Volcanic Tongue shop R.I.P.

On each of the last two nights I walked along Argyle St. past the entrance to The Hidden Lane.  Both times I felt a surge of sadness that Volcanic Tongue's shop has now closed its doors for the last time.  The news came on Thursday.  Ten years is a good run for a record shop these days but its closing still gave me a jolt of shock.  I went there for the final time last Saturday to (finally - sorry!) pick up the Smoke Jaguar cd-rs that they have aside for me but it was closed so it now feels as if I have unfinished business; that I didn't get to say goodbye.  Happily, the mailorder continues and will no doubt grow stronger now that some of the funds required to run a bricks and mortar shop will be available to buy more stock.  Volcanic Tongue was always more than a record shop.  It was a cultural institution and a focal point for Glaswegian music obsessives with open minds.  I always felt proud that it was based here and the city was most definitely enriched by having it.   It also provided a reason for bands to come to Glasgow and a welcoming space in which they could play.  The in-store events that I attended birthed some of my most cherished memories of the last few years.  Undoubtedly, the Mad Nanna show was the highlight but the last show, Chalaque / Smoke Jaguar / Des McKenna, was a complete and utter blast that still has me smiling whenever I think of it.  Sure I'll miss the browsing and the gigs but above all I'll miss the passion of the shop's proprietors David Keenan and Heather Leigh Murray and their definitive, thought-through and brilliantly-expressed stances on music, films and art and books and their hilarious/scandalous stories (especially the allotment tales!).  Oh, and the recommendations.  They were so on-the-money;  I'll certainly miss them.   Sure, I'll still have the website and the weekly mailout and their inspired descriptions but there's no substitute for someone telling you, all wide-eyed with zeal, why you NEED that Morning and The Sleepy Kids cassette.  Thanks for the memories David and Heather Leigh.  Thanks, too, for putting up with my pathological fear of the bumped corner and mild ringwear.  Oh, and thanks for serving me that time I'd fallen in a gigantic puddle while playing Saturday morning football in Kelvingrove Park and came in caked from head to toe in dry mud looking for all the world like a Terracotta Warrior.  Thanks, above all, for introducing me to Mike Rep, Cheater Slicks, Bassholes and the "pluke spattered teenage wasteland breakdowns"* of Columbus Discount.  I just wish I'd bought more of that stuff from you.  Whenever I BLAST the reissue of this I'll look back on your shop and grin:

Check out the Photo Gallery on Flickr

* - Unquestionably, this Volcanic Tongue description of Cheater Slicks' "Guttural: Live 2010" (Columbus Discount Records CDR-065 LP) is one of the most thrilling pieces of writing about pop music I've ever read:

Fairly amazing and long-time coming live documentation of one of the killingest garage punk primitive rock/roll trios of this or any age, the Cheater Slicks. No one does ugly, pluke spattered teenage wasteland breakdowns with quite as much sass as these three and although evidence of their uniquely greasy live sound has been thin on the ground Columbus Discount have stepped into the fray with the first in a proposed multi-volume series of live jags that catches them in full flight. Cheater Slicks have always been much more than your mere local peddlers of retro kitsch and their reach goes out to everything from classic Texan psych through hunching rockabilly, weepy teenage garage and pre/post Spacemen 3 repeat-riff nirvana. Alla these styles are on display here, with our heroes breaking out some power-crying folk punk in amongst a couple of inspired covers – The Huns “Destination Lonely”, The Modds “Leave My House” – and some great extended bouts of six string savaging. Gimme this and a couple of high ABV US Micros and I’ll never watch a French movie again – that’s a promise! Comes with an insert, recommended!

