I was in the pub this lunchtime, stuffing myself with fish and beer, as we traditionally do at Proper Job, every Friday, as a matter of ritual. Whilst there I vaguely recall seeing a reference to some sort of fish from Normandy and instead my more common thought (mmm.. fish!) I found myself thinking that I liked the sound of Normandy. Just the word. I know that it’s just a pretty dreary, flat and largely unremarkable region of Northern France, but the name appeals to me somehow. A bit like Picardy, its neighbour.

There are a few places I’d like to visit just because of the name, actually. Corsica is another one – it just sounds nice as you pronounce it. Andalucia is another, although only when I pronounce it without the ‘th’. So it sounds really nice, but only if I say it wrong. Damascus has a lovely sound to it as well.

I remember a Mark Knopfler song (yes yes, I know, just fuck off) where a soldier in Napoleon’s armies dreams of returning home to his sweetheart, the “Flower of the Aquitaine”. Places in the Ukraine like Odessa have always sounded impossibly romantic for similar reasons. There’s something so evocative about that part of the world, irrespective of what the reality happens to be like. Or how about Dakar – how could you not want to go there? Or Madagascar? Alexandria always sounded so enticing as well, as do Casablanca and Marrakesh. Or Budapest. Or Mali.

In fact, I think it is possibly to arrange a lifetime of holidays on phonetics alone. Although maybe, looking at that list above, I just like the sound of the hard ‘c’.

/randombollocks

Shout Out Louds – Normandie
Yo La Tengo – Andalucia
The Divine Comedy – Motorway to Damascus

Moshi Moshi Records do indeed seem to be Record Label du Jour in the UK at the moment, which is no bad thing.  This month’s Welcome to Our TV Show is a Moshi Moshi special, with Slow Club, Hot Club de Paris and the superlative Wave Pictures turning up to play some stuff and do some interviews and such like.

I love the Our TV Show project – the production values are easily good enough, the music is phenomenally good and the atmosphere of the whole thing is excellent.  It just feels like the right way to go about music.  You can watch the whole lot on their YouTube page here, if you like, and here are a couple of mp3s as well:

The Wave Pictures – Now You Are Pregnant (Live on WtOTVS)
Hot Club de Paris – This Thing Forever (Live on WtOTVS)
Slow Club – When I Go (Live on WtOTVS)

How hard is it to make it as a band when you’re part of a thriving local scene? Tough enough, I should imagine. Is it easy to be overlooked in all the noise? Is it better or worse than being part of a smaller scene, or a more fragmented one perhaps? Or how about if there’s little scene at all? Or none?

A Classic Education are an indie band based in Italy. Now, oddly enough, I seem to have been contacted a few times recently by Italian bands playing what I would essentially call British or American indie rock so in the country as a whole there appears to be a small but not insignificant undercurrent of this sort of thing going on. In any one city, though, just how big is this kind of music over there? I have no idea, but I would assume it wasn’t all that massive a scene. What we describe as indie just doesn’t seem to catch on all that well (apart from Scandinavia of course) in most other countries for some reason.

Here’s a really interesting comment my friend Morgan (he of Toad TV ‘fame’) left at the bottom of the Europop Toadcast thread the other day:

I love Europe, as you know, for all it’s strong cheeses and the distinctive, uncompromising musical whiff they give off. It is interesting though, that you rarely see any discussion in young music circles of what ‘non-indie European music’ is about and where it’s coming from. It kind of gets palmed off as ‘World Music’ or trad folk. A musical museum piece rather than a vibrant scene that might actually represent a country. I guess it’s because that’s how it has been in the UK. I’ve always had a feeling that the reason the UK can create so much ‘new’ music is because fashion is the dominant religion here and our traditions are deemed to be generally embarrassing. Like with our national food, there’s always something to be gained socially by ditching the Brit-stodge and producing something exotically tinged with a foreign flavour, be it American jazz, blues or rock’n’roll, french accordions or recently, Eastern European gypsy music.

So what do you do if you’re an anglophone indie band adrift in the middle of Italy? How do you find the network of like-minded people who encourage you, come to all your gigs and buy your first home-made CD-Rs? Maybe it’s easy; maybe I’m just imagining all this and it’s pretty much the same as everywhere else – things often are I suppose. Nevertheless, A Classic Education always seemed something of an anomaly to me, perched out in Bologna, as they are.

Despite their Italian provenance, frontman (I think) Jonathan Clancy is a Canadian if I remember correctly, and the band do have the odd sliver of recent Canadian indie in their sound. The start of the brilliant Stay Son could easily, just as an example, be an Arcade Fire song.

