It’s a quiet, but hardly barren week in Edinburgh this week, although I think I may skip a fair bit of it and concentrate on getting the Pictish Trail Session up and posted.

What a shitty fucking weekend it’s been, though.  I got some really bizarre message from an old school friend of mine asking me if I was blanking him on Friday, which I haven’t been.  We haven’t exchanged messages for years, but that’s been true in both directions.  Then on Sunday, before I’d responded, he sent another saying ‘Okay, I’ll delete you from my Facebook wotsit, have a good life buddy.’  For fuck’s fucking sake.  It’s no skin off my nose one way or another, but it was really weird coming right out of the blue like that.

Then I completely forgot a friend’s stag do and failed to attend because I had managed to pile too much other stuff into the weekend.  That, believe me, does not feel like a nice thing to do.  Especially when you get the phonecall and it dawns on you what you’ve just done.  Fucking bollocksing fuck.

I also got in trouble at Proper Job for excessive Toading on Friday, which wasn’t fun.  So there will be something of a kibosh put on work-time activity around here, and fair enough.  They’ve been more than patient with my little obsession, and quite frankly they’d be more than justified in giving me a formal warning, but it’s very nice that they haven’t.  About time I was equally nice back, I think it’s fair to say.

Then there was the Biblical amount of alcohol consumed over Friday and Saturday night, leading to a general feeling of uncleanness ever since, and of course there was the jolly banter about the Shitecast this weekend.  Fucking hell, I am looking forward to football tonight and the chance to just run it all off.

Monday 9th March 2009: Come On Gang play Trade Union at Cabaret Voltaire.

I think Trade Union may be on rather late, so don’t rush down, but if you’re up for night of giddy bouncing to Edinburgh’s finest punk-pop trio then swing by from 11pm and send them on their merry way to SXSW with a cheer.
Come On Gang – Wheels

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Thursday 12th March 2009: Futuristic Retro Champions at the Caves.

This band are one I know very little about, but they’ve been talked about very favourably since I’ve been up here.  This is one of those Mill gigs – beware, nothing but that god-awful piss-water Miller to drink – so you’ll have to click here to get a ticket.  Support band Tamika’s Treehouse are a band I know nothing about whatsoever, not even rumours or whispering, so any enlightenment would be appreciated.  After no more than a single MySpace listen they do sound catchy and enjoyable though, so this should be a good night.
Futuristic Retro Champions – Speak to Me

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Thursday 12th March 2009: Unicorn Kid, Ex Lion Tamer & Sugar Crisis play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

It’s all going to be rather electro-dance-pop at Limbo this week, but there’s easily enough edge to it all to keep me interested, despite being slightly outside my comfort zone with this sort of stuff. Ex Lion Tamer’s new single is out on 17 Seconds Records this week, although only on digital for the time being.  Hang about though, the vinyl will be here any moment now.
Sugar Crisis – Taking Names & Heartbeats

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Friday 13th March 2009: RBRBR & Over the Wall play This is Music at Sneaky Pete’s.

More boisterous pop fun with plenty of synths and bounce.  Sneaky bastarding Pete’s keep on deviously selling out of tickets at the moment too, so you might want to get one in advance for this.  I’m sure they’re doing it just to thwart me.
RBRBR – 27 Russian Friends

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday 14th March 2009: Little Pebble, Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers & Sparrow & the Workshop play the Trampoline birthday party at the Wee Red Bar.

This is Trampoline’s second (I hope) birthday party, and what a lineup.  Apart from Little Pebble it’s very Americana influenced in a slightly undefinable way.  I don’t know what exact type of Americana I would describe Sparrow or Woodenbox as being, but they definitely have some sort of influence in there.  They’re both absolutely thumping as well.  Little Pebble doesn’t have a lot in common with them, but having only seen him once, I am really keen to see more because he was absolutely excellent.  This is my definite
Little Pebble – Pirate

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

So actually, it’s not a quiet week at all, really, is it.

This has been coming for a while , frankly.  I nearly deleted this podcast on Saturday morning before it was even published, but I allowed myself to give in to the false deadline I set myself to publish these once every Saturday.

