There’s no better place than the pages of your favourite music magazines to find the latest artists to rock your world. Edinburgh International Magazine Festival 2019 are teaming up with The Skinny and GoldFlakePaint to bring that sense of exploration and discovery to a live event, where together they have curated a lineup of some of the most exciting Scottish acts in 2019.
Each band will be introduced by a great music journalist. The Skinny‘s Music Editor Tallah Brash and GoldFlakePaint‘s Editor Tom Johnson will be joined by our very own EIMF director Laura Kelly Dunlop in introducing you to your new favourite band.
This event is supported by PRS Foundation
Petrol Girls are a feminist post-hardcore punk band, originally formed in London, with members from Austria, Lithuania and the UK. Now based all over the place and touring incessantly, the band are strong advocates of freedom of movement, anti capitalism and intersectional feminism. Rooted in a DIY music community that has always combined politics with punk rock, Petrol Girls are part of a counter culture challenging mainstream values like nationalism and the gender binary, and the oppressions that these ideals promote.
With a diverse range of influences such as Refused, The Slits, Fugazi and Björk, and having had the pleasure to support bands such as The Dead Kennedys, Propagandhi, RVIVR, Anti Flag and Refused, the band are constantly developing musically as well as politically. Their music frequently toys with unusual time signatures and harmonic movement, with screaming and harsh angular rhythms to sad and desperate melodic moments or raging anthemic choruses. The lyrics grow from direct experiences and genuine questions, pushing beyond repetitive slogans to provoke meaningful conversations about what we’re actually going to do to change something.
Petrol Girls are named after Pétroleuses, mythical women of the Paris commune who allegedly set fire to private property with Molotov cocktails made from milk bottles, and rejected traditional gender roles. The inspiration came from a talk on Women and Protest given by writer Laurie Penny, who loosely translated Pétroleuses to Petrol Girls.
The band first formed in 2013 for a house show that singer Ren was putting on to celebrate International Women’s Day. This feminist context was essential for the band’s formation within a wider music community that at the time did very little to encourage women’s participation.
In the modern world of streaming-dominated music consumption, there are a few standard ways that artists tend to rack up the numbers. They’re either signed to a major label, who have the leverage and cash to get them all up in people’s eye-lines; they’ve managed to nab a lucrative spot on a New Music Friday playlist, or they’ve made friends with Hugh Jackman and wound up on ‘The Greatest Showman’ soundtrack. Rare, however, is the track that climbs into seven-figure streams just by virtue of being very, very good. And even rarer still is the occasion when that happens to a virtually unknown indie band.
‘If You Know That I’m Lonely’, the jangling, sepia-tinged and ’60s-inflected bop released by Brighton quartet FUR last autumn, however, is currently sitting at over 3.6 million Youtube views.
It’s had no car commercial sync deals and no Ed Sheeran endorsement; the only boost its been given is an initial backing by Jager Curtain Call – the collaboration between Jaegermeister and UK publication DIY Magazine, who first funded the recording of the track. Amusingly, coupled with an aesthetically-pleasing, Wes Anderson-esque video that cost “about £100 to make”, this probably gives the song the most cost-effective money: stream ratio on the entire platform. “When we released it we were hoping that it’d get to 20,000 in a couple of months, but then one day it started going up,” remembers singer Murray. “Since then, it’s 100% changed everything. It’s not just people saying ‘cool video’ and sharing it; a lot of these people are buying our records and merch and have adopted us as their new favourite band. We’re in a time where it’s still a fairly recent thing for a Youtube video to build something like that, so for a band to find their fanbase this way is really cool.”
Formed just over three years ago in the seaside town that the band – completed by guitarist Harry, bassist Tav, and drummer Flynn – still call home, FUR might not have expected this sudden change of fortune, but their ambition and determination was there from the start. Meeting initially on a Freshers internet forum, Murray and Harry had formed the basis of the group and began writing before they even started their first day of uni. When finding other flatmates, meanwhile, their only requirement was that they play either drums or bass. “I was very aware that going to a place like Brighton would definitely allow you to do the band thing,” explains the singer. “So when me and Harry met each other we thought, let’s get it started as soon as possible so we’re not wasting time.”
With a full quartet on board, they began to pen tracks based equally in the ‘00s indie they’d grown up with and an increasing rekindled interest in the older music they’d always known from home. “It started off [influenced] by The Strokes and The Cribs, who are another band we all really adore. But as we kept on writing, I found myself really enjoying and being really good at tapping into that [other] place,” explains Murray. “So then it was a case of looking at what sounded like FUR and getting that balance where it doesn’t sound like a band from the ‘60s, it sounds like if a ’60s band were doing something modern.” Harry notes: “For some reason, even when we’d only written two songs, we already knew what FUR sounded like.”
Heading into the release of their debut EP, following recent single ‘What Would I Do?’ (itself already up to half a million views, FYI) what FUR sound like currently is a band capable of penning a particularly nostalgic strain of guitar music but making it sound fresh again. Taking the age-old love song trope and reinvigorating it, theirs are tracks that feel familiar and classic but with a vibrancy that’s entirely new. “The three most written-about things are love, money and sex. One I’m not that comfortable writing about, and I don’t have that much money, but everyone’s felt some feeling of love and there’s something powerful about that,” the singer states. “It’s the strongest emotional connection I can have with a song.”
