A few of the music mags have had features like this recently, so I decided to make my own version. The Skinny did a countdown of the top ten Scottish albums released between January 2000 and December 2009. This isn’t based wholly around Scottish artists – although there are a few in there!

10. Beck – The Information (2006)

I saw Beck support Radiohead at Meadowbank Stadium around the time this album was released. In my opinion, he completely stole the show, outshining Tom York’s band a million times over. It was absolutely brilliant, I could have gone home after his warm-up and have been quite happy. The Information, is a really great album. Favourite track – Think I’m in Love.

9. Nouvelle Vague – Bande a’ Part (2006)

Nouvelle Vague was an excellent find in one of the smaller tents at Connect Festival 2007. This album is all covers of previous big hits, set with elevator style music and different female guest vocals. On stage, Nouvelle Vague was full of energy, but this album is very chilled out with lots of lovely surprises. Favourite track – The Killing Moon.

8. The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters (2007)

Cumbernauld’s finest, the Twilight Sad rose to fame quite slowly but now have two successful albums under their belt. This was their debut and will always be my favourite. They supported Idlewild on their Scottish Fiction greatest hits tour, which is when I really sat up and took notice. With the most Scottish vocals you ever did hear, James Alexander Graham never seems to look at the crowd to whom he is performing. Lots of people have said this makes him a bit of an “arse” but I reckon it’s part of the charm. I’m actually listening to this CD right now and debating with myself whether or not this should have been higher than number eight. Favourite track – That summer, at home I had become the invisible boy.

7. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular (2008)

This album brought us three massive club anthems in the form of Time to Pretend, Electric Feel, and Kids. Really though, who doesn’t want to jump around all silly when the beginning of Kids comes on, belting out the infamous “dodododododododooooo do”? It was certainly my favourite past time during the summer of 08. Oracular Spectacular was just different from anything else, it’s hard to explain why. Favourite track – Electric Feel.

6. Sons and Daughters – The Repulsion Box (2005)

Where have Sons and Daughters gone? The Repulsion Box was their debut album, following the success of EP Love the Cup. They seemed to just be getting into their stride – gigging constantly around Glasgow and taking part in a number of side projects. This album is lyrically dark and raw, but has glittery twists and allows the demure of the band to be what can only be described as ‘posey’. Favourite track – Rama Lama.

5. Beirut – Gulang Orkestar (2006)

Beirut is something of a phenomenon to me. This album is a folky-emperimental mix, with lots of obscure instruments, all of which are played by the one-man-band. I think the reason I like this CD so much is because it is really quite odd. It’s very chilled out and easy to listen to, and gives a lot of happiness-vibes. Favourite track(s) – Mount Wroclai, and Scenic World.

4. Rilo Kiley – More Adventurous (2004)

This was the third album released by Los Angeles based Rilo Kiley. Since then they’ve released Under the Blacklight which is also amazing, but this one has the leading spot for me. It reminds me of being in Port Patrick sitting on top of a shed roof with my best friend, drinking Malibu (why?) whilst a barbecue feast was being cooked up. This album is gorgeous, as is singer Jenny Lewis. If you’ve not heard it you should go grab a copy now. Favourite track – Portions for Foxes.

3. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (2007/08)

First full length album from this guy, self-released in 2007 and re-released the following year by 4AD. This album was widely acclaimed and has won a bunch of awards. I got myself a copy after reading Idlewild’s myspace blog, all of whom were going a bit crazy for it. I’m so glad, it’s beautiful. Looking forward to seeing what he does next. Favourite track – Skinny Love.

2. Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions (2009)

This has been on repeat on my mp3 player since November 20 when it finally came out. Feels as though we’ve been waiting for years for this as they released three singles from it before the album was finished. Every track is just the best thing you’ll ever hear. Definitely worth the wait. Biffy Clyro can do no wrong in my eyes. Favourite track – Bubbles.

1. Idlewild – The Remote Part (2002)

100 Broken Windows may have been voted the Skinny’s number one, but this is my personal favourite. I cannot believe it’s been almost eight years since it came out – I was only 15! and I still listen to it all the time! In an interview with Drowned in Sound, lead singer Roddy Woomble said the band felt like a group of collective songwriters during the writing process for this album. It was the third studio album they had released, and have kept going over the years. They now have six, and a greatest hits from 1997-2007. Another band who can do no wrong, I will continue to go see them live until they decide to call it a day. Favourite track – Tell Me Ten Words.

So there you have it. My ten favourite albums of this decade. And here’s the ones that just missed out -

11. Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)

12. Bell x1 – Flock (2005)

13. The Shins – Oh, Inverted World (2001)

14. Death cab for Cutie – Plans (2005)

15. Marmaduke Duke – Duke Pandemonium (2009)

16. The Music – Welcome to the North (2004)

17. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)

18. Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires (2008)

19. Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight (2008)

20. Flaming Lips – At War with the Mystics (2006)

Cathcart’s first Christmas tree in over forty years was lit up on Wednesday evening outside the Coupar Institute on Clarkston Road.

Councillor Sadie Docherty was joined by members of the community as the lights were turned on at 6.30pm.

Bill Baird, vice chair of Cathcart Community Council, said: “This is the perfect spot for the tree to stand; it is next to the community centre and right beside Cathcart Trinity Church.”

Bill Milner, secretary, said he and chairperson Flora Wardlaw had been trying to get a tree in Cathcart for two years but they had always been slightly late in applying to Glasgow City Council.

He said: “This year we applied early in June, to make sure we got it.

