Hello again, Ruth and I are back on air tonight on Fresh Air, Edinburgh’s student radio station.  As per usual we’ll be having some live session stuff, this time from The Japanese War Effort.  Jamie is a bit of a band-whore actually, and plays in the Occasional Flickers and Conquering Animal Sound as well as ploughing his own solo furrow.  It’s this stuff, however, which is my favourite.  I haven’t much idea what it will sound like, stripped back to the extent that it will need to be in order to be played in the Fresh Air studio, but I am certain that it will be good.

The tracklisting will be filled out below live as we go along, and it would be nice if you would use the comment thread to chip and have your say during the show.  Believe me, it’s a hell of a lot easier than me trying to man Facebook, Twitter and bloody emails all at the same time as working the desk in the studio and the camera to record the session.  Still, Ruth’s back this week and so I should be a little calmer this time than last!

On air 7pm-8.30pm GMT – Listen live here.

Tonight’s playlist:
1. Tom Waits – The Part You Throw Away (Live in Edinburgh, July 2008)
2. The Cave Singers – Belmar
3. The Japanese War Effort- Winning Eleven (Live in Session)
4. Dan Mangan – Robots
5. The Silver Columns – Brow Beaten
6. The Japanese War Effort – Lanark (Live in Session)
7. Yusuf Azak – The Key Underground
8. Rob St John – December & Whisky (Live at the Retreat Festival)
9. Doveman – Angel’s Share
10. Hudson Mohawke – Fuse
11.. Helen Love – Debbie Loves Joey
12. Tune Yards – Hap-B
13. The Japanese War Effort – Face Like A Lemon – Ivor Cutler Cover (Live in Session)
14. Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A (Nebraska Sessions Version)
15. Japanese War Effort – Punk’s Not Dead (Live in Session)
16. Leonard Cohen – Lover Lover Lover

Here is the podcast of last week’s session with the excellent Candythief, along with the session tracks and video of the performances, after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

I am back on Fresh Air Radio this evening, although unfortunately not accompanied by the lovely Ruth, as she’s not feeling well. However, to keep the loveliness quota nice and high, the extremely lovely Diana de Carrabus from Candythief will be playing live in session for us this evening.

She may be named like a dastardly Bond villainess, but Diana’s music is theatrical pop joy.  A somewhat stripped-down set is required in the tight confines of the Fresh Air studio, however, so it will be just herself and an acoustic guitar, accompanied by violin.

On air 7pm-8.30pm GMT – listen here.

The tracklisting will be updated live below, so feel free to add your comments in as we go along.

1. Eef Barzelay – Make Another Tree
2. Elbow – Station Approach
3. Candythief – Bargains (Live in Session)
4. Son Volt – Sultana
5. Alex Ward – Sounds Like Someone We Know
6. Timber Timbre – Magic Arrow
7. Candythief – Pass It On (Live in Session)
8. Betty Harris – Mean Man
9. Seasick Steve – The Letter
10. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (I)
11. Candythief – Amnesty (Live in Session)
12. King Charles – Beating Heart
13. REM – Disturbance at the Heron House
14. Felix Lighter – The Rational Pedestrian
15. Candythief – Junk (Live in Session)

And here, for those who missed it, is last week’s session with Thomas Western.  The sound is rather scratchy unfortunately, but I am still getting used to the desk.  To those who care, I think it’s his guitar mic which was clipping, not the vocal one, because the two were very close together:

Thomas Western – Fresh Air Session and Interview

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Thomas Western – The Worm Forgives the Plough (Live on Fresh Air)

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Thomas Western – Your Front Door (Live on Fresh Air)

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And the accompanying videos:

Well this is a bit of a big week for Song, by Toad Records.  Apart from the fact that the Loch Lomond/Builders & the Butchers split 12″ is now officially available to buy, we also have the Meursault single launch on Saturday, with three of my favourite bands.  We’re releasing four A-sides on two 7″ singles, on clear vinyl: new recordings of William Henry Miller Parts One and Two are going back to back with A Few Kind Words and the Dirt & the Roots from Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues.  Officially, neither single is being released until the first week of December, but they will be available at live shows from this week onwards, including all tour dates the boys are playing over the next few weeks – details on their MySpace page.

Edinburgh’s best DIY arts venue, The Bowery, officially opened a year ago this week (or so), and the single launch just happens to be their first birthday party. The Edinburgh University Settlement, however, are getting rid of Ruth and Jane and taking the whole place over, so by the end of December the Bowery as we know and love it will cease to exist.  I am trying to get in touch with the Settlement themselves to find out exactly why they are doing this, and what alternatives they are putting in place, but in terms of the artistic community in this city this looks like nothing short of a bloody disaster.

Basically, this means that we have two months left to enjoy the place and show our gratitude to Ruth and Jane for the incredible amount of hard work they have put into giving us all such a special place to go and drink and to see live music, so please come along as often as possible over the next two months in order to give them the best send off we can manage.

Wednesday 4th November 2009: Daniel Johnston, The Wave Pictures & Laura Marling at The Queen’s Hall.

As marquee gigs go, this is the best Edinburgh has had for a long time.  Apart from the general elusiveness of Daniel Johnston himself, this is treat for the entire lineup.  In terms of wonky, off-kilter, sometimes painfully personal lyrics you won’t find better, but the key bit is how deceptively poppy the songwriting can be from both Johnston himself and support band the Wave Pictures.

Daniel Johnston – Foxy Girl

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Thursday 5th November 2009: Withered Hand, Candythief & James Lowe play the Leith Tape Club at the Iso Lounge.

This is a really cracking lineup for the Leith Tape Club.  Most people here will know Withered Hand’s brilliant anti-folkery, but I highly recommend the flamboyantly orchestrated pop of Candythief as well.  I’ve no idea how it will strip back to the bare-bones approach necessitated by the Tape Club, but I’m keen to hear it.

Withered Hand – Withered Hand

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Saturday 7th November 2009: Meursault, Withered Hand & Jesus H. Foxx at the Bowery.

As lineups go, if I were the sort who spent his time masturbating to music, I would spank myself raw to the mere thought of this one.  Probably whilst lying in a bath full of lovely clear vinyl!

Meursault – A Few Kind Words

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Saturday 7th November 2009: Sara & the Snakes, Mitchell Museum & The Last Battle play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

It’s good to see the Limbo chaps back in the saddle.  Mitchell Museum are mental live, and the Last Battle have formed from the ashes of local band Thieves in Suits, and since then I have heard some really good things about them.

Mitchell Museum – Arthur Loves the Shadows

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Saturday 7th November 2009: Mark Eitzel & Franz Nicolay at Cabaret Voltaire.

Hmm, I’m not sure you really want all these good gigs on on a night when you’re trying to have a successful single launch, but this lineup looks really interesting.  Hailing from American Music Club and The Hold Steady respectively, I don’t know too much about either man’s solo material, but the bands they are/were both in before can be pretty bloody excellent.

Mark Eitzel – Patriot’s Heart (Live)

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I really can’t think of much to compare this to, so I think just listening to the songs below and judging for yourself would probably be the best route.  Musically, there’s all sorts jammed into this album – folk (sort of), cabaret (here and there), a little bit of swing, some indie, some, er, well, a little bit of almost everything really.  It’s chock full of dramatically sawed violins and wink-and-a-nudge accordions, but there’s still enough ballsy rock ‘n’ roll in the undercurrents to make this a lot more than another pastiche of some imagined indie band who ran away with the circus.

Dianna dresses her songs up in shades of Jacques Brel and Neil Hannon theatricality, but the lyrics tend more towards the dark humour of the former than the whimsical fancy of the latter.  For such an old-fashioned album (evocative of an imaginary time and place perhaps, but strangely nostaligic nevertheless) the tales told are themselves really quite modern.  In fact, this could easily read as the diary of a modern girl-about-town in many ways, just one with genuine wit and intelligence instead of the usual obsession with shopping and shoes.

I really do like Technicolour Wilderness actually.  It’s just… and odd record, I suppose.  It has a tremendous character and personality all of its own, and I find that incredibly endearing for some reason.  Add to that the gorgeous instrumentation and I reckon this is a real gem of an album.

Candythief – Entente Cordiale

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Candythief – Maria

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MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from Fence Records

Gak. Too much beer. Once more I stagger into work feeling fuzzy-headed and furry-tongued after a night of beer and song. It’s so fucking hard to concentrate on anything when you really just want to curl up on the floor under your desk and catch up on another six hours of sleep.

Tonight, however, instead of sleep, there will be podcasting and then a trip to the Withered Hand, Ish Marquez and Stanley Brinks gig at about eleven. And tomorrow we all get up nice and early and spend the whole day putting together Meursault albums. This involves screen printing front and back, folding the poster with the lyrics on it, applying a Toad stamp and an orange felt tip to the inlay card, and putting a barcode sticker on the back. Oddly, it is also going to involve watching Wales and Australia play at egg-chasing on the telly. It’s also going to take ages, but should be worth it in the end.

I forgot to mention a couple of gigs earlier in the week (like there weren’t enough already) but Sunday could end up panning out very nicely if you all do as you are told and follow my advice, which is this: potter along to the National Museum of Scotland for three o’clock, when The Pictish Trail will be playing a free set, then go to the pub for a couple of hours (there’s dozens within easy walking distance) and potter along to the Jazz Bar to see Candythief between about nine and half eleven. Candythief have a new album available and if it’s anything like their previous EP I will be absolutely delighted. So there you go – that’s your Sunday planned out for you.

