Live in Edinburgh This Week – 7th September 2008
Music. Edinburgh. Apparently. What do I care, I won’t be around anyway. We’re off to the End of the Road Festival at the end of the week, and then there’s the appaling spectacle of watching England get tanned by Croatia on Wednesday, then a friend’s birthday on Tuesday. So for me there is no such thing as music this week, you’re on your own, people.
I’m looking forward to End of the Road actually. Mrs. Toad will be with me this year, and things are always more fun when my midget companion is around. It was nice being there by myself last year, but a short, bad-tempered and entirely disinterested pal would make things immeasurably better.
The lineup looks intriguing this year, too. Last year there were so many bands I loved on the bill that I ended up racing from one show to the next, and still missed half of what I wanted to see. This year there’s loads I don’t know, which is really cool because Simon and Ro pick excellent bands, so there should be plenty of discoveries to make. I am likely to pitch up at the Bimble Inn early on and just bloody stay there, I think.
Thursday 11th September 2008: Calexico at the Queen’s Hall.
It appears that nobody who reads this website likes Calexico. To my readers, therefore, I feel obliged to say ‘fuck you all’ because I think they’re brilliant, and the Queen’s Hall is a great place to go and see them.
Calexico – Black Heart
Friday 12th September 2008: Alex Cornish at Cabaret Voltaire.
I’m annoyed I’ll be away for this because not only is Alex a fine musician, but he is also a lovely bloke and chatters his way through a set as engagingly and amusingly as anyone I’ve ever seen. There’s a new single approaching as well, so best pop on down. This should be a full-band show too, giving the sound a bit more, erm, bigness. Is that a word? It isn’t really, is it, but you know what I mean. Check this is really on, though, because it’s still TBC on their website.
Alex Cornish – This One’s For You
Here – I think you have used that fotie before. Can we not get some piccies of skagheads in Granton once in a while just to balance out the tweeness?
Offering: drink of choice at London pub, December 30, 2008. Payment required: adequate definition of twee. Lucky winner: could be you! Help a poor American woman out here, people. Even though I still think Calexico sucks.
twee, meaning old fashioned, old hat, out of date, very uncool.
Edinburgh is lovely but it is most definitely a bit pipe and slippers in the cool stakes.
That’s not exactly the most flattering shot I’ve ever seen of Victoria Street.
Apologies if anyone around here actually took that and Matthew didn’t just pinch it off a Google image search; but it is minging.
CALEXICO IS COOL
AND I JAMES GRANTON RESEMBLE THAT FIRST REMARK
ah! Mrs. Toad, come to London and let’s run off together for an evening! I promise my missus and I will return ya in the morning xooxo
What a bloody tart.
I still like Calexico…’the Ballad Of Cable Hogue’ is still one of my favourite songs of the decade, FWIW…
YES, get in, finally I’ve found someone. Well done Ed, get stuck in there and don’t take any shit from any of these miscreants.
also if anyone hasn’t heard them, woodpigeon are supporting Calexico at Queens hall and a few of the other UK dates.
they are also playing…ok well they played tonight with eagleowl in glasgow
they are incredibly good, so much so, END OF THE ROAD actually signed them after playing the festival last year, so Matthew you can see them when you go down as they are playing there… obviously
well maybe not obviously
but they are
i like Calexico also….but i will be going to the gig to see the glorious Woodpigeon,who will be supporting…go seek and enjoy.
Is that the street with Avalanche on?
I think Edinburgh is as cool as a cucumber. A bendy one. That plays drums.
Calexico is fantastic live. I saw them open for Wilco a few years ago and they put on the better show. I just don’t think their studio recordings are particularly good.
Gav, Avalanche is on cockburn St (pronounced coe burn, for any juvenile sniggery types out there), but like the above st, it is steep and curves round.
I never fail to find the American/English conjugations of collective pronouns to be really uncomfortable. From the Americans’ point of view, of course, Calexico ‘is’ a band, Manchester United ‘is’ a football team, and I know it makes sesnse, but it still sounds absolutely bizarre to me. I can’t get away from Calexico are fantastic live, despite the fact that of course there’s one Calexico, not several.
this thread is dead to me after the stupid calexico put on a better show than wilco comment.
A Free Man is now my hero. I love Wilco, but I’ve never heard a live recording of theirs that I liked much. Mind you I’ve never seen them either, so who knows.
For the record, it’s not that I dislike Calexico, I just think the big band sound that they’ve developed is much less interesting than what I’ve heard of their earlier work. I had to go back and listen to the Black Light yesterday just to be sure, and there are some incredible songs on there. On first listen it’s so much more arresting than what I’ve heard of the last two albums – much more dynamics going on.
