Before we get onto the tedious ritual of me listing good gigs every week and you ungrateful fuckers not going to any of them, I felt the need to share something quite special with you.  I spent my entire weekend going through lists of blogs who might be interested in the music we release and building mailing lists of people who have bought things from the label in the past and so on and so forth, so it’s not been the most exciting weekend of our lives, I have to confess.

Consequently, by bedtime last night, having spent most of the previous forty-eight hours staring at a computer screen all I was really intellectually capable of was a bit of empty-headed cinema and an early night.  Mrs. Toad tends to specialise in intellectually dormant movies, but I think it’s fair to say that this time she has pretty much excelled herself.  I really don’t know how she can ever top this one: The Saint, starring (so to speak) Val Kilmer and Elizabeth Shue.

Anyone who has read the Simon Templar books, or even seen Roger Moore’s series as that character back before his Bond days, will know that this is light, genuinely entertaining fluff.  There’s not much to it, but it has a certain style and is eminently enjoyable.  By contrast, the movie was so bad it veered from train wreck to masterpiece and back every thirty seconds or so.

Elizabeth Shue takes, rather predictably, the Christmas Jones role of Nucular Physicist who has, it seems, invented Cold Fusion.  She even hosts a presentation at Oxford where an undergrad (in a white coat, so you know she’s sciencey) asks what fusion actually is, presumably not having had to complete GCSE Physics in order to gain a place at university, unless of course she was a vet student or something who happened to be in the wrong lecture.  Shue then holds aloft some sort of pickle jar with a glass coil inside it and explains that she just feels Cold Fusion to be possible, and that’s all the justification for this lecture we are given.

Apparently she has ‘a formula’.  Because that’s what it takes to create a stable fusion reaction, a pickle jar and a formula, not a gigantic installation of state of the art engineering, apparently.  She’s just got two hours of ‘figgerin’ left to do to figure out which order to put the bits of her equations in.  Now, I may not know much about Nucular Physics but…

But in all honesty Shue is the least of your worries when watching this – she’ll look back on the script and cringe, but not particularly on her own performance.  I suppose that’s the benefit of these one-dimensional, utterly implausible, hot-babe twenty-something lady scientist characters – they’re such ironclad stereotypes that you can’t really do much with them good or bad (assuming, Miss Richards, that you can at least pronounce the name of your allotted discipline correctly).

Anyhow, the real highlight of this two hour festival of toe-curling agony, was Val fucking Kilmer.  The man is a legend.  His character’s superpower was having no actual identity and being good at disguises, something which was accomplished so cartoonishly badly that every new persona made us cackle with horrified glee.  The character in that clip above (don’t watch it all, I really don’t think you could take it) was pretty much the piece de resistance however.

He discovered that Shue’s character loved Byron (or something like that, I can’t remember) so decided that in order to seduce her he would need a character with an artistic soul.  I can only imagine the howls of woe from all the charming, well-mannered Oxford scientists who had been trying to slip her the salami for the previous few years, when it turned out that all it took was one of the worst haircuts in cinematic history, a pair of hilarious leather pantaloons and a completely baffling choice of accents to get into the old dear’s knickers.

“Er, sir, the Chateau Latour is four hundred pounds per bottle.”
“Very well, we’ll take two of them.” Zing!

Anyhow, after foiling the plans of the Russian energy magnate who created an energy shortage by stashing Moscow’s entire supply of fuel oil under his fucking house and then decided that the best way to take advantage of this shortage was by providing Cold Fusion power to the people of Russia, thus presumably negating his entire basis of power in an instant, rather than, say, just jacking up the prices of fuel oil and controlling supply to make his fortune and keep a political stranglehold on the country’s government, but I digress… Yes, so after this, Shue decides to give Cold Fusion to the world so she and Val can live happily ever after – once she’s spent the two hours necessary to figure out which way round her formulae go (something presumably not covered in the preceding years of research) in a back room at the American embassy in Moscow, that is.

