End of the Year Roundup…Stuff!

Hello folks! Hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas with some lovely presents from Santa and lots of food and drink in yer bellies! I’ve had a great Christmas, but have slightly neglected my blog in favour of almost relentlessly playing Skyrim. I do apologise if you’ve had to hear me ramble about it or if you’ve doubted my sanity on twitter as a result of my #toomuchskyrim tweeting. Y’know, I used to update my blog regularly but then I took an arrow to the knee.

Despite my Skyrim-induced sloth however, other stuff has been happening. And stuff happened BEFORE Skyrim, I just forgot to mention it as I was all caught up in the drinking joy of the festive period. Firstly, this Christmas I played a gig in George Square! I even got a nice festive jumper for the occasion. It was a really fun gig and it still feels pretty amazing as a Glaswegian to be able to say I’ve played in George Square. An actual gig, not just busking round the peripherims across from Greggs! The other acts were great and I particularly enjoyed Tragic O’Hara’s set. As someone who enjoys attempting acoustic covers of hip-hop songs, his version of Shimmy Shimmy Ya was especially braw. As for me, my trusty pal Neil caught a wee video of me singing Rapture, here it’s here.

So what’s been happening round about me while I’ve been busy slaying dragons? Well, I was really excited to find out that I’ve been included in Tom Robinson’s Christmas mixtape on BBC 6 Music! It’s a selection of Tom’s favourite songs of the year and I’m really honoured to have been picked for it. The song Tom picked was “Things That Make Me Angry” which of course is still available as a free download through Strummerville.

You can download the podcast or stream it from this lovely link/entire sentence.

As if that wasn’t flattering enough, I also made it to number 20 in the Edinburgh Man Podcast’s top 50 songs of the year! You can hear/download the podcast at this link right here. The track which had the most votes was Rapture. Yes, the one from that video up there! And this other one over here from when I played Cabaret Voltaire earlier this year! Oh aye and it’s also a free download! Michty me.

Last but not least, since my last post about it, I’ve sold another couple of copies of my EP, “Shambles Sails the Clockwork Sea” and now there are only 4 copies left! I know it’s a long shot but I’d love to sell them out by the end of the year so if you’ve been thinking of getting one, now’s the time! You can purchase from this link here.

A big massive thanks to everyone who has helped me out this year, supported me, bought/downloaded my stuff or come to gigs. It’s been a great year and I hope to make 2012 even better! At the very least, I’ll buy an outlandish hat and strut around wearing it like I’m a PURE SOMEBODY. Or something.

Til next time year!

love Shambles

x

Everybody loves free stuff, right?

Can you spot the edit?

Hello folks! Ah, some new faces I see? Lovely faces they are too. Whilst I’m busy writing more songs of daftness and milking a recent Thing That Happened for all it’s worth, I thought it might be an idea to remind you all about the free stuff I have!

You’ve probably seen me rambling on about this song being played on 6 Music recently, but you can also download it for free via Strummerville! You can even download it from this very player, just click the wee down arrow at the right. Every download counts towards the Strummerville charts, so you’d be helping me out as well as getting a Free Thing!

I also have this special wee live track available, from my set at Words per Minute at the Arches a few months ago. Feel free to, in no uncertain terms, get right in aboot it.

Also, if you check out (and perhaps even like?) my music page on facebook, you can download a the version of “Pssst!” I played during a live session with Jim Gellatly! Just click this beardy wee link.

If you find yourself hankering for some more tunes, I also have my EPs for sale on bandcamp. Just get clicking to check them out.

Thanks folks, hope you download and enjoy! Back to the songcave for me!

Til next time,

love Shambles x

Thanks to Last Year’s Girl for letting me steal this photo and muck about with it. Even though I didn’t ask.

Alice’s 99 Shortest Problems

Hello folks! I hope you’re having a lovely [insert day of the week] and that you said hello to [insert name] for me last time you saw them. I sure miss him/her, that crazy bastard/bitch.

As you might know, I recently played some of my songs at Words per Minute, the monthly full-of-brawness event held in the Arches, featuring the best of Scotland’s writing, music, spoken word and performance in general. And me, last time.

I really enjoyed my set at the Arches that day and managed to capture some of said performance, via technology magic. I thought it might be nice for other people to hear it, as my set was just a wee bit different than usual and not just because it was 10 minutes long, seriously curtailing the amount of pish I could talk between songs.

With this in mind, it’s time for a tasty free download! Here’s a special wee medley I’m calling Alice’s 99 Shortest Problems.

I hope you like it folks! If you do, tell your friends! If you don’t…tell your friends! And if you like it (even just a little) please download it. I went to all the effort of pressing the upload button and everything! Tired oot noo, away for a lie-down.

Til next time folks!

love Shambles

x

To be honest, I’ve not really got THAT many problems…

Hello folks! I like that jumper, its a good choice because its attractive AND sensible in this nasty weather. I’ve got my slippers on at the moment myself. Cosy :)

So anyway, you might not guess from my diet of plaid shirts and skinny jeans or my specky curly-headed appearance and the fact that i’m SO WHITE it hurts, but I’ve always been quite into hip-hop. My favourite Spotify playlist even has the fourteen-minute version of Rapper’s Delight. Bliss.  I obviously can’t rap however, so instead i’ve turned my hand to covering a wee classic by Jay-Z – 99 Problems, with my own wee spin on it. So here’s the video, I hope you enjoy it! (Oh by the way, look out for the ironic clock on the wall behind me in the outro. Damn context sensitive walls in my house.)

Well there you go! Thats my own wee cover of 99 Problems, feel free to leave a wee comment and let me know what you think. And wrap up warm, the weather’s frightful so it is. Til next time!

love Shambles x