Scottish Alternative Music Awards

In association with Vintage Guru the Scottish Alternative Music Awards will be coming to the Glasgow Garage on the 1st of March 2012.
Comedian Billy Kirkwood will be hosting the event and the categories are as follows:

BEST ROCK/ALTERNATIVE sponsored by Ignite Records
BEST METAL sponsored by Departed Apparel
BEST ACOUSTIC sponsored by JamHut Studios
BEST ELECTRONIC sponsored by Bar Bloc
BEST LIVE ACT sponsored by Messer Schmitt
BEST NEWCOMER sponsored by Cathouse Rock Club
BEST HIP HOP sponsored by Young Scot.

After the success of last years event this is going to be the hot ticket for fans of all genres of what is loosely classed as alternative music.
Tickets are £10 and can be bought here
http://www.tickets-scotland.com/booking.html?booking_method=viewevent&booking_event_id=76fa4666-2b24-11e1-bd89-12313d233d40
All other information and the chance to vote on the acts participating are here.
http://www.tickets-scotland.com/booking.html?booking_method=viewevent&booking_event_id=76fa4666-2b24-11e1-bd89-12313d233d40

Jasiri X - The World Is Watching

As rap was redefined as a vehicle to deliver a message about guns, bling, bitches and ho's to the mainstream masses I virtually left it behind.
There's little within what it was doing that I personally felt had any real value.
This sexist celebration of accruing wealth wasn't the message that rap and hip hop had its roots in.
Well not for me anyway.
Give me the Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, Grandmaster Flash or Public Enemy and keep your Eminems, Tupacs, Biggie Smalls, Lil' Wayne and Big Sean as I have no real use for them
I still think this, but as with anything there are always many exceptions to the rule if you care to look for them and 'The World Is Watching' by Jasiri X is strong proof of this.
Nuanced, intelligent and relevant are just three words that readily spring to mind when I listen to him.
If you want an insight into what is going on in the US then it's Jasiri X that is dragging a light forth to shine on the ugly underbelly of a country that can often enough appear to be morally bankrupt due to the perception that the minority in power portray to the rest of the world.
The lyrics spat out here quite possibly aren't going to change any deeply held opinions of the US, but they do highlight rather effectively that as is the norm the political word doesn't express the wishes or opinions of the people.
By speaking out Jasiri X is connecting with what rap music is to me, and that's protest songs from the street.
The voice of the people expressing themselves.
We need this.
I guess that in short I could say that while the rap stars who are relaxing beside their pools in the hills of Hollywood may have the cash and the fame, it is Jasiri X that has integrity, and you can't buy that.
Thanks go out to Roscoe Vacant for turning me onto this.
You can get this album for free here.
http://jasirix.bandcamp.com/releases

The Girobabies - Bus Stop Apocalypse

No budget, no label, no management, no rules.
This is The Girobabies.
This generations last gang in town.
They're holding up a mirror to society and what is reflected back is a dystopian nightmare bolstered by a soundtrack that's hypnotically seductive.
The lyrics are the solid fist and the music the velvet glove that envelopes it.
With Bus Stop Apocalypse they have created an unflinching, unblinking challenge to the UK to wake up, to tear the blindfold off and react.
React to the drab fuckin' boring violence.
React to the drugs,
React to the apathy,
React to the coalition.
React to the lack of imagination.
React to the sleep walkers.
React to preconceived ideas and attitudes.
It screams at you to feel something and to think independently from what the media is feeding you.
Trip hop to hip hop, funk to punk, beats and acoustic guitars versus ambient noise.
It's all here.
All crowding each other out, pushing for space with sharp elbows and attitude.
At times it makes for uncomfortable listening, but the truth is always more difficult to accept than a lie that encourages passive acceptance of the status quo.
This is a manifesto for the disenfranchised to dance to and right at this moment it is exactly what we need to hear.
Vive le revolution. Vive le Girobabies.

http://thegirobabies.bandcamp.com/

Homesick Aldo - Talkin Innocent Outlaw Blues

It's 1902.
A new century is teetering onto unsteady feet and looking to take some unhindered steps still further into the future.
Meanwhile WC Handy stands still in Tutwiler. Mississippi waiting for a train.
The heat and dust compete as a distraction while sweat trickles from his hairline into his starched shirt collar.
It's certainly a a long way from the Scotland of 2012.
A time and place where the sky is slate grey and the rain unforgiving.
Yet there is a connection.
A link between what was then and what is now, and that link is the blues.
When WC Handy heard the sound of the slide guitar for the first time on that day, a sound that he would then take forth to the world, it would act as a catalyst and over a century later set a young man on a musical journey that would see him record an album that would in a spiritual sense bring the blues back home.
This is that album.
With a stomping, howling clarion call of authenticity that hasn't been heard in a very long time this is the sound of the blues coming full circle and reconnecting with its own past.
It's not the sound of the studio, or even a technical facsimile of the Delta that Clapton would wring out of a guitar, but instead it is the beating heart of the juke joint, the plantation and the Devil doing a deal at the crossroads put to music.
A living breathing testament to the power that music possesses when it is revealed in its rawest form.
In short it's the real deal.
http://newtownproducts.bandcamp.com/album/talkin-innocent-outlaw-blues