So far, this outlook has earned them critical plaudits from tastemakers such as Steve Lamacq, as well as gaining them support slots with a truly diverse set of artists including Miles Kane, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and London crooner Matt Maltese – who they’ll shortly be heading out on a full tour with. FUR have also found that their music’s been resonating in more places than just their homeland, too. “I think the one thing we really appreciate is people telling us we have a fanbase in places we never expected. Indonesia has become a big thing, and when people in Peru say there are whole groups of people out there that love us, that’s amazing,” says Flynn before Murray chips in: “And there’s been so much fan art. That’s when I think, what’s going on?! When you see someone who’s spent like, six hours drawing your face…”
It’s a fair point, but with an ever-increasing group of supporters already on board and a forthcoming EP set to cement their excitement, FUR better get used to a little healthy adoration. “When we all think back to where it started with ‘If You Know That I’m Lonely’, doing it on such a shoestring and seeing where we’ve got to now from that, it’s mad,” sums up Murray.
You sense it’s probably just the beginning…
The Cucumber Lodge is a lovingly chaotic series of irregular social gatherings that gravitate towards the edges of our cultural zeitgeists in their current and former states. The cultural mythology of the USSR is often hidden or misplaced yet Elena Tikhonova and Dominik Spritzendorfer’s ELEKTRO MOSKVA sets out to unravel the long coils of Soviet electronic music history. Recounted by a cast of synth-wizards and salvagers they uncover the rich musical heritage that Russia has left behind to electronic music. Presented in the unique setting of Sneaky Pete’s nightclub for the wonderful Scalarama film festival!
Tickets £7 (+£1 booking fee)
Tickets for carers available
Doors 7pm
Tickets for carers available
Venue accessibility information is available from the Sneaky Pete’s website https://www.sneakypetes.co.uk/about/
VOODOOS with support from THE VANITIES + PUBLIC TRANSPORT
The Rebel is the moniker of Country Teasers’ frontman and general human enigma Ben Wallers.
Tickets on sale now!
t’s been a hot minute. So we’re coming back for a one off Edinburgh show. We would love to see you there.
Tickets £5 and come with a free copy of ‘any joy’ if purchased from our bandcamp
Supports –
Baron Salmon
Burn The Maps
Check us out on Spotify :
After blowing us away at this year’s Independent Venue Week in January, we’ve invited the Glasgow young team Heavy Rapids back for more!
Heavy Rapids are part of a new wave of Glasgow bands with incredible punk energy and a following that really feels like the germ of a huge scene.
So, we never really said goodbye, did we?
Well, we’re back.
Let’s do this one more time before Nic moves to Australia.
Let’s sing and dance together again. We’ve missed you.
“The best club in the UK for future rock & roll stars” Noel Gallagher
LIVE
Only Shadows
+ more TBA
This Feeling DJs play…??Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles, Black Honey, Blossoms, Blur, BRMC, Cabbage, Catfish & The Bottlemen, The Charlatans, The Cribs, The Coral, Courteeners, David Bowie, DMA’s, Doves, Kasabian, The La’s, The Libertines, Oasis, Primal Scream, Pulp, Reverend & The Makers, The Rifles, The Rolling Stones, The Smiths, Stone Roses, Super Furry Animals, The Strokes, Suede, Supergrass, Temples, Trampolene, The Shimmer Band, The Verve, The Who, Yonaka + lots more including all the best new bands in the land
Charity Fundraiser
ALF with special guests KilgrVston, Hamish Hawk, Hector Shaw and Baron Salmon
Tickets
Upcoming and established local bands helping raise funds for medical care.
ALF
Inspired by heavy bass, crazy synth and soulful ukulele. Formed by lead singer /songwriter Alfie Marsh formerly of Martin Place and lead vibe creator Alastair Barron, this will be the first live headline debut of their brand new music.
Kilgrvston
5 piece band from Edinburgh who combine harsh rock riffs with poppy feel good melodies to put on exhilarating show.
Hector Shaw
As a young child Hector Shaw regularly came on tour with his parents – members of Scottish folk band Capercaillie. Now 19 and living in Edinburgh he has performed across Scotland, including at Belladrum’s Tartan Heart Festival. His songs use open tunings, his husky vocals taking clear influence from John Martin and Joni Mitchell. He plans to release a debut single soon
Baron Salmon
Baron Salmon, now 20, has come a long way since picking up a guitar 6 years ago. From a fledgling Steve Earle wannabe, he is now in command of an impressive and complex approach to guitar playing that owes more to influences such as Nick Drake and Richard Thompson.
Support also from Hamish Hawk whose vocals on his latest double EP Laziest River have been described as unique and beguiling by ASSAI Records.
Goodnight Louisa is dark dream pop project created by Louise Anna McCraw, a songwriter from Edinburgh, Scotland. McCraw explores conventional pop melodies intertwining synths, guitars and thought provoking lyrics. For lovers of St. Vincent, Beach House and Imogen Heap.
