So, this week ends with a massive extravaganza of Toadliness, but it does look like it’ll be relatively quiet along the way as there doesn’t seem to be that much else around until the weekend.  Which is actually alright, sort of, because it gives me a chance to get my shit together in advance of a very busy weekend indeed.

Quite how we’re going to sort the logistics of getting half the bands in Edinburgh to and from Anstruther on Sunday I don’t know, but I am sure we’ll manage somehow.

Anyhow, in the meantime there are obviously good gigs on the weekend of course, but I reckon the dark horse is tonight at Henry’s, where Boston band hearts!attack are playing.

[Edit: fucking hell, what a tool, I managed to miss Kid Canaveral and King Creosote tomorrow at the Liquid Room, and Born to Be Wide Radio Seminar on Thursday at the Electric Circus.  And no-one pulled me up on it - do none of you fuckers read this at all?]

Monday 31st October 2011: Hearts!Attack, The Lovely Eggs & Viennetta at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Some variations on guitar pop going on here, with rough-around-the-edges hearts!attack coming over from Boston, faux-naif you’ve-got-to-be-fucking-having-me-on indie pop from Manchester in the form of the Lovely Eggs, and new(ish – I think!) Edinburgh/Glasgow band Viennetta, who have apparently emerged from some sort of fragments of The Ray Summers and The Damn Shames. Intriguing.

Hearts!attack – If You Were Dead

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Saturday 5th November 2011: The Last Battle, Dad Rocks! & Shoes and Socks Off play the Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Our next Ides of Toad night features the ever-changing lineup of Edinburgh band The Last Battle, along with touring Icelander Dad Rocks! and touring partner Shoes and Socks Off.  Dad Rocks! have a new album out around about now as well, so this’ll be your chance to get hold of a copy.

Dad Rocks! – Aroused By Hair

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Saturday 5th November 2011: PET single launch, with Conquering Animal Sound and Pumajaw at the Voodoo Rooms.

I was fully intending to pretend this gig wasn’t happening, what with it clashing with the Ides of Toad and all, but it’s too good a lineup.  So if any of you are misguided enough not to be at Henry’s for our gig, then this is where you should be. But you’ll all be at ours right.  Right?

PET – What You Building?

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Sunday 6th November 2011: Flamin’ Hott Toadzzz! in the Hew Scott Hall, Anstruther.

Alright, maybe this is in Anstruther rather than Edinburgh, but Fence asked me to put together the lineup for this all-dayer, so it is full half with Toad favourites and half with Fence crowd-pleasers. There will be bangers and mash being served upstairs at the AIA Hall as well, apparently, just to add to the splendidness.

Sunday 6th November 2011: King Charles at Sneaky Pete’s.

King Charles is a bit of a weird one, part acoustic smart-arsery, part spiky, lively pop. I don’t know that much about him, but he was a big favourite of a friend of mine called Chris Imlach who used to do an excellent new music show on Fresh Air when I first started, so it’s nice to see him playing here again – and more excellent booking from Sneaky Pete’s.

King Charles – Love/Lust

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 Yoo hoo internets, I’m ba-aack!  With a friend visiting, and in no mood to waste his holiday watching me fanny about on the computer, I ended up taking an unplanned day off yesterday.  We even did one of those tourist things which it is so easy to ignore when you actually live in a city: we climbed Arthur’s Seat.  And it was bloody amazing!

So what, after a weekend of endurance drinking, does this week hold in store? Well, the general idea was ‘as much sleep as I can manage’, but it looks like this might turn out to be something of a challenge, as we have a pretty busy gigging week ahead of us here in Edinburgh, from the looks of it.

Wednesday 17th August 2011: The Pineapple Chunks‘ album launch at the Electric Circus, with Dolfinz, and Mutch & Thomas.

This is the first of our four Toad at the Circus gigs, which we’re putting on in association with the Electric Circus over the next couple of weeks.  It also happens to be the launch of the Pineapple Chunks’ excellent new album A Dog Walked In (which can be previewed and purchased on their Bandcamp page).  Joining them on the bill will be lo-fi slacker indie outfit Dolfinz from Stonehaven, and a new project by Dan Mutch and Alun Thomas from The Leg.  It will be wonky and messy, this, but I think it’ll be fucking brilliant as well.

Dolfinz – Hot Pants

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Wednesday 18th August 2011: The Cave Singers at Cabaret Voltaire.

The second Cave Singers album underwhelmed me slightly, but their first was brilliant and they’re a cracking live band.  Their stomping Gothic Americana comes out really powerfully in a live setting, and I’d be intrigued to hear how well the ballads, which were the strongest songs on their second record in my opinion, come across live.

The Cave Singers – Beach House

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Thursday 18th & Friday 19th August: Kristin Hersh at Cabaret Voltaire.

Do I really need to explain much about the legendary Kristin Hersh?  If the answer is yes, then go and look up the Throwing Muses, and have a look around her own website.  As well as musically, I have a lot of respect for Kristin Hersh for other reasons as well.  When the digital panic reached its most shrill she was one of the first to start genuinely looking for new solutions, instead of simply trying to pretend that technological progress should be forbidden from happening.

Friday 19th August 2011: Randolph’s Leap, Amber Wilson, and Matthew Healy at the Electric Circus.

This is our second Toad at the Circus night, and instead of ramshackle and potentially (hopefully) rather awkward guitars, this lineup  is more of the folk-pop variety comprised of the quirky sentimentality of Randolph’s Leap, Amber Wilson’s first full band show in Edinburgh (I think) and a solo outing by Matthew Healy from Loch Awe.

Randolph’s Leap – Going Home

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Friday 19th August 2011: Chad VanGaalen, Jesus H. Foxx, and Tom Gilbert at Sneaky Pete’s.

More evidence, to follow up the point made by Bart in the comment on last week’s listings, that Sneaky Pete’s have a consistently excellent lineup throughout August.  Nice to see the Foxx back out and about as well.

Chad VanGaalen – City of Electric Light

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Saturday 20th August 2011: Conquering Animal Sound, and Hiva Oa at Sneaky Pete’s.

I’ll be honest, Hiva Oa and Conquering Animal Sound don’t sound like the most obvious combination on which to base a lineup, but CAS’s debut album is one of the most critically successful* to come out of Scotland in a good while, and if you haven’t seen their looping, emotive live set yet, then you should.

*I say ‘critically’ because I have no idea what the actual sales figures are like of course.

Right, after an unspeakable beast of a week last week, handling the diciest of dicey session, lost bands, exploding PAs and jetlag, this shall be the week of brutal efficiency.  Vorsprung Durch Technik and all that sort of thing.

It is also the week we finalise the Lach masters, the King Post Kitsch vinyl master for the Don’t You Touch My Fucking Honeytone single (May 16th) and get the print press promotional work moving for his album, The Party’s Over.  Things, in short, are in full swing.

Lower Dens, The Scottish Enlightenment and Edinburgh School for the Deaf were all bloody excellent at Sneaky Pete’s last night, but I didn’t see all that many of you fuckers there.  Shame on you all, shame indeed!

There aren’t all that many conventional gigs knocking about Edinburgh this week, but there are certainly some interesting ones.

Friday 1st April 2011: Arrington De Dionyso & The Leg at the Bristo Hall.

This will lurch between unlistenable nonsense and mental genius, I would imagine, as the best music should.  The more recognisable elements seem to be at least somewhat related to a Beefhearty stomp, but that’s just one touchstone for what a quick listen to De Dionyso’s MySpace (for that’s all I know about him) shows to be a rather broad spectrum of styles.  Also, the Leg are fucking awesome.

Arrington De Dionysio – The Invisible New

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Saturday 2nd April 2011: Two Wings & Family Elan at Old St. Paul’s Church Hall.

Two Wings first came to my attention a few weeks ago, and I am really interested in what little of their stuff exists so far.  It’s quite melodramatic, flighty, psychedelic folk, but it has plenty of balls and force, and I will be really interested to hear where they go from here.  I don’t really know anything about Family Elan, but Powan Presents put on really good gigs, so I would say that if they are good enough for them, then they are good enough for me.

Saturday 2nd April 2011: Meursault, Conquering Animal Sound & Jonnie Common play Limbo at The Voodoo Rooms.

I haven’t actually seen Meursault play since they acquired a fiddle player, a drummer and a bass guitarist, so this will be a weird experience for me – almost as if the label has signed a new band, who sound suspiciously like an old band we used to know.  Conquering Animal Sound and Jonnie Common shouldn’t need any introduction on these pages, but if you don’t know them, take my word for it, they’re excellent.

