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Johnny And The Giros – The Day That Friction Overcame Fun

stuartcmanson — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:58:37 +0000

With a drum roll and the lyrics “Steal my lightning and give it back to Zeus!”, Johnny And The Giros immediately grab your attention with their new single, ‘The Day That Friction Overcame Fun’ (which I’ll now refer to as TDTFOF as I can’t be arsed typing it all out again). And they keep it (your attention that is; pay attention!) throughout the song, attacking the listener with a cavalcade of noise that doesn’t let up at any point.

For the uninitiated, Johnny And The Giros are a quite superb band from Scotland who play electronic tinged indie music. And they do it rather well. TDTFOF is a great example of their fare, replete with all the elements that make Johnny And The Giros such a thrilling prospect. For a reference point, think about a band that manages to comprise components of Bloc Party, Delphic and Foals yet sounds utterly fresh. If they continue to release music this good, then hopefully they’ll soon be talked about at the same level as those bands.

Anyway, back to TDTFOF and it being a great example of Johnny And The Giros’ fare. A deep, almost funky bass punctuates the song for the duration, whilst a frenzy of drumming keeps what off kilter rhythm there is going. A synth beat also pervades, and throw in a little guitar and some myriad sound effects and you’ve got the ingredients for a great tune. The song builds to a cracking crescendo that erupts into an orgy of synth based fun, ending with the chorus lyrics of “What you didn’t know was that I was waiting from that day friction overcame fun.”

As was I. Well no, not really. But it’s a great song, and my often incoherent ramblings don’t do it justice. Give it a listen (or many) and you’ll see for yourself. You may also have found a new favourite band.

Scottish Alternative Music Awards 2012

stuartcmanson — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:57:10 +0000

The Scottish Alternative Music Awards (referred to as the SAMAs from now on) are a quite self explanatory series of awards. For Scottish musicians. Alternative Scottish musicians. Not in the mainsteam we’re saying here. They were started in 2010 as a means of putting the spotlight on some of the lesser well known Scottish bands, or those who weren’t quite in the public eye. As renowned Scottish music journalist Jim Gellaty puts it, “it’s a great night for coming together and celebrating great music!”

The winners of each category will be announced at a special event to be held in The Garage in Glasgow on the 1^st of March, and some variety of award will be given to the winners. I shall assume it will be some sort of trophy based award, and not an old, old school award like a pig or three herring and a box of crackers. Sadly. Anyway, the event looks to be a cracker and will feature comedy from a comedian, surprisingly. Not that you’d expect a comedian to give a lecture about woodwork or the viscosity of different paints, as that would be both inappropriate and rubbish. And as you can see from my excruciating attempts at humour, it won’t be me doing the comedy. Instead it will the rather fantastic and rather funny Billy Kirkwood (not the terrible football manager) who will be hosting the show. Check his website to see what he’s like. I’m sure you’ll like him. Also at the awards there will be live music, which is rather fitting for a music awards show. Music will come from Bwani Junction, Vukovi, Fridge Magnets and others! Tickets for the show cost £10 and can be purchased online here.

Anyway, that’s enough bumbling and superfluous nonsense written to make up my word count. Let’s get down to it. Below are the catagories and the nominees. Click on the name of each band to learn more about them;

Best Rock/ Alternative sponsored by Ignite Records

Iain McLaughlin & Outsiders

Johnny & The Giros

This award was won by Little Eskimos in 2011 and Trapped In Kansas in 2010.

Best Newcomer sponsored by Cathouse Glasgow

This award was won by XAVIA in 2011 and As Darkness Falls in 2010

Best Metal sponsored by Departed Apparel

Constellations

The Recovery

Autumn In Disguise

A Fight You Can’t Win

Ten Tonne Dozer

Lost In Echoes

This award was won by Zombie Militia in 2011 and Promised Only Lies in 2010

Best Hip Hop sponsored by Young Scot

This category is new for the 2012 SAMAs

Best Electronic sponsored by Bar Bloc

This award was only introduced last year and was won by Indian Red Lopez

So there’s your nominees. You can vote online here. Voting closes on the 29^th of February. Get voting now! I have! Twice in fact, and I may do it again!

SAMAs 2012

Scottish Music Industry Directory — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:23:02 +0000

This week saw the Scottish Alternative Music Awards take place in the Glasgow Garage. Running for the 3rd year it has become progressively bigger and better and looks set to become a firm fixture within the Scottish music calander.

The winners in no particual order were:

Best Live Act: We Were Promised Jetpacks

Best Newcomer: Bwani Junction

Best Rock/Alternative: Fatherson

Best Acoustic: Brown Bear & The Bandits

Best Metal: Ten Tonne Dozer

Best Electronic: Fridge Magnets

Best Hip Hop: Madhat McGore

With the purpose of highlighting emerging artists to new audiences the multi genre awards ceremony and performances worked really well. A packed out house of happy people can’t be a bad thing for all those involved.

The joys of coffee and editing

oscarsansom1 — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:47:52 +0000

So I have been spending a lovely day drinking a ridiculous amount of coffee while editing a new LaFontaines video and making some new artwork and graphics for the website. Now I am trying to find some football boots for this Saturday; Livescene is going to be covering an event at Stirling Albion’s Doubletree Stadium, organized by Miniature Dinosaurs ‘The MD Cup’ which involves a number of bands (including We Were Promised Jetpacks, Miniature Dinosaurs, The Ray Summers, The Seventeenth Century, Johnny & The Giros, Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers, The LaFontaines and Trapped in Kansas, to name some) having a five-aside tournament followed by a gig. Should be lots of fun, somehow I have been drafted in to play on one of the teams so make sure you come along to laugh at my horrific footballing skills! If you can’t make it, you can catch all the action on our website:
livescene.org

For details of the event visit:

http://favouriteson.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/the-md-cup/