Soundcloud Sunday ft. The Wombats, Dancing On Tables, Bottle Note + Marsicans

We love this time of year. Not only because everybody is on tour or announcing dates for next year, but new music is in abundance. So instead of some lengthy introduction we're jumping straight in with the band we've listening to all week. Of course, we are talking about The Wombats.

 

Strange Behaviours 2017

As previous act's go on to sell out the infamous Barrowlands and legendary King Tuts, it's nearly time for this years Strange Behaviours festival and for the next run of upcoming local musicians to take to the stage.

 

Soundcloud Sunday ft. Wallows, Dear CAROLINE + The Bedroom High Club

Our favourite time of the year is right now. Everyone seems to be on tour and our cities are buzzing with new music. With that being said we've narrowed down a few of our current favourite tracks from this week including Wallows, Bedroom High Club and BBC Introducing favourites Dear CAROLINE.

The Albums We Cannot Wait For #2

Tomorrow is a pretty big day. ROAM and Knuckle Puck are back!

Our pop-punk favourites seem to have an abundance of new music at the moment. Seaway's second album 'Vacation' is still playing on repeat, Boston Manor's debut 'Be Nothing' turned 1 year old and Neck Deep's huge tour with As It Is, Real Friends and Woes is currently ricocheting about the country. It's safe to say pop-punk in the UK is safe.

The Amazons UK Autumn Tour

Tomorrow night we are back with the boys in The Amazons for their last live dates of 2017.

 

Sunday Soundcloud Is Back (again)!

Well if it isn't that time of the year again, where we "try" to make our Sunday Soundcloud a weekly post. ("Try" being the key word.)

Yes, we did try this twice before and yes, we did sort of fail at it both times. (It's difficult okay?) Once again, we're back again trying to make this feature work.

Surving Uni Playlist

Another year at uni, another uni playlist.

Yes, we are back! Back at uni, back to 'more regular posts' and back to our lives post-festival season.

After how well received last years university playlist was, we decided to make another featuring brand new tracks, new artists and some old favourites.

We call these our 'uni playlist' because we've written up both playlists during lecturers. It doesn't matter whether you're in your second year like us or are just starting first year or you're still at high school about to write your dreaded UCAS statement or not in education at all.

Whether you want to drown our your lecturer, want something to aid your procrastination, want something to play loudly and annoy your neighbours with or just want help in creating your reputation as the person who always plays good music, this playlist is from us to you. Enjoy.

Tenement Trail 2017: 3 Must See Acts

One of the countries best new music events is back for its fifth year. Of course, we're talking about Tenement Trail.

 

Summer is officially over - R&L 2017

Summer is officially over. How can we be so sure? Reading and Leeds finished yesterday.

 

So, how should we welcome autumn? Spend the season watching Reading and Leeds highlights (and of course buy tickets to next years festival).

Reading and Leeds 2017

As usual, the British summer has been a let down but the Reading and Leeds line ups this year make up for it. 

 

Featuring You Me At Six, Kasabian, Mallory Knox, Rat Boy, The Amazons and over another 40 of our favourite live acts, we're actually quite glad we traded our our summer sunshine for this years line up.

We love both festivals so much but for another year we aren’t at Reading or Leeds. No, we’re still in Glasgow. 

But if you’re like us, not in the middle of a field surrounded by strangers but are at home (or even on holiday), you can still pretend to yourself that you’re there in spirit and watch everything online via BBC Iplayer. 

The Albums We Cannot Wait For

Whilst everyones still talking about the Killers come back, the new Arcade Fire album or are still in the process of playing Kasabians 'For Crying Out Loud' a bit too loudly to celebrate its release, we're already looking ahead to some of our long awaited releases all due in the next four weeks.

Summer Playlist 2017

We are playlist people. (You probably already know that.)

Tenement Trail 2017 - More Artists Announced

The slightest glimpse of this years line up should have any new music lover weak at the knees.

 

 

Hitting it out of the park may be a slightly American expression for us to use, but it's exactly what Tenement Trail has done with this years line up.

Turning 5 Years Old

On June 30th 2012 we had the idea to start up a blog. At the time, we never knew of any other bloggers, we didn't realise how big the online world was and we had no idea how much of an impact our descision to create a blog would have on us. 

