New EP from Glasgow punks

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The Alpacinos are a bunch of Glasgow punks and this is their new EP, the splendidly named This Bag Is Not A Toy, featuring a cool little Lego biker on the front cover. At a brief sixteen minutes this is a slab of nervy rock n’ roll that does not over stay its welcome. Thankfully this is no mere no mere pop punk retread. No, the Alpacinos wade deep in scummy waters alongside the likes of Leatherface and Jawbreaker. Hoarse vocals and sandpaper melodies are the order of the day and a fine feast it all adds up to be. Sick Of Being Nothing kicks it off in fine Social Distortion style, Filthy Show-Filthy Town is pure spite fuelled call and response punk, the title track and I Am Spartacus are angry gnashers whilst I Popped my Cherry to Bananarama mixes the Ramones punk with Therapy? style anti-melodies. All in all smart fun. The CD is now available at £4.99 from HMV in Glasgow or from Avalanche.

Patrick Wolf, White Denim and more!

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Patrick Wolf: Hard Times. I can’t say I know much about Patrick Wolf, apart from the fact he resembles Billy Idol if he had done a stint in Soft Cell. The song is frantic synth pop, very dramatic with a cool vocal hook underpinned by a nice string melody. Bit cluttered towards the end to really strike home, the local gypsy and his extended family are battering out on all sorts towards the end. Perfectly acceptable, slightly prog pop. YouTube - PATRICK WOLF - "HARD TIMES" Animal Kingdom: Tin Man. Fucking boring. A bunch of wet fish playing wet music for wet fools. Anal music married to anal singing about some bastard from the Wizard Of Oz. File under worthless. Sure to give Aled Jones a hard on. YouTube - OFFICIAL Tin Man video White Denim: I Start To Run. This reminds me of the Minutemen, no idea why though. Bare bones funk rock winds its way through MC5 gang vocals, sashaying by Nuggets ramalama. Ends before it even starts. Bizarre song. I dig.

Ex-Darkness boys bring ye olde rock and roll to Glasgow.

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Not an easy band to sell to prospective new listeners, are Stone Gods. Such are the fickle vagaries of fashion and taste that the phrase 'featuring ex-members of The Darkness' is probably far more likely to elicit laughter than excite interest these days. The band themselves seem to be aware of this, and have continually stressed the fundamental differences between their old outfit and this one. For one, no Justin Hawkins, and with him goes the inimitable screech and camp sensibilities that first gained that band attention yet probably most doomed them to novelty status. In his place is a much-heavier musical direction captained by Richie Edwards (not that one, obviously), the bassist who replaced Frankie Poullain (he of the infamous handlebar and pirate gear look) for the latter half of the band's career, now firmly embedded in the guitar-slingin' frontman role and taking to it with a quite remarkable level of enthusiasm and ability, exhorting the crowd to go mental and...

Alternative Electro/Electronica from an Alternative Mind

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John S Wilson is an artist from the small town of Todmorden. His music mixes sparse mountainous landscapes, the adrenalin rush and calm of rock climbing with the free-party dance culture present in Britain.

A night of local metal bands. Yes, metal. None of these bands are hardcore.

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Count Me In open the night by addressing the surprising positivity of their band name, the vocalist giving it some whacky banter along the lines of how he thinks Azriel and Bleed From Within are doing really well because they have really miserable-sounding names or something. In fairness to these bands, I think part of their success may be down to tight musicianship and well-crafted songs that are tailored to suitably cater to a blossoming niché in the local music scene... And, ironically, I think maybe this is where Count Me In are also going horribly wrong. Nothing to do with having too cheery a name, really. Sorry, guys! The “posi-hardcore” vibe that Count Me In promised to bring - I was told to expect music “like Have Heart and Bane” - quite bizarrely turned out to be a bit more like The Gallows playing out-of-tune nu-metal riffs. Don't get me wrong, Count Me In are far from untalented musicians, but there seems to be a a total lack of focus in musical direction. Either...

Glasgow electronica

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Union Of Knives are three Glaswegian knob twiddlers who have decided to form a group. Forming a group is good enough, but doing something interesting with it is something else. Building an electronic base from later day Radiohead, early the Cure and Massive Attack, Union Of Knives make icy music constructed from stuttering beats and loops of strings alongside a barrage of pounding and hypnotic effects over which glide mournful vocals. Parts of the album work such as the soft chorus of opener of Opposite Direction or the HUGE tribal beat that drives I Decline. But all too often the songs are padded out longer than they should be with extra snippets of sound, and the momentum is lost. Yet there are moments of beauty as on The Law Is Against My Heart that make this record worth checking out, especially for fans of atmospheric electronica. A debut that shows promise at the very least.

With Bleed From Within, Rise With The Falls, Blessed Apostle and The Condemmed

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In all fairness, I went to this gig only ever hearing a couple of the bands names. However I was pleasantly surprised with the gig given that I hadn't heard the names of them all. First on: The Condemned. Group of 5 lads reigning from East Kilbride. In all honestly when I saw these guys I thought, look good, probably sound shite. Man was I wrong! As soon as they started they had me glued. The lead singer had strong vocals and unlike most hardcore bands he could sing and scream. His screaming seemed effortless, like a walk in the park. Considering these guys had they’re first gig in Oct 2007, they seemed confident and strong through they’re whole set. Next: Blessed Apostle. Another group of 5 lads from East Kilbride/Dumbarton.. Before these guys even went on stage, you could sense the lead singers arrogance. In general the instrumentals are the strongest thing for this band. The lead singer looked like he struggled to keep up with the rest of the band. He doesn’t seem to...