I am at an industry-fest and there is a lot to be gained from these things, but sometimes the avalanche of new people to interact with kinda gets me down.  When I started writing this blog absolutely not one single fucker ever read the thing.  In fact, I wrote about music for about two and a half years on my own website which had precisely no readers at all, because I can lay a website out adequately, but search engine optimisation eludes me completely.

I started writing on the pretense that my little brother, who lives in Boston, could now read about the music I was listening to without waiting for me to send him a little packet of compilation CDs twice a year.  This was something of a fig leaf, however, and one which I did at least acknowledge to myself deep down, ineffectively trying to protect my modesty from the rather geekier truth.

I wrote album reviews on my old website for over two years with not one single reader.  Looking at how things are now, where an album review going uncommented for a few hours makes me just a little jumpy, I find that kind of amazing.  No comments (I didn’t know how to do that), no readers, no actual reward of any sort beyond clattering out reviews of albums no longer than about ten sentences long for no other reason than that I enjoyed writing.  I still enjoy writing.  This blog is a tad focussed at the moment, but I promise you I could witter on for hours about more or less any subject you could mention and just enjoy the process of turning buzzing thoughts into paragraphs.

Musicians get this too – so much work that they have to remind themselves what the fuck they’re doing this for.  For me this moment is right about now.  Schmooze, schmooze, schmooze… ack, fuck off somewhere quiet and sit down and have a pint and wash the constant fucking name-dropping one-upmanship out of your fucking hair with a few dozen gins.

The first time anyone started reading Song, by Toad was a while after I moved over to a Blogspot account, which was some time in 2006, and was when one or two of my favourite bloggers started talking about the site and telling their readers that they should pop over and have a read.  That was a weird thrill – that first incoming link.  I’m not even sure who it was from, but first real comment, first proper link, you remember these things.

1. What do you grit your teeth and get through during your working day?
2. And how do you wind down from it?
3. When did someone last acknowledge something you were doing out of the blue and make you happy.
4. Who is the recipient of your most often suppressed “FUCK OFF!”
5. What do you do for the sheer pointless satisfaction of it?

Peter Gabriel – Biko (12″ Version) From Jim at the Vinyl Villain.

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Thomas Mapfumo – Mwoyo Wangu From Davy at the Ghost of Electricity.

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Beulah – Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand From Marcy at Lost in Your Inbox.

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Pavement – Frontwards (Live) From Tim at The Daily Growl.

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Richard Thompson – 1952 Vincent Black Lightning From Ed at 17 Seconds.

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I got an email today from Cogstar, one of our readers. He didn’t want anything really, just to congratulate the Meursault lads on getting that slot at Glastonbury, and to ask if I’d be there so we could have a pint. And fuck me I was relieved to be talking to an actual real person instead of a music industry fucking contact for a fucking change.

I miss Mrs. Toad.  Can you tell?

For those of you interested at all in even more of my inane prattling, I have recently done an interview with a certain Mr. Timothy London for his blog, which can be read here.  The interview itself was about a less cynical music industry, and I am not entirely sure I really made a great case in its favour, with some really very cynical remarks indeed.  Still, I tried to answer the questions themselves as honestly and intelligently as I could, so hopefully that counts for something!

This weekend I was down in Macclesfield for Unconvention, a day of seminars, workshops and general chats about the future of music and ways in which we can best try and generate awareness and success on a minimal budget using the myriad weird and wonderful tools the modern world has given us.  It was a really good day, and I heard some very interesting things, and also managed to make a tit of myself at the Managers Are The New Labels panel I was on.

The Scottish habit for constant and furious self-deprecation got a little lost in translation with all the English attendees, so everyone in the workshop got the rather unfortunate impression that I was really down on myself about what we’ve achieved with Song, by Toad and how qualified I may or may not be to be in the music industry and what I do or do not bring to the bands we work with.  After a particular rush of sympathy (“Noooo, it sounds like you’re doing an incredible job”) I did get close to pointing out to them that self-confidence really wasn’t an issue here, it’s just the way you learn to express yourself in Scotland and don’t worry I am well aware of how much we’ve achieved in the last couple of years just that you always have to be aware of how much there still is to achieve and honestly it just doesn’t do to sound even slightly boasty in Scotland but honestly I’m fine don’t worry.  But that might have made matters worse, so I just dropped it.

Iggy Pop – The Passenger

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Monday 10th May 2010: Langhorne Slim at Sneaky Pete’s.

Monsieur Slim is not only great live, Sean Scolnick is a fucking lovely bloke as well.  I know Monday is a shite night to go out, but honestly this will be worth it.  He swings the pace from the mournful ballad to stomping Americana in the drop of a hat, and there are few better voices out there at the moment, in my opinion.