She’s been described as “eerily ethereal” and “leaving the room with an air of strange beauty.” – Bloodbath Zine
“McCraw’s cinematic vision of electro-pop is something that will set her apart from the other.” – Scottish Alternative Music Awards
Miss June tour their new album ‘Bad Luck Party’
Savage Mansion, the project of Glasgow-based songwriter Craig Angus, tours the UK this September and October with a new five-piece lineup. Debut album Revision Ballads was released in February through Lost Map records, and received favourable comparisons to the likes of Pavement, The Modern Lovers and the wordy lyrical freewheelings of Courtney Barnett and Parquet Courts.
Two Tone Television are one of Glasgow’s best up and coming bands. The five piece band have played electric shows across the country. TTT draw influence from across all musical genres and are known for their captivating and riotous live shows. These guys pack a punch and deliver their sound fully with such enthusiasm and raw energy. They have a fast growing support so don’t miss out I promise you will leave wanting more!
Check Masses are a Leith based trio who mix up beats, psych, dub and soul across well-crafted, self-produced songs. Releasing their debut album Nightlife in spring of 2020 with taster singles beforehand, Fresh Produce will be their first electrified performance.
Fronted by vocal powerhouse Anastasia Walker and featuring Ross Cameron (guitars) and Richard Gartland (drums), Bang Bang Romeo are a propelling force for female-fronted bands and an open voice for the LGBTQ+ community.
Anastasia’s “once in 20 years voice” is unrivalled and the group’s larger-than-life performances are sending audiences wild up and down the country, leaving them with jaws dropped or reduced to tears.
Following their opening performance on the main stage Isle of Wight Festival to “record crowds” the band have been asked to join pop icon P!nk on her 2019 European tour.
Chance McCoy is a Grammy Award winning Indie Folk musician from West Virginia.
“It can be scary to step away from something that’s been so successful,” says Chance McCoy, “but it’s important to follow your passion. I really believe in the music that I’m making right now, so it feels like the right time for me as an artist to get off the main road and explore the path less trodden.”
Pulled Apart By Horses are less a gang and more one big fucked-up dysfunctional family. The Leeds quartet are a tightly-knit rock band who make music that thrills and menaces, their songs armed with suckerpunch riffs and zinging choruses. They formed in 2008 out of the ashes of various bands in Leeds. Since then they have existed in their own chaotic ecosystem, embarking on relentless tours around the world and stopping only to make 2010’s punkily infectious self-titled debut and its snarling 2012 follow-up ‘Tough Love’ (produced by Gill Norton – Pixies/Foo Fighters etc.) . Everything they’ve done has been drenched in a sense of youthful recklessness, of all or nothing ardour. With third album ‘Blood’ they took things a step forward with wider musical and lyrical themes, embracing their love of psychedelic cinema and developing as a band whilst retaining the thrilling ‘Horses’ sound.
But life doesn’t come with a user manual. Amid the constant noise, clamour and confusion of the Information Age, sometimes – as with much of the technology which surrounds us – human beings work best after simply being switched off, unplugged, reconnected and switched back on again or more accurately, the band felt a simple desire to fall in love all over again with the pure joy of making music.
With trials and tribulations of their critically acclaimed fourth album ‘The Haze’ behind them, Pulled Apart By Horses are approaching 2019 with fresh perspectives, open minds and a flurry of creativity writing new songs, defining their sound and taking back control!
As Tom Hudson says “Our musical tastes change monthly, never mind over the course of the years, so we are never going to be the kind of band who’d do the same album every time,”
“We’ve always been that band that are ‘too heavy for the indie kids, and too indie for the heavy kids’ in industry terms, but it’s quite cool that people don’t really know where to put us, because it means no-one can easily slap a genre name upon us”.
“Now we have the freedom to just be who we are.”
“Rotterdam Talking Heads/Television enthusiasts jut out with a riveting chugger of blase threat and moral ambivalence.” — ?MOJO (UK)
Lewsberg from Rotterdam are a four-piece rock group named after writer and fellow Rotterdammer Robert Loesberg, famous for his dangerous novel Enige Defecten from 1974. That is the greatest source of inspiration for the band: the counterculture and big-city cynicism of the 1960s and 1970s. After putting out The Downer (ep, cassette) and Non-fiction Writer (single, 7”) in 2017, Lewsberg released their self-titled debut full-length in the Netherlands in 2018. Nine rudimentary and repetitive rock songs, full of a tough, nonchalant intensity. The English lyrics, delivered with a heavy Rotterdam accent, show a tendency towards existentialism and black humour. The album will be re-released worldwide in January 2019.
Hailing from Dundalk, Ireland, Just Mustard are one of the most hotly tipped bands around right now. They recently supported The Cure (!) in Dublin and we are SO excited to have them play Sneaks!
Crafting their own unique blend of noise, trip hop and electronic influenced music, they released their debut album ‘Wednesday’ to critical acclaim in 2018.
