I love Homegame.  Have I mentioned that before?

For the uninitiated, the Fence Collective‘s Homegame Festival is held once a year in the small fishing village of Anstruther in Fife (well, it used to be a fishing village but it seems to be largely touristy now – neighbour Pittenweem seems to be more of a working harbour).  A huge pile of Fence Records acts, bolstered by friends and neighbours, get together and play lots of gigs in the town halls, school halls and beer halls of the town, and about six hundred or so lucky punters get to go along.

There are a few things I love about this festival, so here are a couple, put as briefly as possible:
- Anstruther is small, so the festival itself has to be small, or the town wouldn’t be able to cope.
- Fence Collective music is fucking brilliant.  There will be no sets by the View, not even acoustic ones.
- It’s actually in a town, so if it pisses down you can just stay in the pub and not get wet.
- The bands themselves are all relaxed, friendly and as interested in seeing good music and getting plastered as the rest of us, which makes for a really nice, communal atmosphere.
- It’s in a seaside town so if you ever get all musicked out, you can pick up a paper, sit on the promenade and read for a bit.
- Did I mention the relaxed atmosphere?  It’s the nicest festival in the world to be at.

This year Mrs. Toad and I rented a couple of cottages in Pittenweem – we were too slow to get Anstruther – which ended up being absolutely full of bodies at the end of every gin-sodden night of debauchery.  And when I say full I mean full; every inch of floor and ever sofa or cushion covered with some passed out drunkard or other.  Fuck me it was fun. Read the rest of this entry »

Well well, this is rather good. Johnny Lynch has spent so long slaving away at the Fence Records coalface that it seemed he might keep his own musical endeavours on the backburner forever. Well he’s pulled his finger out and spat something out at last, and the results are bloody excellent.

This record is quite Fencey in many respects, with a fairly familiar combination of acoustic balladry teased and perverted by electronic glitchery and atmospherics. The Earlies play on a few of the songs here too, as they did on labelmate King Creosote’s breakthrough KC Rules OK.

It’s a different animal though, Secret Soundz.  It leans more toward the bleepery of Found, and Johnny’s love of Hot Chip shows through immediately on the introductory instrumental Secret Sound #2.  As if to reassure us that he’s not going to do anything too weird he slips from that straight into the gorgeous All I Own, followed by the equally excellent I Don’t Know Where to Begin.  In fact, this record is forever slipping back and forth between these two places, such that it’s almost like a naughty schoolboy who occasionally catches himself gazing wistfully out across a misty harbour, and instantly resolves to do something mischievous immediately lest he be seen as going soft.

As with the latest/forthcoming King Creosote album, this particular gem is only going to be available at gigs until early September, when it is properly released.  KC and PT are touring together this Summer, and Johnny is playing some live shows with Bristolian Rozi Plain as well, so there’s plenty of opportunity to do yourselves a favour.

It’s been a while, but it’s definitely been worth the wait.  I may not warm to maybe one or two songs – Winter Home Disco never quite seems to hit stride, for example – but this is a really good album.

The Pictish Trail – I Don’t Know Where to Begin
The Pictish Trail – Words Fail Me Now

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from Fence Records

Albums with preposterously long titles, hmm. Have we learned nothing from Fiona Apple, people? It’s a genuine surprise release, this, with KC’s recent album still warm on the shelves of the nation’s record shops and the squeals of the betrayed folkies still ringing in our ears.

He’s always been a prolific little minstrel, has Kenny, and I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that this record follows so hard on the heels of the previous one (it was probably half-written before that one even came out). In the sense that Bombshell came across as a release from the shackles of years of home-recorded low-fi releases, this one can’t help but give the impression of a similar reaction to the Big Pop Record that was Bombshell.

We have returned to the more low-key sadness that I am guessing most Creosotians love, so I would guess that this will be more popular with the KC orthodoxy than the last record was. The fact that the songs themselves are bloody brilliant should help too. That familiar meandering introspection has returned, but in this case the eccentric touches tend to be provided by the sounds of early-90s dance music that is being played a little bit too loud on a cheap stereo in the basement of the house next door. It’s a bizarre sound, and oddly enough it works superbly with Kenny’s songs and, inparticular, his rather distinctive voice.

