This just in from, erm, the internet:

Frightened Rabbit will play The Tunnels on Friday.  Ace.  They’ll be supported by The Little Kicks. Double ace.  No, there aren’t any advance tickets.  Yes, that means they’re available on the door only.  Yes, that means there’ll be a queue.  Yes, it’s just been announced, which is why you haven’t heard about it before.  Yes, I think that’s the whole point.  No, I don’t have any further information.  Cheers.

Assuming you’re reading this today, this is tomorrow, unless you’re reading this tomorrow, which means this is today.  Glad to have cleared that up for you, I know time seems to go a bit weird at this time of year…

Anyway, you should all know the work Aberdeen Gig Promotions do in this town by now, and this is their Christmas show, so it’s only right you go along and say thanks for another year of good stuff.  Helping them celebrate are hook-laden Dundonian indie-rockers Make Sparks (cinematic-warehouse-violence-and-running-through-woods-video-below), fellow Taysiders The Barents Sea and a solo set from Ross Leighton of Fatherson (fresh from a headline show at The Arches in Glasgow).

As an aside, it’s worth noting that AGP are doing their access-all-shows pass again.  Just twenty quid gets you into their first six shows of 2012.  Bargain.  Get one here.

The classic clichéd music critic diagnosis of  ”difficult second album syndrome” doesn’t seem to have affected Aberdeen indie-popsters The Little Kicks too much, for my money (whatever that’s worth), this forthcoming eponymously-titled effort is better than their debut.  While we’re on the subject of second albums and clichés by the way, I’d like to take this opportunity to call for every non-US passport-holding person who writes words about music to kindly desist calling them “sophomore albums” with immediate effect.  Seriously.  Make it stop.  Now.  OK, cheers.

Right, tangential rants aside, said album comes out on 28 November (but you can hear sneak previews of the whole thing below) and the band celebrate the wrapping-up of their UK tour with a show at The Tunnels on Saturday (19 November).  Support comes from Velvet Audio, Easy Tigers and JJ Bull, followed by DJ action from the DHC/Fiction lot until late.  Recommended.

  The Little Kicks – The Little Kicks (New Album) – Sample Tracks by THE LITTLE KICKS

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]

There are a shedload of decent gigs a-coming over the next few days; Errors/Twilight Sad on Wed, Manic Street Preachers/British Sea Power on Thu, Kris Drever on Fri, Joy Formidable/Chapel Club on Sat. for starters, check the listings for more on top of that lot too…

We’ll do our best to guide you through a few of them in our trademark short, sharp, concise-yet-jauntily-be-hatted-with-a-quizzical-eyebrow-raised-skywards-fun-loving-manner.  Hmmm.  Something like that anyway…

Right. This one’s on Friday.  Fenech-Soler are a Northamptonshire electro-pop band who’ve been getting some serious coverage of late.  In what’s frankly an amazing stroke of luck for me, Gigwise have just released a video of them talking about their new album (it’s on the right hand side of the site).  So you can just watch that.

Indian Red Lopez have been on this site so many times it’s embarrassing.  You know them by now, here’s a wee interview we did with them a while back anyway.  Final band on the bill are young, electro-laden locals In Atlanta. They’re pretty good too.

Done.

Boom.

Fenech-Soler

He’s been working on his solo material for a while now (alongside producer and cohort Iain Macpherson) and an EP ‘The Best of Times’ on Bedford Records is incoming on 20th September ahead of an album in November.  There are some pretty good, erm, goodies on it, including a cracking wee version of Orange Juice’s ‘Rip It Up’ (which has received the stamp of approval from Edwyn Collins himself on Twitter apparently). Check out the lead track below but, as always in these situations, try and support the local scene by buying a physical copy from One Up or a digital one fae yer that there iTunes if and when you can…

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/5060873?secret_token=s-CCPcJ"]

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