Bloody hell, what with all this nice weather we're having I damn there nearly forgot to post up this weeks cover version. I guess that being woken up 5:30am by an overly excited child might have something to do with that, as great as this weather is, it really is a pain in the tits for us as my daughter wants to play at an hour which I last saw back in my clubbing days. Although it sounds like I am moaning I must admit that I have had a pretty cracking day chilling out in the park, then meeting up with the latest addition to the Olive Grove family, the State Broadcasters. This evening has been especially ace as we had our first barbecue of the the year which was sound tracked by a Welsh band called the School, that I was recently introduced to by a friend from Japan. Yep, that's me getting introduced to a band from Wales by a man who lives on the other side of the world - don't you just love the Internet! Anyway, the reason I am going with this cover version is that the School sound isn't a million miles away from our very own Camera Obscura. For that reason alone I thought it would be a good excuse to post Camera Obscura's cover of the Sheena Easton song 'Modern Girl'. Fuck me, that was a hell of a lot of rambling, sorry.
GoldFlakePaint
One of my favourite non-Scottish blogs, GoldFlakePaint celebrated their second birthday last week. To mark the occasion they have compiled a cracking wee compilation album featuring some of their favourite artists. Released on limited edition CD and as a free download, the compilation features tracks from some cracking artists, including a few Scottish acts such as PAWS, Sparrow & The Workshop and Loch Awe. You can download the album for free via Bandcamp, also while you're at it check out GoldFlakePaint's site as it comes highly recommended.
Part-Time Waitress
That Jill from Sparrow & The Workshop certainly has knack of cropping on exciting new musical projects. Not only does she front one of the best bands in Scotland, she also appears on the excellent forthcoming from the Grand Gestures. As if that wasn't enough she's recorded a song with mysterious outfit by the name of Part Time Waitress. I'm pretty confident that some of the boys from John Knox Sex Club are involved in the project, but so far I haven't been able to find anything on the web to confirm my suspicions. All you need to know is that there is a whole host of free tunes up for grabs in exchange for tweet here.
FatCat
If you head on over to the FatCat homepage you will find yourself a whole heap of free MP3 goodness, including tracks from U.S. Girls, Milk Maid, PAWS, Hauschka and Odonis Odonis. Thanks to The Beautiful Lies for the tip off - much appreciated gents!
Cleavers
Elgin's noisiest sons, Cleavers, are giving away 3 songs as a free download on their Bandcamp page. If you're going to be at this years goNorth, then you catch the boys at Detour's Offical Showcase gig on the Thursday alongside Olympic Swimmers, Lady North and DARC.
The Last Battle
Ahead of the release of their new single, Hope Is Gold, Edinburgh outfit The Last Battle have posted up a free download of a home recorded demo version of their song 'Viv Nicholson', which featured on last years The Springwell E.P. You can catch them playing live at Pilrig St Paul's Church in Edinburgh on the 22nd of June with support from the 'mysterious' William Henry Miller, Star Wheel Press and Where We Lay Our Heads.
Gaz Coombes
This is the first that I have heard of former Supergrass frontman, Gaz Coombes solo material and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. Whether I'll ever find the time to listen to his album, Here Come The Bombs, I don't know, the one thing I do know is that Sub Divider which is taken from it, is a cracking wee tune and it's also free to download via Amazon.
Wolves Of Winter
I have to admit that Wolves Of Winter debut single, The Art of Temptation, didn't do all that much for me, but their new single The Thaw might just make me change my mind about them. The only downside is that they've just released a dark wintery song in the middle of the week that is our summer. You can download The Thaw for free from Bandcamp.
The Little Mill of Happiness
Up and coming Invernesian outfit, The Little Mill of Happiness, are giving away an exclusive unreleased track to anyone who signs up to their mailing list. With a promise not to spam you unless it's to let you know about gigs and other free downloads that they have to offer you can hardly say no. Fans of Tom Waits, Joy Division and Dinosaur Jnr might want to take note.
Saint Max
I don't half post some downbeat tunes at times, I'm not such a misery guts in real life, honest. I do like a good up beat tune that makes me want to dance (who doesn't). If you're looking for a great wee pop tune to soundtrack this sunny weather we're enjoying, then look no further than Saint Max. There's everything from 60's pop to a bit of ska going on in their track A Life Worth Living, which is free to download on SoundCloud.