Mad Nanna / Mole House

Maybe surprisingly, a 2-piece, all-guitar version of Melbourne, Australia's Mad Nanna showed up last week in Glasgow.  Their tipsy juice-enhanced after hours show in the Volcanic Tongue shop was something strangely special that will live long in the memory.  Mad Nanna make endearingly ramshackle records in what sounds like a dusty 70s mid-western American basement.  What they produce is, on first listen, rudimentary but somehow manages to be much more compelling than that might suggest so stands up well to repeated listens.  "I Wanna See You", their latest single for Soft Abuse Records, is a case in point.  The bulk of the slightly gruffly sung lyrics are just the song's title repeated and the guitar repeats a simple surging figure over and over with few variations.   The drums, too, are delightfully clattery but elementary.  As a whole, though, it's totally cohesive and inexplicably addictive like a lot of the more esoteric records I've heard on, say, Gulcher or Columbus Discount.  An essential purchase!

Also, out of Melbourne and with an equally compelling new single are Mole House.  As with Mad Nanna, they don't think it necessary to over-complicate their music preferring instead to leave space for feeling in their grooves.  "Come Around" features one of the best lazily unwinding guitar solos to charm these ears in a while.  It's great music to listen to when your eyelids are heavy and you just want to sing along with something soulful whose notes you can conceivably hit.  There's simple joy to be had in the act of waywardly singing such a stoned, dreamy tune.

Volcanic Tongue's Holiday Blowout ! (15th Dec 2012)

Further evidence of the current healthy state of Glasgow's record shops came last week when Volcanic Tongue moved from its first home, one floor up way out west on Argyle Street, to bigger premises down The Hidden Lane.  Like Monorail Music, Volcanic Tongue is one of the Glaswegian cultural institutions for which I have genuine affection, one that makes this city a way more interesting place to be.  Proprietors David Keenan and Heather Leigh Murray are a tight, tight unit with an unbelievable knowledge of and zeal for the musics of the margins.  The shop reflects their singular view of what counts in music and art.  It celebrates the unique, the lone voices who do their own thing, the truly independent; there's no room on their racks for fakers, phonies or mere cool hunters!  A chat about music with them is like a conversation with a couple of wide-eyed gospel preachers turned mescaline-wired Beat writers.  You can't fail to get fired-up by their enthusiasm and their ability to articulate what makes a record work for them.  Their total commitment to and support for the things they love is truly admirable.  To celebrate the move to the new shop they're having a Holiday Blowout.  Full details here and on the poster below:  Looks like ace fun to me!

Southern Comfort "Silver and Gold"

Time for some great buzzing Paisley pop!

Yet more essential, non-standard (no drums! no bass!) pop music from Australia, this time from Circle Pit's Angie Bermuda and Harriet Hudson.  "Silver and Gold" should be lovingly embraced by admirers of both Dum Dum Girls' downer harmonies and The Garbage and The Flowers' scorched tape arc-welding of the Velvets to Sonic Youth.  Unfortunately, Black Petal only had 265 copies pressed so it seems destined to be another of those 45s that appears on mailorder lists briefly and then just vanishes.  For instance, it went 'out of stock' almost instantaneously when Volcanic Tongue listed it.  There's an almost complete - it's also available in the UK via Infinte Limits - list of stockists on the Black Petal website.  Now to turn the stereo up to indecent and give Circle Pit's rollicking Siltbreeze lp a long overdue spin!

Tom Carter (Charalambides/Zaimph etc.) fund

A few weeks ago I was sat in my car outside Mono cheerily scoffing my dinner, anticipating that night's show.  The headline group was due to be experimental icons Charalambides.  Unfortunately, however, the show didn't take place as Tom Carter from the group was taken seriously ill in Germany and couldn't make the trip. Since then Tom has been in hospital in Berlin and a recent statement posted on the Volcanic Tongue website said the following:


"Due to the severity of Tom’s illness, his hospitalization away from home, and the projection of a possible prolonged recovery, Tom and his family will certainly incur a more than significant financial burden. There will be medical bills as well as possible travel and housing expenses. It is thought that a considerable portion, if not all, of Tom’s recovery must take place in Berlin. A fund is being established to receive donations to offset these costs.".

This fund has now been established, the  details of which can be found at helptomcarter.org.  In addition, a number of Tom's friends and collaborators and some of the labels who have released his work have set up their own fundraising initiatives. Information about Volcanic Tongue's fundraising can be found here. It's admirable and good for the soul to see people getting involved to help a friend in need. If you can help spread the word, please do.