First of all, apologies for the recent lack of communication. There’s no excuse, we’re just lazy.
Aidan has a few dates coming soon:
Ledbury Poetry Festival, Saturday the 11th of July - more info HERE. This show will be half solo and half with the Best-Ofs (Alun Woodward and Stevie Jones).
Latitude Festival Poetry Stage, Saturday the 18th of July (onstage at 1.30 PM), more info HERE. Solo gig.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, Sunday the 19th of July. Supporting Emmy The Great with Alun Woodward on guitar.
There will also be a new single in September! It’s a new, orchestral version of Lullaby For Unborn Child backed with a children’s story written and read by Aidan called The Lavender Blue Dress. It will be available digitally and as a very limited 7” single.
To coincide with the release, Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs will be doing some shows in September too, including the rescheduled London gig at the Luminaire. More details when they’re confirmed!
As part of his regular Vice blog, Aidan has this week chosen to offer a song. You can read the introduction and download the song HERE. It’s called Smash The Mystic Industry and isn’t available anywhere else!
How To Get To Heaven From Scotland is reviewed over at FRESH DEER MEAT.
And there’s an interview with Aidan at THE QUIETUS.
ALSO: Aidan’s column for Vice this week takes the form of a short story! You can read it HERE.
Other news… Lullaby For Unborn Child is currently being ‘remixed’ for a possible single release in April or May and the B-side will apparently be a children’s story written and read by Aidan!… and hopefully there should be some UK gigs in May plus a small tour of Japan!
More reviews and interviews coming in for the Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs album…
Online:
You can read Aidan’s track-by-track breakdown of the album for Drowned In Sound HERE.
And he’s also been interviewed by (the excellent) Emmy The Great too - GO HERE.
There’s a special Valentine’s edition of his I’m No Expert advice column HERE.
There’s a review on THE QUIETUS too.
In print:
There are are interviews in the current Time Out and Clash magazines… and this week’s NME gives it 8 / 10!
And there’s probably loads more that we’ve missed too.
If you want to know more about the limited edition board game version of the Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs album, you can either go over to THE QUIETUS or go to our online shop and find details there. Word is they’re selling pretty fast through pre-orders so you should probably get a move on if you want one…
You can now download the ‘radio version’ - i.e. with the swear-word removed - of Big Blonde ABSOLUTELY FREE! There’s a catch though. The mp3 is the prize in the new How To Get To Heaven From Scotland online board game. It’s a bit like snakes and ladders, and when you land on a ‘snake’ you’ll be able to hear a track from the new album as a consolation for being sent back a few squares. It also includes comments and a voiceover from Aidan too. You can find it RIGHT HERE.
The album, How To Get To Heaven From Scotland by Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs, is released on February 14th. Some comments so far:
“His disjointed pop vignettes and ruminative lullabies are underpinned, as ever, by excellent reflections on affairs of the head, hind quarters and heart.” PLAN B
“Utterly compelling. The perfect album for your bloody valentine.” ALTERNATIVE ULSTER [8/10]
“...a timely, very tuneful reminder that there’s more to Valentine’s Day than those tired Hallmark clichés.” THE LIST [4/5]
“...twelve truly affecting tracks which stay just on the right side side of romance.” THE FLY
And you can read a more comprehensive review over at GOD IS IN THE TV.
More when we get them…
Aidan will also be appearing in the press here and there and we will endeavour to keep you informed. So far we know there will be a Valentine-themed interview in this week’s (8th February) Scotland On Sunday, but all you non-Scots can find it online HERE.
Aidan also donated a Valentine’s poem to The SKINNY too.
Aidan has just begun what will hopefully become a weekly blog over at viceland.com. The column is called A Good Thing To Lose and in it Aidan will attempt to experience as many new things in life as he can then share it with you. These could be as simple as buying The Sun newspaper or watching Mamma Mia!, but could also include a trip to a fortune teller and even a seance. The first experience he tackles is a male sex toy and you can read all about it HERE.
Part 2 is up now - a review of Mamma Mia! You can find it HERE.
Enjoy!
We’ve also now added Aidan’s 2 new columns (this one and I’m No Expert) to the LINKS PAGE.
