Well after a weekend of total mayhem in Scotland’s capital city, what the fuck are we in for this time around?  Well there’s a few things actually, although one of my personal choices is pretty much sold out, I do believe: that being Withered Hand & the Pictish Trail at the Caves on Thursday. If there are a few tickets left I suggest you turn up at the door pretty promptly in order to score one.

The other stuff, as usual, is listed below:

[Meanwhile, in the now traditional 'Matthew is an idiot and has left something out' slot we have the following: on Thursday 1st March Thomas Truax is playing in a rather surprising choice of venue - Opium nightclub on the Cowgate.]

Tuesday 28th Feb: The Cast of Cheers & Theme Park at the Electric Circus.

I think ‘sprightly guitar pop’ best sums this up.  It’s cheerful, upbeat and bouncy – perhaps not entirely my kind of thing at the moment, but I reckon those of you who like your music a little less growly might enjoy this.

The Cast of Cheers – Goose

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Friday 2nd March: Wet Nuns, Fat Goth & Hagana at the Electric Circus.

If you fancy a bit of pantomime villian blues rock (to coin the stupidest genre designation I’ve heard in a while) then you might well like this.  Despite being tipped by the NME, Wet Nuns sound pretty good, and there’s a sort of over-the-top camp to this bill which looks like great fun.  The names alone are worth going for.

Saturday 3rd March: The Machine Room, Blank Canvas & Zed Penguin at the Wee Red Bar.

This gig is the launch night for the Machine Room’s new EP, which you can preview on the Bandcamp embed below. I am reserving judgment on the band for the time being, but it’s certainly very promising and contains lots of individual moments I do like.  The support bands are pretty varied too, with bluesy screech from Zed Penguin and rollicking piano pop from Blank Canvas.

Sunday 4th March: Adam Stafford, Radio Trees & Loch Awe at the Third Door.

I am such a latecomer to the Adam Stafford Appreciation Party that I am probably really annoying everyone who’s been banging on about him for ages. Nevertheless, the way he builds his songs out of looped vocals and guitar is nevertheless something to behold.  I confess I know nothing about Radio Trees, but Loch Awe have been recording in Chem19 recently and the one song I’ve heard from those sessions sounds bloody great.

Sunday 4th March: A Hawk and a Hacksaw at the Filmhouse.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw’s last visit to Edinburgh brought them to the Caves, if I remember, but this occasion will be rather different: they are here, I think, to play a live soundtrack to the Russian film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.  I am a bit sketchy on the details I have to confess, but this looks rather fascinating.

Bill Oddie, for those of you who don’t know, is a legendary British television birdwatcher – twitcher as they’re known.  He is also the subject of one of the most famous of all mondegreens: Madonna’s “Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie, put your hands all over my body”.

Anyhow, as a legendary feather flutterer it seemed only appropriate that his name should adorn a podcast entirely made up of bands with ornithological names.  We have everything here, from the albatross to the gull to the guillemot to the owl to the sparrow to the pigeon.  Honestly, this podcast could have been twice the length that it is, there were just so many appropriate bands – no Flock of Seagulls, for example, no Sparrow & the Workshop, no Sheryl Crow.

So I hope you enjoy it.  While you’re listening to this, Mrs. Toad and I will be enjoying the End of the Road Festival, and hopefully getting a few interesting interviews in for you all.  It’ll be my first ever attendance as a legitimate press person, so I am feeling very full of myself at the moment, but with a bit of luck I’ll justify the inflated sense of self-importance and bring back some fine bits and pieces for you to enjoy in the next week or two.

Toadcast #37 – The Oddcast

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01. Hate Beak – Feral Parrot (02.27)
02. The Eagles – Outlaw Man (04.52)
03. Eagleowl – Motherfucker (10.55)
04. Woodpigeon – Knock Knock (15.22)
05. The Lovely Sparrows – Department of Foreseeable Outcomes (19.45)
06. The Bowerbirds – In Our Talons (23.47)
07. Doves – A House (35.30)
08. Counting Crows – Start Again (38.12)
09. Andrew Bird – Why (Live) (46.32)
10. Guillemots – Take Me Out (Live Lounge) (50.43)
11. A Hawk & a Hacksaw – Portlandtown (56.07)
12. Gossamer Albatross – Held Hands (59.57)
13. The Housemartins – Me & the Farmer (63.26)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a quite splendid podcast. Not the chat – there’s actually blessed little of that for a change – but the actual music. There may not be the one or two big names I tend to try and slip in to make sure that casual listener more likely to have a listen and thus bring an audience to the smaller bands, but it just didn’t quite happen. I like to do it for myself too, really, but for some reason they just didn’t quite get a look in this week, although I did throw in a rather obscure Pogues track, but it just seemed fine without them.

I really like this one though, and there are some excellent new things to hear, so get stuck in. It’s all quite an acoustic folk-pop sort of atmosphere, so I hope that sort of thing is your bag, but I’ve thrown in a couple of slightly different things, like David Cronenberg’s Wife, Mother & the Addicts and A Hawk & a Hacksaw to make sure it’s not too one-paced. So get stuck in, my little Toadlings, music a-plenty and jolly fine stuff too!

Toadcast #8 – New Things & Englishness[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo8.mp3]

1. Donny Hue & the Colours – Humming With the Flowerbirds (01.01)
2. Monkey Swallows the Universe – Jimmy Down the Well (06.19)
3. Emmy the Great – Canopies & Grapes (10.26)
4. Mother & the Addicts – Are Others (14.30)
5. Champion Kickboxer – Perforations (20.42)
6. Jake Flowers & the Carol-Anne Showband – Annabel (26.06)
7. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – Tickle Me Pink (28.07)
8. Mirah & Spectratone International – Supper (34.09)
9. Patti Page – Old Cape Cod (38.01)
10. A Hawk & a Hacksaw – The Way the Wind Blows (41.52)
11. David Cronenberg’s Wife – My Ukrainian Girlfriend (47.20)
12. The Pogues – First Day of Forever (54.08)
13. Iron & Wine – Kingdom of the Animals (57.22)
14. The Ralfe Band – Albatross Waltz (63.23)
15. A Hawk & a Hacksaw – Portlandtown (68.19)