Avalanche to close 6th January 2013

Record shop Avalanche has announced it will close its Grassmarket store on the 6th of January 2013.

Beloved by musos the world over but suffering the same economic erosion many small businesses have seen in the last couple of years Avalanche have said the shop will be forced to take the needle off the record, fade the house lights and close its front doors.

There are just a few weeks lefts before Avalanche will be compelled to shut up shop.

Avalanche said in a statement: “I hope that by then there will be a plan but at worst I will simply close the shop and concentrate on expanding our online presence and pursuing other opportunities.”

Social Media has already begun to rally support for the shop with posts on Facebook with a post by a member of the Second Hand Marching Band:

“Dear Musical Community. What are we going to do about Avalanche Records? As one of the finest record shops in Scotland, we can’t sit down and let it disappear. I know this is coming late, possibly even too late to make a real difference, but I know Kevin would welcome any ideas. Anyone up for a wee multi-band Christmas fundraiser to cover the ‘catch-up’ (rent, rates, tax, record company bills etc) costs?”

Avalanche is where many of us bought our first albums, it’s where we go to get recommendations from people who love and know music, and perhaps most importantly it’s where we go to hear great Scottish music.

“As many will have heard me say more than once selling an album to fans is the easy bit. Selling it to those who don’t know the album or artist is far harder and often time consuming…” READ THE FULL STATEMENT HERE

Halloween! in the house…and the streets and your dreams…

So on this fine Halloween weekend I bring to you dear reader, an evil-themed playlist for your detestable, destructive, damned delectation…

Spotify baby, its where its at.

But if you don’t have it supplied below is a listing of said sadistic tunage so you may fetch up the fresh corpse noises yourself, without decent music, Halloween would be very grave indeed…

Rocket from the crypt – On a Rope

Idlewild – Actually its darkness

Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with butterfly wings

Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight Tonight

Radiohead – Creep

Danny Elfman – Beetlejuice

Death in Vegas – Aisha

Insane Clown Posse – Zombie Slide

Dusty Springfield – Spooky

Orchestra – Ave Satani (Omen Theme)

Rodrigo y Grabriella – Oogie Boogie’s Song

PJ Harvey – Long Snake Moan

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Red Right Hand

The Cramps – I was a teenage werewolf

Outkast feat. Kelis – Dracula’s Wedding

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Red Eyes and Tears

Basement Jaxx – Where’s your head at?

Electric Six – Danger! High Voltage

Gorillaz – Dracula

Interpol – Evil

Super Furry Animals – It’s not the end of the world?

REM – It’s the end of the world as we know it

Mitch Ryder – Devil in a Blue Dress

Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the devil

The Sheltons – Devil went down to Georgia

Pantera – Cowboys from hell

Johnny Cash – Hurt

Evil Nine – They Live!

The Specials – Ghost Town

The Eighties Match box B- line disaster – Mister Mental

The Eighties Match box B- line disaster – I could be an angle

The Eighties Match box B- line disaster – Rise of the eagles

The Eels – Your Lucky day in hell

Sucioperro – Hate Filters

Crystal Castles – Celestica

Super Furry Animals – God! Show me magic

Divine Comedy – Something for the weekend

Bloc Party – Hunting for witches

Pulled Apart by Horses – Get off my ghost train

The Raveonettes – Dead Sound

Spinnerette – All babes are wolves

Spinnerette – The walking dead

The Black Keys – Sinister Kid

Queens of the Stonage – Hanging Tree

Queens of the Stonage – Monsters in the Parasol

The Constellations feat. Cee Lo Green – Love is a murder

The Heavy – Cause for alarm

The Heavy – The House that dirt built

Basement Jaxx – Yo Yo

 

So that’s it (so far at least) my Halloween playlist, go be merry, be horrible, enjoy the festive darkness…

Your Humble Headless Hellagood Editor xx

 

 

 

News Bites August

Yum Yum, chow down on these barbecued summer news bites! pass me the reggae reggae sauce, that stuff’s like catnip!

Print makes a return

Happy to report Blues and Soul Magazine is returning to shop shelves.

News Stand photo by Sean Loyless

The specialist mag had a healthy circulation for more than 40 years before stopping printing in 2007 and becoming an online only format.

Marking the Blues and Soul’s presence at Vintage at Goodwood festival this year the new edition will be out for August 13th.

The issue will include interviews with Stevie Wonder and the Four Tops and Neyo and introduce new columnists Sharon David and Snowboy.

Editor Lee Tyler says the plan is to keep producing print copies regularly but whether it’ll be quarterly or monthly will depend on its success after the festival but the pre-order sales are high and the buzz is positive.

Listeners up for BBC 6

Marc Riley at BBC 6 with The Yummy Fur photo by Stephen Robinson

Audience numbers are on the rise for the digital music station BBC 6.

After a tough battle of internet petitions, live protests and facebook groups to save the station from being axed under budget constraints, BBC 6 was taken off the cut list and allowed to continue broadcasting for the time being, pending further reviews in the future.

The increase in listeners comes as good news for the station’s supporters.

Numbers have risen to 1.19m in the second quarter of 2010 – double the amount  it had 12 months ago.

Elsewhere Myspace fumbles

Not looking so good is Rupert Murdoch owned music and social networking site, myspace.

News Corp, the parent company of myspace has blamed lowered advertising revenues for a significant rise in operating losses.