And I thought they were really boring live.
Woodpigeon, on the other hand – as Tom points out – are fantastic, and the reason why I’ll be going along on Thursday. I’ve seen them quite a lot, in various incarnations, over the last three years or so, and each time there’s a real development and marked progression from the last time – even when there’s only been a period of a few months between each show. Last night in Glasgow they were amazing – the strongest performance and collection of songs I’ve seen yet – and so I’m very excited about seeing them in the Queen’s Hall.
I really think you should try and check them out at End of the Road, Matthew – think they’re playing twice – or at the very least give their most recent album a go – which is up for a ‘pay what you want’ download on their website (http://www.woodpigeon-songbook.com).
i’ve not heard a calexico song i’ve liked yet – and i have seen wilco – 4 tmies live and would travel the world to do so. bar radiohead and tom waits nobody beats them live. nobody.
I do like Calexico, I do, but I also Iike some variation from the first time you hear something (like, what, 6 or 7 years ago?) top their latest opus (bland, repetitive & breaking no new ground).
Eagleowl and Woodpigeon played on the same bill in Glasgow?
I bet Bill Oddie was in the audience.
Yes, he was.
Or, as I like to call him, Dad.
If only we’d had sparrow and the workshop too.
sigh.
There’s got to be a night in there somewhere. Ornithological Post-Folk. Nice.
That has to be the subject for the next Toadcast!
Toadcast # 37: The Twitchcast.
You could include classic tracks by The Eagles and A Flock Of Seagulls, too.
and budgie.
Sorry for being late on this one. Calexico are splendid and I don’t care what anyone says. I really like that Inspiracion track too so there.
The Black Crowes, Chicken Shack, You’re Gorgeous by Babybird..
The playlist writes itself!
Game fucking on! I need just over ten bands please:
The Eagles
Eagleowl
Sparrow & the Workshop
Woodpigeon
A Flock of Seagulls
The Byrds, do they count?
Not the Pigeon Detectives because they’re shit.
Andrew Bird
The Bird & the Bee
The Bowerbirds
The Mutton Birds
Anyone else… help me out here, people.
One of the Bee Gees was called Robin.
Gossamer Albatross
A Hawk & a Hacksaw
Barn Owl.
Rags & Feathers?
The Lovely Sparrows
Counting Crows & Sheryl Crow
penguin cafe orchestra
Ker-CHING!
Charlie ‘Bird’ Parker
Wildbirds & Peacedrums
The Eagles Of Death Metal.
Although the ‘Eagles’ reference in that name refers to the Hotel California band, so technically we’ve already got that one.
there’s an american metal band called ‘hate beak‘ that have amassed a bit of a cult internet following, due mostly to the fact that they actually feature a live parrot on vocals.
Owl Eyes
Erm, we may be reaching just a little by this point.
Come on.
Theres a bird IN the band!
What’s more appropriate than that?
And some of their tunes are pretty damn catchy.
I’m with Bart.
I think having a parrot on lead vocals kinda trumps everything else.
What was the name of that crap band who had hit albums with Final Straw and Eyes Open?
They’re always lumped in with the likes of Coldplay, Keane and Athlete, but I can’t quite recall their name…
It shall be called the Oddcast, after Bill.
Dylan that might be the worst pun I’ve heard in fucking ages.
Well done!
Dude, seriously.
You’ve got to open the Toadcast with Feral Parrot by Hatebeak.
It’s from their Bird Seeds Of Vengeance album, and it is fucking awesome.
Martina Topley-Bird.
The Lord Dog Bird.
The Yardbirds.
Birdland.
The Blue Jays.
The Jayhawks.
The Buzzards.
Dixie Chicks.
Stevie Ray Vaughn – because he is a cock.
doves
guillemots
Oh yeah…
Also, sorry to stray back to the point of the original post momentarily, but Dananananaykroyd are playing Cab Vol this Saturday. I’ve still yet to see them live, and have heard good things.
Also think it’s the (re-)launch night of the old picture house on Lothian Road. Which is worth a mention. Idlewild are playing. Some people still like idlewild, right?
why would you not like idlewild?
If you re-read my above comments about Calexico, but replace “calexico” with “idlewild”.
mmmm. can’t agree with that bartholomew. especially the “boring live” part.
Doves and Guillemots – what a legend!
yeah – and they are the painstakingly obvious ones! you guys are your crazy knowledge of weird bird named bands. ;o)
Robyn.
Revolting Cocks.
I could go on…
Revolting Cocks is great.
