We’re in Anstruther this weekend for Homegame, and so we got incredibly pissed late at night and recorded a podcast for you all, just as a special extra Sunday Supplement.
This should give you a taste of our Homegame fun and, sadly, also an idea of just how much of a wreck we all make of ourselves in Fife once a year.
Honestly, this is my favourite festival in the fucking universe, possibly only equalled by Pickathon, which is incredibl e.
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01.Withered Hand – No Cigarettes (01.34)
02.Silver Columns – Yes and Dance (Silver Columns Remix) (08.31)
03.Findo Gask – Wrapped in Plastic (Live) (14.00)
04.Adem – Everything You Need (20.02)
05.Django Django – Love’s Dart (29.52)
06.FOUND – Freaky Freaky Chancer (33.37)
07.Cold Seeds – The Perfume of Mexican Birds (43.43)
08.Love.Stop.Repeat – The Ghost of What You Used to Be (50.52)
09.FOUND & eagleowl – Some R. Kelly Cover (58.52)
We have a clear few days to get some work done this week, before the weekend’s flurry of giggery. There are some devious Austrians sneaking about Scotland this week, partly having a holiday, and partly shooting sessions for They Shoot Music. Apart from Mrs. Toad and I recording our annual anti-Valentine’s day festival of hate, we will record a podcast with them while they’re here, and then leave them to go off and do some stuff with Jesus H. Foxx, Meursault, Withered Hand, a trip up to Fife to see the Fence Records chaps, and then some time in Glasgow where I am not honestly certain who they are recording – hopefully some Yusuf Azak though.
Anyhow, apart from the gigs mentioned below, there’s also the rather intriguing listing at Sneaky Pete’s where a certain band called Toad appear to be playing on Friday with The Ritalin Kids and Be Like Pablo. I assure you it has nothing to do with me performing music of any sort, so feel free to attend in perfect safety.
One of Edinburgh’s most enjoyable low-key gig nights, The Leith Tape Club, has a really good lineup this month. I think eagleowl will be playing as a somewhat reduced lineup: after their recent four-piece gigs, I think they will be back to two for this gig, but for those of you who missed their Vic Galloway session on Radio Scotland last week, here’s their cover of I Am Nothing by Withered Hand from that session. It’s all about sharing out the PRS money apparently, because Dan covered one of their songs when he played the show a while back. All about the money, eh? Typical. I knew them when they used to have integrity, man.
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The Gentle Invasion have been awfully quiet of late, so without knowing anything at all about The Late Call, I’ve got to be pretty confident that they’re good, to drag them out of semi-retirement. The Last Battle’s stock is rather high at the moment, and I’ve not seen Emily Scott play since last year’s Homegame, so I think I’ll be along at this one for sure.
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FOUND are teetering on the verge of a new album (I think) and are somewhat reduced in number these days. Judging by Versus a couple of weeks ago this isn’t going to hold them back though, and I am really looking forward to hearing their new stuff.
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It’s all about the indie-pop at Trampo this month. Euan already previewed this gig extremely well in his Sunday Supplement, so no need to go on about it here again. Kid Canaveral have nearly finished work on their debut album though, which is good news.
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A very good but nevertheless manageable week in Edinburgh this week, with a couple of extremely good gigs coming at the end of the week, but things being relatively calm until then.
I have just about finished editing the videos from the Song, by Toad New Year’s house gig. I spent all Saturday mixing the audio (under supervision) and now have four Virgin of the Birds videos and four by Jamie and Rory from Broken Records.
All that remains is to check with the bands that they’re happy with what I post, because a couple of the Broken Records songs in particular are very new indeed and might not be for public consumption just yet. Mind you, they’re acoustic versions, and so different from what the finished band version will probably end up being that it shouldn’t be too controversial, with a bit of luck.
X-Lion Tamer might be my favourite band on my friend Ed’s record label, 17 Seconds. That’s odd really, because Tony’s stuff is probably the least like anything else I might listen to – it’s all a bit techno for my usual whingeing dadrock – but it nevertheless seems to have something about which I find compelling.
