I’ve made the mistake of over-excitment before, so I tend only to draw tentative conclusions from a release as short as three songs, good or bad.  In this case I am helped by a degree of ambivalence towards the last track, which means that although I am really impressed by this band, I feel some inner restraint against getting carried away just yet.

Regular readers of this site will be pretty familiar with this kind of music already: growly indie-pop with slightly off-beat, changeable rhythms and discordant boy-girl harmonies.  It’s a style I love, but ultimately the success of this is down to one simple fact: the songs are as infectious as hell, a fact which renders most questions of production values irrelevant.

Does it stick in your head?  Yes?  Then it’s good.

Does the band have needlessly frivolous punctuation in their name?  Yes?  Minus points.  I really don’t like that; it’s the kind of joke which wears thin really, really quickly.

Now that I’ve got those two bugbears out of my system, let’s continue.  These recordings are something of a cluttered, chaotic minefield.  In the superb title track and the excellent Mariana hugely infectious tunes break free from the skittering mess around them, emerging to reveal fuzzy, surpising pop gems.  Dead Snails, however, struggles a little to accomplish the same feat, in my opinion.  It’s as if all the swirling elements of the song never quite achieve resonance and remain something of a choppy pool of music which never quite produces the waves the other two manage.  Still, this is all very promising and I am definitely looking forward to finding out where this band go from here.

hearts!attack – Mariana

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MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from Big Cartel

Well, I’ve had a couple of goes at it now and I think the general conclusion to be drawn is that, bar one or two very specialist nights, I am not going to make a particularly good DJ.  I’ve had a fine old time both times I’ve done it, and thanks loads to Tallah and Solen for inviting me, but in the long run this is going to be a sporadic relationship at best, I think.

The reason?  Well, although at Electric Circus I did get plenty of people dancing, it was at the expense of playing a lot of my favourite music.  No Tom Waits, no Nick Cave, no Honeytrap – know what I mean?  Basically, the stuff I like the best is simply too sad or too slow to dance to, and the idea of standing in a club whilst I shuffle through the Morose Hits of a Life Spent Mostly in One’s Room Sulking doesn’t strike me as one which will appeal to most people.

Equally, there are reasonable portions of my record collection which are acutally quite danceable, but it tends to be the cheesy hits, not least because I don’t have a lot of modern music on vinyl and taking the laptop along seems like cheating – I might as well email in a playlist and ask them to click on ‘crossfade’.

I could make the blog quite popular as well, if I wanted.  I have plenty of MGMT and Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver and all the sort of stuff which would make for a much more hit-friendly indie music blog, just as I have plenty of Bowie and Pet Shop Boys and Springsteen for people to dance to in discos, and it’s all music I really like.

It’s just, it’s not music which actually interests me as much.  So whilst I could happily filter my pile of vinyl for dancefloor-friendly pop tunes I don’t think I am going to do much more DJing unless its at places who don’t mind me fairly frequently playing music to which you absolutely, definitely cannot dance at all.

Look, it’s not the really obvious one by the Smiths!
Willie Nelson – Mr. Record Man (Live)

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When people say ‘mixed review’ they tend to mean that they kinda like an album, but that they aren’t entirely convinced.  In this particular case however, I mean that I love fifty percent of the songs and really dislike the other fifty percent.

The previous album by this band, We Validate, was pretty fucking brilliant, to be honest.  Songs like The Lesson of the Smiths, The Gay Train and The Fight for History had real emotional bite to them, and as an album of old-school indie it really was terrific.

This one is a good deal softer, both in terms of the music and the lyrics.  It’s almost like the theme album to the TV series Grumpy Old Men, whereas the previous record reminded me strongly of Frank Turner’s lyric “I’m young enough to be all pissed off/ but I’m old enough to be jaded”.  In some ways that might seem like a subtle distinction, but it’s surprisingly obvious in practise.

Basically, MJ Hibbett & the Validators play indie inspired by the tail end of the 80s, when the original movement which gave the genre its increasingly meaningless name was in rude health.  Lyrically, the record charts the idle and less idle contemplations of a man approaching middle age, and it does so with genuine wit. So for someone like myself, who is probably in the exact same situation as Mr. Hibbett, the songs which really hit home are the ones which chime with me on a personal level.  Being Happy Doesn’t Make You Stupid, Do More Eat Less, All the Good Men and We’re Old and We’re Tired are absolutely brilliant – catchy, funny as hell and touching as well, and when they’re good this is the kind of fantastic stuff this band can create.

The ones which miss, however, even in a musical sense, tend to be the ones I just don’t engage with lyrically.  It Only Works Because You’re Here, Best Behaviour and My Boss Was in an Indie Band Once completely fail to hit the mark with me in terms of lyrics, but then they also seem to be the ones I can’t hum along to either.  Consequently I find myself wondering if I like this album more for the wry nods or for the tunes themselves.  Not that it really matters.

