Part 2 of our Sick Kids Sunday series (watch Part 1) sees 2 bands from Glasgow playing songs for us in the near dark of the upstairs bar in the GRV. Both Sparrow and the Workshop and WOODENBOX with a Fistful of Fivers have an upbeat raucous Americana feel which lends itself to the stripped down acoustic sessions as well as it does to their much louder on stage performances.

Sparrow and the Workshop are Jill, Gregor and Nick, a multicultural group of musicians who’ve been together for a little over two years. They’re currently on a long tour supporting Idlewild. And they’re awesome. First track “You’ve Got It All” is the lilting opener from their mini album ‘Into The Wild’. “Medal Around Your Neck” is a track from their forthcoming album ‘Crystal Falls’, due out 12th April 2010.

sparrowandtheworkshop.co.uk/

The incredibly-monikered WOODENBOX with a Fistful of Fivers have a more of a bar room, deep South Americana feel with plenty of brass. The two tracks here are “Draw A Line” from their forthcoming album “Home and the Wildhunt”and self-released first single “Twisted Mile”.

myspace.com/awoodenbox

The fine people who organised the Sick Kids Sunday event in Edinburgh in January let us have some space to record some sessions that day. We recorded five sessions, including our last episode as well as Rob St. John and Men Diamler. Part 2, coming next week, will feature the last two bands we recorded that day. We were really happy to get sessions from these two while they were in Edinburgh for such a short time, and we felt they went well together.

First up is Rob St. John, former and future resident of Edinburgh, currently in exile studying in Oxford. He is joined for the first track, “The Acid Test” by a member of his band, Bart from eagleowl, on backing vocals. The second track, “An Empty House” is a brand new track. Both have that fine combination of hushed, fingerpicked guitar and Rob’s deep velvet vocal.

myspace.com/robstjohn

Next we have Men Diamler. Richard, as he is otherwise known, was kind enough to play us some tracks before he jumped on the overnight train towards the South of England to play a show the next day. We get one quiet country tinged new(ish) song in the form of May, and one bigger, more boisterous song in the form of “Black As A Cat In The Morning”, which towards the end literally had us stunned.

myspace.com/mendiamler

James Yorkston and Adrian Crowley teamed up to play Sick Kids Sunday 2 in Edinburgh in January. Being the organised people we are, we emailed them both the night before to ask if they would play some songs for us. Thankfully, they had some time and indulged us. Yorkston and Crowley were here to play the songs of Daniel Johnston, but in the deserted upstairs bar of the GRV, we were treated to one DJ cover and one Camper Van Beethoven cover.

An a cappella version of “True Love Will Find You In The End” was up first. Like Johnston himself, this version is woozy and flawed, but with a sense of fun, and the two voices intertwining are an interesting change from the original. It took a few takes and some jokes about bad breakfasts to get through it, but the results are lovely.

Next was a version of the classic “Take The Skinheads Bowling” by CVB. Stripped down from the original’s sunny, scuzzy indie pop, the two voices and one acoustic guitar version here takes on a more melancholy feel, and is all the better for it.

Thanks to Martin, organiser of Sick Kids Sunday, for sorting us out with bands and space to film.

Two more episodes covering four more bands from Sick Kids Sunday are coming in the next few weeks.

When we contacted Trespassers William about doing a session for us, we hadn’t realised that they were touring with Glissando. When we found out, we had to ask if they wanted to do a session too, and they kindly obliged, despite singer Elly not feeling too great.

So another hazy session coming from the lovely Palm House in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Core members Elly and Richard are joined here by Paul, one of a large revolving cast of members.  The first of the two tracks is a new one, “The World Without Us”, which you can hear in demo form on the band’s Myspace page. It’s a super sparse song, with two seldom-picked guitars and a funereal keyboard backing Elly’s haunting voice. The second track is a cover of the Low song, “Venus”. This is a slightly more upbeat track (not an often-used description of Low’s output) than the last, but it still retains the sparseness. This song also allows us to marvel as Richard plays glockenspiel with two pens. Pretty well done too, Richard. In the background you will spot some utterly bewildered tourists, sheltering from the rain, not fully understanding what was going on.

Later that night we would be treated to an unbelievable performance as support to Trespassers, showing that Glissando are just as incredibly beautiful and evocative and  talented as their tour mates.

myspace.com/glissando

When we heard that Trespassers William were coming to town for the first time, we knew we had to ask them to play some songs for us. When the day came the weather was standard Scottish autumn (dull and raining), but luckily we were rescued by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

As most people in Edinburgh will know, the Garden is a huge, wonderfully serene space near the city centre, with a Victorian Palm House in the middle of it. Before their incredible show at the Wee Red Bar, we picked up Anna-Lynne and Matt, as well as touring mates Glissando (their session coming next week) and headed for the warm, echo-filled glass structure, and out of the rain and cold. Among the different types of palms and other plants, the duo sat down and played us some of their beautiful songs. The acoustics were amazing, as you can hopefully hear, and Anna-Lynne’s voice especially sounded jaw-droppingly sweet.

