Japanese Popstars (featuring Robert Smith) - Take Forever

My very good friend Dave was up at Rock Ness last week taking pictures for STV, the jammy sod. You can check out his pictures HERE

He came back raving about a band from Northern Ireland called Japanese Popstars as did my friend Kirstin. 

It's taken me some time to get around to listening to them, but do you know what? They were right.


Japanese Popstars released their latest single Take Forever (featuring Robert Smith from The Cure) last week. I have seen their name around, but it was through Dave and Kirstin's promptings that I thought I had better check them out properly. So I'm in the process of checking some of their music, but I thought I'd blog about this belter of a tune that has shot to the top of my singles of the year to date;

Robert Smith turns in a fantastic vocal over bubbling synths that bubble into something quite euphoric, the lyrics set a scene of a time and a place where we have all been (well I have) - the end of a night out clubbing/at a festival, falling in love and not wanting the night to end.


Smith sounds like he is pouring his heart out...and his soul for that matter in his own utterly unique style. Many have tried to copy Smith, none have bettered.


Japanese Popstars take the music right down around the 3 minute mark before building it up until you are just dying for the beat to come in. I can imagine the tent must have been bouncing at Rock Ness. The lyrics are below, the tune (sadly not with a video - at least for this 12-inch version) is above. I'm hoping to track it down on vinyl! I can't wait for them to come to Glasgow.

Yeah you know, tonight will end, it always does

And the end is gone forever, when the sun comes up

And yeah you said, our sun will come, but there's always time

Burning up inside for nothing, save the kiss goodbye

Save the kiss goodbye

Yeah you know, tonight will end, it always does

And the end is gone forever, when the sun comes up

And yeah you say, the sun will come, it's always time

Burning up inside for nothing, save a kiss goodbye

Yeah I said, the sun will come, it's always time

But this burning up inside, is how I know you're mine

And yeah I know, tonight will end, it always does

But the end will take forever, if we falllllllllllllllllllll

Yeah I say, the sun will come, it's always time

But this burning up inside, is how I know you're mine

And yeah I know, tonight will end, it always does

But the end will take forever, if we fall in love

Tonight will end, it always does

But the end will take forever, if we fall in love

And yeah I know, tonight will end, it always does

But the end will take forever, if we fall in love 

Tiny Little Sparks by Sonny Marvello

Sonny Marvello are busy working on their debut album, recording at Rocket Science studios in Glasgow with Ross Hamilton and Michael Bannister (Texas, Mogwai, Avril Lavigne..) 


It is coming together nicely and the band nailed a relatively new song 'Tiny Little Sparks' at the beginning of May. Within a couple of weeks it was being played on Radio 1 in Scotland, selected by Craig McGee (Glasgow Music/Warner Chappell) on the A&R zone on Ally McCrae's show.

I can see that (Tiny Little Sparks) in a festival field with people bouncing and bouncing.

Ally McCrae, BBC Radio 1 Introducing, Detour

Sonny Marvello's songwriting keeps getting stronger and stronger. Tiny Little Sparks is glorious, joyous pop with lots of catchy hooks and harmonies.

Craig McGee, www.glasgowmusic.co.uk, Warner Chappell Scout

It is HUUUUUGE. Elements of Coldplay, Radiohead and The Who are all merged together to create a song that is crying out to be blasted from stereos across the country.


More studio time is being scheduled for September, in the meantime plans are in place for a ltd single release of 'Tiny Little Sparks' in September/early October and gigs are in the process of being booked.


There will be a rather special announcement to be made by the band in the next week or so regarding the launch party in October.


In the meantime, enjoy the sounds of a band that are really pushing towards creating a rather special album. Check them out at www.sonnymarvello.net and listen to 'Tiny Little Sparks' at www.soundcloud.com/sonnymarvello

www.glasgowmusic.co.uk

Five for Friday - Part IV

It looks like the UK is going to be covered by a blanket of rain today and for large parts of tomorrow, so here are five songs for the weekend to take your mind off the weather for a while.


Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene
The guitar genius that is J Mascis - still sounds fresh and vital today.

Next up we have some warm guitar sounds from The Lemonheads.

