Vic Galloway describes Broken Records as having “a sound that mixes up the emotive, propulsive energy of Arcade Fire, adds the worldy swing of Beirut and combines it with the epic, sincere songwriting of The Waterboys“.

So here we are with week two of ‘Scots Way-Hay’ and still that cheesy title isn’t getting any better. Thankfully though the music remains at a high standard. This weeks victims are ‘Brother Louis Collective’, an indie-pop five, sometimes going on six piece from Glasgow.

Four weeks tomorrow the music world will descend on Austin, Texas for one of the largest and most influential festivals of the year. South by Southwest, also known as SXSW, (or “South By” if you want to be annoying) will feature 16 15 14 Scottish bands in 2010. And Dear Scotland will be there too:

This week in Scottish Entertainment / Actor News, Craig Ferguson starts Tweeting, Ewan McGregor announces some US chat show appearances, Jamie Sives’ Triage makes it’s way onto the Festival circuit and Kevin McKidd reveals why his kids made him get involved with the Percy Jackson film.

Every Monday on Dear Scotland, Radio 1’s Vic Galloway highlights one of the Scottish bands playing outside the UK that week alongside the only listing of all the Scottish gigs abroad. This week, Vic has more on Glasgow’s Twin Atlantic who will be supporting White Lies in Zurich:

Each Sunday we present some of the best new photos of Scotland in the gloaming, the magical time before sunrise or after sunset. This week featuring romantic images of the Arbroath Barrier, Eilean Donan Castle,  Scurdie Ness and Ayr Harbour.

As has been the trend recently, I have been very, very slow to post about these lads, despite having first heard and liked their stuff bloody ages ago.  I honestly don’t know why, either, because I liked them from the very first time I heard them.  Sometimes these things just happen, I guess.

It seems that every Monday when we publish Vic Galloway’s Scotland on Tour listings, Glasgow’s Alex Smoke inevitably will have a gig somewhere exotic. Recently we caught up with Alex in Tokyo and asked him about his globetrotting, his new album and what his first song would be tonight at the DV1 Club in Lyon.  

Before this draw, I was convinced, sure, certain, that we were finally going to bag one of my dream dates: Kazakhstan.  A nice short hop (for me) to Almaty, a town where a friend once ate a horse’s penis.  How do you manage that without getting a kick in the head, you might ask?  Well, […]