It’s perhaps less focussed an album I suppose, which is why it comes across as something of a reaction, or maybe an antidote, or maybe just a leftovers album when compared to Bombshell. The peculiar way that the Fence Collective seem to have of finding an idea and being able to pursue it, even if it leads nowhere in a way that makes for lovely music, is very much the heart and soul of this record. KC seems to just pick it up, play with it, tease out the good bits and then that’s that. If that results in a minute and a half of fuzz with a peculiar melody behind it then fine, if it’s a three-minute, verse-bridge-chorus pop song then fine too, but nothing is forced to be something that it isn’t.

I can’t recommend this album highly enough, as you can probably tell, but you won’t be able to buy it for a bit. From September it will be on sale in the Fence Records Shop on their website, but for now the only way to get your grubby little hands on one is to go along to a show and buy one there. It’s a funny approach in some ways, but I like it because you should be going to the shows – it’s just a nice, non-sulky way of giving something to the people who really support the band. Frustrating for those of you that live in Melbourne, Miami or Malmo I accept, but fear not. September just isn’t that far away.

King Creosote – Ear Against the Wireless
King Creosote – A Might Din of ‘What If’s

Website (Fence Records) | More mp3s | Buy… erm, oh no, you can’t – go to a show instead, then

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)

My weekly appearance on The Waiting Room included a very scant intro to The Fence Collective this week, and was entirely overshadowed by DC’s lovely missus, and also his interview and live recordings with Peter & the Wolf.  In fact, my bit on Fence was by necessity so cursory and superficial that I may actually do my whole podcast on them this weekend, and give a full review of the weekend at Homegame in the process.  Yes, why not, let’s do that.

There’s a bit of a competition going on as well, because apparently there is a unique, hand-drawn copy of Peter & the Wolf’s new CD The Ivory Palms up for grabs. To enter all you have to do is listen to the podcast, answer the following question: What’s the name of the war photographer Red Hunter (ie the P&tW chappie) cites as his major influence? and email DC at thewaitingroom AT btinternet DOT com by Sunday 13th April.

The Waiting Room, Wednesday 9th April 2008

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As a further act of generosity DC has emailed me a couple of technically almost* flawless live recordings from that very night to share with all you lovely people:

Peter & the Wolf – My Gray Overcoat
Peter & the Wolf – Anna Maria

Also, I found this song which seemed incredibly appropriate – DC, you’re welcome mate!
The Twentymen – The Waiting Room

And as a salute to DC’s frankly silly assertion that Barack Obama is in fact a Muslim, I have a couple of other songs that seemed, erm, well about as appropriate as anything on this farce of a website:
The Muslims – Extinction
The Muslims – Right & Wrong

*By almost, he means may contain all sorts of pops and crackles and things like that.

I love these two bands, absolutely love ‘em, so tonight was a bit of a special day in the gig calendar of Toad.

Down the Tiny Steps are a sort of folky, electro, Scottish almost-hip-hoppy-at-times group based around the fantastic songwriting of Johnnie Common. The group has had a rough time recently, losing the drummer and bass guitar player (in Johnnie’s words, ‘probably the two best musicians in the group’) because it was drowning out the rest of the music a little too much. I’ve seen them as a six-piece a couple of times and, although I really liked the sound, I can understand Johnnie’s decision, although it was clearly one he really didn’t enjoy making.

Anyway, what are they like now? Well this was only their second gig as a four-piece, so there must have been some nerves, but I didn’t notice any. And ultimately, I think Johnnie was right. With a less overwhelming sound the eccentricities of the electronica and the rambling monologues of the vocals take a more prominent position, taking them slightly out of the guitar-based indie sphere whose fringes they inhabited, and into more quirky, individual territory.

They’re playing at this year’s Homegame Festival up in Fife, so I’ll get another chance to see them quite soon, which I’m really looking forward to. The new songs sounded excellent, and old favourites like Aye Spy and Photosynth sounded brilliant with the new setup. Onwards and up the Tiny Steps!

