Newsbits: Scottish Alt. Awards, Aberdeen protest album, Haiti appeal and more...

If ducking a handshake constitutes a front page splash, then god knows where that puts our weekly round-up of press releases and music related titbits. At a guess, we’d say page four. You know, just behind that elegant snap of a scantily clad female who’s putting the world to rights in the shape of two mountainous mammary glands.

Anyway, as this is a website there’s no need to concern ourselves with trivial matters like page numbers or, sadly, topless models. Instead, you can rest assured that what you’re reading right now will probably stay at the top of the page for the next 24 hours without subjecting you to nudity of any form.

Trapped in Kansas scoop alternative gong
UtR favourites Trapped in Kansas scooped the ‘Best Rock/Alternative’ prize at last week’s Scottish Alternatve Music Awards (SAMA). The Glasgow based quartet fought off fierce competition from Make Sparks and This Familiar Smile to be crowned the most rocking alternative act in the land (or something). Other winners included As Darkness Falls (Best Newcomer), Promised Only Lies (Best Metal) and The LaFontaines (Best Live Act). Bronto Skylift bafflingly walked away with nada, but that’s that nature of open-vote awards for you.

SAMA organiser Richy Muirhead said: “The past seven months have been an amazing and great learning experience for myself. The music scene in Scotland is forever growing, and I hope everyone involved can now appreciate it more from this event. It's been a real blast, and I've already started brainstorming for next years festival.”

A heartfelt protest
Remember the (often abysmal) vehicle for social change that was the protest song? We don't, but that's mainly because we were born in a time when Thatcher’s Conservatives crushed the voice of opposition. But up in Aberdeen a collective of local musicians do. To voice their disdain towards the City Square Project – a planned £50m facelift of Aberdeen’s city centre which includes the uprooting of Union Terrace Gardens (UTG) – 20 Aberdeen acts have come together to produce the ‘We heart UTG’ record. Encompassing a spectrum of genres from modern bluegrass to funky house, the download-only record can be acquired on a ‘pay what you like’ basis, with all proceeds going to the UTG campaign. To get your mitts on it, click here.

Scots bands put out for Haiti
Four Scottish acts have donned their philanthropist capes and donated tracks to a Haiti benefit compilation. There Will Be Fireworks, Lions.Chase.Tigers, Farewell Singapore and Three Blind Wolves have forwarded cuts to New Jersey-based Dromedary Records for inclusion in the digitial-only release of Make The Load Lighter - Indie Rock for Haiti. All proceeds for the record will benefit the victims of the Haitian earthquake through an all-volunteer organisation called Vwa Ayiti (Voice Of Haiti). Label owner Al Crisafulli said of each band’s input: “It’s been great communicating with all four bands - this collection really has been a ton of fun, and it’s awesome to be able to do something quickly to raise money.” You can download the album here or, in a move which seems to be against the point of the record, you can listen to it here for free.

Selling out has never been so easy
Last week’s announcement of ‘the best T in the Park line up ever’ resulted in the festival selling out in less time than it takes Inverness Caley Thistle to put four goals past Raith Rovers (less of that please - ed). Unable to resist a roll call of Eminem, Muse, Jay-Z and The Black Eyed ‘why don’t they split’ Peas, Scottish punters snapped up 85,000 tickets in 90 minutes. We’d like to think this record breaking frenzy was in some way aided by the inclusion of Dirty Projectors and Broken Social Scene but, let’s face it, we’d just be deluding ourselves. For the latest line-up news all you need to do is click here.

Chewing the festival cud
In harder-than-it-looks news, chewing gum company Trident are seeking to exchange £30,000 for someone to visit 30 music festivals over 30 weeks. Taking in festivals around the globe, all you need to do is document the experience via Trident's festival website, through tweets, blogs, photos and videos, with reviews, gossip and celebrity interviews. Sounds easy, huh? Well, the challenge is actually getting the job, which will involve an online application, a face to face interview and, if you get that far, an all-day assessment in front of a panel that includes having to meet the insanely irritating George Lamb. See, told you it was tough. More info can be found here.

Twilights get a room
The Twilight Sad get back to the campaign trail for last year's still-growing-on-us album Forget the Night Ahead by releasing new single 'The Room'. Rife with the usual clash of miserabilism and voluptuous arrangement, the track offers the added bonus of My Latest Novel's Laura McFarlance guesting on violin. And for you for your aural/visual enjoyment, you can watch the fancy new video of said track below:



Got news for us? Let us know at utr.scotsman@gmail.com or tweet us @under_the_radar

Radar recommends: 19 - 25 July

[Be A Familiar: on tour across Scotland this week]

Whether it's down to the long hangover cast by T in the Park, the gravitational pull of its smaller cousin Wickerman next weekend, or the looming prospect of the Edinburgh Festival's live music calendar, compiling this week's gig guide was like panning for gold in a puddle. But we still found a few nuggets worth leaving the house for...


Aberdeen

Be A Familiar, I See Shapes, French Wives, Mark McCabe & The Tearoom Posse
Thursday @ The Tunnels | 7.30PM | £5
UtR said that "there's an underlying feyness that renders Be A Familiar unmistakeably Scottish." Fellow Scots I See Shapes and French Wives also travel north, with local singer-songwriter Mark McCabe filling out the bill.


