Newsbits: Stag & Dagger, 'quadraphonic' gig, PodcART live and Calvin's new label

[We Were Promised Jetpacks: playing a Stag night in Glasgow]

Do you ever wonder who sets the news agenda? Have you ever asked yourself when reading the latest update of the Cheryl/Ashley pantomime: "Who the hell decides what the public needs to know about?"

We did once, back in those dark, dark days in journalism school where we suffered the indignity of scouring broadsheets that got ink on our fingers and studied weighty tomes that harped on about the media having 'power and responsibility'.

Anyway, now we're older, wiser and much more enslaved to 'The Man' it's clear news is made up by PR men and women who churn out press releases to lapdog-hacks like yours truly, who subsequently turn it into 100 word filler pieces. So, here you go... another batch of news items spun up from our inbox.

First batch of Stag & Dagger acts announced...
Exciting news on the Stag & Dagger front. Organisers PCL have just announced the first batch of melody makers for this year’s multi-venue festivities and it’s looking pretty tip top thus far. Headlined, we’d presume, by local heroes We Were Promised Jetpacks and, not so local heroes, Wild Beasts and The Antlers, the festival’s booking men and women seems to be earning their bread by cherry picking the cream of UK talent. Hotly tipped crowers Esben & The Witch will mingle with UtR-featured Divorce and The Unwinding Hours. With a shovel load of acts still to be confirmed and early bird tickets going for about twelve quid, we reckon this has the makings of a rather spiffing night out on the West Coast.

A quadraphonic twilight...
Doom-laden noise mongers The Twilight Sad are going quadraphonic. Now, don’t worry, it’s not some debilitating muscular disease, in actual fact they’re bringing a new listening experience to the Glasgow masses at a gig in the city’s ABC. The set-up consists of PAs being placed at both the back and front of the room while a central control module manipulates the output of each speaker.

Those ever informative folk at FatCat elaborate: “There are limitless possibilities with this technology as it incorporates software that allows shapes to be drawn on a screen that are then replicated by the speakers, meaning that a guitar line can fly around the room or a drum roll can begin from the front of the venue and finish at the back. Each song can be mixed in a different way that will only add to the already immersive live experience that The Twilight Sad are famed for.

It all sounds a bit like another madcap invention by the professor in Futurama if you ask us. The gig is on the 2nd of April at the ABC. It’s probably advisable to lay off the mushroom soup before you make your way over.

PodcART live and uncut...
In swearier news... Our expletive espousing pals over at Glasgow PodcART are recording a live podcast this Friday (26 Feb). This nerveless display of audio-tomfoolery will include live performance from Big man/little lass combo Conquering Animal Sound and Scottish Alternative Music Award nominees Make Sparks. Taking place at Creation Studios between 3pm-6pm, it will be the usual high japes played out in a traditional West Coast brogue - only better, because everything’s better when it’s live, right?

Calvin Harris to launch record label – apparently it won’t be “shite”
Extraordinarily awful but very jammy electro-pop Scot Calvin Harris has announced that he’s to launch his own record label, called Fly Eye, in May. The first release will be a single from some fella called Mr Blink, (probably so titled because if you blink you’re gonna miss him... ho ho ho ) called 'Gecko'. Harris declared to some non-interested hacks: "My goal for Fly Eye is to release the most exciting club music I can get my hands on. There will be absolutely no shite". Sure Calvin, sure.

Words: Billy Hamilton

Whiffed a story from the Scottish music scene? Send it to utr.scotsman@gmail.com or tweet us @under_the_radar

Radar recommends: 17 - 23 May

[The Phantom Band: playing Stag & Dagger on Saturday]

Ending with the terrific looking Stag & Dagger festival, this week's already guaranteed to be a thrilling sprawl of giggage. But before the Glasgow jamboree kicks off there's plenty of superlative shows to get your lugs around...

Future of the Left, Pulled Apart By Horses and Super Adventure Club
Monday 18 May, Stereo, Glasgow, £tbc
From the ashes of mclusky and Jarcrew rose Wales' best new band, Future of the Left. That was four years ago, but Future of the Left have tightened up and added electronics without curtailing their hardcore lifeblood. Apt support comes in the equally kinetic forms of Leeds fight-pop mentalists Pulled Apart By Horses and Edinburgh' s most eccentrically talented band, Super Adventure Club. [NM]