Why have I deleted it?  Well in many ways that should be obvious, I suppose.  I was going to leave all the comments up, because I quite like the fact that a lot of people called me out on what shit this podcast was – that’s what friends are for, and it might well have been easier to just turn your backs and wander off, so I appreciate you taking the time.  Ultimately, though, I thought we might be better off just flushing the whole sorry episode and moving on.  I hope you don’t think I am doing this as a way of hiding from your criticisms though.

What finally convinced me to get rid of the bloody thing was the last comment, from Mr. Bear:

“this is an ugly mess of a post and although you are known to push the boat out when it comes to good taste, this is so extreme that it doesn’t even sound like you.”

I have felt just a little bit sick about this podcast since the second I listened back to it on Saturday, and that comment pretty much sums up my feelings about the whole business.  I appreciate the people who stood up for me in the comments, but I am not sure that when publishing anything it is really acceptable to hide behind the ‘you know he doesn’t really mean it’ defence.  Read the rest of this entry »

Foiks really should be a proper word, shouldn’t it.  I think that might be as close as I get to the infitnite number of Booker Prize-winning monkeys.  That would be quite disappointing actually, wouldn’t it – Booker Prize-winning monkeys.  You wait almost an infinite amount of time (say, ‘ages’, for example) for your infinite number of monkeys to rattle off some Shakespeare and all they fucking lazy simian bastards come up with is the latest Joanne Harris Novel for Menopausal Women Who Think Their Artistic Side is Being Neglected.  Fuck you, monkeys!  The Girl With the fucking what?  Jesus, as if I didn’t feel like I was having my period already.  Mind you, it could be worse.  They could write Jeremy fucking Clarkson’s autobiography.

That picture at the top there is how we are hoping to get the Toadmobile  painted.  We spent Thursday night getting drunk together and fannying about with Photoshop to come up with a few different ideas, and that was a narrow favourite, just ahead of one in bright metallic green with black and white racing stripes down the middle.  It also was very cool indeed.  Christ knows what our mechanic is going to say when we show him that picture, but, erm, well we’ll just leave that for another day shall we.

Grmpf.  That’s it, really, so please de-lurk and chip in with your Friday Five, as pinched from the talkboards on the Guardian.  And if you want to chip in next Friday’s five then just email me at the usual address.

1. Favourite not-a-word-but-should-be.
2. Place name which sounds completely made up.
3. A word doesn’t exist for this, but it should.
4. Cool-sounding foreign word.
5. Word you could never spell.

Velvet Underground – Venus in Furs

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Wilco – I’m Always in Love

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Gomez – Make No Sound

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Lambchop – Grumpus

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

My Teenage Stride – Actors’ Colony

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This release isn’t actually called ‘Acoustic EP’, that’s just a description.  In fact it doesn’t have a title at all, being pretty much entirely under the radar, only available at gigs and Avalanche Records in Edinburgh, I think.  It was recorded by the band as something of a stop-gap whilst they were waiting for their label negotiations to be concluded, and slipped out quietly after they had been signed, so as not to detract from the anticipation of their new album.

It’s largely acoustic, and seems to be something of a collection of songs which weren’t going to make it onto the full record, or which might otherwise have slipped through the net.  It includes the gorgeous Out On the Water, which exists in a couple of versions already, not least their Toad Session version from April last year.  There’s also Lessons Never Learnt which in my mind is so good that it threatended to overshadow their debut single, when it was released as its b-side last year.

There is one song which I don’t really like all that much however, which is highly unusual for me with this band.  The Crumbling Wall, honestly, sounds a bit like Coldplay.  Broken Records’ front man and main songwriter, Jamie Sutherland, is a friend of mine and he may never forgive me for that statement, but there’s just something in the piano and perhaps something in the rhythmic rise and fall of the vocal melody which just… somehow… ah well, never mind.

Fortunately that’s it as far as negatives are concerned.  The rest of this is a bloody treat, and I’d urge you to pick one up the next time you see them live.

Broken Records – Lessons Never Learnt

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Website | More mp3s | Buy Broken Records vinyl from Rough Trade

Celebrity Chimp are more of an experience than just a band.  Watching them play live, as they basically act like total bastards towards one another, and as the pink and black-clad crowd leap around like muppets, I am actually reminded of what music was like when, instead of the internet destroying recorded music, recorded music was destroying live music.

