Kowalskiy's Free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP #12

And so the first year of free EPs comes to an end!  It's a few days later than planned thanks to my wee jaunt to a place far, far away, but fingers crossed you'll agree it's well worth the wait.  Before we hear from the five bands appearing on KEP#12, I'd like to thank them, and all the other bands who've been amazing enough to give little ol' me one of their tracks during this past year.  Soppy bit over, here goes...

1. Andrew Lindsay & the Coat Hooks - Porcelain (A wee, gorgeous, accapella cover of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication track.)

"Matthew, Jack and I recorded this oft-overlooked Red Hot Chili Peppers song, late at night, on June 13th, 2011. Both delicate and warm, the original is a personal favourite of mine; positioned smack-bang in the centre of the band's 1999 phoenix, Californication.

Vocalist Anthony Kiedis spoke of the song in his autobiography, Scar Tissue, stating, "I had met a young mother at a meeting. She was living in a YWCA with her baby girl, trying to get sober but failing miserably. The beauty and sadness and tragedy and glory, all wrapped into one, of this mother/daughter relationship, was evoked by the vibe of that [ultra-sparse] music.

The general ambiance lurking in the background was provided by some generous smokers outside Matthew's window." - Andrew Lindsay

On this recording the Coat Hooks are:
Matthew Healy and Jack McKay Fletcher

2. Innocents Civilian - Break Me Down (We heard the demo of this last year.  Now here's the outstanding, fully mastered version.  It will blow your socks off!)

"Well the track started out as a piano instrumental and somehow lent itself perfectly to the lyrics so we decided to make a song from it. It's kind of about about being in denial with yourself but written from the opposite point of view. After months of learning the whole technical side of producing music we feel we've struck the perfect balance between synthesized elements and organic instruments, all be it heavily side-chained guitars and hopefully it's enough for you to cut some shapes to! We'll be playing Maggie Mays on the 30th of June and the Dundee Doghouse on the 21st of July if you fancy hearing it played live." - Gary Dillon (Innocents Civilian)

3. The Tea Offensive - To The Disco (A lovely wee demo from this exciting new Hamiltonian pop rock pleasure outlet!)

"To the Disco was the first track penned by us and to us it symbolises our whole approach to writing and the music scene. Upbeat, tounge in cheek and danceable, it remains a favourite in our live sets for both us and fans. The tune was recorded by the brilliant Dominic Troup at The Silence Machine studio in Glasgow (http://www.thesilencemachine.com/)" - The Tea Offensive

4. Le Reno Amps - Had It Enough (An exclusive track from the mighty Le Reno Amps' upcoming EP)

"Had It Enough' is the bastard child of two old demos that LRA have had in the trunk for a few years. It's about blind devotion to a spouse despite their infidelity, "swinging from your pearl-trapeze to your other lover's bed". It's written from the woman's perspective, she's invested too much to do what she knows is the healthy thing and get the fuck out of there so resigns to a life of ignorance and vices, all the while telling herself, but never telling her spouse, that she will leave, one day. She won't.

We recorded the song during sessions for our recent album, Appetite, this particular one started when we laid the drums down in the now defunct Parklane studios in the southside of Glasgow in 2007, we did most of the tracking after that at The Music Box in Edinburgh last year. Our good friend Greg Barnes plays a nice, subtle Rhodes piano on it too. After all that it didn't seem to sit in the tracklisting for Appetite, like a few other tracks, so we put these wee orphans together as an EP. It's called Construction and it'll be in all those digital shoppies (via Armellodie Records) on Monday 11th July.

Appetite is available now in all good shops and lerenoamps.bandcamp.com/album/appetite" - Al Nero (Le Reno Amps)

5. The Black Hand Gang - Bricks and Mortar (We'll round off this year with a cracker!)

"Bricks is a track we wrote that kind of sums up our feeling's on the pressures faced by most folk in these hard times of tory leadership, the need to spend what we don't have, and for the lenders to lend to people that can't afford to repay while the music is both defiant and uplifting." - Steve Redmond (The Black Hand Gang)

The EP is now up for free download over on my bandcamp page, along with the rest of this first years' EPs.  Get downloading!

Normal service resumes on July 16^th as I kick off Year 2 with more of the same!  If you fancy designing the cover art,  get your entries in before noon on the 15^th of July.  Same requirements as before... square and at least 350px wide.  And as always, if any bands out there who fancy making my life that wee bit easier and want to volunteer a track for one of these EPs, then send me a wee email too.  Enjoy!

...Andrew Lindsay & the Coat Hooks!

It's fair to say, Andrew Lindsay & the Coat Hooks are one of the hairiest bands in Scotland... certainly giving Biffy Clyro a run for their money anyway.  That's pretty much where the similarities end though.  After a few solo EPs, Andrew (second in from the right) has enlisted the help of some of his übertalented, musical friends for this latest release, The Whittling EP, which was released on Monday over here.  Over to the man himself to tell you a wee bit more...

Kowalskiy:  Who are Andrew Lindsay & the Coat Hooks?
Andrew:  Andrew Lindsay & the Coat Hooks is myself, alongside whoever is recording or performing with me at any given time. When I started writing what would become our debut EP, The Whittling, I knew that I wanted a full band to fill the songs with harmonious beef. One by one, I called upon my musical allies to join me in the studio and add their two cents.
The Coat Hooks that recorded The Whittling include: Loch Awe's Matthew Healy; pianist Lewis Buchan; producer and bassist David Anderson; my curly brother and frequent gigging companion Shambles Miller; pop chanteuse Reverieme; two members of my former band Guessing Game, Neil Campbell and Craig McKenzie; and my good friend David Hunter.
I guess the overall structure of the Coat Hooks treads a similar path to bands like Queens of the Stone Age and The Mars Volta, where, as long as I remain the constant, the rest of the band can become fluid around me.

(the pick of the bunch!)

Kowalskiy:  How would you describe 'your sound'?

Andrew:  I'd say we're a kind of brazen indie-rock-folk hybrid. What's been interesting lately is hearing how the revolving nature of the band has changed how the songs sound live. Our last couple of gigs have been performed as a three-piece, with Jamie Hewitt (bass) and Florence MacDonald (various instruments) joining the fray. Florence has added bodhrán, melodica and a ton of additional harmonies to the songs. It's like dressing them in different clothes!

Kowalskiy:  What can we expect from you in the future?  Plug away!

Andrew:  Our aforementioned EP, The Whittling, is out on March 21st, on a new Edinburgh-based label called After the Hush, and I'm sure we'll be playing about quite a bit.

I'd also like to record another Coat Hooks EP at some point later in the year, as I've got a stockpile of songs ready to go, and I get itchy feet.  I'm going to be recording a joint solo EP with my fellow Coat Hook and Loch Awe axe-man Matthew Healy during the summer, too. Judging from the material he's played me so far, it should be pretty solid.

The Whittling EP is out now over here, where you can also get your free download of one of the songs, the aptly-named Bearded Author.  It's a great EP.  Then again, what do you expect when some of Scotland's finest folkies all get together!  It "comes in a lovely digipack, with free badges, a wee note, and a download of the EP's acoustic pre-production demos".  So, if you ask me, it's well worth digging into the back pocket for.