***Tickets Onsale Thursday 9th May, 10am***
Somewhere, frozen in deep space, is a pop group. They’re called The Original Doo-Wop Spacemen and they make mutated 50s pop music – somewhere between the great American songbook and classic American jukebox tunes, then dipped in classic romance film scores before being lathered up with prog-rock, jazz and psychedelia.
They’re the brainchild of Oliver Taylor, frontman of Trudy and The Romance. Or maybe they’re the characterised manifestation of several real life experiences. In either case, The Original Doo-Wop Spacemen are here, and they’re playing on Trudy and The Romance’s debut album ‘Sandman’ – a cosmic, kaleidoscopic, merry-go-round of a record that is bursting with bright ambition.
Really, this could be called a concept album, especially given the introduction of The Original Doo-Wop Spacemen. “I’ve asked people and they don’t think they would pick up on it. But you write it for the diehards, don’t you. Twenty years down the line someone will have this album on a Top 20 Concept Album list, and that’s how people will know,” laughs Olly, underpinning the inherent humour of the work.
However, while the intricate details of the narrative might be buried in the lyrics, under layers of fuzz or light-years away, there is certainly a story here – a specific conceptual idea. It involves the characters Little Johnny, frontman of The Original Doo-Wop Spacemen, and Sweet Emma, his love. We’re introduced to these two on opening track “My Baby’s Gone Away” just as Johnny skips town and dreams big, setting up his future career with the Spacemen.
Except, of course, the titular Sandman strikes, right away on the second track of the same name. He takes Sweet Emma and Little Johnny is doomed to keep thinking about her. “It’s about an artist’s journey to success, then asking for your innocence back. It’s a break-up album too, about going to a new place and looking for hope and new love,” says Olly. He describes the Sandman as “the little devil on your shoulder, a metamorphosis of the darkness that looms in the back of your mind.”
If you’re thinking this album is theatrical, then you’re right. But it’s firmly placed in the artist canon of the genre, taking cues from the golden age of Disney, back when they were making films like Pinocchio and Snow White. It’s also informed by Phil Spector. For example, Liverpool’s very own Sense Of Sound Choir sing on every track on the record, lending the album its woozy, encompassing feel.
There’s also the inclusion of a keyboard player, strings, a harpist, a country pedal steel guitar player – a mate of Olly’s dad – as well as the three core members of Trudy and The Romance Essentially, if you wanted to hear a slightly stoned, camp opera, full of hopeless romanticism and day-dreaming, and with a 50s tinge, this is it.
By the time you’ve swayed from side-to-side and reached the album’s moonlit conclusion, there’s a clear message. And, Olly says, “you can never say goodbye to your first love, because it’ll always stay with you.” But the whole idea is that the album can be played on an infinite loop, forever, until the end of time, as the same story repeats itself over and over, the same mistakes made, the same highs reached.
Produced by David Pye (Wild Beasts, Egyptian Hip Hop), ‘Sandman’ is unlike anything you’ll hear in 2019, or the next lifetime. Look out for the Doo-Wop Spacemen the next time you enter the astral plane. They’ll be performing their mutated 50s pop for this generation, the one before it, and the rest to come.
We love this band so much! They were our top pick from this year’s Great Escape Festival so we’re thrilled that they have added an extra tour date just for us.
Between the quartet’s sweetly punky melodies and disco-fried art-rock eruptions, a spirit of free-firing, balls-out individuality courses through Pom Poko’s exhilarating debut album, ‘Birthday’, just released this February through Bella Union.
Their unique creativity curiously melds together tonal lurches and math rock guitar riffs that are barely tamed by a time signature or key. As admirers have heard, Pom Poko’s music sounds properly played and performed: no mere recitation, it’s the sound of four distinct personalities driving in divergent directions towards one destination.
432 Presents
Broken Chanter
Thursday 17th October
Saint Agnes are a ferocious 4-piece from East London, with an unashamed rock sound and electrifying live shows to go with it. All of it is underpinned by the intense chemistry of the frontman/woman pairing of Kitty and Jon, who trade tales of love, lamentation and loathing.
Say hello to your new favourite band.
Alasdair Roberts is a Glasgow-based musician – primarily a songwriter/composer, singer, guitarist and interpreter of traditional songs and ballads.
Acclaimed by Folk Radio UK as ‘one of our most talented, important and relevant songwriters and song-adapters’, he has released several critically acclaimed albums of his music via Drag City Records over the past two decades, featuring both self-written material and interpretations of the traditional balladry and song of Scotland and beyond.
September 2019 will see the release of a new Drag City album, The Fiery Margin, featuring ten new songs written by Alasdair and featuring musical contributions from a fine set of collaborators, including Stevie Jones (upright bass), Alex Neilson (drums) and Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh (viola). Alasdair, Stevie, Alex and Ailbhe are touring the UK in support of the release in October 2019.
Skinny Pelembe is a multi-talented wonder, born in Johannesburg and raised in Doncaster, who crafts patchworks of personal and musical touchstones. First debuting in 2017, he’s honed a distinctive musical style; memories and observations are weaved together, sun-dazzled California folk diced with the murkier corners of the UK dance lineage. He celebrates flawed, post-recession Britain, exalting the UK in all of its imperfect, contradictory realities.
