Tweet Nothings, feat. Edwyn Collins, Errors, My Latest Novel

Can there be a better way to whittle away the hours inside a sweaty tour van than letting the world know your deepest, darkest thoughts in 140 characters? What’s that you say ? Mind-altering chemicals? Lasciviously-intended harlots? MYSPACE? Pah...whatever Grandad. These hipsters ain’t interested in languid cliches: Tweeting is the new Rock ‘n’ Roll. Fact.

So here it is, the Under the Radar segment you’ve been waiting for with baited breath and giddy stomach: Our weekly round-up of your idols’ idle tweets. HUZZAH...

Edwyn Collins is as polite as you’d expect from a New Pop luminary...
@EdwynCollins: “Up late after busy day. Sunday Times interview, Radio 3 The Verb. Very nice man, Ian McMillan. I sang Home Again and gabbed.”

Tango in the Attic scoff in the face of punctuation as they plan a Glenrothes day out...
@tangointheattic: “ Thinking of putting on a bus to PJs on friday from glenrothes if theres enough demand, give us an email or txt if your interested!”

John B McKenna does his bit for the Glasgow tourism industry...
@johnbmckenna: “Last night a man fell asleep in the pub, wouldn’t wake up, so we phoned an ambulance, he woke up, peed on the wall, fell asleep on the wall.”

Debutant gets dizzy over a cholesterol overload that could only ever be acceptable in Scotland...
@debutantmusic: “Fucking yas! Haggis? WIN! Pizza? WIN! Haggis + pizza? WIN WIN! Exclamation marks all round!”

Pragmatism and capitalisation is the name of the game for Findo Gask...
@wearefindogask: “Are practicing hard in order to BE BETTER THAN WE ARE NOW.”

My Latest Novel wholly embrace the joys of Twitter by giving up on rational conversation...
@MyLatestNovel: “The smurf would turn flesh coloured! Can something be flesh coloured? Surely flesh is a composite of tones not a colour?”

Salesmanship is clearly not Dupec’s forte....
@Dupec: “Try out the new hand driers at @cabaretvoltaire at our gig tonight which is FREE entry and cheap bevvy. On at 8.”

Pooch + tweeting + heat = comedy gold...
@poochtheband: “Contemplating wearing icecream.”

Sixpeopleaway get into the Wimbledon swing of things...
@sixpeopleaway: "The faintly robotic & precisely disciplined motions of the ballboys/girls at Wimbledon is starting to freak me out ever so slightly..."

RBRBR go from a web of sound to a web of SPLAT...
@RBRBR: "Big old spider in my trainer this morning. Didn't notice until the shoe was on. :-( "

Unicorn Kid is creating his own heatwave...
@UnicornKid: "Played the sweatiest show in Unicorn Kid history tonight! There was at least a pint's worth in my t shirt."

And finally, Errors say what this half of Under the Radar's editorial team has been thinking all week...
@Weareerrors: "Too actual f*cking hot to do anything. F*ck off sun."

Words: Billy Hamilton (and Twitter)

Musicians of Scotland: Tweet something interesting/funny/newsworthy this week and you too could feature in Tweet Nothings. Just think how proud your Mum will be.

Spotted any other tweeting gems we've missed out on? Share your favourite weekly tweets with us below...

Tweet nothings, feat. Camera Obscura, Dananananaykroyd, The Twilight Sad

With the world living in a nutshell of 140 character statements, getting to the good stuff can be a laborious chore - particularly if, like us, your mum has posted her 1000th account of the cat's bowel movements. But never fear dear reader, we here at UtR have sifted through the Twitter tripe to bring to you an essential weekly round-up of your favourite musical miscreants' idle-thumbed tweets....


Camera Obscura get narcissistic regret...
@camera_obscura: "so. watching yourself on telly is like watching yourself on youtube or looking in the mirror. but worse."

A less than explanatory Dananananaykroyd say adios to bassist Laura...
@dananananaykroy: "Eh, aye, so.. yeah."

The mighty Cancel The Astronauts get some overdue media lovin'...
@canceltheastros: "Tom Robinson's playing us on BBC Introducing tonight! And Steve Lamacq's playing a clip of Fanclub on his show. On Radio 1. That's mental."

