Guest blog: Andrew Manson (Other People)

Andrew Manson of Glasgow band Other People, who we featured last month, argues that the real meaning of Christmas can't be found on Amazon.co.uk...


Christmas is a funny beast. I always let out a shudder when those picket fence voices first float out of my TV singing 'holidays are coming', but by the end of the 25th I'm usually fairly in swing with at least part of the 'spirit'.

Not yo-ho-ho-ing down the local community centre or anything, but I will have at least pulled a cracker and donned a party hat or two. Handed out a few gifts, that sort of thing.

Only a few gifts mind. I never buy a lot of presents. I don't think I should waste my time and money on folk I never see or barely know. On children that don't even know or care who I am. The doughy elbowed ones will be using their chocolatey hands to squeeze as much out of mum and dad as possible without me needing to contribute, I think. Maybe I'm just tight but to me this is where the meaning of the festive season has been lost.

The fact more and more people are Xmas shopping online shows just how impersonal gift giving has become. It doesn't seem to be about giving, or receiving. It's more like trading. Hearing chat of which places are doing the best DVD offers, as DVD presents are being handed back and forth next to the Christmas tree. That's odd.

The economic slowdown could be the thing that pulls Santa out of this retail snowdrift. If no-one has the cash to buy the gifts to ease the guilt for never seeing any of their relations then perhaps they might just go and spend some time with them instead. Play Lego with their nieces and nephews. Take a bottle of whisky round the houses, get drunk, trip on the dog. Play charades with your parents. Yes dad, of course its f***ing Jaws. Remind these people why they send you a card every year.

The festive season should be about close family and friends, not crippling your credit card on people you don't really know. That would be my Christmas message. Well that, and also that my first draft of 'Gordon Brown Saves Christmas' is almost complete. Any takers?

Favourite Christmas Song: 'Stay Another Day' by East 17

Other People: Whooplash


Other People play Captain's Rest, Glasgow on 29 Dec

Guest blog: Thomas Western

Having recently moved north to Scotland and immersed himself in the Edinburgh music scene, singer-songwriter Thomas Western looks back on his year and talks about the kind of seasonal songs that strike the right note...

It is widely accepted that the notion that different musics can be said to belong to either 'high' or 'low' culture is outdated. Yet there may be something left in this concept that emerges at this 'most wonderful time of the year'. Before I elucidate, I better explain that I am writing from a non-religious but happy to celebrate Christmas nonetheless perspective; for family togetherness and all that.

Commercial Christmas music is largely unavoidable to some degree. It has the same intrusive character as the music that emanates from those kilt shops on Nicolson Street the rest of the year: an aural interloper, an unwelcome guest.

This is why my favourite yuletide music comes in the form of carols. To reiterate, not for their religious content, but for the purity of sound, the harmony, the goodness that shines forth from them in the season that often sees us at our most debased, debauched, and of insectoid deportment. 'The Holly and the Ivy', 'In the Bleak Midwinter', and 'Coventry Carol' are beacons, exposing the crudeness of their pop counterparts, and for me, providing that inner-warmth that we associate with Christmas, but in reality can be hard to find for those of us who don't believe.

I don't ordinarily go in for such elitism, but Christmas pop is usually pretty low.

Speaking of Low, however, gives a good example of how a middle ground has been reached. The band's 1999 Christmas record is great. The covers, original songs, and their arrangement of 'Silent Night' all capture the seasonal sadness, without the sham goodwill of tin-pan tripe, or the didacticism that comes with more overtly Christian carols. Sufjan Stevens fits the bill too, and provides good proof that it is possible to write good pop songs about Christmas (see 'Sister Winter', 'Put the Lights on the Tree', and 'That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!').



Such melancholy flies nicely in the face of forced festive goodwill, which for me is one of the more irksome yuletide gestures. Our moral compasses should point toward kindness and generosity throughout the year, not just when the Coca-Cola adverts appear, and we are allowed to drink glühwein during the day.