Releasing debut album “Dreaming Is Dead Now” in May 2019, he’s been tipped by The Observer, The Quietus and Huck. Singles “I Just Wanna Be Your Prisoner” and “Spit / Swallow” were both picked for BBC 6 Music’s A-List. He’s guested with Lauren Laverne, Mary Ann Hobbes and Tom Ravenscroft on 6 Music, with Jamz Supernova on BBC 1xtra, and recorded live sessions for The Vinyl Factory and Worldwide FM. He sold out a headline UK tour last year, was booked for 6 Music’s 2018 showcase at The Great Escape, and has supported Nightmares on Wax and Maribou State.
It was Future Bubblers, a Gilles Peterson- and Brownswood-founded, Arts Council-supported programme for unsigned artists, that provided Skinny with an important early launchpad. His track ‘Should You Go’, for instance, first self-released on his 2017 “Seven Year Curse” EP, was included on Gilles Peterson’s iconic Brownswood Bubblers series. It also sparked connections with other artists on Future Bubblers, such as Yazmin Lacey, who had been picked for the scheme in the previous year. The pair performed together at the 2018 edition of Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards, and Lacey featured on Skinny’s “Sleep More, Make More Friends” EP later that year.
His music has spurred new connections and garnered him attention from artists he’s long admired, such as legendary producer and label boss James Lavelle (Mo’Wax), who tapped him up earlier this year, asking him to open for UNKLE at the Royal Festival Hall. The album is co-produced by Malcolm Catto (The Heliocentrics), and the producer’s connection to the LA hip-hop world saw Skinny’s musical hero and iconic beatmaker Madlib drop by the studio during sessions for the record, while on the single “Dreaming Is Dead Now”, Skinny worked with a duo of foundational drum & bass producers – working under the covert alias of The Bleeding Edge – who he’s long looked up to. “When you have all these people that you hold in such high regard wanting to talk to you,” he says, “you’re kind of like, ‘Yeah, maybe I can add something to the conversation.’”
Growing up in Doncaster, he had moved there as a three-year-old from Johannesburg, where apartheid South Africa had driven his parents – a mixed race couple – to find somewhere else to live. His varied approach to his influences started early on. His two older brothers were heavily into hip-hop, while he would also absorb the West Coast folk and country music played by his dad. The former has always influenced the way he thinks about his lyrics. “It’s just trying to be so transparent that when you hear it,” he says, “you don’t feel like there’s any pretense or thought or over-deliberation.” The latter, meanwhile, has continued to inform the way he writes songs, balancing out his tracks’ tougher moments with three-part harmonies, calling back to the spirit of Crosby, Stills & Nash.
He threw himself into the pockets of creativity he could find in his Yorkshire hometown, such as the Higher Rhythm studio (where much of “Dreaming Is Dead Now” was recorded), where he would started going to record music when he was 16. Its owner, Steven Mundin, would give him and his friends free recording time, and put them onto music, tipping him off to old funk, Gil Scott-Heron and Gilles Peterson’s radio show. Other reference points have come through chance encounters. It was a meeting at Leeds train station, where he was a student at the time, which led to the offer of a job in a boutique clothes store, where he was introduced to psych and experimental guitar bands he’d not heard before, and which saw him going over to Liverpool Psych Fest each year with his workmates.
The references for the artwork for “Dreaming Is Dead Now” speak to the diverse palette of influences which have always underlaid his approach, nodding to two of his favourite albums, Alice Coltrane’s “Journey to Satchidananda” and The White Stripes’ “White Blood Cells”. The album sees all of these different markers melded into something altogether new. Bright stitches of colour are threaded through dark-hued, heavyweight material, luminous guitar riffs slicing through tough, tight-programmed drum beats, much of it washed over with feedback and layers of reverb.
On “Dreaming Is Dead Now”, Skinny underscores his distinctive position as an artist. It’s a rare kind of debut record – the kind where the messy, in-between musical spaces are given space to shine, where hitherto untapped tangents are unfurled to see what might be found inside.
“The best club in the UK for future rock & roll stars” Noel Gallagher
LIVE
The Capollos
Diving Station’s harp-driven dream pop delineates the sound of a young band in full bloom. A culmination of four contrasting creative personalities results in detailed, interwoven arrangements framing memorable, dynamic songs. The band found common ground over the likes of Big Thief, Dirty Projectors and Alvvays, and have worked together since 2015 to self-release two distinct EPs that demonstrate their ingenuity with a combination of ethereal, energetic and lyrically poignant material.
Their sophomore EP ‘Feather Mouth’, released December 2018, is the band’s most accomplished creative contribution yet. The lead single, ‘You’re Not Listening’, has been featured on both Steve Lamacq and Tom Robinson’s BBC Radio 6 shows, as well as BBC Introducing in Manchester.
Diving Station have performed across the UK and supported bands such as Caro, Thyla and Indian Queens, with festival appearances at Bluedot Festival and Head For The Hills on top of selling out several headline shows in Manchester.
Hot on the heels of a breakthrough year, Bristol based electronic jazz outfit Ishmael Ensemble hit the road for their first official U.K. tour.