I’m not sure if their name refers to the ‘bird’ variety of cock, though.
But indeed, their cover of If You Think I’m Sexy is second to none.
BTW Toad, I came up with Revolting Cocks – DC emailed me to ask for suggestions – I’ve just popped by to see if he credited me with that one – but no, he’s claimed it for himself, the cheeky bustard.
Fuck Off back to work, wench.
(DC, while you’re around.. have a look at the end of the Not Just Local thread from the other day)
Sorry, back to bird stuff..
How about Albatross by Fleetwood Mac or The Chicken Song from Spitting Image?..
& Bart/Toad: what a more perfect reason for playing Beers, Steers & Queers, eh?
Dylan, I did & I was flummoxed. Who the fuck were you referring to? I recognised no one.
There are too many songs with birds in the title, and we already have loads of bands. Maybe another time with the song names. I am trying to keep the podcasts to an hour these days.
Beers, Steers & Queers?
It’s the track EVERYONE knows the RCs for
Oh right. Erm, of course. I knew that. Of course I did.
My God, you really have got a severe case of Blur.
Matthew – who was that guy that DC knew from the band on before the Kays Lavelle?
That was the whole reason I took the photo of you guys!
Erm, not sure actually. The lead singer from Dead Beat Club.
I thought you took the picture to celebrate all the indie beards.
No! (Although that was good beardmanship all around.) Someone said he knew DC.
Actually, he said he knew DC!
(Although, when he said that, he may have just have been trying to get rid of the crazy bloke with the camera following him round the pub and ranting on about the internet and Cardiff and stuff..)
It’s Andy Tucker from the Dead Beat Club.
Lovely guy.
Working backwards through the thread:-
1. There’s a ‘chickens and other birds’ edition of the Contrast Podcast, it’s number thirty something I think, that you might want to check.
2. Matthew, you’re absolutely write about this singular/plural business. Arsenal ‘are’ the better team, not ‘Arsenal ‘is’ the better team, and so on. Definitely.
3. With the greatest respect to Mrs Toad that’s a terrible definition of ‘twee’. I’m working on a better one.
In mitigation of that ‘write’ in number 2 I’d like to say that I’ve been on a training thing all day which involved brain gym, patting each other on the back and about six hours of things I already know.
Oh adam, going to be in London for xmas, eh?
So glad I missed out on the bird business yesterday here, but seeing it today, I must press on for the Buzzcocks, “Orgasm Addict” as it’s classic good old skool punk for you wankers.
You’ve made a write tit of yourself there, Adam! Mwaaaaahh hah haa! Oh. Sorry.
Is a Buzzcock a bird? It would certainly inject some much needed spite into the playlist.
No, a buzzcock is not a bird, Matthew.
Although I believe there is one model available on the market in the shape of a rabbit.
Hmm, not so good with sage and plenty of butter then.
Although maybe…
You’re thinking of ‘Woodcock’ surely.
Spatchcocked woodcock?
Although, (and this is going to get a reaction like the thing about ortolan did) aren’t Woodcock one of those things where you eat every little bit, the brain and the guts and all? Like Snipe?
Michael Snipe?
*applause*
If you spatchcocked Michael Snipe before cooking him those rich insidey bits would all dry out, see, so it would miss the point.
OH RIGHT! Dead Beat Club. Right, OK. ANDY. Right. OK. Yes. Now I know where we are. See, I had no idea who anyone was refering to & now I do.
I was thrown because I was distracted by the chimp in the middle & so didn’t actually notice those on the left & right.
Yes, ok, yes. We know each other in a convoluted way.
If you spatchcocked him at least all that spastic genuflecting that peppers his live shows might stop.
(Thanks DC, you handsome devil, you.)
Wouldn’t it be cool if Michael Snipe appeared on a song with Snow Petrel?..
Heh heh. Now that is a smile, Toad. Gin-fuelled, per chance?
No mate, Peroni and Stella.
I’m shocked to not see The Housemartins.
Where are they, then? The Corn Exchange? Mind you, I’d be a little more excited if this were 1986.
sorry i’m late.
bowerbirds (who surely shall kick ass at EOTR)
shite
i should have read the thread first shouldn’t i?
cock it
Whoops. But yes, definitely Bowerbirds. I am just sorting out the playlist now.
Twee – the dictionaries tend to jump between dainty, delicate and cute but in pop cultural terms I think twee is almost certainly male, largely acoustic with perhaps some beepy things going on, is likely to be concerned with the mundane every day, the very limit of emotion, and not always much else inbetween, is fond of baggy jumpers that go well over the wrists, and can probably recite poetry and possibly quite large chunks of prose.
