Music
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‘ANTICIPATE HIS APPEARANCE ALL OVER ADVERTS BY YEAR’S END’ Hitlist THE BEST ROCK, POP, JAZZ & FOLK*
✽✽ Flight of the Conchords Did we mention Bret and Jemaine are in town? (see feature, page 24). It’s sold out, so you may need to‘just stay home and play synthesisers’. SECC, Glasgow, Fri 14 & Sat 15 May. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Piney Gir Miss Gir (real name Angela Penhaligon, see above) is a Kansas girl, based in London. Expect quirky alt. country, in a slightly deranged, 1950s housewife style. Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Sat 15 May. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed A good fortnight for retro sounds, with this Boston boy updating the Stax sound, then, Mayer Hawthorne & The County (King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, Wed 26 May) proving it’s hip to be square, with his old school Motown leanings. Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sat 15 May; Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Mon 17 May. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Fred Frith Another Dialogues Festival date, this time with Fred Frith, revered improv musician and founder of 70s experimental rockers Henry Cow. Inspace, Edinburgh, Fri 21 May. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Stag & Dagger See left, and Exposure, page 63. Various venues, Glasgow, Sat 22 May. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Django Django, Wounded Knee and Withered Hand NME-touted art rockers, who wowed at Homegame in March, headline with support from local wonky body parted singers. Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, Sun 23 May. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Alicia Keys Rihanna’s playing two SECC dates (Wed 19 & Thu 20 May), but if you prefer your leggy divas minus the mohawk and the ‘tude, perhaps this soul singer is more your type? SECC, Glasgow, Sun 23 May. (Rock & Pop) 13–27 May 2010 THE LIST 61
Deer green place
Not sure how to sort the wheat from the chaff at this year’s Stag & Dagger festival? Don’t worry, David Pollock points out the ten bands you’ll want to watch
Back for a second annual appearance in Glasgow this fortnight is Stag & Dagger, a two-legged affair starting in London. They don’t have a monopoly on the very finest new bands, but they’re working on it. Here are The List’s absolutely, positively must-see highlights, timetable permitting. Silver Columns Put Domino signee and Four Tet collaborator Adem Ilhan together with the Fence Collective’s Pictish Trail, aka Johnny Lynch, and what do you get? One of 2010’s most thrilling electronic pop acts, strangely enough, as anyone who caught their debut set at this year’s Homegame will testify. Signed to Moshi Moshi, so expect to hear much more of them (pictured above). Dam Mantle A product of Glasgow’s increasingly vibrant electronic scene, Kent expat Tom Marshall moulds 8-bit sounds into triumphant, orchestral patterns. Hear what we mean by checking out his debut EP ‘Grey’, on Halleluwah Hits. Django Django Wonderful soundtrack-alike variety from this Anglo-Scots quartet from Dalston. Surf guitars, Morricone menace and psyched-out electronics collide in a style not unlike The Beta Band. Which is no big surprise, considering their number includes Dave ‘brother of John’ Maclean. Gold Panda London-based producer and proud Japanophile Derwin Panda makes pretty, dreamy soundscapes with a heavy Oriental feel. Hear his self- released debut single ‘You’ and you too will anticipate his appearance all over quirky adverts and TV idents by year’s end.
by Aphex Twin’, Male Bonding Noise, distortion, no songs over three minutes long and pure pop urgency from this, you guessed it, all-male trio. Based in hipster ground zero Dalston, their signing to the legendary Sub Pop for debut LP Nothing Hurts is a coup for all concerned. Kid Adrift Described by The Guardian as ‘Muse remixed 21-year-old Clackmannanshire lone gunman Iain Campbell has been making massive waves behind the scenes of late. Expect his career to take off in a big way in 2011. Olympic Swimmers Indie as hell, this one-girl, four- boy bunch make chiming, delicate indie rock in the Delgados mould. Funny that, because two of them actually play in Emma Pollock’s live band, while Suzie Liddell does a charming vocal impression of the queen of beautifully gloomy jock rock. Jesca Hoop Wondrous weirdness from Californian singer-songwriter Hoop. Once, believe it or not, nanny for Tom Waits’ kids, her 2009 album Hunting My Dress is a microcosmic masterpiece of inventive, infectious pop and vocal gymnastics, not a million miles removed from PJ Harvey or Bjork. The Antlers The Brooklyn based solo project of Peter Silberman, now expanded to a trio, The Antlers (who sound nothing like Crystal Antlers, who sound nothing like Crystal Castles, and so on) are a fragile, wintery delight, comparable to Band of Horses. Crocodiles They release songs called ‘I Wanna Kill’ and ‘Summer of Hate’, and they’re deeply in hock to The Jesus and Mary Chain. You must love this band.
Various venues, Glasgow, Sat 22 May.