2017 saw Ishmael Ensemble’s debut EP, Songs for Knotty, followed by a remix for Detroit techno demigod Carl Craig. These formative steps became a sprint in 2018, as a string of 7”s entitled Severn Songs began flowing out across the year. The Bristol-inspired records variously bridged fleet-footed jazz, lush downtempo, modulated electronica, Fourth World tones, and all manner of stirring sonic swells.
It’s no surprise the records caught the attention of tastemakers & DJs across the board, receiving regular radio play on BBC6Music, Jazz FM & Worldwide FM plus a performance on Gilles Peterson’s U.K. Jazz Special live from the legendary Maida Vale Studios. Tiptoeing between the current British jazz boom and Bristol’s rich musical ancestry, the group have found a truly unique and refreshing voice.
BILK paint pictures of British youth culture with an energetic, brash and raw, unapologetic nature. They’ve been filling intimate venues around the country and look to take it to the next level this Autumn.
Catch them at Sneaky Pete’s in October.
FFO: Ratboy, The Streets
Dead excited to have this South African Space-Age Folk-Rock outfit outfit playing at Sneaks!
From the small surf town of Kommetjie, Diamond Thug merge elements of Alternative, Electronica and Folk, often grounded in subtle South African grooves. Check their most recent EP Gaiafy to see what we mean!
Get ready for a night of loud, electrifying garage rock and passionate punk as Felix And The Sunsets play their first Edinburgh headline.
You can’t start a band called Cocaine Piss and be serious at the same time, can you? It would be the equivalent of naming your kid something like Kick Me In The Head Throughout Life Whenever Possible Smith.
But ever since coming into twisted existence in 2014 in the Belgian city of Liège, pretty much as a bad taste joke, Cocaine Piss just revved the engine of the piss rocket and watched it launch, and before they knew it, it was flying sky-high.
Cocaine Piss are a chaotic mess with their high octane blend of punk and noise that’s all over within 20/25 minutes. It’s like Dead Kennedys, Bikini Kill and Melt Banana all playing at once while really high on their namesake substance, right up until the venue cuts the power and everything’s suddenly over, leaving you euphoric, disoriented and punching walls just for fun.
Wild doesn’t even begin to cut it with this band, we’re so excited to have them here ever since they melted our faces off at The Great Escape.
Xiu Xiu is the conduit for the uncompromising and unnervingly personal musical works of Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist Jamie Stewart, plus a roll call of collaborators both in studio and onstage.. Streaming forth a ceaseless torrent of releases, side projects, art offerings and extensive international touring since 2002, Xiu Xiu’s music has veered from damaged avant-pop to artfully orchestrated rock, squalls of black-hearted noise and most bases around and between, ever served with a bruising honesty and intensity that has ripped out the hearts of a legion of obsessive listeners.
Latest Xiu Xiu album ‘Girl with Basket of Fruit’ (out Feb 2019) is a rowdier, yet more stylistically splenetic offering than 2017’s ‘Forget’, with the usual eye-catching list of collaborators this time including Eugene Robinson (Oxbow), Devin Hoff and Haitian percussionists Emmanuel Obi and Ayo Okafor.
For 2019 live operations Xiu Xiu is manifest in the form of Stewart, Thor Harris (drums/percussion) and Christopher Pravdica (bass).
Alice Jemima’s self -titled debut album was released last year to a receptive audience and now stands at over 18 million streams with several of the tracks being placed in adverts Ralph Lauren, Simple Skincare, Macy’s and Topshop and also achieving Radio 1 playlisting. Since releasing her debut album she has appeared live at Boardmasters, Bestival Lattitude, The Great Escape and SXSW
Alice’s new album is expected in late 2019 and has been co-written with Sophie Ellis Bextor.
“Prepared to be hypnotised by the mesmerising vocals of Alice Jemima” WONDERLAND MAGAZINE
“Jemima’s minimalist pop song writing has won over fans and critics alike” THE LINE OF BEST FIT
Magpie Blue embarks on her first headline tour this November.
Scottish Singer Songwriter and lyricist, Magpie Blue released her debut single ‘Just In Time’ on June 14th via Seahorse Music.
The track was produced in Edinburgh by Rod Jones of Idlewild and features drummer Michael Reid of Man of Moon and guitarist Louise McCraw of Goodnight Louisa.
“Lyrically, Magpie Blue delves into introspective yet sharply to-the-point subject matters from heartbreak to anxiety, investing her words with a raw truth. You get the sense listening to this number of an old head resting on young shoulders, of someone who has the emotional intelligence to channel real feeling into their art.
Having already gained comparisons at this early stage of her career to the likes of PJ Harvey and Anna Calvi, her Jeff Buckley-esque vocals inflect this number with a sense of raw melancholy. A husky, brooding start sets the track off on a low key, before her band, featuring the likes of drummer Michael Reid of Man of Moon and guitarist Louise McCraw of Goodnight Louisa, build proceedings to a mighty crescendo, subtle electronics adding an unexpected layer of depth. Production duties are confidently overseen by Idlewild’s Rod Jones, who brings his band’s keen ear for melodics to ensure this track remains firmly lodged in the ears after it’s finished.” – Bitter Sweet Symphonies
The artist uses her distinctive voice to illustrate her intriguing yet relatable lyrics, depicting heartbreak and the brutally honest inner thoughts of an anxious mind.
