The MPT Inquisition 3 – Saint Jude’s Infirmary

Grant and Mark from Saint Jude’s Infirmary feature in the last profile ahead of Sunday’s gig at the Westport in Dundee.

Q – If people don’t know you, what can they expect from the gig?

We are from Edinburgh and play slow and brutal poetry. The songs are of sad eyed remorse sung by throats cried hoarse. The girls sing sweet, the boys sing coarse, the girls weave honey, the boys pick sores.

Q – What’s happening with the band just now?

Mark: After a tortuous and seemingly endless wait, we’ve just released our second album. We’re taking a big collective sigh of relief, and rounding the year off with gigs in Liverpool, Dundee and Edinburgh.

Q – How would you describe the difference between the new LP and the first one?

Grant: If the first album was us caught on a train platform desperately trying to convince a lover to stay, then the second album is us trying to write the great Scottish novel in 5 chords and a wall of reverb, or else die trying.  We wanted a record that would  be as Scottish and as poetic as Rabbie Burns, Hugh McDiarmid or Kenny Dalglish.

We want each song to sound like a silver bullet in the revolver of the album. Bang! Bang! Bang!  It’s art and poetry and hope and dreams drilled and filled into deadly munition.  We have built a gun to hold to our head and are daring the world to shout fire.

Q – What’s your history with Dundee like?

Mark: We’ve played Dundee a few times, but not enough, or particularly recently. We’re always bowled over by the reception we get from Dundee crowds though, they’re always fair and knowledgeable.

Q – Favourite Saint Jude’s gig this year and why?

Grant: The album launch at the Scottish National portrait gallery was probably the best, the relief of the album finally being out and the playing in a beautiful and odd space.  It felt like playing football in a cathedral.  Wrong but great fun.

Q – What records are you listening to at the moment?

Grant: The XX album, The Fall (always the Fall!), Withered Hand.

Q – What’s the best gig you’ve been to see this year and why?

Grant: We supported two great Icelandic bands Benni Hemm Hemm and Hjaltalin.  That was a brilliant night to discover two great new bands.

Sunday’s gig at the Westport (doors at 7.30pm, first band on stage at 7.45pm, so don’t be late!) also features Kid Canaveral, Panda Su and Hookers for Jesus. Tickets priced £5 are available from Groucho’s in Dundee and from Ticketweb. Advance purchasers get a limited edition EP.

You will be able to get ‘This Has Been The Death of Us” at the show.

The MPT Inquisition – Panda Su

MPT asks the questions, Panda Su supplies the answers.

Q – If people don’t know you, what can they expect from the gig?

Hopefully, an unforgettable experience & a compelling urge to purchase one of our EP’s. Expect xylophone solo’s, songs about the alphabet and bear-shaped liquorice.

Q – What’s happening with the band just now?

Just released our ‘Sticks and Bricks’ EP. We’ve got a handful of gigs left to play out in 2009 & then we’re planning a UK tour early next year. Fingers crossed for a European tour at some point too.

Q – What’s your history with Dundee like?

I’ve been playing gigs in Dundee for ages. I was in a heavy metal band when I was younger and we used to play the (old) Westport regularly. I’ve not played the new Westport though, so I’m looking forward to Sunday.

Q – Favourite PS gig this year and why?

Our Sticks and Bricks EP launch at Drouthy Neebors in Dundee. It was a bit special. We also played the Fence Collective’s Homegame this year, in the loft of the Fisheries Museum. We had some friends join in on stage too.

Q – What records are you listening to at the moment

Volcano Choir, Francois and the Atlas Mountains, Bon Iver, and Yahweh.

Q – What’s the best non PS gig you’ve seen this year and why?

Bon Iver at Green Man. My brother had wandered off to watch another band and I was left standing in the middle of thousands of people on my own. It started to rain and then the band came on and played one of the most beautiful shows I’ve ever seen.

Sunday’s gig at the Westport (doors at 7.30pm, first band on stage at 7.45pm, so don’t be late!) also features Saint Jude’s Infirmary, Kid Canaveral and Hookers for Jesus. Tickets priced £5 are available from Groucho’s in Dundee and from Ticketweb. Advance purchasers get a limited edition EP.

You will be able to get ‘Sticks and Bricks’ at the show or if you can’t wait, then you can get it online from Su’s Myspace.

