I’m just back from the fine city of Edinburgh where I was amusing myself in the style of someone with no money. Firstly I took myself to The Art of Star Wars exhibition with unemployed person discount yay and spent a good couple of hours wandering about engrossed in the pictures and costumes and spaceships. More on this later but go if you get the chance.

After that and some nice dinner we watched television, sorry watched Television [ha ha HA! see what I did there?]. We arrived about 9pm only to discover much cheering as Television took to the stage. So no James Orr Complex for us, boo. The venue was utterly packed and we could not see a single thing. If I stood on tiptoe I could make out the lights at the top of the stage but that was it. Luckily we were tipped off to the back stairs and side stage views so got ourselves a prety great view. I spent most of the set just thinking ‘Loooook! It’s Tom Verlaine!’ which was almost exciting enough for me. When I got a copy of Marquee Moon back in 1990ish and named my pot plant after Tom Verlaine I never thought I’d get to see them live, even when they reformed a couple of years later. So, to be standing mere feet away and hear all the hits had me unable to remove the stupid grin from my face. I’m glad I didn’t listen to the records or anything before I went to the show as it was way better being reminded of everything as it happened, the guitar lines seemingly indelibly imprinted on my memory. Highlights were pretty much everything they played off Marquee Moon and a fantastic Little Johnny Jewel. I’m listening to a live tape of them from 1978 as I write this and apart from the sound quality you’d hardly notice those 24 years in between. The Strokes wish they were half as cool as 2002 Television in their dad clothes, let alone 1970s hipster Television.

Hehe. Noisy Buckie-punk action last night with The Alpacinos at the Cathouse. It must not have been a school night because the place was packed. Easily the busiest I’ve seen it on a Monday and folk were jumping about too (gasp). Kids, eh. Too much cola and fizzy pop. Dead good set from the band: big fast and dumb with quality band banter. What’s the word? Oh aye, Fun. No kilts though. Grr! Punk! Yacuntya!

Electro-acoustic show at the RSAMD tonight.

Too much excitement lately! Most exciting thing was going to IKEA with David obviously. No, most exciting was walking into the venue past a queue of people waiting in the rain to get into the OXES show. WITH PIZZA. Maybe that was the meanest thing. Good to see the OXES boys again – they arrived with usual grace, demanding coffee and shoving homemade banana cake in their mouths and helpfully showing David how small his room would be if he decorated it with life size OXES statues. Gig was good too. Fighting Red Adair managed to hold their own in the face of the mighty rock talent that is I’m Being Good and OXES. Sams Hot Car Lot less so. I’m Being Good were everything I hoped they’d be – sparky, scritchy, shouty and sweet. I want them to move to Glasgow and play every week. They could live in our cupboard. OXES were fun as always, stalking every nook and cranny of the venue and never missing any of their perfectly timed dual guitar lines. Afterwards we all stood aimlessly for what seemed like hours. We attempted to carry the famous OXES BOXES but they are, or seemed, very heavy so I stood on one instead. Fear my tallness! etc. I got OXES hugs when they left the next morning. I was sorry to see them go.

Saw him at Sleazy’s on sunday. He’s good. Go see. No sitting at a laptop playing minesweeper. HipHop for folk who don’t own guns. Songs in praise of bikes. And funny. I liked it. Random Number, too, but his sound wasn’t as good – needed more punch on the beats. Maybe he needs a better soundcard. Computers, eh? Not rock and roll. “Love the songs guys but you need more, more ooomph…. here take this NoisyBastard 666 card.”

Back to fretting about the state of the world: Whither Glastonbury?, and there was an excellent report on suicide bombers in The Guardian this morning too. But I am smiling and care free because I got to use the word “whither”.

A bill of Aereogramme, Eska and Degrassi was not to be missed so miss it I did not. My timekeeping has become worryingly good which meant I was able to see every second of Degrassi. I’d rather have missed the first song though as it was pretty dull and had me regretting my keenness. Luckily things perked up massively and the rest of the set was ace. Catchy melodic indie rock with enough rock power and weirdy keyboard bits to make things very interesting indeed. You’ll be hearing more of Degrassi I predict as they’re doing pretty well for themselves. They’ve got a record out tomorrow I hear which I shall consider purchasing.

Eska ruled. I love Eska. While watching Eska last night it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen them live in ages which is completely useless of me as they’ve played live in Glasgow more than ever lately. The other thing that struck me was that most of the people applauding with enthusiasm were not people I recognised. Yes, Eska finally have a proper fanbase, thanks no doubt to their high profile touring of late with the likes of Idlewild and Biffy Clyro. Hurrah! But enough of the musings. Eska were a super mighty rockout power force and worth the entrance fee on their own. Being a support slot it was a wee bit on the short side but we got all the tunes from the recentish EP, a dusted off still catchy as hell Goodby To Victories and then they nonchalantly finished off with one of their epic instrumentals. The quiet beginnings started the audience chattering but they were soon silenced by the thick cut riffs bludgeoning their eardrums. Eska have more riffs in one song than some bands make a career out of and they’re all a bit askew and ready to turn on a sixpence at a micro second’s notice. Eska used to be Scotland’s best kept secret but we’re starting to feel guilty of such hoarding. Be good to them though or we might take them back and barricade all roads in.

