Review - The Ginger Quiff

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 6 – June

August 10, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m not entirely sure I’m ever going to catch up… August is already in flight and here I am sharing my June singles…Anyway. Here they are, with playlist at the end.

Single of the Month

Junk Pups – Spoonfed

The June released singled from their Ball and Chain EP (full EP reviewed here)…

…Spoonfed….“for anyone who misses the off the wall duo, The Bikini Bottoms, this bouncing garage rocker will fill that hole. A hauntingly mysterious melody unfolds into glorious dual harmonies from Jack and Dylan. This mesmerising slice of psych/garage rock, and it’s lyrical ode to dysfunctional relationships, comes replete with some blisteringly face-melting triumphant wah-wah riffing as the song reaches its dazzling zenith courtesy of guitar goddess Ishi.… Read the rest

Scorpio Leisure – Audio Pleasure- album release gig – review

July 20, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All Photos courtesy of Trevor Pake

I Believe in Scorpio Leisure

2024 continues to be a dick of a year for so many reasons, and yeah, my mood is more negative than positive at the moment. Ironically I started this blog as a way of managing my mental health and mood through writing about my favourite subject… but my output is worse than ever because I’ve slipped into old habits in managing, or should that be not managing, said mental health.

As I reached the end of another working week, my “peopling” quota for the week had reached critical mass, so on arriving at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms I ditched my usual objective of being stage front and slipped quietly to the back of room with my pint of Tennents to enjoy the soothing and entrancing rhythms of Accident Machine, providing just the right balance of helping dissipate the stresses and anxieties of the week, and to build up the anticipation for the main event. … Read the rest

Junk Pups, Apologies and National Playboys – live in Nice n Sleazy, Glasgow

July 14, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve not been at many gigs recently so a Saturday night in Sleazys was a most welcome release from the pressures of life that are sent to try us. And after missing a couple of Junk Pups recent performances, including their appearance at the Variety Bar for Crowded Flat’s third birthday celebrations, having this most extraordinary of bands at the centre of the nights entertainment made it all the better.

Glasgow’s Junk Pups were bookended by Apologies from Falkirk and Edinburgh’s National Playboys. Apologies were the first band on the bill, playing what I believe was only their second or third gig as a four piece.… Read the rest

GIFTSHOP – A Bunch of Singles – album review

July 3, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

It is fitting for my favourite Queens, NYC band with such a strong back catalogue of exquisitely infectious singles to finally release an album celebrating that fact. But Bunch of Singles isn’t just an opportunity for Giftshop to pull all their singles together into one place. As the first song on the album states it is More Than That, taking the compelling urgency demonstrated on their singles of the last few years and mixing in a handful of new songs packed with a crunching commotion and occasionally a hint of tender emotion, both of which are demonstrated on their cover of Radiohead’s anthem for the dispossessed and weirdos worldwide.… Read the rest

Walt Disco – The Warping – album review

June 20, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

2024 has already been an outstanding year for album releases, however, Walt Disco certainly do not need to be fazed by what has come before as their second album finally hit the shelves. The Warping twists and turns, contorts, confounds convention and delights in equal parts as the serpentine songs worm their way into the very fibre of your being, and while not totally vitiating all comers, the album lays waste to much of the competition.

Where Unlearning announced their arrival as the ones to watch, The Warping takes that complex blueprint and not so much runs with it as rips it to shreds and starts again, taking the sum of their parts, adding layers of instrumentation, multiplying their sophisticated textures by distorting, altering and reshaping their already distinct signature soundscapes and somehow making their music even more passionately intense, akin to some sort religious awakening.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 4 – April

June 15, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Life seems to have got in the way again, its now June and not only have I not got anywhere near publishing a May round up, April’s has been languishing incomplete and unpublished too…

But hey, its Singles Round Up Part 4! One third of the way through the year already and the great songs keep on coming.

I read something recently commenting on how bad the state of music is these days. I think this must have been written by a person who relies on the charts and certain radio stations for their daily dose of music, or should that be daily doze of muzak, as I’m inundated by brilliant music on a daily basis.… Read the rest

James King and the Lonewolves – The Mortality Arcade – Album Launch gig review

June 9, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

My gig going has taken a hit this year, especially recently. I think I’ve given away more tickets than attended gigs in the last month or so…with the vagaries of life taking over. That meant, apart from managing an hour in The Hug and Pint to marvel at the wonders of Sister MADDs a couple of weeks ago, events around which meant I never did manage a write up (incidentally I bumped into their talented rhythm guitarist Fraser McCallum after This gig). Sister MADDs are a band on the rise with a headline gig at King Tuts lined this summer… (another addendum – the aforementioned guitarist also has a solo appearance during Summer Nights) I’ll certainly be reviewing that one. … Read the rest

Bela & the Lugosis – Trash in Dayglow – EP Review

June 3, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Bela Lugosi might be dead, the bats may have left the bell tower and the victims bled. But the red velvet doesn’t line the box, by the sound of Bela & the Lugosis, they’d be more likely to be turn it into a gloriously over the top stage shirt, to go with the “plastic boots and spandex flares” of the EPs title track.

The Trash in Dayglow 5 Track EP announces itself in darkly majestic style, with the thunderous instrumental AS Erotica laying the groundwork for the clamorous electrically charged wham bam thank you ma’am glam stomp of the song from which the EP takes its name.… Read the rest

Junk Pups – Ball and Chain – EP Review

May 26, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

You may have heard me wax lyrical about the endearingly sublime qualities of Glasgow based queer art-rock quartet Junk Pups on occasion. If you haven’t, and your first question is “Who the fuck are Junk Pups?”, my immediate response might be, “Where the hell have you been?” Followed quickly by a thoughtful wish that I was in your shoes and could have the awe and excitement of hearing, and seeing, the band for the first time again.

Fear not though, now’s your chance to play catch up as the band, having had a rabid pack of pups and pupettes baying for new tunes to listen to, finally release their debut 4 track EP, Ball and Chain.… Read the rest

Xan Tyler – Holding Up Half the Sky – album launch gig review, Panopticon, Glasgow.

May 5, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All photos courtesy of Chris Hogge Photography

Holding Up Half the Sky is an extraordinary piece of work. An album of songs inspired by female empowerment, from Xan’s own experiences and those of inspirational women from history.

An extraordinary achievement needs to be launched in extraordinary surroundings. Where could be more unique and special than the world’s oldest surviving music hall, the place where a sixteen year old Stan Laurel first tread the boards.

This is an event that has been two years in the planning. I say event as it was much more than just a gig (a phenomenally special and emotional gig granted – not “just” a gig), this was Xan’s vision finally coming to fruition.… Read the rest