And we then change the pace completely with this little number from Tricky - the vocals from Martina Topley-Bird are just dreamy gorgeousness, sublime;

Followed up with this stone cold classic from Tricky's mates in Massive Attack;

And we end this weeks 'Five for Friday' with the mellow sounds of Lou Reed and another stone cold classic 'Walk On The Wild Side';

I will now sell 5 copies of The Three EP's by The Beta Band

I read something recently that made me go hunting for my old Beta Band cd's. I do have a couple of Beta Band 7-inches, but it was the 3 EP's compilation that I was after and anyone who has that on vinyl is extremely lucky indeed.


I couldn't find them. I used to have all my cd's in alphabetical order. Now they are all over the place in the racks and on shelves, in piles on the floor. I need to spend a pleasant evening getting them into some sort of order. I'm pretty lazy, I've still not transferred all my cd's to my laptop and itunes as I still like to have an excuse to browse through them.


So I went on to YouTube and searched for 'Dry the Rain', my favourite Beta Band song. I was a bit shocked to discover that there isn't a video for it. Now the Beta Band were very careful with their art, they liked to be underground, not sell out etc etc. But this still surprised me.


There are some home-made efforts and there is a live performance from the Beta Band, but no video. Anyway, I'm blabbing on. The purpose of this blog was to highlight what a f**king brilliant song 'Dry the Rain' is and for me to reminisce about going to their last gig at the Liquid Rooms in Edinbugh. It may well be in my top 10 gigs of all time.

The Beta Band were suitably charged for a gig in their home city. They jammed, went off at tangents and when they played 'Dry the Rain' the place went nuts. My sister and I were down near the front and it turned out quite a large contingent of the bands girlfriends and close friends were too. So when the song finished we all kept singing the refrain/mantra.

'if there's something inside that you wanna say, say it out loud it will be OK'

'i will be alright, I will be alright, I will be alright, I will be alright.'

It was an absolutely spine tingling, magical moment with people punching the air, hugging and the band looking genuinely pleased, a little shocked and possibly wondering if they should stay together. The same thing happens in the live recording above, glorious....and I thought it was just at the Edinburgh gig! I still have my ticket....They didn't want to come off and Steve Mason ended up freestyle rapping!

Of course when I went on YouTube and typed in The Beta Band, the famous scene from High Fidelity came up near the top and I couldn't resist watching it. I'll need to order it from Love Film as well, I used to have it on video tape! Check it out below;

Jack Black (Barry) on top form (in the film that made him unless I missed something) pushing a Jesus & Marychain album and bringing out Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and saying 'it's gonna be OK', Dick flirting with a girl over Green Day and pushing The Clash, and then Rob saying 'I will now sell 5 copies of The Three EP's by The Beta Band.' Just brilliant, I imagine Stephen Pastel and Dep in Monorail having conversations like that.

So there you have it, a glorious song. It's DIY indie, punk, folk, pop, euphoric, shambolic, funky, groovy....I love it. Check it out.

New 12,000 capacity arena for Glasgow in 2013

This week saw the soft launch of the Scottish Hyrdo Arena on the banks of the Clyde, next to the Armadillo and the SECC. The Scottish Hyrdo website says it is already being referred to as 'the Hydro'. Mmmm nothing like a bit of mind games to get people referring to the corporate name. Hopefully music fans will come up with another name for it.

Regardless, this is a welcome addition to the Scottish Music Scene, with Geoff Ellis of DF Concerts already commenting that a venue with this capacity would have brought shows by the likes of Madonna to Glasgow in the past.

With the SECC operating to capcity for shows, exhibitions and concerts, 'the Hyrdo' (I need to come up with a name!) is something that is going to generate even more income to the musical city of Glasgow, with hopes that it will host up to 140 events per year and up to 1 million visitors - pretty staggering.

The blurb on the website goes on to say that they venue could generate £131 million per annum to the economy. In tough financial times we Scot's still like a drink, a sing-song and a laugh.

Although I have slagged off the name, full credit to Scottish Hyrdo for investing £1.5 million a year for 10-years in the venue; it will bring jobs and world class entertainment to Glasgow.

Plans are already underway to launch the venue with a string of events, hopefully they will go with a Scottish artist(s) for the opening night with Biffy Clyro already being suggested by Scott Hutchison from Frightened Rabbit.

