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REVIEW INDIE-Z FOLK
THE SECOND HAND MARCHING BAND
Is This Music? @ 13th Note, Glasgow. Thu 15 Jan 0000
With How To Swun, Broken Records and The Parsonage all gOing strong. Scottish bands wrth more personnel than a football sguad are in vogue. The 22—piece SHMB —— a collective featuring members of other local notables including Danananaykroyd. Eagleowl and Remember Remember — have their own take on the Ioadsotpeoplesrnging thing: they're a giant chorr-come-orchestra. sans a specrtic trontperson (lead vocals are passed around throughout the set). They launched their debut EP A Dance to Half Death here. on a surge of brass. glockenspiels. acoustic guitars. ukuleles. drums and quite pOSSibly — hidden up the back — the kitchen srnk. A communal. swaying magnificence — caught somewhere between the roughshod Balkan folk of Beirut and the mass instrumental oomph of Arcade Fire — it delivered a mighty strength and depth of emotional punch indeed. Capturing SHMB's spirit on record erI surely be murder, but live they're blossoming into something big and beautiful (definitely big. anyway). (Malcolm Jack) www.thesecondhandmarchingband.co. uk
REVIEW INDIEf BOYCOTTS
Limbo@The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh. Thu 15 Jan 0000
Just when you think you've got this Glasgow tour-piece hailed as an abraswely angular. art school outfit. the pixie-booted minx bopping about onstage opens her cheeky gob and takes you by surprise. The sound emanating from knowrngly named Stina Twee sounds like the spirit of long lost indie pin-up Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays distilled through a post Penetration Pauline Murray and melodies by Morrissey that drive and soar off somewhere out the ordinary. Musrcally, Boycotts provide a relentlessly taut backdrop to such bittersweet colouring, With bass notes zapping out from the sculpted guitar patterns in a manner that recalls the post-punk structures of Life Without Buildings. Here. though. Ms Twee is less treetorm, more straight-ahead in vocal stylings which rise and fall across the tunes" more urgent intentions. At their most accomplished such a counterpOint makes for a healthy creative tension that should be pushed further. It's early days yet for Boycotts. but it‘s clear the game they're playing is a whole lot livelier than cricket. Just say yes. (Neil Cooper) www.myspace.com/startaboycott
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SCOTTISH OPERA -
LA TRAVIATA
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, Sat 29 NOV 0...
What hetter opera for St Valentine's Day than I a fray/afa’? Veri li'i‘, impassioned tale of the t'ar; r: I""’)!"i‘ whose lcve is titiei than true. It .wme'. is much more than headi, roinanre In DaVid McVicar's lovely to look at new production for Scottish Opera or: shows a genuine depth of human understanding of Violetta. the driniiied courtesan. With soprano (:(IYIIMZ'I‘ Giannatasio superh in her sensitize and allencoinp; ssing interpretatirn Violetta pulls at the emotions wth heart-breaking \.’II[II(BTZtl)IIll\,.
The hedonistic opening champagne party contrasts ail too I)()I(}II£]".I“\, ft the purity of her love for Aitredc. and the struggle against inevitable death As her lover. Federico I.epre is 'iiore lightweight invoice. underlining his youth and immaturity Yet his love is what Violetta craves for not the superficialitv of endless glamourous affairs. In the pit. the orchestra 7 conducted by Emmanuel Joel Hornak — is in empathy With the operas emotional appeal. although the chorus didn't Quite Sing with the vitality of A list party guests. 'Caro! Maini I La Travrata. Theatre Roi/ai’. G/.’i.<;gow. Fri 6. Sun 8. Thu 72 8 Sat M Fe!)
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Glasgow four-piece St Deluxe channel the fuzzed-up ghosts of Sebadoh, My Bloody Valentine and early Teenage Fanclub, with their eponymous debut album a sweet blend of plaintive melodies and old-school overdriven antics. Guitarist Martin Kirwan talks about the band Alan McGee calls ‘a Scottish Nirvana for the twenty-first century’.
How was the album to make?
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You also worked with esteemed indie producers Joe Foster and Calvin Johnson, how did that come about?
You’re also Duglas Stewart’s BMX Bandits backing band. How does that compare to your own distortion-drenched
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THE RELENTLESS KERRANG! TOUR 2009 Barrowland, Glasgow.
Tue 27 Jan 000
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I'm 'iI‘T thrust. c‘ Mr I n (Ere; then, .Iapa'i's "ottefx. export who bring rx.ie"‘.'."ci.ght ‘IKW, syvathes that never seew tr: ex':ite as much as they hope Il‘ev naxe splashes of .iiriilent thrash ’3,II£tlII!(IES. Just none of the grooves.
The no show 'it Bring Me the Hon/on leads us :nto .JIIIIIII‘," Urine and His Mindless Set Indulgence. The comedy Marilyn Manson tag only goes part the ‘.-./a,. MSl's sound is part happy hardcore stomp. part rockabilly shuttle fronted by an erno reworking of Eminent. Not NIIITUIII charm, this is inusc to soundtrack teen hedonism. Delirious anrl occamonally delightful. 'Mark Robertson)
' 7‘ ‘er, 27/: THE LIST 63