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This should be a superbly brilliant night. FOUND are a bunch of weirdos, frankly, and some of the cleverst and most inventive people I think I may have ever met. You’d never think it to listen to eagleowl’s carefully constructed stuff, but actually I think their own spirit of adventure is far healthier than is superficially apparent, so it should be a perfect match for this interactive, collaborative Versus format. Add Alan (formerly of Little Pebble and Come in Tokyo) and Phil (currently of Debutant and Meursault) and you have a pretty fucking incredible lineup. No chance I’m missing this.
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This is a Fence Night, obviously enough, with Bristolian mentalists Olo Worms joining the Fence elders at what is easily Edinburgh’s most atmospheric venue. Olo Worms are an incredibly productive and creative bunch, actually, and although I have a patchy relationship with their music I have an awful lot of respect for the energy they put into things and the sheer inventiveness of their work. Tickets for this can be purchased here.
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And oh, go on, here’s a sneak preview from the Virgin of the Birds videos:
Don’t get me wrong, I love a baking hot Summer too, but while we seem to get at least a small proportion of glorious Summer days here in Edinburgh we never, ever seem to get anything approaching a proper Winter. Basically, it can be miserable, but it never gets cold. Even now it’s not really what I would call cold, particularly. I grew up in Austria where the Winters got really rather chilly from time to time, and as far as I am concerned this cold snap is a wonderfully welcome change from the usual wind and rain.
I accept that for people out in the middle of nowhere the snow, given how comically unprepared the UK seems to be for such things, can be dangerous and I don’t intend to take the piss, but here in the city I have to confess that all I can think is that I wish it were colder and that there was more snow. There’s just something so nice about that nip on your earlobes which serious cold weather brings, and about how you can actually feel the cold air swirling in your lungs when you breathe in, and how sometimes it’s so cold that your teeth actually hurt.
And the nicest thing about the cold of course, is that you get inside and it’s dark and you can have a nice cuppa, and that tingly feeling of warming up slowly spreads through you. But in any case, I say stop moaning, people of Britain! It’s the fucking Winter – it’s supposed to be cold. That’s what makes Winter fun – it’s the equivalent of blazing sunshine in the Summer or April showers or those cool, clear Autumn days you get when the wind blows the leaves about the place. Stop fucking moaning and enjoy it for Christ’s sake.
Mind you, as I pointed out to my father who is from Canada, for the British, moaning about something probably is enjoying it, in a perverse sort of way.
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Get it – Festive Fiddy! Oh I do crack myself up sometimes, I really do.
So here endeth the Festive Fifty for this year. As anyone who has compiled this kind of list will know, the whole process is more than a little arbitrary, and were I to start from scratch tomorrow I would probably end up somewhere notably different.
The interesting thing for me personally is to note how strongly the advantages and disadvantages of nepotism have made themselves known.
The advantages are obvious – would there be so much Withered Hand, Meursault, FOUND and all the rest so high on this list if I didn’t have a much closer personal relationship with their music than most other music? Well I doubt it. I am being a hundred percent sincere when I say that these are my favourite songs this year, but I do know that being as close to music as I am does change how you feel about it, so I have to acknowledge that.
On the downside, bands like Broken Records, Sparrow & the Workshop, Withered Hand and even Meursault to a degree have suffered from how early I became familiar with certain songs. I have a demo version, a Religious Songs EP version and an album version of New Dawn, for example. So while under normal circumstances songs like that, Devil Song by Sparrow, Eilert Loveborg by Broken Records and even Nothing Broke by Meursault would normally have figured very prominently indeed on this list, I already expressed my enthusiasm for them at least a year ago and consequently they are on other lists and I don’t really feel I can put them on this one.
And before anyone complains about Trips and Falls being another Song, by Toad Records band on this list, remember that, as with Meursault last year, it’s not that they’re on this list because they’re a Song, by Toad Records band, it’s that they’re a Song, by Toad Records band because they’re on this list.
01.Elvis Perkins In Dearland – Shampoo
There just something about the rhythm of this song which I cannot get away from. When I first played it on my Fresh Air Radio show Dylan commented that it had a sort of cocky swagger to it, and it really, really does. Then there’s the deep, foreboding harmonies which break in at the end. There’s strut to the rhythm, a crack to his voice, belligerence and tragedy in the mood of it all – it’s just a fucking special, special song.