Anyhow, those are some of the edited highlights, but really this film has to be seen to be believed.  You have to be tough though, because I really don’t think many people could take it.  Particularly the bit where Val’s hiding in the river in Moscow and the baddies looking for him conveniently fuck off for ten minutes so he can stumble to the shelter of the nearest block of flats, only to return (again, for no fathomable reason beyond evil ESP) five minutes later to resume the excitement of their narrow escape.

Anyhow, I’ll stop now.  Please, please watch this for yourself, it really is the worst film I think I have ever seen, and considering the woman I married that really is saying something.  Absolutely all of it is bad.  All of it.  Every line, every plot device, every character, every single premise, absolutely everything.  Cold Fusion! In a pickle jar with a glass coil!  It looked more like she’d brought her cuppa soup in the fucking thing, honestly.

Oh hang on, I was supposed to be talking about something else, wasn’t I…

Tuesday 12th October 2010: Twilight Sad and Errors at the Liquid Room.

A couple of splendid Glasgow bands are coming through to play at the newly re-opened Liquid Rooms.  The re-decorating may be complete, but the sticky floor and smell of stale beer have apparently been lovingly preserved.  Still, it was always a good venue to see bands, because the stage is high enough that you can always see, and the PA is really fucking loud.  Look for the Twilight Sad to give it a good workout!

Wednesday 13th October 2010: Dan Mangan, French Wives & Three Blind Wolves (acoustic) at Sneaky Pete’s.

This’ll be a gorgeously Americana-flecked night of acoustic pop.  Dan Mangan’s new album Nice, Nice, Very Nice is really, erm, very nice indeed (sorry, had to be done).

Dan Mangan – Road Regrets

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Saturday 16th October 2010: Honeytrap, Jesus H. Foxx & Sebastian Dangerfield at Medina.

Honeytrap are wild fun, and this will be my first chance to see Sebastian Dangerfield, but I’ve talked enough about this gig already, so you know what to expect by now – or at least you should.  Tickets here.

Honeytrap – Roslin is a Cylon

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Sunday 17th October 2010: The Savings and Loan and the Last Battle Song, by Toad House Gig.

This is the first glimpse of The Savings and Loan in about five years, and probably the first proper one just about ever.  Their debut album is out on Song, by Toad Records in early December, and they will be supported by The Last Battle, fielding a rather minimal lineup (it is our living room after all).  We’ve sold about half the tickets already, and whilst you are likely to be able to get in on the night, it might be safer to buy tickets in advance from here. It would help us out if you did, anyway.

The Savings and Loan – Swallows

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Ohhh what jolly fun it’s been this week.  Now I know why bands find it so hard to find booking agents: because it’s a shit job and no-one in their right mind would want to do it.

Then, just as I was hating promoters for all I was worth, I started into the organisation for all my own gigs that I had to book and suddenly developed a new-found sympathy for them too.  So WHO IS TO BLAME FOR MY SHIT WEEK, THEN?  I can’t think of anyone, it’s most frustrating.

Anyhow, I think I am now just about sorted for everything, so here are some announcements for you, so you can add all sorts of Toady nonsense to your calendars. Once again, I am putting all the label announcements into a Sunday Supplement so that the blog itself isn’t totally over-run with self-pimping during the week, which I am assuming would bore the shit out of everyone, myself included.

Inspector Tapehead Hooops Session was recorded by the lovely gentlemen from OLO Worms as part of their kind hospitality to our Tapeheady friends on their recent tour – thanks lads.

Cloud Sounds Song, by Toad Records Special seems, according to Ted, to have been purchased for the price of a pint when we were down in Manchester last weekend.  It’s one of my favourite podcasts, and if you want to be even nicer, you could buy the first and thus far only (I think) Cloud Sounds Split 7″ – the song by Onions is worth it all by itself.

