FREE MUSIC courtesy of @Kowalskiy

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

You like free shit, right? Here is some free music, courtesy of esteemed Scottish music blogger Kowalskiy, including a rare Northern Alliance track ‘Casiopolis’ that never made it onto any of our albums for various reasons. It’s part of a cracking five-track FREE EP download from yer man Kowalskiy, so what the hell are you waiting for? There’s blurb about the song over at the blog. All the other tracks are great too, although I suspect they’re made by folk slightly shorter in the tooth than us.

Enjoy!

Dx

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

New HIT & RUN cover – whatcha think?

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Well?

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Oh My God

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Friday tune time. ‘Oh My God’ by Ida Maria. First heard this when it came out four years ago. Still rocks. This version exposes her weird rawk shouty moustachioed band, but also has Ida going frigging apeshit at the end while Morrissey watches bemused. Which is nice. I saw her at Tut’s one time, it was one of the purest visions of rock’n’roll I’ve ever seen. She’s nuts. Which is nice. Enjoy!

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Books I reviewed in April (and some I didn’t)

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Monthly journo round up time. Here’s the great and not so great from April:

Will Oldham, On Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (Faber) – Start of a series of books from Faber where leftfield musicians interview themselves. Intriguing idea, and a good subject for the first one. Fascinating in-depth look at music that you rarely get.
Colin Irwin, Neil Young: A Life in Pictures (Carlton) – Does what it says on the tin, basically. Well selected and narrated, though.
Richard King, How Soon is Now? (Faber) – Great history of British indie record labels since the birth of Rough Trade. King really knows his shit, and the book is hilarious in places.
Irvine Welsh, Skagboys (Cape) – Didn’t review this, but interviewed Irvine along with a bunch of other writers. The book’s cracking – a total fucking romp through Thatcherism and its consequences.
D W Wilson, Once You Break a Knuckle (Bloomsbury) – Brilliant debut collection of stories from that hard-bitten, working class American school.
Stuart Nadler, The Book of Life (Picador) – Less impressive American story collection – hints of Updike and Roth, but a bit samey and inconsequential.
Kevin Barry, Dark Lies the Island (Cape) – Yet another story collection, this time from Ireland. Very impressive too – Barry is a really original voice, bitter but compelling.
Ken Bruen, Headstone (Transworld) – Ach, it’s a new Ken Bruen, it’s class, that’s all.
Kathleen Jamie, Sightlines (Profile) – One of my books of the year easily. Nature writing, memoir, travel book, philosophy – all delivered in the precise and beautiful language of a poet.

Something to note, if you’re so inclined – of the nine books only two are novels, three story collections, three music books and one piece of nature writing. Whatever that means.

All of which meant I never had the time to read:

Iain Banks, Stonemouth (Little Brown)
Tony Black, Murder Mile (Preface)
Elizabeth Reeder, Ramshackle (Freight)

Which is a shame, cos I bet they’re all cracking.

Till next month, peeps, and watch out for it – May is a doozy for great books!

Dx

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Faber Social: A Night of Crime

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Glamorous People of London! I’m schlepping down to your glorious city for an event next Monday 14th May, namely the Faber Social, which this month is being taken over by marauding crime writers. Like me, Claire McGowan, Stav Sherez, Erin Kelly and Cathi Unsworth. It’s at The Social, funnily enough, on Little Portland Street. Details of doors, tickets (£5) etc are here. It’s gonna be a blast. I’m gonna play a tune and read. There will be drink and banter and good times and maybe some hugging nearer the end. Come!

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Eurocrime, Crimesquad, Sea Minor – they say yes!

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Latest round up of reviews for Hit & Run – and it’s a collection of doozies:

I think Amanda C M Gillies wins the prize for the most enthusiastic review of any book EVER. Here she is over at Eurocrime raving about Hit & Run. The review begins: “Following on from last year’s truly awesome Smokeheads, Doug Johnstone has done it again.” Then ends with: “If you like your crime fiction black, then you are going to love this book. I have a feeling that I have just read my top book for 2012. Extremely highly recommended.” I love you Amanda C M Gillies, even though I’ve never met you!

Another cracking review over at Crimesquad by the mysterious M.M., who reckons it’s “an excellent, ‘read it all in one gulp’ kinda book.” Damn straight. M.M., whoever you are, I love you too!

Nigel Bird goes nuts for the book over at his Sea Minor blog. He says: “It’s a kind of Hard-Boiled ‘Crime And Punishment’ for the post-ecstasy generation, the love-child of a Dostoevsky/James M Cain/ Allan Guthrie triangle.” Boof! I have met Nigel before. I love him.

It’s all about the love, people.

Dx

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

John Peel approved, apparently

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

Friday tune time.

So, there’s been some amusement in the mainstream media that amongst John Peel’s amazing record collection there lurks stuff like Abba and A-Ha. Two examples of pop music genius. Why the fuck shouldn’t Peel love that stuff? It wasn’t all Throbbing Gristle and Leatherface, you know.

Anyway, Abba are one of my favourite bands of all time. If you don’t like Abba, there’s something wrong with you inside. Here is one of dozens of classics. Could’ve gone for ‘Dancing Queen’ or ‘The Winner Takes It All’, but everyone always picks them. So here’s ‘SOS’. Funny story, I was once in a band called Cheesegrater and we covered this in a Mudhoney style. Not that funny, I guess, you mibbes had to be there.

Anyway, enjoy!

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Hit & Run press round-up

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

So there’s been a flurry of reviews and features on Hit & Run in the last week or so. Here we go:

Nerd of Noir gives the book a massive thumbs up in his inimitable style over at Spinetingler.

Here’s a feature by Nick Mitchell on the scotsman.com website about the whole Amazon #1 bestseller thing.

I get a quick fix of Tony Black’s questions over at Pulp Pusher.

A great review from Lisa Glass at the excellent Vulpes Libris blog, although Lisa didn’t like some of the dog violence. Ignoring the fact that, actually, dogs come out rather well in the book. But I won’t spoil that for you.

Theresa Munoz gives the book a lovely write up in The Herald.

All good! If you see any other mentions in the press, gimme a heads-up, eh?

Dx

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Friday tune: Warning, Great Pop Alert!

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

So, it turned out Nicola Roberts was the talented one in Girls Aloud. Her solo album last year was pop genius. So there. Here is a stripped down version of ‘I’ from the album. It is fantastic. So there. Pop music. I love it.

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Trailer for HIT & RUN

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Doug Johnstone

OK, so last week me and Ewan Morrison went out driving around Edinburgh, pretending to crash the car and filming it. It was rather surreal, especially when a car went past thinking we really had hit someone. I got soaked lying on that wet road, I tell yah. A writer’s life, huh?

Ewan is not only a great writer but a skilled film and TV director, and the result is this rather fine trailer for Hit & Run.

Not bad for zero budget, huh?

The music is an old Northern Alliance instrumental tune called ‘Casiopolis’ because we made it entirely using noddy Casiotone keyboards. I think it was released on a Fence Christmas compilation under a different name, if anyone cares about that stuff.

If anyone has any useful ideas for ways of using this to promote the book, lemme know.

Happy car-crashing, people!

Dx

Posted in doug johnstone | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment