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

Update 24/02/12:  Dundee rock ‘n’ roll/garage duo The Creeping Ivies have been announced as support for the show.

More competitions than you can shake a stick at on here at the moment, unless you’ve shaken a stick at two competitions in the past that is.  Anyway, we’ve a pair of tickets to give away for this one, read on…

Glasgow’s synth-laden dirty rock ‘n’ roll/disco merchants Fangs (yes, that’s a MySpace link) came up through Channel 4′s Orange Unsigned competition, played slots at  the Reading & Leeds festivals and T in the Park, before an appearance at Texas showcase SXSW in 2010 caught the eye of French label Platinum Records.  They’ve just finished a German tour on the back of their album Automatic Rocknroll, released on said label at the end of last year.  All of which brings  you up to date, and them to Snafu’s new Wednesday night shindig Phop (whose eclectic booking policy already looks very promising indeed), alongside local DJs Bad Panda and MWX.  (Find out how to get in for free after the vid)

FANGS // “AUTOMATIC ROCKNROLL” from G.M.B Films on Vimeo.

Oh, and Fangs will also be doing a free acoustic set at One Up Records from 4pm on the day of the show.

Right, to win a pair of tickets to the Snafu gig, simply email your name to info@thekiosque.com under the heading “Fangs Comp” before midnight on Monday 27 February.

Good luck! (while you’re in competition mode you might as well enter our Little Kicks one too)

We’ve got a pair of guestlist places to give away for this, read on…

Over the last three years Do It! have put on some great parties with great music and great visuals, unfortunately, this is their last-ever night.  Boo.  As you’d expect though, they’re going out with a bang…

There’s a live set from Parisian synth magician dÉbruit (Civil Music), now usually I’ll read a quote like “his music is a no holds-barred assault through dark Congolese sound systems, downtown L.A. block parties gone wrong, haze-filled Kingston recording studios and freaky Tunisian backstreet souks, all powered by a fat hip hop engine”  and think “aye, OK” , but on listening to the tune on the video below, there’s more than an element of truth in there.  He’s well-known for putting on a great live show too…

Also doing his live thing for the first time in the city is Auntie Flo, aka Glasgow DJ Brian d’Souza (who’ll be bringing along Sub Club resident ESA on percussion duties) and, as you’d expect, the usual Do It! residents will also be on hand.  There’s a warm-up session upstairs in The Athenaeum with the Tuff Wax-affiliated Aberdeen Truth crew too.

So, goodbye Do It! and thanks for the memories, although we’re reliably informed that co-founder Alexander Horne will be back in 2012 with a new record label venture…

OK, to stand a chance of winning a pair of guestlist places, simply answer this question (hint: click a link):

Name three previous Do It! guests

…and send it to info@thekiosque.com under the heading “Do It Comp” before noon on Friday 9 December.  We’ll be in touch with the winner as soon as we’ve picked one from our rather fetching electronic hat.

Good luck!

A confession:  I’ve  felt the need to give that little bit more to charity since the time I was given a ticket to a football match featuring some of the world’s best players a few years ago.  The game was to raise funds to help with the aftermath of a major disaster.  The ticket I was given was complimentary.  I mean, it’s pretty bad that there were even comps available for such a thing, but not nearly as bad as the fact that I accepted it and merrily went along, cursorily chucking a few coins into a bucket on the way in.  What a dick.  It still rankles. Ugh.

Anyway, here’s another chance for me to help try and offset this, and for us all to do something in the name of an incredibly good cause, with the added bonus being we get to run round some of the city’s music venues like a daftie.  Yup, it’s Oxjam time again.

This year’s event  kicks-off at 2pm in Kilau, with acoustic performances from Tim Courtney, Steven Milne, Craig Henderson and Lauren Hart & Paul.  This part’s free, but you’d never go to a charity thing without paying, right?  Ugh.

Which is why we”ll all be buying a wristband for the main part of the event, some cracking bands are on offer from 7pm, and some potentially difficult decisions will need to be made with regard to clashes, but hey, that’s always going to happen at these things.  Right, here’s what’s happening (deep breath):  The Tunnels has a hip-hop, erm, flava with the live debut from French-voiced, Aberdeen-based, 11-piece (!) Taco and The Sharpies (whom we’ve recently championed on these pages) and Edinburgh’s excellent, and distinctly Scottish Stanley Odd.

There’s a great, three-pronged noise attack at Snafu with the returning Katerwaul, alongside Carson Wells and Min Diesel, Drummonds has the ever-solid indie-pop sounds of The Little Kicks and Stanley, while The Blue Lamp goes down the folk and blues route with veterans The Lorelei and Gerry Jablonski.  Then, after all that, it’s everyone back to The Tunnels for an after-party.  Phew.  Full line-ups in the poster below.  Go.

Everything Else Sucks is 3.  Unsurprisingly, they’re having a party to celebrate.   Sought-after Belgian electro duo Sound of Stereo (mix below) guest, alongside Ado (Fake Blood).  There’s a pre-party with the Tuff Wax boys upstairs in The Athenaeum from 9pm too.  That’s pretty much all you need to know.

