Glasvegas

http://www.myspace.com/glasvegas

i hear they have a wonderful street team.

haha

after following that myspace link i'd have to say that i prefer The Proclaimers.

you can't be serious!

I'm entertained by the idea of the surfpop MBV. We'll see on friday...

JAMC fronted by a football team

would be 10000% better as instrumentals

Just got back from seeing them live. Oh God, YES. Those half a dozen home demos that have been floating around the MP3 blogs don't really do them justice. Well worn influences (JAMC/MBV/Spector/surf-rock), but my my, are they ever transcended. "Daddy's Gone" sounds lyrically trite on paper, but it came across as part accusation and part pledge, in the most remarkable way. "It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry" (NME Track of the Week, eek) was the highlight, though.

the vocals on the half dozen songs i've heard really are so awful

which is a shame 'cause the music is otherwise pretty cool

Yeah, he sings out a lot more on stage. There's a bit of James Dean Bradfield in there, although visually the Strummer comparisons are hard to ignore. Great drummer, of the Maureen Tucker "primitive" school.

that daddy's gone song reminds me of the housemartins 'caravan of love'. in a good way. though if they had any smarts about them they'd tell their new biggest fan alan mcgee to go get fucked

otm (about mcgee)

I really like all the songs I've heard from these guys (including their covers of the Korgis' "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime" and Nirvana's "Come as You Are"; both are seriously great, particularly the latter!).

The lyrics are almost so over-the-top in their earnestness* as to drive me away cringing, but I'm thinking they manage to sell 'em (or at least drown them in enough crazy reverb to distract cynics).

*(i.e. - and I'm not going to do them any favors here in terms of convincing people who haven't heard them - "Do all that I can to heal you inside / I'll be the angel on your shoulder / My name is Geraldine, I'm your social worker")

Anyway, yeah - looking forward to the album. I'm betting this gets put up for lots of British Mercury-y prizes.

Just cannot stand the guy's voice. And I'm Glaswegian, so that shows you how bad it is.

'Daddy's Gone' sounds like a song made for John Leslie to put on repeat play until someone found his body

Number nine in the midweeks.

One of my friends told me I might like Glasvegas. Should I be insulted?

If I were you I'd be perplexed rather than insulted as such.

I mean I can see what they're trying to do but they just cannae dae it.

Give me The Twilight Sad any day of the week, but I might just save Glasvegas for Sunday (although I found their Glastonbury performance really one-note and not wildly interesting).

Not heard the album yet, but based on their MySpace they've really changed since they signed to Colombia. The new recordings have squashed the size out of the sound, and some A&R numpty's obviously told James Allan to exaggerate his accent because he didn't used to sing "dae" instead of "do", and so on.

Also the whole "here here, here we, here we fucking go" thing's got to piss off anyone who's ever been, well, near a gang of drunken weegie neds. It almost bloody ruins T In The Park when every other crowd chants it during instrumental breaks, and Glasvegas incorporating it into their songs is just going to ruin every Friday night on Sauchiehall Street for the next 10 years (as much as that could be further ruined etc etc).

When I saw them at Glastonbury they seemed very much like a throwback to the sort of stuff the NME was hyping around 2000 - Doves in particular. Is this a fair assessment?

Worst fucking record ever made.

Saw them live earlier in the year.

All I remember is that the singer is as ugly as Joe Strummer was and they tried to use the world's supply of dry ice to mask the fact.

Sadly for them , it seemed to muffle the music and we retired to the bar around the corner

I liked the myspace tracks. Their "Come as You Are" cover is too dramatic, but the lead guitar in "Geraldine" reminds me of The House of Love's "Christine".

fucking painful

the singer is as ugly as Joe Strummer was

oh fuck off.

I don't care what anyone says. I love this album. And what's wrong with his vocals? I dig the thick Glaswegian accent.

Leaning on the side of hyperbole (or curmudgeonly insanity?), Ian McCulloch recently called them "the best band since Nirvana."

i can't handle this band at all.. i tripped across a 9 track promo thing of their first three or four singles and i think i liked two songs, the rest were unbearable. it's my own cheating heart is some sort of horrible joke surely? i can kinda see what they're trying to do but i just don't think it works. camera obscura fall into similar traps but their lyrics aren't nearly as awful and tracyanne actually has a pleasant voice

Not that the new Metallica album is exactly drop dead brilliant but props to them for keeping this tripe off number one in the album chart.

who the hell is buying this wretched nonsense? mcgee surely doesn't have enough cash to buy it into the top 5

Petridish gave it four stars in the Grauniad innit.

Also it's getting played a lot on Radio 2.

It's horrific.

Give me The Twilight Sad any day of the week

― CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 15:31 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I've not heard a note of Glasvegas' music but given *all* the press descriptions, my initial instinct was "massively inferior Twilight Sad". Now there's a Glasgow band that deserves more press.