Five for Friday - Part III

Arcade Fire are on of the most creative, passionate and talented bands out there.

David Bowie is still under-rated, partly because i think like Ziggy Stardust, he is from a different planet. The guy is a phenomenon. Bowie and Ronson on fire.

The re-issue of 'Exile On Main Street' has been on and off my stereo since it came out. This is an example of why. Sheer rock'n'roll.

LCD Soundsystem have been one of my favourite bands of recent times. James Murphy is coolness personified - elements of funk, soul, electro, techno, pop, garage...and anything else that takes his fancy are thrown together to create some spectacular results.

I've recently discovered the album 'Butterfly House' by The Coral. It is a beautiful album, lovingly crafted with tons of harmonies, hooks and some brilliant guitar work. The production is also stunning with elements of late 60's bands like Love a clear influence.

King Tuts - Summer Nights Album

Summer is upon us and festival season kicked off in Glasgow at the weekend with the West End Festival and this weekend is Rock Ness and Doune The Rabbit Hole and then we have T in the Park, Wickerman, Tartan Heart and loads more to come.


Last summer saw DF Concerts and King Tuts introduce their Summer Nights series of gigs, gathering some of the best unsigned/independent artists in Scotland to play at one of the best and most famous venues in the country. This was followed up by their New Year Revolution gigs in January and Summer Nights is set to return again this July.


Summer Nights is being well promoted on the Tuts and DF social media sites, in newspaper adverts and with the added bonus of a FREE DOWNLOAD ALBUM featuring all of the headliners. (scroll to the bottom of the page).


With quite a few bands that I haven't listened to or caught live, lets delve into what is on offer....


Sonny Marvello - Pull Me Up
Sonny Marvello released their 'Pull Me Up' EP late last year with the Daily Record describing it as 'like the Monkees doing ELO, just perfect to banish the winter blues'. So the album kicks off with a nice slice of upbeat guitar pop. Sonny are going from strength to strength, recently establishing their 100 club and releasing a ltd edition acoustic mini-album (featuring the song below) with an exclusive gig for 100 club members in a vintage clothes store. They are currently recording their debut album, with one of the tracks 'Tiny Little Sparks' recently being played on Ally McCrae's Radio 1 show and being described by Ally as 

'I can see that (Tiny Little Sparks) in a festival field with people bouncing and bouncing.' Sonny are writing big songs, they play from the heart, they have enough hooks to floor Rocky and always put on a show, this is sure to be a great night.

Sonny Marvello  - Fire Went Out, from the 100 club mini-acoustic album

Jumpers Knee - Letter to the Sun

The title suggests another ideal song for Summer Nights. Jumpers Knee are a young band that have been building up a fanbase, a collection of songs and developing their sound. I first heard of them a couple of years ago and they seem to have come on leaps and bounds by the sound of this, developing an electro element to their mod roots. With the motto 'to play live is to be alive' this could be a gig to check out. The best bit in this song is when it all slows down a couple of minutes in and takes on a funky bass groove before kicking in again.

Jumpers Knee - The Hunter

Bwani Junction - Middle Meadow

Bwani Junction hail from Edinburgh and there isn't a great deal of info about them on their myspace or facebook pages, so I can only go with what I have to listen to here. The vocals are kind of new wave, the guitar is quite inventive and melodic and there is a 'we take control, we take control' hook that ensures the song doesn't just pass by. 

Bwani Junction - Two Bridges

Aerials Up - All Your Mothers Daughters

Possibly the stand out track on this album. Everything works on this track, the vocals, lyrics, outstanding musical ability...it all combines to produce quite an epic song with strings, vocals straining with emotion. Unlike a lot of the other bands on the album I have caught Aerials Up live and I may well do so again in July.

'cause I've been talking too much in my sleep, I've been talking in my dreams'

Aerials Up - First In The Fire

Fatherson - Gonefission

Summer Nights is a 12 track album with a great range of music, as I started writing this bit for Fatherson I was going to be dismissive of the name of the band (which I don't like) and the song. However the song really developed as it went on and I've now played it 3 times. I could compare them to Idlewild in many ways - melodic guitar at times, crunchy and rocky at others, the vocals sung with a thick Scottish accent. The best bit of the song for me was the complete break at 2 minutes 10 seconds into the glorious refrain;

'there are things that I can't see, I cannot belive in fairytales'

I imagine that Fatherson would be good to see in a live environment as from the sound of this song they are clearly tight in the studio.

