We’ve got a pair of tickets to give away for this show courtesy of Interesting Music Promotions.  Read on… 

If you’ve managed to catch any of RM Hubbert‘s previous visits to our city (or anywhere else for that matter), you’ll know he’s something special.  For the uninitiated, I shall try and explain;  he’s a Glaswegian guitarist who writes incredibly heartfelt, intricate instrumentals by way of a twisted take on folk and flamenco.  Not easy to pigeonhole is another way of putting it.  Anyway, he’s absolutely spellbinding live, and kicked things up a notch or two earlier this year with the release of  Thirteen Lost and Found on Chemikal Underground Records, an album which will be coming to a best-of-the-year list near you in December.

Featuring collaborations with the likes of Alasdair Roberts, Aidan Moffat, Emma Pollock (see below) and Alex Kapranos (who also produced the album), it’s a stunning piece of work in which the guest vocals elevate his music to another level completely.  He’ll be in solo mode at this show, but the presence of Ms Pollock means we may be in for an extra wee treat…

More, and the comp, after this vid of Hubby doing his thing:

…of course support act Emma Pollock needs little introduction;  ex-of The Delgados, co-founder of the aforementioned Chemikal Underground Records and member of  ”supergroup” The Burns Unit, she’s been an integral part of the Scottish music scene for years.  Check out some tracks over here on Soundcloud from her great, genre-spanning 2010 album “The Law of Large Numbers.”

Completing the bill is Aberdeen’s Amber Wilson, an excellent singer-songwriter who’ll be familiar to many of you.  This may be her last hometown show for a while, as she’s off to do another musical project, one which nobody is meant to mention, but lots of people know about.  How very mysterious.  All will be revealed soon…

Right, to win a pair of tickets to the show, simply answer this (easy) question:

Which band does RM Hubbert producer Alex Kapranos play in?

…and email it to interestingmusic@hotmail.co.uk before midnight on Sunday 15 April, after which a winner will be picked at random.  Good luck!

Peterhead clubnight Shmeet The Beat has been putting on bands in the Blue Toon since 2010,  pulling in crowds that would make the larger cities jealous in the process.   Now they’re hitting Aberdeen (or the “big smoke” according to The Buchan Observer *notsureifsarcasticornotsmiley*), so it makes sense that IndianRedlopez are playing,  being from round those parts and all.  You’ve read about them on here many times before, but an aligning of the planets due to me “basking” in the sunshine yesterday instead of doing this preview as planned means I can link you to a free download of remixes of their recent single “Prometheus” which has been released this very day through Bedford Records.  Karmic.

Also on the bill are Glasgow’s Song of Return, who are bloody good.  Featuring Louis Abbot of Admiral Fallow and Craig Grant of the now defunct Union of Knives, last year’s album “Limits” is an excellent slice of post-rock-and-electronica, they’re off to New York next month as winners of the Creative Scotland’s Big Apple award too.  Opening the show are fellow Weegie post-rock types Skies Fell.  Hit up their Soundcloud for a taste of their latest (poppier) stuff.  Promising.  It’s a good line-up that.  See you there.

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

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.

Saturday 14 January | Peacock Visual Arts | 7.30pm | £11.10 (From One Up)
Steven Severin – Vampyr
Siouxsie & The Banshees’ founder member soundtracks a silent film. Info

Saturday 21 January | Cafe Drummonds | 8pm | £6  Tickets
The Xcerts, Flood of Red, Duke
“Xciled” (heh) Aberdonian indie band return home

Saturday 21 January | The Tunnels | 8pm | £12  Tickets 
The Black Daliah Murder, Skeletonwitch, Fleshgod Apocalypse
“Face-melting” death metal from Michigan 

Sunday 22 January | The Lemon Tree | 7.30pm | £15  Tickets
The Maccabees, Trailer Trash Tracys
London indie types tour their new album 

Monday 23 January | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £5  Tickets
Tubelord, Olympians, Cameo Colours, You And What We Are
Synthy, poppy, mathy, rocky outfit from Kingston Upon Thames headline

