I Hear a New World Podcast

Featuring Malcolm Middleton, Ambulances, The Foundling Wheel and Zoey van Goey. Plus an interview with journalist Nick Mitchell on this year's Primavera Festival in Barcelona.

Full info here: http://milomclaughlin.squarespace.com/home/i-hear-a-new-world-podcast-june-2009-malcolm-middleton-ambul.html

Features full tracks by The Vaselines, Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy), Meursault and Grizzly Bear.

Plus an interview with Matthew Young of songbytoad.com and songbytoadrecords.com

Read my blog: http://milomclaughlin.squarespace.com Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gaseousbrain

Features Camera Obscura, Je Suis Animal, Men Diamler, Animal Magic Tricks and Panda Su.

To read this month's column: http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/45391-i-hear-a-new-world-april-2009

Read my blog: http://milomclaughlin.squarespace.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gaseousbrain

Features Bonnie 'Prince' Billy interview, Jeffrey Lewis, The Japanese War Effort, Wake The President and Found.

To read this month's column:

http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/45147-i-hear-a-new-world-march-2009

Read my blog: http://milomclaughlin.squarespace.com

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/gaseousbrain

This month's podcast features two tracks from Edinburgh's SL Records by Thomas Truax and Recording The Impossible, plus a chat with editor of The Skinny Dave Kerr on what's in the music section of this month's issue.

Then stay tuned for the first ever podcast recorded by Glasgow's Chemikal Underground Records themselves, which features the other two tracks featured in this month's column, by The Phantom Band and Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs, as well as other great music on the label. Enjoy!

The Phantom Band - Folk Song Oblivion

Ironically for a band that once changed their name with every gig, you will be hearing the name The Phantom Band everywhere this year. Possibly the first true contenders to the Beta Band’s crown - not because they’re trying to sound like them, but because their melodies and inventiveness are equally as effortless. This is but a taste of the eclectic first album Checkmate Savage, out now on Chemikal Underground Records.

Thomas Truax - Joe Meek warns Buddy Holly

3rd February 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death. In this ingenious tribute, New York musician Thomas Truax tells the tale of how Joe Meek, the unhinged record producer (and this column’s patron saint) was warned of the exact date from beyond the grave, and some years after his prophesy was proven to be true he shot himself and his landlady - again on the very same date. And in another genius piece of release date irony, it is released by Edinburgh’s SL Records on .... yes - the 3rd of February.

Aidan John Moffat & The Best-Ofs - Oh Men!

As if last year’s I Can Hear Your Heart wasn’t outrageous enough, here the king of over-sharing and under-shaving lets loose a beery, salacious knees-up about the inability of his fellow fellas not to gape like morons at the sheer loveliness of the female form in all its guises. From the album How to Get To Heaven From Scotland, it’s released by Chemikal Underground with a sleazy wink and a hand up your skirt on February 14th, Valentine’s Day.

Recording the Impossible - Popsex

Now Paul Vickers has been responsible for some weird shit in his time, both with Dawn of the Replicants and The Leg. However his latest collaboration inspired by Ivor Cutler and at times sounding like a lost episode of Father Ted directed by David Lynch, is off-the-scale bananas. Popsex is a weird little ditty about pop-up books and filthy thoughts. Out now on SL Records.

http://www.chemikal.co.uk

http://www.slrecords.net

Featuring:

Ish Marquez - Pipe Dream Memories

I can't imagine a better track to kick off 2009 with. The New York musician is an unbelievable guitarist who totally blew the audience's mind when he played a gig with Jeffrey Lewis, Stanley Brinks and Withered Hand at Edinburgh's Henry's Cellar Bar at the end of last year. He's ended up a part of the anti-folk scene more by his NYC location than sound, his tunes funky and soulful twists on guitar virtuosity that should really see him become a massive star. Damn it, you've just got to get up and dance to this track from his Goin' Thru album, currently only available at his gigs (but you can hear it on this month's podcast of course).
www.myspace.com/ishmarquez

Sellotape – My Left Tit

Viki Sellotape has been described as Scotland’s answer to Mark E Smith due to her single-minded musical vision, inspired by the likes of X-ray Spex and Siouxsie Sioux. But given that her live performances consist of her strutting around the stage in tiny hotpants, I know who’d I’d rather spend quality time with, and it's not the gnome-faced old Manc, genius though he is. Along with her bandmates, let her stamp you under her foot like a spurned lover with this seething sexually charged put-down. www.myspace.com/sellotapemusic

A-Lix – I Know a Man

A-Lix know a man. But then doesn’t everybody? What most people don’t know though, is that A-Lix are really rather good. A truly international band based in Glasgow, including members of French and Argentinian origin. As pop as they are post-punk (some call it death disco), they wield their guitars like automatic rifles on this blistering, swaggering beast of a tune from their album Never Grow.
www.myspace.com/alixland

White Heath –When The Watchmen Leave Their Stations

You know you're in for a treat right away when a big feckin' tuba kicks in, but just wait for the chorus when it all comes together in a swinging, serenading New Orleans march through the streets then onto a boat down the Mississippi river of lovestruck majesty. One of the highlights at the recent songbytoad.com Christmas party held at the brilliant new Edinburgh venue The Bowery, this is an early mix of the song, with an even better version promised soon.
www.myspace.com/whiteheath

Published here: http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/44606-i-hear-a-new-year-world-january-2009

My website: http://milomclaughlin.squarespace.com

Unusual and innovative music from Scotland and beyond.

