Spinning Coin

Spinning Coin are a relatively new band from Glasgow made up of Cal Donnelly, Chris White, Jack Mellin and Sean Armstrong.

The 4-piece have just released Albany on 7-inch via The Pastel’s Geographic Records.

Spinning Coin have produced something that equally sounds like they really care about what they are doing and like they don’t give a f**k and are making music for no-one but themselves. That, at least for me, is usually a good place for a band or artist to be.

In a little over two-and-a-half minutes, Spinning Coin deliver a beautiful, raw gem. The guitars are gloriously scuzzy, fuzzy and soulful, the drums and cymbals keep things going and the vocals are pure, dreamy and true.

There are so many things I’ve never even considered

Stephen Pastel is always good for a quote and has said; ‘Albany reminds me most of a feeling I had at the end of the Boy Hairdressers and the beginning of Teenage Fanclub. There was never enough of that. Spinning Coin, so good.’

Sean Armstrong from the band was kind enough to answer a few questions I emailed over. Read on for a little more info and forthcoming live dates.

Spinning Coin - Interview

1. How did Spinning Coin form?

Spinning Coin formed and mutated from a band billed as 'the sean armstrong experience': a group formed to showcase the songs of one of our members within a bassment gig type scenario.

2. How quickly did you start to write/create songs/music? 

The band very quickly became a collaborative project creatively. We had some things we made up and would play on each other's songs and then we would meet in the middle sometimes.

3. You released some material though Fuzzkill Records who are becoming vital in helping bands develop. How did you get involved with them? 

We met Ross at music shows around Glasgow. We just sort of became friends i guess.

4. What other current bands from Glasgow do you like? 

breakfast muff, seconds, rapid tan, big boys' karaoke, hans greene, smack wizards, sharptooth (rip), anxiety, happy meals, antique pony, chump, in posterface, vital idles, leacher, mordwaffe, sick of talk, the modern institute, the yawns, psychic soviets, the pastels...to name a few. there are so many. glasgow is currently where the magic is at.

5. What kind of stuff are you listening to at present?

Stuff that focuses in on, attempts to explain or accentuates the grey areas in life and the cosmos: I (Sean) have been listening to a lot of friends' music. Also Kate Bush, some Subway Sect...Swell Maps.

6. You’ve just brought out your new single on Geographic/Domino. How much of a step up does that feel like?

Perhaps it feels like a step out rather than just a step up. What we have been doing up til now feels just as important, but it feels like this part of our journey will help us to reach a wider audience.

7. Stephen Pastel has been promoting and helping young bands for over 30-years, including the likes of Jesus and Marychain and Primal Scream. Has he given you any advice? 

Stephen's not really the sort to break out with big rules to live by, or with universal truisms...a calming and nurturing influence for sure. He told me to get a tuner pedal!

8. What’s next for Spinning Coin? Are you working towards an album?

Practice practice practice, with some experimentation thrown in, and some live appearances. We are looking forward to releasing our first album, and have 20 songs recorded, provisionally labeled as demos. For now we are preoccupied in building a rocket to launch ourselves into space.

9. Any shows coming up?

24th April - Glasgow, 13th Note

12th of May - Glasgow, The Poetry Club

13th May - Glasgow,13th Note Restless Natives Festival

14th May - Manchester, Fuel Cafe Bar

15th May - Brighton, Hope and Ruin (matinee gig)

16th May - London, New River Studios

17th May - Cardiff, Joy Collective

4th June - Inverness, Brew at the Bog Festival

25th June - Glasgow, CCA w/ Vic Godard and The Subway Sect

Fresh Blood

Big Inner by Matthew E. White was my album of the year in 2013, so I have been looking forward to his follow up. Thankfully I didn't have too long (in album terms) to wait.

Fresh Blood, released on White's own Spacebomb Records in conjunction with Domino, contains all the charms and delights offered on White's debut - the gorgeous dry delivery, exceptional arrangements, warm production and flowing melodies.

The album opens with Take Care My Baby with White in loving poetic form; the playing and production is beautifully warm, White's voice is soothing and welcoming, the melodies flowing, the Spacebomb house band gelling with ease, horns soaring, incredible percussion. It is brilliant stuff; no-one else (to my knowledge - please tell me if i am wrong) is creating music and melodies like this.

Oh the diamonds on the sea look like your eyes to me

Love will make the flowers grow

and blossom till its colours show

Baby I never met another one like you before

Talking all night long

From the midnight on

Rock n Roll Is Cold pours scorn on the current rock n roll scene while sounding like superb rock n roll with more than a dash of soul.

White referenced God and religion throughout Big Inner and Holy Moly sees him reference child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. The very subject injects a feeling of disgust and White ensures the listener is in no doubt about his own.

Holy moly, what's wrong with you.....

don't you ever give me false hope, don't you ever give a man false hope

F**k 'em all, love is home

Home is love, f**k 'em all

Almost to display his own faith, White follows with Circle 'Round the Sun; a gentle strum and shuffle that sounds like it could easily have been lifted off a Lennon or Harrison solo album.

