[Well, I couldn't exactly review this gig myself, could I? So Dianna has very kindly volunteered to write this for me for this week's Sunday Supplement.  Click on the images to enlarge them, and go to Blueback Hotrod to see Dylan's entire set from the night, and to read Dianna's own blog (shockingly, it's not about music) click here.  The next house gig will be in November for the Maxwell Panther album launch.]

Somehow I’ve been roped into penning this Sunday Supplement. Which, I have to admit, is a bit daunting as I’m a neophyte, comparatively, to this whole scene. As a bit of a preface and a warning, I’ll just say that this in no way is a very good musical review. I’ll leave that to people who know what they’re talking about – or barring that, are much better than I am at pretending that they do.

I didn’t go to the first Toad House Gig. I wasn’t in the country, so I was at a bit of a disadvantage. If it was anywhere near as pleasant as the second was, these things might just have a bit of staying power.

My friend and I managed to arrived unfashionably early, despite the fact that my iPhone conspired with my iBook and iPod to erase any trace of the address from my iCal. That’s a bit of a lie, I actually have a MacBook. I just liked the whole iCrap trend I had going there. But, on the bright side of that, I had a mini tour of Stockbridge, which is surprisingly cleaner and brighter than Leith. Which, on second thought isn’t surprising at all, but I’m still completely charmed by its trash-free streets and shiny, shiny lights.

After running into Dylan who helpfully pointed the way, Rebecca and I found ourselves in the fabled residence of the Toad family – consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Toad, and their cohabitant, Floyd, who made several comedic appearances throughout the evening. I have to say, that cat has remarkable timing. His accompaniment with Animal Magic Tricks was nothing short of inspired.

It’s rare that one gets to sit on a comfy sofa three feet away from the performer in a close, intimate setting. For Animal Magic Tricks, this was enchanting. During Men Daimler, this was more borderline startling – I think we all witnessed first-hand the power of a singer who really knows how to project. It took me back to the days early in my college/undergrad/underage days when I’d go to house parties, have one beer, and then feel extremely nervous because I was positive the cops were going to come because of the noise, give me a MIP (minor in possession for those of you not from the States) and I’d never become the senator/astronaut/doctor I’d alway dreamed of becoming.

Anyway. Besides the appeal of comfy places to sit, and the ability to have any beverage that I wanted (because I had to bring it myself), the true appeal of the night was the informality of it all. It was much like an extremely large dinner party without any dinner – or almost like a feast in some sort of king’s court replete with minstrels for our entertainment. An example which, in one fell swoop, completely bashes that whole ‘informal’ thing that I said and adds an air of pretentious fatuousness that I really feel was lacking from this post. Which just doubled with the use of the term ‘pretentious fatuousness.’

Perhaps I should actually talk about the music. As this is, primarily it seems, a music-type blog. Both sets were well suited to the small venue, especially Animal Magic Tricks as you got to see all of the things she was doing with the interesting little gadgets she had with her. She was, by the way, absolutely beguiling. I didn’t really know either of these musicians – except by virtue of their Myspace pages – but I was genuinely delighted by what I heard. Floyd’s interruptions, Matthew’s interjections on equipment use and misuse, and Men Daimler’s occasional lyrical slippage only added to the sense that we were all just a group of friends (friends who may not have actually ever met in real life) who were enjoying the talents of a couple of their more gifted friends (also whom they had never actually met before).

Unfortunately, my friend and I had to be horribly responsible postgrad students and got home before midnight, so I’m unable to fill you in on any gin-soaked shenanigans that may have taken place later. I might be able to extrapolate and make something up, but I’m not really all that bothered. So, instead enjoy the lovely photos from Blueback Hotrod from that night and just make them up yourself. If you were watching the live webcast, it won’t be that hard – unless we’re talking about anything that happened anywhere that wasn’t the 6 feet or so of stage.

[After his highly successful stint Toadsitting while we were away on holiday, Euan returns to write what is going to become a monthly column in our new Sunday Supplement section.  You can find more of his stuff on his blog, at his gigs or with his band, so please go and have a sniff.]