For me personally, this Christmas feels special in the sense that it is my first in Scotland. I have hugely enjoyed my first few months in Edinburgh, and would like to thank Ruth from the Bowery and Michael from Jesus H. Foxx for welcoming me with such warmth to a fine music scene. Also thanks to Matthew, Dylan, Jason & Stevie. Ta very much.

The album will be finished in the New Year, and I look forward to more musical good times in 2010.

Thomas Western: Plough


Thomas Western: Your Front Door

Guest blog: Bart Owl (eagleowl)

Having played prominent roles in no fewer than four of the acts we've featured this year (eagleowl, The Occasional Flickers, Rob St John and The Second Hand Marching Band) it would have been rude not to ask Bart Owl for his end-of-year thoughts...

2009 has been great. With eagleowl, we didn't play that many shows. But then I think we've played too often in the past, and the ones that we did play were all winners: tour with Rob (St. John) in February, Flowers of Hell, Bowerbirds, ballboy, Withered Hand album launch, Trespassers William, Homegame.

The Playing with the Past soundtracking event - for me personally - is the best thing we've ever been involved in. It's probably the show I'm most proud of, and I think I'll look back in years to come with that same outlook. Also, putting out our first vinyl is kind of a big deal. It's just that extra step. It feels more real, somehow. It's like "We have a 7". We're a proper band now."

We have an EP ready for release in 2010, and a track on a Jonathan Richman tribute album which is due out on Fortuna Pop. So I hope those go well. I think 2010 will also be about playing fewer shows, but concentrating on writing and recording.

More generally, I hope music in Edinburgh continues to grow and thrive. There's been a lot of talk about a "scene" or things building up here over the last couple of years. I see 2009 as the year when more people have got organised and started releasing stuff.

There's been a lot of great bands emerging over the last while, putting on great shows. But this year, a lot more people have put out proper releases. I think it's an important development - to make a record of what has been achieved, and create a chance for what's happening to get recognition from outside of Edinburgh. Which is important to help stop things getting too insular and self-serving. I guess Kilter - who are putting out our single - are an example of this. They've been operating for a while putting on shows as 'Tracer Trails', but this will be their first actual release.

My alternative Christmas message?

Enjoy yourselves. Responsibly.

My favourite Christmas song?

Well, it's kind of obvious for us, I guess, but 'Just Like Christmas' by Low is hard to beat. I made an alternative christmas compilation album for my friends last year, and there was lots of good stuff on there. One was 'On Christmas Day' by Leadbelly. It's great. The whole thing is really is really bright and happy - like one big chorus. The main line is: "children get so happy on Christmas day". I like the way that it captures that childhood wonder and excitement about Christmas, without getting into any of the religious connotations. In a similar way to how the Low song does. I think that's what Christmas means to me.

eagleowl: Sleep the Winter


eagleowl play the Christmas Songwriters Club at Leith Docker’s Club, Edinburgh on 23 Dec

Image: Shannon McClean

My Christmas: Grant Hutchison (Frightened Rabbit)

When we asked Frightened Rabbit drummer Grant Hutchison for his Christmas message, he replied with an original Christmas poem. An instant classic, we're sure you'll agree...


As the first snow falls on the glistening ground
The sound of drunk songs can be heard all around
The smashing of glass and the kissing of faces
And two f***ing neds drawing blades at ten paces

The lights on Buchanan Street glimmer with pride
And shoppers they come and they go like the tide
It's Christmas in Glasgow and everything's rosy
With Buckfast galore to keep one and all cosy

It's a chance for us all to just and sit in our pants
And pile on the pounds and have X Factor rants
As cards are replaced with a mass festive text
We wonder which Christmas song will Cliff bastardise next?