Edinburgh

The Cosmonauts
Wednesday @ Whistlebinkies |11.30pm | £tbc
Late 60s vibe with a modern twist and vocals like Jagger on Valium. The steady beats and catchy guitar hooks conjure up effortless rock at its finest.

The Mill: Paper Beats Rock and lions.chase.tigers
Thursday @ Cabaret Voltaire | 7pm | free
Locally sourced alt-rock in the shape of Paper Beats Rock, plus lions.chase.tigers, champions of Glasgow's burgeoning hardcore rock scene.

**UtR's gig of the week**
FOUND, Dead Boy Robotics
Friday @ Sneaky Pete's | £5
Having already treated us to shows by Meursault, Scott Hutchison and Yahweh, the Brown Bear night serves up another tasty dish: the cut'n'paste urban folk of FOUND, with the "cross-sworded cluster of palpitating electronica" of Dead Boy Robotics as a starter. Mmmm.

TV21
Saturday @ Electric Circus | 7pm | £6
Back from a 28-year interval, the Edinburgh band who counted The Skids, Teardrop Explodes and The Undertones as contemporaries have a new album to perform. Support from Fife singer-songwriter Panda Su.


Glasgow

Second Hand Marching Band, Sparrow & The Workshop
Tuesday @ Captain's Rest | 8pm | £tbc
SHMB's sound is "a thrilling skewer of swaying, earthy orchestration and climatic post-rock", while S&tW's vintage country schtick needs little introduction round these parts.

Be A Familiar, Tango in the Attic
Tuesday @ King Tut's | 8.30pm | 6pm
The aforementioned Be A Familiar, plus Tango in the Attic, who UtR said are "worth listening to". So check out this single launch. Also at Electric Circus, Edinburgh on Wednesday.

Red2Red
Thursday @ Cosmopol | 8pm | £3/£2
Energetic ska mingles with lazy reggae, as 6-piece Red2Red yield sunny, bop-along tunes. The pitch perfect vocal harmonies will effortlessly evoke summer even on a dreary Glasgow day.

Meursault, Lyons
Thursday @ Captain's Rest | 8pm | £tbc
What haven't we said in praise of Meursault? Maybe that they're named after a character from one of our favourite works of existentialist fiction. Yay. Support from soon-to-be UtR-touted Lyons.

Words: Nick Mitchell, Kirstyn Smith

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

On the radar: lions.chase.tigers

[lions.chase.tigers photographed by Calum Forsyth]

Play: Please Warm My Cold Hands


The quiet-loud-quiet dynamic has been a staple of alternative rock since the Pixies first broke out of the college radio ghetto over twenty years ago.

That simple song structure - minimalist verse giving way to crashing chorus - has formed the blueprint for dozens of classic albums over the last two decades, from Surfer Rosa to Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.

Glasgow's lions.chase.tigers can be forgiven for not deviating wildly from the tried-and-tested formula, thanks to the sheer quality of their output. The four-piece are a humble lot but it’s hard not to be impressed by their work ethic, songwriting and gutsy performances.

Guitarist Fraser Sanaghan explains: "We're quite a modest bunch of guys. Any new band that comes along promising to change people's lives and be truly different are obviously delusional. If you think of all the bands you can count as being truly original and different, it took them years to do so. We work hard and we play our hearts out when we're on stage."

Play: That Kid Can Sleep


The band's style strongly emphasises contrast. Delicate, thoughtful guitar and vocal arrangements gradually build to a crescendo before being washed away in a release of sound; choruses descending into a torrent of thrashing riff and guttural screams. This interplay between melody and dissonance underpins each of lions.chase.tigers' songs.

Proudly wearing their influences on their sleeves, the group draws ideas from acts like Death Cab For Cutie, Brand New and Deftones. One of their biggest inspirations, however, lies much closer to home: the sadly defunct Aereogramme. According to Sanaghan, the Glaswegian experimental rock outfit have "probably influenced the sound of the band more than anyone else."

That lions.chase.tigers should pay homage to groundbreaking local acts is hardly a surprise. The band have been playing alongside the likes of I See Shapes, Cryoverbillonaires and There Will Be Fireworks since they first took to the stage over a year and a half ago and have already established firm friendships across the Glasgow scene:

"We all seem to have the same work ethic, write good songs, play hard and we all strive to help one another too," says Sanaghan. "It would be amazing to see these bands recognised a bit further afield."

Play: To Their Blood


The band recently recorded a track with Idlewild bassist Gareth Russell and plan to release an EP by the end of the summer, but for now, one thing features strongly in lions.chase.tigers' immediate plans: "Lots and lots of shows," enthuses Sanaghan. "We'll be looking to play as much as possible over the summer. Any time out we have we'll be using to record another couple of tracks."

Words: Jodi Mullen

lions.chase.tigers play live at Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow on 30 May and Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh on 4 June

lions.chase.tigers PicturesMemories Live @ The Mill from Fraser Sanaghan on Vimeo.

Who would win: A lion or a tiger? Let us know below....