Besides the thick accents, Glasvegas and the Twilight Sad are completely dissimilar. And why do the Twilight Sad deserve more press (as if Pitchfork et all weren't hyping them up like crazy last year)?

I didn't actually notice any of that hype, but maybe that's because I didn't read Pitchfork enough.

saw them live at marlay park, they were very 6/10. the single is rubbish, and the 'big' sound just comes across as hollow.

Thick accents, indie rock with lineage in J&MC & MBV respectively, evocative lyrics; saying they're "completely dissimilar" seems a little disingenuous. It's not as if one's techno and the other's heavy metal.

Yeah, they both play guitars too. No, you're right though. They are working through the same guitar drone/noise idiom but what I meant is that they do it in such totally different ways. The Twilight Sad is all crescendoing Godspeed/Mogwai build up and release while Glasvegas has got the whole Spector wall of sound/girl group pop via JMC thing going on. I guess both are pretty derivative but Glasvegas strikes me as far less generic than the Twilight Sad.

The Twilight Sad is all crescendoing Godspeed/Mogwai build up and release

NO. WRONG. They don't build up tension, they move very instantly between stages of greater or lesser intensity, in the mode of elegiac pop. You've just dragged that comparison out of your arse.

"in the mode of elegaic pop"? Who's pulling what out of what? Come on, musically, the comparison with Mogwai is pretty obvious (as if they weren't opening up for them as I write this). But, really, you're telling me many of their songs don't have that "hit guitar distortion pedal now" moment.

No, they do. But that isn't "crescendoing build-up and release", that's instant. They write their songs in carefully-managed stages, with different levels of intensity depending on the emotional import of the lyric. I define that as "elegiac pop", but I cannot for the life of me see how it qualifies as "post-rock".

OH GOD NO

Twilight Sad: "textural" indie under-achievers.
Glasvegas: hooky pop pretenders.

I'm kind of astonished that no one has mentioned how much the Glasvegas singer looks like a fat Joe Strummer.

Culturally, Glasvegas are the new Terris.

There's probably a decent claim to be made that Terris could have been made into an actual commercial success if they'd come out in the last couple of years, rather than 2000/2001, although they'd probably still have been complete fuckups on a personal level

Glasvegas = Snow Patrol + Johnny Boy

<yawn>

have heard a great conspiracy theory about this lot, based on the fact that when a friend saw 'em in the capacity of a music journalist she was banned from the soundcheck, then when she saw the live show it was impossible to see the musicians behind smoke and lights, the drums were obviously on a backing track, as was the rhythm guitar and possibly the bass too. on their first tour, before officially signed to a major label, her friend (who ran a Barfly where they played) realised that they'd been given a nationwide tour on a seemingly shoestring budget, complete with their own lights and promotion team...the theory is that they're a massive inside joke (hence the Las Vegas "striking lucky" thing), and that they've somehow snared both the mainstream and half the indie-alternative markets too, based on the cynical but accurate theory that people are sheep

Odd reading that backing track conspiracy theory...... saw them tonight and, in contrast with the last time - supporting Muse - the drumming (or 'drumming') was spot on time keeping wise, whereas last time it was all over the place:and you couldn't actually see any of the playing with the dry ice and molephays....

she swears blind every drum hit sounded *exactly* the same, and the drummer couldn't be seen at all

Well it could sound 'exactly the same' because it's triggering a sample I guess, rather than being a backing track, but the huge improvement in timekeeping in under 6 months is suspicious. They were completely dreadful BTW.

this is also what she said

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:S0DgoCcMzFIJ:www.wereallneighbours.co.uk/idlechat/message.php%3Fid%3D31508%26page%3D3+glasvegas+milli+vanilli&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=safari

LOL the guy who started that thread is the Barfly music promoter referred to in my first post!

my band supported them a few months ago... I think they were using triggers on the drums (hence every hit sounding the same), but there was no instrument miming that I could detect.

I mean basically they are Sydney Devine Salutes The Manic Street Preachers aren't they?

i made up this joke about one of glasvegas being a fireman and having to tell someone "forget your ca', he's gone" but didn't have the heart to type it all out

The backing track thing has been going about for years. I saw them in Glasgow about three years ago when they were still a doo wop band and dressed like a High School Musical version of a rock 'n roll band, all quiffs and collegiate baseball jackets. People muttered about the drummer miming back then. I wonder if they would if it wasn't a woman drumming. Ultimately, who cares? I'm not a fan, but there are far worse bands out there. Their influences are good - JAMC, Spector - it's just shame they filter it through Oasis stadium rock bombast. Why not judge them on their music, rather than carp misguidedly about miming?

JAMC, Spector - boring.