02.Meursault – William Henry Miller Pt.2 (Single Version)
When Neil first played us this apparently he though ‘Fuck, I’ve finally written a song they don’t like’. Mrs. Toad now plays this single at least once a day in our house, and if ever there was a song to break your speakers for it’s this one. The cello is gut-shaking, the piano is chiming and gorgeous and those vocals are just about the most heart-wrenching I’ve heard anywhere, ever. So if he wants to write a song we don’t like he may have to try a little harder.
03.Navigator – Work is Done
This sensitive, emotional song interrupts an album which is basically an onslaught of overloaded mics and distortion and when this suddenly appears it hits you right between the eyes, largely because you’re so unprepared. It doesn’t depend on its surroundings though, because even in isolation this is every bit as heartbreaking a song.
04.Trips and Falls – And In Real Life He Wears Corduroy Pants
This was one of those moments where the very first second you listen to something you know for certain that you are hearing something a bit special. This is a genius combination of massively infectious pop song and really peculiar atmosphere. There’s something just plain creepy about this album, even the sugar-sweet Prelude to a Shark Attack, but this song perhaps embodies that better than any. And it really is one to be played loud as well.
05.FOUND – Mullokian (Toad Session)
I remember sitting there while they were recording this and thinking ‘What the fucking hell is going on here, this is amaaaazing!’ The gently rolling guitar refrain, the simple heartfelt chorus (if you can call it that) and Tommy’s phenomenal backing vocals – there’s just so little actually there, and even that is used with such economy. Brilliant.
06.Withered Hand – No Cigarettes
The first time I heard this I remember a grin slowly spreading over my face. Dan’s songs can often be about little in particular other than a weird sense of something really not being right, and this seems to be one of those – describing a general sense of malaise with such simple music and a deft turn of phrase, you can’t help but let this get to you.
07.Auld Lang Syne – Where My Fortune Lies
This is as rousing and uplifting as any church music could ever be, and has even more impact for shrinking back into such quiet in the middle. Some fucking voice as well.
08.The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You
The album may have disappointed, but this is stunning. It’s that voice, the slow piano, the… just the sheer sadness of it all. It sounds like the demoralisation of someone coming out the other end of a midlife crisis and surveying the wreckage of their lives, although it may not be about that exactly, it does feel that way to me I have to confess.
09.Navigator – Blood
This embodies Navigator’s brilliant album Bad Children, for me. It’s a song which is full of pain, but is angry and belligerent with it. There’s an underlying aggression to it which really batters out at you from within the noise, and prevents the song, or indeed the album, sounding at all self-pitying or maudlin. He’s hurting and he’s fucking angry, and the resulting music is absolutely superb.
10.Alela Diane – Age Old Blue
Age Old Blue may be from another album I wasn’t that keen on overall, but this duet with friend Michael Hurley is beautiful. I remember seeing them perform it for the first time after her performance at the Bongo Club a couple of years ago and having no real expectations when they took the stage, only to have my jaw drop at the combination of his nasal, grizzled accompaniment to her gorgeous voice.
To download all these songs as a single zip file, click here.
21.FOUND – Enough About Human Rights
I’m not sure if anyone, not even the band themselves, likes Enough About Human Rights best from their excellent Let Fidelity Break EP, but I do. There’s just something unexpected about this song, for some reason. The fact that it is in fact a Moondog cover probably has a lot to do with that, but the hectic, percussive energy FOUND pile into their version just makes me grin every time I hear it.
22.Timber Timbre – Demon Host
The ‘ohs’ in this song take the spectral folk of Timber Timbre and give it a pleading, forlorn quality which imbues it with just a little more pathos than some of the others on the album, and this makes it extra special, in my view.
23.FOUND – You’re No Vincent Gallo – Toad Session
Honestly, I could put pretty much their entire session in the top ten of this list quite easily. It was one of the best things I have ever seen, I think it’s fair to say. Without all the stuff added by the full band I found myself so much more impressed with Ziggy’s voice, with the gorgeous tones he got from his banjo… with pretty much all of it, honestly. Gorgeous.
24.Broken Records – Lessons Never Learnt
This may have been on an earlier release, but it was on this year’s(ish) Out on the Water EP, so I am putting my foot down and saying that it counts. In any case, a really surprising song to come from a band like this, and I think that little down-up of the cello absolutely makes it.