Exercise makes way for Trivial Pursuit
The only thing healthy is booze soaked fruit
Unwanted presents are a thing of the past
As Amazon's wish list makes shopping easy and fast

Our wages are spent before we even know
On Spongebob guitars and cans of fake snow
Jamie, Nigella or Delia Smith?
Who's turkey tastes better when burnt to a crisp?

And once it's all over it's back to real life
Where the people are sadder and normality's rife
But at the end of all that it's a sure fire thing
That at least you were drunk so won't remember a thing!


Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop


Frightened Rabbit play the ABC, Glasgow on Tuesday, although it sold out long ago.

My Christmas: James Graham

James Graham is singer and lyricist in Kilsyth band The Twilight Sad, who released their second album Forget the Night Ahead this year to wide acclaim. He's also a big fan of Christmas apparently...

What's good about Xmas?????

The answer to that is what's not good about Xmas????!!!

Over the past four years Xmas has been my favourite time of the year. When you're younger birthdays, school holidays, Easter and Xmas are your favourite times of the year for three reasons: presents, chocolate and no school!

As you get older things change, the presents get shitter, chocolate makes you fatter and you wish you were back at school so you could try harder and get better qualifications so you don't find yourself travelling round the world with five other guys in the back of a splitter van :P

Although I say that I have found a new appreciation for Xmas as it's the only time that I get to see all of my family and catch up on all of the shite TV and films that I love so much. It also lets me buy all of the music that I have illegally downloaded and like, due to the HMV vouchers that I have instructed all my family to get me instead of the Lynx Africa deodorant/shower gel combo that I always seem to get.

As a band we have a Xmas ritual, we all go to the Swann Inn which is located in my home town Banton on Xmas eve with all our friends and get absolutely out our tights. This year will be no different. You would think after spending four years solid on the road with each other we would be sick of the sight of each other and that's mostly true. But no matter what, on the eve of Xmas in 50 years time you will find four haggered old alkies talking about the time they played Sleazy's for the first time and nae c*** turned up.

My favourite Xmas song is by Chris de Burgh and is called 'A Spaceman Came Travelling'.

BAAAA HUMBUG!

James' list for Santa:

HD TV
Box of Malteasers
A tour bus
Tickets to Pavement at the Barras
Warp20 box set
Wagamama cook book
Trip to Buckfast abbey

Twilight Sad: Reflection of the Television


Twilight Sad: I Became a Prostitute

My Christmas: Peter Kelly (Beerjacket)

What's Christmas all about again? Someone's birthday or something? The 25th of December now means different things to different people. So in the run-up to Santa's arrival we'll be asking some of Scotland's music makers what their Christmas message is. First up is Peter Kelly, who has caused quite a stir this year under the guise of Beerjacket...

I must have been maybe eight or nine when I caught my Mum out on a lie for the very first time.

Christmas was but weeks away and the existence (or otherwise) of Santa Claus was a heated topic within my class at primary school. I was a fervent, card-carrying believer in him, flying in the face of the frosty cynics with (and from) whom I learned as a child.

But doubts had been planted in my mind.

Mum has always been an overly cautious driver and she was focusing fully on a tricky mini-roundabout. She was therefore caught unawares when I told her, “Some kids at school have been saying Santa Claus isn’t real.”

Fixated as she was on her manoeuvre, her parental consciousness depleted, she added her concurrence to the matter: “Yes - that’s true.”

Come on, Mum. Everyone knows Santa is for real.

Christmas has always been a source of great joy for me. It’s December and I’m a child again. I love the lights... I love the sounds... I love the irrational sniggering happiness of it all. It’s like everybody’s birthday at once. Yes, I know, it’s one particular person’s birthday.

It’s my mate Ross’s birthday. Happy Birthday when it comes, Ross.