Langhorne Slim – Sunday by the Sea

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My personal pick of the Tigerfest gigs this week would be twofold:

Wednesday 12th May 2010: Jesus H. Foxx & There Will be Fireworks at Electric Circus.

There Will Be Fireworks managed to sell over a thousand of their debut album pretty much on their own and without much press, which I can promise you is no mean achievement. Their Twilight-Frabbitry will be complemented by the emergence, blinking, into the light of Jesus H. Foxx who have been hiding away in some secret Foxxcave somewhere working on their debut album.

Thursday 13th May 2010: 17 Seconds presents Chris Bradley, The Dirty Cuts & The Last Battle at the Roxy Room.

17 Seconds Records’ newest signings The Last Battle join a couple of their more established acts downstairs at the Roxy.  Their debut album should be upon us very soon, so keep an eye out for that.

The Last Battle – Soul of the Sea (Live on FreshAir)

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Friday 14th May 2010: We Were Promised Jetpacks & Three Blind Wolves (both solo acoustic) play the This is Music 4th Birthday celebrations at Sneaky Pete’s.

You wouldn’t necessarily think that quiet acoustic stuff would work all that well at a clubby sort of place like Sneaky’s but it actually does – I’ve seen some really good acoustic stuff there in the past.  This is the latest in a series of gigs marking the fourth birthday

Saturday 15th May 2010: Thomas Truax, 7VWWVW, Wounded Knee & The Blue Wicked Spasm Band at the Roxy Art House.

Stuffs

Saturday 15th May 2010: Conquering Animal Sound, Dead Boy Robotics & Adam Stafford play Trampoline at the Wee Red Bar.

It’s an odd lineup, this one, although in a funny sense I can actually see it working quite well.  Adam Stafford will presumably be playing an acoustic set, and Dead Boy Robotics have just launched an EP of thumping, dirty disco(ish) tunes.  Add that to the strange, shy, loopy experimentalism of Conquering Animal Sound and you certainly have an eclectic lineup, but one which I think will actually work quite well.

Sunday 16th May 2010: Hauschka, James Blackshaw & Nancy Elizabeth at the Roxy Room.

Fatcat Records, innovative composer, plays lots of piano.  Those are about all the facts I have about this one, but I have to get this published before my lunchtime internet window here at Proper Job slams shut, so I am afraid I don’t have the time to find out anything more helpful for you.  There’s always the links above though, and you’re not children, so I’m sure you’ll be fine.

It’s Tigerfest and The Kays Lavelle album launch this week, as well as being May, which says to me that our first barbecue of the season can’t be much further away, surely.  Ach, who knows though, this Spring’s been all over the bloody shop so Christ knows.

Still, we’re firmly into the first stirrings of Festival Season now which is… erm, well certainly not a bad thing I guess.  There are some fucking shitty festivals (blogs, bands, etc…) out there, and I am becoming distinctly picky in my taste for festivals, and really quite middle-aged.  I do not have the patience for shitty camping and massive green-field sites with fucking dreadful beer, a swampy bog of misdirected urine surrounding the toilets and a two-hour queue for a drink.  Not happening, not any more, not for Toad.  Fuck off.

So, erm yes, the rise of the boutique festival in recent years has been very welcome for me indeed.  The food and drink are infinitely better, the facilities are better, the lineups are a little more focussed and because the budgets are smaller you can be absolutely confident of never, ever, ever accidentally hearing Kasabian play.

And, let’s be entirely honest, there are simply fewer people and I really do not like people all that much.

So, if anyone can tell me what that little rant had to do with anything then there’s probably some sort of prize – amnesty from me hugging you when I’m drunk sounds like a suitable bonus.  So, erm, live in Edinburgh this week then.

Thursday 6th May 2010: Born to Be Wide Music PR Seminar at Electric Circus.

Apart from admin and spare cash, PR is pretty much the single most important function of a record label these days.  It’s also, apart from actually making the music itself, the most important thing for any unsigned band to master.

Thursday 6th May 2010: Hannah Kitchen, The Wee Rogue and The Last Battle play the Leith Tape Club at the IsoLounge.

I don’t know Miss Kitchen, but The Wee Rogue is really excellent, and the Last Battle have just signed up with 17 Seconds records and have a debut album on the way, so should be full of the joys of life at the moment.  Their music leans a little more towards the traditional, in terms of song structures, in comparison to the general landscape of alternative folk around these parts, whereas The Wee Rogue leans a bit closer to total silence, his music can be that still.  It’s compelling nevertheless, so this gig is highly recommended.

