Brit Awards 2013: The stars gather!

THE biggest names in music from Britain are gathering in London tonight as they gear up for the Brit Awards 2013.

Singer Emeli Sande will be waving the flag for Scotland as she is nominated for four awards, and is also performing.

Sande is up for four awards

The star, who had the best-selling album in the UK last year, is up for best female, best album and has two tracks in the best single category.

Sande's appearance on the shortlist comes 12 months after she was tipped as a rising star with the Brit Awards' Critics' Choice prize.

Her debut album, Our Version of Events, went on to sell 1.4 million copies in the UK last year and she performed at both the opening and closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Winehouse's dad will attend

Amy Winehouse has received a nomination for best British female after an album of material was released posthumously.

Singer Rita Ora also has three nominations, including two in the best single list, while Muse, Paloma Faith, Plan B and Olly Murs are up for two prizes each.

Adele is the bookmakers' favourite to win the best British single prize for her Bond theme Skyfall, but she is rumoured to be in the US rehearsing for an appearance at the Oscars on Sunday.

The Rolling Stones are up for best live act, 35 years after they were shortlisted for the first ever Brit Awards. 

Singer-songwriter Ben Howard is tipped to take home best British male, while pop star Rita Ora leads the contenders in the British breakthrough category. The winners all receive a trophy designed by controversial British artist Damien Hirst.

One Direction will give the first live performance of their Comic Relief single, a medley of Blondie's One Way Or Another and The Undertones' Teenage Kicks. 

US country star Taylor Swift is said to be putting together a fire and ice-themed set, while Timberlake is bringing along the big band that accompanied him at the Grammy Awards.

For the third year running, comedian James Cordan will host the event.

Certain Death interview

Kirkcaldy band Certain Death has been packing local venues for over 10 years. Since forming in 2001 they have been playing their unique style, known as rap, thrash and roll.

They released debut album Bring the Pain in 2009 along with an announcement that shocked their legions of fans who had been used to the name Certain Death. After splitting from their record label they reverted back to the original name

Jeem (Vocals): When we first started out we were known as Certain Death, and it was just a bit of fun. Gradually we became more successful and more serious, so we changed the name to Drive by Audio. When it all went tits up we decided to change back to Certain Death.

 

Steed (Guitar): A lot of our old school fans weren’t happy about the name change to DBA so we went back to Certain Death for them.

 

Mainstream artists are putting out an album every couple of years, but this isn’t the way Certain Death do things. For them it’s all about the live show.

 

Steed (Guitar): Our recordings just don’t compare to the energy of our gigs. The main reason we started out was so we could play live and give people the chance to go mental.

 

Jeem (Vocals): It’s important to let new people hear our music, and the best way to get that raw energy is at a live performance.

 

Over the years the band have played hundreds if of gigs but are loyal to their home town of Kirkcaldy and name Bevyfest (an annual festival held in Beveridge Park) as one of their favourite places to play.

 

Steed (Guitar): That show was a shock, we were tuning up and the tent was empty, then the next thing there was literally hundreds of people packed in. The band had their big break when they appeared on successful game, Grand Theft Auto 4: The Lost and Damned, their song “Jailbait” featured on the soundtrack for the game.

 

The band hope to release a celebration of their long careers this year in the form of a dvd filled with footage form the past decade.

 

Steed (Guitar): We are working on a DVD covering the 10 years since we formed which will be out later this year, it will include outtakes, and making the videos, and basically a whole lot of us dicking around for the last 10 years. A lot of our friends who have had bands over the years have all split up. It’s good to still be together after all this time

Snars(Drums): We are hoping to be back in the studio by the end of the year to work on another EP, not another album yet. In the meantime, here is the video for our latest release - Fight for your right (to party)

 

 

 

The band will be playing PJ Malloys, Dunfermline on 19/2/13

St Deluxe - 'Born into Flame'

Take a pinch of 90s wistfulness, a spattering of hooky guitar riffs, a gentle dose of shoegaze and a healthy dollop of scuzz, and you have yourself the tantalising sophomore album of Glaswegian dynamos St Deluxe - ‘Born into Flame’.

In the two years since their initial introduction into the public consciousness, St Deluxe have exploded onto the scene with rip-roaring live performances heavy enough to turn your hair grey. Their self-titled debut album found them refining their indulgent brand of scuzz-rock, which was already hot on the tongues of well-known aficionados such as Alan McGee and Stuart Braithwaite. St Deluxe’s latest offering is a triumphant celebration of all their efforts to date, which has seen them evolve into unbridled commanders of fuzz laden power-pop.

'Born into Flame’ delivers much of what fans have come to expect from these boys, who above all certainly know how to write a blistering two-minute tune. An extra injection of raw, visceral energy however, is what separates this from St Deluxe circa 2010. Jamie Cameron’s primitive, guttural howl battles the feedback-heavy sound of Martin Kirwan’s Fender Jaguar with animalistic intensity, yet the lazy, fluid manner in which the 11 tracks tumble over each other gives this album a distinctly nostalgic touch. From the vehement caterwauling of Your Blood to the plaintive rhythm of I Know How You Feel, St Deluxe are here to fill the void in grunge music that has been idling since the early 90s.

With guitar work that bears more than a fleeting resemblance to that of scuzz-rock messiah J Mascis’, talk of St Deluxe being akin to a Scottish Dinosaur Jr. is not unwarranted. But the intrepid four-piece has carved its own niche in this particular scene, as this latest album lays testament to.

The opening track is a re-recorded version of old single After the Fire, which has been honed to meticulous perfection. Cameron’s signature nasal vocals are stronger, and the accompanying instruments, more streamlined and assertive. The result is so good that it actually makes this a stand-out track on the album, despite it not being new material.

The title track/first single follows up in much the same vein – incendiary fret-mangling quilted behind a wave of fuggy noise-rock staccato. There is a renewed sense of urgency in many of these latest tracks; everything about the band feels like it’s been turned up a notch since their debut – if there were any doubts as to what heights St Deluxe intend to reach in the future, this album surely slams it home.

'Born into Flame’ demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that St Deluxe are capable of cooking up a storm in the recording studio. The new sound is a more distilled, mature flavour than the Deluxe of old, but every bit as delectable as it was in the beginning. These master craftsmen are flying high and show no signs of slowing down – long may they continue.

Paws, Waiters, Sex Hands & Dolfinz - Split 12"

Song, by Toad Records has delivered a number of euphonious treats in the past, but none quite so explosive and volatile as this latest split 12” featuring Paws, Waiters, Sex Hands and Dolfinz, who have come together to create a record forlornly redolent of a bygone era.

Recorded in the creaky depths of Toad Hall (Matthew Young’s living room), each band contributed their own idiosyncratic touch to a record that eddies you back to the early 90s the moment you press‘play’.