Down the Tiny Steps – Photosynth
Down the Tiny Steps – Aye Spy
Down the Tiny Steps – DtTS @ The Movies Part 2: Nightmare On Renfrew Street

Found are a different proposition altogether. Instead of juggling their setup they are honing it. You may remember my review of their album This Mess We Keep Reshaping being a little bit ambivalent. On one hand I loved what I was hearing, but on another I’m not sure I’d quite ‘got it’ yet. Well I have now. And so, it appears, have they. The first time I saw them was at their album launch, at last year’s Halloween Fence Club. There they were inventive and unpredictable, ramshackle and energetic. Here, although the energy was by no means diminished, they were as tight as and twelve-year-old altar boy. The brilliance of their album, which took me a little too long to discover, was delivered with joyous precision. Ziggy Campbell is turning into a fucking terrific front man too – energetic and charismatic, but with characteristically Scottish self-mocking humour as well.

The songs are brilliant, and it’s amazing how much of this album is acoustic. When I listen to their record I hear something that sounds really rather electronic, but Campbell doesn’t put down his acoustic guitar all night. So it’s not folky at all, but it’s not exactly electronica either. Whatever it is, it’s a show these guys have tuned to perfection over the last year and if there’s much more of this to come from them, then Scottish music might just have yet another gem to celebrate and gloat to their Southern cousins over.

Found – See Ferg’s In London
Found – Reshaping
Found – Closed Time Like Loops

website | buy from fence

My second Fence Night was every bit as successful as my first – weirdness, top new music and plenty (no really, plenty) of beer. I arrived a little late, due to football commitments, and limping like a muppet, so seeing as generally speaking the best thing for this sort of injury is to apply plenty of anaesthetic beer, I promptly set about doing just that. Didn’t work though, no matter how diligently I tried.

First on the bill was Uni & Her Ukelele, a sparkly little pop pixie in ruffly pink hotpants. Yes, honestly. She covered The Smiths and Daniel Johnston and played a few of her own songs and did fairly well, all in all. I have my doubts, I must confess, but honestly – ruffled pink hotpants!

Following this there was a brilliant set by the Manchester-based (right round the corner from my Granddad, I believe) Magic Arm. He’s another one, like Andrew Bird, who brings along every last instrument in the shed and sets up his own loops at the start of the song, bringing them in and out as needed, so that a single person can create the sort of depth or texture for which you generally need a band. Quite apart from actually playing the bits themselves, there’s clearly quite some skilled manoeuvring involved in actually executing this sort of trick, but Mr. Rigelsford pulled it off with aplomb. This allowed him to produce an excellent set of what sounded like electronic folk live and sounds a bit more like psychedelic folk on record. I know this is a slightly spurious distinction, but I think it sort of helps convey the slight shift in atmosphere between the two.

Whatever you want to call it, it was an excellent show, textured and involving, and I have run straight out and bought his EP, called Outdoor Games, which can be purchased here either on vinyl or as a refreshingly DRM-free download. I am just listening to it for the first time as I write and it’s good. There’s a definite similarity to the sort of electronic noodling you used to get from The Beta Band, and although it’s just the first time through, I am really enjoying it. Some of it is a bit too electronic soundscapey for me, but in parts it’s excellent. We will see what time and familiarity do.

Magic Arm – Outdoor Games

Next up was Fence stalwart Adrian Crowley. He is the purveyor of some very fine shimmery, moody folk tunes and it was his debut single on the Fence label, Bless Our Tiny Hearts (snippet here) that we were all here to celebrate. Backed by a band that can only be described as Fence Allstars (KC on drums, James Yorkston on guitar, Doogie Paul on bass and Johhny PT on backing vocals) he gave a performance that my drinking pal said, somewhat oddly, reminded him of Willie Nelson. ‘Well he sounds very warming – it’s very warming music’ he responded to my inevitable question of ‘What the fuck are you on about, you weirdo?’ and he’s right. Shimmering and atmospheric, Adrian Crowley’s music is, in Simon’s drunken words, very warming.

