Recorded for you from the sunny, blazing hot mountains of Andalucia, this one is a little late being uploaded because we only just got back to Scotland and I decided I might as well wait until we got home before uploading it rather than charge all around Spain trying to find somewhere to upload from and then sitting around for ages waiting for the damn thing to… well, you get the picture.

I actually spent much of the week editing Toad Session videos, which seems just a tiny little bit pathetic, even to me.  Still, editing video whilst sat on the terrace with a beer, overlooking spectacular valley scenery isn’t exactly a hardship, but nevertheless, a holiday should be a bit more holiday-y than that I suppose.

I also think I may have happened to accidentally teach Mrs. Toad’s oldest friend’s kids some truly fucking appalling language too.  Honestly, who lets a retard like me anywhere near kids?

Direct download: Toadcast #135 – The Spaincast

01. The Japanese War Effort – Summer Sun Skateboard (02:20)
02. Benni Hemm Hemm – Shipcracks (06:15)
03. Hobart Smith & Texas Gladden – Down in the Willow Garden (13.39)
04. Blind Willie Johnson – I’m Gonna Run to the City of Refuge (16.24)
05. The Beach Boys – Sloop John B (21.02)
06. Sebastian Dangerfield – The Sycamore Tree (24.49)
07. Animal Magic Tricks – Heavenly Bodies (30.57)
08. Keaton Henson – Oliver Dalston Browning (36.27)
09. Fists – Ace is the Way (40.23)
10. Honeytrap – Little Johnny Winter (45.02)

Benni Hemm Hemm could be forgiven for thinking I’d taken against him, given he has lived in Edinburgh for something like two years now, has been playing and releasing pretty much as an Edinburgh artist, and plays exactly the kind of music I love and… I’ve written nothing about him at all.

Not that I have any obligation, but it seems strange to me.  I’ve known of him, I really like the guy, and for some reason I’ve never really seriously made the time to sit down and really try and engage with his music.  Sometimes all it takes is a hook, or a trigger.

This EP, I am pretty certain, is that trigger.  It’s really lovely, and I have just ordered it on vinyl, for extra listening pleasure.  Piano and subtly layered harmonies form the base of most of these songs, and they either remain as downbeat introspections such as Blood of My Blood or Church Loft, but other build into gentle crescendoes, instrumentally driven and far from urgent, but with a depth and insistence that slowly and softly turns the screw until you finally realise that you’ve been gripped.

It’s a bit like boiling a frog actually.  The music is so gentle and raises its intensity so slowly that it’s actually surprising how loud some of the more powerful moments are, because they emerge from such a languid beginning.

It could even be Scottish, honestly, as could many North Sea and Baltic releases.  There are definitely differences, obviously, but there seems nevertheless to be a kinship between the various kinds of music.  Maybe it’s the dark, maybe the cold.  Portland shares a similar kinship with Scotland if you ask me, which I tend to think might be related to the rain.

All the more shame on me, then, for being so slow to pick up on this.

Benni Hemm Hemm – Blood of My Blood

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Website | More mp3s | Buy from Kimi Records

Tonight at 20:30 will see the return of my radio show to the airwaves of the student radio station in these parts; Fresh Air.  The station will be broadcasting through the Festival, and I myself have slots this evening, to kick things off, as well as Sunday 15th, 22nd and 29th (at the earlier time of 19:00-20:30) when Ruth will presumably be back.  The full schedule is (sort of) here.

We’re hoping to have live guests and stuff like that, and have Lach pencilled in for the 15th, to help publicise his Antihoot show, and have yet to line up anyone proper for the other two weekends yet.  We’ll hopefully get there though.

Anyhow, tonight Dylan will stand in for Ruth, and we will be previewing the Festival and talking pish about what music things are happening here throughout the month of August.

Listen Here – Live from 20:30BST

As ever, the tracklist will be updated live below and if you have any trouble with the feed you should be able to get rid of it by pausing and un-pausing the player.  Alternatively, you can find the station on iTunes as well, listed somewhere under college radio stations, I think.