Thank You So Nice
In case you missed Boab's 62 Word Review yesterday, you should check out his review of the new EP from Edinburgh outift, Thank You So Nice. If you want to know what they sound like then you can either read his review, or you can just stream the EP on their Bandcamp page, or you could do both. Yes, that would make the most sense. Shit. I am rambling again, that's what being woken up at half five does to me...
Poor Things
Perth indie-popsters Poor Things have another free demo up for grabs on their SoundCloud page, it's full of lo-fi goodness so get downloading if you know what's good for you.
Betatone Distraction
Fresh from being hand picked to support Graham Coxon at his recent Glasgow show, Betatone Distraction have decided to make their Process Replaces Content EP free to download. If you like what you hear then you can catch them live tomorrow night at Pivo Pivo in Glasgow.
This single from
forthcoming album Gradients isn't something I'd normally go out my
way to listen to but I'm very glad it dropped into my inbox. Although
it has that typical current guitar-pop sound (think Fatherson),
there's plenty here to love. There are tight harmonies and tidy
guitar lines, quiet bits and loud bits, pumping bass and an anthemic
chorus. Thoroughly enjoyable.
This type of dark
country-punk doesn't so much for me at all. It's fairly drab,
standard stuff really and, although there's a nice atmospheric vocal
sound throughout, it lacks originality both musically and lyrically.
There's very little to set it apart from the pub-band crowd. A real
shame, because some of their earlier output (Silver & Gold for
example) was very good.
Despite having the
worst band name in Edinburgh, the new single from these guys is good,
if initially a little confusing to the ear. Tied up in ropes of
driven guitar and thick bass, there's a twee monster trying to break
out. You could say it's the pop tune Dear Catastrophe Waitress-era
Belle and Sebastian would've written had they owned distortion
pedals.
We're Aggi Doom, and more personally, Claudia Nova, Scott Caruth, Joan Sweeney and Hillary Van Scoy.
How would you describe the music you make?
We're mostly new to our instruments, apart from Hillary who almost entirely spent her teenage years playing guitar in her bedroom. That probably informs a lot of the way we sound, it can be quite primitive and minimal but then we'll layer it up melodically on top.
We do listen to a lot of the bands that people have compared us to like Dolly Mixture, Kleenex or Grass Widow, but we never made sounding like anyone our priority, any similarity is pretty accidental. They're great bands but they're also noted "female" bands and it would be a shame to have ours and their music judged solely in terms of gender because that's not the whole story. We're always sharing music that we find with each other. Some people have commented on how different the A and B sides of our single are and maybe that's a reflection of that; we wouldn't want every song we made to sound like it came from exactly the same place.
How did you start out making music?
Joan: When me, Claudia and Scott were making some stage pieces for a club night we realised we really wanted to do the same sort of thing and were wanting to try out playing different instruments from each other. Hillary and me used to live together and wanted to play together for a while, but had been a bit too involved in other groups and things. It also seemed like a good idea to have someone who knew what they were doing on at least one of the instruments, plus we all had a really instant friendship so it went from there.
What process goes into the way you write songs?
Claudia: We tend to start off by improvising and then responding to something that one of us is playing. We focus on a musical phrase or beat that stands out and we build the song from that point. Usually I'll go away with a recording of the music and write some lyrics to fit it. I have a notebook full of disjointed phrases that I pull out if I'm stuck for inspiration. Sometimes one of the other band members has bits of lyrics too and we give each other suggestions as we go along. Each of us have input in pretty much every aspect of the songwriting.
What can people expect from your live shows?
We can be pretty shambolic sounding cos we're new, but we don't mind. The look of a show differs quite a lot depending on the occasion, we could be under acid clouds by volcanos in Ancient Aliens-style get-up or relaxing in our day clothes.
What are you all listening to at the moment?
Joan: I tend to get obsessed with a few songs on a loop moving in rotation. At the moment I'm mostly obsessed with Absolute Beginners/Bowie, Loner With A Boner/Black Randy and Dream/Minny Pops. The new French Kissing single Wild Woman just arrived in the post and I can see that becoming part of my loop soon.
Claudia: I'm the same. Lately I've just been listening to 'Blue Hotel' by Chris Isaak on repeat.
Joan: Do you need a hug?
