This album is simple, clean and lovely.  It’s gentle and unhurried, and they appear to have been listening to an awful lot of Bill Callahan.  It sort of drifts into this territory over the course of the album though, rather than starting out there.  To begin with it works more of an easy, slightly croonsome folk sound, again keeping things nice and laid back.

The use of female vocals is particularly nicely judged on this album, whether it be in duet or simply to accent the main vocal thread, it brings a lovely dynamic to the music, and seems somehow to make it more wistful.  Her voice seems to have a touch of the Jolie Hollands about it at times, which perhaps leads to me having the impression that this album is a little more folky than it actually is.  Apart from the gorgeous cello work, there’s nothing all that folky about this really, but I am still left with the impression that it is a folky record for some reason.

I would like perhaps a little more zip or bite about either the songwriting or the arrangements, if I were to make any criticism.  Something somewhere could do with being a little more raggedy and less, well, pleasant, I suppose.  That’s a bit of a churlish criticism in some ways because the lush loveliness is one of the best things about this album – it’s rich and beautiful and a pleasure to listen to – but you know what I’m like with angst.  This is a good record though, and I will be exploring their back catalogue.  Incidentally, according to their MySpace page they don’t have a record label at the moment, which seems like an absolute travesty.

Breathe Owl Breathe – Twilight

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Breathe Owl Breathe – Sabertooth Tiger

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Website | More mp3s | Buy from the band’s website

There’s not an awful lot out there about this band to research, so this is going to pretty much be a face value review: Alberto Veto are from Nottingham, they have a skittish energy to their music, and their lead singer has a very nice voice indeed.  Right, pint anyone?

Okay, okay, there’s a little more to it than that.  Of the few reviews I’ve managed to find, all mention a highly energetic live show, which of course I have not had the pleasure of experiencing.  The recordings are a little more studied than that – and very good for self releases as well, it has to be said.

You can hear in the relentless thrum of the guitar and the insistent drumming the basis for a mental live performance, and that same purpose translates well to the recorded songs.  This is an EP which demands almost constant finger-tapping, and that’s a very good thing indeed.  If anything it reminds me a little of Lucky Jim actually, who is another Edinburgh artist (and veteran of the Lost Soul Band), although that might just be the voice, which is part way between barroom rasp and lounge croon.

I may not have much to go on here, but it sounds very promising indeed.

Alberto Veto – Through Her Teeth

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Website | More mp3s | Buy the EP from the band’s MySpace

Mrs. Toad (malingering old bag) and I are going to be live on Fresh Air at 6.30pm tonight, and I’ll post the playlist here as we go along.  This way any foul remarks can go here and not sully Fresh Air’s fine reputation as an upstanding family station.

Click on the big Listen Live button on this page to tune in.

01. King Creosote – No-one Had it Better
02. The Japanese War Effort – St John
03. Broken Records – Wolves
04. Eels – Fresh Blood
05. Jason Lytle – Flying Through Canyons
06. Jason Lytle – On a Piece of Wood I Go
07. Jesus H. Foxx – I’m Half the Man You Were
08. Yusuf Azak – The Key Underground
09. The Wave Pictures – Canary Wharf
10. Wilco – The Jolly Banker
11. Phil & the Osophers – They Threw a Shoe at You
12. The Leisure Society – The Last of the Melting Snow
13. Alberto Veto – Through Her Teeth
14. Rock Plaza Central – Don’t You Believe the Words of Handsome Men
15. The Limes – Dead Furniture
16. X Lion Tamer – Life Support Machine

Cheers folks, been fun.  See you next week 6.30pm-8pm once again.

At this year’s amazing Homegame Festival, run by our DIY pals at the Fence Collective (who have been incredibly helpful in the start up of Song, by Toad Records), I had the chance for a bit of an interview with Scottish indie hero Malcolm Middleton.

Neil from Meursault, who is a longstanding fan, conducted most of the interview itself, and we teamed up with Andy from the new Edinburgh live session showcase Off the Beaten Tracks, who shot a couple of session videos at the same time.  You’ll have to go to their site to see the session videos, but it’s well worth the visit as they have stuff from Team Turnip and Come On Gang already up, with Slow Club, Meursault, Randan Discotheque and, I think, Found all to be added in the coming weeks.

