Live gigs coming up! Cancel The Astronauts review! And more free downloads!

Hi there again. Tons of free downloadable music for you this week but TONS of info as well, so please read to the bottom. Thank you! :-)

The Legendary Graeme Mearns

This week's free and exclusive download is by The Legendary Graeme Mearns Band, captured digitally for posterity as they performed in front of an audience of millions at the scenic Ross Bandstand in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens this August.

Click here to listen and download this live bootleg recording, and remember, it is very much a bootleg, but don't despair, those of you who prefer more polished recordings. The band's album "Into The Hollows" is available as well on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and eMusic.

Let me just mention again Peter Michael Rowan's three excellent compilation albums, of songs on which he appears! You can buy the three collections singly for £4 each, or for £1 a song, and every purchase will go towards the helping-Peter-to-move fund, so do your ears a favour and get your wallet out for some good music.

I also wanted to say thanks to the Labelled Independent podcast for including one of my songs in their latest episode. Check it out, there are eleven bands on that show as well, all of them very good. Hope you enjoy!

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I've got a couple of LIVE GIGS to tell you about this time actually, please stick these in your diary and come along for some awesome music

First i want to tell you about a gig that's happening on Tuesday 4 September at The Voodoo Rooms. It's Matt Norris and The Moon, Collar Up, Al Shields, and Three Little Birds, it's £10 admission, and it's part of STV's appeal to raise money for children living in poverty.  And that's at 7pm on Tuesday 4 September in The Voodoo Rooms ballroom.

Slightly unfortunately on the same night (Tuesday 4 September) at 7pm, a new Edinburgh open mic is being trialed upstairs at the recently refurbished Artisan Bar at 35-36 London Rd., EH7 5BQ, in Abbeyhill, corner of Montrose Terrace between Easter Rd and Meadowbank Stadium. PA and three mics supplied. Bring your own instruments. If successful, it could become a regular gig and a valuable addition to the Edinburgh open mic scene. Please turn up and help to get it off to a good start!


Next, let me mention The Return of Edinburgh Unlimited at The Meadow Bar on Thursday 13th of September. The acts will be: Echo Boomer (listen here), Kite And The Crane (listen here), The Sunday Republic (listen here), and Darren Hendrie (listen here). All this for only £3 ladies and gentlemen! tell everyone you know please, and here's the FB invite to forward round to everybody as well, please, if you could. Please note our new venue! It's in the upstairs room at The Meadow Bar on Buccleuch Street in Edinburgh, and that's on Thursday the 13th of September at 8pm.

I might also mention that Out Of The Bedroom (Edinburgh's longest running open mic night and songwriter community at large) is going through a lot of changes at the moment, in terms of a change of personnel running the nights, and a possible change of time and day as well. I would recommend those of you who are interested in the future of OOTB to get back in touch with them and keep your finger on the pulse for future developments. For the immediate future though, OOTB is still on Saturday nights at The Maltings/Montague Bar at 8pm (7:15pm for performers to sign up). 

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Cancel The Astronauts - Animal Love Match (2012)

Cancel The Astronauts are an Edinburgh (and Markinch!) band with a few very notable songs behind them, and they're releasing their new album "Animal Love Match" on 17 September. I had a listen to it and here's what i thought:

Cancel The Astronauts, finishing first.

This is quite a diverse album, and yet there are a lot of stylistic elements that hold it all together. I imagine this band would be great live because they've got a certain youthful energy, and their songs all sound different to each other! It would be easy for me to namedrop all the bands i think they might sound a bit like but, no, you may as well just judge these guys' music on it's own merit. They're doing their own thing, and that thing is a very human sounding kind of music (pop music? rock music? who knows?).  I mean i could say "Explosions In The Sky invite James and Arcade Fire round for tea" but what that would tell you very little about the actual music.
The album includes the singles Seven Vices and Intervention, and those songs both work well on the album, though i did feel like the other songs maybe stretched a bit further creatively and experimentally, and were more like a cohesive whole. It's not unusual for single tracks to stand out on an album but i think in this case the album stands out from the single tracks in some ways. As i said the album has quite a lot going for it, it has an eclectic selection of songs on it, it has that energetic undercurrent, it has good songwriting and song arrangements, every element's been thought about on this album, as with every good album. It's a great journey. It's nice that this is an album, rather than just a collection of songs.

I actually thought this album got more fun to listen to as i got further through it, and i suspect it'll get more enjoyable with repeated listens too.  All in all, this album was a pleasure to listen to, and i'll certainly be listening to it again. I heartily recommend you buy this album, and keep your eyes peeled in case Cancel The Astronauts are playing a gig near you soon.