Switch Playground (September 2011) by Sound of Stereo 

Friday 14 October | Cafe Drummonds | 7.30pm | £6 | Tickets
Copy Haho, The Douglas Firs, Good Police
16 miles- from-hometown show by Stonehaven indie-popsters

Friday 14 October | Snafu | 11pm | £10 | Tickets
The 2 Bears, Joe Goddard, Raf Daddy
Joe Hot Chip’s housey side project

Saturday 15 October | The Lemon Tree | 7.30pm | £13 | Tickets
Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells
Former Arab Strapper & friend tour one of the albums of the year (pic below)

Wednesday 19 October | The Tunnels | 8pm | £10 | Tickets
Sons & Daughters, Peggy Sue
Opening night of Clash magazine tour feat. the Glasgow indie outfit

Wednesday 19 October | Cafe Drummonds | 8pm | £5 | Tickets
French Wives
Excellent Glasgow indie-pop types

Saturday 22 October | Various venues | 7pm | £7 | Tickets
Oxjam Aberdeen
Annual multi-venue event feat. some superb local bands. More info here

Monday 24 October | Music Hall | 6.30pm | £14.85 | Tickets
Noah and the Whale
Folk-popsters play show to be broadcast live on BBC Radio 1

Wednesday 26 October | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £9 | Tickets
Scroobius Pip, B Dolan
Rapper tours his solo album

Friday 28-Sunday 30 October | Peacock Visual Arts | Various times | £22 weekend/£9 Fri/£10Sat/Sun | Tickets
IMP Present Sound@Peacock Visual Arts
Excellent-looking weekend of new music. More info here

Friday 28 October | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £7.50 | Tickets
The Birthday Suit, Deportees, The Winter Tradition
Idlewild’s Rod Jones’ new band & great support

Saturday 29 October |The Lemon Tree | 7.30pm | £15.50 | Tickets
Roddy Woomble
More Idlewild-ery as Woomble stops-off on his UK tour

Monday 31 October | The Lemon Tree | 7.30pm | £14 | Tickets
King Creosote, Kid Canaveral
Mercury-nominated Fifer & superb support

(Don’t forget to pop into One Up Records, where there may well be cheaper tickets available for some of these shows)

A bittersweet post this one as it marks the last-ever Dirty Hearts Club in its Thursday guise. Loads of great bands and many, many Friday hangovers are among the achievements of this legendary shindig, here’s what DHC’s Steven Milne has to say on the matter:

“We felt it was maybe the right time for it to stop and we had the chance to stop the night on a high. The night has been consistently great and were still getting great bookings and good crowds down but it takes a lot of work to keep a weekly night going – we’ve run the night for nearly 6 years so I think we’ve done pretty well.

Personally, I want to spend more time on my own music and my time is already split between a few things, so I felt I’d rather do DHC 100% or not at all. It feels like the right time to stop and the plan is to do the night on an occasional one-off basis at the weekend. We have quite an eclectic booking policy, so a weekend slot will open up what we can programme and I’m looking forward to making them special!”

So, all is not lost it seems. They certainly go out with a bang on Thursday as Edinburgh’s excellent 4AD-signed lush, string/piano-laden Broken Records and rising locals Velvet Audio play live before the usual DHC DJ shenanigans. A final one of those hangovers is on the horizon I reckon…

We’ve got a pair tickets for this to give away, details below…

Fridays at Snafu will now rotate between nights from the likes of Bigfoot’s Tea Party, Mixed Bizness, Snafu Live, All Neon Like, Liebe and more. Kicking off the new schedule however are Everything Else Sucks, who’ve moved across town from their previous home at Origin, and the line-up for their first night looks pretty darn good:

(Click artist names for their Soundcloud pages which feature tunes/mixes etc. galore)

Clouds are a young duo from Perthshire who already have EPs out on Fake Blood’s Blood Music label and Tiga’s Turbo Recordings. Techno-tinged electro is their game and you will be hearing a lot more about them over the next wee while.

Polymath creates everything from slick disco jams to acid-fuelled electro from his base in the Highlands, has an EP out on London label Mofo HiFi, and a heap of upcoming remixes for the likes of Arveene & Misk, Blende, Cornershop and Suxx on the horizon, as well as more of his own material. Add in Glasgow’s PMCQ and Everything Else Sucks’ own Eezma on warm-up duties and you’re looking at quite a party.

So, to win a pair of tickets for it, simply email your name to everythingelsesucks2008@hotmail.com with the heading ‘Kiosque Comp‘ before 5pm on Thursday 28 April when the winner will be picked at random.

Good luck!

Over in Scandinavia there’s a strange musical phenomenon afoot, and its name is Skweee. Analogue synths, drum machines and other old-skool equipment being used to make stripped-down r’n'b/80′s funk/electro kinda stuff is a (very) rough description.

Anyway, Do It! welcomes Norwegian label Dødpop to let us hear what it’s all about through live sets from Beatbully (who launches his album tonight), Melkevein and Sprutbass. It’s the artists’ UK debut ahead of shows in Brighton and Los Angeles, so it’s pretty cool that we get it first.

Support comes from Giles Walker, Uraki Riddim, Kid Bell & White Chocolate, alongside visuals by Uber AV. Oh yeah, note that this is an early-ish show which will be over by 1am. Sweet, or even Skweee-t…

So, there would have been a bigger preview of this, then it went and sold out. Rather than antagonise those who didn’t get a ticket, I’ll keep it short. It’s not as if you don’t know anything about the line-up of Scott from Frightened Rabbit, The Little Kicks and JJ Bull anyway, right?

Enjoy the night, congrats to the Dirty Hearts Club and Steven Milne for another year of bringing good stuff to the city. Here’s a video of Frightened Rabbit covering Elton John’s ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ with Craig Finn of The Hold Steady doing the Kiki Dee parts. Dirty Hearts Club, breaking hearts, see what’s happening here? Yup, there’s a lot of thought goes into these posts. A. Lot.