Peenko’s Scottish DIY Labels series features Song, by Toad this week.  I am always impressed with quite how good I am at making myself sound like a total dickhead in so few words when it comes to these mini interview thingies.  Ah well, we all need a talent of some sort I suppose, I was just hoping mine might be martial arts or a snappy dress sense or something like that instead.

All those gigs in full (more or less):

Honeytrap launch their new album Petrushka (Toad review here, listen in full and buy here), this Saturday at Medina.  Jesus H. Foxx & Sebastian Dangerfield are also on the bill, and tickets can be purchased here. I was skeptical about Medina as a venue at first, but I was at an Acoustic Edinburgh show there during the Festival and really liked it – the atmosphere was ace, and I think this is going to be an excellent night.  Doors will be kinda early though, because there’s a club night on after us, so don’t be too late.

Savings and Loan House Gig will be pretty much everyone’s first chance to see Song, by Toad Records’ latest ‘signing’ (if you can really call it that, which you can’t, honestly) before their album Today I Need Light comes out on 6th December. As it’s at our house and tickets are going steadily I would ask you to buy one in advance just so we have a reasonable idea of numbers in advance.  You can get tickets here, and I have just confirmed a (very) stripped down set by The Last Battle will also be on the cards for the evening.

The Yusuf Azak Album Release Tour is being booked up slowly but surely.  Turn on the Long Wire is every bit as good as I would have expected from Yusuf, and is out on the 15th November.  There are album launch nights booked as part of a joint tour with Ethan Ash on the following nights:

Thursday November 25th, Cellar 35 in Aberdeen.
Friday November 26th, Gambetta in Glasgow, with Jonnie Common.
Saturday November 27th, The Roxy in Edinburgh, awaiting confirmation.

The first single from his album, Eastern Sun, will be out as a free download in a week’s time or so.

AND FINALLY, the Song, by Toad Records Christmas Party has been confirmed for Thursday 16th December at the Queen Charlotte Rooms in Leith.  We’re going to have an electric stage downstairs headlined by the Savings and Loan, for whom this will also be their album launch, and an acoustic stage upstairs.  I am working on the full lineup at the moment, so there will be more announcements to come about this soon enough.

Over the top, raucous folk music may be drifting slightly out of fashion these days, but I think I’d describe this album as I described the band’s Toad Session in 2009: “a complete, and completely splendid, mess”.

Also, in the interests of full-disclosure, I should point out that they are playing an album launch at Medina in Edinburgh on Saturday the 16th October.  Myself and Dylan from Blueback Hotrod will be sorting the gig, Jesus H. Foxx will also be playing, and tickets can be bought in advance here, for a fiver.

Anyhow, cynical self-promotion aside, the band weren’t entirely happy with their debut album, Follies in Great Cities.  I got the impression talking to them that whilst they didn’t want to criticise the record itself, they would in retrospect have done things rather differently.  The process seemed to be something they were just a little at odds with, and they said that they wanted this record to be a bit more raw, to try and capture the energy of their live shows.

This, they have certainly done, as this album careers along at a cracking pace, stumbling from one violin and harmony-fuelled stomp into the next.  In the early days of Honeytrap the combination of Big Dan’s lead and Little Dan’s impassioned wail gave the band’s eccentric yomps style enough, but adding Sophie into the vocal mix gives them even more toys to play with, and they use that variety really well, to add depth and texture to the style of the album.

Funnily enough, though, I really don’t like the first song.  When I first put it on I just thought it was a like a version of Honeytrap where all the vim and energy had been removed, and I was a little worried that I might not like the album, until the introductory yelp and squawk of violin which introduces Roslin is a Cylon reassured me that all was going to be just fine after all.