Some of the tracks are downright poignant – Leicester’s Trying to Tell Me Something and We Can Start Having Fun – so it’s not all wry comedy, they are a genuinely good band.  But oddly on this album I feel like they’ve missed the mark surprisingly wildly on some songs, considering how squarely they’ve hit the bullseye on others.

MJ Hibbett & the Validators – We’re Old and We’re Tired (and We Want to Go Home)

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MJ Hibbett & the Validators – All the Good Men

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Website | More mp3s | Buy direct from the band

There’s a lot to talk about when describing this gig, so I will have to keep it brief as possible per band or I will end up writing a bloody novel.  It was a fucking good night though, that’s for sure, and has been very nicely documented indeed by Dylan over at Blueback Hotrod, for those of you who are photographically inclined.

White Heath

These guys are, to my view, approaching something of a watershed.  They could be on the verge of becoming a very, very good band indeed, but they have a couple of things I think might need ironing out before that can really happen.  Largely, that revolves around the eclecticism of their sound, which can be a little overwhelming at times.  Once in a while, I reckon, they simply need to do a little less.  There are certainly times when they seem to be playing over the top of one another to a certain extent – fair enough when they want to make a fuck-load of news and bring songs to a crescendo, or just play a really bloody loud song, but in between those moments I think there are times when they could do with just taking a little bit out here and there.

They do seem to be getting better and better as a band however, and their last two songs of the night in particular were bloody brilliant.  They’ve an EP release quite soon, which I am really looking forward to.

Rob St. John

Rob can be very delicate and quiet a lot of the time, and as the cackling harridans on hen nights strutted gormlessly around the back of the venue, squawking high-pitched vacuities at one another and anyone else within earshot – generally about a fifty-metre fucking radius – I feared for both the poor man’s sanity and our own enjoyment.

I feared needlessly though, because as the incoherent squealing got louder, so did Rob.  He ended the set kneeling in front of his amp in the middle of a five minute electric guitar wig-out, Owen the drummer thundering away alongside him, in a brilliantly un-Rob-like display of bolshy confrontation.  Domino is one of his most beautiful, delicate songs most of the time, but this time around it was given the full treatment, and was superb.

We’re losing the lad to Oxford shortly, I am sorry to say, and that’s a real shame as he is really developing at the moment and the capital’s music scene will be poorer for his departure.

Rob St. John – Domino

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Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele

Erm, can I call this music ukulele croon-funk?  It’s difficult to imagine, described like that, but I can’t think of a better way to put it.  Dent May is actually a full band, with bass, guitar and drums added to the uke, and they’re a really upbeat, wry band and great fun to see perform.  There is indeed a lot taken from fifties rock ‘n’ roll (think Hill Valley in Back to the Future), but they play it with a raucous exuberance which blows any of the associated cobwebs out of that particular kind of music.

I had a bit of an ‘oh yeah, another ironic indie four-piece’ attitude when they took the stage, I have to confess, not helped by the fact that they all looked like part of the cast of one of those clever, talky small town indie flicks which America loves so much (all that was missing was Zooey Deschanel playing a kooky, elusive girl for one of them to pine after for years while they were in the big city making it big in something nice and executive, before returning to their home town beset by tragedy and self-doubt and rediscovering the idiosyncratic but down to earth values of small towns full of unambitious and yet unaccountably wise eccentrics – I have a very active prejudice gland, it seems).  Honestly, though, they did look like that.

That was, inevitably, just me being a dick of course.  They put on a great show, their tunes were witty and totally infectious, and I will now buy an album to explore further.  As should you.

Dent May & his Magnificent Ukulele – College Town Boy

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Found

Well, honestly, I’ve reviewed Found rather a lot recently, so apart from saying that they were excellent, I will say no more.  A great way to round off a gig though, and a thoroughly excellent night altogether.

Obviously, from my perspective there is one big and important gig this week:

Sunday 9th August 2009: Animal Magic Tricks (with Pete from The Leg & Neil from Meursault) at the first Toad House Gig.

Use the link below to buy tickets and please do buy them in advance because we can’t have too many people in the house, and at the same time I would be gutted if it was empty, so it would help us plan ahead a little:

In the rest of the city, however, the Edinburgh Festicle well and truly kicks off this week.  This means that despite a rather quiet build-up, the weekend is just fucking mental, frankly.  My personal choice is going to be Trampoline on Saturday, I think.  I’m really interested to hear what Jonnie Common’s doing on his own, although Rob St. John was excellent at Electric Circus on Saturday and his show at the Portrait Gallery with Emily Scott should be fantastic.  I’ve probably missed out loads, but you really are going to have to expect that during August I think because there’s just going to be so much stuff going on, and not listed in the obvious and usual places either, so I’ll probably miss a fair bit.

