Stating that Ma Bells and Catch are for 'yahs' is ********. If you like a semblance of decent / contemporary dance music then they're the only option. I dj and am personally involved in a night, which'll hopefully continue thereafter, at Ma Bells late April with relevant dubstep / tech-house. Catch has had Bassface a couple of times this year, which too has offered some good dubstep / dancehall vibes.
Fat Sams has a lot of St Andrews business: Dundee's easy to get to a pre-drink on the bus, whilst a taxi back is like £5 p.p, so it's really not bad. The Reading Rooms gets no recognition on this board from what I've seen, but again, if you're into relevant dance / hip hop / techno whatever you want to call it, it's actually quite superb. A resident there should have some music released on Fake Blood's new label. (of Mars / I Think I Like It / Fix Your Accent fame..), which demonstrates the standard there. Recently they've had the likes of Mt Kimbie and Erol Alkan down there; very reasonably priced and a place that would be worth its salt somewhere like London, never mind Dundee.
The Union is terrible. STAR radio runs a night on Fridays which is okay, and the music in the bar area some Fridays is okay. Considering the size of the University population and how active it is in other areas (i.e. student elections) the amount of people they get in for Bop events and such is woeful. They really offer no alternative, and the sum total of acts that have come into the university has been a really half-arsed Calvin Harris dj set, and a member of the Editors ambling down to do a dj set. Not exactly what would come to mind from 'djs', but there you go. I see no reason why it can't strike up a greater chord with Fat Sams or such, and have the likes of Simian down in St Andrews earlier in the same night they do Dundee. I've found most other Student Unions, who don't have nearly such a lucrative student pool to draw upon, to put St Andrews to shame in that regard.
I've got down to Glasgow for a few nights and love the city. I think it's £10 by coach, but if you've friends to stay with down there and like a top night out it's worth it.
I've enjoyed this year, as even if around town can get a little mundane, there are plenty of good nights if you can be bothered spending a little effort getting to them.