In terms of what they were aiming to capture with this recording, in contrast to the first, I think it’s fair to say that they’ve nailed it.  If I wasn’t at heart a socially awkward indie kid with a well-suppressed but nevertheless significant fear of making a tit of myself in public then this is the kind of music I would get hammered to and dance about like a fool in the front of the stage.  When the band recorded their Toad Session they (and we) were already pretty fucking plastered, and although that meant the whole thing was more than a little chaotic, they still played really well, and that’s kind of the vibe this record gives off – it’s like they’re all on the same penny farthing, careening out of control down a hill and just about managing not to fall off it, despite numerous close shaves.

In amongst all this excitement there isn’t much sign of some of their earlier, more emotionally intense (as opposed to just musically intense) material.  There are times when, in the middle of all the cavorting, it might have been nice to change emotional gears here and there and hear something a bit less caricatured, but nevertheless for the most part this is a raucous joy of a record.

Honeytrap – Roslin is a Cylon

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Honeytrap – Little Johnny Winter

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Bandcamp | More mp3s | Buy direct from the band

So, we are off to Eigg this weekend for the Fence Away Game.  Being a gallant sort I booked tickets for Mrs. Toad as well, as I thought she would enjoy such a picturesque setting, but the grumbling noises emanating from my better half over the last week or so have suggested that she is planning on weaselling out at the last minute.  Fucking typical, is all I can say.

Anyhow, this week’s podcast is the usual mixed bag of new stuff and old stuff, and also includes an expectation of the dubious concept of Mixtape Infidelity, as well as new tracks from Honeytrap, British Sea Power, Mount Erie, The Scottish Enlightenment and the Savings and Loan.

Please do not confuse this with the Eggcast, by the way.  I know the names are awfully similar, but I only have a limited imagination and couldn’t be arsed thinking of anything more original.

Direct download: Toadcast #141 – The Eiggcast

01. Honeytrap – Roslin in a Cylon (00.17)
02. Mount Erie – I Whale (06.50)
03. Timber Timbre – Lay Down in the Tall Grass (15.17)
04. Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles – She’s a Hard-boiled R0se (20.12)
05. British Sea Power – Zeus (27.30)
06. The Scottish Enlightenment – Drip Feed (36.22)
07. Grant Lee Buffalo – Crashing at Corona (45.45)
08. The Raincoats – Don’t be Mean (49.47)
09. The Savings and Loan – Pale Water (58.01.)
10. Neutral Milk Hotel – Snow Song Pt.1 (63.15)

Recorded for you from the sunny, blazing hot mountains of Andalucia, this one is a little late being uploaded because we only just got back to Scotland and I decided I might as well wait until we got home before uploading it rather than charge all around Spain trying to find somewhere to upload from and then sitting around for ages waiting for the damn thing to… well, you get the picture.

I actually spent much of the week editing Toad Session videos, which seems just a tiny little bit pathetic, even to me.  Still, editing video whilst sat on the terrace with a beer, overlooking spectacular valley scenery isn’t exactly a hardship, but nevertheless, a holiday should be a bit more holiday-y than that I suppose.

I also think I may have happened to accidentally teach Mrs. Toad’s oldest friend’s kids some truly fucking appalling language too.  Honestly, who lets a retard like me anywhere near kids?

Direct download: Toadcast #135 – The Spaincast

01. The Japanese War Effort – Summer Sun Skateboard (02:20)
02. Benni Hemm Hemm – Shipcracks (06:15)
03. Hobart Smith & Texas Gladden – Down in the Willow Garden (13.39)
04. Blind Willie Johnson – I’m Gonna Run to the City of Refuge (16.24)
05. The Beach Boys – Sloop John B (21.02)
06. Sebastian Dangerfield – The Sycamore Tree (24.49)
07. Animal Magic Tricks – Heavenly Bodies (30.57)
08. Keaton Henson – Oliver Dalston Browning (36.27)
09. Fists – Ace is the Way (40.23)
10. Honeytrap – Little Johnny Winter (45.02)

Tonight at 20:30 will see the return of my radio show to the airwaves of the student radio station in these parts; Fresh Air.  The station will be broadcasting through the Festival, and I myself have slots this evening, to kick things off, as well as Sunday 15th, 22nd and 29th (at the earlier time of 19:00-20:30) when Ruth will presumably be back.  The full schedule is (sort of) here.

