General election

Punk-pop songs are subjected to more snobbery and derision than any other genre. They don't have the clever chords of the underground indie royalty, the romanticism of the bedroom troubadour, the cool kitsch of manufactured pop or the menace of hairy rock. Or perhaps it does and you've just not scraped the surface to find out.

If you look at your local gig venue's listings there's a very easy way to tell which nights you'll hear some punk-pop - they're the ones marked 'over-14s'. So what do the teenagers know that everyone else doesn't?

Accessibility has something to do with it. For the past few years the best records of their type have been exclusively American-made and often only available on import, presenting the kind of investigative research challenge that earns maximum kudos in music conversations down school corridors.

The biggest misconception is that pop-punk bands don't make classic albums*. And it's an entirely understandable one if your diet of this genre is served by daytime Radio 1, who deem that the likes of McFly and Busted should represent the sound of the UK.

GENERAL FIASCO may be about to change all that. The young Belfast trio have yet to make anything other than slick, catchy, accessible songs available on their MySpace and the group are on their way to Scotland next week to prove they're the real deal. And, yes, 14-year-olds are most welcome.

*If you want to hear how well the Americans do it, buy any or all of the following albums: Blink 182 - Blink 182 (2003), Green Day - American Idiot (2004), Motion City Soundtrack - Commit This To Memory (2005), The Academy Is - Almost Here (2005), Angels & Airwaves - We Don't Need To Whisper (2006).

4 General Fiasco - Something Sometime
4 General Fiasco - Start At The Top

Closed for business. Pleasure continues.

You only have to cast an envious glance at the awards ceremonies that seem to be happening every other night to realise the entertainment business is a world of profit and excess. And if you're making plenty of the former, you can never have too much of the latter.

Yet make no mistake, the music industry is currently fighting an increasingly desperate battle to reinvent itself in whichever direction maximises its need for financial exploitation. The supposed saviour - live music - isn't an indestructible cash cow after all, certainly not in Scotland given the recent deaths of the Connect festival, Tennent's Mutual project and Glasgow Barfly.

It's somewhat ironic that money is rarely the main motivation for the employees who actually hold the entire music scene together - the artists. Theirs is a domain populated by the have-nots, driven by an irrational fairytale in which the happy ending is usually staged in a very large field. It's no surprise the most common prefix for musician is "struggling".

So that's why we feel heart-sorry for young local bands such as MAKE MODEL and SERGEANT, who had no doubt been promised fame and fortune when they signed to major labels, yet were both dropped before the public had a chance to hear their done-and-dusted debut albums.

The cynic in us would normally chastise THE BLUETONES for deciding to devote their second tour in four months to playing 1996 debut record Expecting To Fly, but seeing as they're actually giving the punters what they want, who could blame them?

4 Sergeant - Counting Down The Days
b February 27, Room At The Top, Bathgate
b March 7, The Arches, Glasgow (tickets)
b March 8, The Hive, Edinburgh (tickets)
b March 13, Viewfield Hotel, Arbroath (tickets)
b March 21, Velocity, Dunfermline (tickets)
b March 28, Fat Sams, Dundee (tickets)

4 The Bluetones - Slight Return
b March 4, QMU, Glasgow (tickets)

As seen on screen

The main problem with using YouTube to watch live concerts featuring your favourite bands is that quality control is non-existent. So when you find that beloved Arcade Fire anthem reduced to a two-inch cameraphone screen being held by what seems like a Parkinson's sufferer doing a Nazi salute, there's a good chance you'll be left feeling a tad underwhelmed.

It goes without saying that you'd rather watch live music videos that were closer to a high-definition cinematic experience. It would also be nice if they were filmed by professionals using, say, a couple of dozen cameras simultaneously. And why not make them all free to view on a single website that you don't even have to register to use?

Sounds too good to be true? No, too good to be true would be if the company behind such a venture decided to rock up to East Kilbride with all their state-of-the-art equipment, build a multi-million pound venue/studio and invite some of Scotland's finest up-and-coming groups to act as guinea pigs for their technology.
Believe it or not, this is precisely what has been happening for the past couple of months thanks to POPMORPHIC. We suggest you head to their site and check out the sessions from local luminaries such as The Xcerts, Dananananaykroyd and Le Reno Amps - but as a taster, at the top of this post we've embedded a video of Keeping Warm, one of five heavenly WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS songs recorded exclusively for Popmorphic.

