Dirty Keys - The End And The Exit

First, let me just qualify this post by saying it's not strictly a review.  My reviews take time, months sometimes.  I know, to read them you'd think... "really!?".  Anyway, this is me simply saying that as of this morning, the debut album from one of my favourite Glasgow bands, Dirty Keys is now out.   Demos from The End And The Exit started appearing online a while back prompting me to go a bit mad with the tweets and SoundCloud favouriting.  All well worth it though.

Here's a couple of the the many highlights on the album, starting off with my my own personal favourite The Exit.

How can those tinkling ivories not tickle your fancy?  It's difficult not to think of Dave Gillies, the piano-pop maestro behind Dirty Keys, as a Scottish Ben Folds.  That's high praise in my book.  Here's one last one before I get back to some proper work.  

You can download The End And The Exit now over on Dirty Keys' Bandcamp page.  Off you go!

Coastal Skid Spy Wok v13.0

In a chance to the scheduled notcast, you've got me again to babble my way through my new favourites on SoundCloud.  Next Sunday though, once the GoNess/RockNorth musical happenings are out of the way, we'll have that special guest notcaster.  Still, there's plenty of great tracks here to keep you entertained.  First up, a new track (with the longest, most-hyphenated title imaginable) from those lads in The Beautiful Lies recorded specially for Scottish Fiction. 

   The Pale King (The Ever-Declining Returns Of The Never-Ending Youth) by The Beautiful Lies

How's that to kick things off?!  Let's follow that up with a track from one of my favourite EPs of the year so far.   Will there be a more fun release this year than the debut from Edinburgh's Toy Machene?  Is that sentence even grammatically good?  Don't know, don't care.  Here's their eponymous tale of unrequited, possibly cougar-related, love.

   Toy Machine by Toy Machene

Right, here's another question... is there a better indie label in our fair land than Armellodie?  The answer is... maybe, possibly yes.  But if that is the case, our paths have not crossed yet.  With a series of gigs on the horizon, they'll be all like 'in your face' in the coming months.  Here's one of their finest rosterees with one of their finest tracks.

   This One's Not Waiting by Le Reno Amps (courtesy of Armellodie)

It's all been quite rocky so far.  So here's a wee breather for you.

   Tiger by Bronto Skylift

All relaxed?  Good stuff.  Here's the next one from Dirty Keys.  It's an unmastered version of one of the tracks from their upcoming album The End And The Exit.  I've heard it and it's gonna knock your socks off.  With any luck, there'll be more on that in due course!

   Urban Adventure Land (unmastered) by Dirty Keys

Penultimate one then.  Great to have some new material from Edinburgh School For The Deaf.  God help those little blighters, cos this is a delight to the ears.  I have absolutely no idea what she's saying though... 

   La Nostalgie De La Boue (demo) by Edinburgh School For The Deaf

And so, we come to the end.  Hope you've enjoyed this week's tracks.  Next week we will have that guest notcaster.  My lips are sealed as to who it shall be though.  Changing the subject quickly... here's one of Campfires In Winter's brilliant new tracks.  Enjoy!

   Twelve Thousand Drops by Campfires In Winter

Coastal Skid Spy Wok v3.0

Onto my third notcast now and I must say, I love putting them together. There's far too much great music on SoundCloud not to. So, if you enjoy listening/reading half as much as I have making it, then I'd be pretty chuffed! For anyone still wondering what this is all about... basically, I'm not a huge fan of podcasts. That's it in a nutshell really. So here's my minorly-tweaked alternative. Anyhoo, enough of this prattle, let's get cracking!

As always, I'll start off with the KAK... Kowalskiy's Apology Korner to me and you, where I get on my hands and knees and say sorry to a band I've shamefully neglected in recent weeks. This week, it's Glasgow D.I.Y.-pop-multiplets The Plimptons who are about to release their latest album ...Are Cynical And Bloated. "Is it any good?" you say. Why yes, yes it is. And to prove my point, here's the titular track which is rather unsurprisingly also called Cynical and Bloated.

   Cynical and Bloated by The Plimptons

And you can of course buy said latest album from here... when it comes out on the 31^st obviously. From one band with an album due soon to another (that's as smooth a link as you're likely to get around here). Well, there's demos being uploaded at various stages of readiness anyway. The band is the lovely Dirty Keys. There's something of a piano-pop revival going on these days which I have to say I'm loving! Sadly Keane, that doesn't mean you should hit the studios. This is more what I'm talking about...

The Exit (demo) by Dirty Keys

No doubt we'll be hearing a lot more from them later on in the year, just like those responsible for track three of this week's notcast... Behold, the Old Bear. Formed by Raindeer from the ashes of the sadly-defunct-now-not-sadly-returned mitchell museum, this is a new demo that surfaced a few weeks ago. If mm hadn't returned, BtOB would have certainly softened the blow and helped fill the odd-pop void. As it stands though, we now have both of them. This makes me happy. Very happy indeed!

Home Space V1 by Behold, the Old Bear

At the start of the year, I may have mentioned that one of my most anticipated releases this year is the debut album by Laurence & the Slab Boys. Well, I say "most anticipated"... I actually have the album, so I'm talking shite. What I guess I mean is, I can't wait for it to come out so you can all have a listen, and agree with me that it is really rather phenomenal! The album's called Lo-fi Disgrace. I've no idea when it'll be out, where, what format, or who by, but mark my words... it'll be worth the wait.

Space Dream #2 by Laurence & the Slab Boys

Two more to go then it's football time! It's been a wee while since I raved about Ayrshire's Rose Parade on here, so here we go. A week-or-so ago they uploaded a new track from their upcoming debut album. Should be great! Anyway, it's called The Sea Of Lights and here it be.