We’re hoping to have live guests and stuff like that, and have Lach pencilled in for the 15th, to help publicise his Antihoot show, and have yet to line up anyone proper for the other two weekends yet.  We’ll hopefully get there though.

Anyhow, tonight Dylan will stand in for Ruth, and we will be previewing the Festival and talking pish about what music things are happening here throughout the month of August.

Listen Here – Live from 20:30BST

As ever, the tracklist will be updated live below and if you have any trouble with the feed you should be able to get rid of it by pausing and un-pausing the player.  Alternatively, you can find the station on iTunes as well, listed somewhere under college radio stations, I think.

1. Honeytrap – Little Johnny Winter
2. Mark Lanegan – Methamphetamine Blues
3. FOUND – Let Fidelity Break
4. Eels – Souljacker
5. Roky Erickson and Okkervil River – Goodbye Sweet Dreams
6. The Japanese War Effort – Summer Sun Skateboard
7. Arcade Fire – City With No Children
8. Inspector Tapehead – Yarvil
9. Yusuf Azak – Turn on the Long Wire
10. King Post Kitsch – Walking on Eggshells
11. Milk – Wilma, There’s Been a Fire!
12. Benni Hemm Hemm – Retaliate
13. Lach – I Want To Be With You

Night night!

Instead of mp3s this morning I have a small pile of videos for you.  I think PR people and labels seem to like videos as the song can’t be downloaded (although it can easily be ripped), so it kind of enforces a streaming-only policy.  Also, we live in a multimedia world these days, so in that sense it also seems logical enough to me.

The only issue I have with it is that the downloadable mp3, for all it represents giving away a bit of the album (and a lot of people worry about giving away the whole thing, a piece at a time, which I think is an almost entirely unfounded worry), that mp3 can sneak its way into iPods, complation CDs people make for their mates, this playlist and that playlist, people’s podcasts and pretty much any other way of passing things around that you can think of.

The free mp3′s great drawback – it is hard to track and almost impossible to control -  is also its greatest benefit.  That lack of control allows a band to exploit the maximum benefit of network effects and genuine viral behaviour (which is a lot harder to exploit than just a marketing gimp dubbing something ‘viral’ and wishing that made it so).

Then again, whilst that’s great in many ways, and very flexible, there is still one issue which might well tip things in the future.  In the world of sharing and passing things round it may well have become easier in the last few years – with the way Facebook has developed and Twitter has emerged – for links to be shared than a cumbersome mp3 file.  So these days if you’re really looking to encourage viral sharing then the balance seems to be tipping just a little towards things people can share simple links to, in favour of a 5Mb music file.

I think the issue may be more related, these days, to who you are trying to reach.  I still think anyone in the media (and nowadays who is and who isn’t is a very blurred line indeed) pretty much needs to have something they can use – not just share but actually use – whereas if you are trying to actually nudge social sharing into action then maybe the multimedia approach is better because why would people email mp3s about when they can actually post a big shiny bauble on their Facebook feed.

The videos we have today are from Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern, who has a new album in the works.  Also, there is To America, the new single from Honeytrap from their forthcoming album Petrushka. They said during their Toad Session that they wanted it to be rougher and more raw than their last album, and it really does have that clattering, ramshackle quality to it.

Finally, there is a video from a fellow I’ve never heard of before called Keaton Henson. He reminds me a bit of local lad Thomas Western actually, and I really like the videos.  More to be seen here if you like this one.

We’d already recorded the FOUND Toad Session earlier this same day, and Honeytrap had just recorded their session with Off the Beaten Tracks.  So basically, the sun was baking and we were all absolutely shit-faced.  Consequently, to describe the interview as any sort of conversation as opposed to some kind of deranged, cataclysmic cluster-fuck would be to massively flatter it.  In all honesty, this is a complete and completely splendid mess – enjoy!