The interview itself was really nice, as can be seen in the video above.  Malcolm himself has a reputation for being a miserable bastard, and I have to confess that made me a little apprehensive about talking to him.  I’m still new to interviewing people and, whilst it’s piss-easy when things are going well, turning things around when they are going badly is something of a skill, and one which I am yet to come anything close to mastering. Read the rest of this entry »

Good grief, it’s a busy week in Edinburgh this week.  I am going to have to drive everywhere just to stop myself drinking my liver into oblivion.

Personally, of course, I am advocating the Song, by Toad Spring piss up at the Bowery on Thursday.  Those of you yet to acquire a copy of Meursault’s blinding new EP, I’d very much recommend you take this chance to do so.  We’ve only made 300 copies – all hand-painted – so I don’t think they’ll last all that long.

Tigerfest and the This is Music third birthday celebrations make this a busy week, and with so many celebrating promoters, things look likely to get really quite messy indeed.

Monday 4th May 2009: Au & Jesus H.Foxx at the Bowery.

Would wonky folk pop be an adequate description of Portland’s (I know, I know) Au?  It’s pronounced AY-Yoo apparently, and this is going to be my first real exposure to their music, which I am rather looking forward to.  From the MySpace it sounds both dreamy and theatrical, whilst still being prone to the odd clattering crescendo.  Sounds very promising.
Au – Boute

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Tuesday 5th May 2009: Navvy at Sneaky Pete’s.

It’s all a bit more pop than you might expect from this site, but Navvy’s songs are jumpy, enjoyable and just beholden enough to 80s indie that I think I might like them.  Definitely worth checking out, I’d say.
Navvy – Time

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Thursday 7th May 2009: Tigerfest w. Song, by Toad present: Meursault, Inspector Tapehead & The Japanese War Effort at the Bowery.

This should be a really good night, with a bit of luck. I will be there with bells on, and looking forward to what can only I suppose be described as something of a mix of styles.  There are a lot of electronic gizmos involved, I guess, so maybe that’s the unifying theme.
Inspector Tapehead – I Am Your Pedigree

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Friday 8th May 2009: Tigerfest w. 17 Seconds Records present Aberfeldy & X Lion Tamer at Cabaret Voltaire.

Ed and 17 Seconds are amongst this blog’s oldest friends, he and I having first met at a Camera Obscura gig during the first few months of Toad’s existence.  He too has gone on to expand his blog into an embryonic record label, starting with established Edinburgh favourites Aberfeldy, and since adding The Gillyflowers, X Lion Tamer and, most recently, Escape Act.  This is his label’s showcase, so please go and support someone who has in his turn given what we’re up to over here plenty of encouragement himself.
X Lion Tamer – Life Support Machine

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Friday 8th May 2009: This Is Music 3rd Birthday with: Broken Records, Mike Bones, & Rob St John at the Bowery.

Broken Records crammed into the Bowery should be fucking amazing, quite frankly.  It’s been a while since they played such a small venue (not counting the Bedlam Theatre, which despite being short on seats, is actually quite grand in atmosphere) and I would lay money on them blowing the toupées off anyone who gets too close.  Tickets may still be available from City Cafe, but frankly, I’d be surprised.  Worth checking, though, because this should be great.
Broken Records – And They All Fell Into the Sea (BBC 6Music Session)

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Friday 8th May 2009: Wintersleep at the Wee Red Bar.

I know nothing about them apart from what I can glean from a quick visit to MySpace, and it sounds like promising stuff.  It’s got a lot of Interpol in there, which is no bad thing, although they may be a little less moody than that comparison might lead you to believe.
Wintersleep – Search Party

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[I wrote this article for the good folks at The Skinny, who were kind enough to give me the opportunity in the first place.  Song, by Toad does not, yet, have enough pull to swing interviews with the likes of Jason Lytle, so I am very grateful for the chance, and a big thanks to Milo from Products of a Gaseous Brain, who suggested me in the first place.]

When Grandaddy dissolved in 2005, their lead singer disappeared to the mountains in Montana, essentially turning his back on the industry to reinvigorate his relationship with music. Jason Lytle sits down with Matthew Young to explain how he found the road back.

King Creosote didn’t just vanish for ten years in between the fall of the Khartoum Heroes and the release of his first album on Domino Records. Micah P. Hinson wasn’t saved from self-destruction by the redemptive power of music. And Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle didn’t just run away to the wilderness to live in a cave for three years after the demise of one of the most successful indie bands of recent memory.

