Review - The Ginger Quiff

Tugboat Captain, The Just Joans and Curdle – Live in the Hug and Pint

October 21, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

Back in The Hug and Pint for the second time in a week, this time a three band bill put on by Angus from Double A Side records who released Tugboat Captain’s LP, Rut last year.

Curdle

First up was the wonderfully dark Curdle, a band wholly suited to the month of October with their sinister lyrics and don’t mess attitude fuelled trippy riot grrl pop. I’m just loving being back at live gigs, and making up for lost time, so I’m soaking up every minute of every band I can. Having first seen Curdle supporting Dead Hope in the Old Hairdressers, I’ve been hooked on their music ever since.… Read the rest

Lola in Slacks – Moon Moth – album review

October 20, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

It seems somehow appropriate that I am sitting writing this review just gone midnight, with everyone in the house asleep bar me. The music of Lola in Slacks is ideally suited to late night listening. I feel something is missing though. Ideally, I should be in some sophisticated smoky wine bar in Paris, brushing shoulders with poets, artists, authors and musicians and other such classy and stylish bohemians. I guess late night in Glasgow’s South Side with only cats as company and a wee bourbon and coke as refreshment will do for now. Until this incoming Saturday that is…

If, like me, you have been waiting with barely contained excitement in anticipation of Moon Moth, you won’t be disappointed.… Read the rest

The Courettes – Back in Mono – album review

October 12, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

What’s not to love about The Courettes? I mean, lets face it everything about this band screams sheer class. The supremely talented duo have not left a stone unturned in considering exactly what they want The Courettes to be. Their divine retro aesthetic, from their image and their instruments, through the design of their cover art and on through to the music and its production, you can be under no illusion of what to expect. They wear their influences well and truly on their sleeves, coming from a very specific and distinct place and time in history, but allowing those of us who missed out on the opportunity to live through that era vicariously to experience it for ourselves.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2021 – Part 11

October 10, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

Another bumper batch of singles, demoes, or tracks that have somehow made their way into my slightly detached world . I’ve been trying desperately to keep on top of all the new releases and singles that keep catching my eye/ear, evidently I am only human and there are loads I’ve missed, and some probably included here that have been out for a while but I’m only getting my lugs around them now.

As always, these are in no particular order and where available, they’ve been added to the Ginger Quiff 2021 Playlist.

First up, its a bittersweet song…

The Jazz Butcher – Time

Many of us will have been shocked and saddened by the sudden passing this week of one of independent music’s most highly respected and talented free spirits in The Jazz Butcher iconoclast himself, Pat Fish.… Read the rest

Vardy – Pandemonium 555 EP – review

September 30, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

“Someone get me outta this place…” (Vardy – Outta This Place) something I’ve increasingly thought over recent weeks as I read the progressively more and more bizarre headlines, wondering if the last two years have actually been real? And it appears it is not the only thoughts I have in common with Daniel Vardy, the Vardy in question here, recently having released his 7 track Pandemonium 555 EP.

Pandemonium is an appropriate title for these seven steroid injected frantically energetic, vitriolic, indie guitar anthems tinged with a visceral punk attitude, his East Midlands accent demonstrating elements of both anger and desperation throughout the songs.… Read the rest

One’s That Got Away… Jeshua – Unreliable Narrator

September 29, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

One’s That Got Away

Despite me trying to keep on top of things this year, inevitably things always escape me. I have the best of intentions of posting reviews, listening to everything that is sent to me (as well as the stuff I buy myself), but life gets in the way sometimes… Here is the first in another series I’ll probably start, then never get around to following up on. Anyway. I’m aiming to do some mini reviews of albums I’ve been enjoying this year that I meant to review when they were released but then shit got in the way….… Read the rest

The First Big Weekend…

September 13, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

My return to live music kicked off in style last weekend with Hugh Reed & the Velvet Underpants in the Bungalow Bar in Paisley. This weekend was what you could call the First Big Weekend (copyright: Arab Strap) of my 2021 gig calendar with not two but three consecutive nights of live music. Bring it on. (Not sure if I should be apologising to my family or whether they were just glad to see the back of me for three nights…)

I’m not going to deny, it wasn’t without some trepidation that I was returning to gigs, and not just due to COVID and everything that goes along with that, but also the being around people in general, and social anxiety aspect of it all.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2021 – Part 9

September 5, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

2021 has been rammed full of quality new music, so many new singles and ones to fit every musical taste. Here’s my latest round up of the ones that have caught my attention.

And a note to all festival organisers whose bills are crammed with ladrock, there are literally thousands of alternatives out there….

Brat Coven

Brat Coven are a three piece riot grrrl/punk band with attitude form Glasgow. Listen to the lead song on their latest three track single and be in absolutely no doubt that they will accept NO unwelcome advances from sleazy blokes with the uncompromising grunge punk of Not Ur Girl.… Read the rest

Jackal Trades – At This Point – album review

September 1, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

Mark McGhee never rests.

Does this man never sleep? He seems to be constantly spinning plates, managing to keep them all going and letting nothing slip, while keeping up high standards and levels of quality control on everything too …

Live shows with The Girobabies (whose Who Stole Utopia? album remains an absolute revelation), You Call That Radio podcasts, and of course Jackal Trades (and master of them all), whose album At This Point was released a couple of months ago…. Yes, I’m still playing catch up, but that s a good sign – hunner’s of brilliant new music out there…

At This Point is essentially McGhee’s (and a supporting cast of thousands) commentary on the state of the COVID era disunited kingdom.… Read the rest

Mickey 9s – Modern Kunst – album review

August 30, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

The delay in writing this review is very remiss of me, I’ve had the latest Mickey 9s album for what seems like aeons. Certainly at least a few months before it was actually released, I’m sure the residents of Simshill/Castlemilk/Kings Park and the surrounding Glasgow Southside environs are probably sick of it blasting out my car windows on repeat. Either that or they’re now all fully fledged Mickey 9s converts. I’d like to think the latter.

I mean how can you NOT like this album? Playing it in the car was probably a bad idea. You can’t really listen to this album without getting sucked in by the high octane addictive post punk-funk.… Read the rest