25.Trips and Falls – Breaking Up With My Mormon Missionaries
These guys were pretty much the revelation of the year for me, in all honesty. So much so that we’ve offered to release He Was Such a Quiet Boy on Song, by Toad Records, and it should be coming out in early March. Their music is just fucking creepy, to be honest, and the male/female vocal interplay on this track in particular really is odd. Add that repetitive descent on the strings and this really is an unsettling song. And a brilliant one.
26.Jesus H. Foxx – Elegy For the Good Times
It didn’t grab me as my favourite track from Jesus H. Foxx’ debut EP Matter right off the bat, but I think it is. The cornet, the harmonies, and that simple, repetitive rhythmic underpinning for the whole thing… it all just works incredibly well together, and there’s a sophistication to it which never ceases to surprise me when I think that this is the band’s first release, with their current lineup that is.
27.The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (Toad Session)
I love the Toad Sessions. They really can provide some amazing recordings, and with Neil so kindly recording and mixing all of the ones we’ve done so far this year we really have had some incredible stuff. Johnny Pictish is about the nicest guy ever to set foot in our house, and his session really was good. The slow build of this, and the prominence of his vocal really are gorgeous.
28.Navigator – Change
An oddly melodic tune from one of the most belligerently low-fi albums I think I have ever heard. It took a while for the sense of ‘whoooah, what the fuck?’ to subside when I first heard this record, but it is absolutely brilliant. Fuzz or not, this is just a stone-cold pop gem and one of the most catchy riffs of the year.
29.The Builders and The Butchers – Golden And Green
Mental and ferocious brilliance. When these guys hit their stride their ramshackle old jalopy threatens to shake loose its wheels altogether and crash into a ditch, and those are almost without fail their greatest songs. This is just like that.
30.Titus Andronicus – Fear And Loathing In Mahwah, NJ
I don’t know whether I just like how raucous this song gets, or whether I like how quiet it is half the time, compared to how raucous it gets when it cuts loose. Either way, this is one of the best play it loud soungs of the year.
31.Sparrow & the Workshop – Into the Wild
I heard this EP so close to doing this list that Horse’s Grin could as easily have been here instead, but such is the slightly arbitrary nature of these things that you’re getting this one. Maybe it’s something about the storming ending which gets me – Nick is getting to really have a right bloody go on his guitars these days, and Jill is proving that her voice is easily powerful enough to step up and match it. This is full on rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s superb.
32.Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (I)
Yes, more Wild Beasts. I don’t know how this happened – it wasn’t exactly deliberate, I just kept ordering and re-ordering my list and their songs kept on sticking in there, often at the expense of stuff I thought I liked better. This one’s more downbeat, but again that guitar sound and gorgeous voice produce something atmospheric and yet still insidiously infectious.
33.Alela Diane & Alina Hardin – I Have Returned
This whole EP is simple and absolutely gorgeous. Again, I could have picked pretty much any of the songs from it, but there’s something about this one which seems to have captivated me just that little bit more. The vocal interplay between the two is as lovely as with any song on the EP, but maybe there’s something in the roll of the verses which does it. Then again, maybe it’s just arbitrary and I might pick a different one this time next week.
34.Meursault – Nothing Broke
A different version of this was on the band’s MySpace page the first time I ever heard them and it made a really strong impression on me. They recorded it for their Toad Session back in August last year, and now this gorgeous piano and harmonium version for the truly stunning Nothing Broke EP. If anything, the only reason this song is so low on this list is down to the fact that it’s so familiar by now.
35.Timber Timbre – Lay Down in the Tall Grass
This song shows just how simple most of this album is – the barest hint of percussion doing nothing very complex, a simple organ riff repeating throughout the song, and vocals. There’s other stuff there too, but really very little of it, and that kind of subtle touch is what makes this such a special album.
To download all these songs in one big zip file, click here.
This is the beginning of what Milo has already pointed out is going to be a monumental period of carousing. Last week was very, very quiet in terms of gigs, but if you paid any attention to that then the sense of security into which you might have been lulled would very much have been a false one. Because it all kicks off in earnest this week, and if anything next could be even heavier. Livers of Edinburgh beware!
From my own perspective I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, in the sense that the year’s tasks are approaching their completion. This will be a monumental relief, and believe me, that last week before Christmas will be spent going to bed at about ten at night. Until then though, no rest for the wicked. Or the stupid.
There Will Be Fireworks’ album didn’t entirely capture my imagination, I have to confess, sounding a bit too much like an amalgalm of The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit, but they have sold a hell of a lot of copies of it off their own backs after very few gigs and a lot of very good reviews, so they are definitely doing something right. For me this implies that I should be paying a bit more attention to what they’re doing, and this is the first time in a while they’ve played Edinburgh.
The Leith Tape Club is one of the nicest nights in Edinburgh. Rachel and Laura Lancaster more commonly go under the name of Chippewa Falls (when the drummer is present), and Ian from Tisso Lake has a gorgeous voice and a really engaging solo set. And that Pictish Trail fellow isn’t bad either!
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This is a low key gig, but I really would recommend it. Deer Tick’s album War Elephant really is good, and apparently they’re excellent live. There are elements of folk and indie rock in the album, although I suppose if you wanted a gigantic generalised banner to pop it under then I would probably use the term Americana. Either way, highly recommended.
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I know I generally don’t cover out of town gigs – it’s all I can do to stay even vaguely on top of local ones – but Penicuik almost counts, and this one intrigued me anyway. I’ve never been to Penicuik Arts Centre, but the flyer for this promises candlelight and an open fire. Buses run regularly to and from Penicuik all night apparently, so if you’re looking for a romantic evening this week, and I never ever thought I would hear myself say this, Penicuik might actually be the place to be.
I think this might be Meursault’s last gig of the year, for which I would imagine they will all be truly grateful. Being a record label is fucking hard work, but when people put this much effort into their band then it never seems like a chore for a moment. FOUND have been playing new album material recently, and I have yet to see any of it, so I am not going to miss this.
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Our Christmas party (ie, our personal one, nothing to do with Toad) happens on this particular evening, and I am sizing up the likelihood of being able to sneak out to see such a cracking lineup without Mrs. Toad taking a big stick to my gentleman’s appendage. Unlikely, I think, which is a shame because in terms of general wonkiness this bill includes three of Edinburgh’s best bands if you ask me. And all different, too. Shite.
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Another rather intriguing gig here. Single release? Already? Wow! The Last Battle haven’t been going that long, but have already snuck up on my blind side with a new single, which they’ll be launching at Carter’s Bar, just down the road from Henry’s, on Saturday night.
Playing With the Past is an annual (we hope) event at the Edinburgh Film Festival where contemporary bands are invited to write new soundtracks for old films. Last year was the first of these, when the superb British Sea Power wrote a brilliant score for Man of Aran, a (slightly fake) documentary about the lives of the inhabitants of a remote island off the West Coast of Ireland (extract here).
This was such a success that the band have been performing it all over the place ever since. This year David Drummond, who put the event together, decided to invite three different bands to work with roughly half an hour or so of footage each, and he started off by inviting eagleowl, who suggested a number of other bands, from which David chose FOUND and Meursault.
We decided not to include more than a few excerpts of the music in this because the bands were a little uncomfortable about listening to too much of their stuff in the absence of the film to which it belongs. So a big thank you to Tommy, Bart and Neil for coming in to talk about their music, and to David and Theresa from the Filmhouse who came by to chip in at the beginning, before having to rush off. It may not be the catchiest of podcasts in a musical sense this week, but I think this is easily one of the best podcasts we’ve done – one of the most interesting, certainly.
Also, although I haven’t tracked down all these films on the internet, I have got some bits and pieces for you to give you an idea of what was going on. Confusingly, they all have the original scores on these clips, but erm… well, hopefully you’ll find them instructive.
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01. British Sea Power – Oh Larsen B (06.17)
02. eagleowl – Granton Trawler (Excerpt) (17.16)
03. eagleowl – Begone Dull Care (Excerpt) (24.46)
04. Six Organs of Admittance – Eighth Cognition/All You’ve Left (27.34)
05. Meursault – Night Mail (Excerpt) (35.46)
06. Meursault – Stan & Ollie (Excerpt) (43.24)
07. The Books – All Our Base are Belong to Them (46.25)
08. FOUND – Camera Makes Whoopee (Excerpt 2) (56.43)
09. Marvin Gaye – T Plays it Cool (68.39)
10. FOUND – Camera Makes Whoopee (Excerpt 1) (72.56)
I’ve heard a lot about the Pineapple Chunks over the last year or so and I have to confess that I have been pretty casual about engaging with their music. I’m not sure I could tell you why, really. Maybe it was because I saw them at Limbo quite early on, and found it all a little full-on.
I remember when I first started to get into FOUND I was a little perplexed, not sure if I loved or hated it, but oddly compelled to listen to more. Well the first time I saw the Pineapple Chunks it was at Limbo a few months ago and my reaction was a little like that: I didn’t quite know what to make of them, in all honesty.
It’s choppy, sloppy indie rock which drawls and slouches around your head, and just as you think it’s getting too lazy to bother with much of much, they break into something altogether more furious, discordant and erm, well, bloody exciting, frankly.
They do have tunes, but they tend to batter the shit out of them until they are barely recognisable beneath a blanket of digression and fuzz. Having seen them again at the recent and splendid Retreat Festival I felt like I was starting to get it a little more, although I’d still say I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it all, yet. It’s still bloody fascinating though, and I am definitely going to see them again as soon as I get the chance.
They have five songs up on their MySpace page at the moment, but they are going to be recording some more stuff soon, with Pete from The Leg (who recorded the imminent Withered Hand album, along with Neil from Meursault). I’m really looking forward to the results, partly because I like what they have already and want more, but also because I think it might give a much clearer idea of who they are and where they are going as a band, now they have their first demos out of the way.
I might end up hating them, but I could easily end up loving this band.
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The FOUND Toad Session became a little overwhelming last week, especially when the upload gremlins struck some time around midnight on Friday and pig-fucking, baby-abducting bloody Vimeo simply refused to upload anything I sent. I am not sure whether to blame them or Virgin fucking Media, who do our broadband, and whose connection simply ground to a fucking halt the second I tried to upload anything at all. Useless fuckers.
Consequently, after six consecutive nights which lasted until around four or five in the morning, I am taking this week almost entirely off, not least to spend some time with Mrs. Toad. She had been away for something like four weeks of the previous six, returned on Wednesday, and instead of wining and dining her to the best of my meagre ability, I ended up staring at the computer in ever-escalating states of fury for the next five days. So erm, yes, I’m not married to you ungrateful bastards, I must remind myself, but to my Midget Companion of Infinite Joy. And this week I better damn well remember it!
I can’t think of a better setting for a band like Broken Records. The Queen’s Hall is old fashioned and atmospheric, as is their music, in a way I find a little tricky to define. Support comes from My Latest Novel, who released their second album a couple of months ago.
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From the perspective of Song, by Toad this is Meursault’s biggest gig yet – playing to a sold out Queen’s Hall – and as such is incredibly fucking exciting. It’ll probably be the largest space I’ve seen them play and I’ll be really curious to see how their sound fills a room that large. And there’s Frightened Rabbit too.
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I was not overwhelmed by the Phantom Band’s big, proggy debut album, released earlier this year, but I saw them at Homegame and they were excellent. There’s something about that kind of multi-layered guitar sound which I think comes across really well in a live setting, and the Electric Circus has a pretty good sound system for it, so this should be a good ‘un.
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I’m sort of lukewarm on Ross Clark, but Ivan Campo’s last EP was a really nice piece of relaxed folk pop. And Sparrow & the Workshop are just fucking brilliant – pacy, fiery, low-fi Americana is what I suppose you might call it.
Lovvers are very, very buzzy as far as music blogs go at the moment, so I am posting this gig here. I know nothing about them though, so they might be shit. They’re being talked about an awful lot though.
This is actually a Film Festival crossover project, whereby all three bands were asked to write new soundtrack material for silent movies. Frankly, it sounds like an amazing concept – British Sea Power did an amazing job with Man of Arran last year – and I am hugely looking forward to it. You couldn’t find more innovative bands to do something like this either.
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We’re in Anstruther this weekend for Homegame, and so we got incredibly pissed late at night and recorded a podcast for you all, just as a special extra Sunday Supplement.
I’ve heard a lot about the Pineapple Chunks over the last year or so and I have to confess that I have been pretty casual about engaging with their music. I’m not sure I could tell you why, really. Maybe it was because I saw them at Limbo quite early on, and found it all a little full-on.
