Another day, another pair of tickets to give away, this time courtesy of Midnight Resistance Promotions.  You lucky people.  You’ve only got a few days to enter this one, so get your wee bottoms in gear…

Brighton psych-folkster Chris T-T has more than a few strings to his bow;  described by The Independent as “a national gem”, and with eight albums (and a bunch of EPs/singles) under his belt, he’s a true modern troubadour whose beautifully-crafted lyrics on life, love and politics will strike a chord with anyone in possession of a soul.

He’s also a regular columnist for The Morning Star, charity fundraiser, speaker and panellist at various songwriting and digital seminars/workshops, and has been creating an indispensable photographic archive of every toilet he’s visited since 2010 on Twitter (see the hashtag #loo2012 for this year’s entries).

He pays Cellar 35 (and, no doubt, its bog) a visit on his “Sings Jeremy Clarkson To Sleep Tour” for forthcoming EP The Taking Of Clarkson’s Lighthouse which ”tells the tragic (made up) tale of a divisive genius TV presenter, a violent island uprising and the last surviving Fraggle.”  The mind boggles.  Support on the night comes from London multi-instrumentalist She Makes War and local singer-songwriter Davy Shanks.

Here’s a video for Chris’s 2010 single “Nintendo.”  Watch it, then find out how to win tickets below.

Okay, to be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets to the show, simply answer this easy question:

Which controversial BBC presenter is referenced in Chris T-T’s upcoming E.P?

…and email it to midnightresistance.promotions@gmail.com under the subject “Chris TT Comp” by Midnight on Sunday 22 April, after which the winner will be picked at random.  Good luck!

Based on songs by his respected and prolific psych-folkster alter-ego Kitchen Cynics, this new exhibition will be the first showing of Alan Davidson’s artwork for 30 years.  As if that’s not enough, there’ll be a live performance from Alan too, and some poetry by Sid Ozalid.  An unmissable evening in the company of one of the city’s true originals…

…at which the London-based indie-folkster will play songs from her well-received second LP Virtue, a break-up album if ever there was one (it’s well documented that a split from her fiancé inspired much of it). She’s been known to throw in the odd cover of the likes of Pixies in her shows too.  Here’s the video for her new single Paper Forest (In the Afterglow of Rapture), which is released today (Monday 19 September).

Yusuf Azak’s recently released debut album ‘Turn on the Long Wire’ (on the excellent Song, By Toad Records) has been well received for good reason:  The Glasgow-based Aberdonian’s brand of layered, looped folk-tinged, guitar-picking tunes is pretty special from what I’ve heard…

Comparisons to Nick Drake and Elliott Smith have been made, and no doubt those further South will pick up on his ‘charming Scottish lilt’ (or ‘talking’ as it’s known round here). Check out the video below for a taste, there’s a stream of the album version of the same song here too.

Also on the bill are singer-songwriter Ethan Ash (who’s promoting an EP too) and dreamy-of-voice local Amber Wilson.

Cellar 35 is made for shows like this, so you should go…

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/14062095]

*If I had a local press hat, I’d put it on now and write this:*

‘Alongside the traditional Bonfire Night celebrations on Aberdeen’s seafront, fireworks of the musical kind will be on offer at the Beach Ballroom this Friday as some of Scotland’s top young indie music acts…’

*Throws imaginary hat in bin*

Nah.

It is tempting to stuff this full of puns such as ‘Fawkeing excellent’ before ending with a ‘bang’ on ‘light the blue touchpaper and stand well back’ though, but I shall resist…

Anyway, this is the fourth ‘Live at The Beach‘ show and it’s shaping up to be the best yet.  We’ve featured all of these bands/people before, but here’s a wee rundown for the slow ones:

Meursault

After hitting the festival circuit and mainland Europe earlier this year on the back of their superb second album ‘All Creatures Will Make Merry‘, Edinburgh’s Meursault are now finally getting the recognition they deserve. Folky-influences, electronica, swirling geetars, and a dose of good, old-fashioned Scottish melancholia are all augmented by their best asset; frontman Neil Pennycook’s quite frankly astounding voice.  One of the best bands to come out of Scotland in a long time.

