'Lord Cut Glass' Listening Party on Spinner
We've been kindly advised that Lord Cut Glass' album can be listened to on AOL's indie music platform 'Spinner' for the remainder of this week. Those of you with a curious disposition should check it out now.
Podsketch #6 - Available now...
Chemikal Underground continues to pan for Podcasting gold with this, the 6th instalment of its rather scattershot podsketch series. Alun and Stewart discuss the dissolution of De Rosa, how busy Tokyo is and end with a brutally humiliating Geography quiz that leaves Stewart's intellectual reputation in tatters....
Click the podsketch link to your right.
De Rosa Sadly To Split
It's always hard to break the news of a band calling it a day and in De Rosa's case it's particularly galling because they were so fucking good. Having announced it on their Twitter account it's now our turn to mourn the end of a band who were at the very top of their game.
De Rosa's music was as complex as it was melodic - it exercised the head as well as the heart and their live performances could be as thrilling as any we've ever seen. Great bands are hard to come by - especially ones as literate and engaging as De Rosa - so they will be sadly missed and we can only hope that they go on to release music in some other guise in the near future, they know where we are if they do. A great, great band.
'Look After Your Wife' : Single Of The Week
Lord Cut Glass' new single has been made SOTW on the 6Music show of Mr Steve Lamacq Esq. You can listen to the show again.
Bravo Mr Lamacq! You have good taste sir...
The Howling - Out Now
The Phantom Band's limited edition 7" featuring the radio edit of 'The Howling' and B-Side 'The Tall One' is out now and available to buy from all good record shops and our very own online store. People just can't seem to stop loving The Phantom Band - quite right too and long may it continue.
" the song tumbles in like a little ball of light in this month's otherwise uninspiring releases." ARTROCKER
"The lightness of touch that The Phantom Band display in combining styles will be familiar to any fans of The Beta Band, and like Steve Mason and co., TPB have a knack of making other bands look very ordinary indeed." CUTLUREDELUXE
"Unlikely but utterly triumphant and epic melding of Can and Stereolab with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy from the Peter Buck-endorsed Glaswegian sextet." TIMEOUT
"...there's a real poppy melody at work here too, and a riff reminiscent of the Velvets' 'What Goes On'...an oddly jaunty stroll through death fear" NME (10 tracks you have to hear).
ORDER THE HOWLING
Lord Cut Glass - Available For Pre-order
The much-anticipated solo debut of The Delgados' Alun Woodward is almost upon us and it arrives in a flurry of Victorian Boy's Own imagery and no small measure of caustic wit. Four years in the making, 'Lord Cut Glass' is a spectacularly flamboyant exercise in musical eclecticism, mixing mariachi-infused gallops with Tiersen-esque accordions, nods to Fred Astaire musicals and winks at the industrial austerity of colliery brass bands. What truly elevates this album though is its lyrics: knowingly humorous and mordantly insightful we really should expect no less from the man who brought us 'No Danger' and 'All You Need Is Hate'...the clues lie in new song titles like 'Holy Fuck!' and 'I'm A Great Example To The Dogs'...
The album is out on June 22nd but can be pre-ordered for delivery of the weekend prior to release here.
Lord Cut Glass - Live in King Tut's
Lord Cut Glass will be performing his first full Glasgow show at King Tut's on Saturday 27th June with support from Rick Redbeard (aka Rick Anthony from The Phantom Band). Tickets are available from usual outlets (links to follow shortly).
Arab Strap - Final Recording Session EP
The Shy Retirer three track EP that made up Aidan and Malcolm's last recording session is now available to buy on the Chemikal Underground Store having only previously been available at live shows. Featuring 'The Shy Retirer', 'Pro-[Your]Life' and 'Serenade' it's only available on CD but can be previewed, in full at our shop...
De Rosa & Angil Videos
We at Chemikal have been lucky with a couple of great videos coming our way this week. Laura McCullagh follows up her Robin Song video with an equally haunting and dark piece for De Rosa's Nocturne for an Absentee. If Bill Willingham is ever in need of inspiration for Fables he should have a look at this.
Now Chemikal Underground are always keen to explore national stereotypes and Cedric Lamarsalle's new video for Trying to Fit by Angil and the Hiddentracks takes an interesting but realistic look at French cuisine and facial hair...
