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We get a dose of the blues this week, invested with a wild spirit, as we welcome back SARA AND THE SNAKES for their first gig at Limbo since last summer, usher in some filthy, sexy garage rock n roll from the buzzing CONFLICT DIAMONDS and a curious, new outfit called THE PINEAPPLE CHUNKS, all of whom are guaranteed to strike a chord with anyone looking for a sharper edge. The Snakes will also be filming this Thursday's performance for a pop video/promo/youTube etc, so get your glad rags on, scrub up well and work on that barnet if you're hoping for a bit of a cameo in that!
As an added bonus Dave and Tim from the excellent Elvis Shakespeare second hand record/book shop in Leith will be coming down to drop an exclusive DJ set. Expect plenty of rarities and loads of quality tunes. These boys really know their Joy Division from their Interpol.
Perhaps best of all, and mindful of the credit crunch that's threatening to eat everybody's lunch, we're having a JANUARY SALE!
So, tickets for Limbo will be a paltry £3 until the end of the month. And don't forget the Limbo bar has bottles of beer for just two quid as well. BARGAIN! And, since all the live acts are always finished by 11.30pm, there's absolutely no risk of turning into a pumpkin if you have to turn up for work first thing on Friday morning!
If you're on Facebook, tell us that you're coming along here.
Great review about Limbo's first year here:
Check out all of our photography here
REHEARSAL ROOMS: The Black Spring Rooms are still running and available for hire for as little as £7 / hour for block bookings from 5pm until late. Get in touch now for more info: rooms@black-spring.com
A blues-rock three-piece who have been electrifying the Edinburgh swamp for some time, with unlikely front-woman Sara Sidewinder unleashing the devil in her (guitar/vox), backed by Andy Anaconda (lead guitar) and Mike Mamba (drums). It's all about their glorious live shows, as any one of their many fans will tell you.
Since the Snakes' last appearance at Limbo, they've written some new material, including a track featuring Andy Anaconda rocking a brand new slide guitar sound (courtesy of Santa) and had some rather unrestrained praise from no less an arbiter of yoof/pop culture than the NME. Andy's also been busy organising someone to film the band at this performance, so you can expect to take part (a starring role even - who knows where it might end up?!) in a Sara And The Snakes promo video if you come see this show.
 F*** me, they were ace!' (NME - Andy assured me, somewhat incredulously on the phone that 'the NME really said that!' Yeah, it's a great quote)
...an unfettered piece of bone rattling voodoo swamp trash come to life. ****' (Neil Cooper, The List)
In her library girl specs and party frock, Sara Forshaw's butter-wouldn't-melt demeanour gives way to a voice bigger than PJ Harvey and twice as dirty in a three-piece distillation of raw, off-kilter and utterly beguiling 21st century blues. Greatness beckons.' (The List, Hot 100, Dec '07)
myspace.com/saraandthesnakes
A friend recommended Conflict Diamonds to us again recently. We'd heard about the duo before as they've gigged quite a bit in Edinburgh in the past, but when we listened to their myspace we thought they sounded like a lot of fun and, oh look, there's a great interview with them in this month's Skinny, so we're clearly not the only ones who think they've got something vital going on. Theirs is basically a garage rock sound (think Iggy And the Stooges, The Sonics, MC5 etc), but they give it a twist with some speedy, metal riffs and do it all so very well they sound as tight as a nun's chastity belt. There's an unmistakably dirty, sexy rock n roll energy coming off Conflict Diamonds which is guaranteed to heat up the room.
NB The Conflict Diamonds are not a policitcal band, as they point out in their Skinny interview.
No unnecessary ad-hoc wankery for these chaps.' (The Skinny)
myspace.com/conflictdiamonds
The Pineapple Chunks cite The Fall, Huey Lewis And The News, Stephen Malkmus, Deerhoof and The Beta Band as influences. Interesting mix. They forget to mention Syd Barrett, which is surprising as, lyrically at the very least, there seems to be something of a debt owed - perhaps it's a subconscious one - with their stream-of-counsciousness, surrealist flow. They're not that far away from early Floyd musically either. Anyway, it's an interesting sound and not without humour, as the hilariously miserable and quite epic I Left My Mojo In London Town exhibits on the chorus: 'Oh, and i lost my soul, I spent nine fucking years in that stinking hole.' Sure to strike a chord with a number of Limbo regulars, not to mention a lot of other folk who have little time for the Big Smoke, the Pineapple Chunks sound very British and refreshingly different from the mass. We look forward to seeing them debut at Limbo.
myspace.com/thepineapplechunks
We welcomed The Boycotts and My Cousin I Bid You Farewell both playing Limbo for the first time, making the first Limbo of 2009 a Glasgow double bill. The Boycotts tore through their set like composite professionals and won a raft of new fans in Edinburgh. My Cousin I Bid You Farewell's pianist left the group last week and their bass player was away, but, also exhibiting what utter pros they are, Jonathan Sellar and band-mates honoured our booking and treated us to to an impromptu, rare and somewhat exclusive acoustic set, performing as a trio.
