Named after the debut single by Teenage Fanclub.
This blog is all about being a music lover in Glasgow; reviews, interviews, memories, old faves, new discoveries (past and present), playlists and more. Thanks for visiting - I hope you discover something amazing you have never heard before, or that you rediscover an old favourite.
Regular features/playlists; Never Ending Mixtape / Cover Version of the Month/ Trust Me.
Insta - @everythingflowsglasgow
E - murrayeaston{AT}gmail{DOT}com
Pavement exploded on to the music scene in the early 90's through the release of albums Slanted & Enchanted (1992) and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994). Like most of the best bands, they seemed to be in their own world. The Pavement universe was full of in-band-jokes, zany videos, (at times) barely tuned guitars and cool song titles. The band arguably invented and certainly personified the slacker scene and style.
I own both of those albums on vinyl along with the 7-inch of Cut Your Hair. I seemed to lose touch with the band after that period though. Maybe they just became a little too zany, a little too clever with what they were doing. Maybe it was all beautifully new and natural at first.
Or maybe it simply didn't do it for me!
Anyway, I lost touch with Pavement. I bought a couple of Stephen Malkmus' albums with his band The Jicks, but never got into what he was doing.
Anyway ... I bought Cut Your Hair on 7-inch single and I still absolutely love it.
Cut Your Hair has a beautiful charm to it, riding in on ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh's and fuzzy guitars, before Malkmus comes in with the opening lines.
Darling don't you go and cut your hair
Do you think it's gonna make him change?
The song pokes fun at style over substance, with the second verse dealing with this through Malkmus declaring (after seeing a new band);
I don't remember a line, I don't remember a word
But I don't care, I care, I really don't care
Did you see the drummers hair?
I'm not going to lie, I love when a band looks cool! They do need something to back it up though!
31-years on from release, the line songs mean a lot, when songs are bought in the third verse takes on a whole new meaning in the era of streaming. I, for one, am extremely guilty for streaming music. I mean, it's not illegal, but I know bands/artists don't really make anything out of it. That said, Pavement have some pretty big hitters on Spotify!
Attention and fame's a career
Career, career, career, career
Sadly, with reality shows and 'influencers' attention and fame has become a career for some absolute assholes that wouldn't have received the time of day back in the 90's. That's the world we now live in though!
Cut Your Hair is added to my Trust Me playlist; search for Everything Flows - Trust Me on Spotify or CLICK HERE
Check below for all previous blogs in my Trust Me series.
Back in December 2023 I blogged on Homework, a new young guitar band from Glasgow. I then listed them as one of my '5 to watch' in 2024.
They've been busy! Playing a show at King Tuts in January and following that up with an EP launch party at The Hug and Pint at the end of March. Annoyingly, both dates clashed with other gigs I already had tickets for. I hope to see them live soon!
Easy Money is their second 3-track EP featuring the songs; Dummy Run, How Can You and Marina Bay Sands.
Santiago, Michael, Lizzie and Andrew describe their sound as 'volatile, loping fuzz pop, as much informed by a lifelong devotion to indie rock dieties like Pavement and Teenage Fanclub as it is by the shoddy acoustics of budget practice spaces and temperamental gear.'
In other words - right up my street!
Dummy Run sounds like running in the sunshine while overdosing on sugar, glorious guitars for almost 50-seconds before the vocals come in I'm in no hurry. Homework definitely go at their own pace! By the time hit the chorus the guitars and vocal melody are tripping over each other beautifully.
How Can You is more like running through golden leaves on an Autumn day. The vibe is a little more chilled and the melodies continue to tumble out effortlessly, how can you caress every drop of the rain?
Marina Bay Sands is lovingly described by the bands label Gold Mold Records (the EP is out on ltd edition cassette and all the usual streaming/download sites) as imagining Gerard Love on Matador. I'd say it could be a long lost Pavement and Fanclub collboration. Again, the guitars sound sublime, while the melodies and harmonies are typically playful.
Each song has been written by a different band member. Homework sound fresh, vibrant, fun and exciting and I can't wait to (finally) see them and hear what they release next.
Homework are Michael, Santiago, Andrew and Lizzie, a 4-piece band from Glasgow that came to my attention back in October when a couple of people I follow on social media raved about them.
The band have a busy period coming up, with a string of gigs including bringing in the bells with a Glas-goes Pop show at Mono with Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake. Homework then keep momentum going with a gig as part of King Tuts New Year Revolution shows on 27th January.
So they are clearly getting their name out and about the Glasgow scene. That stems from the release of a self-titled 3-track EP via Gold Mold Records back in March 2023.
It has a delicious warm, melodic, fuzzy, slacker vibe to it. Think early Fanclub meets Pavement on a sunny day after a couple of cans of beer.
I was keen to find out a little more, so sent the band an email and they kindly got back to me.
If you read this in time you can catch them at BLOC on Wednesday 6th December.
When and how did you form?