Frank Quitely Designs Cover Art For 'The Howling' 7" Vinyl
Graphic artist and all-round comic book legend Frank Quitely has found time to ink the cover art for The Phantom Band's next 7" only release The Howling and you'll no doubt agree with us that it looks fucking brilliant. It's a real honour to be working with the man behind the art on WE3, New X-Men and All-Star Superman and only goes to show what a talented bunch of bastards people from Scotland are (but I guess you knew that already). The 7" will be strictly limited to 1,500 copies and will most certainly fall off the shelves like shit off a shovel (wait, that wasn't a good analogy was it?)
Aidan Moffat & The Best Ofs: Live Dates To Be Announced Shortly...
The finishing touches are being inked/quilled/whatever on a handful of Aidan Moffat live shows in May - all details will become public knowledge shortly...
Ballads Documentary gets BAFTA nod
The Ballads of The Book documentary has been nominated for 2 BAFTA awards. The event takes place this Friday and may we take a moment to thank the directors Margaret, Julie and Claire for such a sterling effort.
De Rosa - Prevention
De Rosa release the follow up to 2006's outstanding Mend on Monday 2nd of March. If I say the album was recorded over a period of what seems about 50 years it will give an idea of how much we have been anticipating this release and with artwork by our favourite G12 homeboy, Alasdair Gray, guest performance's from Mogwai's Barry Burns and Life Without Buildings Robert Johnston it really is a total fucking classic.
Get your ears on a copy and for some early review here's what some others have been saying:
"gorgeous and heartbreaking...There should be nothing to stop Prevention from climbing some lofty peaks"
The List 4/5
"darkly beautiful...a fabulously stirring strain of realism"
Mojo 4/5
"The agonising wait for the follow-up to De Rosa's debut 'Mend' s finally over...A very special release indeed"
Rocksound 8/10
Martin Henry's lyrics straddle scuffed, poetic, oblique intimacies and resilient melancholy"
Independent on Saturday 4/5
Aidan Moffat Shares Spiritual Roadmap to Nirvana
It is a question that has puzzled humans for thousands of years and finally Aidan Moffat has discovered what generations of yogis, ministers, imams and rabbis were incapable of. Leading us through the moral maze he fearlessly shows us definitively and without hairshirt flagellations How To Get To Heaven From Scotland. Play this wonderful online version of the popular Moffat board game, avoid the pitfalls along the way and you too could be on your way to heaven winning yourself a free MP3 enroute. Order Mr Moffat's new long player in our shop.
THE PHANTOM BAND's "CHECKMATE SAVAGE" OUT NOW
“...an early bid for debut album of the year.”
MOJO [4/5]
“fearlessly ambitious” THE TIMES [4/5]
“a dizzyingly abstract debut” OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY [4/5]
“a work of skewed genius, a leftfield car-crash of indie, folk, pop, blues, post-rock and some stuff that’s frankly uncategorisable”
THE LIST [5/5]
“thrilling and accomplished...a brilliant debut.” NME [8/10]
“Fantastic.” SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY [4/5]
“Were they from Brooklyn rather than Glasgow, Checkmate Savage would already have been acclaimed as a benchmark album for 2009.” GUARDIAN [4/5]
“fascinating...has the spiky consistency of the Magic Band”
THE INDEPENDENT [4/5]
“thrilling...a debut album to be proud of.” THE SUN [4.5/5]
“something new and distinctive.... everything coheres to create an assured, absorbing whole.” THE SCOTSMAN [4/5]
“...what Can getting glitchy with The Stooges at a barn dance might sound like”
INDEPENDENT ON SATURDAY [4/5]
“exhilirating” THE SUNDAY TIMES [4/5]
“A hidden gem.” THE SUNDAY EXPRESS [4/5]
“smart and instinctive, macabre and poppy.” METRO [4/5]
“like a psych-folk-toned TV On The Radio with a Scottish Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy on vocals” TIME OUT [4/6]
“That they're so bold is merit enough. That it all works makes them essential.” TELETEXT [8/10]
“entrancing Caledonian majesty” Q
“a lurid triumph” THE WORD
“strangely and thrilllingly coherent” THE OBSERVER
BUY IT HERE