Meursault – Flittin’ (Demo)

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[Edit: Fuck me for being an idiot, it's Haddowfest this weekend as well.  What a tool!  The lineup looks a little patchy, but there are some good bands on there, and I'm really impressed with how this festival has grown over the last couple of years.]

This is one of those weeks where there could be two of you and you’d still probably not quite manage to get to all the decent gigs in the city this week.  Personally I am going to try and keep it a bit calm, but I have my doubts as to whether or not I am likely to succeed.  Mrs. Toad, no doubt, will be wildly impressed.

I had fun down in London last week, incidentally.  As I mentioned, I did a quick interview with Tom Robinson for BBC 6Music while I was there and, in typical fashion, talked for about twenty minutes, forcing them into copious editing to get things down to the requisite couple of minutes of actual airtime.  You can listen to the whole thing here if you like – it’ll be up for the next week or so I think, and my bit starts just over half an hour in.

Monday 7th February 2011: The Joy Formidable at the Electric Circus.

I’ll be absolutely honest, I don’t know too much about these guys, apart from the fact that they were really quite buzzy a year or so ago, and have a new album coming out, so I am rather interested to hear what it’s all about.

The Joy Formidable – The Magnifying Glass

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Wednesday 9th February 2011: 6 Day Riot, The Pineapple Chunks & White Heath play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

Limbo really are back with a bang in 2011.  Having gone incredibly quiet last year, I wasn’t sure if we were going to see them back again, but with something like six or seven shows booked for the first couple of months of the year already it seems I couldn’t have been more wrong.  It’ll be nice to see the Chunks back in action again as well.

The Pineapple Chunks – Look Back in Horror

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Thursday 10th February 2011: Dylan Uncovered at the Voodoo Rooms.

In association with Let’s Get Lyrical, this is a night of Dylan appreciation (and covers) starring Yusuf Azak, Esperi, The Sundancer, Shock and Awe, Norman Lamont, Hookers for Jesus, Edinburgh School for the Deaf, Issac Brutal and the Trailer Trash Express, and Tribute to Venus Carmichael.

Friday 11th February 2011: James Yorkston & Marry Waterson and Oliver Knight at Pilrig St. Paul’s.

Another Let’s Get Lyrical show, this one looks gorgeous, and I think is part of James Yorkston’s tour to promote the recent publishing of his tour diaries.

James Yorkston – Steady as She Goes

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Friday 11th February 2011: Panda Su EP launch, with I Build Collapsible Mountains & Finn LeMarinel at Sneaky Pete’s.

The first of two consecutive This is Music nights at Sneaky’s, this is something of a Glasgow Allstars of Gentle Acoustic Pop kind of a lineup.

Saturday 12th February 2011: Conquering Animal Sound album launch with Miaoux Miaoux & Esperi at Sneaky Pete’s.

Conquering Animal Sound’s debut album Kammerspiel is out now, and they are touring the UK in support of it, with this being the Edinburgh leg.

Conquering Animal Sound – Bear (Lamplighter Remix)

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Saturday 12th February 2011: Come on Gang‘s farewell show with Over the Wall & Cancel the Astronauts at Pilrig St. Paul’s.

We music fans can be an ungrateful shower at times, and Come on Gang have just about had enough of us.  They are calling it a day, but going out with something of a bang – having a big old farewell bash at Pilrig St. Paul’s which is doubling as an album release show for their debut album.  Sort of an epitaph, I suppose.

Once again this New Year’s Eve Mrs. Toad and I shall be forgoing the dubious pleasure of stumbling about in the freezing cold city centre surrounded by other people’s sick, and will instead be having a glass or two of wine in the house, like we did last year.

Like last year there will be live music, and like last year you are all invited.  Jonnie Common (Inspector Tapehead), Neil Pennycook (Meursault) and Jamie Scott (Japanese War Effort) will be playing, and the set may well include some collaborative stuff, or just three solo sets, depending how effectively they get their shit together in between now and then.

We’ll get another keg, I think, because that was a great success at the Christmas Party.  Kegs tend to cost us around £1.80 per pint (70 pints, £130) so please come prepared to chip in if you fancy guzzling posh beer all night instead of cans of Tennent’s.  Also, we’d really appreciate if you could buy your tickets in advance, just so we have an idea of numbers.  All the money goes directly to the bands, so it is for a good cause.

Sold out now, sorry.

Many thanks – hope to see you there!

This is one of those weeks where I think that I really haven’t got much on, but then I look at every single evening and they all look jammed full of jobs to do.  Gripe whinge piss moan etc etc etc…

Anyhow, as well as various other little crappy jobs, I have to collect our two Pioneer amps from the amp repair shop, which is good news.  We keep on burning these fuckers out by playing things far too loud, and so we’ve been without music in our house for the last week, apart from a shitey pair of speakers we plug into the computer.  These, whilst just about serviceable in an emergency, do not, frankly, cut the mustard, so I am delighted to be fetching the big bastard noisy ones again so we can turn shit up nice and loud once more.

Ours aren’t particularly expensive either, but apparently people go crazy for this Pioneer Silver stuff.  There are collectors and all sorts, and we saw a couple of very nice ones indeed changing hands on eBay for hunnerts of pounds.  One to stay well clear of whilst drunk, I think it’s safe to say.

Tuesday 27th July 2010: Dum Dum Girls, Jesus H. Foxx & My Tiny Robots at Cabaret Voltaire.

The Dum Dum Girls play slightly lo-fi indie pop, with an emphasis on the pop.  There are lots of ahh-ahh choruses and things like that, and the guitars are nice and growly.  Jesus H. Foxx are also coming out of hiding for this one, which will be a nice treat for us all!

Dum-Dum Girls – I Will Be

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Thursday 29th July 2010: Trapped in Kansas & Yahweh split single launch, with the Japanese War Effort at the Wee Red Bar.

Gerry Loves Records win at vinyl.  Their last release, apart from being a pleasure to listen to, is also a pleasure to own.  They put real thought into the packaging of the thing and make the whole object something you really, really want to own.  This is their second release, and given how the label go about their business I really, really hope it all goes well for them.

Saturday 31st July 2010: eagleowl & Conquering Animal Sound play at the We Sink Ships: Elements short film screening at the Wee Red Bar.

This kind of cross-media stuff doesn’t happen nearly enough around here, but then I suppose a straightforward gig with three bands and some beer is a lot simpler to slap together, whereas this kind of thing requires a little more thought, I guess.  Elements is, I think, a film put together by Sleepysoul productions using a combination of their own images and work by Heidi Kuisma and Neil Milton (who are We Sink Ships), but I couldn’t swear to it.  Whatever it is though, it sounds like a really good evening, not least because whatever the film is the two bands involved are really good.

eagleowl – Laughter (Toad Session)

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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.

Well it’s finally time to get that bastard Meursault album out there for people to enjoy – Christ, it’s been a trial sitting on this for so long.  I really have learned how leaks happen in the music industry now.  Never mind malice, it is just virtually impossible to keep something you’re really excited about to yourself for as long as is needed to organise a proper album release.  This album was recorded in December and January, and was basically finished by mid-February.

Since then, we’ve had to restrain everyone involved (from the band, to people like myself and, Dylan and Wee Matthew who have all been playing our own copies, to members of the press and assorted other industry people who’ve we’ve had to give copies to) from making it widely available before the actual release.  This is surprisingly hard because of course people are just bloody excited about it – frankly, how any album fails to leak is beyond me, really.  We’re tiny – imagine how many people have to keep something under their hats when the record is being released by even a moderately-sized indie.

This week also sees a full day of music business seminars at the Voodoo Rooms.  On Thursday Olaf and Derick from Born to Be Wide will bring us a full day of seminars, surrounded by a cloud of showcase gigs around the city.  The seminars will be: Speak to the Management, How to Get on a Festival Bill, What Next – Preparing for the Future, and Essential Legal Advice.  I have been to a lot of the Born to Be Wide seminars and I can’t over-emphasise how useful they can be.  Even if you don’t end up acting on anything in particular at the time, it’s useful to know where to find that kind of advice should you need it in the future. So far we’re in contact with publishers and lawyers for the label because of Born to Be Wide.

The List have a more complete preview here, and you can buy tickets for the event here.

I honestly can’t find much else out there beyond this couple of gigs – I must be missing something obvious, surely?  Please feel free to point and laugh in the comments, as usual.

Thursday 8th April 2010: Hopeless Heroic & FOUND at Electric Circus.

This is the Wide Days closing party, featuring the fabulous FOUND who seem to make more noise now that there are fewer of them, somehow, and a a certain baldy-headed mystery man we can’t mention here for contractual reasons.  FOUND were excellent at Homegame, incidentally.  Far rockier than I’d imagined, but very, very good.

Saturday 10th April 2010: Meursault & Conquering Animal Sound at Cabaret Voltaire.

Supporting will be the excellent Conquering Animal Sound, who have just completed their own single launch mini-tour.  I think Meursault are intending to play the entire new album start to finish, but I could be wrong.  They’re even lugging a bloody piano down to Cabaret Voltaire for the purpose, so I would recommend not missing this one.

Meursault – Crank Resolutions

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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.

This is just a brief list of some stuff I’m looking forward to in the Edinburgh music scene over the coming year.  I don’t intend to be parochial about this, or too narrow, but I am not as close to the precise ins and outs of what’s happening in the rest of the country so there’s a limit to what I can meaningfully say about what’s going on there.  It’s not meant to be exhaustive either, just some thoughts pottering about at the front of my mind.

New Labels

Last year saw the first steps made by a couple of new labels in Edinburgh, Kilter and Mini50.  With Song, by Toad Records virtually at capacity in terms of labour and money, and 17 Seconds and SL Records also really busy, these two new labels should have a pretty free hand in terms of first dibs on emerging bands this year.

Kilter have already showed the quality of their work with the beatiful eagleowl single in December, so in that sense they’re a slight step ahead.  Mini50 have been negotiating with some of the newer bands to emerge in the last year or so though, and album releases by the likes of Mammoeth should give a really solid foundation to their launch.  Basically, this is great news for the city’s young bands.

Jeffrey Lewis – Don’t Let the Record Label Take you out to Lunch

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The New Generation of Bands

Whilst I’m talking about the newer bands to emerge last year, there is a definite gap forming in the local musical ecosystem.  The fact that Broken Records and now Meursault and Withered Hand have graduated to an audience both nationwide and beyond leaves an opportunity for one of the new generation to make a mark locally.

With a single and an EP already to their name, Jesus H. Foxx are slightly further ahead in their development, but with the very promising emergence of bands like the Pineapple Chunks, Conquering Animal Sound and the Last Battle there is the opportunity for a band from the new generation to progress to the stage where they will obviously and easily be able to fill small venues like Sneaky Pete’s and whatever the Roxy management turn the old Bowery space into.

David Bowie – All the Young Dudes

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The New Roxy

And while we’re on the subject of the Roxy, Rupert Thomson, former Skinny editor, has been appointed to run the entire building in the new year.  I have a lot of time for Rupert, so I am really hopeful that he can carry on the development of what is pretty clearly the best gig space for small bands and promoters in the city.  In the absence of Ruth and Jane the place will inevitably have a very different atmosphere, but it is still easily the best space of its type around, so I really hope the new team can continue to foster the underground scene in the capital with the same kind of devotion and sympathy which Ruth brought to the place.  And very nice that they now have a one o’clock license, which is very fortuitous timing indeed for the new venture.

Tom Waits – New Coat of Paint (Live)

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Descent of the Digital Press Locusts

Last year saw the formation of so many new blogs in Scotland it made my head spin.  In fact it actually made me feel like an established veteran.  With respected indie publications like Bearded and Plan B swinging the axe on their print editions and also retreating to the web, we are getting closer to the American press model every day.

In the States there are basically no music magazines left, so labels and bands take blogs way, way more seriously, because we are pretty much the only people left who are addressing their audience.  In the UK there are still some excellent music magazines – Clash, Word, The Stool Pigeon and so on – but glossies like the NME, Q and Uncut are really becoming embarrassingly bad.  Personally I would be surprised if the year passed without a high profile music press casualty, which means that the playing field is unusually open for blogs and other digital publications.  And with the death of music television beyond the insultingly stupid X-Factor and its diseased ilk, pretty much the only music television which exists in the UK is now online.

This general trend could lead to a fairly considerable shift in how online publications are treated over the next year or so and, instead of being considered amateur or grassroots or DIY, we could end up being as close to mainstream as it actually gets in the indie world.

The Clash – Career Opportunities

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That Extra Step

Glasvegas were probably the last really big band to come out of Scotland, in terms of sheer audience size.  Frightened Rabbit, depending on their next album, could follow in their footsteps over the next twelve months.  Do any of the Edinburgh bands, I find myself wondering, have it in them to follow in their footsteps?  Are we likely to ever see the likes of Withered Hand, Meursault or Broken Records get anywhere near a late evening slot on the main stage at a major festival anytime soon?  It would be nice to think so, wouldn’t it.

Aileen Loy & Blue Valentines – Big in Japan

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