“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”

This quote is taken from the film Almost Famous about a young music fan who, by accident, ends up on the road with a rock band, documenting their every move for Rolling Stone magazine and living out his wildest dreams. It’s still one of my favourite films, if for nothing else, the legendary Tiny Dancer moment, possibly more to do with Kate Hudson though. Anyways, the quote above is at a point in the movie when Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character Lester Bangs is giving advice to a naïve and young William Miller about music, musicians, journalism and ultimately life. It became quite an important statement in my life, firstly because I am highly uncool. And secondly because sharing music and wanting to involve everyone in the music I love has, over the years, become the currency in which I deal most. Mix tapes for the ladies that I had a fancy for. Mix CDs for friends, force-feeding them the music they didn’t know, or love, but in my head should. Sharing a love of music. It was important when I was 15 and is as important today as it was back then. Fuck, lets be honest, we’re all using this site ultimately because we share a love of music and not for the witty remarks of the likes of Matthew and Dylan! It’s one of the best feelings when you share music and people get it. It’s what makes it great being a musician and also writing about music which you love.

Recently Mr Toad (another highly uncool individual I should add) reviewed a gig by Willard Grant Conspiracy. I made a comment on his site that I had never heard anything by this artist, though I knew of them and felt that he was an artist which I would love and should know more about. As a result, Matthew made me a cd of what he considers to the finest moments of Willard Grant Conspiracy or, if you prefer, an introduction the music of the artist. Whilst I was babysitting songbytoad during Matthew’s holiday to Italy I did an “introducing” piece on Elliott Smith as Mr Toad had little knowledge of the man. I guess the Willard Grant Conspiracy cd was his way of returning the favour. And I’m glad he did. There’s a bit of Richmond Fontaine in there, a large chunk of Nick Cave and a nice little touch of Sparklehorse. All mixed together to produce Willard Grant Conspiracy.

But ultimately, this is not a review of Willard Grant Conspiracy or the mix cd Matthew made me. No, this is more about the brilliance that is sharing music. Sharing musicians you love. Just sharing. So, I’m going to encourage you all to write a piece about your favourite artists. How you came to love them. What it is that makes them so special to you. Anything you want, about anyone you want. And I’m going to ask you to send them to me at trampolinemusic@gmail.com Whilst I don’t write full time for Matthew, I do have my own blog over at The Steinberg Principle and I would like to publish the pieces sent to me as a series of “Introducing” pieces. So yeah, if you find a spare 5 or 10 minutes in your day, if you’re bored at work, or if you actually just like this idea, send me your thoughts and I will post them on my site from time to time.

We’d already recorded the FOUND Toad Session earlier this same day, and Honeytrap had just recorded their session with Off the Beaten Tracks.  So basically, the sun was baking and we were all absolutely shit-faced.  Consequently, to describe the interview as any sort of conversation as opposed to some kind of deranged, cataclysmic cluster-fuck would be to massively flatter it.  In all honesty, this is a complete and completely splendid mess – enjoy!

Again, all the videos can be seen on the Song, by Toad Vimeo or YouTube pages, and the photo galleries can be perused on our Flickr page.  Dylan from Blueback Hotrod took all the photos, and the set he has posted has a few more pics than the one on the Toad Flickr page, so go and have a look to view the full set.  The whole interview is below, in the podcast file, and after that there are all the session mp3s which you are welcome to pass around as you see fit.  Good luck with the interview; it’s fucking mental.

Toadcast #90 – Honeytrap Toad Session

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Honeytrap – Roslin is a Cylon (Toad Session)

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Honeytrap – Death Before the Silver Screen (Toad Session)

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Honeytrap – Hours With the Masters (Toad Session)

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Honeytrap – Broken Violin (Toad Session)

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Now we have the increasingly chaotic session video first, and then three session videos for Roslin is a Cylon, Death Before the Silver Screen and Hours With the Masters.

01. Honeytrap – Roslin is a Cylon (Toad Session) (8.15)
02. Kate Bush – Army Dreamers (14.08)
03. Jack Charman – Wibbly Wobbly Walk (16.54)
04. Honeytrap – Death Before the Silver Screen (Toad Session) (25.03)
05. The Sequins – Let’s Go Drinking in the Morning (28.43)
06. Dirty Projectors & David Byrne – Knotty Pine (31.39)
07. Honeytrap – Hours With the Masters (Toad Session) (41.29)
08. Beach Boys – Honkin’ Down the Highway (50.22)
09. Prince – Raspberry Beret (52.57)
10. Honeytrap – Broken Violin (Toad Session) (66.39)

I used to love taking the train down to London.  When GNER had the East Coast mainline Mrs. Toad and used to travel pretty regularly, in the days when I lived in London and we only saw one another every couple of weeks.  As often as we could we would go and sit in the dining car and slowly get drunk all the way to the end of the line.  Those were really rather romantic days.