Murdoch’s denying the service is in trouble and will fold or be sold soon, instead an overhaul is planned to try and stem the fall.

Radiohead fans told to stop sharing album

Fans have been posting sections of the Radiohead album In Rainbows on blogs and websites for free.

Now the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) are targeting sites which provide the songs for free.

Bloggers are being sent letters demanding them to take the songs down.

When In Rainbows was first released in 2007, fans were asked to pay whatever they liked for the album between October and December of that year.

The album went on to sell 1.75 million CD copies.

Wyclef Jean for President!

Hip hop, reggae and R&B musician Wyclef Jean has announced his official bid for Haitian presidency.

The former Fuggees star was born in Croix-des-Bouquets just 8 miles from Port Au Prince and raised in Brooklyn.

Jean has been an active campaigner helping to rebuild the communities of Haiti after the island suffered devastating earthquakes early this year.

Video from CBS of Jean Giving Aid in Haiti, January 2010.

Short and Sweet

Michty me! its been a while eh folks? indeed it has, too long old friends I will be returning to your screens this very eve with some new articles so keep those eyes peeled from about midnight for new stuff.

I’ve been otherwise engaged the last two months with that pesky education of mine but now I’ve managed to team it up with Hellagood, mwa hahaha! so expect me to back to my usual prolific self from the week on – it’ll be articles, articles, articles!

August will be the big TWO for Hellagood – its our birthday hurrah! watch out now… we’re into the terrible two’s…..

thanks so much for everyone who has visited us in the last 24 months, you make it all worthwhile and me a little weepy.

‘Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it’

much love

Hella Ed xxxx

Stalled

Yes so, my grand plans of Glasgow reviews was stalled, I broke my leg. A lot. Well in two places. So not that much.

Anyway as such I’ve not started the grand project due to having to take care of all the other aspects of my life – but IT BEGINS TODAY.

Watch this space, I’m away to find some bands to review. Or comment and let me know to review YOU, and I will.

Cheers Hella Ed xxx

February and March News

Welcome to February and March, 2010 part two: Death drives a stick.

Lousy Smarch weather…

'your best years are behind you pal'

A lot in the news about single sales ‘soaring’ because of mp3 player Christmas presents and the Rage Vs some kid from X factor we’ll never hear of again war for the number one spot. People are downloading tune after Christmas instead of buying physical copies before because they want to put them on their i-pod rather than give them as gifts. Kind of missing the days where you might have lovingly bought a friend a single of something for Christmas, now if a gift doesn’t have a minimum gb storage it just isn’t Christmas… I can fit 2000 movies into into these digital socks!

Glasgow/Ayr Scot  rockers Zetas Empire have FINALLY released something!! on Bandcamp. Their eponymous EP features 4 tracks – ‘Live by the Landslide’, ‘Apocalypse Afterparty’, ‘Butterfly with a Bomb’ and ‘My Oh Me’ – Get it HERE

Liverpool is getting ready to celebrate John Lennon in a 2 month cultural program running from October this year. See whats on in the city HERE

BBC 6 Music and the Asian Network have been threatened with closure, I urge you all to sign the petitions, join the social network groups and all of that to save them. As of today the facebook group has 167,361 members.

This may be a time where the public can over ride a budget decision to keep what they want going. The BBC has been under political pressure and financial pressure to tighten up but its not a time to blame the management and bean counters, its a time to stand up to bullying politicians, Rupert Murdoch – anytime is a good time to stand up to that guy – and remind everyone that the BBC is a public service for the public! No its not always perfect and no you might not love all of the radio station contents but the effect of having a free and usually unbiased news and entertainment service is what makes all the other media providers keep their standards up and sets a bar for quality and invention. The BBC is bigger and more embedded than many realise. A lot of effort and training goes into making a show, any kind of show, a lot of people work  in the media, its a lot of jobs to go if sections keep getting axed.

You can affect this decision and if you choose to do something or not because you care or you don’t – remember that its good to live in a country where you can actually do something and change things.

Rock stars new drug of choice, no not meth – starbucks (I always knew it was evil).   Dave Grohl ended up in hospital for drinking too much coffee. Seriously. Known to be a very hard working musician Grohl started to get chest pains after overdosing on coffee, sleeping a couple of hours a night and recording material for two different bands. Them Crooked Vultures posted this video as a bit of a laugh – but its factually accurate…

What happened in Feb – does anyone care it was so long ago….

Yes.

Edinburgh company Hillside  won the commission to represent the Scottish music stage at South By South West festival – check Business7 scoop on it

Rumour had it EMI was thinking about selling the legendary Abbey Road Studios in Feb to beat off that recession we keep hearing about. A few celebs tied to buy it (including a bid from Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber- thank goodness it was turned down, can you imagine?!) and the circling vulturous world of realtors tried to make it into luxury apartments – which would be kind of appropriate given that the building started its life a luxury Georgian home – however music fans probably not so keen. Then stepped in the National Trust, so I heard, trying to keep turn it into a museum. Latest was that its now a protected building as the Government have declared it a Grade 2 listed building.

Carly Simon asked fans to make her a  video for ‘you’re so vain’ 38 years after its release – watch out for the winning entry in April at the New York Tribeca Film Festival.

Morrissey, Mos Def and Rodrigo y Gabriela contributed songs to the Latino census campaign. http://www.votolatino.org/becounted/