Win tickets to Hinterland 2010

Hinterland returns to Glasgow for a second year next month, bringing with it a slew of hotly tipped bands from near and far.

Taking place across six city centre venues, the mini-festival is the latest to take on the 'Camden Crawl' format, and it takes place on 3 April from 5pm 'til 3am.

The line-up so far: Mystery Jets, British Sea Power, Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) DJ set, Friendly Fires DJ set, Jeffrey Lewis, Hot Club de Paris, Wave Pictures, Greco-Roman Soundsystem, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur, Fenech Soler, Johnny Foreigner, Bleech, Make Sparks, The French Wives, Little Yellow Ukuleles, Ambulances, Pulled Apart By Horses, Panda Su, The Boy Who Trapped the Sun, Midnight Lion, The Darien Venture, The Kays Lavelle, Kitty the Lion, Cooly G, Eclair-Fifi and Konx Om Pax.

Early bird tickets have sold out, but we have two pairs of tickets to give away.

To enter this competition, answer the following question:

How many of the bands playing this year's Hinterland have been interviewed on this blog?

- 2
- 4
- 6
- 8

(Hint: see the list, below right)

Send your answer to online@scotsman.com with the subject 'Hinterland'.

Radar recommends: 13 - 19 Feb

[Unicorn Kid: giddy techno at Tut's on Tuesday. Photo: Jane Barlow]

Plan your gig-going with our pick of the week's finest live music nights...

The best...

Trampoline: Kid Canaveral, Babygod, Cancel the Astronauts
Saturday @ Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh / 7pm / £5 (£3)
Trampoline is fast becoming one of the capital's most reliable live music nights. See this month's delectable indie-pop menu, for example, featuring local favourites Kid Canaveral and one of our favourite bands around, Cancel the Astronauts.

Divorce, Bitches
Sunday @ Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh / £tbc / 7pm
Possibly not the wisest destination for a romantic date on the 14th, but anyone who wants to celebrate their singledom in truly anarchic fashion should check out Glasgow nae-wavers Divorce, here with London duo Bitches. Bitchin.
Also playing The 13th Note, Glasgow on Saturday.

Unicorn Kid
Tuesday @ King Tuts, Glasgow / 8.30pm / £7
Signed just this week to Ministry of Sound, it’s unlikely this Edinburgh wunderkind will be playing venues of this size much longer.

Bronto Skylift, Ex Wives, Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers
Wednesday @ Nice’n’Sleazys, Glasgow /10pm / £4
Two-piece noise act Bronto Skylift headline this fundraiser for Glasgow art school students that includes DJ sets from Optimo’s Twitch and Men and Machines. Call in sick to work/uni/life now.

Yeasayer
Wednesday @ Oran Mor, Glasgow / 7pm / £10
Touring their new, poppier album Odd Blood, these Baltimore-via-Brooklyn boys hit Glasgow mid-week.

Panda Su, Julia and the Doogans, Sophie's Pigeons
Wednesday @ Brel, Glasgow / 7pm / £4
A night of female-fronted talent in the form of UtR-touted Panda and Julia, plus the intriguingly titled Sophie's Pigeons.
Panda Su and Sophie's Pigeons also play Duke's Corner, Dundee on Tuesday.


The rest...



Words: Aimi Gold, Nick Mitchell

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

Under the Radar podcast #6

Christmas. It might be chilly outside but it's hardly the coolest time of the year is it? We over-indulge in party snacks, strange, once-yearly liqueurs (eggnog?!) and belt-busting meals, before battening down the hatches on our little cocoons of reliable family customs, TV drowse-athons and enough lighting effects to melt Greenland. In short, the carving knife is all that's cutting edge about Yule-tide.

So it pleases us at UtR to know that the young hipsters and hipstresses of the Scottish music scene are equally predictable at this time of the year. Don't believe us?