So wrap your arms around me Jesus, like the circle 'round the sun

Hand in hand , do you know where we're going

Hand in hand, I'll go where you lead me

White's lyrics are often simple, yet the music and arrangements surrounding them are exquisite, lifting the song and allowing White's melodies to flow and he comes on all Marvin Gaye on Feeling Good Is Good Enough, especially on the line I feel like making it with my baby one last time leading to an extended outro - just listen to the drums!

Tranquility is aptly named, dreamy strings for the first half of the song before piercing electric guitar wakes the listener from the lullaby, before going all gentle dreamy again, dig deeper for the lyrics which were written following the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

White does love in simple form, but sometimes you don't need to say too much and Vision begins with the line nobody in this world is better than us, repeated for extra effect. After a few dreamy tunes White throws in a huge chorus.

Dry humour ushers in Love Is Deep along with acoustic guitars, a real Wall of Sound percussion, Stax horns and the kind of backing vocals that just get me every time - the kind that are a real important part of the song, harmonising, having their own sections.

Everybody ought to think twice baby

Cause love is deep

Cause love is deep shit

The song grows to flow beautifully with White referencing some of his musical heroes.

Matthew E. White plays Oran Mor on Tuesday 14th April. I intend to be there.

Honey by TeenCanteen

So my sisters band TeenCanteen release 'Honey' via Neu! Reekie Records this weekend. Only it's not a record, it is actually a cassette! Not just any old cassette but a delicious honey scented cassette!

Each tape comes wrapped in lino print on seeded paper which you can plant and when you do, a small patch of wildflowers will grow! A download link is thankfully included for those without cassette players.

On to the song...

'Honey' was recorded at the Old Mill Studios in Strathaven and is mixed by Bill Ryder-Jones, formerly of The Coral, now striking out on his own via Domino Records.

'Honey' is a beautiful song, a cross between a polished 60's girl group ballad mixed with the raw edge of punky Throwing Muses style guitar pop.

The melody and lyrics hooked me instantly (not that I'm biased or anything).

He is fun, like the sun, and he never complains

But I'm a mess, I confess, I am more like the rain

He is perfect like a cirlce

And a summer shade of purple

He's the crash of the wave, he makes me misbehave

He's the only one I want, so it pains me to say

That I'm a square trying to fit in a circle

And I am red when I want to be purple

........

The contrast between the slow and considered verses to the raw and fast flowing chorus that has a real sense of freedom is refreshing. There is even a good old fashioned false ending at one point.

We just talk about the weather

Not the fact that we're together

But he knows I'm so in love with him

That I'll stick around through thick and thin

Like honey

There are some glorious harmonies and the lyrics are heartfelt but with a sense of humour.

I look forward to hearing what TeenCanteen have to offer in the future.

Big Inner by Matthew E White

Where do I start with a blog/review for this remarkable record? If a better album is released in the UK this year then please, please do get in touch with me to make sure I hear it.

The album was released in America last year and slowly filtered through to the UK before finally being released on Domino at the end of January.

I've already become quite acquainted with it via YouTube and now I'm just pleased to own it. I've bought in on CD but it's one of these albums that I'll be buying on vinyl as well. It is just so gorgeous I want to have the LP.

How can I describe it? It is poetic, beautiful, hushed, thoughtful and the playing, singing and production is just outstanding.

'One Of These Days' opens the album. Man, it really doesn't matter what I write here. Just go and listen to it; White's hushed poetic vocals, a band that combine funk, gospel and jazz. This is uplifting music.

So much beauty fades so much soon

And I wanna lay right next to you

When our glory fades 

And I wanna be next to you

And never turn away

One of these days

'Big Love' funks things up, sounding like the Beta Band jamming with James Brown. White sounds so chilled, in complete command of the melodies and the music. The chorus slams in and takes things tribal - brilliant.

'Will You Love Me' just keeps things going. This album is just so soothingly warm and just so f**king good. I do wonder how long White has spent perfecting these songs (the album was recorded in just 7-days), they rise and fall in all the right places, this one in epic manner around the 'only love can do that' mini mantra just over halfway through.

And when things ain't right

You need someone to stay the night

I'll be there until the morning light

And longer if you need

'Gone Away' slows things down, not that things have sped up that much, just at times White and his band soar majestically, at ease. 'Gone Away' is more chilled. The backing vocals and arrangements throughout the album have a real gospel feel to them, none more so than on this track and the closing mantra of 'he will break your kingdom down, he will tear your kingdom down' as the choir/backing singers ad splashes of beauty and then things finally lift off.

'Steady Pace' is more jaunty than anything that has gone before it, quite McCartney-esque in many ways

'Hot Toddies' is....an ode to 'Hot Toddies' on a cold winters night with a string section straight from a 1950's film, getting into another mantra groove before going off on a total tangent for the closing 2-minutes.

'Brazos' closes the album in sensational manner. Check out this live version from the Hopscotch Music Festival that sees White perform with a 30-piece band. This is the Beta Band (again) crossed with Spiritualized.

Jesus Christ is our lord

Jesus Christ, He is your friend

Your life will be better for owning this album.