Anyway, when GNER’s parent company got into trouble they were forced to sell off the East Coast mainline under some obscure rule of Capitalism which requires failing companies to get rid of the only bits of them which work – in other words the only parts of the company which might actually help them work through their problems and get back on their feet.  Obviously if this doesn’t make perfect sense to you then you must be some sort of Communist, but it strikes me as some sort of ludicrous rule dreamt up by the vultures rather than the victims, but hey ho.  If nationwide healthcare is too Communisty for you then what chance do sensible rules of business have?

Anyhow, that line went to National Express who have made an unspeakable balls up of the whole operation.  Apart from running a previously healthy line into near-bankruptcy they have taken away the fucking dining cars, which now only operate on a fraction of the trains.  So yes, making a service notably more shit and that service therefore becoming markedly less favourable with customers, who’d have thought those two were connected.  Gosh the world can be a strange place sometimes.

So, this being Friday, please take the opportunity to de-lurk and fill in your Friday Five:

1. Favourite mode of long-distance transport.
2. Weirdest place you’ve had a surprisingly civillised meal.
3. Thing that just isn’t what it used to be.
4. Most boring everyday thing which actually turned out to be quite romantic.
5. Most annoying train habit.

Beck – Broken Train

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Eels – Railroad Man

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Billy Bragg – Train Train

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iLiKETRAiNS – The Beeching Report

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Phil Ochs – Automation Song

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After rather unfortunately having to cancel a fully-blown Toad Night, it looks like Saturday will be replete with quality musical entertainments after all.  Ruth, Dylan from Blueback Hotrod and myself have been concocting a really nice evening of musical fun, with four (at least) acoustic sets in the bar, DJing (ie choosing some songs for the stereo, nothing fancy) from some of Edinburgh’s finest music snobs, and a generally convivial atmosphere at the Bowery all round.

Musically we have acoustic sets from two Toad Records bands, one of which is a secret and one of which will be Meursault at about 7pm, on their way through to Glasgow to play at the Arches.  We have the recently (and mercifully) renamed Team Turnip making an appearance under his new moniker of Mammoth, and Thomas Western, who has recently moved up here and will I think be making his official Edinburgh debut.  His music is gentle and folky, but sounds very promising indeed, so this should be a nice new treat for everyone.  Ruth has booked him to play a full set at the Bowery in November, in case anyone was considering a sort of try before you buy approach.

So please come along.  It’ll be free entry, and the sets will be relatively short and interspersed throughout the night, so it won’t be like going for a pint in a library where fun and conversation are frowned upon.  And the Bowery closes pretty early anyway so if you really want to get shitfaced and shag whoever the hell you’re prepared to make do with at 3am when you’re so drunk you can’t even pick your own nose without poking yourself in the eye then there’ll be plenty of time for that afterwards.

Team Turnip – Wendy House

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Certain bands make very difficult things look very easy.  One of the hardest and most elusive things in music is on the face of it pretty straighforward: write memorable tunes.  It seems simple enough, but I’ve lost count of the number of faceless, unremarkable indie bands I’ve heard in the last few years who all make broadly the right sound for my ears, but whose music leaves my head almost as fast as it enters.

Kid Canaveral, on the other hand, are the opposite.  They write music in a general style which I am not usually all that keen on, but I could pick pretty much every song I’ve ever heard of theirs out of a lineup, so to speak, after little more than one listen.  I don’t know how they do it, but they clearly have that one skill which eludes so many other bands: the knack of writing incredibly infectious and memorable songs.

This EP is no different; one listen and every track was firmly lodged in there.  Their sound is evolving from that heard on their series of singles released over the last couple of years, and I really like that.  Opener Left & Right could be right off any of their previous records, but Stretching the Line has a dreamier sound, a little bit of violin (and recorder?), and is less furiously bouncy.  It’s also a cracking tune.