Super Adventure Club - Tommy Sheridan


Bullet VI, Casino, Kathleen Mary Duff
Tuesday 19 May, The Ark, Edinburgh, Doors 8pm, £4
Bullet VI are a band who simply refuse to be pigeonholed. Their funk-driven rock constantly veers close to hip-hop territory and dual vocalists Ailsa Bates and Andy Wilson complement each other perfectly, adding rich layers of harmony to the groove-driven rhythm section. Casino, from Falkirk, hark back to the glory days of British indie pop while Edinburgh singer/songwriter Kathleen Mary Duff's piano-driven ballads and soaring vocals are reminiscent of Tori Amos's early work. [JM]

Benni Hemm Hemm, Withered Hand
Thursday 21 May, The Bowery, Edinburgh. 7.30pm, £5
Exulting flurries of parping brass and melancholic rhythms, Edinburgh-based Icelanders Benni Hemm Hemm draw inevitable comparisons with Swedish troubador Jens Lekman. But a penchant for harmony and spacious arrangements suggest they're more attuned to the orchestral folk leanings of Sufjan Stevens. For this particular outing the Benni... line-up will be bolstered by Rob St John’s Owen Williams and Emily Scott, rendering this showing almost unmissable. [BH]

Black Rat Death Squad, Unknown Hagana, The Party Program
Friday 22 May, Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh. Doors 7pm, £tbc
Glasgow's Black Rat Death Squad have already earned a reputation as local legends thanks to their anarchic live shows. With influences ranging from crust punk to Norwegian black metal, the band's sound falls somewhere towards the post-hardcore end of the punk spectrum, with a healthy dose of straight-up rock'n'roll mixed in for good measure. Eclectic Edinburgh indie outfit Unknown Hagata and progressive metal/hardcore act The Party Program support on the night. [JM]

My Electric Love Affair, After Me The Flood, The Stormy Seas, Dave Courtney
Friday 22 May, Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, Doors 7pm, FREE
My Electric Love Affair's entrancing blend of drone, punk and experimental pop could be easily mistaken for that of shoegazing stalwarts My Bloody Valentine on first listen. The Edinburgh veterans have been quiet since the limited release of their Blow Me Down EP but look set to re-establish themselves as firm live favourites with a spate of shows lined up over the summer. After Me The Floods' fast and loud indie rock is complemented by The Stormy Seas sedate and thoughtful Celtic-themed modern folk. [JM]

• Update: The Stormy Seas have had to pull out of the above gig, but are playing the following night (23 May) in Edinburgh at Sneaky Pete's, with Anathallo, Sam Amidon and Your Boy Blair.

Duty Free presents Cats In Paris, Mitchell Museum
Saturday 23 May, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh. 7pm, Doors free
Representing another score for the boys and girls at the wallet-friendly Duty Free, hotly-tipped [is there really any other kind of tipped?] Manchester four-piece Cats In Paris bring their wonky neo-pop to Auld Reekie’s cobbled streets. Of course, UtR’s a tad more excited about the submerged synths and illuminated melodies of Glasgow miscreants Mitchell Museum, but, whatever your predilection, this is shaping up to be a corker.[BH]

Play: Mitchell Museum - Extra Lives


**UtR's gig of the week**
Stag & Dagger
Saturday 23 May, various venues, Glasgow
We're more excited than a politician with a blank expenses form about Stag & Dagger next week. Among the stellar bill are American indie darlings Cold War Kids, the frankly incredible Twilight Sad and Glasgow's finest practitioners of what I'm going to pretentiously call post-pop, The Phantom Band. But enough salivating for now; we'll have a proper preview later in the week. [NM]

Words: Jodi Mullen, Billy Hamilton, Nick Mitchell

Have we missed something? Let us know below, or add it to the gig guide...

Newsflash: The Twilight Sad plot live return, finalise second album

The Twilight Sad, Kilsyth's finest ear-blasting post-rockers, have announced their live return with a series of shows in May.

James Graham & co are currently putting the finishing touches to the follow-up to their debut LP Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, one of the standout albums of 2007 and an awesome mix of thundering guitar squalls, plaintive alt-folk and West Coast angst.

The band then jet off to America in support of Mogwai at the end of this month, but will return to our shores in May for what will surely be a thrilling series of dates across the UK.

Their Glasgow show forms part of the excellent mini-fest, Stag & Dagger, which moves north from London for the first time. We'll have more features on this nearer the time.

May dates are as follows:

Wed 13: Birmingham Rainbow
Thur 14: The Great Escape @ Brighton Water Margin
Fri 15: Cardiff Barfly
Sun 17: Oxford Bullingdon Arms
Mon 18: Nottingham Bodega
Tues 19: Southampton Joiners
Wed 20: Bristol Fleece
Thur 21: London Stag & Dagger
Fri 22: Leeds Stag & Dagger
Sat 23: Glasgow Stag & Dagger

Video: The Twilight Sad perform live in Aberdeen last year: