One of the ways we use this site is to give further spotlight to some of the acts we feature on our podcast. Scottish singer songwriter James Mackenzie has popped up/invaded a couple of our past podcasts and he is currently on our Brew At The Bog podcast.
The reason he appears on our latest podcast is not just due to the fact we rather like the lad or solely due to him playing at Brew At The Bog but because he is heading back out on the road in May to promote his new self titled EP.
During the tour James will also be joined by Bedford-based folk group, The Darling Mundaring. Scroll your wee fingers down to the bottom of this page to see a lovely wee video from them.
Not to be outdone Mr Mackenzie too has also gone and done a promotional film with music.
James Mackenzie’s self-titled EP is released on 5th May on iTunes and bandcamp.
We are back at Mad Hatters, Inverness on Friday 26th April for our 10th Takeover featuring Dingus Khan, The Broken Ravens and The Last September.
It’s our 6th year as Netsounds Unsigned and it’s our 10th Takeover. Surely a time for celebration and rejoice? We’ve not organised the jelly and ice cream for our 6th birthday party yet but let’s have a few raised glasses for Takeover #10!
Better still let’s have 3 outstanding live bands.
Dingus Khan
We are delighted to have the Essex band back up to Inverness for our 10th Takeover. They perform as an eight piece, with at last count three drummers, three bass players and an electric ukulele just for good measure. They make full use all eight members producing an amazing sound that burst with energy that has been witnessed at Latitude and Reading and Leeds festivals as well as a previous stop over at Hootananny in Inverness last year. Expect wonderful chaos and rock ‘n’ roll madness.
The Broken Ravens
We are genuinely excited to have The Broken Ravens on the line up. We played the band on a recent podcast and can’t get enough of their recent demo EP. With diverse influences ranging from Howlin Wolf to Slayer the foursome brought these influences together and banged heads to create their own “headbanging, foot stomping, rip roaring, fireball of fuzz” sound. They will take tour buddies Dingus Khan over to their native Stornoway on Saturday 27th April for another feats of rock at the Jager Rooms.
The Last September
Completing the line up is an impressive indie-folk- rock Edinburgh based band who’s recent second album that drew some very worthy 4 star reviews. Led by front man and chief songwriter Pete Deane, they reformed in 2011 following an extended 7 year break and are currently working on their third album.
Takeover #10 is on Friday 26th April 2013 at Mad Hatters in Inverness. Doors are at 9:30pm and it’s FREE entry.
Takeover #10 goes into the wee small hours (3am) with what we can promise to be a blindingly good indie/alternative/rock/pop/electro/funk/soul/hip-hop Netsounds DJ set.
Scottish songwriter Duncan Overmeer is set to release his debut album Rumour Mill on 29th April.
The Highlands based storyteller will be releasing the album on his own micro-indie label Bruadar Records.
He will be celebrating the album release with a special show at Hootananny, Inverness on Sunday 28th April where he will be performing with a full band line up. Duncan has also just been announced to appear at this year’s goNORTH in Inverness in June.
We’ve seen Duncan a couple of times in his solo acoustic guise (sometimes as Matchstick Maker) and his songs are quite simply captivating. I was expecting a solo acoustic affair on Rumour Mill but he has been joined by a small group of friends who recorded the album in a quiet studio tucked away in the hills over three days.
The result is a diverse master of simplicity. Jaunty moments on the album sit comfortably next to the slower more delicate and enchanting tracks. It’s an album that will be warmly received by Duncan’s fans and likely to win him new followers after first listen.
The debut album follows the FiveSongs EP (2011) as well as the free download-only Fireside EP (Matchstick Maker) in 2012.
Rumour Mill features limited edition screen-printed cases, handmade by Highland artist/printmaker Emma Noble with images adapted from original paintings by Edinburgh-based artist Kate Green.
Duncan recently supported Rick Redbeard(Rick Anthony, Phantom Band) when he played Mad Hatters in Inverness. As a special treat we have a live version of the album track For Those Who Sing… recorded at that very gig.
Rumour Mill is released on 29th April 2013 and available at itunes, Amazon and at www.duncanovermeer.com
Every year around the end of April we sit like 5 year olds waiting for Santa to come. Which is a bit silly because Christmas has come and gone. But, you know what we mean! We are excited about the goNORTH line up!
Over 70 acts are set to appear at goNORTH 2013 and once again we are far from disappointed with the line up. Scotland’s leading showcase festival for the creative industries will take place once again in Inverness over the 5th and 6th of June.
goNORTH is one of those festivals/events call it what you will, that has helped fill our music collection with some of the finest emerging acts we have come across.