Again, all the videos can be seen on the Song, by Toad Vimeo or YouTube pages, and the photo galleries can be perused on our Flickr page.  Dylan from Blueback Hotrod took all the photos, and the set he has posted has a few more pics than the one on the Toad Flickr page, so go and have a look to view the full set.  The whole interview is below, in the podcast file, and after that there are all the session mp3s which you are welcome to pass around as you see fit.  Good luck with the interview; it’s fucking mental.

Toadcast #90 – Honeytrap Toad Session

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Honeytrap – Roslin is a Cylon (Toad Session)

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Honeytrap – Death Before the Silver Screen (Toad Session)

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Honeytrap – Hours With the Masters (Toad Session)

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Honeytrap – Broken Violin (Toad Session)

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Now we have the increasingly chaotic session video first, and then three session videos for Roslin is a Cylon, Death Before the Silver Screen and Hours With the Masters.

01. Honeytrap – Roslin is a Cylon (Toad Session) (8.15)
02. Kate Bush – Army Dreamers (14.08)
03. Jack Charman – Wibbly Wobbly Walk (16.54)
04. Honeytrap – Death Before the Silver Screen (Toad Session) (25.03)
05. The Sequins – Let’s Go Drinking in the Morning (28.43)
06. Dirty Projectors & David Byrne – Knotty Pine (31.39)
07. Honeytrap – Hours With the Masters (Toad Session) (41.29)
08. Beach Boys – Honkin’ Down the Highway (50.22)
09. Prince – Raspberry Beret (52.57)
10. Honeytrap – Broken Violin (Toad Session) (66.39)

Oh dear god almighty I have a hangover.  Fucking bastard music people.  Last night there was gigging and drinking and wandering the streets of a most balmy and pleasant Edinburgh with an assortment of miscreants and other ne’er-do-wells.  We saw Honeytrap and Meursault play at Sneaky Pete’s – I was recording this podcast, hence late for X-Lion Tamer, sorry to both Ed and Tony – and it was fucking amazing.

And after that there was drinking.  Fuck me there was lots of drinking.  And then I came home and went into the local all night shop and purchased a couple of steaks for late-night snacking purposes, and was harassed by a bunch of young lads when I came out.  Not harassed in a bad way, but I think I was asked to buy them some fags or something like that.  Anyhow, the conversation… erm, well I’m not really sure how the conversation went, because I was fucking hammered, but at some point the van came up, which was parked just along the road.  So, ah, for some slightly bizarre reason I ended up with five high school lads and me sat in the van with the stereo up fucking loud – so loud apparently that you could hear it all the way down the street.  Or, at least, so Mrs. Toad tells me.  Because at some point she came home from wherever it was she was out drinking and hopped in as well.

So, after a little van-based rocking out, they came back into the house for a bit and Mrs. Toad played them Motorhead and The Sex Pistols and The Wedding Present so fucking loud the windows shook.  Funnily enough, these nice, polite lads kept insisting throughout that we should just let them know when we were bored and we would like them to go.  Such nice, polite boys!  I think one of them even did the dishes.  I didn’t want to have to try and explain what a couple of total fucking bozos they were dealing with, but erm, yeah, that was our Friday night.  Weird, huh?  I think we went to bed at about five, eventually.  And now to record a couple of Toad Sessions, at least one with a very, very hung over band.

