Mrs. Toad's Lettuce

The above picture shows how our veggie patch is doing, for those of you who give a flying fuck, which admittedly might not be many of you.  Sunday was spent lying about in the garden reading books, which was nice and relaxing after getting pished late into the night with Monster Island, These Single Spies and Kid Canaveral after the Henry’s gig on Saturday night.

This Saturday we will be collecting for the RNLI in Stockbridge, so if you want to help out please do get in touch as we will need all the people we can get our hands on.  We promise to feed you and ply you with booze, and it’s generally a really enjoyable day.

Tuesday 26th April 2011: Golden Grrrls, The Oates Field & Fuzzy Star at the Wee Red Bar.

Fuzzy pop reigns this week at The Gentle Invasion’s latest gig, with The Oates Field performing alongside two relatively longstanding Scottish bands I have to confess, rather shame-facedly, to never having heard of.  A bit of an internet poke-around later and it sounds like the whole lineup should be right up my street.  And, hopefully, yours.
WrldPeace by Golden Grrrls

Wednesday 27th April 2011: Pensioner, PAWS & Pinky Suavo at Sneaky Pete’s.

This is likely to be quite similar, in a sense, to the Gentle Invasion gig the night before, with the emphasis on rock rather than pop, but nevertheless blanketed in a haze of guitars.  It is also the Pensioner album launch – they have a new album out on Olive Grove Records.

PAWS – Miss American Bookworm

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Thursday 28th April 2011: Nan Turner & Enfant Bastard at the Collective Gallery.

WH666 presents another rather interesting lineup.  Nan Turner sings and plays drums in New York anti-folkers Schwervon, but listening to her MySpace page that doesn’t give you much idea what to expect from her music.  Also, Enfant Bastard has started adding more to his chiptune stuff which, if I am being honest, pushes it back much closer to the kind of thing I personally am into.  Come along, it’ll be a good ‘un, this.

Friday 29th April – Sunday 1st May 2011: The Grassmarket Festival (Facebook event).

The Grassmarket Festival is a street festival involving all the traders with shops on and around the Grassmarket, and will involved vintage clothing, tat stalls, book and records as well as lots of live music.
The lineup looks roughly like this:
Friday 29th: 6pm, The Last Battle; 7pm, Ballboy.
Saturday 30th: 5pm, Star Wheel Press; 6pm, The Gillyflowers; 7pm, Burnt Island.
Sunday 1st: 3pm, A Right Royal Open Couch Session (in Red Dog Music); 5pm, Edinburgh School for the Deaf; 6pm, Second Hand Marching Band; 7pm, TV21.

Burnt Island – A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again

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Edinburgh School for the Deaf – 11 Kinds of Loneliness

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The Second Hand Marching Band – Don’t!

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Hello everyone – sorry for the lateness of this post, but unfortunately sometimes actual jobs with wages and things have to take precedence over things Toad, just for a little while.  I have spent the day at a meeting in Inverness, and I am desperate for a really good sleep.

There’s not a lot on in Edinburgh this week as far as I can tell.  The brilliant Animal Magic Tricks is playing pretty much as I write this, and I am gutted that I won’t get the chance to see her.  Well, not until Saturday, anyway, which is when everything kicks off, as far as live music in Edinburgh is concerned.  You could (and I intend to) drink yourself into a peaceful oblivion over the course of the day, going from the Fence Collective’s fucking brilliant pre-season friendly (a Homegame warm-up) during the day to the Bear Scotland night at the Wee Red Bar in the evening.

Oh, and I recently mentioned in the comments section that there was a brilliant write-up of the Edinburgh music scene in The Scotsman this weekend.  Yours Toadly was mentioned on a couple of occasions, which was rather splendid, but in general Andrew Eaton, who wrote the article, was trying to cram so much information into his piece that there was barely any space for him to do any writing.  It’s a terrific article though, and a real vindication of all the hard work which I’ve witnessed here over the last few years.  So well done to everyone, and thanks to Andrew.

Friday 6th March 2009: The Gillyflowers at the Village, Leith.

