Games :: Feature 10 Oct 2008
Dave Cook: When Microsoft launched Live Arcade on Xbox 360, it initially appeared as a bit of a mystery. Cheap, downloadable games that could be stored on your hard drive certainly appeared to be a nice and convenient way of doing things, with the service boastin...
Music :: Live Review 10 Oct 2008
Chris Buckle: They may say that the clothes maketh the man. but ‘they’ aren’t clear on whether women, or indeed bands, are similarly made by their clobber. A sartorial glance at guitarist/singer Ritzy of tonight’s support The Joy Formidable (...
Film :: Feature 10 Oct 2008
Lindsay West: When selecting your slice of Tennessee Williams cinematic majesty this Glasgay!, do Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, indulge in The Glass Menagerie, and drink in Streetcar; but how about talking a chance on Boom!? Going down in history as one of the best failed...
Records :: Album Review 10 Oct 2008
Chris Buckle: After second album Couples failed to set the world alight, a reminder of the glory days when they were feted as the greatest unsigned band in the country is a savvy move from The Long Blondes. However, there’s a suspicion that this Singles collec...
Art :: Review 10 Oct 2008
Nancy Katz: Lila de Magalhaes' offering to Collective's New Work Scotland Programme makes for a strong, moving and deeply humorous start to the now greatly anticipated annual exhibiting programme. For me, laughs engendered here are inherently personal, linked to ...
Music :: Preview 10 Oct 2008
Rab Haddock: Halloween is one of the most fun celebrations on the calendar – no crass commercialisation and no mass marketed mascots – just one night where all the ghosts, ghouls and goblins get to come out and play while us humans get to embrace our da...
Clubs :: Feature 10 Oct 2008
Emma Kilday: You reach an age where knocking on old ladies’ doors and shouting “TRICK OR TREAT!?” stops being cute and starts to run the risk of landing you on Crimewatch. But don’t dismay – there are plenty of other reasons to adorn y...
Comedy :: Preview 10 Oct 2008
Lizzie Cass-Maran: Here’s one especially for the Highlanders: hit Edinburgh Fringe show Elizabeth and Raleigh: Late But Live is currently on tour around the UK, with a Scottish date at Eden Court, Inverness on Sunday 26 October. Elizabeth and Raleigh is the second...
Music :: Live Review 09 Oct 2008
Darren Carle: Despite their gruff beards, burly physiques and trucker hats, Woodenbox (***) clearly know a good-time country pop tune when it rears its toothy face. A relatively meek looking saxophonist stage-left initially seems gimmicky but when forthcoming single...
Jason Morton: Whilst watching Dananananaykroyd's (****) contagious brand of jitter-punk unfold onstage, a fellow concertgoer asks me what their name is. “I really like their enthusiasm,” she says. Maybe this is precisely why Foals picked them as support ...
Jorge Marticorena: “We’re really interested in meeting some neds,” jest married front-couple David and Meredith Metcalf. “Yeah, we’ve watched them on youtube and stuff. We love them.” Oh, Bodies Of Water, if only you knew. Thankfully, ...
Clubs :: Feature 09 Oct 2008
Liam Arnold: It would have been all too easy to dismiss Lan Muzic as another Berlin techno label pumping out tracks for the Watergate: 12”s by Touane, Philip Sherburne and label bosses Exercise One offered little more than familiar shuffling rhythms and fract...
Travel :: Feature 09 Oct 2008
Arun Sood: The toothless tuk-tuk driver grinned and proclaimed in his strong Indian accent : “In the grand scheme of existence, we are all one and the same; each of us with five fingers and five toes...only I have six fingers.” Sure enough, the frai...
Art :: Review 09 Oct 2008
Annika Kristensen: Concealed behind closed doors, down a discreet corridor to the left of the main gallery entrance, this year’s Research show at the Royal Scottish Academy was, from its modest outset, always doomed to disappoint. Showcasing the work of ten artists...
Records :: Album Review 09 Oct 2008
Gillian Watson: Imagine a rain-dampened Go-Betweens, or the C86 bands at their least poptimistic, and you’ll be close to the essence of the “A&B sides, new songs, session tracks and stray dogs” collected on Broken Record Prayers, Comet Gain's dec...
Steve Clarkson: “The best way to find yourself,” said Gandhi, “is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Arranging to stay with someone you've met on the internet, who is willing to host you and others in their town or city, anywher...
Music :: Heads Up :: Preview 08 Oct 2008
Dave Hynes: Sound 2008 is a festival dedicated to new music based in various parts of North East Scotland (although it is concentrated around Aberdeen University) and is one of Scotland's true hidden gems in terms of exciting contemporary events. Now in its fourt...
Music :: Feature 08 Oct 2008
Dave Kerr: As well as procuring the usual track list for a desert island mix-tape, this month we asked former Icarus Line and Nine Inch Nails axe man Aaron North to envisage a post-apocalyptic future where he chooses the opponents and selects the conditions for c...
Records :: Album Review 08 Oct 2008
Milo McLaughlin: David-Ivar Herman Dune claims that this is the first album he's recorded when he was happy, and the instrumentation bears him out: upbeat brass bubbles under the surface, Dave Tattersall of the Wave Pictures contributes clean, virtuoso lead guitar line...
Music :: Live Review 08 Oct 2008
Darren Carle: The immediacy of the Futuristic Retro Champions (**) puts a smile on the Skinny’s mug as we enter Cabaret Voltaire tonight. This local quintet of fey-yet-hyper pop kids with songs about strutting your stuff on dance floors whilst looking good (ha...
