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‘THERE IS A WHOLE NEW ENERGY TO THE BAND’
Hitlist *
THE BEST ROCK, POP, JAZZ & FOLK
✽ The Twilight Sad Beautiful post-rock, fae sunny Kilsyth. See left. Fri 2 Apr, ABC, Glasgow. (Rock & Pop) ✽ Conquering Animal Sound Edinburgh-based duo using loops, electronics and a female vocal to very lovely effect. Single launch, Fri 2 Apr, Roxy Art House, Edinburgh; Sat 3 Apr, Classic Grand, Glasgow. Also, Meursault’s single launch, Cab Vol,Edin- burgh, Sat 10 Apr. (Rock & Pop) ✽ Hinterland Mystery Jets, Friendly Fires and Greco- Roman Soundsystem (see page 63) all play this one-day festival. Various, Glasgow, Sat 3 Apr. (Rock & Pop) ✽ Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers Folk-rock album launch. See page 66. Sun 4 Apr, Mono, Glasgow. (Rock & Pop) ✽ Born To Be Wide ‘Wide Days’ In a band? Need advice? This day of music- industry seminars covers legal issues and web promotion; useful to both artists and mangers. With a live showcase with Pandu Su, FOUND and others. Shanghai Club, Edin- burgh, Thu 8 Apr. (Rock & Pop) ✽ Laura Marling Alt.folk from the waif-like teenager with the rich Joni Mitchell voice (see above), who just released impressive LP I Speak Because I Can. Tue 13 Apr, Old Fruit- market, Glasgow; Wed 14 Apr, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. (Rock & Pop) ✽ Muscles of Joy These percussive, a cappella girls get the David Shrigley seal of approval. See interview, page 19. Wed 14 Apr, Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh. (Rock & Pop) ✽ The Phantom Band A chance to see Glasgow’s compelling Krautfolk ensemble for the princely sum of 0p. Thu 15 Apr, King Tut’s, Glasgow. (Rock & Pop)
The Twilight Zone Get ready to rediscover the singular sound of Scotland’s melancholy doom rockers The Twilight Sad – now coming at you from all angles, explains Ryan Drever
I n the three years since releasing their impressive debut Fourteen Autumns And Fifteens Winters, an album greeted with a storm of praise, The Twilight Sad have been glued to the road supporting The Smashing Pumpkins, Beirut and Mogwai (to name a few). In between, they have been robbed, lost a bass player, released another record, and even started their third – and that’s not even the half of it.
In the wake of their equally lauded second LP, Forget The Night Ahead, a record possessing a much darker, brooding beauty than its predecessor, vocalist James Graham recalls the tricky task of bettering their rather blinding first effort. ‘There was always that worry that people wouldn’t take to this album as much after the overwhelming reaction everyone had to the first,’ he explains. ‘But once people sat down and gave it time they began to understand it I think. We were really confident with the new songs, and that we had moved on from the first album.’
At the beginning of this year, the band’s bass player, Craig Orzel announced he was leaving the band, citing his reasons and moment of epiphany in a brilliant parting statement as, ‘A particularly heavy night which resulted in me waking up baw deep in a granny.’ ‘It was a shock when Craig left’, Graham remembers. ‘But he just felt like it was time to move on and wanted to try new things, which is totally understandable. Being in a band isn’t always the party that it looks like on the surface and I think he wanted to get back to some sort of normal, structured life.’
For A Walk Week/ Desalvo’s Johnny Docherty to pick up four-string duties. ‘We’ve been practising a lot and we’re sounding better than ever before, in my opinion. There is a whole new energy to the band,’ Graham beams. ‘To be honest the past six months have been pretty hard on us as a band, what with losing Craig, and countless other things behind the scenes, but now we’re all really excited about the future of the band and Johnny coming in has been a big part of that.’ As well as embarking on extensive touring stints with Biffy Clyro and ethereal Japanese post-rockers Mono, this month also sees the band play the biggest hometown headline show of their career so far. The gig will be one of very few to utilise a ‘quadraphonic’ sound system, which, through a combination of extra speakers and advanced technology gives the crowd an enveloping sonic experience. So, besides seeing the ‘Sad’s new line-up, this show promises to let their mesmerising sonic palette get under your skin in a whole new way. The show will use software that lets sounds ricochet between speakers, meaning a guitar line can fly around the room, or a drum roll can begin from the front of the venue and finish at the back. ‘For us, playing our own gig at the ABC is a pretty big deal. It shows how far we’ve come since the days of playing to fifty people, which included our friends and families, at the 13th Note,’ says Graham. ‘Having the quadraphonic sound would make it extra special and something different for people coming to the gig.’
Since then, the band have drafted in Take A Worm O2 ABC, Glasgow, Fri 2 Apr.
62 THE LIST 1–15 Apr 2010