The MPT Inquisition – Kid Canaveral

David, Kate and Rose, Kid Canaveral

Ahead of Sunday night’s gig at the Westport in Dundee, Kate from  Kid Canaveral is the first to respond to the MPT Inquisition:

Q – If people don’t know you, what can they expect from the gig?

KC – We try and put on an energetic show full of pop tunes.

Q – What’s happening with the band just now?

KC – We’re currently in the process of finishing our first album. It’s in the final stages now and we’re hoping to get all the recording done by the end of next month. It’ll be released towards the end of April or the start of May, we’re toying with a couple of dates. We’ve just come back from touring our EP (‘Left and Right’) that we released in October. We played a string of shows through England and Wales.

Q – What’s your history with Dundee like?

KC – We haven’t played in Dundee for a long time. The last gig we played was terribly oganised and a bit of a shambles. So we’re looking to make up for it.

Q – Favourite KC gig this year and why?

KC – The EP launch at The Bowery in Edinburgh. We’ve spent most of 2009 writing, recording and bringing our new drummer, Scott, up to speed, so it was great to see people hadn’t forgotten about us, which we took the packed venue to indicate.

Q – What records are you listening to at the moment?

KC – The new Twilght Sad, Trashcan Sinatras, FOUND, Magic Arm, Aereogramme, Rozi Plain, Lord Cut Glass, Sweet Baboo, Cancel The Astronauts were all on the stereo or sliding about in the “listen pile” on the dashboard of our van.

Q – What’s the best non KC gig you’ve seen this year and why?

KC – Kate saw Blur at Goldsmith’s College. The sweatiest show I’ve ever been to. I never thought I’d get to see Blur with Graham so it was a bit of a dream gig. They were completely amazing – and all looked really happy as well.

Sunday’s gig at the Westport (doors at 7.30pm, first band on stage at 7.45pm, so don’t be late!) also features Saint Jude’s Infirmary, Panda Su and Hookers for Jesus. Tickets priced £5 are available from Groucho’s in Dundee and from Ticketweb. Advance purchasers get a limited edition EP.

Download Kid Canveral’s ‘Left and Right’ EP  here.

Chemikal Outing

The Phantom Band

Last night’s Chemikal Underground showcase in Aberdeen proved to be a wonderful evening’s entertainment. Given that neither Lord Cut-glass nor Zoey van Goey were performing it says a lot about the label’s rosta.

First up was ex-De Rosa main man Martin John Henry. This was the first time I’d seen Martin perform since the band’s demise and although afterwards he was a little bit self critical it wasn’t obvious why that should be the case from the front of the stage. The set was a mixture of De Rosa tunes, new solo numbers and his ‘Army Dreamers’ cover.

Unlike the Dunfermline acoustic performance, Martin played with an electric guitar and even some laptop backing on a couple of newer solo songs. Unfortunately the laptop didn’t want to play ‘Span’, the most ambitious of the MJH solo demoes to date but we did get a solo ‘Love Economy’ instead. The use of backing suggests that Martin is wanting to make a bigger noise on stage so it will be interesting where he takes this in the New Year.

Martin played:

1. Cathkin Braes  2. New Lanark  3. Pest  4. Army Dreamers  5. I Love Map  6. Only Colour  7. A Love Economy

Martin John Henry

I wasn’t sure quite what to expect from Aidan Moffat, but it’s fair to say I wasn’t expecting a discussion on quantum mechanics. But we got that as an introduction to the highlight of his set a love song about Multiverses.

At times I got the impression that some of the tunes are a bit slight musically but his force of personality, really important in the solo context, carried the day. Roaming from stand-up to spoken word via a variety of unusual instruments it was a brilliantly entertaining 40 minutes or so.

Aidan played quite a lot of songs including  ‘Oh Men!’, new single ‘Knock On The Wall of Your Womb’, ‘Double Justice’, a Cyndi Lauper cover ‘Money Changes Everything’, and ‘The Lavender Blue Dress’ .

Aidan Moffat

Another revelation, Emma Pollock wishes she sounds more like Lemmy. No seriously! Emma was the first artist backed by a band and she successfully mixed songs from her forthcoming album (on Chemikal) with highlights from her debut LP ‘Watch The Fireworks’.

The mix worked more successfully than her downbeat Homegame set which had been dominated by the newer songs. Which isn’t to undermine the quality of the new songs in any way. In fact the highlight was probably her solo rendition of new tune, ‘The Child In Me’, a song I had only heard the once before in Anstruther, yet it already sounds like a classic.

But the WTF material fared very well giving the whole thing a nice up tempo feel although the best of this bunch may well have been a version of ‘Limbs’ backed only by Jamie on piano.

Emma played:

1. New Land  2. If  Silence Means That Much  3. Adrenaline  4. I Would Be A Saint  5. Red, Orange, Green 6. Hug The Harbour  7. Fortune  8. Limbs  9. The Child In Me  10. New untitled  11. Paper & Glue  12. The Optimist

(Despite repeated requests) Emma didn’t play ‘Ace  of  Spades’.

Emma Pollock

I’ll be honest, partly because I’ll see them supporting Frightened Rabbit in a couple of weeks, and partly because bits of the album don’t do much for me I wasn’t too excited about seeing the Phantom Band again. Big mistake.

For whatever reason, this was far and away the best gig I’ve seen them play. The first half of the set was simply stunning – a brilliant ‘Throwing Bones’ and a thunderous ‘Crocodile’ were the highlights as was The New Song. ‘Island’ though saw the intensity drop off a bit and ‘The Howling’ suffered a little in its wake But they managed to pick things up again after that and set closer ‘The Whole In My Side’, a song I’ve never really taken to on record was immense.

An encore of ‘Half Hound’ and they were done and I’m now really looking forward to the FR gig.

The Phantom Band

The Phantom Band played:

1. Throwing Bones  2. Burial Sounds  3. Folk Song Oblivion  4. Crocodile  5. The New Song  6. Island  7. The Howling  8. Left Hand Wave  9. The Whole Is On My Side

Encore
10. Halfhound

With Stewart Henderson giving way the Chem087 CD + DVD package on the way out, it was a great night. Roll on the next one.

I Might Just Get Lost This Way Again

Kid Canaveral’s new EP ‘Left and Right’ bears all the hallmarks of their run of excellent singles to date. On one listen you may be prepared to dismiss it as ‘ok’ but give it a second chance and the tune will squat in your head and simply refuse to leave.

For ‘Left & Right’ is another brilliant, infectious guitar pop song from a band who seem to increasingly dispense such tunes with ridiculous ease.

Where ‘Left and Right’ differs from previous releases is that the other tracks on the EP are stylistic departures from their previous material. ‘Stretching The Line’ is a much more contemplative number with electronic percussion whilst ‘Long In The Tooth’ is effectively an Arab Strap tribute with very Aidan Moffat like spoken vocals set against a gorgeous melody with strings and vocals.

‘Left and Right’ is the latest release to pursue the current bizarre fad for cassette singles, although thankfully it is also available on download (and that’s not something I say often!) If you want the cassette though you’ll have to get along to one of their gigs, including their appearance at the Manic Pop Thrills presents event on Sunday 29th November at the Westport Bar, Dundee when Kid Canaveral will be playing with Saint Jude’s Infirmary, Panda Su and Hookers for Jesus

Tickets for the event can be purchased online here or in Groucho’s whilst you can download the EP here.

What’s Hot (and What’s Not)

Being adventurous in purchasing new music is sometimes easier said than done. Sometimes I find it difficult to spend my emusic credits on new stuff. (And then find it even harder to listen to anything I do download!).

A new site though could be a way of sorting some of the wheat from the emusic chaff.

Any Decent Music? is kind of an aggregator of music reviews, created by a team including  Ally from TV21. Individual reviews are rounded up, summarised and, perhaps the USP of the site, rated out of 10. Yep, even the ones without numerical ratings are awarded a value and included, although the creators are at pains to point out that this aspect is done by real humans rather than web-bots. And of course there are links to the reviews, song snippets and You Tube tunes.

What emerges is some sort of critical consensus on the hottest LPs around. Given that my Christmas music spend often has some relation to end of year charts, then ADM? seems like a good way of flagging up possible avenues for investigation on a more regular basis.

Now the site as it stands isn’t going to throw much light on, say the current Scottish underground scene, nor on more obscure artists. To illustrate this, my favourite three records of the year are under- represented. Only De Rosa’s ‘Prevention’ gets a mention whilst Lord Cut-glass and Lucas Renney don’t appear at all.

Nonetheless it has to be said that the site appeals to the musical geek in me and I can easily imagine myself losing hours and hours in here. In fact I’ve already started.

Have a look here and see what you think.