For the most part the music is a lot more straighforward than that: it is straighforward, from-the-template indie music with atmospheric guitars, charismatic vocals and swelling strings. The only thing that really distinguishes this kind of thing is a simple one: do the songs grip you? The answer in the case of A Classic Education is simple: yes, they most certainly do. The EP kicks off with the obvious pop song, but for all the others are less insta-pop flavoured in their choruses and hooks, they are no less engaging.

So why don’t these guys have a record deal? I think it’s because the record industry is shit-scared at the moment. It reminds me of the pharmaceutical industry in that sense: everyone scrabbling for the Next Big Thing that will make millionaires or geniuses of them. In doing so what always gets neglected is the small-to-medium seller. No one’s interested in a product that is good, solid and respectable and will sell in good, but not breathtaking, quantities.

This is kind of where A Classic Education sit: their sound isn’t new or revolutionary, and you are unlikely to find their gigs stuffed full of teenagers with Haircuts wearing black+white+a bright accent colour. They are a good, solid indie band with a knack for writing excellent, satisfying songs.  And once the initial enthusiasm dies down, their EP is one I will always pull out and give a spin every once in a while, no matter how old it gets and no matter how much new stuff comes and goes in the meantime. It’s available from their website, so go and buy one.

A Classic Education – Badlands & Owls

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy the EP from their website

There’s not much of a unifying theme to this podcast, but there are a healthy number of breaking tracks in the playlist, so I guess calling it the Newcast will suffice for want of anything more inspired.

There’s new tracks from the impending singles by Kid Canaveral and The Left Outsides, a good few new bands you’ve never heard of, a couple of JC’s selections for the Toad Records Launch Night and some of the tracks from the sampler that I gave away at the party itself.

There’s also the first Recorded and Produced by Toad song in the world: Fearing Lothian by Uhersky Brod.  The band are friends of mine and we used the Toad Sessions recording equipment to put togethera demo for them.  It’s the first time I’ve ever recorded anything, so I presume there must be all sorts of issues with it but, well, you’ve got to start somewhere.  It’s a cracking song, whatever I’ve ended up doing to it.

So I hope you enjoy this rather disjointed collection of songs, because for all the lack of any real coherence it’s a good collection of songs nonetheless.

Toadcast #31 – The Newcast

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01. Cinerama – Health & Efficiency (03.57)
02. David Cronenburg’s Wife – My Ukrainian Girlfriend (12.39)
03. The Ukrainians – Batya (Bigmouth Strikes Again) (16.14)
04. The Lucksmiths – T-Shirt Weather (21.34)
05. Porlolo – There is No I in Athens (26.22)
06. Uhersky Brod – Fearing Lothian (33.17)
07. Sparrow & the Workshop – Grizzly Bear (38.46)
08. The Futureheads – The Beginning of the Twist (43.24)
09. Kid Canaveral – Teenage Fanclub Song (47.11)
10. The Left Outsides – The Third Light (53.15)
11. King Creosote – Ear Against the Wireless (61.34)
12. Eagleowl – Blanket (64.50)
13. Rob St. John – Domino (72.22)
14. Les Enfant Bastard – Plastic Bag (79.27)
15. Dinosaur Pile-Up – My Rock ‘n’ Roll Demo (85.43)
16. Computer vs. Banjo – Give Up on Ghosts (95.06)

There are going to be tantrums when certain people read this review, but I might as well come out and say it: it is time for David Gedge to get the fuck over it and move on with his life.  ‘Oh shit, I was confused, I faffed about with some girl at a party because I could, and now my real bird has fucked off and broken my heart’.  Again.  Of fucking course she has, David, you copped off with some silly bitch in a club again, what the fuck did you expect?

I do not know David Gedge personally – of course I don’t – and I make no claim to know whether or not these songs are really sincere.  They sound for all the world like he is simply changing the names from some of his earlier lyrics and slapping a guitar riff over the top, but maybe this really is representative of where he is in his life at the moment.  Unfortunately, if it is, it means he is still going through the same tired old rigmarole he was going through twenty years ago and for fuck’s sake you think he’d have learned from his mistakes by now.

It’s a bit like that mate you have who is forever going out with completely the wrong sort of person and then scaring them off with a bizarre combination of self-protective disinterest and idiosyncratic weirdness: there is only so long you can maintain sympathy before, no matter how heartfelt the pain, you are overwhelmed by the urge to shout “Really, no shit, again?  Well fuck me what an enormous fucking surprise.  BOOOOOO-ring!” at them.

I have a mate like that.  He is a really nice bloke, and there’s not a bad bone in his body, but the boy’s like a fucking goldfish.  He meets a girl, gets really excited, tells you about it in breathless tones, sees her for a number of weeks, she tries to get a bit closer, he gets stand-offish, someone slightly prettier (or just different,or perhaps more tellingly, less real) comes along and suddenly the cycle starts again.  I got to the point where I just ran out of endurance for hearing about any of it at all.
“I met this amazing girl – amaaaaazing!”
“No shit.  Well before you tell me about it, here’s your schedule: giddy intoxication for ten to twenty days, nagging doubts for five to ten, your doubts will make her clingy for another seven to fourteen days, two thirds of the way through that someone else will ping your radar, and you’ll have split up with the other one within a month to two months, maximum, and we’ll be back here having this SELF SAME FUCKING CONVERSATION ABOUT THE OTHER GIRL BEFORE SIX WEEKS ARE UP!”

And I fucking love the Wedding Present as well.

The Wedding Present – Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk
The Wedding Present – Spide-Man on Hollywood

Website | More mp3s | Buy El Rey from Amazon

Because this blog has become a very sociable thing recently, and I have never actually met or spoken to Rich from Atlanta blog Cable & Tweed, I have neglected his site a little bit of late. This is foolish because Rich has is responsible for introducing me to more than a couple of bands that have gone on to become firm Toad favourites (and he has something of an ear for things that Mrs. Toad will like as well, like The Builders & the Butchers and The 63 Crayons).

Well the latest band to emerge from his splendidly comic-strewn pages is called Porlolo. Based around the multiple talents of Colorado-based Erin Roberts, there is sweet, sad indie-folk here that is likely to be about as guaranteed to appeal to Toad Readers as anything I can think of. She’s got a wonderfully lovelorn voice, and the whispers of trumpet and violin are just gorgeous, so I honestly don’t think you can go wrong with this.

There’s a new album out in the middle of July, and I’ve asked for a promo copy to review. It feels a bit mean, begging freebies from small artists, but that label launch wasn’t cheap, believe me! Anyhow, I am really looking forward to hearing it, and you can buy her previous record Storm & Season from CDBaby if you, like I, find you can’t bring yourself to wait.

Porlolo – There is No I in Athens
Porlolo – Firehouse

MySpace | Buy Storm & Season

I have tagged this as ‘new music’ although if you’re a reader of this site then it probably doesn’t really count as new. Once again I find myself in complete sympathy with one of Tim’s reviews at the Daily Growl: I’ve heard too much of this before. This is just a tactical issue, not a criticism of the music: due to various singles and so on, I have actually heard an awful lot of the songs on this album already, which takes away some of the delicious thrill of listening to a new album for the first time.

This is one of the things that winds me up when Proper Media planks whine about the rise and fall of hype in the digital age, particularly when they are bleating about the fickle gaze of the blog world and how quickly it moves on from a once-favoured son. Bollocks. This is under no circumstances limited to the digital age. People used to do it all the time before the internet came along and ruined everything, only they’d do it with vinyl singles instead – the over-exposure of this album on singles and, more tellingly, b-sides is a classic example. Don’t give it all away too easily, folks, we need some surprises. Remeber Gene? No, me neither – some people just don’t have that many good songs, so don’t blame the hype.

None of this applies to Johnny Flynn of course, who has plenty of good songs. The first half of the album will already be almost completely familiar, and the second largely new. It continues his penchant for literate storytelling and warm, English folk music with a jaunty bent and cheerful rhythm.

Brown Trout Blues is still one of my favourite songs for years, not matter how often I’ve heard it, and all in all this is just a terrific album. I’ve not much to say about it really: it’s old-fashioned sounding, quite smoothly produced, and feels like the perfect album to play on a cheerful, sunny Saturday morning while you potter about the house and water the plants. Or something else equally rock ‘n’ roll.

Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – The Wrote & the Writ
Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – Brown Trout Blues

Website | More mp3s | Buy from Amazon

Sorry for missing these two little nuggets out the first time, folks, but there’s some interesting stuff going on this weekend that I (and Bart – hahahahhahahaaaa… fuck you!) missed the first time round.  Both gigs are on Saturday, so it’s going to be a fucking busy one.

The first is a bit straighforward:
Saturday 21st June 2008: Popup are playing Medina.
They’ll also bring some pre-release copies of their debut album with them for sneaky purchasers, should you be so inclined.  I don’t know much about Popup really, but they have some cracking indie-pop tunes and the one time I saw them live they were superb, so definitely a good one this, although I’ve never been to Medina so I’ve no idea what it’s like a a venue.
Popup – Lucy, What Are You Trying to Say?