The first two proto-Homework line-ups were formed in parallel back in 2019. On one end, Santiago (guitar) met Forbes (drums) at a cowboy themed party, and they started jamming as a noise duo. On the other end, Forbes was also playing with his primary school friend Michael (guitar).
Forbes cunningly merged these two projects together and recruited his friend Tom (bassist) formalising homework in early 2020. Covid unexpectedly hit before our first gig in april, Forbes moved to Estonia, and Tom to Aberdeen. This left Santiago and Michael playing occasional Maxwell Park acoustic jams before moving back to the studio in summer 2021.
Lizzie (30) was having a mid-life crisis and had just re-taken up the drums, her friend Izzy mentioned that we were looking for a drummer and one awkward email later, she was in. Izzy followed by taking up the bass and for a short period, our rhythm section had 4 zs!
Santiago was at the pub on a date and bumped into his old pal Alec and his brother Andrew (bassist). He started banging on about how great Pavement are, and how we needed a bassist to play on his birthday the following week. Andrew tentatively agreed to play, learning all the songs in a day, and was inducted into homework after quite a stellar performance.
2. Are you all involved in writing songs? How do you write/form your songs?
Santiago, Michael and Andrew are all songwriters. Lizzie plays the drums.
The process itself is quite collaborative with a no-front-person policy. Sometimes someone comes with a fragment of an idea, or a whole song, and we spend a lot of time jamming to figure them out. There is always quite a lot on the workbench and we love jumping from song to song. Every rehearsal is recorded and archived, so we can work on ideas at home individually. Extremely crucial to our process is spending a lot of time faffing about.
3. You've released one EP to date. Do you have any further releases in the pipeline?
Yes! Double a side single release, and a party for it in some near-future Glasgow 2024.
4. You have a busy run of shows into February including a couple of big ones at Mono with Norman Blake and then Tuts in January. What do you enjoy about playing live?
We like the general buzz that comes with hopping on the stage and putting up a good energetic show. We like to keep it quite relaxed, with a healthy dose of fuzzy chaos. One of the best parts is that we get to meet other people in great bands, hang out in a group and drink free beer. The conversations with people who you don't know after the shows adrenaline rush are really motivating.
We love really complimentary Dads. Shout out to the Dads, truly our strongest demographic.
5. Do you have much of a plan, or are you going with the flow?
We've got plans... We've got a gig coming up in London early next year, and would love to do more gigs outside of Glasgow *wink wink* promoters *wink wink* festivals *wink wink*
6. What music are you enjoying listening to at the moment?
Michael's been listening to MJ Lenderman, Bar Italia, Happyness,
Andrew has been listening to Second Grade, Ginger Root, Hotline TNT.
Santiago's been listening to this up and coming band called The Beatles, Autechre, Silver Jews, Kelora, Model/Actriz, and Beach House.
Lizzie's been listening to Divorce, Mega Bog, Dua Lipa's new one, and Beach House.
7. Are there any other bands on the Glasgow scene you'd recommend checking out?
There are so many! As tempting as it is to rattle off a massive list of all our pals, we're wary of unintentionally offending anyone we'd inevitably forget. Come to our gig and well tell ya off the record : ) ; ) But we have a playlist for this to get you started: The Glasgow Scene
The Scottish music scene is in a particularly rich vein of form just now with a number of new bands coming to the fore, loads of bands and artists developing and pushing boundaries and established bands still coming up with the goods.
I'm aiming to introduce semi-regular interview/highlight/introducing blogs focusing on new bands coming to the fore. Here is the first one....
Poor Things are a band that came to my attention through a recent split single release on the fabulous Gerry Loves Records label. Their warm guitar pop sounds displayed on No Way, Jose caught my ear - very Fanclub-esque. I look forward to seeing them live in the near future.
I caught up with Craig Angus to find out a little more about the band.
1. Tell us how you formed - where are you from, how do you know each other, how and why did you get together?
Richard and I (Craig) got put in registration class together on the first day of secondary school and instantly bonded over music, he was the cool kid that could play the guitar really well and I was the over-active underachiever. Eventually we met Gavin who at the time was going out with one of our friends from school and we formed out first band, in 2004 - which is crazy.
Anyway long story short we started a new band once Richard and I came to University in Glasgow and Poor Things have been playing since 2011 - our sound has changed a lot since then. I feel like we've only really existed since 2013, like I was a different person before that...
2. I’m pretty new to the band, you seem to have released your debut album quickly (which I like) - what made you decide to do that? What has the response been like?
I think maybe because we'd been plugging away for two, three years in the sidelines, it felt like a bit of a bucket list thing - something it would be cool to have as a momento to the band. I guess because you never know when something like that can just stop - all it takes is one person to emigrate, or just say they've had enough. With this band and us being such old friends, it could't function without the core three members, and no matter how things go from here that's our small contribution to the world of music.
The genesis, Andrew Dyce from Saraseto Records, who is a great friend and supporter of the band, asked us if we wanted to do it, and we had a bunch of songs that we were happy with and we had made a bit of money from various festival gigs and our first EP, so yeah - why not?