As you may have noticed, we’ve changed a few things with the site, most importantly the Gifts page, which now includes a live song by Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs, Aidan and ex-Delgado Alun Woodward performing Katie Melua’s 9,000,000 Bicycles live in Glasgow, a previously unreleased cover version from the vaults by Larmousse & Aidan, the I Can Hear Your Heart promotional film, plus the entire L. Pierre EP Blank For Your Own Message which was originally released ten years ago on vinyl only!
Also: new long-sleeved Kiss My Beard shirts now on sale on the webshop!
We should have more changes on the way soon and the mailing list will finally be resurrected. And don’t forget How To Get To Heaven From Scotland...
Go here:
http://www.aidanmoffat.co.uk/index.php/site/gifts/
The debut album by Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs will be released on Valentine’s Day 2009. The track-listing is:
Lover’s Song
Big Blonde
Atheist’s Lament
Oh Men!
A Scenic Route To The Isle Of Ewe
That’s Just Love
Ballad Of The Unsent Letter
Now I Know I’m Right
The Last Kiss
Lullaby For Unborn Child
Living With You Now
My Goodbye
The album was recorded in Glasgow with regular Arab Strap / Aidan Moffat engineer Geoff Allan. It will come in 2 formats: regular CD in a gatefold sleeve with poster with enhanced disc including 3 videos, and a limited edition Board Game box set which includes the vinyl album, the full regular CD album, a cover versions 7” single with exclusive tracks I Got You Babe (Sonny & Cher - see below) and Love Is Not A Game (Glen Campbell), the 5 Songs By Aidan Moffat & A Best-Of CD EP featuring special alternate versions of album tracks and one exclusive track (Plastic Mistletoe), a How To Get To Heaven game board with die and pawns and a Valetine card written, designed, signed and numbered by Aidan himself! No definite price details yet, but we reckon it will be somewhere between £20 - £25. It should be available for pre-order soon!
Aidan’s live album, An Evening With Aidan John Moffat, is now available from the webshop. Originally intended as a vinyl-only release, Aidan has instead opted to release it in a digital format only, but with plenty of bonus material which includes: printable CD jewel case artwork so you can build your own album at home, the original poster for the show in PDF format, a previously unreleased studio recording called “You’ve Never Known Love”, a high quality Quicktime version of the promotional I Can Hear Your Heart film and a letter with sleeve notes too! The album itself comes as two very high quality (320 kbps) mp3s - Main Set and Encore - and includes alternate versions of the tracks from I Can Hear Your Heart and a few previously unreleased and improvised numbers as well - 20 tracks in total! And all this will cost you a mere £4.99! It’s available EXCLUSIVELY from the new Aidan Moffat / Chemikal Underground webshop which you’ll find here (it’s in the “More Music” section):
http://shop.chemikal.co.uk/acatalog/AJM.html
The Aloha Hawaii single - Aidan’s collaboration with Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai - now has a definite release date of September 8th. You can preview the tracks and read the press release at the Chemikal Underground site here:
http://www.chemikal.co.uk/aloha-hawaii.htm#
You can also pre-order the limited edition 10” vinyl single on the Chemikal Underground shop. They’re also doing an exclusive deal which includes a snazzy Aloha Hawaii t-shirt! Economic downturn be damned! Spend your precious cash here:
http://shop.chemikal.co.uk/acatalog/Towns_On_The_Moon.html#aCHEM108
Aidan is now offering sex advice on the Quietus website! The column is accurately named “I’m No Expert” and can be found here:
Oh dear.
UPDATE - Apparently there’s been quite a response to this column and it looks like it will now become a regular monthly feature! You can read the second installment here:
http://www.thequietus.com/articles/uncle-agony-aidan-moffat-s-back-to-fix-your-weeping-sores
Aidan has yet another new project on the go - an often discussed but rarely realised collaborative partnership with Stuart Braithwaite from Mogwai! Their plan is to release a sporadic series of vinyl-only 7” singles over the course of the next year or two, hopefully culminating in a full album sometime in the future. There will be no digital format of these songs available anywhere, absolutely 100% old-fashioned record ONLY. The first single, Towns On The Moon b/w I‘ve Been Bad For Years And Years, will be available from Chemikal Underground at the end of July!