1. Honeytrap – Little Johnny Winter
2. Mark Lanegan – Methamphetamine Blues
3. FOUND – Let Fidelity Break
4. Eels – Souljacker
5. Roky Erickson and Okkervil River – Goodbye Sweet Dreams
6. The Japanese War Effort – Summer Sun Skateboard
7. Arcade Fire – City With No Children
8. Inspector Tapehead – Yarvil
9. Yusuf Azak – Turn on the Long Wire
10. King Post Kitsch – Walking on Eggshells
11. Milk – Wilma, There’s Been a Fire!
12. Benni Hemm Hemm – Retaliate
13. Lach – I Want To Be With You

Night night!

This is called the Dolecast for… well, for obvious reasons.  I am on the downward slope to imminent joblessness, with my last day at Proper Job now pencilled in for the 23rd of June – the day before Glastonbury, rather handily.

Actually festivals are something of a feature this Summer, as there’s that one, Kelburn, Rockness, Fusion out in Germany, and then Knockengorroch, which I will be driving out to the very second I hit ‘post’ on this.  We’re also looking at going out to Musicfest Northwest this year as well, and of course the rather splendid Fence Away Game.

So erm, yes, maybe I should have called this the Festcast or something like that.

Toadcast #124 – The Dolecast

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01. The Wave Pictures – I Shall be a Ditchdigger (03.09)
02. Fur Hood – Tweetle Beetle Battle Beetles (12.27)
03. Fear the Fives – Devil’s Tongue (15.39)
04. Southern Tenant Folk Union – South Ythsie (20.19)
05. Benni Hemm Hemm – Retaliate (29.11)
06. The Douglas Firs – Grow Old and Go Home (33.09)
07. Magic Bullets – Lying Around (37.12)
08. Perfume Genius – Lookout, Lookout (41.25)
09. The Effort – Adjust (46.54)
10. Tusk Tusk – Crazy Little Birthmarks (55.56)

Never mind fucking jetpacks, SPRING is what I was fucking well promised.  A few weeks ago I awoke to a pleasantly mild morning and strolled into work without ducking the head or turning up the collar and genuinely believed that Spring was on its way.

It wasn’t, of course, it was just Mother Nature fucking with my head.  I remember last year the crocuses and snowdrops were out in January, it was that warm, whereas this year it is pretty much April and they are still not out in the shadier parts of the garden.

A couple of other things blooming, to stretch a metaphor slightly, are the venues of Edinburgh.  After taking a while to get their new regime into place, the newly rechristened Roxy Rooms seem to have started to get some interesting bookings again.  The Liquid Rooms, which burned to a crisp when the Indian restaurant above them caught fire something like a couple of years ago, are on the verge of being ready for reoccupation.  I don’t know how soon, but hopefully in the next few months.  And having been used quite heavily during Sunday’s Haddowfest it looks possible that Maggie’s Chambers might be considering booking a few more gigs.

Given that a music scene cannot thrive without venues to house it, and given that we’ve been really rather stretched not just for good venues but for people willing to book them in recent months, this all seems to be good news for local bands and labels.  So it might be Springlike in a sense, even if it’s still fucking miserable and cold outside.

Monday 29th March 2010: Benni Hemm Hemm, Tisso Lake & Skeleton Bob at the Roxy Room.

Benni Hemm Hemm was excellent at Homegame, with a three-piece brass section adding depth to his sound, and the last time I saw Tisso Lake I was really impressed both with Ian’s voice and his guitar-playing, which had a really nice sound to it.  Tisso Lake will be in band rather than solo format tonight, with Skeleton Bob rounding off a really good lineup.

Tuesday 30th March 2010: Race Horses at Sneaky Pete’s.

I had a quick listen to these guys and ‘fucking mental indie-pop’ is probably the only expression which springs to mind.  It has a very 90s vibe to it as well, which you might either consider woefully unfashionable or on the verge of becoming the next big thing, depending how far along the invent-hate-rehash cycle you are with that particular decade’s aesthetic.

Race Horses – Cake

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Tuesday 30th March 2010: Beneath Us, the Waves, The Japanese War Effort & Euan McMeeken at the Wee Red Bar.

Something tells me that between the sounscapes, the glitchery and the balledry of these three bands there will not be a mosh pit at this gig.