Oh, or is that Colin.
Oi! Pay attention!
Rhian said The Housemartins.
“male, largely acoustic with perhaps some beepy things going on”
This particular phraseology appears all the time in the OED. Colin’s off actually, Adam, and you will be sorely missed at his ‘just piss off’ drinks later in the month.
Yes Dylan, the Housemartins. As in, used to be good, then weren’t, and all ages ago. So whilst I agree it is an interesting gig, the last time that Heaton and Cook pair had anything interesting to offer the world was The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, released in 1987 if I remember. So I may have been a year out, but my point still stands.
Just because she’s your sister and a very nice young lady doesn’t mean that the Housemartins aren’t a bit old hat.
I’m trying to find a course in Glasgow that I simply can’t afford to miss at the appropriate time but it’s not looking very likely.
That’s a shame. The only problem with the blogosphere is being spread quite so far and wide. But then it does make for those cool moments like when FiL from Vancouver met JC from Glasgow in Toronto, and how one of my readers from DC is going to meet up with Drunk Country from Cardiff, despite the fact that I’ve met neither.
Still, a real shame if you can’t make it.
Bit old hat?
You were the one excited to put A Flock Of fucking Seagulls on there!!
Now shush.
I have to get back to stealing all your Calexico MP3s.
Hang on, I am an idiot. I thought she was talking about a gig in Edinburgh that I’d missed. She was suggesting a band for the bird podcast – I am such a fucking idiot.
Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
It’s okay, don’t worry, she’ll forgive you.
But next time you see her I’ll have to hold you down while she kicks you in the shins.
Hard.
Being Welsh, that’s largely what I’d expect. Even if I hadn’t been an idiot.
So we have now, a definition: “meaning old fashioned, old hat, out of date, very uncool” (the feminine offering) v. “male, largely acoustic with perhaps some beepy things going on” (the male offering) and making therefore “A Flock Of fucking Seagulls” twee? For fuck’s sake people, I’ll never get my head around you lot! And my darling Londoner tells me it’s like a twinset and pearls, oh I’m lost, lost I tell ya. No drinks for anyone come Christmastime then. Except maybe Colin, whom I am told embodies the term quite nicely (says she, hoping that is indeed a compliment). xoxo
Twee is a teapot shaped like a tudor cottage.
It’s crap we lay on for the yanks that we don’t tend to bother with ourselves.
I’ll have a pint with you at Christmas!
Now that is the winning entry by some distance. Tart, you owe the man a pint.
Dylan, come to London on Dec. 30th and we’re on! I’m quite shaped like a Tudor cottage too, you won’t mind will ya? xoxox
one groupie is shaped like a tudor cottage. the other spends much of her time behind bars. i’m so lucky.
is Tart looking to woo all the male bloggers down to London for a New Year’s Eve Spring Break-style vodka jelly co-ed fuck party? Is this why Dylan is yapping up & down like a poodle locked in the boot of a hatchback on a sunny day?
“Yapping up and down” indeed.
It’s that exclamation mark on the final sentence isn’t it?
I thought the post sounded too grumpy without it.
Epic pwn! Even better than Dylan’s snide comment about my beard a few days ago.
No, no.
The one about your beard was in a class of its own.
I impressed myself with that one.
You’re not fooling anyone, Dylan. Here boy… *weet* *weet* *weet*
What the fuck is a weet?!
That’s your special ‘supper’s ready’ call, that is.
Fucksake you two, fucking stop it.
Have you made me supper, DC?
Great! What we having?
No, not all the male bloggers, I want Mrs. Toad too, and any other wives you all let off the chain for the holidays as well. The missus and I have three whole days in London and that’s plenty of time for wooing.
Don’t fret Dylan, D&C is only getting possessive as he thinks he’s been having me to himself over on my blog, the jealous rat-bastard doesn’t understand the word T.A.R.T. obviously.
Oh, I’m not jealous Tart. I’m simply lubing up my old chap ready for the big push. TWoTH wants to know if she has to do that dislocated jaw trick again – she needs plenty of warning so she can moisten her pipes in advance of any masticating. As for having you to myself – where’s the fun in that? Consider yourself the fleshy pin cushion of the blogosphere.
Dylan – you have some Welsh beef chunks off the Boneo (in a jus of bovine jelly), with a cascade of Pedigree chicken num nums for pudding.
Toad – oh, shush. Dylan likes his tummy tickled.
hahahha “fleshy pin cushion of the blogosphere” indeed, look for the post come Friday, lads. You’re nothing if not inspiring, D&C xx
this blog has gone a little crazy.