If you want to go along and be part of the audience while a performance is being filmed then pencil in March 20 April 23 in your diaries, which is when there will be a special Electric Honey showcase featuring some delicious sounds from WOODENBOX WITH A FISTFUL OF FIVER, THE STATE BROADCASTERS and WAKE THE PRESIDENT.

To get your hands on a pair of tickets for this free show just email your name to electrichoney@popmorphic.com - tell them The Pop Cop sent you and they might even pick you up on the Popmorphic bus!

4 Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers - Fist Full Of Fivers
4 The State Broadcasters - Our Favourite Park
4 Wake The President - The Security Place
b March 20 April 23 (rescheduled), Popmorphic studio, Linwood Avenue, East Kilbride

WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS
b February 22, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh (supporting The Spinto Band) (tickets)
b February 27, Tunnels, Aberdeen
b February 28, Room At The Top, Bathgate
b March 8, Oran Mor, Glasgow (tickets)

Music Alliance Pact - February 2009

The 15th day of the month means Music Alliance Pact time, when the blogging community comes together to offer up their favourite song for the world's ears. Think of it as the international invasion it's OK to support.

Last month we welcomed Babylon Noise to the party - a development so significant it was reported by MTV Romania no less, and with a fair degree of enthusiasm by the young brunette presenter, who is clearly a big fan of the Moozeek Alliance Pact.

It's a tough act to follow. Perhaps our newest representative, Mexico blog Club Fonograma, can persuade Salma Hayek to unveil a pair of pants with "MAP" emblazoned across her bum cheeks in her next movie.

Until then here is this month's greatest tracks, starting with the mighty, mighty Broken Records...
SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
4 Broken Records – Nearly Home
Edinburgh seven-piece Broken Records signed to renowned label 4AD last month, the just reward for over two years of personal sacrifice and preaching to the soon-to-be converted with their relentless touring schedule. Devoted followers like myself have already amassed as many as 18 of Broken Records’ epic, swooning, orchestral songs in one form or another – enough to predict that their debut album, scheduled for release this summer, will probably be 2009’s best.

AMERICA: I Guess I'm Floating
4 Here We Go Magic – Tunnelvision
Brooklyn’s Here We Go Magic is the bedroom folk-pop project of Luke Temple, who is releasing his self-titled debut this year. He has been praised by Sufjan Stevens and Ben Gibbard for his uniquely gorgeous vocals and meticulous lo-fi production aesthetic. Tunnelvision is the first single – one part Shakespearean sonnet and one part circus music, swirling in a beautiful mess of poetic acrobatics.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
4 Pablo Dacal Y La Orquesta De Salón – Ella Ya Está En La Playa
Pablo Dacal is a musician, singer and songwriter from Buenos Aires. His first songs circulated in tapes and between 2000 and 2002 he published a series of EPs that caught the attention of the media. The Orquesta De Salón was founded to collate this loose collection onto his first proper album, 13 Grandes Éxitos (2005). His next record was La Era Del Sonido (2008) and Ella Ya Está En La Playa is one of the finest songs from it.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
4 The Crooked Fiddle Band – The Rom Rebellion
More furious fiddling from The Crooked Fiddle Band, who have a new EP called Rise which they are currently touring. I’ve been getting into bands like Balkan Beat Box and while these guys are different, I like the punk element in the songs. It just sounds like it would be a whole lot of fun to watch.

BRAZIL:Meio Desligado
4 João Brasil – Orgasmadance
Like a tropical version of Girl Talk, João Brasil’s music is a mashup of beats and artists from different styles and backgrounds. With a strong influence of Brazilian funk carioca, a style derived from Miami bass and famous because of its explicit lyrics about sex, João Brasil released his first mashup album last year, Big Forbidden Dance. Orgasmadance is one of the best samples of his work. It starts with pieces from Orgasmatron and Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, before suddenly meeting Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. and other songs from Justin Timberlake, Nirvana, Snoop Dogg, CSS and Michael Jackson.