Elliott Carter, Glen Daly - much more interesting.

when a band has phoned-in "real" drums, i leave the room

JAMC, Spector - boring.

Elliott Carter, Glen Daly - much more interesting.

Ah, Glen Daly. Still the scourge of Glasgow charity shops.

This is why I'm reluctant to go in them when I'm there.

I once made the grievous mistake of investigating a charity shop in Hamilton while visiting my mum for Xmas and it was ALL Sydney Devine, Glen Daly and Jim Reeves plus assorted local eighties rubbish vis a vis Wet Wet Wet, Deacon Blue, Hipsway etc.

Surprised this wasn't revived for discussion of their Xmas album. I'm curious about it (as the only person on this thread who seems to like 'em).

http://www.allcelticmusic.com/dimage/be8614be-f86f-102a-8020-000f1f67beb1/250/250/6042.jpg

This just came out here in the States and, maybe just because I haven't been bombarded with the hype and buzz, I'm finding it really pleasant.

glen daly isn't that bad.

I can hold it in no longer. Album of the year (in the States) so far for me. They're so shameless, so impossible to believe that it's easy to understand why "it's all some sick inside joke" rumors are flying around (and actually, it'd just probably strengthen the music all the more to know it was a joke) (although a joke HOW exactly?).

Anyhoo, I even love the video for "Flowers & Football Tops." All that debris floating around is a perfect visual counterpart to the music.

And "Geraldine" is the best social worker song since Wide Right's hilarious "Royanne."

i like some of it a lot, and i think i could get into it more if it werent for the damn singer

I'm supposed to go see them tomorrow night with a friend of mine who is crazy about them. Even this guy I know at work knew them...I guess lots of folks are nuts about them. I wasn't all that impressed by what I've heard on myspace but I'm downloading the album now.

i thought it was pleasant enough at first, but now it's really starting to get under my skin. don't exactly know if that's good or bad, tho.

shittest band my country has produced since the last one

haha your country and my city are producing some almighty shite at the moment kerr. though i'd say the combined might of courteeners and twisted wheel just about trump the horror that is glasvegas

Bay City Rollers FOREVAH!

Some quality goldfish-based rock star madness from the Scottish Oasis and the Bunnymen.

"I took the fish to the zoo and I was singing The Carpenters' (They Long To Be) Close To You to the fish 33 floors up in a Chicago hotel."

I mean, we've all been there, right?

Even as someone that liked the first album, this new one is a complete turd.

Feel almost the same: couple of great hooks, and a lot of bluster. They took out the wrong part of the Mary Chain + U2 equation. They forgot they couldn't actually do the second part of it all that well. I think James Allan is a compelling and interesting figure though, not just the arse he's often made out to be.

Guilty pleasure if I ever knew one. It's Razorlight all over again, but man, relistening now, their debut is a great album or what? Yes it is.

Ps. Miss you Bimble <3

"My name is Geraldine, I'm your social worker" -> lines only sang on true Real England records amirite

'Daddy's Gone' sounds like a song made for John Leslie to put on repeat play until someone found his body

― DJ Mencap, Wednesday, 27 August 2008 16:25 (6 years ago)

nice

We need anthemic rock to be against anthemic rock.

Guilty pleasure if I ever knew one. It's Razorlight all over again, but man, relistening now, their debut is a great album or what? Yes it is.

yes.
i love the bands debut.
but hey, i am not a qualifier of taste, as last night i was extolling the brillance of @440.

Terrible band but I had no idea their main man had quite a long career as a professional footballer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Allan_(musician)#Football_career.

he's everything Pat Nevin could have been.

He was part of the Cowdenbeath squad that won promotion as runners up in the 2000–01 Scottish Third Division.

How many of us can say that tbf?

He missed out on Gretna's big money period, when "the good doctor" Kenny Deuchar was banging in the goals for them. That would have been much better than being in a shit rock band!

Kenny Deuchar, what a goal machine! Yes, I'm much more impressed by anyone who's had a career as professional footballer than I am by someone who's been in a band.

This knowledge has made my day.

Debut still great for a shit band.

I’m now curious if the guy who sits a row behind me at work and briefly played for Cowdenbeath was there at the same time.

Also, fuck Gretna.

sacrilege! Gretna and whoever was playing East Stirling that day won me a fortune* in winning accs back in the day.

*probably a few hundred quid if I'm being honest.

Not sacrilege, their promotion to the top flight was at the expense of St Johnstone.

ah, totally fair then.

Especially when the wheels fell off the Gretna Dream Train after that promotion

I seem to remember it went tits up when the benefactor was dying in hospital, even "the good doctor" couldn't save him!

If I have the timeline right, The Good Doctor was on loan to us during that final Gretna season!

Yes, the guy who'd scored 65 goals in 84 games for them was 'out of favour' by then o_0