Commercial Alternative @ Mono, Glasgow, 4 July

The Mono bar and Monorail record store in Glasgow’s King’s Court has long been one of the hippest hangouts the city has to offer, selling reams of quality, fair-priced vinyl juxtaposed with a cool, open-spaced cafe/bar in which to sit down and stroke your purchases afterwards. What more could you want?

What’s that? You also want a mid-summer day’s mini-festival chock full of some great under the radar bands, with a large outdoor covered beer garden in which to schmooze with the cognoscenti between sets? Well alright then. On Sunday 4 July, Mono will play host to just that with the oxymoronic Commercial Alternative. The emphasis however is heavily on the ‘alternative’ part. Regular readers should be no strangers to headliners The Phantom Band, a rag-tag collective of Glasgow art students touting some of the finest robotic krautrock prog going and live, they simply shouldn’t be missed.

Able support comes from pastoral indie veterans Comet Gain and the seemingly perennial 1990s, bringing some dirty glam pomp to proceedings. With their bill placing, the towering, loop-infused crystalline aural structures of Remember Remember should go down a treat on a sunny Sunday afternoon with a cold cider on hand. And whilst you may be au fait with some of these names, there are plenty of smaller acts such as the Spectrals, Girls Names, Astral Planes, Peter Parker and Golden Grrrls  waiting in the ranks to be your new found treasured discovery. [Darren Carle]