“It’s important to us because Cathcart has not had a Christmas tree in at least 40 odd years!”

Mr Baird said the community council are grateful to Sadie Docherty as without her backing it may not have been possible.

Ms Docherty said: “This is one of the reasons why I got into local politics, because I wanted to help to bring new things into the local area.”

The event was followed by hot drinks and mince pies at the Trinity Church.

Mr Baird said: “We will definitely make sure we have a Christmas tree in Cathcart again next year, and for many years after that.”

I got my Celtic Connections ball rolling today by purchasing my first ticket for the 2010 festival. Funnily enough, it’s for the last show of the fortnight, but tickets can tend to get quite pricey if you’re planning on going to a number of events, so I’m trying to be selective. This one is a must-see. It is Glasgow-based label Chemikal Underground’s 15th anniversary and will have the likes of Emma Pollok, the Phantom Band, and Zoey Van Goey playing. £15 to spend an evening watching a bunch of talented musicians is, in my opinion, money well spent.
Chemikal Underground have been responsible for putting on excellent events such as Ballads of the Book – a musical/literary collaboration day at the Tramway a couple of years ago, which had Scottish poets writing for different bands. There is also the Burns Unit, a group of singer/songwriters who took themselves to a log cabin in some magical highland existence to collaborate together and make fantastic music.
Getting off the point there though…..January 31 is the date, o2 ABC on Sauchihall Street is the venue, this is not one to be missed!
(And if you’re planning on hitting the Festival Club, the final night is the one you’ll want to be at!)

Celtic Connections Tickets

Does anybody else think that Florence, of Florence and the Machine, is completely ripping off Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley’s style?

So it happened. The second installment of the Twilight saga was released, and my oh my has it caused a stir. The moment the lights went up in the fully packed screening, a level of enthusiastic chatter filled the room. The audience were just as invloved as they were with the cult books, it’s what everyone has been waiting for. New Moon took over $140.7 million in the US in its first three days.

Without giving anything away (as I know a number of my classmates have yet to see it) all I can say is that it was even better than I’d hoped. Where the first film, Twilight, did not do the book justice, this one completely does. It’s very accurate, and lived up to the expectations. About halfway through I had already decided that I was going to need to see it again.

The third movie – Eclipse – is being filmed right now, and I cannot wait!

Team Jacob!

I had myself a little frightmare about this video last night….

Am I exaggerating, or is it the creepiest thing you’ve ever seen?

However, I totally love the song. It makes me want to go out to the Abc and request it …. even though the DJ box there is clearly designed so that people like me are unable to ask for rubbish songs.

I get the last laugh though: I can jump high enough.

So Labour won, as everyone expected. SNP were second, but only got just over a third of the votes Labour did.

“The SNP is a novelty that has worn off.”

- Jim Murphy, Scottish Secretary

Looks like he was right! (just to clarify, I’m a ‘floating voter’, which means I’m allowed to slag off anybody I like!)

The poorest turnout to date for a Scottish by-election – 32.97%.

Conservatives and the BNP received almost the same amount of votes, and the Lib Dems are lagging behind with only 494 votes.

What baffles me is that 54 people actually went to the ballot and voted for Big Brother nine contestant Mikey Hughes!

Full results listed on the BBC website

I really need to get this off my chest…!

Today, I was quite excited to see Biffy Clyro on the front cover of the Big Issue. So I counted out my £1.50 and thanked the lady for my copy….

There was a nice three-page-spread with the band discussing their new album (which is amazing by the way) and how they felt about coming back to the Barrowlands for two nights last week, after spending months in LA recording.

I was about halfway through and thinking to myself:  ’this is really quite a good feature’ – then it happened. The worst possible thing you could ever imagine a journalist could do. The writer, Jasper Hamill, referred to frontman Simon NEIL as Simon KING.

There it was, in a block quote – not even hidden within the article with the hope of going unnoticed. It continued throughout the whole story. Mr Hamill should go back to Journalism Lesson One: make sure you have the right names, and spell them right. He clearly does not know anything about the band if this is the kind of error he’s making, I just cannot believe it. I feel like writing to the Big Issue editor and telling him that I could have made a better job of this piece.

Seriously though, what a big mistake to make.

On Tuesday night I left the Barras looking like I’d been showering with my clothes on. I’m not exaggerating when I say this was one of the top five gigs I’ve ever been to. Have a look at my photo story…

Biffy Clyro at the Glasgow Barrowland

Biffy Clyro will be realeasing their fifth studio album ‘Only Revolutions’ on 14th floor records, on November 9.

Although they have a new album coming out, they didn’t overload the setlist with new stuff. They managed to get through 23 songs in 90 minutes, with a great mix from Blackened Sky right up to unheard new tracks.

Here’s the full setlisting….

Encore:

The countdown to the second installment of the Twilight saga is on. My friend Ashley informed me yesterday that it’s only 16 more sleeps until New Moon comes out! In preparation I’ve started reading the book again, and will be watching the first film for the umpteenth time.

If you’re not already hooked, I recommend you get invloved. I can almost guarantee that you’ll have all four of the bulky books finished within about a month. I was never part of the Harry Potter hype, so this is all pretty good fun. Ashley and I have planned a whole evening around the midnight showing (spooky!) on November 20.

The first film, Twilight, was good – but by no means did it live up to the high standard the book had set. I’ve heard there is a different director this time round, and it’s supposed to be much better.

Expect a review of my opinion of the film in about two weeks on Saturday….I cannot wait to be reunited with Bella and Edward, the Cullens, and of course the much improved Jacob. How exciting!