I even love the music. And I don’t mean the cool music (Low’s beautiful Christmas EP, Frightened Rabbit’s stunning It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop, the impeccable Sufjan Stevens 5-CD Christmas compendium...) or even the ironic, you-only-like-it-because-you’re-aware-it-sucks music (Christmas Wrapping... Merry Christmas Everybody...). No, I mean, like Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You. Like, Do They Know It’s Christmas? Even Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. I love those songs. In fact, I’m gutted that ill health has prevented me from contributing to the Avalanche Records Christmas album because I had either a Mariah Carey cover or a similarly sappy original song planned for inclusion. Christmas is not only an opportunity not be cool, it is MANDATORY not to be cool.

So this is Christmas. And what have you done?

Well, I suppose this might have been the year when my musical project Beerjacket was sort of legitimised in the public eye. A fairly self-destructive rather than self-indulgent solo project, as it has been, I’ve been at this for five years now. It’s never been especially festive given its cheery themes of isolation, disillusion and passive aggression, therefore I’ve generally avoided the month of December for public outings when I’ve run into the likes of female rugby team Christmas nights out when I played shows, more or less into the face of the wind. This year - the year when Beerjacket was outlandishly endorsed by the ohmygoodness likes of Rolling Stone – has been no different. I hung up my cloak for now in November, at least till sometime next year, playing out my final show of 2009 for Glasgow PodcART. It was a pretty emotional night for me, putting a full stop to this very successful, if tumultuous year.

And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear.

Well, without fear, what exactly would I write about? What exactly would anyone write about? I’ve actually shelved immediately plans for a new album for now, so soon (too soon?) after Animosity as I wait to discover what, if anything, I really need to let people hear. I plan to record a few months from now (I had planned to commit an album to tape before the end of the year… but what exactly is the hurry?) and if/when I do, I feel sure it’ll make as excellent a Christmas gift for all the family in 2010 as my current album would certainly make this Christmas, which one can easily find in quality record stores such as Avalanche in Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as at iTunes, Amazon MP3 and eMusic.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Beerjacket: Drum

Guest blogger: Jenny Soep on the art of gig-going

[All images are copyright (c) Jenny Soep, jennysoep.blogspot.com
Music: Cancel the Astronauts - 'Love Somebody']

Gig reviewers are easy to spot. They stand at the back with an eyebrow arched, casting furtive glances around the room for fellow scribes to conspire with, while intermittently scratching out illegible hieroglyphics on a dog-eared notepad.

But a gig illustrator? That would be even more conspicuous. Artist Jenny Soep doesn't mind the attention though, and for the past couple of years she has set out to capture the excitement of live music in a series of impressionistic drawings.

A showcase of her work is above, and here she explains why she does it...


The first time I drew live music was in 2000 at the Dundee Jazz Festival. I'm a sucker for good jazz and since I couldn't join in, I drew my experience of it instead.

The idea came from being moved by music and wanting to translate my experience of it into a drawing. I'm amazed how different types of music can incite different reactions/emotions in people and I wanted to see if I could express or capture that by drawing it as it's being performed. I believe the sensibilities of art and music go hand in hand.

I like to think I've created a little niche for myself, though it can get very claustrophobic at times.

The reaction from bands has been varied, though mostly bemusedly positive. I used to draw from the audience/mosh pit. Now I'm normally in the press pit drawing, although I was up on stage with Maximo Park at their last gig in Glasgow. They knew I was coming, but expected me to arrive with an easel and canvas. Hah, maybe one day, but not usually a thing I could get away with in the confines of the press pit!

I was drawing Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard after going to Jeff's lecture on The Watchmen comic (which was great). Jeff asked when my anthology was going to come out.

But my favourite experience this year was drawing David Byrne at his Glasgow show back in March. He's got the drawings up on his website.

Words: Jenny Soep
Photograph: Stephan Rambow

See more of Jenny's work on her blog at jennysoep.blogspot.com.

There is a Multimedia Expo event on 14 Oct, 6pm at the Music Library, Edinburgh with live music by Edinburgh band Found, live drawings/animations/projections - and drawings by the audience are encouraged! Free but ticketed Email garry.gale@edinburgh.gov.uk.