What’s made it more exciting for us is that over the past couple of years at goNORTH we were involved in coordinating some of the brilliant Rockhopper Sessions that took place in Inverness and out at the Belladrum Festival.
Stay tuned to find out what we have planned for this year…
goNORTH is an utterly brilliant event in terms of giving you access to a wide selection of live music all contained within the small centre of Inverness not to mention the great seminars and panels that are held during the day. All of the live showcases are free to attend as are all the short films, seminars and workshops. Register. Go. Enjoy.
“We are delighted with the quality and range of acts invited to showcase at this year’s goNORTH”, said Director for Music Shaun Arnold. “The A&R process to establish our 2013 list proved particularly challenging as we received a record number of high quality submissions. As goNORTH continues to develop, each year the music element becomes increasingly competitive. We would like to offer a huge thank you to all the acts that applied to play this year and look forward to delivering our most ambitious showcase programme to date”.
2013 SCOTTISH SHOWCASE LIST:
ALARM BELLS
ALGERNON DOLL
ARCHES
ATLAS:EMPIRE
BE LIKE PABLO
BEAR ARMS
BEHOLD THE OLD BEAR
BIRDHEAD
BLACK INTERNATIONAL
BOOK GROUP
CALL TO MIND
CAMPFIRES IN WINTER
CARNIVORES
CASUAL SEX
CLEAVERS
DAVEY HORNE
DONALD MACDONALD & THE ISLANDS
DUNCAN OVERMEER
DYLAN TIERNEY
EUGENE TWIST
FAKE MAJOR
FAT GOTH
FLUTES
FOREST FIRES
FRIENDS IN AMERICA
GALOSHINS
GARDEN OF ELKS
HECTOR BIZERK
HOMEWORK
JEMMA TWEEDIE
JO MANGO
KOBI
LIDH
LIONEL
LITTLE FIRE
MIKE NISBET
MINIATURE DINOSAURS
PINACT
PLASTIC ANIMALS
POOR THINGS
PRONTO MAMA
RED RONSON
ROMAN NOSE
SAINT MAX AND THE FANATICS
SHAMBLES MILLER
SO MANY ANIMAL CALLS
THE BOY WHO TRAPPED THE SUN
THE BROKEN RAVENS
THE DEADLINE SHAKES
THE IMAGINEERS
THE LAFONTAINES
THE MOUSE THAT ATE THE CAT
THE OK SOCIAL CLUB
THE OXIDES
THE RECOVERY
THE SEA ATLAS
THE VELVETEEN SAINTS
THE YAWNS
VASQUEZ
WILLIE CAMPBELL
WOODENBOX
The goNORTH Festival Tour:
A significant volume of acts invited to showcase will also secure additional opportunities across our Festival Tour schedule. Partners for 2013 are Wickerman Festival, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival and Loopallu. Details of acts selected to appear at these festivals will follow soon.
goNORTH have also worked with partners from the Excite network, MUSEXPO, A&R Worldwide, The Playmaker Group, The Bedford and the Welsh Music Foundation to highlight a superb range of wider UK and international artistes.
ALLIE BRADLEY (UK)
COWBOIS RHOS BOTWNNOG (WELSH MUSIC FOUNDATION)
EMMA-JANE THOMMEN (UK)
ICE CREAM CATHEDRAL (DK)
ILONA (UK)
KOF (UK)
MAASK (NL)
PROTECTION PATROL PINKERTON (BE)
SGROW (NO)
SHEZAR (UK)
TERRI WALKER (UK)
THE ENEMIES (IE)
THESE REIGNING DAYS (UK)
Full details of panels, seminars and workshops at goNORTH will be announced over the coming weeks. They will cover a range of subjects relating to music, film, publishing, fashion and broadcasting. They are all free to attend, just register online by clicking HERE
This Easter weekend Netsounds Unsigned and Mad Hatters present 3 nights of top quality acts at Mad Hatters and Hootananny in Inverness.
Our Easter Takeover starts in Mad Hatters on Friday 29th March with Highland alternative inde-rock band KOBI who are launching their debut single, ‘All The Way’. They will be joined on the night by Glasgow indie rock band Cherri Fosphate who kick started the New Year with a sell out show at Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. Completing the line up will be Glasgow energetic funk-rockers The Upbeat Beatdown.
On Saturday 30th March Glasgow rock ‘n’ roll band The Imagineersheadline Mad Hatters. As well as numerous festival appearances and critically acclaimed singles the Glasgow 4-piece also appeared on ‘The Late Late Show’ on the CBS network on American TV last year exposing them to an estimated audience of 10 million.