Third track Long in the Tooth is even less obviously poppy, leading with synth, distorted, fuzzy vocals, almost as if the band are signposting new directions they intend to explore, but only leading us there very gently, one small step at a time.  It’s well done, this EP.  They seem to have been able to explore new directions really effectively, whilst still maintaining that umbilical connection to earlier work for those of us who might need to make the move one step at a time: the perfect example of how to explore new territory without abandoning old strengths.  It also suggests that there’s more to this band than just hummable pop tunes, which is something else I find rather intriguing.

I may have some grumbly things to say about releasing things on cassette, but that aside I would strongly recommend this EP to anyone, and I am gutted I had to miss their launch party because of recording commitments.

Kid Canaveral – Stretching the Line

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The title track to this album is as lovely a song as I have heard in ages.  There are a few others of a similar ilk as well; gorgeous, lonely ballads which will certainly break your heart unless there simply isn’t one to break.

Other songs don’t really capture my imagination, however.  And it Spread just doesn’t quite… I don’t know what, take a grip of my emotions like this band are so easily capable of doing most of the time, maybe.  There’s quite a bit of this, unfortunately: good solid songs which don’t feel  like much of a step in any direction at all.  It feels like a decent and largely unnecessary record which doesn’t really mark much of an achievement for the band other than to mark the fact that they have managed to write twelve more songs the like of which we pretty much knew they could write already.

Because of this I find myself aggravatingly tempted to copy and paste the best songs from this album into some sort of Best Of folder, so I can ignore the irritating Kick Drum Heart, and concentrate on loving songs like the title track and the excellent Ten Thousand Words (which could have been written about this blog, actually).  If the album stood out more amidst their canon or had some sort of compelling unifying theme or more individual character compared to their other work then I doubt I would be tempted to treat it so flippantly.

Having been about as much of a dick about the album as I can manage, however, I do think I have to mitigate these rather mean-spirited comments with something kinder, because it’s not like I don’t love parts of this record.  Generally, the songs which I do love tend to be the ballads, probably because I’m a miserable fucker and have always loved sad music.  Again I find myself whinging though: Ill With Want seems like an unusually saccharine version of a band who don’t generally flirt with that kind of thing.

So why the hell am I being so sulky about an album I quite like?  I don’t know.  I think it’s because of the reasons I don’t like it.  They rap.  There some real Avett Brothers-lite moments on here.  And ultimately it sounds like an album they’ve cracked out in their sleep around a couple of moments of genuine inspiration, rather than one which coalesced around any kernel of passionate desire to express anything which was just bursting to be expressed.

Sorry, but I’ve taken down the mp3s for this one on advice from Lee from Knox Road (thanks).  I really should have known better, because The Avett Brothers are on Columbia Records, who are part of Sony, who initiated that Glasvegas fiasco last year.  Apparently they are hunting and killing anyone posting a song other than I and Love and You, which just happens to be the only really decent song on the album.

So, my advice to you?  Don’t fucking buy this, it’s shit and a total waste of your money.  Just download the title track from any of the blogs listed on the Hype Machine and fuck it.  And while you’re at it, just don’t bother buying anything else from fucking Sony Music ever again.  Fucking waste of everyone’s time.  They have some nice people there who genuinely do get it – I’ve met them, I know they exist – but clearly the institutional stupidity is too ingrained for them to be having much success getting things sorted out there.

Do their management seriously think that getting reviews of their album expunged from the internet (because that is what a DMCA notice does, make no mistake about it) is more valuable to the company in terms of saving lost revenue from people downloading one or two songs, than just ignoring it and encouraging people to talk about the album?  Fucking idiots.  Download the whole thing from this site if you want, it’s free.

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Hmm, given my slightly patchy relationship with the Mountain Goats (I love some albums, like some, am not that fussed by others, but I don’t really know their music all that well) and given the general mumbles of ambivalence from the faithful which I have heard accompanying this release, I was prepared to like this record an awful lot less than I do.

Heretic Pride and I only partially connected, and I had sort of expected that to be that with this band.  They were very much established by now, they weren’t particularly young anymore and they had scored a couple of borderline mainstream hits recently.  Time, in other words, for squishy, over-produced re-treads of old territory for the next three albums and then a comfortable enough retirement.