Because Celebrity Chimp seem to be about more than just putting their albums on the record player.  The extreme piss-taking mixed with the tiniest hint of seriousness in their songs actually requires that they become a shared joke.  Watching the band bicker amongst themselves like an old, married threesome on stage, that wink of understanding between audience and performer again becomes obvious.  If you get them, you actually almost have to become one of them.

For those of us who do not live in London, however, the music has to survive on its own merits, which it does with aplomb.  You can, actually, just stick ‘em on like a pop song and hum along.  The hooks and the rhythm are infectious and basically the whole thing is just one fucking great pile of boisterous fun.  You can’t avoid the lyrics though, and the first time you listen you will inevitably find yourself thinking ‘What the fuck are they going on about?’  But then, that’s a large part of the point.

This is a five-song EP of banjo punk joy, and you’d be a fool to miss it.  And if you can see them live you really, really should.

Celebrity Chimp – Porn Star

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Celebrity Chimp – Kasia (This isn’t on the EP, but I wanted another song to give you more of a taster, and two from a five-track EP seemed a little cheeky.)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from CDBaby

The Young Republic have been pretty quiet since the release of their debut album a couple of years ago.  That record was less of a coherent whole and more of a greatest hits collated from several years of self-recording, so it’s actually a miracle it hung together as well as it did, frankly.

In the intervening period the band have lost three members, released an EP and fairly comprehensively changed their sound.  It’s not been a smooth process, honestly.  They had already begun to drift away from the whimsical indie-pop which dominated their early sound before the departure, for a variety of reasons, of their flautist, drummer and pianist.  Since then they have continued to move further towards more of a classic rock sound, a sound dominated, for ease of explanation, by Bob Dylan’s legendary Rolling Thunder Revue.

The disruption in the band itself caused a fair bit of turmoil, because it wasn’t entirely amicable, and come the release of last year’s Idiot Grin, there was a definite sense of uncertainty about the band.  The new lineup seemed to have slightly unsettled them and the EP itself, despite containing some really good bits, was a little bit hit and miss – basically they were a band in flux and it came across very clearly in their work.

This is a year on, and that all seems to have changed.  I’ve been listening to the new album and although I can’t review it yet (not until it’s released is the guideline I generally follow) I can confirm that after casting around just a little, they seem to have found where they were going.  I’m not, as I said, going to get into a review of the whole thing, but there’s a real coherence about it as a piece of work which I really welcome.

So, in short, it looks like this could be a really good year for the band which, given I like them all a lot as people as well as musicians, is something I think is really good news.

The Young Republic – Black Duck Blues

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The Young Republic – The Wolf

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I don’t really know who I’m writing this review for.  Is it the long-time Clem Snide fan who hears their first new album for about five years?  The neophyte, who knows nothing but this?  Myself and my long-term relationship with their music?  I don’t know.

When you’ve been a fan of a band for nine years or so, through half a dozen full albums and a few live CDs, rarities compilations and EPs, then your perspective inevitably changes.  For long-term fans I’ll just say this: this album will probably take its time to sink in, but it will be largely worth the wait.  It reminds me of The End of Love in that respect – perhaps not as immediately arresting on the first few listens, but with a warmth, a depth and an intimacy which mean that your patience will be rewarded if you give it a chance.

For new listeners, this is a gorgeous album, although if you want a cast-iron Clem Snide classic I might perhaps refer you to Your Favourite Music or Ghost of Fashion.

Harking back to those two records, although they genuinely are my favourites, seems to be really underestimating their later output though.  They’ve changed as a band, and although that change does seem to have been in the direction of less musical variation, the fundamentals of the songwriting have not weakened.  Eef  Barzelay still writes some of the most caustic, impressive lyrics in the business and their ability to engage with you emotionally hasn’t waned.

