Category: Music

  • “A zodiac only I know”

    The third track from our new EP is called Zodiak. Our bassist Kenny already had the title and most of the tune when I first met him. I don’t think he had the Zodiac Killer in mind at the time, but with that title the song couldn’t have been about anything else. HAVR · Zodiak…

  • “If you’re not angry you have not been tuning in”

    (Today is fee-free Friday on Bandcamp. If you buy our new EP there, or if you buy anyone else’s music, 100% of the sale price goes to the artist today. If you’re short of cash, all our music is pay-as-you-want – so you can have all of it for free. We want your ears, not…

  • “I am pills, injection sites”

    Time for some new music. This is the first song from our brand new Messengers EP, and it’s called Animal. I hope you love it as much as we do. HAVR · Animal

  • Everyone is awful

    Seven years ago, I wrote about my love for New Model Army, a post-punk band from England. I got into New Model Army in Kilbirnie Library, in the late 1980s. I was going through a bit of a punk/new wave thing at the time, and the library’s collection of vinyl LPs included one whose cover…

  • Trying to walk like a man

    It took me a very long time to realise how good Bruce Springsteen is: like many people, I misinterpreted Born in the USA as a tub-thumping, chest-beating, USA! USA! USA! anthem and didn’t investigate further. I’m a lot older and a little bit wiser now, and while I wouldn’t call myself a fan – I…

  • “How private equity drained the record industry”

    As a rule of thumb, when a famous company goes under it’s usually because private equity firms bought it, hollowed it out and loaded it with so much debt that even a relatively small drop in demand made it unsustainable. As David Turner writes, private equity has had a huge influence on the music business…

  • Glasgow is going to lose another historic building

    To paraphrase The Onion: I can’t believe this is happening in the only city where this regularly happens. Glasgow is set to lose another iconic building, the ABC in Sauchiehall Street. The music venue – one of my very favourite places – was badly damaged by the second Art School fire and has effectively been…

  • It’s Not The End of the World (But You Can See It From Here)

    My band has released a new song, and a video to go with it. It’s Not The End of the World (But You Can See It From Here) is a lockdown song, and while there’s plenty of bile in there it’s also hopeful: after all, it’s not the end of the world. The song will…

  • Useful, free apps for music and video

    [The deals listed here are long gone but the recommendations are still good] I get quite annoyed by social media posts urging us all to be productive and/or learn new skills during THE END OF THE BLOODY WORLD but I also get really bored when I’m stuck at home and I find messing around with…

  • Bright SPARKs

    I’ve become a little bit obsessed by the marketing for Positive Grid’s SPARK, a very clever guitar amplifier. In recent weeks I’ve been seeing a lot of videos like the one pictured below, in which really amazing women guitarists test the amp. I’m not used to seeing women in marketing for musical stuff, which tends…