Friday 27 January | Cafe Drummonds | 8pm | £4
Amy Sawers
Welcome headline show for local garage/country/rock/everything else-influenced singer & band

Saturday 28 January | The Tunnels | 9pm | £? (Tickets in One Up)
Skank
Nineties house night reunion with guest DJ/chef Michael Kilkie

Thursday 2 February | Cafe Drummonds | 8.30pm  | £5
Paws, DOLFiNZ, Min Diesel
Double header from two of Scotland’s most exciting new noisy indie bands

Friday 3 February | The Lemon Tree | 7.30pm | £8  Tickets
Rachel Sermanni
Hotly-tipped Scottish folkster/singer-songwriter (pictured below)

Thursday 9 February | The Tunnels | 7.30pm | £6  Tickets
Aerials Up, Stanley, Brown Bear & The Bandits, Margaret Finlayson
Melodic, string-laden Glasgow outfit & great support

Tuesday 14 February | The Tunnels | 8pm | £6  Tickets
Pulled Apart By Horses, The Computers
Raucous Leeds post-hardcore band headline

Tuesday 14 February | AECC | 7pm | £42.50 (!)  Tickets
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
That guy who used to be in that band tours his album 

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.

It’s about time I gave a nod to Aberdeen’s pop-punk/hardcore scene, which by all reports is one of the strongest in the country.  From what I can see, the likes of Daily Dischord consistently put on some of the best-attended gigs in the city, displaying a commendable DIY-ethic and level of online savviness which may fly under the radar of ageing indie snobs like me, but the fact they, and countless others, have quietly (OK, noisily) created a UK- wide network of like-minded souls which is pretty astonishing in its reach makes me want to take certain bands, venues and promoters aside and say: “See? That’s how you do it.”

One such band from round these here parts who are gaining attention on a national scale is Autumn In Disguise, they’ve already played festivals such as Download, Underage and T In The Park, toured the UK (and will do so again next year), and have a new mini-album out now (available here) ahead of a hometown show at The Tunnels on Saturday 17 December alongside Crashdown, Farewell Singapore & Fonik.  Stick that in yer indie-folk pipe and smoke it…

Some of you may have heard about this, but I’m guessing a lot of you won’t,  so here’s the deal:

As the title suggests, new(ish) initiative the Strategic Music Partnership presents a day of presentations, workshops, demonstrations and performances about the music industry.  It all kicks-off at 12pm in Aberdeen College’s ridiculously impressive music department (head to the Loch Street entrance, it’s worth it for a nosey round here alone) with some interesting-sounding demos and things, before moving over to The Lemon Tree at 4.30pm for a soundcheck workshop followed by a Question & Answer session with a panel featuring representatives from Hit The Road, the Musician’s Union, members of The Xcerts and more.

The day then finishes off with a gig (also at The Lemon Tree) by excellent Aberdeen-via-France funk/hip-hop outfit Taco and The Sharpies, The Brothers Reid, Andrew Brand & Jelly-Faced Women (free if you attend the day events/£3 otherwise).  See below for the full schedule…

This show seems to have flown in under the radar somewhat, so we’ll tell you about it, which is kinda the raison d’être of this site n’est-ce-pas?

Ou am I going with this?  Right;  they speak French in half of Belgium too, Django Reinhardt was from Belgium, and it’s a fair assumption that Django Django are named after him, rather than the open-source web framework.  See?  They’re all beautifully crafted these links, it’s not at all a case of me putting fingers to keys and seeing what shite spouts out.  Not at all.

Anyway, Edinburgh-formed and London-based, the Djangos have a nice take on sparse, lo-fi, electronic-tinged pop.  They’ve a new EP “Waveforms” out now too (video below).  Supporting local types IndianRedLopez should complement them perfectly;  they’ve a new single “Prometheus” out on 5 December, and headline the Bedford Records Christmas Party later that month.  We’ll probably do a bit about that nearer the time, as if I need to tell you that the Lopez boys are always worth catching anyway…

Fin.

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