The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
BY ANDREW WELSH
● Alt-rock veterans The Filthy Tongues take their black arts to Dunfermline tomorrow.
Ex-Goodbye Mr Mackenzie trio Martin Metcalfe, Fin Wilson and Derek Kelly are at PJ Molloys, where fans can savour tracks from recent albums Jacob’s Ladder and Back To Hell as well as a smattering of GMM classics including The Rattler and Open Your Arms.
The Edinburgh outfit’s busy frontman has been on the road with Skids frontman Richard Jobson helping to promote the latter’s debut novel, and also performed at Auld Reekie multi-art extravaganza Shamanic last Friday.
Anyone who’s heard Back To Hell would agree with Metcalfe’s assessment that it’s taken the Tongues’ Nick Caveinfluenced brand of fire and brimstone goth-blues to another level. “It’s obviously not Sisters Of Mercy but it’s more in that seam than what we were doing with Isa and The Filthy Tongues, and is about five shades blacker musically than anything we did in Goodbye Mr Mackenzie,” he says.
“The Mackenzies had a lot of fairly dark lyrics but the music was a bit lighter. This is a complete immersion in a darkness. I suppose it’s a study of it.”
Support comes from Fife deathrockers 13 Tombs and Aye Hobos. Tickets £10 via ents24.com or Ticketweb.
● Punk firebrands AntiNowhere League are at Beat Generator Live! tomorrow.
Formed in 1980, the Kent outfit toured with hardcore pioneers Discharge and The Exploited and supported The Damned before breaching the top 50 with their debut Streets Of London – a cover of the Ralph McTell standard – in November 1981. Its profanity-laden B-side anthem So What was later covered by HM behemoth Metallica.
Led by the outspoken Animal, aka Nick Culmer, ANL’s debut album, We Are... The League reached No 24 in the UK ahead of their Live In Yugoslavia offering. After splitting in 1987 following that year’s second studio album The Perfect Crime, the band regrouped in the mid-90s, eventually recording the Scum LP in 1997.
Since 2005 they’ve released four more albums, including last year’s classic reggae covers set League Style (Loosen Up Vol I).
Tickets £12 from Dundee’s Grouchos and Tickets Scotland.
● Breaking noise pop duo The Lovely Eggs play Beat Generator on Thursday.
The latest Cool Cat Club gig at the North Lindsay Street venue is headed up by former Angelica frontwoman Holly Ross and her drummer husband David Blackwell.
Hailing from Lancaster, the lo-fi outfit have released five albums since 2009, including debut If You Were Fruit, Wildlife and this year’s This Is Eggland.
Tickets £12 from Grouchos, Assai Records and wegottickets.com.
● Dan Baird’s guitarist Warner E Hodges is the big draw at the Green Hotel next week.
The former Jason and The Scorchers linchpin will be promoting his fourth solo album Right Back Where I Started at the Kinross venue on Thursday. Besides his impressive work with Baird’s Homemade Sin, Nashvillebased Hodges has recorded three albums since 2011 with the pair’s hard-rocking side project The Bluefields.
Tickets £18 via Ticketweb.
● Fife folk veteran Rab Noakes is pairing up with ex-Speedway frontwoman Jill Jackson at Clark’s On Lindsay Street on Thursday.
The duo are joining forces for what the venue promises will be “an engaging event which reflects their shared abilities, attitudes and enthusiasm”. Tickets £12 from Clarks, Grouchos, Assai and Eventbrite.
● Peter and The Test Tube Babies celebrate 40 years of cartoon punk shenanigans with a gig at Church tonight.
Founded by Peter Bywaters and Del Greening, the Brighton outfit became a hot ticket after playing a radio session for the late John Peel, with tongue-in-cheek single Banned From The Pubs setting the tone for the indie chart-topping album P***ed And Proud. Notably, they represented the UK at the historic MTV East/West party to celebrate the Berlin Wall’s fall in 1989, and they’re considered pioneers of the so-called punk pathetique movement.
PTTTB’s Ward Road set will include highlights from last year’s puntastic That Shallot album. Tickets £11 via musicglue.com.
● Two of Scotland’s most respected songsmiths are in Courier Country on Thursday.
Former Arab Strap frontman Aidan Moffat and Scottish Album Of The Year Award-winning troubadour RM Hubbert are performing their acclaimed co-album Here Lies The Body at Dunfermline’s Carnegie Hall. Tickets £14/£15 via onfife.com
● The latest Make-That-ATake show at Conroy’s on Monday has rockabilly swamp favourites X-Ray Cat Trio, Fife post-hardcore exponents Woolen and swaggering Dundee guitar outfit The Marx. Separately, Perth garage punks Brainglue, plus Benedictus, Saint Louie, Neil Morrison and Drainpipe, are at Meadowside tonight. It’s £5 both nights.
● Dundee acoustic songsmith Gord Matheson is playing his first live show in five years at Conroy’s Basement on Thursday.
Also known as The Strangers Almanac, the altfolkster is one of four artists on a diverse bill that also features Canadian troubadour Eugene Ripper – formerly of Stark Naked and The Fleshtones – plus Glaswegian emo purveyors Lovers Turn To Monsters, aka Kyle Wood, and Stolen Wings’ Mark Fraser. Admission’s £5.
● Number 57 has covers outfit Miami Vince tonight and Junkyard Dogs tomorrow.