Well, Billy caught up with a quintet of his favourite music makers for some festive banter, and was treated along the way to a poorly executed version of The Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping, a shameless plug for Terry's Chocolate Orange and the earth-shatteringly weird coincidence that two separate musos both long for one of those tiny screwdriver sets in their Christmas cracker.

Panda Su, French Wives, Conquering Animal Sound, Dead Boy Robotics and Cancel the Astronauts... we're looking at you.

We also asked a few more of our favourite acts of 2009 to contribute either Christmas-themed - or just plain new - songs, and eagleowl, The Last Battle, There Will Be Fireworks and Tokyo Knife Attack duly obliged.

Again, the sound quality isn't perfect, but rest assured that top of our list for Santa this year is some professional recording gear. Hope you enjoy it anyway...

Play: Podcast #6


Running order:
00:54: There Will Be Fireworks: In Excelius Deo
07:10: Interview: Panda Su
10:32: Panda Su - Eric Is Dead
15:44: Tokyo Knife Attack - Invisible Sister
20:15: Interview: French Wives
23:30: French Wives - Me vs Me
28:04: eagleowl - Sleep the Winter
34:09: Interview: Conquering Animal Sound
37:48: Conquering Animal Sound - Where The Wild Things Are
42:22: Interview: Dead Boy Robotics
44:31: Death Ohh Eff - Me and Fift (Dead Boy Robotics remix)
48:22: The Last Battle - Once Upon A Boxing Day
54:14: Interview: Cancel The Astronauts
57:27: Cancel the Astronauts - Funny For A Girl


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Podcast: Billy Hamilton, Nick Mitchell

Previous UtR podcasts

Radar recommends: 28 Nov - 4 Dec

[There Will Be Fireworks at The Caves on Tuesday. Not the deathtrap it sounds.]

Let's face it. We're rapidly heading into festive season, so you might want to give your wallet (and your liver) a rest this week in preparation for the month of parties, work nights out and gigs ahead.

But we're not letting you off the hook that easily. Gig temptations coming your way...

Aberdeen
Frightened Rabbit
Tuesday @ The Warehouse / 7.30pm / £12
The popular Fat Cat signed band tour new material ahead of the release of their third album in the new year.
Also playing The Ironworks, Inverness on Sunday and Fat Sam's, Dundee on Wednesday.

Dundee
Saint Jude's Infirmary, Kid Canaveral, Panda Su, Hookers for Jesus
Sunday @ West Port Bar / 7.30pm / £5
Scottish music blog Manic Pop Thrills puts on another fine billing of up and coming talent.

Edinburgh
The Little Kicks, The Void, He Slept on 57, Salute Mary
Sunday @ The GRV / 7pm / £5
The hard-gigging Kicks return to Auld Reekie to showcase their polished indie-pop to the Sunday night crowd.

Johnny Foreigner
Sunday @ Cabaret Voltaire / 7pm / £7.50
Brummie's most mental noise-pop three-piece, much loved by the kids over on DiS.

Ringo Deathstarr, The Manikees, The Debuts
Thursday @ Sneaky Pete's / 7pm / £6
Not Ringo Starr, not the Deathstar, rather a disturbing combination of the two in musical form. The Austin Texas nu-gaze quartet's first UK tour hits the Wee Red Bar on Thursday.
Ringo Deathstarr also play the Captain's Rest, Glasgow on Friday.

**UtR's gig of the week**
There Will Be Fireworks, Broken Records (solo acoustic), Saint Jude's Infirmary, Meursault (solo acoustic)
Thursday @ The Caves / 8pm / £5 (£3 in advance from Avalanche)
Back in July There Will Be Fireworks burst on to the scene with an impressive, impassioned debut LP that had us scrabbling for adjectives. And we're not the only ones. Avalanche record shop has selected the Glasgow band for their next Album Club, and this launch party looks like a great night of music. More info here

Ten Tracks: Found, Meursault, Panda Su
Friday @ Roxy Art House / 7.30pm / £7-£10
The Scottish music download service is offering free entry to this gig if you buy a £10 annual subscription. That's mightily tempting when they've pulled together three of the east coast's most promising acts, including our recent blog guest Panda Su. More info here.