They are joined at the Easter Takeover by Caithness indie-pop band The Maginot Bandand Moray bandBe Like Pablowho are performing an acoustic set.
Both nights start from 10pm and are free entry with DJ sets until 3am
On Sunday 31st March the setting changes to Hootananny where the live phenomenon of Woodenbox brings this Easter extravaganza to a close. The band who have previously played T in The Park, Rockness, Belladrum and Wickerman are set to release their second album in May. Showtime on Sunday 31st March is 8pm and is also free entry.
Glasgow based So Many Animal Calls have been making waves in the UK music scene through a string of supports, tours and festival appearances which has saw them share the stage with bands such as Fatherson, Friendly Fires, Little Comets, and Biffy Clyro, to name a few.
So Many Animal Calls. Photo By Emily Wylde
Forming in early 2010, So Many Animal Calls hit the ground running, rehearsing and writing relentlessly and releasing a 3 track demo EP and their debut single, Traps, in 2012 on Overlook Records.
In the summer of 2012 they secured a slot on the Main Stage at Rockness festival where they impressed me with a now well worn band t shirt and a belter of a set that won over a new army of fans.
On the eve of their Highland date at Mad Hatters in Inverness (Saturday 16th March) we caught up with the band to find out how they have been spending their time since we last met at Rockness.
Hi guys, we’ve not see you since Rockness last year, are you all keeping well?
[Ross S] We’re all very good! We have it on good authority that Ross Coll is only just recovering from his Rockness mini Whisky induced hangover.
Tell us how did So Many Animal Calls come to be?
[Ross S] So Many Animal Calls basically started as an experiment to marry a member of 3 different dead/dying bands together. The plan was to spend one week writing and recording an EP at home, we spent most of this time completely revamping the ideas that we originally had into these abrasive pop songs and it all kind of started from there. Along the way, we recruited Ross Coll into the band to play bass and thicken out the sound which allowed us to fully realise the level of technicality and detail we wanted to put into the structure and sound of our music.
Sean from So Many Animal Calls at Rockness
So Many Animal Calls and THAT t shirt
So Many Animal Calls .Photo By Emily Wylde
You describe yourselves as Failpop, who came up with that one and what’s it about?
[Sean] It came about after a few rehearsals as a three piece. As soon as we introduced drums into the equation the songs just became a lot louder, a lot more driven than the demos Ross and I had recorded. I guess it just stemmed from the fact that we’d set out to write pop songs ala The Cure during their Wish era and they’d came out a lot more brash. We’re glad that happened though.
What have you been doing since last summer? [Sean] We’ve played a sold out show in London, recorded a single (She Was Speaking From The Bottom Of The Sea), played around Scotland, cried and cancelled shows due to shingles, said goodbye to the faithful Ford Ka that ferried us around Scotland, welcomed a Volvo to do the same job, recorded another single and played to a busy King Tuts. That interspersed with writing has kept us content.
You’ve recorded 2 singles now, when can we expect that much anticipated EP to drop? [Sean] It SHOULD be later this year. It’s really just an issue of taking our time with it to make sure it’s a strong set of songs that we’re all proud of. I think we have enough written for an EP just now but it’s whether the songs make sense as a collection and whether we think they’re good enough or not. I’m quite harsh when it comes to writing songs and constantly scrap and re-arrange things. Let’s set the date as 2016 and then when it comes out earlier we’ll seem punctual Smanimals.
What can we expect from the new songs and what influenced them?
[Ross S] We’ve purposely taken our time putting this EP together, it’s been a pretty painful process of being extremely self critical and probably over analysing everything but I think it’s worked out quite well and we have a good set of songs that we feel represents us quite well where we are at the moment. We’re just writing and writing to find the right balance.
What are your plans for world domination or even just for the rest of 2013?
[Ross S] We got a nice taste for festivals last year when we got to play Rockness, so some festival appearances would be quite ideal! Other than that, we’re really pushing to get this EP finished and out, it’s pretty much our main priority right now.
Without using the word failpop pick 2 words that best describe So Many Animal Call right now? [Sean] Weakerthan Antlers. Or Barbacoa Burrito
Thanks guys, what’s everyone drinking? [Sean] Currently, a de-caffeinated coffee. It’s 10.47 at night, it would be madness to be drinking anything else.
So Many Animal Calls play Mad Hatters, Inverness on Saturday 16th March and more dates to be announced soon.
