Playing catch-up with The Streetlamp - No. 2

Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to learn that I will be involved in strike action at work next Wednesday, along with several million other UK public sector workers. You will also not be surprised to learn further that I am, right now, up to my ears in producing leaflets, painting banners and making placards in preparation for our showdown with the government. As a result, I have had to cancel a good few blogs which I've not had time to sit down and write. To make up for this, I'm making tonight's blog one of my 'Playing catch-up with The Streetlamp' pieces in a vain attempt to shoe-horn several bands, songs and pieces of information into one manageable, easily-digested form. Apologies to the artists involved for not giving you my usual fulsome coverage, but I'm sure you understand that the political struggle must always come first.



So, first up is a piece of news that I promised you back in October at the release of Stanley Odd's 'The Day I Went Deaf' EP (see 'here'). In that piece I hinted that a major show was in the offing for Stanley Odd in January but could not yet be confirmed. I can now confirm that they are playing in the O2 ABC in Glasgow on January 29th with the Peatbog Faeries as part of the Celtic Connections festival. If you're surprised at that bill and the union of what seems rather a strange mix of styles, then you're not alone. When I asked Stanley Odd frontman Solareye about it, he told me:

"Yup , we're playing O2 ABC with Peatbog Faeries. I agree it's quite an unorthodox lineup but we're really looking forward to it.

We actually played Solas Festival last year just before the Peatbog Faeries and it was a brilliant gig, so hopefully peeps will be kind to us as ABC."

I, for one, am certainly looking forward to it and I'm thankful to the eclectic nature of Celtic Connections that it can throw this sort of night up. See you there!



And staying with Scottish hip-hop for a bit, the next item I want to bring to your attention is the release of '.​.​.​Escape The Network' by Vizual Pupil & Th!nK. You will, hopefully, remember me writing previously about the smart and righteous taster track 'Madness' (see 'here'). Well, now the complete 7-track album is available as a free download on their bandcamp page, and is well worth checking out. Have a listen to the excellent 'Blade Running':

Blade Running by uncon




At the beginning of November, Gordon gave us a frank and honest article about his own, long-time struggle with depression (see 'here'), which like many sufferers he characterises as 'the black dog'. Coincidentally, at about the same time, Kevin P. Gilday , the knowing and witty, Glaswegian poet and musician (previously on The Streetlamp 'here'), released a fine, spoken-word track called 'Black Dog Days' . As usual, this is available as a free download from his soundcloud site. Have a listen:

Black Dog Days by Kevin P. Gilday






And speaking of poetic, introspective, spoken-word songs, there is a new album available from New Orleans Swim Team; the solo project of Alberta based, self-taught, multi-instrumentalist Jacob Ulickij ('here' previously on The Streetlamp). This latest work is called 'To be Something, to be Anything' and is available as a free download from the bandcamp page. Here's a track to get you in the mood:







Last, but not least, I'm delighted to say that the fine, young, Edinburgh-based indie-pop band The Spook School (see 'here' previously on The Streetlamp) have, at last, released some new material. A two-track, home-demo single 'Are You Who You Think You Are?' is now available as a free download from their bandcamp page. I think it's really rather good and find myself drawn to the rough-hewn nature of the songs in their demo form. Have a listen:





Well, I'm afraid that'll have to do for the time being, some of us have a class war to win, you know. Apologies to the artists involved in this roundup for my enforced brevity. I'll make it up to you in the future.


Griff
xx

Griff says; A remarkable shade of black humour.

Those of you who read my recent ZuKrewe review, or who have been chatting to me in person, will know how much I've been loving that album. One of the most appealing aspects of it was the spoken word raps, which, stripped as they were of any musical accompaniment, were intimately personal and emotionally raw.
For this reason, I've always enjoyed listening to spoken word poetry, whether it's political stuff like Linton Kwesi Johnson or The Last Poets, or more slyly humourous material, such as Ivor Cutler or David Shrigley.

The artist I'm featuring tonight is a little closer in tone to the latter two artists mentioned, although without their more obviously surreal qualities. What is more, he is a fellow Scot so it was particularly pleasing for me to come across him recently on soundcloud. The artist in question is Kevin P. Gilday who desribes his work as:

"Poetry, rants, spoken words, songs, field recordings and general self aggrandizement from one half of How Garbo Died."

How Garbo Died is an experimental electronic duo from Glasgow who can be found 'here' on bandcamp. Unsurprisingly, given a poet in their number, their lyrics are fairly abstruse and literate. It is, however, Kevin's solo spoken-word work that I find most interesting. I'm embedding a couple of tracks below to give you an idea of the substance of his output.

First up is 'The Polite Meeting of Two Well-Mannered Men', which is marked by a clever ironic humour. Kevin modestly describes this as:

"Basically a silly wee story inspired by me having one of those awkward moments when you bump into someone, you both try to let the other proceed…and you both just stand there. Surely one of the most strange and likeable quirks of humankind is politeness. This story takes place in a strange alternative universe where manners have been forgotten by the general population. Let it act as a warning! Let’s never lose these idiosyncratic little gestures, they define who we are."





The next is the shorter, slightly sardonic 'Mixed Up'. Kevin, in similar diffident fashion to the above description, introduces this as follows:

"This is a blatant rip-off of a Tim Key poem. All the hall marks are there - use of first names, an ironic distance, an absurd punchline. So why am I drawing your attention to this fact?"




Kevin has several more, similarly accomplished, spoken word recordings available on his soundcloud page, and gratifyingly these are all free to download. Please give his page a wee visit and support a local (to me anyway) talent.


Griff
xx