Adrian Crowley – Long Distance Swimming

website | myspace | cdbaby

Finally there came my first full exposure to The Pictish Trail‘s live extravaganza. Johnny Pictish Trail is to a large extent the engine room of The Fence Collective, so it’s good to see him doing his own stuff instead of helping out everyone else for a change. Given he seemed half pished when I bumped into him two hours previously, the performance was absolutely superb. Johnny has an amazing voice, which results in him being the most sought-after backing singer in Fence, and when he set it to work on his own songs the results were excellent.

His sound will come as no real surprise to Fence fans, although his stuff is a deal funkier than flagship Fencesters such as King Creosote, James Yorkston, Barbarossa and the aforementioned Adrian Crowley. It’s still essentially an acoustic folk vibe, but with a popping bass rhythm and a quicker pace that gives the whole sound a kind of foot-tapping infectiousness that I loved. Add a bit of the likes of Gummi Bako and Down the Tiny Steps to what you might normally expect from Fence and you get a bit closer to the Pictish Trail sound.

So less work, Johnny, and more Work, please!

The Pictish Trail – All I Own

Well, having reviewed a small number of the artists who particularly struck me at this year’s Homegame festival I thought it worth mentioning a few thoughts on the overall weekend, for those interested.

First, however, a little background. Kenny Anderson – a.k.a. King Creosote – was in a reasonably successful band back in the early 90s called the Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra. They released a couple of good albums but internal politics did for them, and Kenny was dropped by his record label. He continued recording, setting up a record shop in St. Andrews, and putting out self-released CD-Rs every now and then. To cut a long story very short, his two musical brothers, Lone Pigeon (of Beta Band fame) and Pip Dylan and a few other musical friends ended up clustering together to become what is now known as The Fence Collective.

Recently there have been some pretty high-profile releases from the Fencers as the whole enterprise has gathered momentum, including a couple of very well-received albums from King Creosote himself, as well as the lush and lovely fireside folk of James Yorkston. K.T Tunstall is also one of theirs, I think, but I don’t hear that much mention of her these days. Late last year Barbarossa released one of the most successful records on Fence Records to date, with Chemical Campfires – KC and James Yorkston release their stuff through larger labels. So the whole thing is starting to really take off, which is excellent because a more deserving bunch of people you couldn’t hope to meet.

Anyhow, once a year the Fence Collective and various other pals of theirs all come together back in Anstruther for a weekend (two weekends this time, due to popularity) and play lots of gigs shared amongst the local town halls, get pished as newts and generally have a right old laugh. The sell a couple of hundred tickets, and everyone spends the weekend in a lovely Scottish seaside town, walking from one gig to another, down to the seafront for fish & chips, or just generally dossing about and relaxing.

The music varies from bizarre electronic noodling to uber-hippy folk to immaculate indie pop and full on electro-disco-punk thrash. For the most part, however, the kind of introspective indie-folk of the likes of King Creosote tends to dominate – thoughtful, often slightly eccentric songs, largely acoustic, with threads of electronica and experimental accompaniments. Musicians turn up all over the place, wielding the washboard here, accompanying someone on guitar there, and then playing their own set somewhere later – I swear I even saw James Yorkston playing power chords on an electric guitar and pogo-ing around the stage at one point. There tend to be the odd surprise invitee as well, such as Blood Music and The Singleman Affair this year, and a couple of Scottish indie heroes, Malcolm Middleton and Ballboy, made appearances as well. By and large, though, this is just a bunch of old mates getting together and playing their music together. And we get to come too.

That is the best thing about this festival. Apart from the fact that it being in Anstruther completely avoids the bald, plastic glass-strewn fields and shitty campsites of other festivals, as well as giving indie widows such as Mrs. Toad something to do. Basically, the musicians are all attending the festival the same as you. They do all sorts of work on things like sound and dragging people’s hand-made CDs around so people can buy stuff from the bands they like. And I’ve never seen a bunch of people so completely unassuming and entirely tolerant of being accosted by drunken fans slurring incoherently at them. They were all up at Legends on the last night, getting plastered with everyone else and basically just enjoying the whole business.