The Last Battle – Nature’s Glorious Rage (Fresh Air Session)

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Thursday 6th May 2010: Dead Boy Robotics, Vasquez and The Foundling Wheel play Limbo at The Voodoo Rooms.

On what is proving to be a rather busy Thursday this gig is Dead Boy Robotics’ EP launch, supported by Vasquez who I don’t know at all, and The Foundling Wheel.  Expect thumping noise, which is likely to veer from the boisterously danceable into the ear-splittingly unhinged.

Friday 7th May 2010: Cath & Phil Tyler, The One Ensemble and Neil Davidson at The Roxy Room.

I know precisely nothing at all about this lineup, sorry.  But it’s a combined promotional effort between Braw Gigs and Tracer Trails (I think – it’s called Braw Trails Presents, so I guess that’s probably right) and those two rarely ever put a foot wrong (new as the former might be) so I definitely think this will be worth checking out.

Saturday 8th May 2010: The Kays Lavelle, The Oates Field and The Scottish Enlightenment at the Wee Red Bar.

This is the Kays’ album launch party for their upcoming debut album Be Still This Gentle Morning, and I am going to be in bloody Manchester for Unconvention, which is hugely frustrating.

The Kays Lavelle – Scars From the City

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Sunday 9th May 2010: 17 Seconds presents X-Lion Tamer, The Wildhouse and The Gothenburg Address at The Roxy Room.

This is curated by 17 Seconds the blog for Tigerfest and is not to be confused with the 17 Seconds Records showcase next week, which is different, apparently.  Although X-Lion Tamer and The Wildhouse are actually on 17 Seconds Records.  But then, without the approval of 17 Seconds the blog, they probably wouldn’t be signed to 17 Seconds the label, would they?  Keep up!

X-Lion Tamer – Life Support Machine

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There seem to be a lot of things happening on the internet in and around the Scottish music scene at the moment.  This is nice, because for a while it seemed like the only real participants in McMusic 2.0 were the old stagers like myself, 17 Seconds, The Vinyl Villain, The Pop Cop, And Before the First Kiss (RIP for now) and Manic Pop Thrills.  We can welcome a couple of new sites to the fold as well, in the form of The Steinberg Principle, Across the Kitchen Table and Scottish Friction.  There are the more venerable organs such as Is This Music? and Jock Rock as well, but it seemed like ages since we’d been fed any fresh meat.  There are a few others run by professional journalists, such as Spins ‘n’ Needles, Broon’s Tunes and Lots of Random Words, but they seem for the most part to be places to store their writings for other people, rather than sites with a focus of their own.

It’s all quite old school though: essentially the text from what would have been a magazine or a fanzine of days gone by has simply been moved to the internet which, although it’s an improvement in many ways, is hardly revolutionary.

There are two reasons I think that a lot of this isn’t quite stretching the internet to its full capability just yet.  Firstly, community.  One of the key things the internet can do which traditonal media could never do is to build a community out of the readership who actually get to participate in the project itself.

Some of the blogs mentioned above, and this one as well, go some way to achieving this sense of community.  The Vinyl Villain is probably the best I can think of, in terms of bringing disparate people together and letting them become friends simply by virtue of reading the same website.  It’s not an easy thing to do, and JC has done it very well indeed, but the undisputed kings are the Fence Collective, whose web presence has really helped cement the community of musicians and fans together.  It probably wasn’t really intended to be when it started, but their Beef Board is a masterpiece of Web 2.0 savvy.  And this from a label that doesn’t even sell mp3s.

The other thing which most of the sites mentioned so far really lack is any kind of multimedia.  I am trying, but a look at the BBC’s Homegame Sessions shows you what I mean.  Since the iPlayer they are pretty much the masters of this universe as far as I can tell, and a splendid example of how to bring together print, video and audio in one fairly seamless package.

Recently there have been some new additions to the tartan interwebs, however, which promise to help push us collectively forward a little.

Off the Beaten Tracks – with whom I have collaborated on a couple of Homegame Sessions – is offering live video sessions and band profiles, exploiting the rather amazing Edinburgh architecture to create some really distinctive videos.  The Malcolm Middleton ones from Homegame can be seen here.

Glasgow Podcart – this is more of an arts and music blog, giving it a broader scope, which I like.  They combine their visual, written and podcast material really well.  This is a bit more Web 2.0, if you ask me, although they shower this train wreck of a site with compliments in this episode, so their judgment does seem to leave just a little to be desired.