Toadcast #71 – The Tough Lovecast

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01. Belle & Sebastian – Take Your Carriage Clock & Shove It (03.46)
02. Adam Balbo – Debating a Time Metaphor (07.16)
03. The Sequins – The Usual Delights (14.05)
04. Situationists – A Cold Front (16.31)
05. Blur – Out of Time (23.02)
06. New Ruins – Symptoms (32.37)
07. The Laurel Collective – Hindenburg Mile High Club (41.26)
08. The Lovely Eggs – Tyrannosaurus Rex for Christmas (45.07)
09. The Empty Set – A Challenge to Copernicus (49.34)
10. Honeytrap – Mussolini’s Son (55.29)

This week I discovered Women’s Shoes Syndrome.  I wore leather shoes for the first time in something like six years on Saturday and Christ am I paying the price now.  I’m sure the women reading this are most likely to be making comments along the lines of men not being able to take the suffering and not really understanding the concept of pain and childbirth is shit etc etc etc but that really isn’t my question.  My question is Why?  Honestly, if it’s always this painful, why the fuck do you bother?  It’s the equivalent of a child burning itself on the stove.  If, after repeatedly causing yourself considerable pain, you do not cease to do the thing which causes you pain then what the fuck is in your head?  That’s crazy talk.  Meet your new friend, Mr. Pair of Trainers – comfortable, soft and will never bite you angrily in the heel for no reason.  Christ, how much better do you think these things make you look, that you’re prepared to go through this every goddam time?

In other news, tonight I will be commencing work on a painting for the next Toad Records release, because it really is high time that was finished.  One thing that will be finished this week is my run of shows on Fresh Air.  It’s the end of term and the station shuts down over the Summer, so Tuesday will be the last Song, by Toad show until some time in September, I think – maybe even October.  This is a shame as I find the Fresh Air shows tremendous fun, but it’s hard enough to get students into university during term time, never mind the holidays, and it is a student radio station after all.  Gigs… well, maybe towards the end of the week.  Limbo looks good this week, and there’s no way I am missing Meursault and Honeytrap on Friday.

Monday 25th May 2009: Zoey Van Goey & We See Lights at the Bowery.

Zoey Van Goey have a new album out round about now, which is encouraging news.  I know scandalously little about them, but their indie-pop is very much respected amongst people whose opinions I trust, so if you have some time tonight this should be a good evening.
Zoey Van Goey – City is Exploding

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Thursday 28th May 2009: The Lovely Eggs, Second Hand Marching Band & The Pineapple Chunks play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

The Lovely Eggs, from what little I know about them (ie: a cursory MySpace listen) seem like they are completely mental, but in the best possible way.  The Pineapple Chunks have a similar, slightly spasmodic element to them, but where this fits with the loveliness of the Second Hand Marching Band alt-folk hydra is a little beyond me.  Should be a good night though.
The Lovely Eggs – Sexual Cowboy

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Thursday 28th May 2009: St. Deluxe, Gothenburg Address & Bronto Skylift play Skinny Dip at the Bongo Club.

Whilst this lineup doesn’t excite me very much (anyone championed by Alan McGhee is to be treated with deep, deep suspicion) what is interesting is seeing the Skinny start to move into gig promotion.  Given their involvement with music retail in the form of Ten Tracks, their involvement with the local music scene is becoming pretty varied, it seems.  Good on them.
St. Deluxe – New Wave Stars

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Friday 29th May 2009: Meursault, Honeytrap & X-Lion Tamer at Sneaky Pete’s.

I am really excited to see Honeytrap at long last.  They were one of the first small bands I ever discovered after Song, by Toad finally drifted into its current guise.  Infuriatingly, I found out about them something like a week after they’d played Henry’s, and it’s been something like two years of waiting before I’ve had a second chance to see them live.  I will not be passing this one up.
Honeytrap – Broken Violin

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Saturday 30th May 2009: Cancel the Astronauts, Moustache of Insanity & Conquering Animal Sound play The Gentle Invasion night at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Moustache of Insanity pretty much lay their cards on the table with their choice of name, and Conquering Animal Sound is the first outing for a new project involving Jamie from the excellent Japanese War Effort.  Headliners this month are Edinburgh indie boys Cancel the Astronauts, who have a new EP available for sale, called I am the President of Your Fanclub, and Last Night I Followed You Home.  Freaks.
Cancel the Astronauts – Country Song

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