The Sea Of Lights by Rose Parade

OK, last one now. For it, I've even dared to venture south of the border. Albeit to hear from another Scot.  He's called Chris McConville  He's the drummer in a band down in London but he has a debut solo album due out later on in the year.  Until then he's leaked a few songs from it.  This is the pick of the bunch.  Hope you enjoy it.  See you next week!

   Now Summer's Gone by Chris McConville

Kowalskiy's Free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP #6

From the cover art of Kowalskiy's Free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP #6, you'd be forgiven for expecting a selection of Christmas themed songs.  There is one on there, but really its just another 5 great tracks from some of the best up-and-coming Scottish bands for you to enjoy over the festive period.  In there are some great bands I've come across in the last 12 months, and one or two who I'd expect to see make a big impact next year!  As always, I owe a great deal of thanks to the five bands who were kind enough to contribute these 'crackers'.  They are....

1. Dirty Keys - Only Happy Holidays (demo) (a yet-to-be-completed Christmas song!)

"We wanted to make a recording available to all you Santa fans this Xmas, even if it is just in demo form. We're playing our annual Xmas show on Monday 20th at the Captain's Rest, plus very special guests. You should come!" - Dave Gilles (Dirty Keys)

2. Johnny Reb - Emile (part one) (a snippet of what to expect next year from this much-tipped band)

"an ode to the ill fated boxer Emile Griffith" - Philip Hunter (Johnny Reb)

3. The Paraffins - I Think We're Alone Now (a cover of Tiffany's cult classic)

"I'm afraid its a cover (and one of the most done to death songs on the planet) but it's an exclusive I suppose! Originally did the backing track for a theme night at the Flying Duck earlier this year, so decided to finish it off on an 8-track cassette last week." - Billy Paraffin (The Paraffins)

4. Mammoeth  - Autumn (a non-album track from the artists formerly known as Team Turnip)

"Autumn is a song about coping with change, loving the skin you're in and my favourite season of the year all wrapped up and packaged as a neat wee metaphor. It was written in 2002 and I decided not to put it on the debut album (Nascent, since you asked - in all good record stores now) 'cause I felt it was too introspective, too lyrically oblique and not poppy enough. It was also not new and I was bored of it, much like one gets with all things familiar - wives and girlfriends excepted." - Russell Kostulin (Mammoeth)

5. Thirty Pounds Of Bone - I Was Meant For The Stage (live) (a live cover of The Decemberists' cracking track)

"I really like this song. It’s a beautifully warm and generous song and Colin Meloy is good with words. I learned it to play for a friend’s birthday party and I tend to play it at gigs that are either going badly, or have hardly any people at. It makes me smile. It sometimes seems like it’s a nice way to laugh at yourself in front of people, which any performer should be able to do. The song itself is both witty and tragic. It’s that sort of pathos that you find in statements that appear at first to be supremely arrogant. It’s that winning combination of massive egotism and purpose next to crushing insecurity. Suits me rather well…." - Johny Lamb (Thirty Pounds Of Bone)

Thanks a lot to everyone who contributed, not only to this EP, but to all the others this year.  All EPs are up for free download over on my bandcamp page, with this particular one here!  I hope you enjoy them!

Once Christmas is over, I'll get cracking on EP #7 which will be out on 16^th January.   If there's 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.

...Dirty Keys!

With their I Wish My Brother George Was Here EP released on their bandcamp back in April, and a spate of free shows coming up, it's about time we were properly introduced to Glasgow's piano pop-rockers Dirty Keys. Here's vocalist and pianist Dave Gilles to fill us in...

Kowalskiy: Who are Dirty Keys?
Dave: Dirty Keys are a four piece piano pop/rock band from Glasgow, although none of us are from Glasgow. At least that's the starting point. The feature is piano, but we've got fuzzy bass and crunchy guitar, too. I started the band because I got fed up playing for everyone else's band; I was having fun, but my own ideas were going to waste. Specifically, I had all these piano-based bits of music, and a fairly good singing voice that no one was aware of, and felt it was time I took a crack at songwriting. The result is this weird kind of earnest/playful music that appears to be making people happy.

Kowalskiy: How would you describe 'your sound'?
Dave: Although we usually pitch the sound as piano pop/rock, our genre is debatable. I try to keep influences to a minimum (it keeps things fresh) but it's pretty obvious to anyone with ears that I'm a fan of Ben Folds and Randy Newman. There's a hell of a lot of hip-hop and punk rock in there too (though it doesn't really shine through in the few songs we have made publicly-available so far - refer to our live show). Some people hear a bit of Muse in there, but frankly the only Muse song that set my griddle on fire was 'Plug In Baby'. Talking about plugs, you can expect a hell of a lot from us in the future. We've just released this sweet, locally-produced music video:

Kowalskiy: What else can we expect from Dirty Keys in the future?
Dave: We're recording a Xmas 'single' soon, which we hope to have a similarly-quality music video produced for. We're being featured a bit on Subcity (I was on the Couch Club on Saturday morning, and Left of the Dial has been following our progress since we first started gigging). We've been trying to play special gigs up til now, but the plan is to play as many free shows as possible over the next few months, to get a bit of exposure to the random punters.

In their own words, they "need to be heard". They might just be on to something there!

Upcoming Gigs
17^th Oct - The Butterfly and the Pig, Glasgow (solo piano set)
28^th Oct - The 13th Note, Glasgow
5^th Nov - Capitol, Glasgow
20^th Nov - Pivo Pivo, Glasgow
17^th Dec - The Halt Bar, Glasgow