Music

Music has a long history of producing shock artists who are really bellwethers of social change, writes Simon Frith 

Brian Wilson’s achievement was in capturing the untutored brilliance of his sonic imagination on record, writes John Cavanagh

Post songs, win books

Neil Cooper on the unbearable lightness of being the B-52s – forty odd years hangin’ with the Deadbeat club.

James Metcalfe chooses his favourite records. By Hugo Fluendy

Comacat choose their favourite records. By Hugo Fluendy

Arlo Parks chooses the songs that influenced her

Paul Research on his most loved records. By Hugo Fluendy

Robert Anderson chooses his favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy

Callum Easter chooses his favourite records. By Hugo Fluendy

Dot Allison chooses her favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy

Oliver Kass chooses his favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy

Vashti Bunyan fled the 1960s music business to roam Britain on a horse and cart, leaving behind an album of such intense beauty that it became an international cult hit 30 years later. Sylvia Patterson welcomes back folk’s most talented absentee

Keith Farquhar chooses his favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy

Law Holt choose her favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy

Pretty Preachers Club choose their favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy

Dave MacLean of Django Django chooses his favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy

Kirsten Adamson chooses her favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy 

Jah Wobble & Invaders of the Heart @Bongo Club, Edinburgh
April 26. By Neil Cooper

Vic Galloway chooses his favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy 

Paul Vickers chooses his favourite songs. By Hugo Fluendy

From “Falling and Laughing” to “Dilemma” Alistair Braidwood delights in the music of Edwyn Collins

Andrew Loog Oldham chooses the songs that influenced him          By Hugo Fluendy

Jill O’Sullivan chooses the songs that influenced her

Cloth guitarist Paul Swinton on the songs that influenced him

Joy Division were on the cusp of mainstream success forty years ago. Neil Cooper looks at how they conquered the world

Sarah Busby on innocence, idealism and her first love: the Psychedelic Furs

Did a percipient Scouse maverick secure Scott Walker’s place in pop history? asks Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper unearths The Red Crayola’s great lost album and post-punk’s missing link

The Phantom Band’s genre defying debut is as thrilling as the day it was released in 2009, writes Neil Cooper

Scotland has a richly diverse and inventive musical history from Lonnie Donegan to Young Fathers. Test your Scottish pop knowledge in our quiz

In the first of a series of letters to artists who inspired them, author Kirsty Logan salutes singer Kathleen Hanna.

No-one writes love songs like Roddy Frame.Alistair Braidwood hails Scotland’s most articulate and hopeful romantic

Nine years since he left the party, an exuberant annual celebration of the Cramps’ colourful frontman is still in full swing, writes Paul Robinson

@Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh.
December 2nd. By Neil Cooper

@Summerhall, Edinburgh. November 29. By Neil Cooper

Pussy Riot Theatre: Riot Days. @Glasgow Art School. Nov 21. Review by Neil Cooper

@Mash House, Edinburgh. Monday November 6. Review by Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper on the tireless invention of post punk visionary Vic Godard

@Oran Mor, Glasgow. October 5. By Neil Cooper

Communal singing is uplifting and radical, veteran post punk Boff Whalley tells Neil Cooper

@King’s Theatre, Edinburgh. August 24. By Neil Cooper

@ Summerhall. August 20th. Review by Neil Cooper

Very Cellular Songs – The Music of The Incredible String Band. Playhouse, Edinburgh. By Neil Cooper

PJ Harvey: The Hope Six Demolition Project. Playhouse, Edinburgh. By Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper on the year’s most unashamedly joyous record

The Glasgow-based chanteuse has produced a remarkable treatise on love, loss and redemption, writes Alistair Braidwood

Sound of Yell’s third release is a woozy slice of summer joy, writes Neil Cooper

F For Fake – The Secret Goldfish, Spectorbullets, The Sexual Objects. Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, June 24. By Neil Cooper