Guest blogger: James Graham previews the new Twilight Sad LP

So pervasive have The Twilight Sad been over the past few years it's difficult to think of them as a one album band. Yet that's exactly what the Kilsyth quartet are - well, for the next three weeks anyway.

So, before the October release of the bleakly entitled Forget the Night Ahead, band frontman James Graham takes us through a track-by-track account of that 'difficult' second album....


Reflection Of The Television

This song wasn’t fully formed until we went into the studio. We had the vocal melody and a basic guitar line. It was one of those songs where you take it into the studio and you don’t really know what’s going to happen with it, which is pretty exciting and scary at the same time. Fortunately for us it turned out pretty good and as soon as it all came together we knew it was going to be at the start of the album. The drums are pretty huge and lyrically it revolves around the lyric "There's people downstairs, I’m more than a fighter you know" - take from that what you will.

I Became A Prostitute

This song was pretty much fully formed when we took it into the studio. We knew it would be the first single taken from the album. It was probably not a great idea to call it 'I Became A Prostitute' for stuff like radio, press etc. To be honest I don’t see what the fuss is, it is the politically correct term for a lady of the night. The title has no sexual connotations, it’s a metaphor for becoming something that you don’t want to become and there is nothing you can do about it.

Seven Years Of Letters
This was one of the first songs we wrote for the album and is the second single (19 October). It’s got our first guitar solo I think, well as close as we can get to having a guitar solo in a song. The lyrics in the song revolve around running away from things and people. It’s a song that we have played live for about a year now and always seemed to go down well at gigs, especially on our tour of America with Mogwai.

Made To Disappear
This song has the album title in the lyrics and really came together in the studio. I don’t really remember writing it, but it was always going to be on the record. This song probably has the darkest lyrics on the album.

Scissors
Scissors is an instrumental. Don’t really know what instruments are on it, it’s pretty intense and one of my favourites on the album, as I don’t sing on it. We felt it was important to have instrumentals that helped the album flow and so it was more than just a collection of songs.

The Room
This was originally untitled '27' from our The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents And Hit The Road EP for the two Mogwai tours we did. It was the first song written for this record and has taken many forms over its two years of existence. We knew it was a good song but it took us some time to realize that we just had to let the song speak for itself instead of trying to complicate it. It was written during a particularly dark time as well.

That Birthday Present
It’s the fastest song we have ever written and will probably ever write. It features Laura from My Latest Novel on violin. It’s the complete opposite to ‘The Room’ as it hits you between the eyes straight away with the noise. It’s probably one of my favourite songs to play live.

Floorboards Under The Bed
This started off as two separate songs. We decided to piece them together and it turned out to be one of the most claustrophobic songs we have. It starts of with me walking about the studio singing on my own and closes with a piano instrumental and noise. Laura also helps out again on the violin.

Interrupted
This was probably the last song we wrote for the album. It has overlapping vocal melodies and again was just an idea before it became its fully formed self in the studio. Again the lyrics are pretty dark, with lines about "burying people" and "feeding them to dogs". The main lyric is "you and I".

The Neighbours Can’t Breathe
This song was again taken from The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents And Hit The Road EP. On that it was a live version, it’s one of the first songs that we played live from this record and hasn’t really changed too much since then. We added some keys and changed the drum pattern a little. The song title is a lyric from the song and I think it’s the first time we have done that. The vocals have a different affect on this song to the rest of the album as well.

At The Burnside
This song was always going to finish the album. The lyrics revolve around a story that my dad told me and I related that back to my situation at the time. The drums are heavily distorted and I am pretty sure that Mark is hitting some fire extinguishers in the background. It opens and closes with a dark piano line. It was the perfect way to end this album in my eyes.

Words: James Graham
Photograph: Su Anderson

The Twilight Sad's second album Forget the Night Ahead is released on 5 October through Fatcat.