CANADA: I(Heart)Music
4The Rural Alberta Advantage – Four Night Rider
The Rural Alberta Advantage, who are actually from Toronto, with frontman Nils Edenloff's birthplace being Alberta, are one of Canada’s best-kept secrets. They specialize in Neutral Milk Hotel-esque pop with a slight twang and, as Four Night Rider demonstrates, the results are simply, passionately amazing.

CHILE: Super 45
4 Congelador – Abrigo
For more than 10 years, Congelador have been a cornerstone of the Chilean independent rock scene. After four record releases and two years in a hiatus, the band came back with the Abrigo EP - six songs that gracefully move around post-rock, noise, pop and electronic music.

ENGLAND: The Daily Growl
4 Let’s Wrestle – Let’s Wrestle
I could continue to bring you songs from London’s fertile folk-pop scene but it’s time for something a bit different. This month we have a singalong theme song from the self-professed ‘most miserable and hateful band in London'.

GERMANY: Blogpartei
4 Bratze – Jean Claude
Bratze is a Hamburg-based duo consisting of Der Tante Renate and ClickClickDecker. They make beautifully simple electroclash and indietronic music accompanied by sophisticated lyrics, all mixed with a DIY mindset. The featured song, Jean Claude, was their breakthrough as a newcomer in 2006.

ICELAND: I Love Icelandic Music
4 Hjaltalín – Goodbye July/Margt Ad Ugga
Hjaltalín is a nine-piece collective, so almost an orchestra, which uses an eclectic selection of instruments, from bassoon to bass, accordion to clarinet. With these instruments and two singers they create a wall of sound for their folky indie-pop songs. This song features the beautiful voice of singer Högni Egilsson, a catchy chorus, broken up with an Icelandic hymn sung by Sigga Thorlacius.

IRELAND: Nialler9
4 Tenaka – Alaskan
Tenaka is Ronan Carroll, a one-man band who creates melodic and sinewy slices of electronic pop from his bedroom but which suggest an imagination far beyond the physical. Alaskan is the soundtrack to dipping your toes into a lake before dive-bombing into its sunshine-infested yet chilly waters. The song features on EPonymously Titled, a free EP available from his MySpace. No excuses, download it now.

ITALY: Polaroid
4 Wax Anatomical Models – Recollections Of Our Times
Wax Anatomical Models may just have formed but they already have plenty of skills. Their sound mixes post-punk, hardcore, shoegaze and electronic influences, but the results in their first demo stand on a different level. Emotional and driving, they are a band to keep an eye on.

MEXICO: Club Fonograma
4 Natalia Lafourcade – Azul
The expectancy for Natalia Lafourcade’s upcoming album Hu Hu Hu is building up quick, her redefined lyricism and instrumental complexity are showing true signs of a potential masterwork. She’s naturally cute and affecting, and previous material indicated talent, but her sharp new musical vision has finally reached widescreen. Azul is ornamentally sublime. In Mexico, it’s rare to find such a beautiful delicacy.

NEW ZEALAND: Counting The Beat
4 The Enright House – Scattering The Sun Like Gunshot
The Enright House is the musical project of Mark Roberts from Christchurch. Despite being predominantly a solo affair, his 2007 album A Maze And Amazement was filled with songs that had a real sense of grandeur. Some of these have recently been re-released in acoustic form on the Six Acoustic Renditions EP and, as demonstrated in Scattering The Sun Like Gunshot, they lose none of their epic qualities in the translation.

NORWAY: Eardrums
4 Richard Holmsen – Great Speed
Richard Holmsen is the singer of the band Delaware but his main focus these days seems to be his solo project. His music is fragile and simple, with few elements other than his guitar and tender vocals. This is quite the opposite of Delaware’s grand, melancholic indie-rock sound. In recent years Holmsen has also made music for film and been involved in an electronica project called Sea. Great Speed is a Music Alliance Pact exclusive, written and recorded only a week ago.

