Butcher Boy
Posted on | January 14, 2009 | No Comments
Glaswegian melodic popsters Butcher Boy are getting some good press on Stereogum today - they’re featuring a track from the new album (Carve a Pattern). It’s well worth checking out, lovely in a Belle & Sebastian kind of way. Alternatively, head to their myspace page and listen to 5 other tracks or simply pre-order the album from here.
They haven’t announced any live dates, but I’ll keep an eye out.
Frightened Rabbit in the Boston Globe
Posted on | January 13, 2009 | No Comments
After a pretty spectacular 2008, Frightened Rabbit have taken time out from being one my favourite Glasgow bands to talk to a journo from the Boston Globe. You can read the (pretty short) interview here. Check out their myspace page, too. They’re in the middle of a US tour, but they’ve lined up a homecoming show in the frankly tiny (and sold out) Captain’s Rest on the 31st of March.
What Gigmonkey is (and what it isn’t)
Posted on | January 13, 2009 | No Comments
Gigmonkey.co.uk is a site that hopefully will be launched by the end of January 2009 (there’s nothing there at the moment, sorry). On the surface it’ll appear to be a (very well designed and coded) listings site for the city of Glasgow. It’ll feature every venue that features live music (open mic nights not included) and it’ll feature every gig that goes on at all of those venues. At the time of launch it’ll probably/hopefully have two months worth of gigs in the database. Each gig page will feature venue profiles and artist profiles - I’ll tell you more about those later - and give you the opportunity to buy tickets to the show.
It will be more than a listings site, though. I want it to be a central hub that everyone in the Glasgow music scene can use to promote their shows, buy their tickets, discover new acts and support their favourite musicians and venues. It’ll be open to everyone, so anyone can upload a gig, anyone can generate a artist profile and anyone can provide feedback on a show that they’ve seen. Promoters will be able to interact with music fans and artists in ways that just isn’t possible at the moment. Sites like Ticketmaster, Tickets-scotland, Last.fm and even the iLike application on Facebook don’t allow for the kind of local knowledge and interaction that Gigmonkey will be able to provide a platform for.
The site will make money, but only because I can’t afford to fund it myself. I can promise a few things, though. I’m hoping to never put ads on the site. Ever. If I start losing shitloads of money, then that position might change, but right now I’m dead against it. Gigmonkey isn’t about making as much money as possible, it’s about supporting the fans, musicians and venues. Also, 10% of whatever the site does generate will go straight to charity. I’ll select the first 6 charities, and then after that I’ll let the Gigmonkey users pick who the money goes to.
Of course, I can build the greatest and shiniest website in the world, but it’s worth nothing if people don’t use it. That’s why I’m writing this blog - to encourage you to take part. I’m going to make the whole process of developing and launching the website completely transparent and answer any questions anyone has about the site here. Gigmonkey isn’t going to be run by a big faceless corporation. It’s going to be run by me, and some other folks that are just as passionate about the Glasgow music scene as I am. It’s going to engage with the people that know Glasgow best and bring guest posts from people that are central in ensuring that the greatest bands in the world not only play shows here, but start here too. Glasgow has a fantastic musical heritage, and I’m looking forward to trying my best to support the next wave (and the current wave) of new talent.
I’m going to be posting regularly, so do yourself a favour and subscribe to our RSS feed, or just come back soon, ya hear?