The Deportees

Fast-becoming a must-see round these parts and surely bound for bigger things, The Deportees’ brand of Americana and folk-tinged rock is at its best on those songs which build and build, luckily for us, they’ve got quite a few of them, and oh my, those harmonies…

Amber Wilson

Local singer-songwriter with a quite amazing, breathy voice. Should be quite something on the ballroom’s big stage.

Debutant

Lovely, shimmering, delicate post-rocky stuff from Aberdonian Philip Quirie.

There you go then.

And go you should.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/6328647]

Quick heads-up time:  Glasgow-based Sparrow and the Workshop consist of a Welshman, a Scotsman and Chicago-raised vocalist Jill O’Sullivan. The sum of these parts is a trio who play some beautiful folk-tinged music with more than a little hint of darkness to it. Video below, check it.

Support comes from The John Knox Sex Club who, as well as having the best band name in the history of the world ever, play some excellent, atmospheric but hard to pin down loudquietloud stuff, and local singer songwriter Steven Winton.

Go see.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17XX2YfFey8]

It’s always good to see Peacock getting used for gigs, it’s a great wee space and this line-up, courtesy of Village Sunsets, should fit it very nicely thank you very much..

New Yorker Diane Cluck came to light through a compilation put together by Devendra Banhart for Arthur Magazine, described by the Village Voice as ‘one of the most refined and elegant songwriters in all of neo-folkdom’, she’ll be joined by percussionist Anders Griffen.  Check out a tune from her called ‘Wild Deer At Dawn‘ below (click the orange ‘play’ button).

Support comes in the shape of multi-instrumentalist Wig Smith and the always excellent Alan Davidson aka maverick psych-folkster Kitchen Cynics.

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/5425075?secret_token=s-emAfw"]

Last-minute much Mr Kiosque?

Well yes, yes I do thank you very much Mr Disembodied Voice From Above, which is why I’m telling you you’ve only got until 10am on Friday to win a pair of tickets for this gig courtesy of the fine, fine folks at Interesting Music Promotions.

Simply email thekiosque@googlemail.com before then with the heading ‘Emma and Adrian Comp’, tell us the name of their record label and we’ll pick one at random and get back to the winner on Friday morning…

Right, some background:  We’ve featured founder member of The Delgados and Chemikal Underground Records (*cough* competition clue *cough*) Emma Pollock before, and it’s great to see her back in the city.   Her second solo album ‘The Law of Large Numbers’, released earlier this year, is full of the kind of quirky, genre-spanning numbers you can hear on the beautiful video below, and in her own words  is ‘the truest representation of me as an individual – whatever that means.’  Well, it means you’re a pretty cool individual then Emma…

Labelmate, regular visitor to the city, recent winner of Ireland’s equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize and singer-songwriter extraordinaire Adrian Crowley also plays.  Q Magazine reckons he’s ‘like Leonard Cohen narrating a Tim Burton fairytale.’  Which is as clichéd a description as you can get, but one that annoyingly gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect…

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/10639800]

Just noticed it’s been two weeks since we’ve done a gig preview on here, not because there haven’t been any gigs on or anything, it’s just one of those unexplainable phenomena.  Yeah, it’s definitely one of those, not laziness or anything like that…

Anyway, headliners Endor are a Glaswegian four-piece who’ve just released a self-titled debut album full of folk/pop-tinged tunes which build and swirl away quite the thing.  There are definite hints of Frightened Rabbit in there (a good thing), not least in the vocals which will doubtlessly be described by some as having a ‘charming Celtic lilt’ to them.  In real words that people actually use, that means they sound Scottish.  Another good thing.  Support comes from Edinburgh outfit Jakil and local band The Shakedown Project.

Endor

Aberdeen-based Fiona Soe Paing’s beautiful electronica, beats, visuals and vocals have been registering ever-louder on radars across the country of late, so this chance to catch her in her hometown is very welcome indeed.   Listen to her single ‘Deep Song’ here and see why the buzz is entirely justified.  We’ll be featuring more from Fiona ahead of the release of her upcoming DVD/EP on the site soon.  Stay tuned…

That’s not all however, as the show also features  Katie Thomas, The Brothers Reid, James JK Hughes and Tessacalls.  Looks like a good way to wind down the weekend,  only three quid in too…

Fiona Soe Paing