And that’s the thing. As a fan, The Fence Collective starts to feel like something you belong to almost as much as they do, despite not actually doing anything yourself in particular. Perversely, I don’t want it to get too big because there is nothing in the world so pure and sincere that a marketing department can’t utterly fucking ruin it, but then if there was anyone in the world that you really want to see succeed then it’s these guys. So subscribe to your Fencezine, be sharp, and do your best to get tickets next year. Honestly, it’s easily, easily worth it.

For an introduction to the Fence musicians, get down to your local independent record shop and buy their sampler, Don’t Fudge With the Fence Made. Here’s a couple of highlights from that CD, plus a couple of songs from the mainstays of Fencelyness:

King Creosote – Circle my Demise (It’s miserable, this one, but gorgeous)
King Creosote – Klutz (A bit more cheerful for you)
James Yorkston & the Athletes – St. Patrick
Barbarossa – Aeroplanes
The Pictish Trail – All I Own
Adrian Crowley – Northern Country

Adrian Crowley is a pretty long-time Fencer from the looks of it, but one of whom I have never previously heard. Well he had a fairly prestigious slot at Homegame, so he must be well-respected there, and he filled it with aplomb.

Mr. Crowley plays a kind of moody, atmospheric folk that often has a sort of underlying tension to it that is rather captivating. He’s quite a poetic writer, with plenty of lyrical cues taken from old poetry, and his storytelling using all the traditional sort of templates. I suppose this is why you’d describe him as ‘folk’ really – the formal content of the lyrical writing.

Underpinning these lyrics is a suggestive, bare sort of music. Emma Smith played the violin for him at Homegame and was absolutely outstanding. She had played the previous day with James Yorkston where she played a more traditional (i.e.: more notes) sort of set, and on the second night with Adrian Crowley where it was all quite difficult atmospherics. She made the transition with barely a blink – I would say (with no technical knowledge it’s not my place to judge these things) that she is probably a really rather talented musician. And her rather splendidly cute blond ringlets didn’t hu.. Ouch! Sorry, darling. Never mind. She was good, anyway.

I bought one of Adrian’s albums at the gig, and as much as I am enjoying it, I am not that familiar with it that I can really offer a valid reaction just yet. I have a wee sample song for you to hear though, so if you want to investigate further then CDBaby – one of my favourite music shops on the internets – has a couple of his albums with plenty of opportunity to preview songs. Click here for his catalogue on their site.

Adrian Crowley – Long Distance Swimming

website | myspace | cdbaby

Yes, Gummi Bako. Nuts he may be, but he can certainly write music. If you’ve ever seen him live, then you’ll know that during performances Mr. Bako has the habit of morphing into something akin to Beeker from the Muppet Show with ten thousand volts coursing through him. There’s a sort of deranged, wild-eyed squawk that makes an appearance from time to time and can be, for the first little while, rather terrifying.

I first saw a Gummi Bako solo slot at last year’s Homegame and although I thought he was nuts, there was something oddly compelling about the music, and certainly the performance. The full band performed at the recent Fence Night at The Caves in Edinburgh and although the oddness was still there, it was a slightly less prominent due to the presence of guitars, which resulted in a rock ‘n’ roll performance that was a little easier to grasp. Then he played again this year, again a largely solo set, with Elle and Uncle Beesly joining him on bass and guitar respectively and some splendid washboard percussion. Something strange was happening to me; I was really starting to like this stuff. The weirdness just seemed to melt into the music and the whole thing was making sense all of sudden. Don’t ask me how this happened, but I blame some sort of wicked Fife spell myself.

Anyhow, on his page on the Fence site Gummi Bako is described as wonky-tonk, and I think that fits pretty perfectly. There are a couple of CDs, amongst other things, available on his site, and I can definitely recommend Sticky Wicket as a good place to start, although there’s a new single out soon too. Sticky Wicket is a much more straight-up pop record than I would have expected, and although at times you may find some of the eccentricities a little odd, that will fade and you will left with a really good record. Well it’s taken me a little time, but I’ve got there eventually.

Gummi Bako – Underground
Gummi Bako – She’s the Carrot
website | myspace | fence records