SATURDAY'S KIDS

I'm not in the habit of giving plugs to up and coming singers or bands, but for two long-time blogging friends who reside in Edinburgh (but are originally not from the city), I'm prepared to make an exception.

(1) 17 Seconds Records

An offshoot of this long-established blog, 17 Seconds Records is the brainchild of Ed Jupp along with his business partner Laurent. Their first signing back in September 2008 was Aberfeldy, a wonderful indie-pop Scottish outfit who had previously released two LPs and a handful of singles on Rough Trade.

Since then, 17 Seconds has become the home of X-Lion Tamer, Escape Act, The Dirty Cuts, Chris Bradley, The Wildhouse and newest signing Factory Kids. So far, the label has released 12 bits of music/product, and in true Factory style, everything has a catalogue number:-

17SEC1 Aberfeldy 'Claire'/'Talk Me Round' 7" single/Download single October 2008

17SEC2 X-Lion Tamer 'Life Support Machine' Free Download December 2008

17SEC3 X-Lion Tamer 'Neon Hearts'/'Life Support Machine' Download Single March 2009

17SEC4 Escape Act 'God Says' EP download single June 2009

17SEC5 17 Seconds Records t-shirt July 2009

17SEC6A X-Lion Tamer 'Neon Hearts' CD EP September 2009

17SEC6B X-Lion Tamer 'I Said Stop' download single September 2009

17SEC7 Chris Bradley 'Bored Little Rosie'/'The Man I Love' download single October 2009

17SEC8 17 Seconds Records Night at the 13th Note, Glasgow on October 30, 2009. Poster designed by Chris Gillies (Dirty Cuts) October 2009

17SEC9 Escape Act 'Cabin Fever' download single November 2009

17SEC10 Chris Bradley 'At The Outpost' album to be released March 2010

17SEC11 The Wildhouse 'Precise Running Order -The Wildhouse Sampler' download November 2009

The next release is on 25th January and will be 2 Page Spread, the debut effort from The Dirty Cuts. And right behind that will be the 1 EP, the debut from Factory Kids, which you can get your hands on from 1st February and then the first full length, At The Outpost by Chris Bradley, LP will be out in March.

A number of the acts are also playing live gigs in Scotland and further afield on the coming months, and full details of everything that is going on can be found here.

mp3 : X-Lion Tamer - Life Support Machine
mp3 : The Wildhouse - Ficca
mp3 : Chris Bradley - The Man I Love

(2) Song, By Toad Records

If you ever do pop in to read the blog Song, By Toad, you'll know that Matthew Young spends an awful lot of time putting together great posts about all sorts of things musical, political, topical and farcical, most of which attract dozens of comments from a very loyal and highly articulate fanbase. All of that alone should, by rights, take up his time and energy, but on top of that, he holds down a full-time job, makes regular appearances on student radio stations, gives interviews to all sorts of media outlets AND he manages the aptly named Song, By Toad Records.

So far, Matthew has attracted has given us the chance to get a hold of product by six acts - eagleowl, Jesus H Foxx, Loch Lomond, Meursault, Nightjar, The Builders & The Butchers, and Uherskuy Brod. Some of the material has simply been demos, some are the UK releases of bands that are based in the states, while others are CDs and vinyl from some critically acclaimed Scottish acts. Again, all of the Song By Toad acts are regularly out on the road, and details of what's available and what's going on can be found at the blog and/or the website.

mp3 : eagleowl - Blackout
mp3 : Meursault - Salt Part 1
mp3 : Jesus H Foxx - I'm Half The Man You Were

I really am asking you not to just listen and leave it at that. If you like what you hear, please, please, please spend some money supporting these two great labels.

Thank You.