It's been five year and all we can say is thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Glastonbury 2017: Who You Don't Want To Miss

It's that time of year again. Glastonbury is finally upon us. In two days time, one of the UK's biggest music festivals kicks off once again at Worthy Farm for its 47th year.

Why You Need To Be At XpoNorth 2017

Later this week, XpoNorth returns to Inverness and brings with it over 200 delegates, ranging from game designers and multi-industry reps to fashion designers, writers and musicians.

New Music : 28/05/17

For the next few weeks, we’re focusing on UK acts. Not to ignore the rest of the great new music out there, but we hope you understand our reasoning.

 

The heartbreaking Manchester attacks six days ago left us speechless. The event came as a huge shock to us all, and as frequent gig goers, we questioned our own gig habits. Then we decided to stop.

 

We decided not to live in fear. We chose to go to Slam Dunk yesterday and we are still writing about music today. No one can stop us from doing what we love. No one should be made to feel unsafe anywhere, especially not at gigs and live music events, which are supposed to be celebrations of artists, musicians, new albums, band break-ups and a time to share your love for music with other people. You shouldn’t be made to feel scared. (If you want to know our thoughts on the horrendous event you can read our full post here.)

 

Now more than ever do we need to celebrate and fall in love with our music.

Tenement Trail 2017 - Initial Line Up

The best night in Glasgow for live music returns for another year - Tenement Trail is back!

 

Slam Dunk 2017

Slam Dunk is tomorrow and we cannot wait for it.

Sitting our hotel room across from Birmingham's NEC, we feel like kids on the night before Christmas. Tomorrow is the day. Slam Dunk 2017.

Our Response To The Manchester Attack

We are in shock. Absolute shock. There is no other way to describe what we're feeling.

Unpredicted. Unsuspecting. Uncalled for? Devastating. Forming full sentences are hard at the moment.

Why are we even talking about the attack? This isn't a political or news blog. We never cover other stories so why this?

Well, we're a music blog based in Glasgow. Doesn't seem as if it has anything to do with Manchester but we do in so many ways. Firstly, an attack on the music scene anywhere hits everyone who loves music and loves going to gigs. In some way, you feel like you can relate in the smallest way to those who have been caught up in the attack. Whether you were there yourself, have been in the venue before, or if you can just imagine how horrible it must be to go through. It does effect us all.

We are constantly at gigs and listening to live music. Just the night before, we were watching Declan McKenna play his headline gig in King Tuts. Just the night before, we were at a gig and felt safe. The thought of a music venue being attacked was at the back of our minds.

The horrific attack at the Bataclan in Paris, less than two years ago did have us shaken for a month or two, but we slowly returned to feel safe at gigs. I guess we saw the Paris attack as a one off and very unlikely to happen here in the UK.

We were proven wrong.

The Manchester arena attack is still difficult to think of. An attack which has claimed the lives of so many. Further still, it has caused life-changing effects for thousands of people. How do you survive such an attack and feel safe again, all the time knowing it could have been you? How do you live your day to day life never mind venturing near a venue or gig again without being reminded of the horror you were caught up in?

We were not at the gig, nor were we in Manchester at the time. We watched the story break and unfold on social media and on the news. Fixated to the screens, hoping it was a false alarm. Hoping it was an accident, something going wrong and not deadly. When the official statements were released we felt sick. Who could do such a thing and why? Why attack music? Why attack the people who are just going to see their favourite singer live? Why break apart families, cause such distress and heartbreak for those involved and those not? Why bring such horror to a safe and celebrated place?

Something we see time and time again, is our resilience. Whether in the UK or somewhere else in the world, we see genuine people come forward and help. We see people stop what ever their doing in their own lives and help other people. In the worst of moments, we come together.

Manchester is a proud city. It's a city full of talent and celebrates it when ever possible. It's a city steeped in music and history. Nothing can break its pride nor its people. The UK as a country shows this sense of pride and resilience. As an island nation which jokes about its weather and left the EU in a bid to show it is strong enough to stand alone, nothing can break us.