The Coffins - Devil Spew

As a descriptive term garage punk is a rather loose one.
Everything from jangly paisley patterned mid western psych to the crash of The Clash have been attributed to coming from the garage.
Due to this increasingly wide understanding of what the term means it has become ludicrous to simply tag a band with the garage moniker and expect anyone to actually know what they sound like.
To call a group a garage band doesn't really convey anything specific any more.
So when I say that The Coffins are a band that have come from the garage what I really mean is that they crept out from under a tarpaulin wrapped corpse that was stuffed under a pile of mildewed girlie mags at the back of a garage that is now cordoned off as a crime scene.
There's dirt under these guys nails, some blood stains on the Cramps t-shirts they're wearing and a defiant fuck you attitude that could only come from being raised on the schizophrenic west coast of Scotland.
When they say 'bring me the head of a boy band member it's not so much a tongue in cheek reference to the state of the current landscape of the charts, but quite possibly just a flippant request for something to eat, because without a shadow of a doubt these guys do eat boy band members for breakfast and use them as fuel to power their darkly psychotic aural adventures.
Buy this from Newtown Products if you dare.
http://newtownproducts.bandcamp.com/album/devil-spew

The Vox Dolomites

The sound of ska influenced punk never dies.
Instead it does the hokey cokey as a musical sub genre.
One minute it's in, then the next it's out, but it always shakes it all about.
The reason that it will not die is because bands like The Vox Dolomites resolutely keep breathing some hot and exciting life into it.
On the three tracks that they are giving away free to promote their forthcoming album on STP Records you can literally hear the sound of punk and ska clashing.
This isn't the sounds of Jamaica or the dance halls.
It's the sound of the streets.
Streets full of every hue of skin, full of people who are all flashing large grins and stamping their feet to the beat.
It's a party. A working class party with more attitude than you could shake a stick at.
Class stuff and you can grab it here.
http://thevoxdolomites.bandcamp.com/

There aint no Sanity Clause. Part 4 (The Young Ones)

The Young Ones (DVD)
I started off with some mixed feelings about this one.
At first it felt very dated, but then when I was midway through the second episode I was starting to become more acclimatized to the humour again.
As the third episode finished that was me hooked.
Who needs a DeLorean when time travel is possible by simply buying a Young Ones box set.
Some of the material still hasn't transferred into the present as maybe it could have.
Ben Elton comes across as a bit of a twat whenever he appears.
Very much someone who was part of the establishment poking fun at it.
That he wrote a Queen musical makes sense now.
(His books are still good though)
However Alexia Sayle who I was less keen on first time around has managed to maintain far more relevance.
His surreal political outlook probably makes more sense now that then.
The key players who the show revolved around are all still great.
The stereotype gauge is on max throughout and the larger than life characterizations are still very recognizable.
It has to be said though that while there is much said about the birthing of alternative comedy you just can't get away from this being a mainly a slapstick show that is rooted in skits that are historically tried and tested.
Proof of that is in how my daughter at twelve loves that aspect of it.
I think I'll have to get myself the Comic Strip box set at some time and see how that goes down with the kids.

There aint no Sanity Clause - Part 3 (The Hours)

The Hours - See the light (CD)
Loved the début from this band, but when I went to see them live I was so underwhelmed that I sort of allowed them to momentarily slip from my memory.
Then they released a single that preceded their return to the fray that was 'See the Light', and as that was also rather lacklustre it acted as another nail being hammered into the 'where are they now' coffin that I was fashioning for them to reside in.
So why did I buy the album then?
Well it was a quid and at that price I'm easy going about offering them the chance to redeem themselves, and in a small way they have managed to claw back some lost ground.
Not a lot, but some.
Although only time will tell how often this album will get dusted off and given a spin.
Being in the Mescaleros with Strummer, having celeb friends, getting Damien Hirst to fashion some shit for you and even touring in support to U2 is obviously not always the key to success.
See the light isn't a bad album, but I suspect it's going to be a dust magnet in my flat.

There aint no Sanity Clause - Part 2 (Primal Scream/MC5)

