Radar weekly: Help on hand for bands with SXSW ambitions

By NICK MITCHELL
Published on 27/08/2012 12:00

In this week’s Scottish music round-up: A special panel briefing takes place this week to offer advice on attending music industry events like SXSW; new music from Cancel the Astronauts; plus this week’s gig guide.

• Every year Scotland sends a selection of bands to South by South West, the sprawling creative industries congress in Austin, Texas. Playing shows in front of bookers, label executives, journalists and bloggers obviously has its advantages, but it can be a costly and challenging undertaking for a young, unsigned band.

With this in mind, the Scottish Music Industry Association has organised a briefing session for any musicians considering SXSW next year - or indeed any similar networking conference.

The event blurb promises: “This briefing session will explore what is involved in successfully showcasing at the SXSW music festival or at MIDEM and also outline to Scottish music companies and delegates why they may wish to attend these events in order to grow their businesses.

“You’ll hear about the events themselves from festival staff; about showcasing and music trade missions in general; about why and when you should consider going; about the support that exists to assist people in attending these kind of events; details on how to go about applying; when a good time to apply and to go is; the costs involved with such events and you’ll get information from Scottish artists and managers who have successfully showcased at these kind of events in the past.”

The session takes place at The Arches in Glasgow on Tuesday evening, from 7.30pm. More info.

• The Cribs have been announced as the headline act at this year’s Haddow Fest, which takes over seven venues in Edinburgh on Sunday 28th October. More info at haddowfest.co.uk

• The Musicians’ Union is asking anyone who makes all or part of their income from music to respond to their survey which “will identify working patterns and income trends for musicians today and could help to shape positive policy change for a fairer UK music industry”. You can enter your own response online.

NEW MUSIC

• Cancel the Astronauts are a band we’ve been talking about for a long time, and they got in touch with us last week to share the news about their new album Animal Love Match. While it’s not out until September 17, the Edinburgh group are streaming it on SoundCloud already, and have promised free “goodies” to all who pre-order it. They have also made the song Making Dynamite available as a free download. It’s well worth a listen.

• Glasgow band The Deadline Shakes have uploaded their debut release on SoundCloud. It will be given the official release treatment by Flowers In The Dustbin records on November 5. They play a show this Friday at The 13th Note in Glasgow.

• Last week we mentioned the release of the new Unwinding Hours album and now you can watch the video to the track Wayward.

• Edinburgh-based rapper Werd has a new video for his track ‘S.O.S’ which is taken from ‘Untitled Scot’.

• Glasgow band Rollor have a new album - titled ‘Beasts In Men Shapes’ - which is free to download at www.rollor.bandcamp.com or £3 for a limited jelly green cassette.

• The Mouse That Ate The Cat are offering their song Going Away (featuring Kerr Okan) as a free download if you subscribe to their mailing list.

THIS WEEK’S GIG PICKS

WEDNESDAY: CIRCA’s festival residency at the Electric Circus in Edinburgh concludes with live music from Three Blind Wolves and Carnivores, as well as a DJ set from We Were Promised Jetpacks. More info.

FRIDAY: Neu Reekie! wraps up the Edinburgh Festival at the Scottish Book Trust with another stellar night of music and words. Poet Tom Leonard will be joined on spoken word duties by Tim Wells, Paul Hullah, while the music comes from Kid Canaveral and Teen Canteen.

SATURDAY: Withered Hand, Conquering Animal Sound, Small Feet Little Toes, Quickbeam and End of Neil are in Stirling to play the closing party for the Freedom Versions v1 exhibition in the Old Town Jail.

SUNDAY: Emma Pollock and RM Hubbert are hitting the road together in September. They play Edinburgh’s Electric Circus with support from Finn LeMarinel.

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