I think writing an album is a great challenge that presents a few structural obstacles - the whole process definitely improved us as songwriters and the record seems to have reached a lot of people, a lot more than we could really have hoped for considering it was such a DIY effort. It's not the most well known or hyped release of recent times, but we played a few cool shows off the back of it and the people that like it seem to really like it. I'm still amazed that people choose to listen to music we make. I think they're taking the piss probably.
3. Tell us about your other releases - what have you put out to date and is there anything in the pipeline?
One EP (Hurricane Poor Things), One Album (Poor Things), two split singles, one cassette on Fuzzkill with the formidable Catholic Action and one on Gerry Loves Records, a 7" with Halfrican, Sharptooth and Pinact and a contribution to Fuzzkill's Now 666 tape which some of our favourite bands were part of; Secret Motorbikes, Deathcats, Kill Surfff.
We've been writing songs for a while now, over a year, with the aim to do another album. We demoed a track last week, and we're pretty excited about how it sounds. The scattergun approach to the last record was great but we can probably take a bit more time, spend a bit more money and do something really memorable. I'm really, really excited about it. Richard has written some absolutely brilliant songs, and I think I'm putting my best stuff forward too.
The Gerry Loves launch parties were an obvious highpoint. We also had a crazy show in Paris in May 2014 that ended up being really busy and I think having travelled so far that was pretty special.
5. What gigs do you have coming up?
We are playing The Hug and Pint on Saturday 22nd August and beyond that are doing a mini tour with our pals Min Diesel in October, the focus right now is writing and finishing off new songs. We're going up to Loch Fyne to do 4 days of solid demoing in early September, before emerging to an unsuspecting world.
6. Tell us about your influences - what music do you like?
As a unit we're big Weezer fans, big Pavement fans, beyond that we're into Teenage Fanclub, Smashing Pumpkins, Big Star, any indie music from that wonderful 1990s period.
7. How do you write as a band?
Richard lives in Aberdeen and I live in Glasgow, so we write things individually and then share them over emails, and then when we practice with Gav we bring it all together and pick things apart a bit more. It's quite a good way of filtering the good stuff.
8. What other young Scottish bands do you like?
We're big, big Halfrican fans - they've got excellent legs. Also Pinact and Sharptooth who were on our 7" release. We've done a lot of shows with Catholic Action who are about to really take off and they're a really fun band with great songwriting at the front and centre. I never miss Tuff Love either.
9. What do you think of the music scene in Scotland - what is good, what is challenging, is anything missing?
That's a tough one. There's a lot of really great stuff going on, and then stuff that does nothing for me and that perplexes me - but hey, opinions right? It feels futile criticising a band you're clearly just not into.
I think things are pretty good now thought, and the rise of DIY labels is a brilliant thing, it's encouraging people to be creative and be independently minded. Long term there's an obvious glass ceiling, but it shouldn't matter too much.
10. For those new to the band - why should they check you out?
We start with a song I hadn't listened to in ages and then it came on my ipod shuffle.
I remember being blown away when I first heard this. I love the spoken word/story bits that just rush headlong into the chorus. The chiming guitars, melodies and harmonies send warm tingles down my spine.
It is no secret that I am a huge Teenage Fanclub fan. They turned me on to The Byrds (and loads of other amazing bands) through their interviews and fine selection of covers that they played live or snuck on to a b-side. This week the bands Gerry Love stuck a couple of videos from their 'Man-Made' album up on to YouTube. 'Fallen Leaves' is Gerry Love at his best, soothing vocals, great hooks and the sound of sunshine.
What could I lead on to via 'Fallen Leaves'?
How about a 'Shady Lane' by Pavement? This was a favourite of mine along with my great friend Reddy, we used to love the 'oh my god, oh my god.......' section and sing-a-long drunkenly when we were having carryouts and raiding each others record collections.
Speaking of my friend Reddy, we went to (and still do, although not as much) loads of gigs together. One of the drunkest ever gigs I have been to was Ben Folds Five at King Tuts. I think I had finished work and gone to meet Reddy at his student union and hung out there until Tuts. I vaguely recall jumping about like a loony to this with Reddy and clearing a bit of space on the Tuts dancefloor in front of the stage as we played air piano along to Ben!
The second part to this story occurred in 1999 when we were on holiday in New York and discovered Ben Folds was playing Central Park. We got tickets and went to a bar for the day, then to the gig where we drank pints of wine for some reason! We tried to climb a security banner to get backstage to tell Ben Folds we had seen him at Tuts, only to get over the fence and thrown back out! Blitzed we met two girls and promptly fell asleep on their picnic rug for most of the gig and woke to the sound of Underground and then proceeded to jump about like loonies again for the last few songs. We had people asking to take our pictures as we were so drunk! Anway, this is a great song!
I'll end todays song with a cover version by a Glasgow singer/songwriter who goes under the guise of Beerjacket. I bought his latest album this week and I'll review it in a future blog. This is the song that first turned me on to his music. Rather sublime.
