Ac acoustics
Encyclopedia
AC Acoustics were a Scottish indie rock
band from Glasgow
, formed in 1990 (see 1990 in music
). Over their thirteen years of existence, they released a string of singles, EPs and albums on a number of independent record label
s. They split up in 2003.
– blending white noise
with early Pavement
-style experimentation and, on occasion, augmenting their two guitar, bass and drums instrumentation with saxophones and violins.
Their first recording was the 1992 five-track Wrist Eye demo
, which featured Gerard Love from Teenage Fanclub
on backing vocals. The demo gained them a recording contract
with the independent label Elemental Records, who released their debut single, Sweatlodge/MV, in 1993. Displaying an aptitude for getting on the bill at disproportionately high-profile gigs, they opened for PJ Harvey
, Spacemen 3
and The Jesus Lizard
, amongst others.
Victory Parts
was released in 1997 and the band promoted it through tours with Embrace
, Stereophonics
, dEUS and Placebo
(Brian Molko
was a champion of the band and often wore a Stunt Girl T-shirt, including on Placebo's Top of the Pops
appearance for Nancy Boy). By this time, their sound had evolved into dense, fuzz-heavy riff
-based music with cryptic, poetic lyrics. Their musical approach and the band's acumen provided endorsement from Marshall
amplifiers.
In 1999 one of the band's songs was chosen to be on Seriously Scottish: Music from Contemporary Scotland, a CD compiled by the Scottish Arts Council
to send to cultural ministries in other countries.
Despite the accolades for Victory Parts in the music press, AC Acoustics remained a cult act. They were at times called "a typically unambitious indie band". They left Elemental and signed with Yoyo Recordings, releasing the EPs Like Ribbons and She's With Stars. They parted with Yoyo in 2000 and moved to Cooking Vinyl
, releasing a further EP Crush (continuing the Placebo connection thanks to backing vocal contributions from Brian Molko
).
as "their best album to date", with The Times
noting "intimate confessionals and juddering guitars that threaten to tumble from the skies". A favorable review in The Guardian
said, "There are times when only introspection will do, and those are the moments when AC Acoustics come into their own" whilst the NME claimed the album "...smashes the limited boundaries of its particular genre." A BBC
Music review marking the re-release of Understanding Music, published in 2010, commented: "...we can today give AC Acoustics the recognition and respect they deserved a decade ago."
The band split up in 2003.
They featured twice in John Peel
's annual Festive 50 chart, both tracks featuring on the Victory Parts album:
Prior to AC Acoustics, Dave Gormley played drums for fellow Glaswegian band Thrum
.
, described as a "must have reissue" in The Times.
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band from Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, formed in 1990 (see 1990 in music
1990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
). Over their thirteen years of existence, they released a string of singles, EPs and albums on a number of independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
s. They split up in 2003.
Early career
AC Acoustics formed in Glasgow in 1990. Initially, they were heavily inspired by The Jesus and Mary ChainThe Jesus and Mary Chain
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...
– blending white noise
White noise
White noise is a random signal with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency...
with early Pavement
Pavement (band)
Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...
-style experimentation and, on occasion, augmenting their two guitar, bass and drums instrumentation with saxophones and violins.
Their first recording was the 1992 five-track Wrist Eye demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
, which featured Gerard Love from Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub
Teenage Fanclub are an alternative rock band from Bellshill, Scotland. The band is composed of Norman Blake , Raymond McGinley , Gerard Love and Francis MacDonald , with songwriting duties shared equally among Blake, McGinley and Love...
on backing vocals. The demo gained them a recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with the independent label Elemental Records, who released their debut single, Sweatlodge/MV, in 1993. Displaying an aptitude for getting on the bill at disproportionately high-profile gigs, they opened for PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...
, Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3
Spacemen 3 were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. Their music was "colorfully mind-altering, but not in the sense of the acid rock of the '60s; instead, the band developed its own minimalistic psychedelia"...
and The Jesus Lizard
The Jesus Lizard
The Jesus Lizard was an American alternative rock and noise rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas. They were "a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground…[who] turned out a series of independent records filled with scathing, disembowelling, guitar-driven pseudo-industrial...
, amongst others.
Debut album and growing interest
In 1994, the band's debut album, Able Treasury, was released, which provided a demonstration of the unusual approach to song titles that would continue throughout their career (amongst others, the album featured songs called Mother Head Sander, Oregon Pine Washback and Sister Grab Operator). Shortly after this release, Mark Raine replaced Roger Ward on guitar and the band then began work on their next album.Victory Parts
Victory Parts
Victory Parts is the second album by Scottish indie rock band AC Acoustics. The album was widely acclaimed in the music press and displays an evolution of the band's sound from The Jesus and Mary Chain-derived noiseniks to wall-of-sound rock....
was released in 1997 and the band promoted it through tours with Embrace
Embrace (UK band)
Embrace are an English post-Britpop band from Bailiff Bridge, Brighouse, West Yorkshire. To date they have released five studio albums, one singles album and one B-sides compilation. The band consists of brothers singer Danny McNamara and guitarist Richard McNamara, bassist Steve Firth,...
