Yes okay okay, so life is easy for those of us in a remote but lovely Fife fishing village, listening to Gummi Bako rock the place to the rafters and swearing about cunts sitting down at gigs.  Gigs! Honestly!  Get off your fucking arse, it may be alt-folk to you but it’s rock and fucking roll to me, motherfucker.

Anyhew, apart from eating in the Dreel every day I have been mightily enjoying myself here in Anstruther this week, with the only imaginable improvement being the arrival of the bright shining star in the centre of my universe – Mrs. Toad –  tomorrow evening.

Driving back and forth from Edinburgh to Fife, as I’ve been doing this week, has woken me up to the importance of a few songs because they’ve appeared on the tape player in the van on a few occasions, and I am currently very much enamoured with my old collection of mixtapes.  As you well know by now.

So, I heard a fair few songs which I strongly, strongly relate with certain people I suppose because mixtapes are so evocative of certain times and certain places in your life when things were radically different. So this week’s five is about just that – which songs do you relate with whom?  Please de-lurk and chip in, because Friday is the Great De-lurking Amnesty, and I’d far rather chat to someone new on teh Internetz than the same old tedious nutbags I spend the rest of the week talking to.

1. Song which you most associate with your father (or stepfather or father figure – makes no difference).
2. Song which you most associate with your mother (again, or whomever most fits this role).
3. Song which you most associate with a close sibling (a close friend will do if you are an only child).
4. Song which you and your partner (who is allowed to be imaginary) think of as ‘your song’.
5. Song which your partner (real or otherwise) doesn’t realise is ‘their song’, but is nevertheless.

The Forest – Uncredited Serial Killer Blues

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Loch Awe – How it Began

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Graham Repulski – Election Day

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Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

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The Colourful Band – Tell You About

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It’s not quite so mental this week on Edinburgh’s live circuit.  There are quite a few interesting gigs, but not all that many unmissable ones, so I think it might be easier to pick and choose a couple without overburdening yourself.  Last week’s strategy of driving to gigs in order to prevent excessive alcohol consumption proved extremely successful (until the weekend, but then the weekend is supposed to be for fun so bugger off, besides, it’s not every day your label has an EP launch party) so I might just continue it this week.  In any case, I have three five-a-side football games this week, so it may just be necessary anyway, whatever I personally may wish to do.

Monday 14th September 2009: Jeremy Jay, Tisso Lake & the Colourful Band at the Bowery.

Jeremy Jay is a K Records star, a label give considerable love by Ruth from the Bowery when she made an appearance on the Toadcast a couple of weeks ago.  Ian from Tisso Lake has a gorgeous voice and a lovely guitar sound and while I haven’t seen him with a full band before, he is rather Rob St. Johnish (*sniff, bye Rob) when he plays solo.  The Colourful Band are from Leith and while their recorded material can seem a little lacking in real conviction, there is definitely a lot of potential there, so I will be very interested to see them live to get a better idea of what they are really like as a band.

Jeremy Jay – Beautiful Rebel

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Tuesday 15th September 2009: Brook Pridemore at the Forest Cafe.

[This has shifted to the Forest Cafe from the Bowery] Anyone who saw Dan Costello at the Bowery last Monday will know that Brook is his drummer, and will be breathlessly waiting for him to sing Breakup Song for Brook Pridemore to Sing, written by Mr. Costello with the fairly obvious intention that it be sung by erm…  yes, Gary Barlow, that was it.  Apart from that, I have little idea what to expect, but if he plays with anything like as light a touch and generous-spirited a nature as Costello himself then this will be a really enjoyable night.

Tuesday 15th September 2009: Theoretical Girl at Sneaky Pete’s.

[Edit: due to the cancellation of the support acts, anyone mentioning Song, by Toad at the door will be given free entry - bloody excellent!] I am not entirely sure about Theoretical Girl, but there’s definitely something interesting going on there, so if New York anti-folk isn’t quite your bag then this slightly theatrical, often piano-led, somewhat Dubstar-esque lady is well worth investigating.

Theoretical Girl – Another Fight

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Wednesday 16th September 2009: Jesus H. Foxx, Second Hand Marching Band & Wounded Knee at the Wee Red Bar.

We all know how good I think the Foxx are, but I am also bloody delighted to get the chance to catch the Second Hand Marching Band again.  They encompass a lot of styles, from carnival folk, to more mysterious, dreamy territory and I haven’t seen them for ages.

Second Hand Marching Band – Mad Sense

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Thursday 17th September 2009: Whispertown 2000, Joe McAdam (from the New York Fund) & No Pasaran at Sneaky Pete’s.

I liked the Whispertown 2000 debut album, maybe not quite enough to review it, but enough to be fascinated by their music.  They’re getting bigger, too, and I think they are about to play the End of the Road Festival, so they could be on the verge of making a bit of a breakthrough.

Whispertown 2000 – Done With Love

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Friday 19th September 2009: Beerjacket & Emily Scott play Trampoline at the Wee Red Bar.

Despite threatening suicide on a number of occasions, Trampoline soldiers on, as the one of the best and most consistently under-publicised nights in Edinburgh.  Of the bands on Song, by Toad Records I saw two for the first time at Trampoline shows, and the lineups are almost all excellent.

They have a couple more bodies on board now – Dave and Michael from The Stormy Seas/Shipping Forecast Garden Party/ex-Rubix – so I am really hoping they can push this onto a new level.  The lineups are almost always top notch, and I think as a night it should really benefit from the extra help, because it deserves to be a lot bigger than it is.  Euan wrote about Beerjacket when he was babysitting this blog in June, so I am really looking forward to seeing them for the first time.

Saturday 20th September 2009: The Declining Winter, Conquering Animal Sound & Fieldhead at the Bowery.

I might not be a massive fan of the Declining Winter myself, but I am bloody delighted to see Tracer Trails back promoting gigs again.  The current groundswell of belief in the Edinburgh musical community owes an awful lot to the work done by Tracer Trails a couple of years ago, who consistently brought left-field artists, often of some renown, to Edinburgh and hence, along with the now defunct I Fly Spitfires, did an enormous amount to actually make Edinburgh a place good bands would seriously consider putting on their tour schedule.  They also both made a huge contribution to actually building the audiences for this kind of music, giving subsequent promoters a confidence that there were people who would come, if they put on shows themselves.

Both promoters pretty much vanished, just as their labour was beginning to bear fruit for everyone else, which was a huge shame, so it’s really brilliant to see Tracer Trails back in business.  I urge you all to go along and show your support, because it would be great to see them back on the list of reliably excellent and challenging promoters we have around at the moment.