I was hoping to be impressed by Aereogramme as I’d kind of mislaid them since they overawed me at the Chemikal Underground birthday party gig a couple of years back. The recorded output never seemed to match my impressions of them live and now I’m beginning to think I hallucinated the ChemU gig as I couldn’t find anything to get excited about in their set last night. After four songs left me unmoved I gave up and went home. I still think I’m missing something with Aereogramme so I’m not ready to dismiss them completely. It’s just worryingly easy to picture them in a glossy sepia tinged video, playing in a crumbling gothic church with overplayed emotional imagery. Thankfully they’re in the good hands of Chemikal so I hope to prove myself wrong about Aerogramme sometime.

i gotta be saying how much i enjoyed Radar Bros when they supported the Breeders last week. a bit late, i know, but it has to be said – check them out.

last night i saw the mighty OXES at the garage. i’m big on raving about OXES, and i say it every time, but this time was the BEST. deffo. support bands left no lasting impression (behold, i have forgotten their names), but OXES were explosive. i’m still so totally hyped, i feel like i have to run around going OXES OXES OXES until everyone goes “let’s kill him, then check them out”. raar. cute tour manager too. hurhur.

it has been some time since my last blog. i have been busy getting married and buying furniture and things, but i have also seen a few bands. i missed all the post-atp fun due to crappy computer things, so i was determined to be first to blog about arab on radar, who i saw last night. they were lots of fun, very silly, very weird, and very noisy. lot’s of shrieking and dribbling. support came from sweden’s kid commando, who were ok, but not amazing. they did however uphold the theory that men with moustaches shouting is always entertaining.

it was also good to see reynolds the other week, it had been a while. if that new album does ever see the light of day, i’m sure it’ll be a belter. there’s lots more bands coming up too, with oxes (maybe) on thursday, and ten benson next week. i was also very happy to discover that both mercury rev and the flaming lips are playing in my fair city in july. hooray for gigs that aren’t in london.

LE TIGRE! They’re my new favourite band after seeing them play last week. All bands should be like Le Tigre. I want an end to bands with no stage presence. The difference it makes to everyone when the band is having fun onstage [or, even better, all over the venue]. Think Les Savy Fav, Trail of Dead, OXES, heck, even Kylie. And especially Le Tigre. They had matching uniforms, digital films for each song, dance routines and big grins on their faces. They played all the hits, they got everyone dancing, they swapped instruments and whispered in eachother’s ears. They were smart and cute and goofy. I loved them all. All bands should be like Le Tigre.

I went to see mùm the other night and they were mmmmm lovely. All soft and pretty with sinister quirks and clouded with atmosphere. We all just stood silently and blissful. Sigh. They had the epicness of Godspeed, the swirlingness of Slowdive, the modernity of electronica, the simplicity of Mogwai, the wide-eyed wonder of child angels. They were beautiful.

For some reason this reminded me of Bill Drummond‘s latest episode [Bill Drummond’s life always seems to me to be a series of episodes] – selling 20,000 pieces of his Richard Long photograph. Alistair Fitchett describes it all so well [as always] on Tangents.

Currently on repeat: Shellac‘s Saturday set from All Tomorrow’s Parties on CD courtesy of Rob Strong. And how good is this? It’s rare to be able to hang on to special events in your life, too often you don’t even have a photograph or a scrap of paper to remember things by. But here I am, Saturday afternoon at ATP, squashed into the photo pit for Shellac’s set, the act of photography taking second place to the chance of watching the performance from such a privileged viewpoint. After a bit of photographer musical chairs I ended up with prime position, right at Steve Albini’s feet. I could see everything and completely connect the movements to the noise: the way Albini steps back and forwards, back and across and forwards, the way he would just brush the strings of his guitar. The utter metallicness of all their equipment. Basically I was in awe. The most affecting part was Mama Gina without a doubt. I was affected to the very depths of my heart by this song live. It’s such open honest emotion. And I’m taken back there instantly hearing it play back on the CD. And being able to hear them jumping on the stage in The Watch Song. The sort of thing that would be lost in the fug of a homemade bootleg. I shall treasure this CD as I treasure that experience.

And just to top things off the CD also has the Trail of Dead session on John Peel where he reads out an email from the TODlist and says I have a nice name. Awwww.