I sulk about the Festival, honestly, because it tends to utterly steamroll anything which would actually happen in the city otherwise, but this year there does seem to be a lot of actual Edinburgh stuff taking place, particularly in terms of music.  For anyone wanting a full run down, Bart wrote an excellent summary of what to expect for the next few weeks last weekend, and you really should read it if you want a musically rewarding August.

Tuesday 4th August 2009: Debutant, Plastic Animals & Yahweh at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This will be quite post-rocky and quite atmospheric and quite noisy.  Yup, noisy. Excellent!

Friday 7th August 2009: Woodpigeon & Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers at Sneaky Pete’s.

I have never been any more than a casual fan of Woodpigeon, but I am sort of liking their recent album Treasury Library Canada.  For me though, the real reason to attend this gig is the excellent Woodenbox who can be phenomenal live.
Woodpigeon – Cities of Weather

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Friday 7th August 2009: The Stranglers at the Picturehouse.

No, I am not a Stranglers afficionado, yes I would just be going for the famous ones, no I don’t care.  Sometimes ‘just the hits’ can be great, especially when they’re as great as Golden Brown.
The Stranglers – Golden Brown

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Friday 7th August 2009: The Radiation Line, The Kays Lavelle & Adam Stafford at the Wee Red Bar.

This is the official launch night for the Trampoline August shows, and will be a good chance to hear live versions of things on the approaching Kays Lavelle album.

Friday 7th & Saturday 8th August 2009: Mumford & Sons at Cabaret Voltaire.

Even though I am not really as keen on the band as I was when I first heard them, when they honestly blew me away, they are still phenomenal live.  It’s sort of gospelly banjo raucousness, I suppose, and bloody brilliant.
Mumford & Sons – White Blank Page

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Saturday 8th August 2009: Rob St. John & Emily Scott at the National Portrait Gallery.

I pretty much described why I thought this would be good in the main post didn’t I.  I shall just add that Emily is launching a new album, in case you need even more incentive to turn up.

Saturday 8th August 2009: David Byrne at the Playhouse.

What do I have to say about this?  The man was Talking Heads!  To cap that he’s been incredibly positive about what the internet can mean to young bands and had some very well-considered things to say about how to make the most of the new environment in the music industry.
Talking Heads – Hey Now (Yes, I know this isn’t ‘David Byrne’ per se, but bugger off, I love this album.)

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Saturday 8th August 2009: Jonnie Common, Animal Magic Tricks & Conquering Animal Sound play Trampoline at the Wee Red Bar.

This should be very low-fi and somewhat scratchy but with lovely underlying melodies, if my knowledge of both Jonnie Common and Animal Magic Tricks is anything to go by.  I don’t know Conquering Animal Sound, but then that’s why we go to gigs, isn’t it.

When we were out in Italy on our holidays Mrs. Toad and I had very few CDs with us but one of them was an Uncut compilation of prison blues and murder ballads which, amazingly, given the very promising subject matter, really wasn’t very good.  In fact, it was rotten, so I’ve made a podcast based on the self same concept, but with what I personally think are vastly better songs.

Most  obviously, to my mind, there were very few contemporary songs in there, and I thought that was a little weird.  Now, I actually think that the level of political commentary in popular music is just a little weak at the moment, but there are nevertheless some amazingly good prison and criminal justice-related songs to be had, and certainly some exceptional murder ballads, although I must confess that the most recent bit of genuine social commentary here pre-dates the 1990s by a couple of years.  There was probably more recent material I could have used, it just didn’t spring to mind at the time I’m afraid.

So here we have the Jailcast, complete with some largely incoherent ranting about politics and my own stupid fucking jail story which Mr.s Toad takes such delight in sniggering about at every available opportunity, the bitch.  It’s not that exciting, really it isn’t.

Toadcast #80 – The Jailcast

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01. Tom Waits – Jockey Full of Bourbon (02.05)
02. Willard Grant Conspiracy – Drunkard’s Prayer (08.37)
03. Pulp – Down by the River (16.14)
04. Bob Dylan & the Rolling Thunder Revue – The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Live, 1975) (19.42)
05. The Pogues – Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six (31.36)
06. Bruce Springsteen – Vigilante Man (Woody Guthrie Cover) (39.33)
07. The Radiators – Prison Bars (43.34)
08. Enfant Bastard – Compilation Tapes (50.10)
09. Nightjar – The Hanging Tree (55.30)
10. Pete Wylie – Stay Free (Clash Cover) (60.49)