Preorder "Animal Love Match" and you can also get some mysterious "goodies" from the band, album out 17 September 2012, and the album launch is at Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh on 15 September. 

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So yeah, there's more music, and TONS of gigs big and small just go out and find them! More music stuff from me next week, see you out there in Musicland!

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

Shedloads of Top Quality New Music - download it now!

This week's featured download is by the incredible Northern Poetry aka Emily Ward. Here she is performing live at Out of the Bedroom two weeks ago. Seriously, put it on now while you're reading. it's good stuff.

The new album by Conscious Route is also very good and it's just out now, so check that out too, please, and buy the album as well. And spread the word too, don't keep all this good music to yourself. Here's some excellent stuff from Sons of Scotland/Werd as well, while we're in that vein.

This guy looks interesting!

Now, for the acoustic enthusiasts, i really want to recommend these three exclusive collections by Peter Michael Rowan who is sadly leaving our shores for pastures new. You can help him to move by buying these three collections of his music, click the link, see those three album covers in the right hand sidebar there? You should get each of them. They all feature Peter Michael Rowan but in addition they are all great little collections of music, featuring as well: The Legendary Graeme Mearns Band, Lindsay And The Storm, Lisa Rigby, The Wandering Swallows, The Houdini Box, Holly Tomas, and of course the incredible Fanattica.

Also just wanted to remind you that tonight (Sunday 26 August) the featured act at The Listening Room (at The Blue Blazer on Spittal Street at 8pm, and it's free) will be Kite And The Crane, who are also one of the featured acts at the next Edinburgh Unlimited gig which is on Thursday 13 September at The Meadow Bar, more details of that on our facebook page very shortly.

Take care out there, and see you all somewhere in Musicland!

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

Free downloads, gig listings, and other goodies! Treat your ears!

Hi there, and welcome to this week's edition of Edinburgh Unlimited! 

Yes, that's Calum Carlyle

This week the free downloads are from Calum Carlyle. You all know him, but you probably don't know these songs, so listen, download and SHARE THE LINK with other music lovers. Yes, this week's free music is stunning and incredible etc, but there's FREE MUSIC here EVERY WEEK, so tell your friends, spread the weird, and come back every week for more at http://edinburghunlimited.blogspot.co.uk

Right, well while you're listening to that, let me tell you there's a ton of stuff on in Edinburgh at the moment...

Jamie & Shoony will be playing an Acoustic set tomorrow (SUN) Afternoon from 2pm @ The Speigelterrace on George St. - Edinburghs Festival Fringe! FREE Entry - so just turn up for a musical hangover cure

Also, there's this totally unsung but very fun night on through the festival called Acoustic Underground - click the link for a list of who's on when, but there are also tons of floorspots too from some of Edinburgh's most exciting performers, so if you can stay up till the middle of the night then get yer butts along there. Also, there should be crowds at Edinburgh's regular acoustic events such as Out Of The Bedroom and The Listening Room, it's very frustrating to see good nights undersubscribed, because there are a lot of very good performers doing their thing at these nights.

Here's another one, though this time only running through the Festival, it's Lach's Antihoot, which this year is free. It runs every night except Mondays from Aug 3 to 26 (with the 24th off). It's at the Counting House Ballroom (38 West Nicholson Street) beginning at midnight and running til 2am. Get there at 11:30 and meet Lach at the bar if you'd like to sign-up to perform.

Aaaand... here's somebody who i've known for years and he's had a great musical and personal influence on me, it's Dave Robertson, writing the eleventh of his twelve songs in twelve weeks. check them all out, eh? 

And here's a song for you that i just heard, it's Straight Bars by Dillah ft Conscious Route. If you want to hear more of Conscious Route then come along to Acoustic Underground on Tuesday night. He and I will be doing some ACOUSTIC HIP HOP under the name of The Urban Folk Crowd. Yes, you read it right, acoustic hip hop. And it's free. Can't make it any easier than that, see you there or i'll know you're square!

also, just wanted to tell you about Music News Scotland's excellent online gig listings. There's not much to be said except they update them regularly so you'll always be able to see full gig listings on that page. Great stuff!

And that's about it for this week. Tune in next week when i'll be giving away even more free downloads from some excellent performer that i've heard somewhere. 

Take it easy out there, and don't let the bullshit get in the way of the music! :-)

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

EITS live in Edinburgh + much much more!

