Inhuman Monster

This seems like ancient history now but when I finished Neal Stephenson’s ‘Anathem’ I was desperate to find something at least comparable in terms of scope and ambition. I settled on Dan Simmonds’ ‘Drood’. Simmons is best known for his hard sci-fi novels but in recent years he has shifted towards historical fiction, albeit with…

The Return of … Throwing Muses

Here’s something more than a little momentous. Something worth shouting about. Throwing Muses are coming back. Although they have never officially split, the band has been largely inactive over the last 15 years. The band were first mothballed after the ‘Limbo’ LP not for musical but for economic reasons. There were sporadic shows after this…

Gentlemen Don’t Get Caught

I don’t do this all that often so I hope you’ll forgive me if I go all stadium on you. In truth there’s really only one stadium band left which interests me and that’s R.E.M.. I was aware of their recent live LP without having taken in much of the detail. Accordingly, given that it…

Thermal Socks

The Wildhouse Gong Fei / The Dirty Cuts / The Wildhouse – Drouthy Neeburs, Dundee – Saturday 16th January You never quite know what you’re going to get with the Wildhouse – the first time I saw them they effectively played their pop set, whilst the last time they effectively deconstructed the songs and put…

Over My Shoulder

I should have mentioned this ages ago but Lloyd from fellow Scottish blog Peenko orchestrated a poll of (mainly) Scottish bloggers on their record of the year. The final results were: 1. The Phantom Band – Checkmate Savage (5) 2. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion (-) 3. De Rosa – Prevention (1) 4. King…

The Podcasts Are Back

Having finally given up on Fileden, I’ve finally put the MP3s of the two podcasts last year back up. The first podcast, in January 2009 featured Martin Henry from De Rosa (get it here) and the second in May of last year Norman and Ally from TV21 (get it here). I’m hoping to do a…