list.co.uk/music SINGLES
Records – Singles | MUSIC
WOODPIGEON Red Rover, Red Rover (Fierce Panda) ●●●●● FAT GOTH Surf’s Down – Live (Hefty Dafty) ●●●●●
The lead single from Woodpigeon’s recent album Thumbtacks + Glue, (and the follow-up to January's 'Edinburgh' which featured members of eagleowl and Withered Hand in the video - a souvenir of the lead singer's days spent living in the Scottish capital) is about as sweet and soothing as anything else to emanate from Mark Andrew Hamilton’s Calgary crew to date.
Admittedly, it takes a while to thaw out, but soon picks up a 1960s-inspired beat, all slathered in syrupy harmonies and bright, crackling guitars.
As a one-off, it doesn’t really shock or surprise as much as it gives good reason to further delve into Woodpigeon’s collective nest.
Bundling itself into your ear canals as tactfully as a skunk attack or a street-side kneecapping, ‘Surf’s Down’ flaunts the kind of obnoxiously loud, meat-and-potatoes rock that has been propping up the rock‘n’roll floodgates since Nirvana fell headfirst through them some 20-odd years ago. This live version, in support of Fat
Goth’s second album, Stud, is suitably oversized and blackly humorous, and heavy drunk on its own riffs. It’s only really hampered by frontman Fritz’s warbling Yoda-like vocals. ■ To win copies of their album Stud, see pg 82. For free tickets to see them play Electric Circus on Thu 11 Apr, go to widedays-electriccircus. eventbrite.com.
RUNGS I Don’t Wanna Hug! I Just Wanna Cum! – EP (Self-released) ●●●●● HOLY ESQUE ‘St.’ (Self-released) ●●●●●
Rising from the smouldering ashes of Take a Worm for a Walk Week, Lapsus Linguae and Project: Venhell, Glasgow punk five-piece (Johnny Docherty, Jonny Scott, Iain Quimby, Stephen Hines and Tronn Tryst) Rungs’ first offering is about as unhinged and unlistenable as fans of both have come to love (and loathe). Their command of sporadic noise and almost carnival-like levels of uneasy melody on these four tracks is actually more palatable than you might think, despite sounding like field recordings of getting jumped at a taxi rank, while the superbly-titled ‘Hutchie Belt Wank’ is almost danceable. Disgustingly brilliant. ■ To hear more, go to rungs.bandcamp.com
Glaswegian quartet Holy Esque (touting their musical wares at Austin's SXSW festival, at time of going to press, alongside JD Twitch from Optimo, Kassidy, The View, Camera Obscura, PAWS and Tango in the Attic) are among a handful of newish acts getting the ‘ones to watch’ treatment right now. Seemingly led by the amazing human
tremolo, this warbling slab of generic Scottish indie is messy in all the wrong places. Compared to others in the Holy Esque vault, ‘St.’ sounds like a rushed college project, and lacks the punch or hooks. Given their musical infancy, there’s room here for potential anthems, but ‘St.’ ain’t one of ‘em. (Singles reviewed by Ryan Drever)
EXPOSURE
GOLDEN TEACHER
Another winner has emerged from the Optimo Music sta- bles, with the sleazy Dinosaur L-isms of Glasgow’s Golden Teacher. One of the greatest things to have hit the city’s dancefloors in memory, the ad hoc assembly are a collabo- ration between members of Ultimate Thrush and Silk Cut. Richard McMaster (also in Lovers Rights) and brothers Ollie and Laurie Pitt school us. How did you start playing together? Richard: We had some recording time together at the Green Door studio as part of a course for unemployed musicians. We messed around for about an hour and the next week we went and recorded the EP. Musically, what’s the intention for the band? Laurie: Nothing other than to make music we’d like to dance to. In reality when we plan to have a practice we just get distracted and end up cooking food. We don’t really ‘write’ songs, so far everything we’ve recorded has been largely improvised and done in one take. We’ll end up doing maybe one or two overdubs, but that’s about it. Sometimes the vocals are recorded without hearing the music beforehand. What’s your live show like? Richard: We’ve mostly been playing in clubs, which is great because people are there to dance. We played in Corsica Studios last weekend with Optimo and Matias Aguayo, we went on at three in the morn- ing and the majority of the set was one 12/8 rhythm with next to no melody. There wasn’t even a straight kick drum in it at all. Do you think the name might make people believe you’re a bunch of hippies? Ollie: Psychedelia is way older than hippies. More than two thirds of the band went to Steiner School, so that’s not an issue. (David Pollock) ■ Golden Teacher play the Chernozem afterparty at the Flying Duck, Glasgow, Fri 29 Mar; and a DJ set at Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow Sat 30 Mar. The EP ‘Bells From the Deep End’ is out now on Optimo Music.
21 Mar–18 Apr 2013 THE LIST 81
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