PERU: SoTB
4 Catervas – Covida
After 10 years in the local scene, Catervas – formed by brothers Pedro, Raul and Javier Reyes – swapped their previous shoegaze sound for melodic rock on 2008 album Hoy Más Que Ayer. With its optimistic, convincing pop songs, Hoy Más Que Ayer is pure passion made into music. Covida is the second single from it and easily the band’s best song to date.

PORTUGAL: Posso Ouvir Um Disco?
4 PressPlay – Play Hot (extended mix)
PressPlay are Playgirl and Lisa (aka The Party Queen). Playgirl does vocals and guitars, while Lisa does vocals and electronica. Their influences are PJ Harvey, Peaches, Electrocute, Cobra Killer and Miss Kittin but they sound much better than some of their heroes – and they’re definitely cuter. The extended version of Play Hot, which is the debut single for their upcoming debut album, was mixed by Woman In Panic, who is actually a guy called Pedro Lourenço.

ROMANIA: Babylon Noise
4 The Amsterdams – Suffering And Surfing
The Amsterdams are a post-punk, indie power-pop band based in Bucharest. Inspired by the famous Dutch city, their name symbolises the freedom of spirit in every sense. Suffering And Surfing is featured on their forthcoming album, a blend of reckless vocals with freewheeling, volatile riffs and rhythms.

SINGAPORE: I'm Waking Up To...
4 Nuance – Fear Strikes Mankind I
Nuance is a four-piece rock band, with a recently self-released eponymous EP. At the heart of the record is the two-part epic Fear Strikes Mankind, an ambitious and intense journey that invokes the rock sensibilities of 90s Radiohead and contemporary post-rock experimentation. In the first part of the song (provided here), the biblical narrative of Abraham’s willing sacrifice of his son, Isaac, is related through the perspectives of both father and son. It’s a troubling journey, but the band does well to face the challenges head-on, both existentially and emotionally.

SOUTH KOREA: Indieful ROK
4 Seokjune – Dok
Seokjune released his first EP, Dok, at the start of 2009. Equipped with an acoustic guitar and a voice that conjures Elliott Smith, he performs one delicate tune after another while singing in Korean or English.

SPAIN: El Blog De La Nadadora
4 Nouvelle Cuisine – La Comunicación No Verbal
Nouvelle Cuisine are a band with a French name but Spanish nationality. They come from Galicia and have self-produced their new album, De Memoria, which is reminiscent of indie bands in the 90s. They develop their essence in personal lyrics and the soft melodies of their songs.

SWEDEN: Swedesplease
4 Love Lindblom – Till Min Syster
I’m a real sucker for catchy music like this which builds and builds into a frenetic climax. I love when the horns kick in. I love the DIY nature of the video – you just know he asked all his friends to help out. In short, I think I Love Lindblom.

To download all 22 songs in one file click here.

Live review: Ray LaMontagne @ Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow

Gigs aren't usually memorable for their silences. During the gaps that exist from the end of one song and the start of the next RAY LAMONTAGNE said virtually nothing to a 2,500-strong crowd who hung on his every word.

The silences made a handful of individuals so uncomfortable they couldn't help but fill the void with the kind of embarrassing heckling that reminds you why Glaswegians should be banned from radio phone-ins. This is how the banter flowed about six songs in...

Glaswegian woman 1: "Say something, Ray!"
Ray: " "
Glaswegian woman 2: "We love you, Ray!"
Ray: " "
Glaswegian woman 3: "Hi, Ray, how are you?"
Ray: "Hi."
[Euphoric applause]
Glaswegian man 1: "Do you know any Bob Dylan?"
Ray: "Sorry, I can't help you."
[Crowd goes bananas]
Glaswegian man 1: "Any chance you could play Jolene again?"
Glaswegian woman 2: "Any chance you could shut the fuck up?"
[Ray leaves the building]

Perhaps he just wanted to save his voice for what it is renowned for - enchanting songs like Burn In My Skin, Jolene and Trouble. And he sure belted them out with passion and gusto, stomping his right foot onto the floor like a petulant teenager. Ray LaMontagne certainly won't be the last man to take the contents of his tortured heart and empty it into lyrics, but few make you feel every pinprick of emotion like he can.