The Boycotts are a young four-piece, rocking a very Nineties grunge-rock sound via some very Eighties pop motifs, principally those of their impressive front-woman, Stina Twee - cute as a button and much, much larger on stage than her pint-sized off-stage persona might suggest. When she's singing, Stina sounds a lot like Harriet Wheeler of Eighties indie-pop/rock stars The Sundays, which is definitely a good thing. She inhabits the stage with the air of a born performer, completely at ease with strutting her stuff and being the centre of attention throughout the band's thirty minutes under the lights. This insouciant, self-confident attitude is no doubt partly due to her twenty-one odd years but also to the tight band of musicians assembled around her, one of whom, Joe, she has known since the two of them were at school together in Edinburgh and the other pair of whom, Dave (bass) and Dragon (drums), Joe and her met at university in Glasgow. Yes, this lot look like a proper band and, clearly not shy of rehearsing, they sound like a proper band, too. They've also got some great lyrics, but Stina's been writing songs for years so this is hardly surprising either. Expect to see them back at Limbo in the not-so-distant future.
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myspace.com/startaboycott
My Cousin I Bid You Farewell have apparently only recently formed and played three gigs before Limbo but already boast a Nice N Sleazy's sell-out in their short life-span. However, it's very clear from the way they behave together and the fact that they've brought their own sound engineer to this gig that this trio is no green bunch of novices. Singer Jonathan Sellar admits that they have 'all played in a lot of bands before' - in fact the implication is that they all continue to pursue a lot of other musical projects aside from MCIBYF - but the buzz of excitement already developing suggests this might be the one taking precedence in 2009, pianists permitting. It's a shame about the missing band-member, as it's the piano parts that give MCIBYF the richly bombastic, euphoric quality. But, there's no lack of charisma and they hold everyone's attention throughout their set, with some notable flourishes from the lead guitar and violin and, with his rich baritone, Sellar himself brings a darkness to the stage that has shades of the Velvet Underground at their peak. Yup, we've got a good feeling about My Cousin I Bid You Farewell and expect to see and hear much more of them this year. They should be playing Limbo again, with full band, in March.
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myspace.com/mcibyf
My Cousin I Bid You Farewell, and The Boycotts pictures by Nic Rue.
We go electro-folk, with the welcome return of the unstoppable force that is MEURSAULT for their third appearance at Limbo. Limbo favourites and most definitely Edinburgh stars-in-the-ascendant, Neil Pennycook's band continue to wow and inspire everyone in their path who falls under their magic spells, following Edinburgh music blog Song By Toad's (re-)release of their debut album, Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues, to national critical acclaim (four stars in Mojo magazine, no less). Support comes from Falkirk's finest, also Limbo favourites, also playing their third Limbo show, Y'ALL IS FANTASY ISLAND, who continue to turn out new material at a prolific rate, so fertile is the mind of singer-songwriter Adam Stafford and who also just received BIG critical props for their recent third album, No Ceremony. Last, new Glasgow popstrels MITCHELL MUSEUM, who also exhibit BAGS of promise and talent and haven't (hardly) played any gigs in Edinburgh yet. This will also be the last night of Limbo's January Sale, so you really don't want to miss this one!
If you're on Facebook, tell us that you're coming along here.
Meursault take their name from the work of French existentialist philosopher Albert Camus but the bleak images singer-songwriter Neil Pennycook conjures with his plaintive voice belie a much broader palette of emotions than Camus's eponymous monochrome protagonist ever exhibits in The Outsider. And with the genius addition of laptop electronica, accordion, banjo, autoharp, mandolin and ukelele, the wealth of colour, light and joy he and his band adds to his songs makes them each a thing of singular beauty. Imagine The Aphex Twin dueling with Thom Yorke (which actually ought to happen, given the debt owed to the former by the latter, post Ok Computer, but that's another yarn). The Drowned In Sound review of their Limbo debut in March was no less complimentary. Read it in full here. The Scotsman's Arts Editor, Andrew Eaton, is also a fan (and was at the same gig in March). See his nice piece here. More recently exposed as 2009 Ones To Watch by Scotland's own, young music pundits at The Skinny, we've every reason to believe that 2009 will be the year Meursault achieve much greater acclaim outside their own fair city and the wider renown that inevitably accompanies such acclaim. Expect a killer gig or two in The Big Smoke before the year is out, but, in the mean time, here's another chance to catch them in the sumptuous, intimate environs of our own Voodoo Rooms.
