Save all of your kisses cos Mr I'm your Mrs...

So I'm a bit of a fan of Glasgow. Really a combination of the people, the accent, the Botanic Gardens. the Clyde, sledging in Rouken Glen, the buses, the Art School, the West End, Ibrox and a love of pretty much all the music its produced during my lifetime.

Obviously Franz Ferdinand raised the city's musical profile after a few lean years but it's the new wave of bands that have been spawned by the Franz foursome that I'd like to write about. I imagine most will have heard of Bricolage, signed to Creeping Bent records, this foursome have had two wonderfully jerky singles out in the last few months. I'm hesitant to compare their sound to FF but their influence is clearly present along with the likes of Television and Gang of Four. They seem to be keeping a fairly low profile at the moment but with an album hopefully on the way it shouldnt be long before we hear back from them.

Not to be outdone, assorted girlfriends and chums of the aforementioned Bricolage have gone on to form The Royal We, a wonderful collection of oddballs who look like they've spent too much time in the library. With all the charity chop chic of The Long Blondes but without the po-faced posturing, The Royal We actually sound like they're enjoying themselves on record which is a nice change! Speaking of their records they're a multi-headed singing ball of energy and their gleeful pop bounces along like Los Campesinos! They have a violinist too, which is nice.

In close geographical proximity to the aforementioned bands but at the other end of the musical spectrum are DANANANANAYKROYD, a duel-drumming, all-singing/swearing/dancing MACHINE and I emphasise MACHINE. I was lucky enough to see them live in January and although its only April I can't imagine I'll see a better performance all year. They threw themselves around the stage with youthful abandon, inviting audience members onstage to sing, dance and generally have a good time while blasting out frenetic doses of sonic adrenaline. It's the only gig I've been to this year where I've left with a smile on my face, in the knowledge that people still do enjoy making music and playing to a crowd. Promising to gig anywhere if you'll give them a home for the night, DANANANANAYKROYD are even better than their name, and that's saying something.

Greenock's My Latest Novel might not have fun at the top of their agenda but their Arcade Fire-esque orchestral pop more than makes up for their lack of knock-knock jokes. Their debut album 'Wolves' would easily make it into my top 10 of this century. Fragile at one moment and unstoppably powerful the next, Wolves is a masterpiece and a blueprint you wish bands like Keane would follow when after a 'powerful' track, then you wouldn't end up with soppy shite like bedshaped.

So there we go, an all too brief rundown of what Scotland's second city currently has to offer. I'd like to go on for ages but essays are calling me, and they're using swear words. Here's some MP3's for yis

The Royal We - All The Rage
DANANANANAYKROYD -Some Dresses

My Latest Novel - Hope Edition

toodle pip!

The Power of Understatement (and an introduction)

Well isn't this exciting? A shiny blog to write in and stuff. This is just a way for me to escape when I've got lots of work to do, and hopefully share some nice music to reward anyone unlucky enough to stumble across these ramblings. I guess I better do a boring introduction then. My name is Malcolm and some of my favourite things at the moment include Curb Your Enthusiasm, jumpers, sitting on grass, Sufjan Stevens and football chants. That's about as formal as I get really.

I started this blog as I felt I should make some kind of effort to document my rather mundane life, and as I don't have any artistic talent whatsoever, writing about other people's talent seems much more appealing. And obviously to share some ace music and talk to some interesting people!

So anyway I got the new album from The National to review from our student newspaper the other day, and its wonderful. maybe not as immediate as Alligator, but equally as brilliant.

I've always admired The National as their music can be deceptively simple and yet still be incredibly powerful. Matt Berninger has one of the most atmospheric voices I've ever heard. He doesn't have to wail to sound heartfelt it just comes naturally in his delivery of beautiful but not sentimenatal lines like

You know I dreamed about you // for twenty-nine years before I saw you // You know I dreamed about you // I missed you for for twenty-nine years

I don't mean that the band are just a transmitter for Berninger's vocals, certainly not. The musicianship is superb, but in the vain of Nick Cave and Tom Waits there's something really comforting in listening to someone who sounds very very grumpy. Despite being critically lauded, The National are still a relatively unknown quantity for the most part of the UK and with only two dates scheduled for this side of the Atlantic, one at the Astoria in London on May 22nd, the other at the quite brilliant Latitude Festival in Suffolk in July, it may remain that way. Hopefully not though. 'Boxer' is released on May 21st on Beggars Banquet.

I couldn't leave this first post without an MP3 though could I? After all that's what blogs are for innit? Unfortunately, Due to a bit of a mix-up on the promo version's tracklisting (I know, get me with me promo copy) you get two for the price of one here, half of my favourite track on the album 'Ada' and half of the album's finale 'Gospel'

The National - Ada

This has been fun! Til' next time! I'm off to Pigs tonight I think (can you tell I'm enjoying this link button?) I imagine I will drink cider and grumble about the size of people's hair and the lack of Belle & Sebastian, but such is life.