Arts & Entertainment
The latest arts and entertainment highlights, previews, reviews, music and film features and opinion pieces from The Skinny writers.
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Music
Zappa Plays Zappa @ Picture House, 18 Jun
Treating the crowd to as many favourites as it is possible to cram into one evening’s entertainment, from Peaches En Regalia through Montana and finall... Read more »| 25 Jun 2009 -
Music
The Mars Volta - Ochtahedron
When your debut album is a modern masterpiece that undulates from the proggy stratospheres right down to the gritty slums of salsa-punk, you’re left wi... Read more »| 25 Jun 2009 -
Music
The Thermals @ Sneaky Pete's, 16 Jun
Now seven years in, it's perplexing that the Thermals aren't playing much larger venues by now, but it's hard to complain when you're standing within spittin... Read more »| 25 Jun 2009 -
Music
Wickerman 2009 @ Dundrennan, 24-25 Jul
One of the more distinctive – and fast becoming one of the most well-regarded – festivals on the Scottish circuit, Wickerman returns for an eight... Read more »| 25 Jun 2009 -
Film
Shirin
The human face has fascinated artists and filmmakers for centuries. It has inspired some of the most memorable moments in movie history, from the closing sce... Read more »| 24 Jun 2009 -
Books
Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks by Alan Coren
Alan Coren was familiar to many from TV and radio panel shows up until his death in 2007. He was a very funny man in those, and he is a very funny man in thi... Read more »| 24 Jun 2009
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Music
6 Day Riot - 6 Day Riot Have A Plan
Glaswegian singer/songwriter Tamara Schlesinger suffered a setback last year when half her band split on the eve of a tour. Luckily for us, ambition won out ... Read more »| 24 Jun 2009 -
Music
Engineers - Three Fact Fader
It’s appropriate that the droning opening track to Three Fact Fader builds out of silence, as it reflects Engineers' emergence from uncertain times. Al... Read more »| 24 Jun 2009 -
Music
Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
Before I even listened to Malcolm Middleton’s fifth studio album, I decided I was going to write the whole review without using the words “misera... Read more »| 23 Jun 2009 -
Art
GSA Degree Show 2009
Degree shows are the most emotionally rife affairs on the art calendar, ripe for extended metaphors all round. If you can get past the queasy feeling that yo... Read more »| 23 Jun 2009 -
Music
There Will Be Fireworks - There Will Be Fireworks
There Will Be Fireworks seem designed for Autumn, rather than the scorching heatwave into which they release their self-titled debut album. From their asser... Read more »| 22 Jun 2009 -
Music
United Fruit - Mistress, Reptile Mistress!
Mistress, Reptile Mistress! may already be familiar to some, having been previously sold as a CD-R exclusively at United Fruit's shows. However, this fully m... Read more »| 22 Jun 2009 -
Music
Throbbing Gristle @ Tramway, 17 Jun
It seems appropriate that Throbbing Gristle's first visit to Scotland is supported by Tramway: a post-industrial warehouse, it provides the perfect backdrop ... Read more »| 22 Jun 2009 -
Music
Dolcim @ The Admiral Bar, 10 Jun
With so little of note being served up across Scotland in the shape of extreme punk and metal for much of this year, it was a pleasant discovery to learn of ... Read more »| 22 Jun 2009 -
Art
Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show 2009
It's with an unsettling sense of déjà vu that The Skinny skulks into ECA for its annual binge of art and design – two weeks of organised ... Read more »| 22 Jun 2009