As for Friday, however, there is still some serious business afoot: Five Friday Favourites, as pinched from GUT. It’s been very local on the site this week, so this would be a fine chance for all you lurkers to show the local gangs that you’re not afraid of them and get stuck in on your own account. Go for it – what’s the worst that can happen – public humiliation? Pish posh.

1. Favourite sweetie (in the candy sense, because of Candythief – nothing saucy please).
2. Best work-dodging tip for the terminally hung over.
3. Longest spell spent successfully on the wagon.
4. Soap of choice.
5. Coolest old TV program to search for on YouTube.

The Pictish Trail – I Don’t Know Where to Begin
Candythief – Junk
The Jam – All Mod Cons
The Zincs – The Moguls’ Wives
The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Hush Little Baby

The 28th Toadcast is all about the Fence Collective. People who read this site regularly must know them, I assume, but I’ve been intending to do this post for a while as they might be my favourite label in music at the moment.

After Kenny Anderson’s last band fell apart about ten years ago or more, he started releasing his own stuff on hand made CD-Rs under the name of King Creosote and between him and his brothers and some of the other local musicians he’d grown up with in Fife, a collective started to form which has grown and grown. Now, thanks to the spotlight cast their direction by Kenny’s brother Gordon’s involvement with The Beta Band and The Aliens, the success of King Creosote and James Yorkston, and the rising of KT Tunstall (also a Fence alumnus, believe it or not) Fence Records have turned into one of the most beloved record labels in the country.

And actually, I think their approach of building a community rather than just pimping product might just have the potential to make them one of the success stories of Music 2.0, although that’s another story. So this podcast is all about Fence Records and the bands I have discovered due to their hard work, and why I think they’re great. What an arse-kisser I’ve turned into.

(Warning: I’m drunker than I sound and there is way too much talking in this one.)

Toadcast #28 – The Fencecast

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01. Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra – Our Last Needle (03.17)
02. King Creosote – You’ve No Clue Do You (09.21)
03. James Yorkston & the Athletes – St. Patrick (16.33)
04. Art Pedro – Joanne (21.19)
05. MC Quake – It Feels Good to Be In Scotland (27.57)
06. Down the Tiny Steps – Handstand (36.44)
07. Adam Beattie – Bank Street (46.39)
08. Player Piano – Mercy (AC Mix) (49.35)
09. Candythief – A Good Day (56.47)
10. Rob St. John – Tipping In (60.06)
11. Adrian Crowley – Star of the Harbour (65.11)
12. Eagleowl – This is Not Your Lucky Day (67.47)
13. OLO Worms – Fingers & Thumbs (77.04)
14. HMS Ginafore – You Built a City Inside of Me (85.41)
15. Gummi Bako – She’s the Carrot & I’m the Stick (87.44)
16. The Pictish Trail – Words Fail Me Now (94.39)
17. Rich Amino – Chicken & Chips (99.02)
18. Sara Lowes – Uniform Days (104.22)
19. Magic Arm – Outdoor Games (108.11)
20. King Creosote – I’ll Fly By the Seat of My Pants (115.32)

I am forever baffled by how the ears work. I listened to Candythief’s MySpace page a while back and was not just mildly unimpressed, I thought it was a pretty poor effort all round. Quite why, on buying this mini-album at Homegame last week, I suddenly think it’s brilliant is beyond me. How the fuck does the brain do that? And why I decided to spend a fiver on an EP by a group I thought I didn’t like is yet another question, but beer can be a perverse mistress at times.

Now that I have seen the light, what are we listening to here? Well it sits in very similar, dramatically string-doused territory to a couple of other bands you’ve read about on these pages: The Moulettes and Paris Motel. They’re perhaps a little rougher and more guttural than these bands, but they can indeed produce the loveliness when called upon.

Still, the Paris bordello aesthetic persists, reinforced by the fact that Diana occasionally sings in French, although when she sings in English the clarity of her accent makes for an odd juxtaposition. Similar to Amy May perhaps, there seems to be a meeting of French cabaret and a particular type of clear as a bell Englishness which, frankly, brings a little weakness of knee to a certain amphibious gentleman around these parts.

It’s not all dramatically dark fiddle scrapings though, as the last few tracks take a fairly novel detour – Number Five into an eighties-sounding folk-pop and then She Can Do No Harm into French-language electro-pop splendour in the mid-nineties style. Quite where that came from is a little beyond me, but there it is, and it’s surprisingly really rather good. Even closer Satellite is more pop than carnival noir, but the gorgeous strings do make a farewell appearance.

There is no actual purchase link, but swing by MySpace and drop ‘em a line and I’m sure you can work something out. If you are disappointed I will give you your money back and call you a dickhead.

Candythief – Junk
Candythief – Entente Cordiale