Music Feature - The Ginger Quiff

Run Into The Night/Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something – live

May 29, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

Sometimes things are worth the wait.

in a week where I personally had an intense release of pressure after finally delivering the pilot of a training programme that has been delayed for years not months due to COVID, Run Into the Night and Jemma Freeman and the Cosmic Something finally got to play their gig in Broadcast. And what a gig it was to, a celebration of all that is good about live music, a coming together of like minded souls, a common stream of consciousness if you like, basically, with an emphasis on having a good time.

We arrived too late to see the first support Fog Bandit, who appeared to have gone down well with the assembled throng.… Read the rest

The Courettes – Back in Mono (B-Sides and Outtakes)

May 18, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

The undisputed “Band of 2021”, The Courettes, never disappoint. In the run up to their next Scottish dates in June, they have filled a gap in between albums with this essential 10” vinyl, and CD, of outtakes and b-sides from last years outstanding Back in Mono album.

As usual with this vital husband and wife duo, the artwork is the first thing to draw you in, the impeccable retro styling of the sleeve giving a sure indication of what you are going to hear when the needle hits the groove. I’m also drawn to the fitting addition of ”fabulous” to their name on the cover, I find it hard to find enough superlatives to use when I’m describing this band and their music, fabulous will do for starters.… Read the rest

Album Club – debut album review

May 15, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

The first rule of Album Club is…talk about Album Club. Tell all your friends. Shout it from the rooftops if you must. Just make sure as many people as you can muster listen to these songs

The L word had a lot to answer for. Maybe though, this album is something good that came out of it. This was never meant to be a band, as the name suggests, Album Club started as a group of friends, from the music and arts, congregating in the Laurieston Bar to talk about albums (funnily enough!)

When COVID took hold, it put a stop to their monthly meetings and the friends, including Michael from Zoey Van Goey and Emma & Paul from Delgados, started sending each other pieces of music and lyrics they had been working on.… Read the rest

Ramonas/Reaction – Live in Glasgow/Nice n Sleazys

May 9, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

The second gig of the weekend for me was an entirely different affair from the night before, a full throttle punk affair featuring Airdrie’s Reaction and the high octane thrill ride that is Ramonas. Unfortunately due to train cancellations I missed the start of Reaction’s set, but appropriately, when I arrived, breathless from a quick sprint up from the station, they were part way through Faster, a theme which was to be a core principle for the evenings entertainment.

As I sat in the station earlier, and the announcements came over the tannoy about cancelled trains, I almost chucked it and went home, my head telling me “Its Sunday night, maybe you’d be better having an early night – work tomorrow”.… Read the rest

tAngerinecAt – Glass – album review

April 29, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

The latest album, Glass, from tAngerinecAt, the Welsh based Ukranian/English duo of Eugene Purpurovsky and Paul Chilton, is an extraordinarily mesmerising work of unadulterated alluring charm. Their extraordinary music is as engaging and beautiful as it is dark and undefinable.

Having formed in Ukraine, where non-binary Eugene, to put it mildly, had a dark and traumatic childhood and upbringing and where Cheshire born Paul (also non-binary) lived for 18 years. Follow the link below to the band’s website to read more about their roots and previous recordings.

This new album Glass is both simultaneously an unnerving and difficult but thoroughly captivating and uplifting listen, a fact that is borne out of by description of the album provided by the band, which I couldn’t put any better “”Glass” is based around Eugene’s personal experiences as a neurodivergent person, severe trauma, acute poverty and Chornobyl disaster survivor, and a queer multiethnic refugee activist from Ukraine.”… Read the rest

Bob Vylan – The Price of Life – album review

April 28, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

Fresh of the presses, the new long player from the band that keeps punk relevant into the 21st Century and beyond picks up the baton passed on from We Live Here and runs full tilt with it, leaving those punks stuck in a rut around 1982 wallowing in their own self pity.

The seamless handover is evident in the coherence between the two albums, with The Price of Life allowing Bobby & Bobbie to continue to vent their legitimate anger at lying politicians, meathead racists, right wing gammons, lefty liberals and beyond… hitting each of them square on target with every knockout verbal punch aimed, no-one escaping in a full on aural assault on the current post-Brexit dystopian climate across this clusterfuck of nations, which in many ways has regressed further since the release of their hard hitting debut.… Read the rest

Run Into the Night – Common Stream of Consciousness – single review

April 28, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

One of the Ginger Quiff’s “22 for ’22”, the revamped Run Into the Night release the first single recorded as the new 2 piece with Christina on guitar and vox and long term friend and collaborator Andrew (also of Powderkeg) on drums, with additional backing vox from Steven Young.

The result of their hard work is the addictively compelling Common Stream of Consciousness which will be available to purchase (or stream) tomorrow, and infiltrate your own consciousness, lodging itself firmly there and refusing to budge.

Hulking great dirty crunching riffs from Christina accompanied by a vigorous thunder of drums from Andrew herald the arrival of this deeply resonant rumbling growl of a tune.… Read the rest

DITZ – The Great Regression – album review

April 21, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

The second great album of 2022 that I’ve picked up from Alcopop! Records so far. On the back of January’s superb release This is My World from Helen Love, comes the debut album from DITZ, in the shape of The Great Regression, an album title which is unerringly accurate for the dystopian post Brexit times we are currently living through.

Brooding

An entirely different beast from the Helen Love album, DITZ produce an unsettling blend of abrasive post punk, mixed with often vicious and seemingly threatening metal guitar grooves and riffs, nigh on industrial in places. Elsewhere the mood is much more brooding, on the likes of Instinct, with a low key vocal backed by an equally low key, but incessant guitar line, the song does, however, rise to a cacophonous clamouring finale.… Read the rest

Ginger Wildheart/”Random” Jon Poole/Carol Hodge – live in Bannermans, Edinburgh

April 20, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

Being a lifelong weegie, I don’t often venture through to the East for a gig, normally sticking to Glasgow City centre or its immediate environs. However, with no Glasgow date on this tour, I risked a nosebleed and made my way, with my brother, another ginger Hodge (sans quiff) through to my first ever Bannermans gig.

As I thought may be the case, we immediately bumped into another West coaster who had made the trip through and soon, I was bumping into several friendly faces, making the trip worth it before a note was even played.

Carol Hodge

This was a night of firsts, and despite my championing her music for some time, reviewing her albums and interviewing her for the blog, this was the first time I had seen my fellow Hodge live (apart from on several online gigs during COVID – but they don’t count).… Read the rest

The Ones That Got Away… Punk Double Feature – The Pulsebeats & Year Zero

April 3, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

A couple of first wave of punk influenced records here from The Pulsebeats & Year Zero, most definitely on the melodic end of the scale here, with The Pulsebeats verging on power pop, we’re talking Buzzcocks/The Vapors crossed with Husker Du territory here, with Year Zero continuing in the vein of energetic classic punk rock taking their lead from the usual suspects but putting their own spin on things with influences from throughout the decades.

Apologies to both bands as these were albums that were sent to me an age ago and ended up on my “to listen to and review” list for way too long, ending up getting lost amongst the chaos, a great shame and pity that I haven’t shared these before now as they are both exuberant collections of sing/dance/pogo along to punk anthems.… Read the rest