Products of a Gaseous Brain – Milo will be shocked rigid and make protestations of amateurish bumbling when he sees me put him forward as an example of what a blog can and should be.  It may be rough, but there’s video, podcasts, writing, reviews, random bollocks and everything.  Apart from one unfortunate error, where he interviews yours truly on his podcast, this is a consistently excellent site.

So there we go, things are starting to move forward in this part of the world.  It’s good too, because these new ventures should spur on those of us who have been around for a few year now to do better and more interesting things.  It’s all about ideas these days, and there are some very good ones knocking around at the moment.

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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Fortunately the results weren’t quite as Special Branch-alerting as they might well have been.  I heard about this band both from Ed over at 17 Seconds, and from Colin who writes And Before the First Kiss, and put them on his 2008 Mixtape which he gave me at Christmas.

Oddly, this is a band which has been blogged to death by everyone from here to fucking Timbuktu, but all they really seem to have is a couple of tracks, a seven inch single and a clearly pretty fearsome black belt online marketing strategy.  This may be related to the fact that, despite being a Glasgow band almost entirely unheard of in this part of the world (correct me if I’m wrong on this, please), the single itself has been released on the really excellent Slumberland Records.

This expertise has resulted in the record being enthusiastically fellated by Pitchfork and many of the more influential US blogs, before the band seem to have built up that much of a reputation over here.  Certainly they have no live dates posted, and people I know who have tried to book them have found the band to be elusive, to say the least.

Still, the facts are fairly independent of all this nonsense.  Sisters Are Forever is a superb pop song, infectiously enjoyable, plundered right from the twee end of the eighties indie revolution and plopped happily into our laps here in 2009.  It’s not musically all that inventive, but it’s incurably catchy and bags of fun, and if this is the kind of trick these guys can pull off then fair play to them – they deserve the success.

Their other songs appear to be a little less overtly poppy, however, and I would actually say that this is a good thing.  There’s a bit more blank, flat tweeness, and a bit less bouncy, grinny poppiness which makes them seem a little more moody.  I’d say that this is actually suggests that there might be more to this band than just an irrepressible tune or two, and I hope this turns out to be the case.

Sexy Kids – Sisters Are Forever

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Sexy Kids – In a Box in a Bag

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MySpace Page | Buy from Slumberland Records

A big thanks to Ed from 17 Seconds for turning me onto this album last year. Why has it taken me so long to review? Well as lovely as it is, there are a couple of flaws that bother me and it has taken a while to reconcile the two.

It seems churlish, given how much there is to genuinely love about Worm Food, to whinge so thoroughly about the very few things that are wrong about it, but that is what I am going to do. Imagine a more pathologically melancholy version of the likes of Kate Nash, but one with genuine ability to write lyrics that are more advanced than an unusually verbose ten-year-old. And one you wouldn’t want to punch.

Partly the accent and partly the slightly flighty delivery mean that Ruth Theodore is liable to get lumped in with that supremely irritating brand of ‘female Mike Skinner with an accent and some pink ribbons’ that are currently infesting our charts, but she genuinely is far, far superior to that lot. There are some gorgeous, gorgeous songs on this album, and some moments of genuinely intelligent, laugh-out-loud wit.

The problem? Well, some of the musical style is that kind of fast-plucked affair that, when overdone as it is on second track Rash, is not just something I find less than enjoyable, I find it really rather annoying. It actively interrupts my enjoyment of the music and makes me look around the room guiltily, hoping no-one actually thinks I like that sort of thing. Ditto one or two of the vocal tics – just too close to Nash-ville. In all honesty, there’s really very, very little of it but its mere presence is enough to make me wince on occasion. So if you’re at all like me in this department, you may wish to approach with caution.

Idiotic personal bug-bears aside, what do we have? An absolutely gorgeous album of superbly written female singer-songwritery. The best bits of this album are truly brilliant. Most of the rest is bloody marvellous. A tiny fraction grates on me. She’s really sharp lyrically, and there are times, particularly when the music is most pregnant with a peculiar sort of tormented, angry sadness, that it really is moving. The other beautifully managed touch is the perfect use of the supporting cast. Accordion, clarinet and strings drift in and out of the songs, but they are kept subtle so as to give them maximum impact, and to keep both the engaging voice and distinctive guitar style of Miss Theodore centre-stage. So as long as you’re prepared to skip a couple of tracks, this should be one of the smartest, sharpest and loveliest albums you’re likely to hear in a long time. It doesn’t sound like I love this album I know, but honestly, large bits of it are absolutely brilliant.

Ruth Theodore – Nothing On
Ruth Theodore – Murray’s Wives

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