( “Magpie Blue AKA Millie Hanlon Cole debuts onto the scene with the phenomenal Just In Time. The Edinburgh-based singer/songwriter displays her unquestionable talent throughout this four minute track, allowing her powerhouse vocals to take centre stage.” – SAMA )
Scruff of the Neck presents
Ivory Caves
Ivory Caves are a five piece indie/alternative rock band from Dunfermline comprising of infectious bass riffs, huge driven guitars and catchy melodies sang in three part harmony.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/IvoryCavesBand/
LISTEN: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0bihlwQnEVqoPaCce7fiTw
TWITTER: @IvoryCavesBand
INSTAGRAM: @IvoryCavesBand
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Velvet
If you are into shoegaze, dreampop or indie, you’re guaranteed to love this band to pieces.
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/velvetbandglasgow
LISTEN: https://open.spotify.com/track/5t7kD4ZZU03Gwg1Ea8CORp?si=Cnrb43XCQEiKip9UKzGC6w
TWITTER: @velvetband__
INSTAGRAM: @velvetband__
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Light & Noise Productions
Bronston return to Sneaky Pete’s for a headline show.
Support comes from
A Sudden Burst of Colour
FES
Deep Sea Creature
Bronston is a Scottish rock band formed in 2015 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Bronston released their first single, I Feel Safe, in 2016, showcasing their riff-oriented, synth- augmented, alternative rock style to a sold out audience at an accompanying show at Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh.
Their sound incorporates a variety of different styles and influences, taking inspiration from artists such as Arctic Monkeys, Tame Impala, Queens of the Stone Age, Foals, and Anderson .Paak.
Bronston’s music explores themes of external oppression, alternative realities, and anxieties about the future. Their lyrics link internal conflicts with notions of a future shaped by philosophical and technological advances.
Brighton based off-kilter dream-pop quartet RALPH TV are touring to support their latest release on Nice Guys Records.
Having already attracted over 1 million streams on Spotify for their self-produced debut EP, Ralph TV are being championed by BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music as “one’s to watch”. Their sound references the high points of artists such as Metronomy, Shuggie Otis, and Homeshake.
Formed in Colchester (Essex) by childhood friends Ben Brown (Guitar, Synth, Vocals) and Will Osborne (Bass, Vocals) the project was initially named Ralph’s World. However, after the threat of legal action by a children’s TV presenter in Chicago using the same name, it was changed to RALPH TV. The project was then relocated from Essex to Brighton where they met brothers Isaac (Drums, Vocals) and Luke (Lead guitar, Vocals) Vosper who now complete the line-up.
Following recent packed out shows in Brighton and London they’ll be broadcasting live around the UK in November. Stay tuned for further updates!
SCOTTISH alt.blues troubadour Dave Arcari’s returns from his latest USA tour for this Edinburgh show.
His alt.blues sounds owe as much to trash country, punk and rockabilly as they do pre-war Delta blues and have been showcased via ten internationally-acclaimed solo CD releases.
Special guest tba
Imperial Wax are the longest serving and last line up of The Fall.
The 11 year veterans Keiron Melling, Dave Spurr and Pete Greenway have teamed up with frontman Sam Curran and have already recorded forthcoming album “Gastwerk Saboteurs” scheduled for release this summer.
Honey Lung was coined upon a hazy writing session while listening to The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Just Like Honey. Taking after 90s alt-rock pioneers like Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr, there are heavy dollops of grunge and shoegaze as well as a DIY attitude. Their first full length was recorded in a modest bedroom setup with charity-shop bought guitars.
Since their debut release, they’ve been a fixture on the UK festival circuit and tour support for JAWS. Their new album, Nothing, is out now!
Edinburgh-based 5-piece The Wynntown Marshals formed in 2007 and have been described by the Metro as “arguably Scotland’s strongest band” and regarded by The Herald as “the best Americana band outside North America”. With three studio albums, several EPs, and a 10-year retrospective collection under their belts so far, the Marshals have recorded sessions for ‘Whispering Bob’ Harris’s BBC Radio 2 show, as well as BBC Radio Scotland sessions on ‘Another Country with Ricky Ross’ and an appearance on The Quay Sessions with Roddy Hart in 2018.
Their debut album “Westerner” was released in 2010 with the Belgian website RootsTime proclaiming it “the best alt.country album from Europe ever”, with the follow-up (“The Long Haul”) being placed at number 10 in the Sunday Herald’s list of the ‘Top 50 Scottish Albums of 2013’. “The End of the Golden Age” (2015) was awarded 8/10 in Uncut, referring to the band as “colonising the shadowland that lies between Tom Petty and Teenage Fanclub”.
In 2017, the band marked a decade together by releasing a 16-track retrospective entitled “After All These Years”, with Louder Than War awarding the compilation 9/10 and declaring that “The Marshals have been crafting songs of such high quality that they’re surely a national treasure”, and that they are “miles above the competition at this sort of thing”.