The Japanese War Effort – For the Backroads

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Friday 2nd April 2010: Conquering Animal Sound & Debutant split 7″ launch at the Roxy Room.

This is not just the launch night for the CAS/Debutant split 7″, but also for the brand spanking new label which is releasing it: Gerry Loves Records, from the team which brought you OfftheBeatenTracks.tv.  They are apparently going to be focussing on releasing beautiful artefacts, which sounds like a terrible way to make money, but a splendid way to release music, as far as I am concerned.

Debutant – Definition

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Friday 2nd April 2010: My Tiny Robots, Cancel the Astronauts & Lovers Turn to Monsters play This is Music at Sneaky Pete’s.

There will be indie-pop, and afterwards there will be drinking and dancing.  Lots of it.

Sunday 4th April 2010: Admiral Fallow & Baby Bones at Sneaky Pete’s.

All I know of Admiral Fallow is that they are either the re-born, re-jigged or simply re-named Brother Louis Collective.  The stuff on their MySpace page sounds quite promising and this might well be worth a punt.

Having made such an almighty pig’s ear of last week’s listings, I find myself wondering if the gigmosphere really is as thin as it looks this week, or whether I’ve just managed to make another spectacular arse of spotting the good ‘uns again.

There’s something a little different happening, actually, because Joey Comeau and the Loose Teeth Press are going to be at the Bowery as part of their reading tour tonight, which sounds rather interesting.  Also, the Charity Baw at the Roxy on Saturday looks like a bit of a spectacular, so it’s not actually as quiet a week as it looks.

Tuesday 17th November 2009: King Charles play the first Fresh Air Tuesday at the GRV.

Fresh Air student radio are taking over the GRV on Tuesdays this year, putting on something a little different each week, and kicking things off this week with King Charles.  I don’t know them at all, but I have dug up a few songs and they sound really rather good.  Definitely worth checking out.

King Charles – Beating Hearts

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Friday 20th November 2009: Otters Sing Lullabies present Conquering Animal Sound, Molly Wagger and Aurora Stands in Snow at the Bowery.

This will be a quirky night of music, all quite gentle in most senses, but nevertheless a little disturbing in others.  There will be a lot of acoustic loveliness and quite a bit of slightly eccentric electronic  trickery as well.

Saturday 21st November 2009: Charity Baw at the Roxy Art House.

Pretty much every bastard is playing this one.  There are local heroes such as Withered Hand, Aberfeldy, Benni Hemm Hemm and Come On Gang but, somewhat more intriguingly from my perspective, there will also be the amazing (The Real) Tuesday Weld.  That sounds a bit hard on the local contingent, but I don’t mean it that way, simply that I have been a Tuesday Weld fan for bloody ages and never once had the chance to sample their visually sumptuous live show.  Yes, yes I did just use the word sumptuous.  Sorry. What I basically mean is that they use their rather excellent videos as a backdrop to the live performance, which sound brilliant. And at least a little sumptuous.

(The Real) Tuesday Weld – Kix

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Sunday 22nd November 2009: Debutant, Rasied by Wolves, The Last Battle at the Bowery.

This is my gig of the week, I think.  I’ve not properly seen any of these bands live and I have been twitching to see all three for a while.  Debutant’s atmospheric guitar layering will probably be quite distinct from the more traditional songwriting of the other two bands, but it looks like this should be a good ‘un.

Well the mammoth video nightmare of the last week is nearly over.  This week I will be working in the Meursault tour diary from when they went away to the North of England for a few days in our big green van.  They recorded some excellent sessions while they were touring, including three songs in the back of the van from some campsite in, erm, Lancashire somewhere I think, and also a few songs at a bandstand in Newcastle.  The tour diary itself might just be mental, and but for some judicial editing could easily become the most offensive musical document ever recorded (thank you Fraser, Preston’s a bit ‘rapey’ is it?) so I hope I can get it trimmed down to something vaguely family friendly before I go away.

