Rock & pop

Miniprofile: Jay Brannan

Sound sugar-coated acoustica with crystal clear swooping vocals and an edge of stark sexuality.

21 Aug 2008

Was it terrifying releasing your first album Goddamned yourself? It seems like the natural order of things to me because I’m such a weird person with very specific ideas and opinions and beliefs. It’s a lot of work, for sure. I’m like, ‘do I get to…

Hitlist - Music

The best gigs this fortnight

21 Aug 2008

N*E*R*D Justin Timberlake guested at their Scottish debut in 2003 after the MTV Music Awards and while this night might not have the trouser-snake in tow, Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams most certainly have what it takes to throw down a platinum hip hop…

Five reasons to go and see: Tam White & The Dexters

21 Aug 2008

They’re an Edinburgh Institution - the mere mention of the name brings a warm glow to the hearts of Edinburgh music fans of a certain vintage. The band’s legendary residencies at the Preservation Hall and Platform 1 (both now gone as music venues) back…

Two Drummers Drumming

Where’s the six geese a laying and the five gold rings?

21 Aug 2008

Have you heard the one about the drummer? Maurice Bacon and Mathew Priest have, and they’re sick of it. Stick-bashing veterans of two notable bands of the 60s and 90s, they’ve brought their ‘Two Drummers Drumming’ show to this year’s Fringe to dispel…

Midnight Juggernauts

Aussie trio hit the disco highway

21 Aug 2008

In the past few months, the globetrotting Midnight Juggernauts have toured with Bloc Party, been featured in stroppy lifestyle bible Vice and even cooked for Justice – friends in high places to be sure. While not the latest act to attempt to infuse rock…

The Raconteurs

21 Aug 2008

The seemingly spontaneous nature of the release of their frankly tremendous second album, Consolers of the Lonely, might suggest this quartet, the brainchild of Jack White and his long-time best bud Brendan Benson, were trading in off-the-cuff…

Five questions: Marco Bernardi

21 Aug 2008

Marco Bernardi is the mild-mannered janitor behind Octogen, the jewel in Soma Records’ electronic crown. He comes to Edinburgh as part of the Edge Festival’s Soma Records Night and submits to our probing with peculiar results 5 words to describe your…

Shout Out Louds

Industrious Swedes do the happy/sad indie thing supremely

31 Jul 2008

‘If you listen to Abba’s songs,’ says Adam Olenius, ‘they sound really happy, but the lyrics are sad. They sing of broken hearts and melancholy. Heartbreak and beautiful melody, that’s the Swedish sound.’ Olenius, lead singer of Stockholm quintet…

5 Questions - Andi Neate

31 Jul 2008

One of Edinburgh’s most beguiling singer-songwriters gives us her lowdown on the festivities 5 words to describe your show Original, folk-rock, organic, origamic, neate! 4 shows you’re looking forward to seeing in Edinburgh this August Camille…

Bow Selecta - Dizzee Rascal Interview

22 Jul 2008

He’s worked with Arctic Monkeys and Calvin Harris while giving British rap a good name. With his own record label on the rise, urban music star Dizzee Rascal tells Miles Johnson about a life of grime.

Sultans of swing - Pendulum Interview

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

Hardcore drum & bass fans may have objected to the rockier feel of Pendulum’s new sound, but Richie Meldrum finds original member Rob Swire in no mood to apologise

Scouting For Girls

Edge Festival

22 Jul 2008

What a rollercoaster ride it’s been for this London-based indie pop outfit since ‘She’s So Lovely’ crashed into the top ten in 2007. Typical of their instantly catchy, mass-audience appeal, the single had four old school friends finally leaving behind…

Burt MacDonald with Lol Coxhill

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

A reunion with free jazz, lyrical flourishes and popcorn machines. One of Scotland’s most adventurous jazz groups, the Burt MacDonald Quintet are reuniting with Lol Coxhill. A legend of the soprano saxophone, Coxhill has worked with the band on five…

Isoceles

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

This Glasgow-based foursome jump to the sound of the raging bull. Or so say their Japanese fans, according to glowing reviews reworked by one of the internet’s more established language translators.

Little Feat

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

Formed in 1969 by Lowell George, one of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, Little Feat were always going to be different from the blues bands of the period. Small in stature, guitarist and lead singer George was a talented firebrand of R&B, country…

Edge Festival adds Santogold, Laura Marling and Angus & Julia Stone to line-up

20 Jun 2008

The critically acclaimed Santogold, Aussie siblings Angus and Julia Stone, Reading’s rising star Laura Marling and Scots indie band The Twilight Sad have been added to bill of the inaugural Edge Festival, taking placed across Edinburgh from 1st to 27th…

The Edge Festival announces line-up

5 Jun 2008

The line up has been announced for The Edge Festival, the new August music festival which replaces T on the Fringe. The festival takes place in August throughout the capital in various venues ranging from Cabaret Voltaire to the Corn Exchange.

The Edge replaces T on the Fringe

14 Apr 2008

DF Concerts, the promoters behind T in the Park, are rebranding their August live music series at the Edinburgh Fringe as The Edge. The month-long series has been an annual fixture since 2000 although, as DF's partnership with Tennent's on T in the…

Mother and the Addicts

16 Aug 2007

After 13 years of stellar service to the indie scene, Chemikal Underground are throwing a party to celebrate their 100th release. Well, if you’d introduced the world to new music by acts such as Mogwai, Arab Strap, The Delgados, Bis and Aereogramme…

Jamie T

16 Aug 2007

A formerly ‘crazy’, now defunct football team; excitable, litter collecting rodents and (lets face it) a boring tennis tournament. These were previously Wimbledon’s most famous offspring, that is until Panic Prevention, Jamie T’s debut album blazed its…

Robin Guthrie

9 Aug 2007

A sonic layer here, a melodic texture there – and so continue the musical exploits of former Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie, a man who invariably finds himself mentioned in the same sentence as the phrase ‘beautiful ambient soundscapes’. Grangemouth-born…

5 Reasons To Go See - Giant Tank vs The Fringe!!!

9 Aug 2007

Edinburgh’s premiere promoters of aktionist noise happenings commemorate a decade of cottage industry chunder with three bloody Sundays of non-Fringe-based hissy fits. Five reasons for their essentialness follow 1 It’s not music. It’s just noise And…

Fisher King Leven

9 Aug 2007

Musical collaborations are often more for the benefit of the artists involved than their audiences but fans of narrative songwriting of the folk-country variety will appreciate the coming together of Fisher, King and Leven. This triumvirate of…

Les Bof!

9 Aug 2007

There’s a certain ‘I don’t know what’ about this bunch of freakbeat rockers. The French language four-piece may be based in Edinburgh, but they are fronted by a bona fide Frenchy, the sharply dressed show-off singer Laurent Mombel, who left behind his…