We don't come from Manchester, but many UK cities share similarities. You can't take our love away from us. Whether its sport or politics or NHS or music - if we love it, no one can take it from us.

The way the country has reacted to this attack is unbelievable. You hear stories of emergency responders saving lives on the scene, taxis drivers giving free rides, hotels letting out empty rooms for free and becoming safe places for the lost and injured. Everything and everyone pulled together to face this horror.

The attack is a tragedy. We can't talk about it without crying. The thought of it being real hasn't even settled in yet. We now understand why people call events like this nightmares. You feel like you might wake up and the event hasn't happened. It feels horribly dream like right now and will for the next few days.

Please, do not let this scare you. We know it sounds ridiculous but please, do not be afraid to go to gigs. Now more than ever do we need to support our music industry.

Gig goers and performers face the same fears but we need to work through this as people who love music, if we ever want to get back to the safeness we felt before. We are resilient and won't let this stop us. We can't live in fear.

As planned, we are attending Slam Dunk on Saturday. The festival is still going ahead, as is Dot To Dot and Radio One's Big Weekend in Hull.


If you do feel unsafe at gigs whether it's because of this attack or other issues, don't be afraid to tell someone. Even if you think something might not happen but it doesn't feel right, tell someone. It's better to be safe than sorry.

Below we've linked the two most important sites at the moment which are of use to anyone confused or caught up in the attack.

Childline (UK) Manchester Attack Help

UK Gov Advice

Airways Debut EP 'Starting To Spin'

Earlier this week, we were given the chance to listen to the debut EP from Airways before it was released. Titled 'Starting To Spin', we've seriously struggled not talking about it.

 

Co-produced by our favourites over in Nothing But Thieves, this EP is everything we could have wanted and more.

Changes Are Coming

Being inactive and quiet is something I'm becoming pretty good at (which is a really bad thing) but things are about to change!

If you haven't been on the website in a while you might not have a clue what I'm talking about but I'm sure you'll catch on.

For seven years this blog has run as an independent alternative music blog (pretty much) without fault. Yes, at times it looks a bit untouched and inactive but I promise something new is always happening. Which is where this new project comes in.

On top of my uni degree and being the sole person keeping this blog alive, I've taken on a big (huge) project, creating, developing and launching my own online magazine.

Working with other writers, photographers, designers, artists and musicians, I'm finally launching Social Sounds later this month.

It has been a mammoth project and surprisingly not very stressful, but the work that has gone into our first issue is pretty insane.

Its release date is still TBC but you'll have it by the end of the month.

If you want to read more you can check out our site and find our pre-release info at -

www.shybutlovesmusic.wixsite.com/socialsounds

(Proper URLs are coming soon!).

March Favourites

I thought it was time to write about the tracks I'm loving at the moment. I've been pretty quiet for the last few months and I'm so sorry about it, but I promise it's going to be worth it. Tomorrow I'm announcing my huge new project, but today as its the end of March, I thought I'd write about some of my favourite tracks and albums from this month.

Debuts We Cannot Wait For

Within the next three months, three debut albums will be released from bands we cannot get enough of. Blaenavon, The Amazons and The Lapelles.

 

Soundcloud Sunday : Eva & The Oak, Bottle Note and Circa Waves

With a collection of new artists, new albums and brand new music, I thought it was about time to revive this neglected series.

 

The Night Cafe : My Sound of 2017

Pretty Vicious were my sound of 2016. Hailing from Merthyr Tydfil, they were the one band I didn't stop talking about all of last year.

 

The small welsh band who played at BBC Introducing's Future Festival last year, are essentially about to let off a small bomb when they release their debut album later this year. With impending riots and chaos due to ensue the day the album drops, if the video for Cave Song is anything to go by,  I know they're going somewhere fast.

This time last year, with only one two track EP and a few singles, it was already clear things were going to kick off.

 

That was last year. 

Sound Of 2017

2017 looks to be the year of new music. Small UK bands are about to break through everywhere, festivals are being headlined by last year's favourites and some of our old favourites are back with brand new music.

 

Sundara Karma 'Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect'

Last week, I bought my first album of 2017. Sundara Karma's debut album 'Youth Is Only Ever Fun In Retrospect.' The album we have all waited for is finally ours to own.