Scott: I also tend to listen to one thing to death at a time which at the moment is Tears for Fears and Optimo's Fabric Live mix.
Hillary: I got perpetually locked into Thee Oh Sees' "The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In" cos I finally got it about 4 months ago and have been listening to it on the road (Hillary is currently touring in America with Phat Trophies) - same with IAMX's Volatile Times; I have a little musical crush on Chris Corner... I also re-fell in love with Title TK by the Breeders recently- the songs are all so sporadically weird and kind of sweet; they're in my head quite a lot at odd moments...
What can we expect to see/hear from you in the future?
Single first (which is out on Soft Power, 28th May), then we're putting out a split tape with our friends Palms and hoping to do a little tour with them in August. We're pretty excited to get out of Glasgow for a while, not that we don't love it. I think after that we might try and just write more, practise more and maybe punt our songs around and see if anyone wants them.
This week I have decided to plump for three Scottish artists that you can catch at today's Stag & Dagger Festival which is taking place across various venues in Glasgow. Showcasing a wealth of local talent alongside an array of touring acts, it looks like it could be a cracking day out. Personally I am not going as I'd already arranged to meet friends to watch the Champions League Final, but hey if you are going make sure you check out Miaoux Miaoux and Adam Stafford, they're both braw!
Happy Particles
Having made it down to the final ten in this years SAY Awards, Happy Particles have decided to give us a wee teaser as to how the follow up record might sounds. They've posted up a free download of the very first demo from the new record that they are just beginning to write, called 'Far Enough Inside'. If this is an indicator of what is to come, then I am sold.
CHURCHES
The prize for the hottest new band in Scotland this week goes to 'mysterious' Glasgow outfit CHURCHES (they even have the hipster friendly band name in capitals thing going on). The band who comprise of two boys and a girl caused a bit of a stooshie recently with the release of their debut single "Lies", which was made available as an exclusive download over on the Neon Gold blog. Rumour has it that the 3 piece are comprised of Iain Cook from The Unwinding Hours, Lauren from Blue Sky Archives and Doc from The Twilight Sad, but hey that could just be speculation (i.e. it is them). All you need to know is that 'Lies' is a cracking wee tune and you can download it for nowt here.
Jesus H Foxx
It's been that long since we last heard anything from Jesus H Foxx, that I had presumed they'd given up the ghost. Way back in 2009, the Edinburgh outfit released their Matter EP on Song, by Toad Records and then they disappeared off to record their debut album. Finally after all this time, Scotland's answer to Guns n Roses 'Chinese Democracy' finally sees the light of day later this month. To get us all in the mood and to remind us that they still exist, Mr Toad has posted up their single, 'So Much Water' for free download. If this tune is anything to go by, then the wait will have been worth it.
Kowalskiy's Free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP
There are certain things in life that just make things better, listening to your favourite records, getting a lie in after having a few too many shandies the night before (this rarely happens with me anymore) and to that pile I would like to add Kowalskiy's series of free monthly EP's. Not only does he make my job a hell of a lot easier when it comes to writing these Friday Freebies posts, but he's also introduced me to a lot of music that a lot of the rest of the Scottish blogosphere seems to overlook. Take for example his most recent EP (#23 no less), in which he's roped in an array of great music, which includes Northern Alliance, Fiction Faction, Letters, Foxhunting and The Beautiful Lies. There are a few bands in there that I have to admit I had never heard of until now, sterling work as always that man. You can read a bit more about all of the bands over on his blog, then download the EP from his Bandcamp page.
Wherehumanseat
Fans of Yahweh and Boards of Canada take note, Wherehumanseat might be right up your street. With whole heap of music available for free download on his Bandcamp page, this Glasgow artist is certainly someone I will be keeping my out for in the future.
Poor Things
Perth's finest sons, Poor Things have posted up a couple of demos for free download on their SoundCloud page.
Drunk Mule
Some of you might remember the days of Kowalskiy's Komplimentary Korner, every week my blogger friend used to give me a tip for the latest freebie he'd stumbled across that week. Now he's got his EP series to keep him busy. Nowadays though, it feels as if I should be allocating the Drunk Mule boys their own weekly slot as they continue to churn out cracking wee tunes that they give away for free. This week is no different as they're giving away another brand new song called "Whisky Breath" for free on their Bandcamp page.
