Glasgow Barrowlands

I have always maintained, that Glasgow's Barrowlands Ballroom is the best venue on the planet. I have witnessed countless gigs in that venue and it seems to bring something special out of each band who performs there. It seems I am not the only one who shares these sentiments, in a recent interview with Pitchfork, LCD Soundsystem's, James Murphy, revealed why he loves the ancient venue so much:

"It fits about 2,000 people, but it's completely square and the audience there is so amazing. The only thing I can compare it to, if you played a big festival or you played a huge arena rock show, and you're a band who's just getting to be that size, so the audience is still really down, and there's about 2,000 people in this square right in front of the stage losing their marbles, it's basically like the pit of a big show, and if you just got rid of everybody else, that's the Glasgow Barrowland. Literally, from the front to the back it's people totally paying attention. It's a suspended floor, so when people jump up and down it bounces, it gives, it's like a big roller rink. It's amazing, and Glasgow's the best place on the planet to play a rock show, period."

I'm not going to argue, I now cannot wait for the recently announced Slint show at this venue. Read this review from Arcade Fire's recent performance there.

Points of Interest...

1. Engine7 will be performing at Glasgow's Rio Cafe tomorrow night from 8pm. Those excellent visuals will be on show, courtesy of These Are Ideals, while a live bassist will also be added to add extra weight to the overall sound. I have heard the forthcoming album, "Me, But Perfect" and it is a scorcher. More info and a map of how to get to the venue, for those who are unfamiliar with Glasgow's West End, can be found here.


2. Rubens' forthcoming album, "Carnivalesque" (review) has a release date (Feb 10th). It will be available via digital download and CD via Herb Recordings. Pre-order it here. Furthermore, Kingbastard has a limited edition Ep available on CD form Herb too. Get the "Bastardize" Ep here now.

3. Hot on the heels of Sigur Ros' latest album new, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields has declared that he "still intends to record" another MBV album, according to Magnet.


4. Mogwai have been asked to play at this ATP festival, with a decision expected very soon (source), while Slint will be once again dusting down those vintage guitars to play the influential "Spiderland" in its entirity at the Primavera Sound Festival.


5. The collaboration between Solipsism and Neil Carlill of Vedette, will now be going under the name shoosh. There are more new tracks for you to digest here.


6 My Formica Table, the project run by Strap The Button's Jack Hunter has posted a few of the upcoming ventures. This project is partcularly interested in the "swapping of music". Get in contact with him, if you would like to do this here

7 Some interesting news(to say the least) coming from Radiohead fansite At Ease. Korn are expected to release a cover of "Creep" on their forthcoming Unplugged album. The album will also feature The Cure's Robert Smith. Jonny Greenwood, meanwhile, will oversee his own Reggae compilation in conjunction with Trojan Records. Tracklisiting and details here.