Scottish Gig Highlights – August 2014

From Earth to Converge, it's a fine month to be a cultist

Feature by Freddie Boswell | 28 Jul 2014

Before we even get into August, let’s consider what a high we’re seeing out July on. It’s fair enough to say that for all his incarnations – as a motivational speaker, late night TV personality, club owner and classically trained pianist – Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Andrew WK has been trading on his one point manifesto, allegedly concocted by a crack team of music industry gurus back in 2001: Party Hard. Proceed to do so (but please mind the crockery) at the Classic Grand on 30 Jul.

Precisely 20 years after blowing open the possibilities for modern metal with a monstrous debut named Burn My Eyes, The Liquid Room presents a tantalisingly rare opportunity to catch Oakland thrashers Machine Head at close quarters on 31 Jul. This is no anniversary show, but with their eighth full length slated for release later this year, now's as good a time as any to 'let freedom ring with a shotgun blast,' an’ a’ that.

Prolific is the word for Jonah Matranga; you’ll have heard his dulcet tones on classics by the likes of Thursday and Deftones, and after a short-lived reprisal of his old band Far, the San Franciscan returns to his lo-fi, low-key, onelinedrawing moniker for the first time in a decade. His latest LP – Me And You Are Two – is a stew of heart-on-sleeve balladry over an effects board provided by R2-D2. No shit. You can find him at Glasgow’s Glad Café on 31 Jul.

Still reeling from the Commonwealth Games’ organisers failure to produce a 70ft high holographic Taggart at the opening ceremony, we’ll settle for the spectacle of Glasgow sextet Remember Remember performing a set of kaleidoscopic instrumentals from their exquisite third LP, Forgetting the Present on 1 Aug at the recently refurbished Kelvingrove Park bandstand (for free, by the way) as part of the festivities. Steve Earle, Teenage Fanclub and The Waterboys also make an appearance throughout the course of the month (see listings for details). 

Part of the Merchant City Festival, the 13th Note hosts three nights of mental during the Sheets Ov Summers Weekend #2 from 1-3 Aug. Particularly scratching our fancy on the second evening is the inspired grouping of veteran avant punks Ceramic Hobs, synth-livin' Italo horror score devotees Ubre Blanca, barbed noise rock trio Battery Face, plus a one-two surf rock punch in the pus courtesy of Halfrican and Deathcats.  

It takes balls of steel to name an album The Classic before you’ve earned your first triple platinum, but Joan As Police Woman damn near got away with it with her intoxicating collection from earlier this year. Don’t be surprised if she’s changed pace already. Back we saunter to The Liquid Room on 5 Aug.

Endlessly on the road since the release of All We Love We Leave Behind, Jacob Bannon’s post-hardcore wrecking crew Converge return to the Classic Grand (5 Aug), the scene of an absolute smasher in winter 2012. There are few more ferocious sights in live music than Bannon in full-throttle, held aloft by fans to the tune of Hell to Pay. Makes you feel bad for the Pigeon Detectives.  

Like Sabbath, Stone Roses and of course Color Me Badd before them, it was just a matter of time before Jeff Mangum got the band back together and Neutral Milk Hotel returned to the live arena for some unfinished business. With the heart growing ever fonder for their 1998 sophomore LP In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (and sales in excess of 300,000, which couldn't have hurt), the rambunctious, staunchly experimental Athens quartet have been in demand ever since. Here’s your chance to get reacquainted at the Corn Exchange (14 Aug). Also enjoying escalating cult status in their second life, the latest incarnation of Dylan Carlson’s drone lords Earth circle the CCA with the first live glimpse of their imminent LP Primitive and Deadly on 14 Aug, while Louisville post-rock forefathers Slint bring the seminal Spiderland to The Arches for a victory lap on 15 Aug. Get it roon' ye!


Do Not Miss: The Last Big Weekend, Richmond Park, 30-31 Aug

Part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme and a most welcome addition to the Scottish festival season, The Last Big Weekend offers a heartening alternative to the norm. Joining Mogwai (for their biggest headline show on home turf to date) on Saturday's bill are Bristolian synth wizards Fuck Buttons, techno sorcerer James Holden, perennial Peel indie rock favourites The Wedding Present, Kilsyth stalwarts The Twilight Sad, rising garage duo Honeyblood, recent Scottish Album of the Year Award winners Young Fathers, resurgent shoegrungers Swervedriver and Chemikal's own doom rawk trio Holy Mountain.

Meanwhile, co-curated by Optimo and Numbers, flanking Hudson Mohawke on the Sunday will be LCD Soundsystem/DFA Records founder James Murphy, Numbers diva SOPHIE and lynchpins Jackmaster and Spencer, Afro-futurist pioneer Nozinja, rising post-industrial mob Golden Teacher and Optimo (Espacio) themselves. Miss this and greet.