Off to the seaside

I'm off to All Tomorrow's Parties and the zine awards tomorrow, so don't worry if I don't get back to you for a few days. Beard 3 is available from Monorail and Avalanche now and Rough Trade in London by the end of the week. Edinburgh Beard fans can email or wait until I get through to Analogue.
I shall return with tales of Slint and Staremaster, and, just maybe, a lovely award.

Rock on,
Stew

Beard #3 unleashed

Music, arts and facial hair for £1.50. Featuring Park Attack, Motormark, The Sky At Night, Instal 04, Acid Mothers Temple, Political Beards, Raymond Chandler, Sonic Youth cartoon fun, Lucky Luke, Asking For Trouble, frst prsn rcds, old-school British horror, Witness the Shitness, Avant A Laugh, a beardy board-game and more. Out Monday Feb 21  

Vashti Bunyan speaks

Now, anyone who's read Beard will know I'm a great fan of my acid folk. Hell, I've been banging on about the mighty Lucky Luke for over a year now. Their new single, Fear Eats The Soul, is out next week, and blooming marvellous it is too. An album, Patrick The Survivor, follows in April. It's a hugely rewarding and evocative listen, beautifully arranged, with Robert Wyatt-esque jazzy strands amongst its rich tapestry of electric folk. A full review will appear in the next Beard.
There are few figures in acid folk as enigmatic as Vashti Bunyan. She recently came out of retirement to appear on Devendra Banhart's Rejoicing In The Hands and apparently has been recording with Four Tet's Kieran Hebden. Sounds promising: his production job on the latest James Yorkston really captures the warm and woody texture of the Fifer's live performances.
In the meantime, she's been telling Pitchfork about her top ten records.

Good news on the Orange Juice front! Domino are readying a compilation for April release. No word as to whether it's simply another greatest hits or something a bit more special, ie, Postcard reissue. We wait in hope.

The Sound Of Young Scotland

One of the most positive aspects of Franzmania is the renewed interest in Postcard Records and their roster of indie-pop gods, including Orange Juice and Josef K. It's not easy to get hold of either band's music right now, but hopefully this will change. I've been pretty much addicted to Orange Juice lately. Guitar pop is rarely so witty, romantic or deliriously wonky.
Radio Scotland begins a new series about Scotland's independent music scene at the rock 'n roll time of 11.30am tomorrow (there's a repeat on Sunday tea time) and where else could they begin but with Postcard?
Over on 6Music, Lard took a brief look at the label on his record geek show Mint last night. And as a Brucie bonus they've got a Roy Harper interview too!
Finally, you can read about the label at Stylus. F-f-f-f-frrrresh!
On another note, we've been given a nice write up by the lovely people at diskant!

Hey it's a cheap gag, but what did you expect? 

By the beard of Zeus!

The lovely people at EMAP have shortlisted Beard for best music zine in their Fanzine Awards 2005

What were they thinking?

But, really, it's a great honour and a very nice surprise. Should be a good night out at the very least.

Have a look at the shortlist to see who we're up against.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the last issue. We couldn't have done it without you!

From the Beard archives, part one

Belle & Sebastian heid the baw at Glasgow Botanics