Firstly, a big, big thank you to everyone who came out to see Withered Hand, Samantha Crain and Mike MacFarlane (who now goes by the name of Flash Jr.) last night.  It was bloody amazing.  I want to start a campaign to get more big bands to Henry’s to play a wee sweatbox gig with the crowd standing mere inches away from them.

Anyway, due to Thanksgiving dinner and parental visitation reasons, I didn’t get the chance to record the podcast this weekend, so I shall do it this afternoon, once I have posted this.

And God help our livers, there is a fuck of a lot going on this week in Edinburgh.  Mind you, it’s the same next week too, so I guess we’re going to have to just batten down the hatches and wait for January!  And I haven’t even done my end of year lists yet either.

Monday 28th November: Dems & Luxury Car at Sneaky Pete’s.

A Fresh Air-hosted return to Edinburgh for a Fresh Air alumnus, in the form of Dems’ Dan Moss.

Tuesday 29th November: Blank Canvas, the Dill Dolls, Kith & Kin and Anthony Stickings at Sneaky Pete’s.

I have to confess to knowing nothing about any of the bands on this bill bar Blank Canvas, who finished on the shortlist for this year’s Radar Prize. They play a very promising interpretation of the eighties indie sound, more as channeled via Bloc Party, and are well worth checking out.
By the Fire by Blank Canvas

Thursday 1st December: Loch Awe, Adam Stafford & Reverieme at Sneaky Pete’s.

You should all know how impressed I am with Adam Stafford’s solo stuff by now, but Loch Awe are sounding very promising at the moment too.  A new song of theirs sort of mooched its way onto the internet recently, and it’s absolutely fucking lovely.  And done with the kind of restraint and subtlety I tend (perhaps a little unfairly) not to associate with relatively young bands.

Loch Awe – I Will Drift into 10,000 Streams

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Thursday 1st December: Born to Be Wide Recording Studio Seminar at the Electric Circus.

After another excellent series of seminars, this is I believe the last one of the year for the Born to Be Wide team.  This time around they’ll be concentrating on making the best use of studio time, from preparation before you go in there, to how to best make use of your time once you’re up and running.

Friday 2nd December: Gerry Loves Records Christmas Party at the Banshee Labyrinth.

As far as I am aware, tickets for this are verrrrry nearly sold out, so go here now if you still haven’t got one.  The lineup is a great big multi-headed fun beast, with Lady North, Paws, Trapped in Kansas, Field Mouse, The Japanese War Effort & that old stand-by ‘special guests’ on the bill.  The gig also serves as a launch night for a Japanese War Effort/Field Mouse split tape, which I can tell you has me all sorts of excited.  The Japanese War Effort actually forced me to buy my first tape player in years by putting Snowbird on cassette.  I had a whole stereo system, and then this one big shiny silver machine just to play that one album.  And it was worth it!

The Japanese War Effort – Sophie Says

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Friday 2nd December: Meursault, Sparrow & the Workshop & Collar Up at Cabaret Voltaire.

This will be a fine, loud end of year blowout, as well as the chance to see new band Collar Up play, which will be rather intriguing.  Meursault are, I believe, going into hibernation in the new year, as we get ready for the release of their third album which will be out in (roughly) May 2012.

Sparrow & the Workshop – Snakes in the Grass

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Saturday 3rd December: Beard of Truth Christmas Party with The Spook School & Calypso Brown at the Wee Red Bar.

Pop fun to end the week, with excellent Edinburgh newcomers The Spook School joined on the bill by Calypso Brown, who is another artist I saw for the first time at this year’s Antihoot.  Pet have had to pull out, so the Beardmeister will be working frantically this week to find someone to step in and fill their shoes.

The Spook School – Hallam

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As the sun makes a rather enthusiastic apperance at long fucking last, and our garden finally begins to bloom, I can think of little I would like to do so little as sitting in a dingy club listening to whiney indie kids complain about how shit their life is and how no-one really understands them.

The Edinburgh weather is depressingly fickle however, so presumably by this afternoon it will be absolutely bucketing it down with rain, but for now the only thing I would really recommend you do this week is spend as much time outside as possible, shunning all music funs and enjoying the sunshine where you can get it.  For the last five years I have been here we’ve had glorious Mays and stunning Junes and just as you start to think that this year it might just happen, it all turns to shit until early October, when we get a couple of pleasant weeks before the inevitable descent into eight months of fucking darkness once more.

This Sunday is of course the All Day Scottish Special at the Old Queen’s Head in London, where local (and less local) favourites Yusuf Azak, Rob St. John, eagleowl and Meursault will be playing at what is the official London launch party for Meursault’s new album All Creatures Will Make Merry.  Any London Toads, it would be lovely to see you there.

Thursday 3rd June 2010: Glissando, Debutant & Field Mouse at the Roxy Room.

Slanted and Enchanted promotions make their Edinburgh debut, with this three-act bill at the Roxy Room.  Phil from Debutant is currently working on his debut album (there’s got to be an hilarious pun in there somewhere, I just can’t be arsed to think of it) at the moment and if his Facebook status updates are anything to go by, there could well be a self-released CD-R available at this show.  Glissando are doing this tour as a two-piece, I believe, but don’t quote me on that because I am not entirely certain.

Debutant – Definition

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Thursday 3rd June 2010: Teenage Fanclub at the Picture House.

Erm, is it permitted for a Scottish-based indie kid to confess that he was never that into Teenage Fanclub?  Well I wasn’t, not that I listened to them enough to ever really know, but they are famous and they are popular and they get namechecked by bands all the time, and they are also playing in Edinburgh this week, so I thought I might as well mention it.

Kid Canaveral – Teenage Fanclub Song

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Friday 4th June 2010: The Unthanks at the Queen’s Hall.

Another famous band I am listing more because they seem to have had a lot of attention recently than that I am personally all that fussed about them.  I’ve heard them do some brilliant stuff in their previous incarnation as the Winterset, but know absolutely nothing of their Mercury-bothering recent work.

Rachel Unthank & the Winterset – Blue Bleezin’ Blind Drunk

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Sunday 6th June 2010: The Wave Pictures at Sneaky Pete’s.

Ah, now this is more like it.  The Wave Pictures are one of the best bands in Britain at the moment, as far as I personally am concerned.  They have a new EP out rather soon – The Sweetheart EP – and their knack for simple tunes and bittersweet lyrics is clearly in the rudest of health.  We even had the opportunity to record a Toad Session with them this weekend, but as most of the team who actually record the sessions will be down in London that was sadly impossible.

The Wave Pictures – Canary Wharf

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