Arab Strap - The Ginger Quiff

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 5 – May

July 24, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I am so unbelievably behind it’ll be Halloween soon and I’ll still be at Easter… I’m still working month’s behind in singles round ups, and about 6 months behind in album and EP reviews. I’m putting that down to shit like life getting in the way, but I’ll also use the excuse that there is so much fantastic new music out there by bands old and new that I can’t keep up with the sheer volume of music to listen to, which to be fair, ain’t that far from the truth.

My May (yeah I know, May, that was like months ago, literally…) round up follows, as does a playlist of all the songs on Tidal.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 3 – March

April 10, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Another month, another singles round up, and a bumper selection it is too, 61 songs in this month’s list, This month’s selection comes from a range of bands and singers from newer talent such as Dancer, Soapbox and recent BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year Bottle Rockets through to established legends such as Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, as well as home grown legends Arab Strap and the continued welcome return of James King and the Lonewolves ahead of their new album The Mortality Arcade.

The Top 25

Single of the Month

Soapbox – Fascist Bob

Several reasons for this being single of the month for March, first and foremost it’s a fucking great song cementing Soapbox as one of the best of the current crop of Scottish bands displaying a punk attitude in the true spirit of the first wave of punk, kicking against the pricks and railing against the right wing.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 1 – January

February 28, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

A new year for music and (eventually) the first round up of 2024, and what a bumper crop already for January. A massive 62 songs (OK, so some might be from the end of 2023 as I posted end of year posts early…). Anyway, we’re certainly out of the traps and off running at speed, with this list containing some well-kent names, some new kids on the block, as well as the return of some legends. All told providing a wheen of top quality tunes which succeeded in lifting the January blues. If that was January, this is set to be another cracking year for music…

The hazard of deciding to do a monthly singles round up means also trying to find the time to write up the blog… I seem to be caught in a vicious circle of promising myself I’ll spend more time on writing, then disappearing in a world of work, or spending hours overthinking things and getting fuck all done…

I’ve therefore had to make an executive decision.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2022 – Part 1 – January

February 10, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve been in absentia for the entire month of January, like many out there, I’ve been struggling with my Mental Health, to the extent that even things that normally give me pleasure felt like a chore or just utterly pointless.

I normally revel in receiving emails and messages sharing new music and releases, but in the last few weeks I just found it overwhelming. However, I have finally started to dig myself out of the mire and in doing so, have trawled through seemingly unending emails unearthing the best of new songs, singles, demos and so on from January (in my humble opinion)

In no particular order:

Simon Love – I Love Everybody in the Whole Wide World (Except You)

This seems to be a good place to start, lyrically and musically exceptional, there is no mixed message to be picked up from this, Mr Love making his feelings perfectly clear.… Read the rest

Review of the the Year – The Best of 2021

December 9, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

Yet another bumper year for new releases by new artists, classic re-issues and comebacks from some old favourites.

Despite what the salivating broadcasters and media will have you believe, there was so much more to the year than a new album by A****e, the banality of which didn’t even register on the gingerquiff seismograph such was its insignificance in the shadow of so much in the way of superb and exciting music that moved me. (Yes, I know she has a great voice, but oh so dull).

Anyway, no more focussing on negatives, There were so many remarkable albums this year that, once again, I can’t narrow them down to my ten favourites, so before I run down my Top 10 albums of the year, here are those…

In 11th Place (in no particular order)…

It was so hard to leave anyone out this year, I have loved records by so many wonderful and diverse bands and artists.… 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 7

July 20, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

It’s mid July and I’ve got about a hundred reviews semi written, but not finished, so instead of finishing them, why not waste several hours putting together another singles round up while sitting by my home built garden bar drinking some IPA or other..

I’m going to kick off with perhaps my favourite single in the last couple of months, from my most eagerly anticipated album in an age…

Lola in Slacks

Trocchi’s Canal blends the wondrously sultry vocal talents of Lou Reid with Brian McFie’s exquisite guitar playing to create a dark noir pop masterpiece, roll on October for the album Moon Moth.… Read the rest

Mogwai – As the Love Continues/Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark – reviews

March 5, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

Scottish Indies

What a week for Scottish independent music. Last week saw the latest magnum opus from Mogwai claim the number one album in the UK, with the magnificence of As the Love Continues This week sees the welcome return of Aidan and Malcolm. Their new masterwork, As Days Get Dark, of course, released as days start to get lighter and we crawl out of the depths and darkness of winter.

Both albums are a joy to behold, music is my solace, no more so than in the last couple of months, and these two albums will be a refuge to raise the spirits in any moments of darkness in coming months.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up – January 2021

January 17, 2021 By neilho27@sky.com

Merely two weeks into 2021 and already my inbox is inundated with e-mails – new singles, forthcoming albums, demo’s. Certainly enough to focus my attention on the music and not the ongoing shit-show that 2021 has already shown itself to be.

It is nigh on impossible to listen to everything, but there have been certain songs that captured my attention more than others for one reason or another. Here is a selection of my favourites of the singles I’ve received so far (and I make absolutely no apology for sharing the first three again).

Mark W Georgsson

Theoretically this is a 2020 single given that it was released on Hogmanay, but I’m counting it as one of the first great singles of 2021.… Read the rest

More Pandemic singles…

September 27, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

The Filthy Tongues – Pandemic Pete

The real-life apocalypse that 2020 has become has fucked with The Filthy Tongues schedule of recording the third album in the apocalyptic trilogy they started with the darkly magnificent duo Jacobs Ladder and Back to Hell. To keep Tongues fans satisfied the band have just released the second of their global epidemic related tunes, following up Gas Mask Blues with the mighty Pandemic Pete.

The song is a microcosm of everything you could want or would expect from The Filthy Tongues. Colourful storytelling and characterisation. Biting lyrics with a wry dark humorous edge. The opening couplet drolly listing the ways in which an disaster that writes off a whole year might have announced itself…”I wanted zombies and diamond dogs, I wanted triffids and a plague of frogs….”… Read the rest