S R E D N A S A R O T C V
I I
CHVRCHES
TOP 10 AUTUMN TOP 5 GIGS
Music editor Kirstyn Smith rounds up the best gigs of the season
CARBS TENEMENT TRAIL
Jonnie Common and Jamie Scott (Conquering Animal Sound) tout smart hip hop and eccentric pop in their own off-kilter fashion. Their debut features songs about pizza and Mr Whippy which sounds like the perfect combination to us. See album review page 70. The Glad Café, Glasgow, Sat 12 Sep. Gig crawl, promoted by Tenement TV, taking in Nice’n’Sleazy, O2 ABC, Broadcast, Flat 0/1 and King Tut’s. You can see WHITE, Man of Moon, Young Aviators, Atom Tree, Be Charlotte, The Van T’s and hordes more along the way. Glasgow, Sat 3 Oct.
HONEYBLOOD The Glasgow-based crunch pop duo featuring Cat Myers on drums and Stina Tweeddale on guitar and vocals were nominated for this year’s SAY Award for their eponymous debut album. Art School, Fri 18 Sep.
JOANNA GRUESOME Joanna Gruesome met on a wine- tasting holiday, which is dei nitely the best place to decide to form a band, and they play noise- punk, indie-pop fuzz, chock full of chunky guitar and right-on lyrics. Summerhall, Edinburgh, Wed 23 Sep.
HEATHER PEACE
BILL WELLS & AIDAN MOFFAT The gruff former Arab Strap man Moffat and gentle jazz man Wells tour their new album The Most Important Place in the World, their long-awaited follow-up to 2011’s Everything’s Getting Older. Arts Centre, Paisley, Sun 11 Oct.
SLEAFORD MODS Nottingham’s punk / spoken word duo Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn provide a soundtrack to modern Britain. La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Oct.
YO LA TENGO The New Jersey-based trio explore the extremes of feedback-heavy rock and sweetly melodic pop. The Garage, Glasgow, Fri 16 Oct.
GHOSTPOET Mercury-nominated Obaro Ejimiwe performs his unique and intoxicating blend of hip hop and electronica. Art School, Glasgow, Wed 25 Nov.
BILLY BRAGG The legendary singer-songwriter and political activist still has plenty to sing and shout about. Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 1 Dec.
DJANGO DJANGO
Also a successful actor, a singer Peace is just as accomplished, lending her voice to everything from Motown-infused tracks to heart- wrenching ballads. St Andrews in the Square, Glasgow, Thu 1 Oct. Six months after the release of second album Born Under Saturn, the four piece pop back up to Scotland for this Barras date. We’re expecting a storming, tropical rave. Barrowland, Glasgow, Thu 3 Dec.
3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 25
‘We won’t be intimidated into changing what we do’ While the comeback single, ‘Leave a Trace’, doesn’t show a signii cant departure, that’s no big problem. Chvrches is a band with a clear vision of their own sonic aesthetic, while Mayberry’s words are rich in a suggestive, storytelling quality. ‘The sketch of “Leave a Trace” was done in one afternoon and that song felt so much more dei nite from earlier on than some of the other tunes,’ she says. ‘Lyrically, I think this record contains some of the most assertive and aggressive words we’ve ever written, but also some of the most hopeful. ‘‘Clearest Blue” is, I think, my favourite song on the album, because to me it balances the hopefulness and fear that everyone feels when they embark on something new and unknown. The closer, ‘‘Afterglow”, is one which took us all by surprise. It existed in many different forms and we could never agree on it, and it was only on the second last day of recording that we revamped the whole song. I think it works really well.’
It was disappointing to note, though, that Mayberry was being trolled on Twitter within hours of the ‘Leave a Trace’ video appearing. Her crime? The way she was dressed and the fact she appeared without her bandmates made her outspoken feminism hypocritical. Not to mention the usual, depressing threats of sexual violence which any woman in the public eye experiences. Typically on the subject, her response is an example to us all, male and female. ‘None of the band regrets the stand we’ve made on those issues,’ she says. ‘Someone said that I needed to get better at handling threats, but for me the issue isn’t how I handle them; the issue is the culture surrounding those ideas. When people tell us to ignore it or make apologies and allowances for arguments like, “if she didn’t want those comments, she shouldn’t have worn a minidress / had wet-look hair / fronted a band”, I want them to think about what that says to young women and the men who persecute them. That’s a mentality women come up against every single day; it’s victim-blaming rape-culture apologist bullshit. We won’t be intimidated into changing the way we do what we do. No one’s going to determine my narrative as a musician, as a performer or as a female, apart from me.’
Frankly, it makes you want to punch the air when she comes out with things like that. Chvrches played 364 shows in two years around The Bones of What You Believe, and Mayberry says the experience has helped them all grow. ‘We’ve made an album we’re incredibly proud of, but where it will take us, we can’t say. I think one of the things people like about our band is that we’re authentic, as people and in our writing, so I hope people can hear that in this music.’
Every Open Eye is released on Fri 25 Sep by Universal; Chvrches play Music Hall, Aberdeen, Mon 23 Nov; Fat Sam’s, Dundee, Tue 24 Nov.