Bleerch, bleurgh…  I feel completely disgusting. I had a really good sleep last night, but that translated into a day spent wasting my time fannying about and just lolling in that way that seems like a good idea at the time, but invariably ends up making you feel completely disgusting by the end.

Also, to make matters worse, we ordered pizza, which is something we hardly ever do and something which we absolutely always regret.  So here we sit on a Friday evening feeling bloated and slightly soiled and wondering whether at this time of the night there’s any point really trying to redeem the day, and perhaps it’s best just to forget it and wait for tomorrow.  Bleuch.

Direct download: Toadcast #203 – The Lardcast

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01. Joanna Gruesome – Madison (00.27)
02. The Mutton Birds – Anchor Me (06.36)
03. Monster Island – Pilot Whales (14.42)
04. Former Bullies – It Might Be Okay (17.36)
05. Video Thrills – Our Plush Selection (21.05)
06. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Some Candy Talking (Peel Session) (25.16)
07. Bottle of Evil – I Can See Your Face (31.20)
08. The Black Tambourines – White Album (39.37)
09. Dolfinz – Teenage Doom (42.47)
10. The Ramones – Psycho Therapy (48.50)
11. Samoan Punks – Everyday (51.42)
12. Waiters – Black Stuff (59.27)

I keep fretting about over-pimping my commercial enterprises on this blog, but I really should just stop worrying.  Putting on live shows is not much more than an extension of me insisting on telling you what sort of music to listen to, so really there’s not much difference between haranguing you about your buying habits and haranguing you about what you do in your free time really, is there.

So, after a fantastic gig with The Last Battle, Dad Rocks! and Shoes and Socks Off, and a brilliant day in Anstruther with Hott Toadzzz! it’s probably time to give you a wee nudge about our last five gigs of 2011.  Yes, you heard that right, five more still to come before that Post Alcoholic Stress Disorder sleep prescription taken by all Scots on the 1st and 2nd of January every year.

For those of you who want tickets in advance, which would be nice, you can get them at Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket or online from Brown Paper Tickets.

Saturday 19th November 2011: Gummy Stumps, Weird Era & Battery Face at the Wee Red Bar.

This will be a noisy one, and it also just happens to be my birthday so I warn you, I will be getting fucking shitfaced.  Weird Era are travelling up from Manchester, and will be joined by Gummy Stumps, who I thought were amazing at Retreat! this year, and Battery Face, who I was introduced to by Alastair from the excellent Deathpodal.

Weird Era – Summer Heights

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Sunday 27th November 2011: Withered Hand (solo), Samantha Crain & Mike MacFarlane at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Samantha Crain was originally introduced to me by Campfires and Battlefields, and I interviewed her at Pickathon back in 2008, back when I was embarrassingly new to interviewing. Since then she’s continued to release amazing stuff, and is finally able to make it to Edinburgh for a gig.  She’ll be joined by local favourite Withered Hand, and the fella who caught my, umm, ear the most at this year’s Antihoot – Mike MacFarlane.

Samantha Crain – We Are the Same

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Mike MacFarlane – Waltz

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Saturday 10th December 2011: Song, by Toad Records Christmas Party at the St. Stephens Centre.

I don’t have to tell you that this will just be a big, warm and fuzzy celebration of another year of sweary fun and generally releasing commercially inviable and eye-wateringly amazing records. Take that, music! Oh, and it will be both BYOB and child friendly, although I suspect the latter part will become progressively less true as the night goes on and I get more and more plastered.

Sunday 18th December 2011: The Black Tambourines, Joanna Gruesome & Dolfinz at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This will be loud and messy and awesome. Three young bands who make a racket and write bloody great pop songs. It’s on a Sunday, I know, but let’s face absolutely no-one is going to be doing any serious work that week are they?

The Black Tambourines – A Lot of Friends

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Joanna Gruesome – Sugarcrush

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Dolfinz – Coral Reefer

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Saturday 31st December 2011: Song, by Toad New Year’s House Gig at umm… our house.

We don’t have tickets available for this yet, and the lineup is unconfirmed, but well, I just thought I’d let you know that it would be happening. We’ll get two sets of live music, wander into Inverleith Park with some champagne to watch the fireworks, and then get drunk and play loud music until the last person gives in.

 As the more cunning of you might have noticed last week, Song, by Toad’s Friday Fives is now a radio show on Fresh Air, as well as just a means for you to waste your time on the internet on a Friday afternoon.

This means that from 3:30pm Brian Pokora and myself will be live on the radio, with some sort of attempt made to avoid the dreary old pish I would usually pick, out of respect for the fact that this is officially pre-pub radio and you probably want cheering up rather than bringing down.

Live on air from 3:30pm – listen here.

Also, there are a couple of live gigs to remind you about this weekend, including some late news which will hopefully be rather interesting for you.

Firstly, we have The Last Battle, Dad Rocks and Shoes & Socks Off at Henry’s tomorrow night.  It is only a fiver in, and those who come along will also be able to get into the second show of the night, which is as follows:

Secondly, Lach is opening for Viv Albertine (of The Slits) at Henry’s after our gig there on Saturday, and anyone who is there for the Ides of Toad night will get in for £4.

Thirdly, on Sunday in Anstruther we’ll be hosting a Song, by Toad all-dayer called Flamin’ Hott Toadzzz! at the Hew Scott Hall.  The lineup will be Avital Raz, Dan Mutch, Yusuf Azak, Jesus H. Foxx, Jonnie Common and Meursault, and tickets will be available on the door.

And on Monday I will sleep.

Today’s pointless questions for the internets.  Remember, fives first, pish-talking later.

1. Most shameful album you’ve seen your parents buy.
2. Coolest album you’ve seen your parents buy.
3. Most embarrassing gig you’ve been to.
4. Favourite type of weather.
5. If you had a parrot, what would teach it to say?

Playlist for Song, by Toad’s Friday Fives will appear below as we play stuff:
1. The Piranhas – Getting Beaten Up
2. Dad Rocks! - Aroused By Hair
3. Youth Lagoon – Posters
4. Tom Waits – Goin’ Out West
5. Easter – Somethin’ American
6. Dolfinz – Hot Pants
7. The Twilight Sad – Kill it in the Morning
8. Dead Kennedys – Holiday in Cambodia
9. John Cooper Clarke – Gimmix
10. Yuck – Holing Out
11. Lil Daggers – Dada Brown
12. Horsecollar – Christopher
13. Other Lives – For 12
14. Blur – To the End (with Francoise Hardy)

Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr
Audio: zip file (right-click, save as)

The Toad Session I was probably most nervous about recording was Milk Maid, I think.  It was arranged at the last minute, they are a full, four-piece rock band, their profile is riding relatively high at the moment and I’d never really recorded anything so loud in our house before.

As it was, it turned out pretty fucking well, if you ask me, so when PAWS came in I was confident enough that we’d get decent recordings, but I have to confess I was a little nervous about how we’d get away with the racket and the general lawlessness of their performances.

There were some changes to the team this time as well, as a lot of the usual suspects couldn’t make it.  Wee Matthew was helping out on cameras again, and Rory from Broken Records was back for a second batch of filming.  But we also managed to coax former ace Edinburgh gig photographer extraordinaire Nic Rue out of retirement to take the pictures, and Rory ‘brought at friend’ to help out with the filming.  And his friend just happened to be Chris Park.  Who just happens to be a serious professional.  So if you’re wondering why this isn’t as shit as usual, that’s probably why.

As per usual, all the session mp3s are available to download for free, either below or in this zip file, we have videos of the songs and of the interview here, photos here, Nic’s slightly larger portfolio of pics here, and of course the interview podcast below, with the playlist at the bottom of the page.  Enjoy.  And pity our poor neighbours.

Direct download: Toadcast #196 – PAWS Toad Session
Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

PAWS – Jellyfish (Toad Session)

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PAWS – Bloodline (Toad Session)

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PAWS – Bird Inside Birdcage, Ribcage Inside Bird (Toad Session)

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PAWS – Winners Don’t Bleed (Toad Session)

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01. PAWS – Jellyfish (Toad Session) (07.17)
02. Bronto Skylift – Cobblepot (15.50)
03. Mr. Peppermint – Carp Act (20.25)
04. PAWS – Bloodline (Toad Session) (26.47)
05. Ultimate Thrush – Complex Cat (35.31)
06. Crystal Swells – Waco, Wasilia, Waikiki (36.41)
07. PAWS – Bird Inside Birdcage, Ribcage Inside Bird (Toad Session) (42.35)
08. Pavement – Gold Soundz (48.59)
09. Dolfinz – Blowhole (51.44)
10. PAWS – Winners Don’t Bleed (Toad Session) (61.49)

 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.

I don’t really need to add anything to the following, do I?  Apart from a big thanks to the Electric Circus for suggesting I put these nights on, thanks to all the bands for agreeing to play and umm… well, I hope to fuck you all turn up, eh!

 If there is one cast-iron rule about appearing on Song, by Toad it is that bands who use a ‘z’ where they should use an ‘s’ simply get their emails deleted and will never appear on the site, ever.  Mostly this rule came into place to avoid rappers who think that ‘z’ makes them look hard, but in general it pertains to my reflexive and violent dislike of stupid fucking typography in band names.

But, the chinks formed by FOUND, eagleowl and more recently PAWS have turned into full-blown cracks these days, and what was once a rule has now been downgraded to more of a guideline.  Which is good, because if those blinkers were still on I might have missed out on Dolfinz.

I am going to repeat the disclaimer from Basement Fever’s post about this band, which is where I found them in the first place: don’t read too much into the Slipknot t-shirt or acoustic guitar, because neither will give you any kind of impression of what this band are like.

The music they make is the kind of music in which I have to confess I think Scotland has been woefully slow at catching up with the rest of the world.  With an extremely small number of exceptions, I haven’t heard much of this grungey, lo-fi guitar music executed with anything like the quality of our neighbours either South of Hadrian’s Wall or across the Atlantic.

This is of course early days for the band – from Stonehaven apparently – but despite all the noise, and despite playing their guitars like they’re watching TV and trying to send a text message at the same time, they keep their hooks relatively prominent and ensure that under it all this is still functional pop music.

And with that I suppose I must mention that the usual caveats remain, of course, about ensuring that all the lo-fi aspects of this music don’t overwhelm the pop aspects, and also blah blah they seem to be pretty new on the scene and therefore you can’t read tooooo much into the handful of songs they’ve put up for free download on their Soundcloud page. and so on and so forth.

Nevertheless, these guys sound really promising, and I am looking forward to hearing more.  So much so, in fact, that I have booked them to play the Electric Circus on Wednesday 17th August. But no, this isn’t just me writing posts to shill for my gigs, stop being so fucking cynical.

Dolfinz – Blowhole

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Dolfinz – Coral Reefer

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And, what might be their first ever demo, if you guess based on when they actually uploaded it to Soundcloud in the first place:

Dolfinz – Bubblegum

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