Ambulances ‘How Could You Leave Me Here’

Having just written about Fire Engines on our new little brother site rippingvinyl.co.uk, it was quite odd to find an email in the inbox from a band called Ambulances. It gets odder with both bands hailing from Scottish Scotland, Fire Engines from Edinburgh and Ambulances – a gently charming six-piece – from Fife.

Reading their briefest of blogs on MS raised a smile with the use of a word that only works from the mouths Scots – magic. I digress. But what’s new?

Writing about music these days is often like shooting fish in a barrel. Your mainstream music journo is no different from anyone with a decent pair of ears and a computer, except they get bylines in publications you’ve heard of. Point is bands do a great job of getting their music out there, but they need to make it super-easy for ‘proper’ music journos and bloggers by doing the DIY PR too, something for the lazy hack to hang their hat on.

Take Ambulances. They’re almost there PR-wise. Here’s what I know. They sound great, thrum in all the right places, there’s a touch of Cocteau Twins and a dash of the Beta Band. It’s gentle stuff, think the mellow end of Spiritualized. From their MS I discovered they’re called Sara, Al, Scott, Graham, Chris and Stephen and they come from Fife. I also know, but only because she has a MySpace, that Sara is at art college doing textiles and says her favourite film is ‘Gregory’s Girl’. Good choice. They’ve had a tickle from 6 Music and there’s an album on the way that was made chop chop, eight days in fact, in the hands of legendary producer Kramer. The question a proper journo would ask is how indie royalty came to produce a wee band from Fife. Sigh.

Hat hung? Right, I’m off to find a band called Police Cars to complete the set.

More hear…
- There’s the MS, check out the cracking ‘What I Thought Of’ while you’re there please and thank you.