I may not be here to enjoy them, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t some excellent gigs in Edinburgh this week.  There’s even the slightly surreal appearance of Raekwon from the Wu Tang Clan at the Liquid Room on Tuesday 15th.

I say surreal, because I don’t know much of a hip hop community in Edinburgh, and it doesn’t really strike me as a very hip hop kind of city, so if we indie folk think it’s hard work living here, I can’t imagine how much harder it must be for the city’s hip hop community (the Wu Tang Clan are hip hop, aren’t they?).

Monday 14th March 2011: Gogol Bordello at the HMV Picturehouse.

Alright, maybe I’m not recommending this on high-brow musical grounds, but I guarantee you that if you go along to this you will have brilliant fun.  Mrs. Toad and I saw these guys at Bestival a few years ago and leapt about like loons.

Gogol Bordello – Not a Crime

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Thursday 17th March 2011: The Phantom Band at Cabaret Voltaire.

I may not be all that sold on the Phantom Band’s recorded material, but the one time I saw them live – at Homegame a couple of years ago – they were genuinely brilliant.  There’s something hypnotic about the way they use rhythm and layering, and in a live setting it’s really rather splendid.

The Phantom Band – The Howling

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Saturday 19th March 2011: Braw Gigs presents Pyramidion, CK Dexter Haven & Homunculus at Sneaky Pete’s.

I’ll be honest with you, I know more or less nothing about any of these bands, but Braw Gigs are bloody excellent promoters who put on really good things, so I think it would be entirely fair to say that pretty much anything they do is likely to be interesting.

I’m trying to kill two birds with one stone with this podcast.  Firstly, I am throwing in a couple of songs that I wanted to put on the Contrast Podcast episode entitled Young a few weeks ago.  I was away at my brother’s wedding at the time, and I never got the chance so here they are.

Secondly, a good while ago a regular reader of mine called Allen Lulu tagged me with one of these internetty meme thingies whereby you write about the music that was in the charts the year you turned 18.  Well for me that year was 1993, but the chart music was abysmal, so I couldn’t possibly do that to you.  Instead I had a look at what I was listening to myself from that year and came across so many excellent old songs I haven’t heard for ages that a quick post turned into an entire podcast.  And this is that podcast – me at age 18.

Toadcast #9 – The Folly of Youth

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1. The Spin Doctors – Two Princes (03.21)
2. Stereo MCs – Connected (09.08)
3. Radiohead – Anyone Can Play Guitar (13.41)
4. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (17.30)
5. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Loverman (25.12)
6. Levellers – This Garden (31.29)
7. James – Five-O (38.24)
8. The Long Blondes – Once & Never Again (6Music Acoustic Session) (43.12)
9. Gogol Bordello – Never Want to be Young Again (49.48)
10. The Mathletes – Linger (Cranberries Cover) (55.27)
11. Pearl Jam – Daughter (57.45)
12. Blind Melon – No Rain (63.19)
13. Soul Asylum – New World (67.57)
14. The Lemonheads – If I Could Talk I’d Tell You (71.50)
15. Portishead – Mysterons (75.24)
16. Engine Alley – Song For Someone (82.26)