Glasgow
Woodlands Creatures
Sunday @ The Halt Bar / 7pm / Free
Either stay in and try and name as many woodland animals as possible, or go to this event. I suggest the latter.

We Were Promised Jetpacks, Dupec, Jesus H Foxx
Sunday @ King Tut's / 8.30pm / £7
Feeling patriotic? The part of Homecoming Live that isn't wallowing in 80s nostalgia.

Regina Spektor
Tuesday @ o2 Academy / 8pm / £22
Get your 'crispy, crispy Benjamin Franklins' out and buy yourself a ticket to see this quirky songstress.

Neon Indian, Zhyrlings, Tangles
Tuesday @ Captains Rest / 8.30pm / £6
With recently remixers Grizzly Bear, this promises to be an audio/visual delight you shouldn't miss.

Casino Brag, Foxgang, Satellite Underground
Wednesday @ Nice'n'Sleazy / TBC / £TBC
Have a punt on these post-punk players and support.

Lords, Holy Mountain, Citizens
Wednesday @ Captains Rest / 8pm / £6
Yes all round, have a look at Citizens' UtR profile here....

The Pain Of Being Pure At Heart
Thursday @ Stereo / 7.30pm / £12
Melancholy pop from this New York band, who've kind of made Glasgow their second home.

Lightning Dust, Early Day Miners
Thursday @ Captains Rest / 8pm / £9
Black Mountain side project comes to rest at the Captains.

Titus Gein, Black Sun
Friday @ 13th Note / 9pm / £TBC
Any band citing Trans Am and Lightning Bolt as influences deserve a gander.

Ringo Deathstarr, Silvermash
Friday @ Captain's Rest /8pm / £TBC
The aforementioned Deathstarr, this time with support from Fife shoegazers Silvermash, playing their first Glasgow gig.

Words: Aimi Gold, Nick Mitchell, Craig Dickson

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

On the radar: Panda Su

The gift of the gab’s not a trait you’d readily associate with an Ailuropoda melanoleuca, otherwise known as the Great Panda. Lumbering and lonely, the animal’s monochromatic fur and moribund features cry out like a downtrodden mime who’s discovered surround sound.

This notion of the panda’s lip-closed solitude filters into UtR’s train of thought as we prepare to wax lyrical with Su Isabel Ferreira Shaw. After all, this is a girl who decorates her cranial canvas like an endangered Chinese mammal; a girl whose mew spills out like a gush of painstaking isolation; a girl who prefers to go by the alias Panda Su.

But despite our preconceptions, Shaw is not at all quarantined from conversation. In fact, we’re finding it rather difficult to get her to pause for breath.

“The biggest perk of the job, so to speak, is that I get to share a stage with bands that I really admire and that have had a big musical influence on me,” she exhales. “Three years ago I was writing fan mail to King Creosote and chasing around KT Tunstall asking her to sign her name on a piece of paper which I would then take home and frame. This year I played on the same bill as both of them at Homegame.

“That's an amazing achievement for me to be in a position where I get to play my music to people who are equally as excited about it as I am. And I get to do so whilst sharing the stage with bands and artists that I really like.”

Play: Eric is Dead


She may be dishing out doe-eyed homages, but the part Scot, part Portuguese songstress’s own star is quickly expanding into a sparkling constellation. Shaw’s craft of esoteric acoustica bedded under a charm-soaked intone has begun to lubricate the gullet of Scotland’s musical underbelly.

“I have a fairly unconventional approach to writing songs,” explains Shaw of her creative process. “I don't have an idea about what I want to write about, I sit down and words fall out my mouth onto the piece of paper in front of me. I don't choose them and it's not until after that I start to pull comparisons and find the relationship between what I'm singing about and how it actually relates to me.”

