Radar recommends: 6 - 12 Feb

[The Low Miffs: appearing in Stereo-sound on Thursday]

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

The best...

Live at the Beach
Saturday @ The Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen / 7.30pm / £7.50
Some of Aberdeen's brightest bands play a rare live music night at the famous Beach Ballroom: The Little Kicks, Indian Red Lopez, Cast of the Capital and The Underkills.

Louise McVey and Cracks in the Concrete, Hitlist Youth, Skinny Villains
Saturday @ 13th Note / 9pm / £tbc
The gorgeous, gothic voice of Louise McVey has already turned our heads here at UtR, and Saturday night at the Note is definitely one to watch.

Sisqo
Tuesday @ Fat Sam's, Dundee / 10.30pm / £7-£10
Sorry, but the prospect of the man behind 'The Thong Song' coming to play Dundee just seemed too good to pass over.

Beach House, Lawrence Arabia, Washington Irving
Wednesday @ King Tut’s / £9 / 8.30pm
Baltimore duo Beach House are the new indie darlings, although their watercolour dream pop stylings won't appeal to everyone. Get there early for Washington Irving too.

The Low Miffs, Hidden Masters, Foxgang
Thursday @ Stereo / 7pm / £1
In troubled economic times, you’ll struggle to find a better-value line-up than Ten Tracks’ monthly night at Stereo. Three top-notch bands plus a ten-track download compilation (this month from Hijack), for the princely sum of £1 – bargain!

The Leith Tape Club
Thursday @ The ISO Lounge, Leith / 8.15pm / £tbc
Space is always limited at this low-key monthly night, but this instalment - with eagleowl, Hailey Beavis and The Stormy Seas - is the last until May, so it could well be packed to the rafters.

Limbo: Found, Three Blind Wolves, Over The Wall
Friday @ Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh / 8.30pm - 1.30am / £tbc
A three-pronged prognosis of the state of new music in Scotland, with local favourites Found and the Glasgow pairing of Three Blind Wolves and the infectious Over the Wall.

The Late Call, The Last Battle, Emily Scott
Friday @ Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh / 7pm / £5
The Late Call is Stockholm troubador Johannes Mayer, supported on this date by Edinburgh regulars The Last Battle and Emily Scott, who we profiled last year.


The rest...



Words: Lisa-Marie Ferla, Nick Mitchell

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

Radar recommends: 5 - 11 Dec

[eagleowl: swopping down on The Bowery on Friday]

We edge ever closer to Christmas party season this week. But if you want to purge all thoughts of 70s glam rockers with mirrored hats and 80s woolly jumpered, mullet-headed warblers for the time being, you may want to head down to one of the following recommended gigs...

Aberdeen
Steve Earle
Tuesday @ Music Hall / 7.30pm / £22.50
The bearded US singer-songwriter and spiritual counsellor from The Wire tours his latest album, Townes.
Also playing Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow on Sunday and The Ironworks, Inverness on Thursday

Edinburgh
Sebastian Dangerfield, Washington Irving, We Were Promised Jetpacks (solo)
Saturday @ The Bowery / 7.30pm / £5
Edinburgh indie quartet with support from recent blog stars Washington Irving and Adam from the Jetpacks.

The Last Battle
Saturday @ Carters Bar / 9.30pm / Free
The Edinburgh band launch their Christmas single, Once Upon a Boxing Day.

Schwervon!, Withered Hand, The Pineapple Chunks, Les Enfant Bastard
Saturday @ Henry's Cellar Bar / 7pm / £5
The cream of New York anti-folk is joined by the cream of Edinburgh anti-folk for this intimate night of, er, anti-folk.

Tubelord, Trapped in Kansas
Monday @ Sneaky Pete's / 7pm / £6
Tubelord trade in high voltage fight-pop, while Trapped in Kansas are quite simply one of our favourite new bands of the year.

Deerhoof
Tuesday @ The Bongo Club / 7pm / £12.50
Change of venue, which means now you'll be able to get even closer to the deranged noise emanating from the San Fran band's amps.

Benni Hemm Hemm, Alasdair Roberts, Wounded Knee
Wednesday @ St Mark's Unitarian Church / 7.30pm / Donation
Icelandic troubadour Mr Hemm Hemm leads the musical prayers at this unusual church gig, with excellent support/collaborations.

Broken Records
Wednesday @ Cabaret Voltaire / 7pm / £7
Everyone's favourite Edinburgh-based klezmer-tinged seven-piece play their own homecoming (with a small 'h') show.

The Mars Volta
Wednesday @ HMV Picture House / 7pm / £17.50
You can excuse the odd ten-minute guitar freakout if Cedric Bixler-Zavala still manages to do a handstand while bending his versatile vocals around their bizarre subject matter.

The Banana Sessions, Small Feet Little Toes, Freemore
Thursday @ The Bowery / 7pm / £5
We first encountered The Banana Sessions playing covers on the Glasgow-Edinburgh train one night. Now they're playing proper shows and they shouldn't be missed.

