Tuesday 6 March | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £7/£6adv (from One Up)
Thomas Truax, Matricarians, Craig John Davidson
A welcome return for the NYC multi-instrumentalist with the home-made instruments

Thursday 8 March | The Tunnels | 8pm | £5
Iain McLaughlin & The Outsiders, Velvet Audio,  Brown Bear & The Bandits, Bellocs Bar
Spacey Invernesian indie-rockers and great support from equally out-there locals Velvet Audio

Friday 9 March | The Lemon Tree | 8pm | £6
The Ruckus, Estrella, Gutter Godz, Evil Demon Theory
Fat Hippy Records’ album release show for local rock outfit The Ruckus 

Friday 9 March | Snafu | 11pm | £4/Free before 12
Tuff Wax Aberdeen Truth Vol. 3 Release Show
Hip-hop/garage/house/dubstep from the excellent local label with Lockah, Bones & Money, Grobbie &  Yoin

Wednesday 14-Sunday 18 March | Various Venues, Times & Prices
Aberdeen Jazz Festival
Jazz/funk/soul/latin/loads of things inc. a free outdoor Saturday show on The Green.  More info here

Friday 16 March | Woodend Barn, Banchory | 7.30pm | £9/£8adv   Tickets
Meursault, Wounded Knee
Edinburgh post-rock/twisted folk outfit make a welcome return to the NE.  Worth the bus journey.

Friday 16 March | The Tunnels | 8pm | £7/£6adv  Tickets 
Fatherson, Duke, He Slept On 57,  Rambler
Glasgow-based, Ayrshire-born & unmistakably Scottish indie-rockers headline 

Sunday 18 March | The Forum | 10pm | £20 (From One Up/Attic)
2ManyDJs
Superstar DJ duo & one of Belgium’s biggest exports outside hangover-inducing bevvy

Wednesday 21 March | Snafu | 11pm | £tbc
Phop Presents: DOLFiNZ, Min Diesel, DJ Bad Panda
A lo-fi Stonehaven scuzzy pop duo.  Some ramshackle grunge from Aberdeen.  And a good DJ.  

Thursday 22 March | The Blue Lamp | 8pm |  Sold Out
Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three
Ragtime/country/swing/blues band from St Louis, Missouri (pictured below). Recently appeared on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny.

Friday 23 March | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £6  Tickets
Bwani Junction, This Silent Forest, Boy With Compass, Steven Milne
Headline show by Afrobeat-influenced Edinburgh band currently being branded “hot” by tipsters who do such things

Friday 23 March | The Malt Mill | 8pm | £5
The Komet Club
New venue for the Rockabilly/Rock ‘n’ Roll/Vintage Rhythm & Blues night 

Saturday 24 March | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £7/£6adv (From One Up)
Fridge Magnets, The Tijuana Sun, The Suburban Saints, Kushty (DJ Set)
Aberdeen/Glasgow electro-rockers recently crowned “Best Electronic Act” at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards headline

Saturday 24 March | Origin | 11pm | £7/£6 before 12
Table Mannerz
Electro/Hip Hop/Drum ‘n’ Bass with guest turntablist & 2010 DMC  World Champion DJ Ligone (France)

Tuesday 27 March | The Lemon Tree | 7.30pm | £15
YolanDa Brown
Double MOBO Award-winning saxophonist/vocalist

Thursday 29 March | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £5/£4adv  Tickets
IndianRedLopez, Song Of Return
Locals you should know by now joined by kindred electronics/guitar-wielding spirits from Glasgow (Feat. Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbot)

Friday 30 & Saturday 31 March | Cellar 35 | 8pm | £5 per night/£8 weekend
The Little Kicks
Read more & win tickets! 

Friday 30 March | Snafu | 11pm | £10
Dubpressure
Dubstep/House/Garage with Hessle Audio co-founder/Rinse FM DJ Ben UFO 

…and every Friday throughout March there are free shows at Slains Castle (the pub, not the alleged literary vampire-influencing ruin) click here for the line-ups.

Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three.  Photo: Paul Nordmann

Another of those last-minute “you should go to this tonight” posts. Which is exactly what you should do. DJ A La Fu is leaving town but not before this release party for his interesting-sounding, adventure-based double CD “DJ Memoirs“.

Details on the flyer

£10 for both events

A two-parter for excellent electronica/funk/arts/visuals night Do It’s second birthday party. Kicking off in Cellar 35 with locals Uraki Riddim, Kid Bell & White Chocolate, it’s then on to Origin where bass-heavy Big Dada bod Offshore joins in alongside a very, very special guest from the respected Hyperdub stable. To find out who it is you’ll just have to go along…

Friday 28 May:

Massive German punktechnodiscohouselectro duo Digitalism at The Forum (video interview below)

Influential dubstep producer Rusko at Origin (minimix & interview with Annie Mac)

Global beathead DJ Astroboy (Departure Lounge, Edinburgh) visits Club No Borders at The Tunnels (World Gone Crazy mix Apr ’10)

Saturday 29 May:

Ex-Hacienda resident and exiled Aberdonian Graeme Park at Franklyns (mixcloud page with radio shows/mixes etc)

Viper Recordings’ Drum ‘n’ Bass DJ/producer Futurebound joins the Jungle Nation at Origin (D&B TV mix on YouTube)

Underground house night I Left My Soul In Detroit (Facebook event page) moves to its new home at Korova, with guest Funky Transport

Aye, that lot should keep you going, prices/times etc are in our listings

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There’s always been a healthy Skateboard culture in Aberdeen and the scene up here is hugely respected across the UK and beyond.  It’s a wee bit more visible nowadays with the addition of the amazing Transition Extreme but skaters tend not to rest on their laurels for too long, they continue to get up off their arses and do stuff. Aye, it was ever thus.

Which brings us to the premiere of A-Deen at The Belmont, it’s a new local skate film which documents the scene over the last three years or so: £3 in (seats are limited, so get down early), you can walk away with a DVD copy for a fiver, T-Shirts will be on sale and there’s a potentially messy party afterwards at Origin from 11pm. See? Doing stuff.

This isn’t the first skate vid to come out of this parish, there have been a few, most notably Alex Craig’s H’Min Bam which is regarded as a classic.  Have a look at Alex’s current venture after the poster. It’s worth it…

OK, so Alex Craig doesn’t live round here anymore (he’s based in Canada) but he is from the North East and is making waves as a film-maker. The trailer below is for his new film Machotaildrop,  a surrealist skate-based fable that’s already been part of the Toronto International Film Festival (the first of many fest screenings I reckon). Fingers-crossed it makes it over here at some point, because it looks totally mental.  Fact fans take note:  the movie also features another expat Aberdonian in the shape of pro-skater John Rattray…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maMF3E7WlBs]

Snafu welcomes Brighton techno/disco bod Cagedbaby (11pm/£6), who’s also been confirmed as a new monthly resident at the club, so you’ll be seeing rather a lot of him in 2010.  Best get acquainted then and check out a new mix from him here

Down at The Tunnels, there’s a one-off return for Jazz/Funk/Soul/Hip-Hop/Afro night The Goodfoot (11pm/£3) featuring exiled DJ Ben Boyde while Funky House night Trash Disco host their First Birthday party in Tunnel 1 (also 11pm/£5). Origin has a Hush Hush Boxing Day Special with Djamba doing his dubstep/bassline thing (10pm/£5), Korova goes electro with Giles Walker (11pm/£3) while the usual indie-leaning shenanigans are on offer in Room 2 at The Warehouse with Steven Milne’s Adventures in Stereo (11pm/£3).  Plenty to choose from there then, and not a cold turkey joke in sight. Go me.

Two of Scotland’s most popular acts are in town; Idlewild (The Warehouse, Fri) and The Proclaimers (AEEC, Sat). Both sold out though, so enjoy if you’ve got tickets.  Friday also sees a couple of Sound Festival shows outside the city; King Creosote and The Pictish Trail at The Woodend Barn, Banchory (8pm, £14, really nice venue) and most interestingly, experimental music with Mark Wastell and Will Guthrie at The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, Fraserburgh (7.30pm, £7/£5, Free bus from Aberdeen Art Gallery at 6pm).  How cool does that sound?  I mean, it’s in a lighthouse museum…

Ace local group Super Six Funk Machine are promoting two shows over the weekend; Newcastle hip-hop/funk band The 27 Club at Drummonds on Friday (9pm/£4, with the Funk Machine themselves in support) and superb US hip-hop outfit Ugly Duckling on Saturday (The Tunnels, 10.30pm, £5) while further beat-driven goodness can be had at Origin when Everything Else Sucks welcome Manchester house, breaks ‘n’ bass duo Heavy Feet (Saturday, 10pm, £6).  That lot should keep you going, however, as always, see our listings if nothing here takes your fancy.  Hiv a good een folks…

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The I Heart UTG campaign continues with this special night at the newly-opened Origin club on Windmill Brae.  Expect electro, techno and house from the Electric Institute DJs and expect to feel good about the fact you’re supporting a very worthy cause indeed (and yes, it’s really only a quid to get in) …

Since Origin closed its doors last year a bit of a hole in the city’s club scene appeared, but now it’s back! Taking over the former Kode/Drum space in Windmill Brae, fans of bass-heavy music can breathe a sigh of relief as all the old Origin favourites like Jungle Nation, Hush Hush, Everything Else Sucks, Full Spektrum, Booya, Modulate, Impeach The Resident, and Acid Thunder will be returning too.

Already booked to appear are Scratch Perverts, Joker, Benga, Commix, Drumsound, Utah Saints, Shadow Dancer, Heavyfeet, Mumdance, Sect, Noob, Brookes Brothers, and that’s just for starters. The opening night on Friday 18 September sees Giles Walker, Djamba, D:Liva, Krazzy Martin and of course, DJ Tez making an appearance, while the Acid Thunder mob play on Saturday the 19th. Good news all round then. Welcome back!