Here’s a preview for those of you who are interested – this is a version of a new song called Sleet, as played in the Newcastle bandstand to an appreciative audience of a great many birds, and no, not the kind your average rock star aspires to have in his audience either:

As you know, Mrs. Toad and I are off in Italy for a couple of weeks from this coming Saturday and in our absence the splendid Three Toadsketeers of Dylan, Bart and Euan have agreed to take over the Good Ship Toad.  I will be enforcing a strict regime of alcoholism and offending vegetarians, so it should hopefully not be too far from the sort of unprofessional garbage you’re used to around here.  But I owe them all a massive thank you for taking this on, because I think it will be much nicer for everyone than just leaving it quiet for two weeks.

So, before I bugger off, what will I be attending?  Some of these things, I suspect:

Monday 8th June 2009: Cherbourg at Sneaky Pete’s.

Formerly Davie Fiddle and tour-mates of Mumford & Sons, these chaps play a very English-sounding indie folk.  If anything, actually, it harks back more to the folk rock of the late 80s and early 90s rather than the more glacial stuff of the last couple of years.
Cherbourg – Man

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Tuesday 9th June 2009: Withered Hand, Benni Hemm Hemm, Ish Marquez & Emily Scott at Electric Circus (map here).

This is the official launch for the EP Withered Hand recorded with King Creosote earlier this year.  He’s currently working on an album, which is almost through the mixing process and vaguely pencilled in for release in August or September this year, I believe.  The album is a full band job, but this EP is a much more acoustic, and the lineup for the launch party is nothing if not eclectic.  Incidentally, I filmed a couple of songs by Emily Scott at Homegame but she still hasn’t got back to me to tell me what they’re called.  They can be viewed here and here if anyone can supply me with the missing information!
Withered Hand – Shooby (Demo)

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Wednesday 10th June 2009: Cheveu & White Heath at the Bowery.

Cheveu are French and a little bit mental from the sounds of it.  Still, this kind of, erm, noisy, crackly post-stuff music should make for a good evening.  I hesitate to imagine what it might sound like live, but I think this is one of those gigs where you just have to turn up and see what the hell you get.  Support comes from the very promising White Heath, making what is I believe their Bowery debut.
Cheveu – Like a Deer in the Headlights

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Thursday 11th June 2009: Woodenbox with a Fistful of Fivers, The Kays Lavelle & Kristoffer Morgan at Sneaky Pete’s.

Woodenbox are a terrific live band, who have been working on some new recordings recently – as, incidentally, have the Kays Lavelle.  The former play stomping Americana, full of brass and rhythm, and the latter play piano-led indie ballads, which cross over into that sort of post-rock atmospheric aesthetic from time to time.  And both bands now share a piano player, as far as I am aware.  Kristoffer Morgan is a bit of a mystery to me, I must confess, this being the first time I think I’ve seen his name on a bill in these parts.
Woodenbox – Situations (I think this was recorded before the addition of the Fivers)

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Friday 12th June 2009: 7VWWVW, Albaross, Kyon & Spells Tower play This is Music at Sneaky Pete’s.

This is a crossover night between the ever-excellent This is Music characters and Crystal Wish Records, with a lineup full of bands I’ve never heard of.  Crystal Wish appear to be pretty electronically and experimentally orientated though, and these are always great nights, so I’d definitely recommend popping along.  This is Music generally do a podcast as well, in advance of their night, and that will appear here at some point in the next week, I assume.

Saturday 13th June 2009: Meursault, Wounded Knee & The Foundling Wheel play Trampoline at the Wee Red Bar.

I don’t really know what to expect from this gig.  The Foundling Wheel and Wounded Knee are a little more experimental than Meursault tend to be most of the time, but Meursault have been slipping some new material into their recent Edinburgh gigs and they definitely have it in them to be a little weird from time to time, so this might well be a bit of a treat for everyone.  If you like your music a little off the beaten track, that is.
The Foundling Wheel – Out to See

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Saturday 13th June 2009: Diane Cluck & Mary Hampton at the Bowery.

Diane Cluck is an (anit-)folk legend, so I really wouldn’t miss this if I were you.  Unless you’re going to the Wee Red, because I wouldn’t miss that either.  Thank fuck I’m not here to have to make this terrible decision!
Diane Cluck – Save Me

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Phew, and I thought it was going to be a quick on this week!