That emotional engagement comes increasingly from a slow build of warmth and sympathy within the textures of the song, rather than simply an infectious hook, so you could easily be forgiven for overlooking it, but it is still there.  I felt that way myself, pretty much from End of Love onwards, inclusing Barzelay’s recent solo album, but despite thinking ‘oh gosh, no tunes’ on first listen with all of these records, they invariably end up grabbing me despite this.  I don’t know if it’s because of the lyrics, because of that combination of the acerbic with the humourous, or because of their musical ability to simply play in a manner which makes its own peace with your psyche, but something they do seems to mean that I am fated to connect with their music eventually.

So it may not be their best album, but there is something about it which is worming its way deeper and deeper into my head with every listen.

Clem Snide – Me No

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Clem Snide – Beard of Bees

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Website | More mp3s | Buy from Amazon

Hello everyone – sorry for the lateness of this post, but unfortunately sometimes actual jobs with wages and things have to take precedence over things Toad, just for a little while.  I have spent the day at a meeting in Inverness, and I am desperate for a really good sleep.

There’s not a lot on in Edinburgh this week as far as I can tell.  The brilliant Animal Magic Tricks is playing pretty much as I write this, and I am gutted that I won’t get the chance to see her.  Well, not until Saturday, anyway, which is when everything kicks off, as far as live music in Edinburgh is concerned.  You could (and I intend to) drink yourself into a peaceful oblivion over the course of the day, going from the Fence Collective’s fucking brilliant pre-season friendly (a Homegame warm-up) during the day to the Bear Scotland night at the Wee Red Bar in the evening.

Oh, and I recently mentioned in the comments section that there was a brilliant write-up of the Edinburgh music scene in The Scotsman this weekend.  Yours Toadly was mentioned on a couple of occasions, which was rather splendid, but in general Andrew Eaton, who wrote the article, was trying to cram so much information into his piece that there was barely any space for him to do any writing.  It’s a terrific article though, and a real vindication of all the hard work which I’ve witnessed here over the last few years.  So well done to everyone, and thanks to Andrew.

Friday 6th March 2009: The Gillyflowers at the Village, Leith.

Recently signed to local blog label Seventeen Seconds, the Gillyflowers are a brand spanking new country band who have emerged from Leith only very recently.  Riley Briggs of Aberfeldy produced their demos for them, and they have recently been reviewed in pretty fucking glowing terms by The Herald and The Scotsman.  I can’t tell you much more about them, other than that Country Boy, one of those demos, is bloody lovely.  I’ll find out more on Friday, I’d imagine.
The Gillyflowers – Country Boy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday 7th March 2009: Found, Player Piano, The Red Well & plenty more play the Fence Collective’s Pre-Season Friendly at Old St. Paul’s Church Hall.

Apart from the lineup actually listed, there will be little inbetweeny performances from all sorts of other great bands at this one – Animal Magic Tricks and Meursault to name a couple – and the chance for a leisurely afternoon drinking session (the gig takes place from 2pm-8pm) in such a lovely venue really is not one to be missed.
Found – Some Fracas of a Sissy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday 7th March 2009: Dead Boy Robotics, The Foundling Wheel & Enfant Bastard at the Wee Red Bar.

This is a Bear Scotland night, and the first time I will get to see proper full sets by both Dead Boy Robotics and the Foundling Wheel, although I have caught some bits and pieces by both before.  Enfant Bastard though – oh yes please!  This gig really shows the breadth of the Bear Scotland umbrella, too, from the experimental thunder of The Foundling Wheel to the electronic, dancey pop tunes of Dead Boy Robotics to the… well, whatever Cammy feels like playing that particular night as Enfant Bastard.
Enfant Bastard – Joanna Newsom 666

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday 7th March 2009: Maybe Myrtle Turtle & Fanattica at the Bowery.

This should be pure mayhem.  Both bands play folk-based stuff with added off-kilter whirlwinds of pure carnival frenzy.  It sounds to me like it should be a truly amazing gig, honestly, and if you don’t come out of the Bowery grinning from ear to ear and bouncing up and down like a delighted infant then I’ll be fucking amazed.  Told you Saturday was going to be busy.

I’ve got meetings in Inverness with Proper Job all day today, so everything is going to be a little late, including the Monday listings.  Hope there’s nothing unmissable on this evening, but nothing to be done about it I’m afraid.

The Avett Brothers – Hard Worker

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.