COMING SOON!

Heartening to witness a decent turnout at Tuts for some honest to goodness homegrown rock’n’roll last night. Looking at the upcoming gig listing, I never heard of any of them. Perhaps that says more about me than the booking policy but let’s leave that open. Oh there was one – G Love. I presume that’s the “Special Sauce” guy? Not Gerry??

Anyway, The Reverse Cowgirls make a reasonable racket and opened the night. If I were being objective then I’d say they’d make a better impression at this point if they trimmed a couple of songs from the set but my ADD isn’t their problem. The Brutes were something of a revelation and delivered just the right amount of genetically enhanced garage pummel. The gear shift in “Real Gone Gasser” especially hit the spot.

And what about The Primevals? This was evidently a dry run for a time when they can fill the Barras. Some cool stagecraft involved and proper lighting plus a proper stage. They were having fun up there and I really hope that they get to do it all again soon. I believe that London in for a pounding on Saturday October 8th at The Water Rats, Kings Cross.

A certain London combo that enjoys an overt amount of ass-kissing for way, way less might like to check out how it oughtta be done.

Many thanks to Ms Linna...

It's been a hell of a week one way and another. Not a lot of time or notion to futz about on here but there's a brace of fine rockin' releases coming up so one way or another, it's time the digit was extracted. Obviously you're thinking - "I'll believe that when I clock it". Abso-fecking-lutely squire (or squire-ette).

Is that a light at the end of the 2011 tunnel that I see before me? One reserves the right to figure it's a false alarm. Only time will tell.

The Primevals at King Tuts in Glasgow tomorrow with The Brutes and The Reverse Cowgirls (Friday).

I've lost the jpeg poster but if you can get there then do just that.

Mr Hagen sent me this link - you'll dig it...

RIP - Nick Ashford

RIP - Jerry Leiber

There are still tickets available for BLAST OFF!

Be cool! So says Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co. with its monthly, air-cooled appearance at the ever tropical Otto's Shrunken Head...

*THURSDAY, AUGUST 25th / OTTO'S SHRUNKEN HEAD /
538 East 14th Street (just west of Avenue B) in ol' Manhattan /
Two refrigerated sets, from 8pm sharp until 10pm / Salty snacks -- and no cover!

And, please kindly note that SIT & Die will not be appearing at the Rodeo Bar in September for our monthly residency, but should you find yourself in the vicinity of our neighbour to the north over Labor Day Weekend:

*FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd / "RED HOT & BLUE" WEEKENDER /
Montreal, Quebec / SIT & Die returns for the seventh annual rockabilly festival!

*SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th / "GREAT CANADIAN BURLESQUE" at Cadillac Lounge /
Toronto, Ontario / SIT & Die's first visit to the Queen City!

Chillingly yours,
Michael
Susquehanna Industrial Tool & Die Co.
"Ballads, Boogies & Blues"

Encore by mxrich

I need to compile a complaint form to First Scotrail. They’re useless. They can’t cope with demand for their services and yesterday was the proverbial straw that broke the big hairy spitting creature’s back. A rugby game and the world’s biggest festival on a very sunny day – droves heading east to spend their hard-earned in Edinburgh and the infrastructure can’t cope. It can’t bloody cope under normal conditions.

Still that aside, the David Sedaris show was great. I was always a big fan of his sister Amy but my pal Fiona gave me one of his books last Christmas and I actually read it. My info junkie demeanour doesn’t often grant me that patience but I did. So to catch his reading was a great opportunity and it’s the coolest thing of its type I’ve seen since David Lynch at the GFT. He is a little DL-ish to my mind. At the signing, he told me that he’d never heard an accent like mine and Mr Shaw – who went to the show last night, I went Friday – he said he mentioned what could have been me. Alluding to the fact that I had the strongest Scots accent he ever heard. Which kind of counters what Brother Don reckoned when we spoke last week, ha ha.

I did drop by to get another book signed yesterday evening so that was another mission accomplished.

Today I’m gonna take a walk up to the “set” for World War Z that’s taking place close to the oil refinery. Brad Pitt is apparently in town and until now that’s always been Glasgow rhyming slang for something a bit unsavoury. I’m sure you can figure it out. Anyways I’m only going because Gry said I should.

This has been a weird day, could be about to get weirder but I just transferred an important new pop opus to my mp3 player and I’m heading out the door. Laters...

Finally - a semblance of justice for the West Memphis Three...

More than halfway through the thing called August… took in a small corner of the Edinburgh festival by seeing John Otway’s power point presentation. Maybe a tad overlong but he seems like such a good geezer and of course the price, gratis entry, is entirely right. I’m not sure if it runs for the entire festival but if you’re in town then you could actually pay to see a much lesser performance.

And then there was Shonen Knife. In a crammed Sneaky Pete’s the j-pop-punk triumvirate belted it forth as only really they can. Defying all pop clichés and employing the wattage of pyramid power, the set itself maybe wasn’t as great as last time at Tut’s in Glasgow but it was still a hoot. I put this down to them maybe not including “Barnacle” this time. Although their ode to sushi came mighty close.

The place was rammed so there was no way the girls could get offstage to do the encore ritual. So they stayed and played a medley of Ramones songs as can be found on their Osaka Ramones tribute that has just been released. The version of KKK would bring tears of joy to a glass eye and well, it was just magic.

Great show = great merch and Murray noted how it seemed like the audience just turned around and queued for the gear. It might have been a school night but it didn’t matter at all because a visit by these girls is still an occasion. Like Otway, they occupy a special place that’s damned cool to connect with. The Knife are making their way across Europe in the coming weeks. If they can kick my spirits into life then chances are they can jump start yours too.

Guess I wasn't on here yesterday? In some ways that's progress because it suggests a semblance of a life - ha ha. And today, we're heading for Edinburgh and all the hoo-hah that festival time bestows. Not for anything in particular but maybe John Otway at 3pm in The Voodoo Rooms.

Ballroom @ Voodoo Rooms from 15:00 - 16:00, August 7-17 - Otway on Otway [Music]
Rock and Roll's greatest failure's hysterical romp through 35 years of being a pop star with 2 hits and 25 flops. Soon to be a major movie.

Might be back later. Much later. Shonen Knife tomorrow. It's all go.