So what is it that makes Panda Su so special?

“Well, I spend about an hour before every gig locked in the venue toilet applying black and white paint to my face,” Shaw japes. “In terms of songs, I write about the same things as everyone else but I write about them in a less obvious way. You can take one of my songs, pull it apart and make it relate to you in any way you want, and the way it relates to you is probably completely different to the way in which it relates to me.”

She continues: “I don't write about concrete things in an obvious way because personally I find that really dull. When I listen to a piece of music I don't want to know what the singer is singing about because that strips out all the fun for me and makes it boring. “

Boring is one slight you could never fling at Shaw. Her sound veers from folksy canticle to chart-bopping ditty with schizophrenic regularity, marking Panda Su out as a cut above the vacuum-packed hoards of humdrum sonic tailchasers.

Yet for Shaw the future holds no thought of fame. “It's a real shame that people these days grow up wanting to be famous. Not successful or inspiring or influential, just famous - like it's a physical job that they can apply or attend an interview for,” she sighs. “I don't think people realise that doing music and trying to make a living out of it is quite challenging and requires some real hard work.

“From quite early on I decided that I wanted to do as much as I could myself. For my first release I did all the artwork myself, set up my own record label and put it out under that. I think it's more fun that way. It's a lot harder work, but ultimately, much more rewarding and definitely worth it.”

Play: Moviegoer


Those rewards are now being reaped. Shaw recently shared stages with Fence Collective luminary Kenny Anderson and the pristinely tuned Frightened Rabbit. For a girl who spent her formative years in a school band with members of The Seventeenth Century, this rise in fortune has been a long time coming.

“Back in those days getting through to the second round of our school's shitty little rock band competition felt like we'd just been asked to headline Glastonbury,” she regales. “Suddenly, it's not all about getting signed up to some major record label that's going to put you in a dress and stick you in front of a camera. There's been a real emphasis on DIY and I think that's a really positive thing.”

Words: Billy Hamilton

See Panda Su for yourself at the following shows:
29 Nov @ Westport, Dundee
4 Dec @ The Roxy Art House, Edinburgh
5 Dec @ Duke's Corner, Dundee
17 Dec @ 13th Note, Glasgow

Radar recommends: 9 - 15 August

[Dollskabeat: playing support to Telepathe on Wednesday]

The size of this column seems to ebb and flow from week to week. Last week there was little musical sustenance for Scotland's music lovers; this week there's enough out there to give you a dose of heartburn if they're not careful. If you happen to live in the 'big two' that is...


Edinburgh

The Lost Brothers, The Kays Lavelle
Sunday @ Sneaky Pete's £6 7pm
Melancholy folk from The Lost Brothers, with piano-led indie-rock from Edinburgh's Kays Lavelle.

Telepathe, Dollskabeat
Wednesday @ Sneaky Pete's £7 7pm
Trendier-than-thou Brooklyn electro dames roll into town, flanked by Edinburgh's own glitch queen, Dollskabeat.

This is Music: Dead Boy Robotics, The Foundling Wheel
Friday @ Sneaky Pete's 7pm £tbc
The August instalment of Auld Reekie's finest monthly gig night showcases the talents of two noise-inclined members of the Bear Scotland collective.

The GRV Fest: Ritalin Kids, Dupec, Boycotts, The Nature Boys
Friday @ The GRV £tbc 5pm onwards
The first night of The GRV's big bash is stuffed with local talent, including two of our favourites in Dupec and Boycotts.

The GRV Fest: The Debuts, Epic 26, OK Social Club, 10:04s, The Breech, Homework, The Steals
Saturday @ The GRV £tbc 3pm onwards
Day two of The GRV Fest is even bigger. Can you last the distance?

Young Fathers, Unicorn Kid
Saturday @ Cabaret Voltaire £7 8pm
Proving that Edinburgh's music scene is more diverse than first meets the eye, Young Fathers and Unicorn Kid bring bombastic hip hop and sugar-rich techno to the table respectively.