Primal Scream/MC5 - Black to Comm (CD x2/DVD)
Woooah. When did this come out?
I egotistically pride myself on being the guy with his finger on the pulse and his ear to the ground, but this one past me by completely.
Only this morning while perusing the racks in FOPP I noticed the cheeky little bit of an M and a C peaking out from beneath a price tag, and along with the title of 'Black to Comm' it was enough to have me barrelling forward in eager anticipation to check out what I knew was an MC5 goody whose existence I had been previously ignorant off.
Turns out that it was the concert that they did with Primal Scream for the Meltdown Festival and here it was in all its cinematic glory.
Now that's a motherfuckin' double bonus right there. Primal Scream and MC5 doing their counter culture ramalama live on DVD .
The only problem was that at fifteen notes it was a bit pricey for my economically besieged pocket.
So with a bit of a heavy heart I left FOPP and resolved that as soon as I returned home I would be searching the net to see if I could manage to secure it for less bucks, and if I was unsuccessful I would steel myself for maybe having to wait until it started to pop up in sales.
The gods of serendipity were however shining on me because less than an hour later while perusing the shelves of the normally extortionate HMV my son found a box set version that featured the DVD, two CDs and a little booklet all neatly packaged like tiny vinyl albums for £15.99.
So all I'm going to say is that I've been a relatively good boy throughout 2011 and I think I deserved to buy it for myself.
The additional CD's and booklet were the tipping point and before you could say kick out the jams my wallet was in my hand and the young lady at the checkout was cashing it up.
Then with butterflies having what felt like seizures in my stomach at the thought of an outlay I really couldn't afford I started thinking that this might have been a rather unwise purchase.
Doubts started to crowd in.
Who was going to be singing with MC5/TDK.
I'd seen them perform a gig once and left with every expectation not just met, but instead surpassed, but then again different singers at different gigs is an unknown quantity and this really could be the worst of the worst.
Then there's Primal Scream. A band known for their excesses that I've seen a few times over the years to.
I've witnessed them tear roofs off and on one occasion I've seen then doing the shell shock shuffle and deliver a rock and roll show that your drunk uncle at a wedding would empathise with due to the equal amount of shit dancing on display.
Oh dear. What if this was the recording of both bands at their worst?
Thankfully as soon as I got home all my fears vanished.
Initially it's Primal Scream all the way.
They've got it going on.
Their mojo has just had a large syringe full of adrenaline stabbed right into its heart and the boys are up for it.
There's a cocky confidence that the band possess and unlike other acts who drag that 'stage persona' out as they play the rock start for the audience Primal Scream are indeed the coolest fuckers on the block and they can back it up.
It's pretty much a fearless performance where they unveil a clutch of then new songs mixed in with what Scream fans would call classics.
Even the most hardened and fanatical MC5 fan would appreciate the set and I doubt many would skip forward to their heroes, and instead would hang in there and soak up the whole gig as it was performed.
Once Primal Scream finish it's a smooth transition and there they are. Three of the Motor City Five are there.
The torch has been passed over and Wayne Kramer immediately takes the lead with 'Ramblin Rose' before then handing over the vocal duties to William DuVall (who is probably better known as the replacement for Layne Staley in Alice in Chains.) who as a guest replacement for the sadly missed Rob Tyner is perfection in a 'fro.
That man has the ability to put the sound of soul and fuck into rock.
This is the mighty MC5 reanimated.
It's not a run through of songs from yesteryear.
This is the fire relit and they're burning down the house.
By the time that the groove of 'Motor City is Burning' is being pushed out I'm blown away.
This is the sound of revolution rock and I love it.
In my tender years when I first heard the MC5 I struggled to accept that this was a band who were from the past.
I really couldn't wrap my head around it.
Now, in the present, I still think that they are a band out of time.
No era of music can hold them and the proof is on this.
After a full set there's what some people would consider obvious omissions on their part.
Where's 'I can only give you everything'? 'Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa'? Etc.
Never fear though as this is where Primal Scream reappear and take to the stage with the MC5 and it all becomes a double pronged attack of excellence where they play each others songs together and end the night with John Sinclair joining them on a cosmic jam of 'Black to Comm'
Jeeeez man. I'm worn out.
The only thing better that watching this would be to actually be there centre stage and sweating buckets to history being made in front of you.
As live DVDs go this is obscenely good.

There aint no Sanity Clause. Part 1 (Springsteen)

(Or what I got for Chrimbo)

Not so much reviews, but instead rambling comments

Bruce Springsteen - The Promise (CD)
There's an era of Springsteen material that I completely get.
When I listen to it I feel emotionally connected.
I don't have to come from the United States, or even specifically New Jersey, to feel what he is conveying.
Those who bemoan his penchant for chronicling a time and place that is immersed in an America that apparently only exists in his mind, an America of Mom and Pop stores, ice cream sundaes and large cars with fins, don't seem to hear what I do.
For me the geographical location is of secondary importance and the reflective prose is everything.
His words are often those of the white lines disappearing in the rear view mirror.
The places we have been, the people we have met, the experiences that we shared that made us who we are and who we wish to be.
It's all there.
Springsteen appears to effortlessly understand that as we move forward in our lives there is equally as much we want to hang onto as we wish to freely relinquish and he has the ability to put all of this into words and music that touches people.
Deeply touches them.
We want to hang onto our youth, our first loves, our endless summers and the friendships we thought would never fade, and there's very few people who can manage to get that across while at the same time maintaining a sense of hope for the coming dawn, but 'The Boss' can.
I can't really think of anything better right now than sitting in the dark with headphones on and allowing Bruce to fill my head with his words and music.
(The Promise is a double CD of material culled from the sessions that were being laid down prior to 'Darkness at the Edge if Town' being released)