, Stereophonics
Stereophonics
The Stereophonics are a Welsh rock band now living in turners x that formed in 1992 in the village of Cwmaman in Cynon Valley, Wales. The band currently comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Kelly Jones, bassist and backing vocalist Richard Jones, drummer Javier Weyler, guitarist and backing...
, dEUS and Placebo
Placebo (band)
Placebo are a British rock band from London, England, formed in 1994 by singer and guitarist Brian Molko and bass guitarist Stefan Olsdal. The band was joined by drummer Robert Schultzberg, who was later replaced by Steve Hewitt after conflicts with Molko. Hewitt left the band in October 2007 and...
(Brian Molko
Brian Molko
Brian Molko is a songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist of the band Placebo. He is known in particular for his high-pitched vocals, androgynous appearance, and unique, Sonic Youth-influenced guitar style and tuning.-Early life:Born to an American father of French-Italian heritage and a Scottish...
was a champion of the band and often wore a Stunt Girl T-shirt, including on Placebo's Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
appearance for Nancy Boy). By this time, their sound had evolved into dense, fuzz-heavy riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
-based music with cryptic, poetic lyrics. Their musical approach and the band's acumen provided endorsement from Marshall
Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...
amplifiers.
In 1999 one of the band's songs was chosen to be on Seriously Scottish: Music from Contemporary Scotland, a CD compiled by the Scottish Arts Council
Scottish Arts Council
The Scottish Arts Council is a Scottish public body that distributes funding from the Scottish Government, and is the leading national organisation for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland...
to send to cultural ministries in other countries.
Despite the accolades for Victory Parts in the music press, AC Acoustics remained a cult act. They were at times called "a typically unambitious indie band". They left Elemental and signed with Yoyo Recordings, releasing the EPs Like Ribbons and She's With Stars. They parted with Yoyo in 2000 and moved to Cooking Vinyl
Cooking Vinyl
Cooking Vinyl is a UK-based independent record company, founded in 1986. Its original orientation was toward contemporary folk music—notably Billy Bragg, and Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Tapes, recorded on a Sony Walkman, one of its first releases...
, releasing a further EP Crush (continuing the Placebo connection thanks to backing vocal contributions from Brian Molko
Brian Molko
Brian Molko is a songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist of the band Placebo. He is known in particular for his high-pitched vocals, androgynous appearance, and unique, Sonic Youth-influenced guitar style and tuning.-Early life:Born to an American father of French-Italian heritage and a Scottish...
).
Final albums and break-up
The band's line-up was augmented by a keyboardist, Paul Murray, and two further albums, Understanding Music and O followed, the latter being quickly completed in ten days. Understanding Music was described by The ScotsmanThe Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
as "their best album to date", with The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
noting "intimate confessionals and juddering guitars that threaten to tumble from the skies". A favorable review in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
said, "There are times when only introspection will do, and those are the moments when AC Acoustics come into their own" whilst the NME claimed the album "...smashes the limited boundaries of its particular genre." A BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Music review marking the re-release of Understanding Music, published in 2010, commented: "...we can today give AC Acoustics the recognition and respect they deserved a decade ago."
The band split up in 2003.
They featured twice in John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's annual Festive 50 chart, both tracks featuring on the Victory Parts album:
- "Stunt Girl" (Number 26 in 1996)
- "I Messiah Am Jailer" (Number 19 in 1997)
Prior to AC Acoustics, Dave Gormley played drums for fellow Glaswegian band Thrum
Thrum (band)
Thrum are an indie rock band from Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland, formed in 1992. They released four singles and an album before splitting up in 1995. Singer Monica Queen went on to a solo career...
.
Understanding Music reissue 2010
Fire records reissued Understanding Music in 2010, receiving a glowing 8/10 review from Drowned In SoundDrowned in Sound
DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:...
, described as a "must have reissue" in The Times.
Albums
- Able TreasuryAble TreasuryAble Treasury was the first studio album from the Scottish indie rock band AC Acoustics.-Track listing:# Mother Head Sander# King Dick# Three# Leather Buyer# Fat Abbey# Sister Grab Operator# Oregon Pine Washback# M.V.# Sweatlodge...
(1994) - Victory PartsVictory PartsVictory Parts is the second album by Scottish indie rock band AC Acoustics. The album was widely acclaimed in the music press and displays an evolution of the band's sound from The Jesus and Mary Chain-derived noiseniks to wall-of-sound rock....
(1997) - Understanding MusicUnderstanding Music-Track listing:# Luke One# Chinese Summer# Crush# Ridley Rider# She Kills For Kicks# Dry Salvage # Knot Of Knots # Supercup# B2# Arcane Action Man# Flies# Parrot Pine# Waiter Stains...
(2000) - OO (A.C. Acoustics album)-Track listing:# Hold# A Bell # Clone Of Al Capone# 16 4 2010# Bright Anchor # When We Were Very Young# Suck On Science# Conspicuously Leaving # Victoria...
(2002)
Singles
- Wrist Eye (five-track demo UK 1992)
- Sweatlodge/MV (7" blue vinyl UK 1993)
- Hand Passes Plenty (CD EP UK 1994)
- I Messiah Am Jailer (single-sided 7" UK 1997)
- Stunt Girl (CD EP UK 1999)
- Like Ribbons (CD EP UK 1999)
- She's With Stars (CD EP UK 1999)
- Crush (CD EP UK 2000)