Japanese New Music Festival, Summerhall, Edinburgh. Sunday June 18th. By Neil Cooper

Damo Suzuki’s Network, Mash House, Edinburgh, Scotland. By Neil Cooper

Indie-pop survivors resurface with a record rich in off-kilter charm, writes Neil Cooper

Former Soup Dragon returns with a second instalment of inspired dance floor euphoria, writes Neil Cooper

Arch,camp and supremely talented, Billy Mackenzie would have been sixty this week. Graham Domke celebrates Scotland’s Scott Walker

Product writers choose their favourite summer songs to brighten the darkest sky

Neil Cooper  on a new collection of instrumentals exploring the shadows of Dundee’s changing urban landscape

Neil Cooper on the return of the lustrous Special Love

Public Service Broadcasting: The Race for Space Live. Usher Hall, Edinburgh. By Neil Cooper

Glasgow’s talented all girl gang banish twee with a soaring fusion of indie and bubblegum, writes Neil Cooper

Creeping Bent stalwarts return with a sublime collection of shimmering indie pop, writes Neil Cooper

Karate Priest, Rhubaba, Leith. By Hugo Fluendy 

Mick Harvey, Summerhall, Edinburgh. By Neil Cooper

Ex-Banshee releases another slice of bass-heavy ambient exploration, writes Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper talks to Johny Brown about adapting Bill Drummond’s plays for radio 

Neil Cooper on a thunderous EP from the Blue Orchids’ latest incarnation

Neil Cooper on two fine new releases shot through with inventive exuberance

Neil Cooper meets Syd Shelton, chronicler of  the seminal ’70s Rock Against Racism campaign with new relevance for today’s protest movement

Neil Cooper finds hidden depths in a thrillingly contemporary folk album

Pet Shop Boys, The Playhouse, Edinburgh. By Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper gets lost on a sonic safari of bizarre out takes and playful hidden meanings

Julian Cope, La Belle Angele, Edinburgh. By Neil Cooper

Slapp Happy with Faust, Cafe Oto, London. By Neil Cooper

The Glasgow garage schlock meisters’ latest is shot through with attitude, musical nous and invention, writes Neil Cooper

Future Get Down: Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh. By Hugo Fluendy

Neil Cooper on a thunderous, genre-defying epic

The raw power of this abstract-expressionist art troupe is captured live, writes Neil Cooper

Daniel Patrick Quinn’ s return is full of brilliant quixotic invention, writes Neil Cooper

Lomond Campbell’s epic debut captures the redemptive power of  nature, writes Neil Cooper

Bass takes centre stage in this starkly beautiful collection, writes Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper on an inspired send off from one of Scotland’s most inventive duos

Neil Cooper on a sparkling collection from the lost band of the Postcard era

This collection of  joyously eclectic dancefloor fillers celebrates a much-loved club, writes Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper salutes the stark beauty of Leonard Cohen’s work

Neil Cooper finds The Male Nurse compilation full of offbeat charms

Neil Cooper on the new album by Scotland’s slow core poets

Band of Holy Joy: A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes. Reviewed by Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper is enchanted by the The Rebel’s latest offering Clear & Lies in June

Allan Brown suspects his iPod Randomiser knows a little more than it should

Neil Cooper on a remarkable musical elegy to those lost in the Lockerbie tragedy

Scottish hip  hop eclipses even its US major label counterparts, writes Peter Burnett

A retrospective Boots for Dancing collection may finally give the long lost funk-punk pioneers the recognition they deserve, writes Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper picks his favourite songs by bands from Liverpool, first city of pop

As Belle and Sebastian celebrate twenty years since the release of Tigermilk, Neil Cooper toasts a summer of musical milestones

Neil Cooper on the welcome return of Robert King, onetime frontman of Scottish postpunk band Scars

Lilly Markaki talks to P H O E N E, organiser of tonight’s all female Bossy Love aftershow

Neil Cooper talks to Michael Head about survival and the redemptive joy of songwriting