However, such is the inherent perfection in that voice and the aptitude of the American's backing musicians, his songs come across as carbon copies of the studio versions. Clearly this is a good or a bad thing depending on whether you want your live performances to faithfully reproduce the originals or be a bit more spontaneous.

If, like us, you're in the latter category then you'll probably understand why it was The People who provided the main talking points.

4 Ray LaMontagne - Achin' All The Time
4 Ray LaMontagne - Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover)

Live review: Beerjacket, The Second Hand Marching Band @ Oran Mor, Glasgow

Things to keep a mental note of during a gig review usually include: the setlist, crowd reaction, any incidences of witty banter. Yet here we are at Oran Mor struggling to complete a basic head count of the support band.

Is that someone's arm poking out between the accordionist and the sax guy? Can we really be 100% sure there's a drummer if he/she is never in view? Such are the unique challenges posed by THE SECOND HAND MARCHING BAND who, at a guesstimate, consisted of 16 members tonight. There's a joke about going out on a limb somewhere in there.
Strangely, what you see isn't what you'd expect to hear. Rather than being some sort of Polyphonic Spree-esque choir cacophony, The Second Hand Marching Band have been carefully constructed on the bricks and mortar of stirring songwriting and melodies. And the fact that several different members step forward to take turns on lead vocals means there's not even an obvious frontperson.

The dreamy Scottish folk leanings of A Dance To Half Death and Enter The Room With A Loud Boom are prime examples of why you should be grateful this odd-looking bunch won't make your teeth shatter onto the concrete.
The Second Hand Marching Band are followed by headliner BEERJACKET - that's one man, one guitar. In this context his set is nothing short of heroic.

Having earlier made a ramshackle cameo appearance for a 17-strong version of his song The Blues, Peter Kelly looks a great deal more comfortable in his customary solo surroundings, visibly growing in confidence throughout his performance and engaging the audience in a way that his predecessors couldn't.

As he plucks out the best moments of his five Beerjacket albums - including some Pop Cop favourites such as Belong In, Please Be Kind, Joy For The Sad and Dance Dance Dance - the seated spectators find themselves inescapably warming to his honest, vulnerable acoustic songs.

4 Beerjacket - The Blues
4 Beerjacket - Joy For The Sad
b March 7, The Captain's Rest, Glasgow (tickets)
b May 18, King Tut's, Glasgow (supporting Kristin Hersh) (tickets)

4 The Second Hand Marching Band - Bypass
4 The Second Hand Marching Band - Don't
b February 12, The Bowery, Edinburgh
b March 12, The Flying Duck, Glasgow

Music jobs in Scotland do exist... yes, we can prove it

London can be a horrible, expensive, cold city to spend your working life. Yet for people in Scotland who are serious about forging a career path in the music industry there often isn't any choice but to head to the Big Smoke, where dreams are made and illusions are shattered.

Curiously, the same isn't true for our musicians who find themselves fortunate enough to be paid for their passion, with the members of bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Biffy Clyro and Belle & Sebastian all still living in Scotland.

It's a strange incongruity and if it's one that frustrates you then you'll be keen to learn that there are jobs up here which combine the world's two greatest necessities: music and money...

• Fancy yourself as a music critic? Look no further than The List, who are advertising for Freelance Music Contributors to write about records and gigs in their Edinburgh/Glasgow heartland.
  
• If you're in the Dundee area check out respected music magazine Clash, who are looking for a Web Designer.
  
• The Scottish Arts Council are seeking in-house Specialist Advisors in various music-related fields including touring, venue management, recording, music education and performance.
  
• And finally, a performing group called Music At The Brewhouse in partnership with the Glasgow's Concert Halls are hunting for a Trainee Arts Administrator.

Now that we've pointed you in the right direction, here are a couple of tunes to get you in the mood while filling out your application forms. Good luck!

4 Jimmy Eat World - Work
4 Elbow - Not A Job
b March 6, Corn Exchange, Edinburgh (sold out)