Concept albums also give me a bit of a twitch.  They can occasionally be brilliant, but more often are just a little contrived – a point stretched just slightly too far to fit the original idea.  The title of this album and the titles of the songs themselves should tell you all you need to know about the concept underpinning this piece of work.

It doesn’t start particularly brilliantly either.  Samuel 15:23 is a little plodding, with thudding drums which give the song a rather heavy step and seem to hold it back a little.  Psalms 40:2 is good, but then Genesis 3:23 is the sort of annoying Mountain Goats pop-lite sound which publicity people tend to send out to bloggers because they think it’s the obvious pop song.  Which it is, but it’s no way to market a band like this.

No, The Mountain Goats are at their best, in my opinion, when Darnielle’s voice rises to a nasal snarl of anguish.  Even though Sunset Tree was heavily arranged and very produced, that snarl was still in strong evidence on that album, and you can certainly hear it here on a few occasions, which I am really happy with, because it’s been missing for a while.

Then at times he slows to a glacial pace; each exhalation accompanied by the barest touch of piano.  Genesis 30:3 accomplishes this with the most success, I think, although in general this is a pretty slow-paced record, so it’s a prominent technique of the course of the whole forty-five minutes.

I think there are probably just a few too many soft impressions of the Mountain Goats on this record for me to really get too giddy about it, but for the most part it’s pretty good actually, and a lot better than I was expecting.

The Mountain Goats – Psalms 40:2

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The Mountain Goats – Matthew 25:21

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I am probably the wrong person to be reviewing this, because I find covers albums to be utterly pointless and generally frustrating.  I can understand the fascination, I can understand the urge to do one, but ultimately the results absolutely always leave me bored and completely indifferent.  I can’t think of a single one I actually like, although I’ve not exactly made an exhaustive search.

This is a really interesting one too, with a tremendous variety of song choices and artists.  This Old Guitar is a song I have heard Hinson play live and absolutely loved, particularly the poignant story which accompanies it about how the song itself and the playing of music in general anchored his relationship with his father, and salvaged it, to a degree.

I still don’t really like this album though.  There are none of the gorgeous orchestral flourishes of Hinson’s own work, and precious little of the furious guitar whirlwhinds either (In the Pines excepted, which is scorching).  He has produced a potentially fascinating record which is basically just a bit boring.  I know this is likely to be down to my completely dysfunctional relationship with covers records, but what else can I say?  A couple of them I do like – Suzanne is goooooorgeous and We Almost Had a Baby is interesting – but the whole album strikes me as one more interesting to the artist himself, as is almost always the case with these things, than to the listeners.

I think I am more frustrated than I should be by this record.  I absolutely love Micah P. Hinson, and so I think that plays a large role, and some of this is really good, but ultimately I wish artists would keep covers to single one-off curiosities because large albums full of them really don’t do anything for me at all.

Micah P. Hinson – This Old Guitar

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Micah P Hinson – In the Pines

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Micah P. Hinson – Suzanne

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I don’t really know what to say about this.  It is very derivative, particularly opener Mountain Song, which sounds like a Neil Young cover, but I still really like this EP so somehow that doesn’t seem to matter.  I may never be blown away by this kind of thing, but I definitely do still think they’ve produced a really enjoyable record here.

I am not sure if it’s just that the songs are friendly and quietly infectious, or that there is a lovely warmth to the production, but for some reason it works for me.  It may be mining the same seam as the Fleet Foxes and countless other bands, albeit with a bit more guitar, and in many ways it really doesn’t add much in terms of progressing the genres on which it touches, but that’s not really how we listen to music, is it.

Basically we decide if we like something first and foremost in an instinctive manner, and then we make up reasons for it afterwards.  This stuff, I just kinda enjoy.  I like it.  It sits well with me.  I can hear all the reasons why I might dislike it, but they just don’t make that much impression – it just has a degree of completeness and internal consistency which gives the music a solid presence.

Consequently it’s the kind of EP I find myself turning to a lot and playing more than a lot of other things for which I could think of more obvious plaudits.  Is it All Worth It? is lovely, with the tiny bit of vocal harmony on the chorus the icing on the cake.  Mountain Song has really good pace and purpose, and Old Days is slow and melancholy.  It may not be spectacular exactly, but it works, and I’m enjoying it.  I look forward to more.

Treetop Flyers – Mountain Song

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