Hi there. So this week the free music is a little different in style. You know how usually i post sort of acoustic music, folk and pop etc? Well this time it's Texas rock ensemble Explosions In the Sky. I recorded their live performance at the HMV Picture House in Edinburgh last year and you can hear it right here on the internet (and download it for free of course). If you have heard of them, you'll need no convincing, if you haven't, press play and settle back. It's quite a good quality audience recording actually, and unlike other bootlegs of EITS this one doesn't have loud audience members conversing over the top of the music and whooping etc in all the quiet sections. Enjoy!

Well the Edinburgh Festival and fringe is on, so tons of stuff's happening. I've only been to two fringe things, both were great. One was the Barbershopera production of "The Three Musketeers" at the Pleasance. Very clever and very funny. The other was "Say Something", a boundary challenging dance/singing/music experience in the Dissection Room at Summerhall by H2 Dance.

And the other thing i went to was the Conscious Route album launch at Henry's on Thursday, it was great. Very bouncy atmosphere. If you missed it then get the album!

Oh yes and today i'll hopefully make it to Andrew O'Neill & Marc Burrows doing songs and stand up from The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing at the Canon's Gait at 7:15pm. I'll need to be quick if so though because i hope to make it to Out Of The Bedroom at The Montague Bar on St Leonards Street (which is free incidentally). It's open mic plus a featured act and this week the featured act is Northern Poetry, she's like acoustic hip hop poetry... Anyway, turn up if you can make it, it'll be good. Then i have to hotfoot it to The Kilderkin because i'm performing at 12:20am at the fantastic Acoustic Underground. And The absolutely blindingly good Dave Keir is playing on the same bill! And that's free as well! Hope to see you there at that one too, eh.

So yeah it's 2pm already, got to get moving. Look, tell everyone you know about this blog will you please? I'm giving away free music downloads every week and it breaks my heart that not everybody in the world's getting them, so pass on the word. Thanks!

Okay, take it easy, see you out there in Musicland!

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited
PS - and click the links! That's why i put them in there. Enrich your ears with music! :-)

Free Music Downloads! (good ones!)

Hiya,
It's a sunny day and the Edinburgh Festival (and fringe(s)) have started.

But! You can still benefit from some good music to listen to in your down time. This week, i'm sort of cheating. I usually like to give you totally exclusive music that you can't get anywhere else, but i heard a few choice things this week, and i want to share those with you. You probably wouldn't have heard these otherwise, so it's still kind of okay! :-) Here we go!

Kite And The Crane are a band from Edinburgh who sent me a link to this song. It's really nice! Maybe we can get them to play at Edinburgh Unlimited someday.  Anyway, go and listen to the song, and "like" them on FB.

The Anaesthetics are a band from Manchester, here's their FB page, but more importantly here's their music. The acoustic stuff is quite imaginative sort of anti-folk but then they do electric stuff too. Hope you enjoy anyway.

Miriam Crespo is a Switzerland based performer, and here she is playing a half hour set live in Switzerland! I heard of this set from a link on the Spanish Rock Shot FB page. Check it out!

Now i know you're all busy but please if you have any friends that like hearing good new music, then tell them about this blog. Do two at least, tell at least two friends this week, and the same next week etc. Let's get a sort of pyramid scheme (but in a good way!) of new music listeners on board. and if you're new to the blog, do two things:

1) check out the older posts, every one of them has free downloads in it
2) subscribe! Every future post will have free downloads in it too! :-)

Now, if you are in Edinburgh there are a few things on. Well, there are a ton of things on but there are a couple i want to mention. First of all at Henry's Cellar Bar on Thursday (9th of August) it's the LP launch for Conscious Route! Also featuring The Kennel Wages, Werd (SOS), Deeko (SOS), Combo Combo and DJ Miro. All this for only £4! And that starts at 8pm. Check out older posts on this blog for links to hear Conscious Route if you're not familar with his stuff.

I also wanted to mention Peter Michael Rowan's Acoustic Underground. It's on every night from 2345 onwards during the festival starting tonight. click the link and see who all's playing. This is all in the Kilderkin down the Holyrood end of the Royal Mile, and it's free too!

Oh yes, i also wanted to say a big thanks (or do we call it a shout out these days?) to Jason from Popcop for featuring my song Strange Skies in the jukebox on his site. Thanks! :-)

And you should check out his site anyway because it has a ton of good music on it too.
And thanks too to Scottish Fiction for playing Strange Skies this week on their radio show as well. :-)

Right, go and TELL PEOPLE about this blog, people who like music anyway.
And take care out there in Musicland! It's a fast and furious place!

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited