Shouting at Wildlife

Recording and music

Following the release of the band's fourth single "I Don't Have the Heart for This" in December 2008, Kid Canaveral parted company with their original drummer Dan Sheehy. In between appointing Scott McMaster as the permamnent fourth member, the group embarked on a UK tour with Clark Geddes behind the drums, before starting to work on what would become Shouting At Wildlife. However, during this time MacGregor was suffering from "severe writer's block" and was struggling to satisfactorily complete any songs, until an 11-month drought ended in March 2009.

The band started to record with engineer Gal (engineer of Quietly Now!, amongst other things) at Fourth Street Studios in Glasgow, in May 2009, recording the basic elements of "Good Morning", "And Another Thing!!", "Left and Right" and "On Occasion".

With a new sense of purpose the band wrote and completed material in between the studio sessions (and some in the studio) and released an E.P. called Left and Right in October 2009, which also gave the band a chance to head out and road test new material on their first UK tour with Scott.

The record was finished and mixed in January 2010, and released by the band's own label Straight to Video Records on 5 July 2010.

Release and promotion

To promote the album, the band released the single "You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night" to precede it. The band hosted an album launch at The Roxy in Edinburgh on 3 July 2010, two days before the official release of the album. The show was a sell out, and was the first date of a UK tour in support of the album. During the second half of 2010, the band toured the UK extensively and played a number of festivals and recorded a live session for BBC Radio Scotland in support of the album.

Kid Canaveral completed a short tour of the United States in March 2011 including a number of shows at the SxSW festival in Austin, Texas. Kid Canaveral were filmed before and during SxSW as part of a BBC Artworks documentary about the festival. The final single to be released from the album was "And Another Thing!!". This coincided with the re-release of the album and a number of festival appearances in 2011 in the UK, most notably at T in the Park (on the BBC Introducing stage), The Edge Festival and the Belladrum Festival. The final leg of the promotional tour for Shouting At Wildlife will include further festival dates and two UK tours, which will take the band to the end of 2011.

Reception

The album received universally positive reviews, with The Skinny describing Shouting at Wildlife as "a thrilling, uplifting and generally all-round spiffing combination of indie-pop skills, lyrical wit, and choruses sung through smiles" and The List praised the record for being "packed with singalong melodies, frisky jangles and a real sense of purpose. A jubilant and skilful racket." The album was BBC Radio 1 Session in Scotland's Album of the Month for July 2010 and the album featured at, or near the top of a number of end of year lists and polls.

The album was the best selling album of 2010 in Scotland's biggest independent music retailer, Avalanche Records, ahead of more established acts such as Belle and Sebastian, The National and Arcade Fire. The word-of-mouth success of the initial run of the album led to it being re-released by Fence Records on Vinyl and CD.

Upon the re-release of Shouting at Wildlife by Fence Records, the Glasgow Herald described the album as "a Scottish pop classic [that] should be mandatory in every record collection in the country" and Vic Galloway and Tom Morton featured it as their 'Album of the Week' on their respective BBC Radio Scotland shows, in its week of release.

Track listing

All songs written by MacGregor, except as noted.

1. "Good Morning" – 3:29
2. "You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night" – 4:12
3. "Left and Right" – 2:55 (Lazda)
4. "Cursing Your Apples" – 3:05 (MacGregor/Lazda)
5. "Smash Hits" – 2:57
6. "Quiet Things are Quiet Now" – 3:07 (Lazda)
7. "And Another Thing!!" – 4:47
8. "On Occasion" – 2:30 (MacGregor/Lazda/Sheehy)
9. "Talk and Talk" – 3:25 (Lazda/MacGregor/McConnachie)
10. "Couldn't Dance" – 3:19
11. "Her Hair Hangs Down" – 2:20
12. "Good Morning (reprise)" – 2:00

Personnel