The two songs here can’t be found on any official recordings. The first, “Appointments”, is a Lotte Kestner song (Anna-Lynne’s solo project) but is not on her album China Mountain, and has so far only surfaced in some live videos. The second, “Surrounded”, began as a TW song but a version was also done by Tunnel-Tunnel (Anna-Lynne’s side project). Yes, she’s a busy girl (Matt also has a side/solo project, Disinterested). Both songs are classic TW, all gently picked melancholy and strummed lap-guitar underpinning that pure, soaring vocal.

trespasserswilliam.com / myspace.com/trespasserswilliam

We would like to thank the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for the use of their lovely venue, and Kirsten Murray for helping out with the session.

Donate to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

It wasn’t our fault. We know we said we’d take bands into interesting nooks and crannies, we know we said we’d make them do it acoustically, we know we said it would all be done in nice HD video… and we know that we’re about to present Amazing Baby using electric guitars in near invisible lighting conditions, without having even left the damn venue. It was either that or not get them at all you see. So, yes – we know what we said. But no, we’re not sorry at all. 

In a superb brace of hipster credentials, Amazing Baby don’t just live and work in Brooklyn, one of their number was even in a band with MGMT, when they were all at college together in Connecticut. This, apparently, is more than good enough for some of the lazier parts of the internet, and those folk should probably just go watch the pretty moving pictures now, I’m sure a kitten will be along soon.

For the rest of us though, Amazing Baby present some happy conundrums, which all come from the slightly schizophrenic makeup of the creative engine behind the band, singer Will Roan and guitarist Simon O’Connor. We, rubbishly, thought we could describe them respectively as the ‘psych’ and ‘rock’ parts to the lineup. Perhaps more eloquently, O’Connor was once described by the NME as looking like “a Faith No More-loving metal-head who wandered into the wrong audition by mistake”, which pretty much sums up why, when you take a listen, you will keep thinking about MGMT, shortly before getting kicked in the face.

We managed to get two songs out of them on the day, their recent single ‘Headdress’ and a cover of The dBs’ ‘Black And White’ and we’ve decided to call this our first ’semi-acoustic’ session. There’s something very pleasing and earthy and true about a band perched slightly awkwardly on the side of a half-built stage, with a jerry-rigged set of amps and no preparation whatsoever – easily as challenging as doing it acoustically, we reckon. Granted, the picture quality’s not ideal, but we had shown up uninvited in the middle of soundcheck and the nice people at Sneaky Pete’s quite rightly had better things to do than worry about us, so we’re glad we got what we did – as, we are sure, will you be.

When we started this project, we were looking to find out what happened if we took artists we loved on record or on stage, and find out whether they would sound better, worse or different when taken out of their natural live or recorded habitat. Anti-folk hero Jeff Lewis – predictably – managed somehow to sound incredible with no instruments at all, just sitting alone on a giant novelty chessboard next to a building site. 

This session almost never happened. Since Jeffrey had come straight from a festival appearance, and there had been some issues with – in no particular order – guitar tuners, parking, stage times, sound engineers and a second-hand bass amp, by the time we’d all got set up we were pretty confused. But, as we’ve come to learn, the unplanned often throws up the unexpected – and so we ended up on the giant chess set on Edinburgh’s Cowgate, sited precisely where the dressing-room to the old, long burnt-down and much-loved La Belle Angele venue used to stand.

For openers, Jeffrey took us back to an oldie – ‘Pounds’, his whimsical and satirical mockery of the double-meaning in the Queen’s own currency. Now, we’ve loved recording all the bands we’ve featured, but watching someone take the music out of the equation and forcing you to focus on nothing but the lyrics and their delivery was a bit special. And it only got better.

Second track was a new one, at the time still only called the ‘Untitled Mosquito Rap’, it’s quite possibly the most elaborate rant against tiny insects ever devised. Seriously, the man really, REALLY hates mosquitos.

Finally, we got something really unexpected, with Jeffrey taking on The Fall’s driving, snotty ‘Wings’ from the Perverted By Language album, acapella. Even without the insistent drums, the nagging guitars, the rumbling Hacienda basslines or the youthful contempt of Mark E Smith’s original, we reckon you’re left with something just as dry, wry and fascinating as the original – three adjectives as easily applied to Jeffrey himself.

thejeffreylewissite.com

Moustache Of Insanity. Moustache. Of. Insanity. Say it out loud – go on – and then try to take it all seriously. Savour the feeling, the realisation that music is not necessarily there to be taken seriously, not even a little bit. Then, if you’re half smart, you’ll realise that anyone who does apply that sort of seriousness to it all is probably not the type you want round your place, drinking your booze. Moustache Of Insanity are SO not that guy.