Bronto Skylift - Wolf

If you like your music loud, rocking, raw and raucous then Bronto Skylift may be the band for you. They just don't do it for me though, I'm sure they won't lose any sleep over that! That said this song has its moments, notably at 1 minute 45 when the previous racket develops into an actual hook...just not for too long. I have seen them live, amazingly in the middle of an island in a river in Inverness at GoNorth and can assure anyone interested in seeing them live that they will give it their all.

Song of Return - Trajectory

Featuring a former member of Union of Knives and the prolific Louis Abbot of Admiral Fallow, I was looking forward to listening to this track. This is an atmopsheric song that builds for over 2 minutes until the beats and synths kick in and the song flows from there. The production is top class, as are the vocals. On the evidence of this track Song of Return clearly have ambitions to create epic soundscapes with enough layers to keep you discovering new things on each listen. I think I'll check out their album.

Dead Sea Souls - My Problem 

'My Problem' is radio friendly, upbeat guitar pop. I can imagine this going down well with a lot of people. Check the video below and judge for yourself. 

Davey Horne - Last Train Home

Davey's facebook page says that he takes the best bit from Neil Young and Prince - quite a combination. From the sound of this song its definitely more of Neil Young. This is a good wee song with some brilliant Emmylou Harris style female harmonies kicking in for the last minute;

'if you love me baby you will let me go, please don't hold on too tight'

'cause you know I'm leaving, I'll be outta sight, I'll be on the last train home'

Davey Horne - Someone Like You (Adele cover)

Meursault - Crank Resolutions

Meursault are one of the most prolific independent bands in Scotland and with the backing of the Song by Toad label/blog they seem to have found a label that suits them down to the ground. Their releases have led to a growing fanbase, ever expanding tours and festival appearances. Despite being from the East Coast I expect a good crowd at this Tuts date. This is what Pitchfork had to say;


'Meursault are ambassadors of misery, self-loathing, and huge, heart-heavy choruses. Most sad bastards can generate a modicum of optimism on January 1. But onCrank Resolutions, the sadder bastards in Meursault declare, "I broke down on New Year's Day/ And I mixed my drinks/ And I lost my way," among hyperventilating electronic beats and pyrrhic victory shouts. It's enormous fun, of course, and I can't wait to see a live audience sob along to every word.'

It does start off in a miserable tone, poetic with it, just after the 1 minute 30 second mark it all changes with a beautiful picked guitar riff, then fuzzy guitar washed over everything and the vocals are relegated to the background. This could be pretty special in a love setting with the Tuts sound system. Check this footage from them playing the song at Glastonbury from 3 minutes 50 seconds in.

Seventeenth Century - Banks of Home
I've written about the strengths of Seventeenth Century a few times on this blog. They don't disappoint with this offering. Mark Farmer's vocals twist and soar as he ensures he gets the most out of every lyric. Elesewhere the trumpet lifts the song, the bass and drums lock in, the inventive guitar playing of Ryan Burns is a joy and the harmonies are perfect. It's a dark and moody offering, atmospheric in their own unique way. This is the lead track from their second EP released on Electra French Records. For a look and listen, check out the outstanding track 'Debut Dance' below.

Seventeenth Century - Debut Dance

The Ray Summers - Oh No
The album runs in order of the nights at Tuts, otherwise the tracklisting could have been a nightmare. As it is the album closes with a track by Falkirk's The Ray Summers who have been gigging at a ferocious rate for a few years around the UK and having seen them live I can assure anyone that hasn't seen them that that is where they are most at home. Taking in mod, 60's beat and ska influences, with an ear for a hook and a few songs jam packed with them, they are well worth checking out. Their album 'Russian Tearoom' is available to buy HERE. And you can watch some footage from a previous Tuts gig below.

So well played King Tuts, DF and Craig Johnstone for bringing together this fine collection of bands for a series of gigs and an album. This isn't even half of it! There are four bands on every night....too much for one blog.....check them out and you may find a new favourite band.