Radar Weekly: Monoganon | SAMA winners

Monoganon signs to Fence

The Fence Records family keeps on growing. After the recent news that the Fife label is releasing the debut album by Edinburgh’s eagleowl, news reached us this week that Monoganon, who Radar featured in 2011, are following suit. The mostly Glasgow-based group, led from Sweden by singer-songwriter and guitarist John B McKenna.

Monoganon are set to release a new album, titled F A M I L Y, on Fence Records in the Autumn, and in the meantime they will perform at the label’s own Gnomegame festival in Anstruther (April 6-7), at the Oran Mor in Glasgow as part of the West End Festival (June 9) and alongside Fence boss The Pictish Trail at the Liquid Room in Edinburgh (August 24).

Watch the video to Quick Crescent Moon, the opening track from F A M I L Y, as well as an interview with McKenna.

SAMAs winners revealed

The winners of this year’s Scottish Alternative Music Awards (SAMAs) were revealed at a ceremony at the Garage in Glasgow on Friday night. After more than 22,000 public votes were registered, the results were as follows:

Best Rock Alternative sponsored by EmuBands: Culann

Best Metal sponsored by The Cathouse Glasgow: Bear Arms

Best Live Act sponsored by Bar Bloc: The Ok Social Club

Best Hip Hop sponsored by Splitter Scotland: Gasp

Best Newcomer sponsored by The Academy Of Music & Sound: The Holy Ghosts

Best Acoustic sponsored by Jeremiah Weed: Little Fire

Best Electronic sponsored by Red Dog Music: Plum

Marginal art brought together on the Outskirts

A festival with a difference comes to Glasgow next month in the shape of Outskirts. Music, performance and art, united by dint of the fact that they all “sit on the boundaries of their form”, is the order of the day at Platform, an innovative venue that itself lies on the outer margins of the city.

Confirmed for the event on Saturday, April 20 (3.30pm – 11pm) are: A Hawk and a Hacksaw (music), The Crying Lion (music), Florence To (live visual installation), Frisk Frugt (music), Sonata for a Man and a Boy (performance), Jaap Blonk is Dr Voxoid (extended voice and live electronics), Made by Me (installation / performance), Poster Club (visual art), Rob Newman (reading), Ryan van Winkle (poetry) and Xana Marwick – You Suffer But Why (one to one performance).

More information is available on Facebook

• The Big Beach Ball returns to Aberdeen’s Beach Ballroom on May 5, and among the names confirmed this year are: We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Xcerts, The Little Kicks, Miaoux Miaoux, Randolph’s Leap, Three Blind Wolves and more. Tickets priced at £25 are on sale now.

• In case you missed some festival announcements last week: Amy Macdonald, KT Tunstall, Dexys and more names were added to Wickerman, while Snoop Dogg joins the T in the Park bill.

New music

• Glasgow producer Giant Fang (real name Douglas Wilson) is releasing his debut single Kingdom this week as a free download. Produced by Jamie Savage (The Phantom Band, Errors) and mastered by Guy Davie (Four Tet, Plan B, Wild Beasts), it’s a further boost to his one-to-watch credentials after the excellent Aqualung dropped in January.

• Ayrshire band The Darien Venture release their EP A Kite, A Key and A Storm on Overlook Records this week. The seven tracks were recorded over the course of a year with Bruce Rintoul, and now the band are ready to hit the road again: “If anything, we’ve taken the whole experience as a positive, we appreciate the recording we have now and are excited about what we can do with it. We’re looking forward to piling in a transit again and taking it round the country as much as possible over the next year.”

• Another Glasgow band to have featured regularly on Radar over the past few years is Woodenbox. Now signed to Olive Grove Records, the four-piece release their second album End Game on May 27, but that is preceded by official single Courage on April 22 and a free download, Roll For Me, on March 18. Watch the video for new song Asphyxiation.

• The ripples of buzz generated by Glasgow’s own CHVRCHES keep spreading, and now they’ve even reached the shores of the classical music world. The Cairn Quartet provide their remarkably faithful interpretation of the track The Mother We Share in this video

Gig picks

Rick Redbeard

Tuesday @ Electric Circus, Edinburgh, 7pm, £7

Friday @ Peacocks, Aberdeen, 8pm, £6 + bf adv / £8 on door

Sunday @ CCA, Glasgow, 7.30pm, £9

Scott Walker at 70 (Casual Sex, Tut Vu Vu, John McFarlane, Clare Simpson)

Thursday @ Mono, Glasgow, 7pm, £4

Ulrich Schnauss

Saturday @ Nice n Sleazy, Glasgow, 8pm

Sunday @ Electric Circus, Edinburgh, 7pm

Kid Canaveral + Man Without Machines

Saturday @ Beat Generator Live, Dundee, 7.30pm, £6

Nina Nesbitt

Saturday @ The Liquid Room, Edinburgh

Woodenbox + Marionettes +His Name Is Codeine

Saturday @ The Tunnels, Aberdeen, 7.30pm

Divorce + Rungs + Halfrican

Sunday @ Nice n Sleazy, Glasgow, 8pm, £5

Eels

Monday @ O2 Academy, Glasgow, 7pm, £23.50

Find more gigs on our events website WOW247.co.uk

Radar Weekly: Monoganon | SAMA winners | This week’s gigs