Debutant slowly fathoms Twitter and all its meaningless glory...
@debutantmusic: "Twitter confuses me. I wish I was more technology savvy. How do I direct a tweet at a particular person? Technology really is wasted on me".

Best web 2.0-speak ramble of the week comes from Findo Gask...
@wearefindogask: "Hey internet ppz, practice today was an "EPIC FAIL". Hilariously graceless reworks of popular rock songs then sausages".

Edinburgh's The Banana Sessions look for some fee-less PR...
@bananasessions: "We need some snappy way to describe what we sound like... Any suggestions? Multi genre hybrids allowed. Answers on a tweet...".

Pooch give us a fascinating insight into to the culinary habits of a disco-punk band:
@poochtheband: "Having pizza before playin sleazys...roddy + steve have used 'my dad rocks' half price vouchers. Not enjoying being a wife!"

We Are The Physics take the tone down...
@wearethephysics:"We're all going round to Michaelguitar's house tonight to record a song about dildonics. We'll let you know the euphoric results".

While The Twilight Sad find themselves pigeonholed in the UK's biggest weekly music rag...
@thetwilightsad: "the nme describe us as "awe-metal" and say our epic angst comes from "the fear of cocktail parties or of group oral sex."

to which the Twilight boys retort...
@thetwilightsad: "we're big fans of both "cocktail parties" and "group oral sex."

And finally...

To fuzz, or not to fuzz? That was RBRBR's dilemma of the week...
@RBRBR: "Sorry, in a band of 5, would a fourth beard be a beard too many?"

Words: Billy Hamilton (and Twitter)

Spotted any other tweeting gems we've missed out on? Share your favourite weekly tweets with us below...

Promoter profile: Don't Make A Scene

If we were to make a style guide for Under the Radar (which we haven't - it's a blog after all) it would be tempting to ban any mention of the word 'scene'. It's one that's used all too often to describe some kind of musical community where such a common bond or sound barely exists, or to describe professional socialites who spend the bulk of their time involved 'in the scene', thus, 'scenester'. Fair enough perhaps. But doesn't it just make you cringe to read it?

Taking this mindset thoroughly to heart, one new gig night that's just sprung up on Glasgow's fertile musical patch have called themselves Don't Make A Scene. But Matthew Scott and Fraser Lindsay aren't as militantly anti-scene as the name suggests: "We're not fans of making a scene because of the wrong reasons, such as style over substance," they say. "But on the other hand, we want to make a scene where the audience want to return to our shows because they know they will be guaranteed a night with quality music and like-minded people."

The intrepid duo, who have both played in bands since their teens, are aware of some of the exploitative practices that go on in the world of gig promotion: "As fans of the bands that we put on, we want to help promote them in the long run and not solely for our event."

So who's on their wishlist to host?

"It would be nice to host the bands who are on the up, such as Sucioperro and The Xcerts, but as we're quite new to this game we don't really have much reputation and struggle to book them over larger promoters. At the moment we're really liking The Whisky Works, El Dog and The Darien Venture, so hopefully we can sort something out with them soon."

Despite their own mantra, if their night takes off they might just play their own part in establishing that dreaded scene.

The next Don't Make A Scene features former UtR stars Pooch, as well as Little Eskimos and Belgrade. It takes place at The V Club, Glasgow this Friday (15 May) - Doors 8pm, £5.

Play: Pooch - Fashionista


Words: Nick Mitchell

Music scenes: good or bad? Discuss...

Introducing... Pooch

Pooch mix the fun-loving pop-punk of the B-52s with the surging synths of The Bravery, and hone their craft in a "dark warehouse in a forgotten corner of Glasgow."

The four-piece do occasionally emerge to play riotous gigs; so riotous the police pulled the plug on a recent in-store appearance when the decibels grew too plentiful for sensitive ears.

Pooch - Fashionista:


Pooch are two girls and two guys, and their trashy, electroclash gigs have earned them a reputation with the edgier half of Glasgow's party crowd.

Pooch - French Kiss:


Catch them live at Cassette, Glasgow on 20 March, Nice'n'Sleazy's, Glasgow on 18 April and Sloan's Ballroom, Glasgow on 30 April.