This is the vague story that percolated through to my mind when, after more than ten years of what any independent band would consider wild success, Grandaddy finally imploded. Lytle moved out to Montana and made a clean break ostensibly, it seemed, to retire. But like Hinson and Anderson before him, Lytle seems to bristle slightly when faced with the simplistic version of his own life story. Read the rest of this entry »

This podcast is sort of like the Clustercast should have been.  I haven’t actually listened to it yet, so I don’t know if it’s any good, but it sort of felt better, somehow.  It isn’t anything like that incoherent and garbled anyway, which is a relief.

We spent the day collecting for the lifeboats, along with some excellent help from our pals Dylan from Blueback Hotrod, Neil from Meursault, Ed from 17 Seconds, Dave, Michael and the Stormettes from The Stormy Seas and Morgan from, erm, Glasgow.  I have to point out how important their help was as well.  It’s easy to talk a good game and then to pussy out at the last minute, but despite the fact that both Neil and Ed had other things on today, everyone made the time to come down and help out, which is bloody good of them.  We collected a fair chunk of cash – Mrs. Toad’s pretty blonde colleague collected the most, rather predictably.  Maybe we need fewer beardy alt-folkies and more hot babes next year.

Enjoy the podcast, then; we’ve got a lot of nautically-themed songs this week and could have had even more.  There are loads of songs, and we had far more on the list before trimming.  It’s a bit out of control, this podcast, but actually I think it’s quite good.  Dylan’s roving reporter slots are just… well, they’re just.  They’re just. That’s what they are.  Experience them for yourself.  Good luck.

Toadcast #67 – The Wuzzlecast

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01. The Pogues – The Ship Comes In (05.57)
02. Sad Day For Puppets – Big Waves (09.07)
03. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (17.44)
04. James Yorkston – Sir Patrick Spens (26.22)
05. The Second Hand Marching Band – Not Yet (38.40)
06. The Stormy Seas – The Sea Wind (42.40)
07. Ute Lemper – Little Water Song (50.31)
08. Frightened Rabbit – Floating in the Forth (57.25)
09. Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians – The Wreck of the Arthur Lee (64.53)
10. American Music Club – The Song of the Rats Leaving the Sinking Ship (75.43)

For reference, here are some YouTube videos which inspired this podcast:

For those of you coming along to help collect for the Lifeboats tomorrow, that you so much.  If you know where we live, then just swing by and we’ll give you a tin to shake for an hour (or more if you like) and then you can stick around for tea and cake (or beer as the hour grows later) or go about your business, as you please.  If you don’t know where to come along to, then just drop me an email and I’ll tell you.  I’m not too keen to just type our address out in the middle of teh internetz, although god knows it’s hardly a secret anyway.  Thanks so much for everyone who has agreed to help, it really is good of you.

Now, on to the more frivolous business of the day: it’s Friday and hence time to get silly.  We had our first real expedition in the mighty Toadmobile yesterday, driving through to Glasgow for the Hinterland Festival.  Honest to goodness, that van fucking rocks.  I stopped to ask a copper where the best place to park it was and he – yes, a policeman – said “This is Glasgow, mate, nowhere’s secure.”  Then we embarked on a ten minute conversation about how cool the van was, then he recommended I do a massive great illegal u-turn in the middle of the road.  Glasgow cops: tremendous value!

In honour of the Lifeboat collection effort tomorrow, I thought the five this week should have a vaguely nautical theme, so here we go.  It has become a most sociable post in the last couple of weeks, with all sorts of reckless de-lurking and far more people than the usual suspects taking part, which I think all of us appreciate, so go on, go for it.  Step out of the sordid intershadows and reveal yourselves.  Actually, that sounds more than a little wrong.  Just chip in, that’s all.  Then talk pish to your heart’s content.

1. Best name for a kind of boat.
2. What’s the most camp, being in the navy or riding a motorcycle?
3. When was the last time you actually went swimming in the sea?
4. Coolest boat-based movie.
5. Ever been on a boat journey where you feared for your life?

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – The Ship Song (Live)

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The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Dover Lights

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The Pogues – South Australia

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Van Dyke Parks – Greenland Whale Fisheries

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The 6ths – The Sailor in Love With the Sea

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