robotics, The Foundling Wheel]

There's something depressingly formulaic about gigs these days: you pay your money, the band turns up, plays the standard setlist, follows this with a rehearsed encore (whether they've earned it or not) and then leave for their next port of call.

It poses a question for even the most devoted fan: Why didn't I just listen to the album at home without the £3 pints and that tall bloke standing directly in my line of vision?

A group of Edinburgh artists may just have the answer, by devising a thoroughly different approach to the live music format: three bands, one stage. The trio of like-minded acts behind this unique night, which has been combatively titled 'Versus', are sonic pioneer The Foundling Wheel, synth-punk wizards Dead Boy Robotics and anti-folk master Enfant Bastard.

All three acts are members of the Bear Scotland collective, a prominent strand of Edinburgh's burgeoning music scene which also includes Meursault and Withered Hand.

'Versus' is being billed as "a night where innovative exploration converges with mind-blistering instrumentation."

So if you want to witness a bit of local history in the making, and perhaps even the live formation of Edinburgh's first superband, head along to the Wee Red Bar (at the Edinburgh College of Art) this Saturday, 7th March, from 7.30pm.

Meanwhile, have a listen to some tracks from each act...

Enfant Bastard - Vincent Van Gogh


Dead Boy Robotics - Cloud Sequence Animals


The Foundling Wheel - Out To See