Well, after a bit of a lull last week there’s all sorts of crap going on in and around Edinburgh this week, so choose wisely because trying to attend everything could just be the end of you.  As well as the usual recommendations there are a couple of half-recommendations this week; gigs I feel I should want to go to, but am actually not that fussed about.  Crystal Antlers (I mean, come on, they have Crystal in their name, they have to be good, almost as guaranteed as having Fuck in your name last year, or Bear the year before that, or Wolf… well, never mind) are playing at Sneaky Pete’s with Times New Viking and Dupec.  These are all bands I feel I should like more than I do, for some reason.

The same applies to all of Glenn Tilbrook, Kristin Hersh and Alastair Roberts who are playing Cabaret Voltaire on Tuesday 19th, Wednesday 20th and Friday 22nd respectively.  I should be excited about them (well, maybe not Mr. Tilbrook in particular, no offence) but for all it is good that these guys are playing Edinburgh I find myself no more than vaguely interested in their gigs.  The splendid Rob St. John is supporting Alastair Roberts though, so that one is definitely the most appealing of the lot.

In terms of gigs I am likely to be attending, well let’s go, shall we.  And, er, just check Saturday out.  The Edinburgh gig going public might well be spread very thinly indeed this Saturday:

Thursday 21st May 2009: White Heath, Yusuf Azak & Colourmusic play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

Well all know I think Yusuf Azak is bloody brilliant, but White Heath were also excellent at Trampoline last Saturday.  Their sound is very crowded, and their lead singer sounds a little like a muezzin who has rather badly lost his way, but they sound really, really promising to me.  Trombone and mental fiddle solos? Count me in!  And they even play the bongos without sounding shite, which is an achievement in itself.  They’re going to be working on some new recordings with Alex from Fentek Audio in the near future, and Alex appears to be carving out a reputation as one of Edinburgh’s most trusted sound guys, so this is very good news.  I’ll definitely be at this one.
Colourmusic – Spring Song

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Thursday 21st May:Benni Hemm Hemm and Withered Hand at the Bowery.

Glacial Icelandicism is no surprise these days, but this is more of a style we might associate with the rest of Scandinavia, with an almost januty instrumental pop style never far from the surface.  Benni will be at the Bowery on Thursday with the brilliant Withered Hand.

Friday 22nd May 2009: The Mannequins, The Pineapple Chunks and quite a few others at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

In amongst a lot of bigger names this week, I reckon this looks like the pick of the bunch when it comes to more under the radar slots.  I’ve been slack at checking the Henry’s listings recently because they’ve been rather quiet since the new year, but I hear that that is about to be taken firmly in hand and they will be making a bit of a push in the coming months.  The Mannequins have some pretty decent pop songs from the sound of it, and The Pineapple Chunks have done well at Limbo in the past, so I think this is gig to go to if you’re looking for something a little off the beaten track.
The Mannequins – Little Black Book

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Saturday 23rd May 2009: Cats in Paris & Mitchell Museum at Cabaret Voltaire.

I should really be at the Stag & Dagger Festival in Glasgow watching Meursault on Saturday, but they asked me to sign release forms so that Meursault’s set could be both filmed and recorded and then denied me permission to film at the festival myself, so they can go and fuck themselves with a bag full of scorpions, frankly.  Instead, I will be at Cabaret Voltaire watching the very fashionable Cats in Paris and the very excellent Mitchell Museum.  The last time I saw Mitchell Museum was in a rather large venue, so somewhere more intimate and a little sweatier should be great fun.
Mitchell Museum – Arthur Loves the Shadows

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Saturday 23rd May 2009: Found, Player Piano, The Pictish Trail & King Creosote at the GRV.

I just don’t go the GRV, not really on purpose, more because they so rarely have my kind of music on the bill there that I get a little lazy about checking the listings.  This one is pretty bloody obvious though: a kind of Fence Collective Allstars get together, with all the charismatic alt-folk you could wish for.  Player Piano is more of a lush pop band though, and Found aren’t really folky at all, so I don’t think this would be the Fence Collective of hushed and lovely balladry which you might expect if you were coming along on the basis of a hundred-word newspaper clipping.
Player Piano – Anything At All

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Saturday 23rd May 2009: Anathallo, Samamidon, The Stormy Seas & Your Boy Blair at Sneaky Pete’s.

