Sneaky Pete's

Dave Arcari with support from:

Shambles Miller – http://www.myspace.com/iamshambles

Jim Byrne – http://songsbyjimbyrne.com/

The Douglas Firs Celebrating the recent release of their stonkin’ debut record ‘Happy as a Windless Flag’ on Armellodie Records, The Douglas Firs are riding high in spirit at the moment. From the northern gales of the Highlands to the peaks of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, The Douglas Firs is the brainchild of Neil Insh, born and bred in Aberdeen before de-camping to Scotland’s capital. A gentleman on a journey of sonic discovery. The Douglas Firs claim they would be verging on prog-rock if they could play their instruments, and didn’t like Buddy Holly so much.

Something Beginning With L Juxtaposing scuzzy electric guitars and buzzing synthesizers with acoustic fragility and electro-beats, guided into the light by the salient crystalline vocals of Lucy Parnell and Jen Macro who offer bliss-out close harmonies, melancholy and absorbing into the band’s encapsulating dream-pop. Not a troupe that could be accused of lethargy by any stretch of the imagination, Lucy, Jon and Jen are a diligent bunch of comrades, having all earned their stripes as part of South London noiseniks Stuffy/the Fuses, Lucy and Jen can currently be found flaunting their considerable talents in Graham Coxon’s Power Ensemble, the band that recorded the Blur guitarist’s most recent solo offering, The Spinning Top, and that continue to tour throughout 2011. Their debut album, Beautiful Ground is released on Monday 27th June 2011 via Armellodie Records.

Plastic Animals Banded together in Edinburgh in the summer of 2006 and for four years, they created three-minute punk messes. However, in the last few months the band has been pulled into a different direction and with influences that spam from The Velvet Underground to Deerhunter, their music has developed into something that’s been described as a ‘big, sweet noise, smothered with layers of guitars to create a wall of sound that cradles the listener, before gently building into a sublime frenzy’. Their new material will be self-released on July 1st as ‘A Dark Spring’, a four-song EP for which the main themes are loss and separation.

POP EXCHANGE is a series of gigs organised by Jack and the’, in which they invite what they think are exciting “pop” bands to Edinburgh to present their music and to join them on stage for a musical collaboration.

POP EXCHANGE #1 features the French band Orwell, which made quite a splash in 2009 with their first UK release ‘Le génie humain’, garnering glowing reviews in Mojo, The Sunday Times, and The Express to name a few. Composed by Jérôme Didelot, their sophisticated pop has been compared to the likes of Stereolab and The High Llamas. Orwell will present their new album ‘Continental’, entirely sung in English and freshly released in March 2011 by Folkwit Records, in an intriguing duet (expect vibraphone, bass, guitar, keyboards, live looping and unusual instruments such as the stylophone).

Edinburgh-based band Jack and the’ released their first album “Vacation” in 2007 via the label Smallroom Records, combining 60s’ melodies with elaborated rhythms and song structures. Led by Julien Lonchamp, the band is currently finishing a second album that sees them venturing into the fields of orchestral pop. Clarinet, saxophone, trombone, vibraphone, banjo or sitar populate this new sound, somewhere between pop, classical and jazz. Jack and the’ will be accompanied on stage by members of the Apostrophe Ensemble (flute and violin).