Herman Dune - Try To Think About Me

Herman Dune are an anti-folk band based in Paris/Berlin/New York. They embody that genre's international elasticity - they are pop, folk and indie rock - at once everything you could possibly want from a band and at the same time there's nothing you can put your finger on to define them completely. From new album Next Year in Zion, this is a melodious pop song pure and simple, but the lyrics hold layers of meaning and emotion that will fill your heart with love, longing, loneliness and lust.

Pumajaw - Horseshoe Nail

Pumajaw describe their sound as "ancient melodies mutating into psychedelic laments and ecstasies." Whilst many try to raise the buried pagan gods and goddesses of folk's past, few do psychedelic fervour as convincingly as Pinkie Maclure and John Willis. Listening to this passionately psychotic track from superb new album Curiosity Box, you're almost persuaded that the duo have lived through some serious medieval shit and magicked themselves into the future to make sure we hear all about how profoundly dark and terrifying it was.

Major Matt Mason USA - Rockstar

Following on the alternative/anti-folk theme, New York's Major Matt Mason USA is the perfect embodiment of anti-folk's refusal to pander to the cliches of rock and roll posturing. Hell, he doesn't even want to be a rock star anymore - but as this lyrical lament shows, he really can't help it, even if he does sound a bit like Kermit the Frog on downers.

Les Enfant Bastard - Michael Jackson

Here, Edinburgh based lo-fi genius Les Enfant Bastard is trying to convince us that although he appears to be a skinny white bloke, he is in fact the facially-challenged post-black moonwalking nutjob who refers to himself as the King of Pop. By the end of the song you'll be convinced of one thing at least - he is equally insane - but thankfully for us, in a way that results in this piece of perverse brilliance, instead of the turgid excuse for an audio-turd that was Earth Song.

Amusement Parks on Fire - Alafoss Exit

This is a leaving song, a goodbye song, a 'moving on to greater things and not looking back no matter how much you want to' song. This is Amusement Parks on Fire - their name itself a stunning visual image, this particular track being the musical equivalent. The past, the well-trodden path, is up in flames, and there's only one way to go - forward into the unknown.

The second part of a two-part special on Scotland's Fence Collective.

1. King Creosote - Don't Ask Me How My Weekend Went
2. King Creosote - Houston Tharoule
3. Rozi Plain - Stolen Shark
4. The Pictish Trail - Into the Smoke
5. Rozi Plain - Roof Rook Crook Crow
6. King Creosote - On Esther's Planet

www.fencerecords.com

illustration by Leigh Pearson http://thunderheart.co.uk

Read the accompanying column in the October issue of The Skinny and at www.theskinny.co.uk

First part of a two part special dedicated to Scotland's Fence Collective (www.fencerecords.com)

1. James Yorkston - Queen of Spain www.jamesyorkston.co.uk

2. The Pictish Trail - I Don't Know Where To Begin
www.myspace.com/pictishtrail

3. Rozi Plain - The Lang Toun (James Yorkston cover)

4. David Thomas Broughton (James Yorkston cover)

See www.myspace.com/jamesyorkstoncoversalbum for more info.

See the September issue of The Skinny for my interviews with The Pictish Trail, King Creosote and James Yorkston of the Fence Collective.

A chilled out alternative to the madness of the Edinburgh Festival. Includes details of the Retreat! alternative festival happening in Edinburgh during August.

Featuring:

1. Thee Moths- Don't Let The Crows Take Your Sight

www.myspace.com/theemothsband

2. Eagleowl - Blanket

www.myspace.com/eagelowlattack

3. Sans Trauma - The Day I Woke Up

www.myspace.com/sanstrauma

In association with www.theskinny.co.uk and www.freshair.org.uk

Retreat! artwork by Withered Hand. www.myspace.com/witheredhandmusic.
www.myspace.com/edinburghretreat

ihearanewworld blog: http://ihearanewworld.tumblr.com

Featuring:

1. Kazoo Funk Orchestra - Robots in Your Eyes
http://www.kazoofunkorchestra.com

2. Dirty Summer - Knees
www.myspace.com/dirtysummer

3. Ulrich Schnauss - Medusa
www.myspace.com/ulrichschnauss

4. Lach - Former President Bush
www.myspace.com/secretlach

See July's issue of The Skinny Magazine (www.theskinny.co.uk) for more details.

Featuring:

1. Employee of the Month - Brainwave Corrupted www.myspace.com/eotmband

2. Stanley Brinks - Stanley Brinks
www.myspace.com/therealstanleybrinks

3. Gummi Bako - I'm Depressed
www.gummibako.com

4. Wounded Knee - Anthem for the Call Centre Worker
www.myspace.com/iamwoundedknee


In association with www.theskinny.co.uk

Featuring:

Errors - Salut! France www.errors.org.uk

Withered Hand - Religious Songs www.myspace.com/witheredhandmusic

Cheer - Every Forest Has a Shadow www.myspace.com/mecheer

Paul Hawkins - I Like It When You Call Me Doctor www.myspace.com/theeawkwardsilences

For more info see May's issue of The Skinny magazine (www.theskinny.co.uk) and http://milomclaughlin.squarespace.com

This is a teaser podcast featuring the song "The Winter, Their Apartment" by our unsung hero from 3rd March 2008, Adam Gnade (song used with permisson - go to www.myspace.com/gnade for more info). You can also hear our regular guest expert on obscure music Mr. Digital Plamf talking about two of his unsung heroes. for further information check out his blog at www.myspace.com/cooking_citric