This one is downright bizarre:
Saturday 21st June 2008: Found & a Shanghai Jazz Band in the Temperate Palm House at the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens.
Erm, well what the fuck can I possibly say about this?  I think I’ll be going out of sheer perverse curiosity.  The Botanics is just down the road from Toad Hall, and myself and Mrs. Toad wander about in there quite a lot when we find ourselves with a free afternoon.  Quite what the musical offerings are going to be is anyone’s guess, but Found are a superb band and I reckon I am going to give it a go.  A Shanghai Jazz Band?  The mind boggles.
Found – Mullokian

Gosh, that was fun. Exhausting, nerve-wracking and monumental hangover-inducing, but it was certainly fun.

The Meridian is a small place, so it filled up pretty quickly (which was an enormous relief). Then again, that was the precise reason I chose that particular pub – I’m not daft! Morgan – the man who is Song, by Toad TV – helped me charge round charity shops during the day frantically accumulating china tea sets, old lamps, anything that would give the place a bit of Toadly character. The piece de resistance ended up being an oddly sinister-looking doll in a large bird cage but, erm, oh just don’t ask!

The teacups were put to use as gin receptacles. For a tenner you could buy a teapot of gin & tonic (five shots – bargain) and then you helped yourselves to cups and thus was gin imbibed in biblical quantities. It was a bit fucking ridiculous, but then that was the idea. We wanted it to be fun. Apparently the mix was a little strong for some but that, I’m afraid, is how an amphibian takes his medicinals.

The place looked brilliant, loads of people came, the atmosphere was great – I had a fucking brilliant time.  The only blot on the landscape was the fact that the carefully constructed between-bands mixes I asked my friends to make were nixed by a computer meltdown, so we had to be rescued by Alex the sound guy’s iPod.  Fortunately, this more than did the trick, but apologies to JC and Andy for wasting all your effort.

The performances were excellent.  The Byrons made a right fucking racket to wake everyone up, Meursault‘s largely acoustic set was gorgeous, and then Celebrity Chimp rounded off the night superbly.  I’ve never seen them live before and I’ve been humming their songs ever since.  Fucking brilliant they were, and it was great to have the chance to bring something a bit different to the Edinburgh live circuit.  As I said to a few too many people at the time (I was very drunk and clearly pleased with myself over the turn of phrase) ‘none of yer agit-folk here, lads’.

Apart from that, it was really, really nice how many people turned up to support us.  Thanks to all of you for making the effort.  It was a bit like a wedding in the sense that I never got the chance to properly talk to half the people I wanted to, but I really am chuffed that you all made the effort to come along.  Nightjar album release party in July, everyone?  I promise to stay a little more sober.

Perhaps.

The Byrons – Azerbaijan
Meursault – The Furnace
Celebrity Chimp – Swingers

After the excitement of last week it is with just a little bit of relief that I announce that there is pretty much fuck all going on in Edinburgh this week.  Phew.  I might just stay in and finally catch a bit of the football on the telly for a change.  Would you believe a bloody footie fanatic like myself has missed every last second of the Euros thus far?  That’s how busy I’ve been.

Well I can take bit of a breather this week, although I am meeting Andy to plan the Nightjar album launch, which will hopefully be late in July.  So what is there for your entertainment this week?  Well mostly there is Bear Scotland.  Who the fuck are Bear Scotland I hear you ask?  Well they are the loose collective including Withered Hand, Meursault, Les Enfant Bastard and a couple of other bands I am only just getting to know.  Well one of the only things I find myself really recommending this week is the night all the bands on Bear Scotland that I don’t know come to town – that and the single release night for the excellent Kid Canaveral.

Friday 20th June 2008: Kid Canaveral at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
Kid Canaveral are releasing their new single, and this is the launch party.  I don’t have to big these guys up – just listen to Smash Hits below.  I defy you not to bounce.  See?  Get along to Henry’s then.
Kid Canaveral – Smash Hits

Friday 20th June 2008: School of Language & Meursault at the Ark.
I do not like the venue and from what very little I have heard I do not really like School of Language all that much either.  But Meursault are fucking brilliant, so if you are more SoL-inclined than I am, get yourselves down there.
Meursault – A Few Kind Words

Saturday 21st June 2008: Bear Scotland Presents at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
Actually playing will be the bands Dirty Summer, The Foundling Wheel and Dead Boy Robotics, but I know nothing about them (although Dirty Summer did that excellent song War is Bad, Bono is Great, which has featured on a Toadcast), but given how much I like the Bear Scotland bands I already do know, this show really is worth attending.  I’ll be there, and hopefully I will have some excellent things to share afterwards.
Dirty Summer – War is Bad, Bono is Great
Les Enfant Bastard – Plastic Bag (Pay attention to this, it’s new to this site and really rather good)