I Hear a New World - February, 2009
Unusual and innovative music from Scotland and beyond.
Thomas Truax - Joe Meek warns Buddy Holly
3rd February 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death. In this ingenious tribute, New York musician Thomas Truax tells the tale of how Joe Meek, the unhinged record producer (and this column’s patron saint), was told it would happen from beyond the grave, and some years after his prophecy was proven to be true (give or take a year) he shot himself and his landlady – again on 3 February. In another genius piece of release date irony, it comes out on Edinburgh’s SL Records on the very same date this month.
The Phantom Band - Folk Song Oblivion
Ironically for a band that once changed their name for every gig, you will be hearing the name The Phantom Band everywhere this year. Possibly the first true contenders to The Beta Band’s crown – not because they’re trying to sound like them, but because their melodies and inventiveness are equally as effortless. This is a taste of the eclectic first album Checkmate Savage, out now on Glasgow's Chemikal Underground Records.
Recording the Impossible - Popsex
Paul Vickers has been responsible for some weird shit in his time, both with Dawn of the Replicants and The Leg. However, his latest collaboration, inspired by Ivor Cutler and at times sounding like a lost episode of Father Ted directed by David Lynch, is off-the-scale bananas, and the track Popsex is a weird little ditty about pop-up books and filthy thoughts. The album is out now on Edinburgh's SL Records.
Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs - Oh Men!
As if last year’s I Can Hear Your Heart wasn’t outrageous enough, here the king of over-sharing and under-shaving and his new band let loose a beery-breathed knees-up about the inability of his fellow fellas not to gape like morons at the sheer loveliness of the female form in all its guises. From the album How to Get to Heaven From Scotland, it’s released by Chemikal Underground (with a sleazy wink and a wandering hand) on 14 February, Valentine’s Day. Read a full review of the album in Records this issue.
I Hear a New World February 2009