It’s a busy week this week, and actually I am quite happy with this fact.  Sometimes busy weeks of gigs feel like a forest of looming obligations, but I don’t think there’s anything I feel any real guilty pressure to attend this time around, so this week may for once be assigned to fun and fun alone.

Having delivered a shitty Summer, Edinburgh is doing its usual trick of starting Autumn brilliantly.  It is cold now, but the sun has been dazzling, leaving me wondering why I didn’t spend more time in the garden this Summer.  The answer, of course, is because it was constantly pishing rain.

I am actually going to miss anything, however interesting, taking place at the end of the week because I am off to Eigg (an island, for you non-Scots) for the Fence Collective’s rather brilliant-sounding Away Game.  I won’t tease you too much about that though, as tickets have long since sold out.

Wednesday 22nd September 2010: Diane Cluck, Wig Smith and Rob St. John at the Wee Red Bar.

I am as keen to hear Rob St. John’s new stuff as I am to hear Diane Cluck for the first time, I have to confess.  Either way though, it’s a win-win situation for me.  I just have to be careful not to let the Wee Red Bar’s primary school time constraints catch me by surprise as I have done in the past.

Diane Cluck – Ink & Needles

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Thursday 23rd September 2010: Darren Hayman, Gordon McIntyre (fae Ballboy) & Withered Hand (solo) at the Wee Red Bar.

Wave Pictures and Herman Dune pal Darren Hayman is touring, I think, in support of his latest album with the Secondary Modern, Essex.  Both Gordon and Dan are friendly, charismatic performers and this comes across particularly strongly in a solo acoustic setting, so I would imagine this will be one of the most ‘lovely cup of tea’ gigs you’ll see in a while.

Ballboy – Sex is Boring

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Friday 24th September 2010: The Scottish Enlightenment, Dan Lyth & Moon Junk at Sneaky Pete’s.

The Scottish Enlightenment are launching their new EP this evening (title track below, for all you naughty downloaders of pirate material from the internet – shame on you!), all of which is a painstakingly crafted strategic buildup to their album release later in the year, and subsequent unstoppable ascent to world domination.  This is not as accessible as their previous Pascal EP, at least not immediately anyway, but after a few more listens I think it might be every bit as good.

The Scottish Enlightenment – Little Sleep

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Saturday 25th September 2010: White Heath, Sebastian Dangerfield, Zoobizaretta and Loch Awe at Sneaky Pete’s.

I think this is actually Zoobizaretta’s album launch, but I don’t really know them at all and so, no disrespect intended, I kinda think of this as the first chance to catch Loch Awe.  Yep, their first ever gig.  Now, they sent me through their debut EP (which you can download from their Bandcamp link above) and although I am not sure if it’s quite ready for wider consumption yet (most of the Edinburgh bands I love were going for a good few years before I bumped into them and fell in love with their stuff, so this is a pretty normal thing, I think), there are still some great moments on it.  Darling, Your Lover in particular is one of those songs which brought me back in from the next room to listen to.  I am not sure what it is about it, but it’s a song I definitely find compelling for some reason, and that’s the magic ingredient I suppose.

Loch Awe – Darling, Your Lover

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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!