Quick Before it Melts

Wednesday 07 January 2009

It’s my own cheating heart that makes me cry

Sometimes blogging seems like such a futile exercise.  There just doesn’t seem to be enough days in the year to cover everything worth mentioning, and then things fall through the cracks and you “forget” them.  Yesterday I went back to find/talk about Fleet Foxes, and today it’s a jaunt back to the summer, just before Glasgow’s Glasvegas released their self-titled debut album.  It wasn’t until Sunday night, when I read Frank’s post about their cover of “Be My Baby” over at Chromewaves that I realized I never gave them a mention here.  Then, on Monday, I was listening to the Hype Machine’s 2008 Music Blog Zeitgeist podcast on Blog Fresh Radio, and there’s Frank again talking about Glasvegas which came in at number 48 on their list of 50 best albums of 2008.  So if that’s not enough incentive to give them a proper QBiM post, then I don’t know what it.

James Allan (vocalist and rhythm guitar) has the coolest Scottish singing voice since The Proclaimers (who turned out to be not so cool after all) and it lends his lyrics a heartfelt truth and poignancy to them.  That’s a good thing, because as Frank points out in the podcast, some of his lyrics are just about the daftest thing you ever heard.  It all works though; he sings of the the troubled life on Glasgow’s streets with common language that sounds gruff and direct, yet utterly poetic.  “Stabbed” has often been cited for it’s utter horrifying premise (“I’m gonna get stabbed” goes the refrain) set against a Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.  Elsewhere, it’s all about classic pop elements being recycled and reissued as gritty, garage rock that shares just as much in common with The Jesus & Mary Chain as it does do-wop records of the 50s.

The band is rounded out by Rab Allan on lead guitar, (he’s James’ cousin), Paul Donoghue on bass guitar, and Caroline McKay on drums.  They recently released a Christmas EP entitled A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like A Kiss), and have been touring relentlessly in Europe and the UK.  They’ve just started their North American invasion this week, and would be well worth checking out if you have the means.

MP3: Glasvegas “It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry”
Video: Glasvegas “Geraldine”
Myspace: Glasvegas

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by J. Di Gioia | 2 Comments »

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