Recently signed to local blog label Seventeen Seconds, the Gillyflowers are a brand spanking new country band who have emerged from Leith only very recently.  Riley Briggs of Aberfeldy produced their demos for them, and they have recently been reviewed in pretty fucking glowing terms by The Herald and The Scotsman.  I can’t tell you much more about them, other than that Country Boy, one of those demos, is bloody lovely.  I’ll find out more on Friday, I’d imagine.
The Gillyflowers – Country Boy

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Saturday 7th March 2009: Found, Player Piano, The Red Well & plenty more play the Fence Collective’s Pre-Season Friendly at Old St. Paul’s Church Hall.

Apart from the lineup actually listed, there will be little inbetweeny performances from all sorts of other great bands at this one – Animal Magic Tricks and Meursault to name a couple – and the chance for a leisurely afternoon drinking session (the gig takes place from 2pm-8pm) in such a lovely venue really is not one to be missed.
Found – Some Fracas of a Sissy

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Saturday 7th March 2009: Dead Boy Robotics, The Foundling Wheel & Enfant Bastard at the Wee Red Bar.

This is a Bear Scotland night, and the first time I will get to see proper full sets by both Dead Boy Robotics and the Foundling Wheel, although I have caught some bits and pieces by both before.  Enfant Bastard though – oh yes please!  This gig really shows the breadth of the Bear Scotland umbrella, too, from the experimental thunder of The Foundling Wheel to the electronic, dancey pop tunes of Dead Boy Robotics to the… well, whatever Cammy feels like playing that particular night as Enfant Bastard.
Enfant Bastard – Joanna Newsom 666

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Saturday 7th March 2009: Maybe Myrtle Turtle & Fanattica at the Bowery.

This should be pure mayhem.  Both bands play folk-based stuff with added off-kilter whirlwinds of pure carnival frenzy.  It sounds to me like it should be a truly amazing gig, honestly, and if you don’t come out of the Bowery grinning from ear to ear and bouncing up and down like a delighted infant then I’ll be fucking amazed.  Told you Saturday was going to be busy.

This is just an overspilling of all the shiny new things I have in my inbox this week.  It’s so fabulously up to the minute that there are songs in here which only landed in my inbox yesterday.  There’s a slightly sneaky legend making an appearance as well, in the shape of Jason Lytle.  Jason was the lead singer of Grandaddy, a legendary group who disbanded back in about, erm, 2006 or so, leading to Jason moving to a house out in Montana and apparently giving up on the idea of making a living out of music altogether.

The thing is, music is an art form, and no-one makes a fucking living out of making art.  The only exceptions are deplorable cunts like Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and fucking Bono, so please can we dispel the idea that art is a profession.  It’s not a job, nor a career, it’s a fucking calling; an obsession.  Of course, the good news for us fans is that, because it’s a calling rather than a job, Mr. Lytle was never likely to stay away forever.  If you care about something it’s almost impossible to stop yourself doing it.  Believe me, I know – I feel the same way about masturbation (sorry, not that funny, I know).

Oooh, by the way, I was very macho this evening.  I got home and I opened the gate to find some random chump sitting on our steps drinking beer.  So I bellowed with rage, grabbed him by the lapels and flung him out into the street, shouting angry man things like ‘get the fuck out of my fucking house you cunt or I’ll fucking batter you fucking senseless’ and other well known aristotelian arguments.  Unfortunately, as is often the case with fighting, one proved vastly less capable than the other, and he apologised and asked for the rest of his beer back and acknowledged that he was in the wrong.  Christ that made me feel like a prick and a bully.  So I ended up pointing out that my wife was small and that if she came home and found someone sitting on our steps drinking beer she’d have been scared, and that I was sorry for being so violent and please just bugger off etc etc.  He agreed and apologised and basically took all the fun out of being an alpha male, the bastard.  Christ, I might have to wait ten years to be that macho again, why did he have to ruin it for me?

Toadcast #53 – Shiny!

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01. Orouni – A Greased & Golden Palm (05.47)
02. The Gillyflowers – Country Boy (09.25)
03. Trips & Falls – And in Real Life He Wears Corduroy Pants (16.45)
04. Ragged Claws – On the Death of an Emperor (25.00)
05. Findo Gask – Wrapped in Plastic (Live) (32.00)
06. Enfant Bastard – Landscape Painting is Easy (36.23)
07. Scuff – Sailing Three Sheets to the Wind (40.56)
08. Jason Lytle – Birds Encouraged Him (Live at Maps) (47.34)
09. Auld Lang Syne – Where My Fortune Lies (51.01)
10. Scott Pinkmountain & the Golden Bolts of Tone – Abyssinia (58.24)