Glasgow

Stellar Sounds: Rio Callahan, Funksion, Federation of the Disco Pimp
Wednesday @ Glasgow Science Centre | £12 | 7pm
A gig with a difference this, given that it takes place in a planetarium. See Stevie's preview a few posts down the page.

The Mill: Maple Leaves, Panda Su
Thursday @ Òran Mór | Free but ticketed | 8pm
Delectable folk-flecked indie from two of Scotland's brightest acts.

Telepathe, RBRBR, Super Adventure Club
Thursday @ King Tut's | £7.50 | 8.30pm
The aforementioned Telepathe head west, bringing with them two of Edinburgh's best new bands as support.

Attic Lights, The Seers, Invisible Republic
Friday @ Stereo | £9 | 7pm
Fundraiser for the Scottish Epilepsy Initiative, headed up by the winsome indie-pop of Attic Lights.

Boycotts, French Wives, Kalla Heartshake

Saturday @ ABC2 | £5 | 7pm

Boycotts launch their eagerly anticipated EP at this gig, with excellent support from French Wives and Kalla Heartshake.

Múm, My Latest Novel
Saturday @ Òran Mór | £15 | 7pm
Exquisite electronica-tinged indie from Icelanders Múm, not to mention the forward thinking sounds of Greenock-based My Latest Novel.

The Second Hand Marching Band, Over the Wall
Saturday @ The 13th Note | £tbc | 9pm
We can't get enough of SHMB's heartfelt shanties - or Over the Wall's textured pop for that matter.

Words: Nick Mitchell

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

UtR news: April

[Panda Su - photograph by Portis Wasp]

Our latest track of the month comes from Fife-based artist Panda Su. Her debut is produced by Steve Mason from Beta Band/ King Biscuit Time, and she's set to play at the Fence Homegame festival in Anstruther on 18 April.

Panda Su - Moviegoer


Another act tipped by Under The Radar, We Were Promised Jetpacks, have recently returned from SXSW in the US. The band's showcases were completely sold out, mainly as a result of being played on Seattle-based independent radio station KEXP late last year – exposure which resulted in their song Quiet Little Voices being downloaded by more than one million Americans. The track will be released as a single by Fat Cat on 4 May, and their debut album, These Four Walls, is out on 15 June, ahead of a full UK tour.

Providing a snapshot of the hottest talent in Scotland, the Hinterland Festival will take place in Glasgow from 30 April-1 May across a dozen venues in the city. Acts taking part include We Were Promised Jetpacks, Sons & Daughters, Broken Records, Meursault, Juno, Manda Rin and many more.

Edinburgh College of Art has just announced the release of a live DVD, filmed in the Wee Red Bar, featuring 20 acts with ties to the college.

Bands include St Jude's Infirmary, The Shellsuit Massacre, Futuristic Retro Champions, Action Group and others. The DVD is currently on sale from various independent outlets, including Avalanche Records, The Fruitmarket, Analogue Books and online at www.artschooldance.com

Since its launch in late 2007, Edinburgh's weekly Limbo night has established itself as the place to go to check out new talent and the club played a significant role in its host venue, the Voodoo Rooms, picking up the PRS Music Pub Of The Year award last year.

During the past 18 months many of the gigs have been recorded and 23 April sees the release of the limited edition Limbo Live CD, which includes tracks by Found, Punch and The Apostles, Meursault, Isosceles, Over the Wall, Come On Gang, A-lix and Kid Canaveral.

Record Store Day takes place on 19 April and will see independent record shops throughout the UK celebrating new releases, new formats and all things independent. From 10am there will be free in-store performances and DJ sets in thousands of stores. To celebrate there will be lots of free goodie bags, new releases and an exclusive Record Store Day vinyl and CD release (limited to just 500 copies).

This column appeared in The Scotsman on 30 March 2009