The Wynntown Marshals will play their first headline shows in over a year including a special date at Sneaky Pete’s on Thursday 5th December, where they will debut their new line-up as well as previewing material from their forthcoming studio album which will be released on Blue Rose Records in the spring of 2020.
NB: 14-17 year olds must be accompanied by an adult. No refunds will be given for incorrectly booked tickets. The venue management reserve the right to breathalyse anyone under the age of 18. Refusal or failure of the test will result in entry being denied.
We are extra pleased to present this very special show.
Vetiver is the long-running stage and recording name of San Francisco’s Andy Cabic. ‘Up On High’ is his seventh studio album and the first since 2015. Vetiver has toured around the world on headline tours and supporting artists that include Wilco, TheShins, Fleet Foxes, Beach House, Bob Weir & Phil Lesh, and Vashti Bunyan. Vetiver craft nuanced, understated songs that reward careful listening, building a rich duality; a space where sunshine is only a chord away from melancholy, an introspective lyric underlies an extroverted chorus and subtlety tries to be outgoing in an effort to connect the dots of life’s ellipsis.
‘Up On High’ was recorded with longtime collaborator Thom Monahan (Neko Case, Bedouine, Fruit Bats, The Donkeys, Peter Bjorn and John, Beachwood Sparks, Little Joy). Instrumentation comes from an all-world cast that includes Eric Johnson (Fruit Bats, EDJ), Gabriel Noel (Kendrick Lamar, Father John Misty, Tyler the Creator), Dan Iead (Kevin Morby, Cass McCombs), Josh Adams (Bedouine, Wild Nothing), and Tim Ramsey (Fruit Bats, Little Wings).
Mega punk 3-piece Lady Bird are Slaves’ fave new band and they might just be ours! Catch em tearing up Sneaks in December.
Ethan is a 14 year old solo artist from Livingston, Scotland.
His music features a unique style of melodic rap vocals similar to The Lafontaines, huge guitar riffs much like Oasis and The Stone Roses, massive sounding drums and a whole lot more!
In 2016, Beach Baby released their acclaimed debut album, No Mind No Money. Wistfully documenting mid-20’s malaise, and splicing the post-punk stylings of 80’s indie with the dreamy organ sounds of Beach House, the record quickly joined the multi-million streaming club, enjoyed firm support from the likes of Lauren Laverne and Annie Mac, and resulted in extensive UK and US touring.
But by the start of 2017, things had…changed. There really was no money. And whilst the first album had been recorded over an intensive two-month period in a cushy East London studio, if Beach Baby wanted to make more music, they were going to have to do it differently. Galvanised by two promising new demos from co-vocalists and songwriters Ollie Pash and Lawrence Pumfrey, the band repaired to the ‘summerhouse’ (read, shed) at the bottom of drummer Shep Hodgson’s garden, and converted it into a makeshift studio. The ‘Beast from the East’ was just around the corner. It was cold. Everyone was still working an inventory of crap jobs. But it was a start. And there was life in the old dog yet…
At the start of 2019, Lovin’ Feeling was the first song to emerge from this long and chilly period of hibernation. Remarkably self-assured, the song sees the band move towards a looser, groovier sound, inspired by 60’s and 70’s pop music. Featuring a deliriously catchy saxophone melody, a smattering of congas and some very funky wah-guitar, the song is a good entry point to Beach Baby’s forthcoming second record – Songs From the Limbo Lounge. Here, the band have created a whole new audio-visual world: the purgatorial hinterland of the Limbo Lounge — a place where romantic burnout, spiritual dereliction and existential sleaze reign supreme. But if that sounds all a bit dour – don’t worry – Beach Baby’s new music might be characteristically melancholic, but it serves up the sad stuff with a wry smile, a soupcon of sleaze, and some serious sex appeal. Hell, you might even find yourself dancing. Ideally in a dagger-collared shirt, a pair of sunglasses, with a Sazerac in your hand.
It’s sad, but it’s also a good time.
It’s limbo, baby.
Not always destined for a life in music, Georgie had a promising career in professional football looming ahead of her, but the sudden discovery of a guitar and her uncle’s record collection whisked her off the pitch and into her bedroom to hone her musical craft. She quickly mastered the art of blagging her way into pubs underage in order to play open mic nights, and it wasn’t long before her rich soulful voice and honest, reflective songwriting had earned her local notoriety – after one pub crowd demanded a fourth set from her in a single evening, she failed the next day’s history GCSE exam due to the exhaustion.
It wasn’t too long before her relentless graft paid off when her music caught the attention of local hero Jake Bugg, who took her with him on an intimate UK support tour. Since then she has fulfilled support duties for stars ranging from Blossoms to Jack Savoretti, and was flown out to Virginia, USA to record her debut single ‘Company Of Thieves’ with the legendary Matthew E White and his Spacebomb house band. Blending her British Grit with such an accomplished American Soul band resulted in a truly spellbinding single that earned Georgie spots on a whole host of watch lists.