**UtR's gig of the week**
eagleowl, Withered Hand, Jill O'Sullivan
Friday @ The Bowery / 7.30pm / £5
The much admired Edinburgh collective eagleowl launch their kinda-Christmas-kinda-not single Sleep the Winter. Read our interview with Bart Owl a bit further down the page.

Glasgow
Vic Godard and the Subway Sect, The Sexual Objects
Saturday @ Stereo / 8pm / £10
Punk pioneer Vic (he was supporting The Clash in '77) celebrates the 15th anniversary of the Creeping Bent label at this Sounds in the Suburbs night.

Brother Louis Collective
Sunday @ Bloc / 8pm / Free
UtR-tipped six-piece with heart-felt, sweet folky numbers are at Bloc tonight.

Sunn 0)))
Sunday @ Stereo / 7.30pm / £15
Every bearded-chin-stroking muso-boy in Glasgow will be having their very cores vibrated by the US doom merchants with their grimm robes and reaaalllyyy loooonnng, REALLY LOUD notes.

The Gothenburg Address, Loss Leader, The Bucky Rage, Aidan Moffat (DJ set)
Monday @ Mono / 8pm / £5
Band who include sometime Arab Strap and Zephyrs members and make beautiful shoegazy-style instrumental tunes launch their debut album with help from one-man gloom extravaganza Loss Leader.

Ensemble Thing
Wednesday @ 13th Note Cafe / 9pm / £4
Lots of talented folk from a bunch of other Glasgow bands/orchestras get together and make lovely, “post minimalist” music.

Malcolm Middleton's Long Dark Night
Thursday @ Oran Mor / 7pm / £14.50
Get your festive celebrations off to a cheery start with Mr Middleton's intimate show of wintry acoustic songs “about love, hate, death and other stuff”, plus a solo support slot from his former Arab Strap bandmate.

Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers
Thursday @ King Tuts / 7.30pm / FREE
Woodenbox do a sneaky wee acoustic gig in the bar at King Tuts – and won't even make a dent in your Christmas present fund... unless you want to partake in the accompanying supper.

Nuts and Seeds: Box Elders, Goldern Grrrls, Mazes, Water Wolves
Thursday @ CCA / 8.30pm / £4
A transatlantic mix of bands as Nebraska brothers Clayton and Jeremiah McIntyre head up this Nuts and Seeds night along with experimental noisy Glasgow trio Golden Grrrls.

Any Color Black, Less Than Sober
Friday @ Stereo / 7pm / £6
I'll forgive that whole 'American spelling thing of coloUr' thing because this fun electro-rock duo make me want to dance.

Edwyn Collins, 1990s, The Low Miffs
Friday @ ABC / 7pm / £18
The Orange Juice man has made a significant return from illness in the past two years so fans shouldn't miss this rare show – along with two bands indebted to the Postcard records legacy.

Words: Elaine Liddle, Nick Mitchell

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

On the radar: Washington Irving

Play: The Magician


Play: It Creeps


It makes sense for us to be talking about Washington Irving.

Not only is their name being bandied about Glasgow town, a number of them are in bands we’ve covered recently (My Cousin I Bid You Farewell and The John Knox Sex Club), and to top it all they make music in the vein of some of Scotland’s best and most successful indie-pop exporters.

Think Belle and Sebastian or Camera Obscura: simple yet poignant lyrics, sung in a broad Scottish accent, that sit nicely over the accompanying plucky guitars and flute trills.

Alongside the usual staples they have a unique mix of instrumentation that includes the singing saw, piccolo, mandolin and a mixture of melodicas, maracas and a bouzouki, which is a traditional, pear-shaped, stringed, Greek instrument (thanks Wikipedia).

But far from rendering them obscure or difficult, this folk sound is commercial enough to make a mainstream crossover seem tangible, as drummer, Chris McGarry, explains:

“We’re more influenced by Scottish and Irish folk than American folk. Our songs lend themselves well to an energetic drunken hootenanny. Crowds have recently started flailing around frantically at our gigs. At the single launch of 'The Magician', Joe's (the singer) mum was almost crushed by a bunch of rowdy shinty players!”

When they’re not playing host to potential parental murder the band have found time to record and release some of their material, recently working with Marcus Mackay, who put the first Frightened Rabbit album to tape.

“We also want to get lots of new songs into the set and onto record,” McGarry says.

“We recorded a single with Marcus earlier in the year. He's just built a new studio, the Diving Bell #2, which we went to visit the other week. Hopefully we'll be recording there soon.

“We also plan to play more gigs outside of Glasgow, go back to Inverness, Edinburgh and Aberdeen soon. Tours hopefully, up and down the country, coast to coast, nationwide."

So there you have it. Now you get talking about them too.

Words: Aimi Gold

Want to see Washington Irving live with your own eyes?
Go to The Mill at Oran Mor on 19 Nov and you'll see them with Anna Meldrum - tickets are free, text MILL44K to 82500 to claim a couple. Or see them acoustic with Jeremy Warmsley in Brel on 5 Nov. Lasty, they also play The Bowery in Edinburgh on 5 December with Sebastian Dangerfield and We Were Promised Jetpacks (acoustic solo).