Anathallo, although I know very little about them, sound rather lovely from a quick skim of their MySpace page.  Also on the bill is the truly gorgeous Samamidon, and anyone who missed either of his Bowery gigs this Winter really should not miss this.  He has the loveliest voice and the most amazing way with a banjo you are likely to hear anywhere, ever.
Anathallo – The River

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Saturday 23rd May 2009: Lach at the Bowery.

Lach pretty much started what is generally thought of as the modern anti-folk movement in New York, and he certainly coined the phrase itself.  It’s hardly a new thing of course – Bob Dylan rubbed the folkies all up the wrong way when he first turned up as well, but they couldn’t really ignore him for all that long.  Getting a legendary figure like Lach to the Bowery is something of a coup as far as I’m concerned so, er, what the fuck am I going to do on Saturday with all these bands to see.  I can’t miss this one.
Lach – A Quiet Distance

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Sunday 24th May: Defiance Ohio, Madeline, Withered Hand, Torn Strings & Billy Liar at the Bowery.

Madeline is a big favourite of my pal Rich who writes the Georgia (no, the one in the States) blog Cable & Tweed, so I really think I should go to this.  After all, without Rich we would have no Porlolo, no Builders & the Butchers, no Loch Lomond, no Sleepy Horses and no 63 Crayons.
Madeline – White Flag

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Quite a thin week by recent standards actually, but that’s no bad thing.  Homegame is approaching and a weekend that is easy on the liver and easy on the wallet will be a very good thing.  Plus we have to spend it all making up copies of the new Meursault EP, Nothing Broke.  Yes,  you heard me right.  Terribly exciting, wot.  It will mark the first offical outing for crowd favourite William Henry Miller Pt.1, albeit an acoustic version of the song, the full version of which will be available along with The Furnace, The Dirt & the Roots and William Henry Miller Pt.2 as part of a set of two 7″ vinyl releases in late Spring.

And the Maxwell Panther album is about done.  And the Inspector Tapehead album is almost there, although that’s not quite a done deal yet, so I’ll keep that under my hat for a little longer.

The reason this post is so late is because I have been galavanting about going to weddings.  It turns out an old friend of mine from uni made that crazy Sony Bravia exploding paint advert.  Who knew what a talented bunch my classmates were.  Maybe if I’d ever turned up myself I’d have known this kind of thing.

Tuesday 7th April 2009: Danananaetc… & Favours For Sailors at Cabaret Voltaire.

Dananandingdong are, in all honesty, a band about whom I am personally no more than lukewarm.  I don’t know them all that well yet though, so that might change, but for now the recommendation is a tentative one.  Favours For Sailors are newly signed to one of my favourite labels, Tough Love Records, and are garnering an awful lot of press at the moment, so I may well wander down for this.
Favours For Sailors – Our Name

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Wednesday 8th April 2009: Great Eskimo Hoax, We See Lights & Cancel the Astronauts at Sneaky Pete’s.

Great Eskimo Hoax sound rather interesting at times.  It can veer a little close to a kind of haircut-friendly indie pop at times, but there are definitely plenty of interesting things happening in their songs, so this might well be worth trying out.
Great Eskimo Hoax – Camp Beatbox

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Thursday 9th April 2009: Lovers Turn to Monsters & Little Pebble at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Little Pebble is excellent live and Lovers Turn to Monsters also sound quite promising.  The latter plays a tense kind of awkward indie folk, of the sort that seems to be designed for Edinburgh at the moment.
Lovers Turn to Monsters – The Four O’Clock

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Sunday 12th April 2009: State Broadcasters, Benni Hemm Hemm & Jo Foster at the Bowery.

The Gentle Invasion wonderfully (and somewhat inevitably) comes out of retirement to put on some lovely indie folk pop from Glasgow at the Bowery.  Edinburgh’s most prominent Icelandic musician (I, er, think) supports, along with Fence lady Jo Foster.  I hope her arm has sufficiently recovered from the skiing accident which caused her to miss her last gig at the Bowery.
State Broadcasters – Our Favourite Park

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Christ on a bike, after nothing at all last week, all of a sudden things are going bananas this week.  You could pretty much be at a good show every night if you wanted. I’m not going to write much in this intro because, frankly, there are so many gigs to bloody write about that the post would run on far too long otherwise.