4/5...Pennycook's urgent voice personifies the collision between the Reid brothers (Jesus Mary Chain) and Guy Garvey (Elbow)...the results are compelling' (MOJO)
5/5 ALBUM OF THE MONTH...one of the country’s most promising new bands - one of Scotland’s records of the year.... Make no mistake, after a spin of this sublime record only one word will pass your lips:magnificent' (THE SKINNY)
A gold medal to distorted pop cabal Meursault.... chock-a-block with rowdy aural confections and gilded treats' (PLAN B)
...strong on existential angst, Arab Strap rage and self loathing...equally capable of the lovelorn misery of King Creosote or James Yorkston... Meursault do it uncommonly well:completely absorbed and unselfconcious, they vitally don't use the noise as an excuse not to write any tunes' (WORD)
4/5 Meursault are the most exciting band to emerge from the capital since Found..they variously recall a lo-fi, rough edged Arcade Fire and Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser...it'd be a crime if this fine band got overlooked... what mostly makes Meursault stand out from the crowd is the quality of Pennycook's songs, which are simultaneously romantic, intensely bleak and wryly funny' (THE SCOTSMAN)
Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues is an unassuming triumph of glum-pussed Scottish charm...' (DROWNED IN SOUND)
myspace.com/meursaulta701
Last seen launching their second album in May 2008, Y'all Is Fantasy Island are a Falkirk quartet ploughing a similar (but different) folk/rock/indie furrow to Frightened Rabbit. Y'all is Fantasy Island's debut album, In Faceless Towns Forever, was recorded in a nineteen-hour session in an abandoned house late in August, 2005 and announced the band as an exciting new prospect on the cultural landscape. Second album Rescue Weekend was released last spring/summer and picked up more plaudits. Third album No Ceremony is the one that's really put the band on the map, though. Adam Stafford and former YIFI drummer Jon McCall also have a side project, Size Of Kansas, and a debut album, Digital Is Dead From The Beginning (ultra limited edition CDR with hand-crafted sleeve) and then there's YIFI's soundtrack project (see below), also released last year.... Prolific ain't the word! These guys are talents through and through...
YIFI say: "Some may think that we have no quality control, but this simply isn't the case - we just work hard. 'Infanticidal Genuflector' is our 4th LP proper and the 3rd we have released this year. It is our gift to you, free, here.
No Ceremony is fantastic and puts them back in place as one of Scotland's bands that deserve to make it... Punk Rock Disco (is) like Nirvana squeezed into an AC/DC top dancing to REM. The band's 10/10 continues with Campus, Outsider as if Teenage Fanclub had found grunge. And still the catchy tunes come.... There's not a duff track on No Ceremony - a late contender for unsigned album of the year.' (Rick Fulton, Daily Record)
'They deliberately, playfully toy with scores of influences, but that's no bad thing. If heard "properly" by the right people, Y'all is Fantasy Island could be big by 2010. Until then, go see them live.' (The List)
myspace.com/yifimusic
Apparently (the blogosphere informs us) partially formed from another band called Afterchristmas, Mitchell Museum are purveyors of what our blogger friend Toad (Song By Toad) has dubbed 'oddtronica', a description i'm loving even though it's perhaps a wee bit wide of the mark. It suggests this is mainly music made by electronic instrumentation/machines, when they actually have quite a traditional line-up (guitar, bass, drums, keyboard), although they must surely be using samples (triggered with the keyboard?) to embellish their sound and make it more interesting. Apparently they're a lot of fun live, so we can't wait...
Formed in 2008, the four members have been swapping home made recordings and sharing ideas since their first meeting. Finally deciding to combine their talents into one, brothers Cammy and Raindeer and friends Kris and Dougie started MITCHELL MUSEUM. Drawing influence from various American and Canadian experimental indie bands including Animal Collective, Flaming Lips, Wolf Parade and Modest Mouse MITCHELL MUSEUM create an experimental pop sound with strong hints to folk, psych, and electronica. In April 2008 MITCHELL MUSEUM appeared on ‘Doing it for the Kids 08’ compilation CD, the successor to the Creation Records release of the same name (1988). Positive feedback prompted the recording of their first single “WARNING BELLS/TAKE THE TONGUE OUT” double A-side 7” vinyl on Scottish Indie label Mister Tramp. The “WARNING BELLS” single has been widely praised. MITCHELL MUSEUM were named “ARTIST OF THE MONTH” at “Your Sound” event in November 2008 (King Tuts Wah Wah Hut). It has also received heavy airplay from Jim Gellatly and Vic Galloway on BBC Radio Scotland, Tom Robinson, Huw Stephens, Marc Riley and an interview with Steve Lamacq on BBC6Music. The have also recorded live sessions at the BBC for both Vic Galloway and Marc Riley. MITCHELL MUSEUM's somewhat hyperactive but always entertaining live shows have led MITCHELL MUSEUM to be described as “a frenzied Grandaddy”, “lovable bundle of keyboard-driven madness” by The Fly and “the greatest musical orgy ever” by Sleepwalkingmag.com
Check them out on Vic Galloway's great BBC Scotland show here
myspace.com/mitchellmuseum
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CHEAP DRINKS!
Don't forget you can take advantage of £2 bottles from any of the Voodoo Rooms' three bars by showing your Limbo wrist-band to the bartender.
REHEARSAL SPACE?
The Black Spring Rooms: competitive prices, friendly service, easy access and no fuss for as little as £7 / hour; free parking on site + six bus routes to service it in Leith. More info here
VENUE INFO
Limbo takes place at The Voodoo Rooms, West Register Street, Edinburgh.
Times: 8.30pm - 1am *
First band 9.00, second band 9.45, third band 10.30
Entrance: £5/£4 *
Ph: 0131 556 7060 (venue) / 0131 477 6916 (promoter)
* except where otherwise advertised
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