The boys from Moustache Of Insanity are, by contrast, the perfect party guest – musical, funny, charming and way less of an idiot than you are, by a country mile. They were in town at the same time as Allo’ Darlin – Bill, who had a tache before Movember was popular, also plays with them – and because that meant we had two things to do at the same time, meant we weren’t as prepared as (ahem) we could have been, so we ended up winging it a bit when it came to finding a location. Ambling up towards Edinburgh Castle though, we thought we’d struck gold with what was described as a ‘nature sanctuary’, but what effectively is a small garden with a bench, some needles and a lot of empty super-strenth cider bottles strewn around the place.

After a fair bit of clambering over locked gates and so on, we finally get all set up and despite the garden supposedly providing some kind of protection for bunny rabbits and squirrels and stuff, it was still the windiest spot on God’s green earth. As if trying to prevent the band from taking off like Mary Poppins wasn’t tricky enough, we also found out that we had an audience of a local nutbag, showing his appreciation by smashing his bottle against a wall and glowering like we’d all insulted his sister. Still, the fear of being murdered added a certain zip to proceedings.

Both tracks here are perfectly-formed little snippets of daftness, with Nik’s tiny little keyboard and Bill’s acoustic guitar chattering along behind the stream of wry and well-crafted lyrics. It’s like The Ramones writing Belle & Sebastian records. Initially these tracks sound a little throwaway, but a repeat listen reveals a truly heartfelt, almost melancholic feel in these genuine love songs.

Anyway, we’ve got two tracks here, ‘Email’ and ‘Cheese And Freckles’, and we bet you can’t make it through either one without smiling broadly at least twice – and if you can come up with a better criteria for awesome pop music than that then … well, you’re beyond our or anyone else’s help.

moustacheofinsanity.com / myspace.com/moustacheofinsanity

Charity events can so easily become self-congratulatory, parochial and dumb; this one blew our damn socks off. Off the back of a fairly daft suggestion over some beer, came this, the singer from one of 2010’s brightest (and least industry-created) hopes, teaming up with the singer of one of Scotland’s most-buzzed new acts, to play their own and others songs, in an Oxfam store, as part of Oxjam Edinburgh. Yeah, it was amazing.

Scott (Frightened Rabbit’s singer – he’s on the right) and Neil (singer from Meursault – the slightly louder one) performed seven tracks that afternoon, but we’ve chosen three here since it basically means we get to throw in the ’something old, something new, something borrowed’ pun again. It’s also a fantastic mix of one-offs – you probably won’t see any of these songs done this way again.

First up is the boys belting their way through the F’rabbit classic ‘Old Old Fashioned’, a foot-stomping yee-hah of a song, something familiar as a warm blanket to long-time fans of the band, but made even richer with the addition of Neil’s harmony. This was the first song they played on the day, and it set the scene in spades.

For ’something new’ we got something we were really pleased with, a new Meursault song that – at the time – was so new it didn’t even have a title. In the grand tradition of Meursault, there’s a touch of the sea shanty, with a lyrical sense of wisdom beyond years. It’s also a good introduction to Neil’s astonishing foghorn of a voice, which – for the first time in our case – we managed to record without it sending the microphones into meltdown.

As a cover version finale for this session, the boys also chose a song by Desc, called ‘Joy’, the perfect vehicle for spot of vocal sparring, and a cracking track given a long overdue airing again.

There’s been a lot of blog guff about both these bands over recent months – and they’ve both got much-anticipated albums due next year – but it was a particular kind of pleasure to see these two together. A charity even this may have been – but it wasn’t just Oxfam that got something special out of it. What a treat.

See photos from the session at Blueback Hotrod

Watch our original session with Frightened Rabbit, including the first recording of their new single, ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’

While stormy weather pounds on the British Isles, we thought it was as good a time as any to finally get round to putting out our session with the charming Allo Darlin’. When confronted with chirpy pop outfits like this one we usually try and point out how they don’t conform to a stereotype of relentlessly sunny folk singing charmingly amusing songs about daft little topics – but to be honest, there’s just no way round it. They’re exactly like that, so we suggest you just suck up the cynicism and enjoy.

Opening the session, we have recent single ‘Henry Rollins Don’t Dance’, a tale of musical differences, Henry Rollins and, er, dancing to Abba. Twee? Not at all. And if that wasn’t sweet enough for your tooth, there’s also the chirrupping Kiss Your Lips, which is about exactly that. Only they tasted a bit funny. Because of the candy floss. In France. Obviously.

Anyway, Allo Darlin are super-nice, super-pop and super-cheery – put your huffy, pale hipster winter sneers away and get some sunshine in an otherwise dreary day.

Links:

myspace.com/allodarlin

allodarlin.com