Suffice to say that Friday’s party was, from my perspective, a massive success.  The open mic bit at the beginning was not an idea many people were overly convinced by, but I think pretty much everyone enjoyed it in the end.  I certainly did.

Tuesday 9th December 2008: Frightened Rabbit at the Liquid Room.
Despitely having rather disappointingly turned into Snow Patrol on their last album, there’s no doubt Frightened Rabbit, when they’re good, can be absolutely brilliant.  In terms of one last big gig to attend before the Hogmanay chaos, this archetypal Scottish indie would be an excellent choice.
Frightened Rabbit – Music Now

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Tuesday 9th December 2008: Louis Barrabas at the Forest Cafe.
Mr. Barrabas is described as ‘vaudeville folk’ in some quarters and listening to his MySpace page it’s difficult to fault that impression.  Frankly it sounds like two things to me: firstly, the kind of gig you’d be much more likely to see during the Festival; and secondly, like it really will be absolutely brilliantly entertaining.  I don’t think (although I’m not sure) that he will be bringing a band, so the theatrical musical chaos might be slightly lacking when compared to his MySpace recordings, but that doesn’t sound like it will matter much.  Excellent stuff.
Louis Barrabas – Love Struck Me Down

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Wednesday 10th December 2008: Benni Hemm Hemm at the Bowery.
I don’t know Benni’s music, but I have met him and he is a truly lovely guy.  Listening to his MySpace page, he seems less moody than the stereotypical Icelandic band, perhaps more in the style of a broader Scandinavian indie-pop, although with a lot less bubblegum.  That’s not very informative at all is it, sorry.
Benni Hemm Hemm – Veildiljod

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Thursday 11th December 2008: Jack Richold & Faith Nicholson at the Bowery.
Jack plays beautifully hushed folk songs, and Faith has a truly gorgeous voice.  Are they any good?  Well Jack wrote half the songs for the Nightjar album, and both sings and plays violin on The Moth Trap, on Song, by Toad Records.  So have a listen to this alternative version he and Faith recorded of Lady of the Calico from that album and decide for yourselves.  Bloody gorgeous.
Jack Richold – Lady of the Calico

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Thursday 11th December 2008: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & The Foundling Wheel at Sneaky Pete’s.
Before supporting the Weddoes the following evening at the Liquid Room, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart bring their old-fashioned indie sound to Sneaky Pete’s, alongside Edinburgh racket-merchant The Foundling Wheel.  The Pains &c. might easily have been around in the mid-eighties when the Wedding Present formed, if you were to only judge by their sound, but I reckon The Foundling Wheel might shake things up a bit.
The Pains of Being Pure of Heart – Everything With You

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Friday 12th December 2008: The Wedding Present at the Liquid Room.
Okay, so the Gedgerator’s music may be slipping into the ordinary these past few releases, but the Wedding Present play a furiously brilliant live show, and they have more quality in their back catalogue is so far ahead of almost any other band out there that there’s no way you can lose at a gig like this.  Break out the guitars, boys.
The Wedding Present – Step Into Christmas

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Friday 12th December 2008: This is Music, with Jesus H. Foxx & Mitchell Museum at Sneaky Pete’s.
Jesus H. Foxx are spiky indie-poppers, well known on the Edinburgh circuit, but I’ve not really heard of Mitchell Museum before.  A quick listen on MySpace leaves the impression of mid-era Britpop, well executed and definitely interesting.  A few more songs, however, bring you into a much more eccentric realm.
Mitchell Museum – Exciting But Drunk

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Saturday 13th December 2008: Will Cookson, Rob St. John & Withered Hand at the Wee Red Bar.
Mr. Cookson has the best set of influences of any band in history – ever!  Just have a look.  The man must be a genius.  Apart from that, two of Edinburgh’s finest alt-folkers (sorry Rob) tread the Trampoline boards (trampolines don’t really have boards, do they) so although I can’t be there myself, this might be my most confidently recommended show of the week.
Withered Hand – I Am Nothing

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