Well fuck me this is brilliant.  Having been a fan of Down the Tiny Steps – Jonnie’s previous band – as well as Inspector Tapehead (of course!) I was both certain this would be good as well as entirely uncertain as to what it would actually sound like.

He’s a funny fucker, Jonnie Common, equally at home as a producer of glitchy electronica, whimsical pop or gently plucked acoustic music.  He slips so seamlessly between these incarnations that I found myself being confused by something which shouldn’t have been confusing, really.

The multi-faceted nature of his music made it hard to imagine what the record would sound like, but that was over-thinking things, because it sounds exactly like I just described it: a seamless blend of glitchy electronics, whimsical pop and gentle acoustica.

Master of None isn’t just a fucking brilliant album, it is also massively characteristic of the man himself.  Jonnie is a friend of mine* and it’s odd how much this music embodies his actual personality.  I may not be able to explain this to you in a way which will mean much to those who don’t know him, but the laid back charm, warmth, idiosyncrasy and sheer enjoyment of this record seem to spring straight from the heart of Jonnie’s odd wee soul.  He is the kind of guy it is pretty much impossible to dislike, and this album feels sort of like that too.

Even the white boy rapping moment of Bed Bugs, something which always makes me a little twitchy, seems to work well in the context of this album not because it’s a splendid example of rapping (I personally wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway, for reasons of ignorance) but because it is in no way contrived, and fits well within the overall atmosphere of a record which seems at all times entirely comfortable with itself.

The lyrics reinforce this effect, being a disarming combination of the candid and the surreal, including gems like: “I can’t skateboard to save my life, but I like to imagine what kind of bizarre scenario might involve me having to do so”. It seems less like Jonnie has written lyrics, and more like he has simply opened his brain and allowed every digression, distraction and musing to spill into the record. Some of it is touching and some downright peculiar but somehow, instead of seeming either banal or deliberately obscure, it simply reinforces the approachability and delight of the album.

It’s also a record which compels you to move – even me! I don’t mean get up and leap around like a loon, but there is – dare I use the expression – a genuinely infectious groove to the whole thing which just means I can’t sit still whilst listening to it. I may not dance, because I basically can’t, but I have to do something!

This unavoidable incitement to stop everything and respond to the music in whatever clumsily twitching way you have at your disposal is key to the main reason this is a great album.  Balls to the accessibility, the lovely contrast of sounds, the lush, warm production – these things are all true, but at heart this is a great album mostly because it is packed with absolutely immense tunes.  Quirky they may be, but many of these have the heart of massive pop hits.

Infinitea, Hand-Hand, Summer is For Going Places, Photosynth… these songs are absolute fucking gems which blow the tits off the cack which passes for popular music these days, and they should be massive.  Absolutely no disrespect to Red Deer Club, who are a great label and one I do my best to imitate with Song, by Toad Records, but when you release with smaller labels they of course don’t have the financial clout to force things into the public consciousness the way the big ‘uns do.  And with this album I can’t help but wistfully imagine a world where Jonnie Common is a massive, global pop star.  It would be a far better place than the one we currently inhabit.

Jonnie Common – Summer is for Going Places

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Jonnie Common – Photosynth

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Website | More mp3s | Buy from Red Deer Club

*Yes, I know, massive subjectivity alert, but show me a music reviewer who thinks they are objective and I will show you a fucking deluded idiot. At least I try my best to flag up my subjectivity so you can take it into account when you’re reading.

If you’re reading this for tips, I’m afraid you’ve already missed the best gig in Edinburgh this week: Yo La Tengo at the Queen’s Hall, tonight.  Sorry about that.

There’s not much else, unfortunately, although Sneaky’s have Talons, Lady North and Jackie Treehorn on Wednesday, followed by Thomas Tantrum, New Fiction and Acrylic iQon the following day. Both of those look pretty interesting, but I can’t honestly claim to know much about any of the bands.

We also have a couple of Ides of Toad gigs next week, starting with Fatcat’s new signings Milk Maid on Monday 13th June at Henry’s Cellar Bar, supported by the awesome PAWS and new Edinburgh band Plastic Animals.  Then on Friday 17th June we have Meursault and Inspector Tapehead at The Caves.  Tickets for both of these can be found here, or at Avalanche down on the Grassmarket.

As for myself, this week I will be heading to GoNorth in Inverness. I’ll be participating in a couple of seminars, in case the shit I talk on Song, by Toad isn’t enough for you, so it would be nice if you fancied swinging by to say hello.

On Wednesday we have the Fringe events, where I’ll be on a panel on starting your own record label, alongside Jen from Euphonios and Lloyd from Olive Grove Records.  So if you want the kind of runaway global success we’ve achieved then I can tell you how to get it.

On Wednesday I am also involved in some one-to-one mentoring sessions, so if you want to sit down and go through the stages of my Guide to Self-Releasing an Album, or indeed talk about anything else, then send an email to jennifer@hailmusic.com.

On Thursday 9th there is the Scottish Music Bloggers Showcase night at a place called Flames. Jason, Lloyd and I looked through the successful applicants (I wasn’t part of that process, just picking the showcase once the shortlist had been made, so if you aren’t on there and I like your music I am denying all responsibility) and chose Indian Red Lopez, LightGuides, PAWS and Kid Canaveral.

And finally I’m also on the Music Blog panel on Friday at 2pm, talking to Lloyd again, who’ll be wearing his Peenko hat this time, Jason from The Pop Cop and John Robb about the effect of music blogging on the industry, and how best to get through to them if you are trying to promote your music.

So there you go – a busy fucking week.  If the posting schedule gets a little erratic you’ll know why, but I’ll try and keep things ticking over properly while I’m up North.

Anyone managed to avoid my relentless plugging of this weekend’s Ides of Toad gig?  No, thought not, there’s nowhere to hide when I start riding the spam train down the middle of the information superhighway.  Or er… something like that, anyway.

Anyhow, the Ides of Toad gigs are now booked up all the way through to the Summer, at which point they will take a break over the Edinburgh Festival as I get a bit more involved in the Festival this year.

So, given the people reading this blog are probably the people most likely to want to come along, I figured I would give you a handy preview list, so you know what’s in store for you over the next few months – all tickets can be bought either at Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket or online here.

Saturday 23rd April 2011: Kid Canaveral, Thee Single Spy & Monster Island at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

I think you already know quite enough about this one so, er, let’s move on shall we.

Tuesday 10th May 2011: Francois & the Atlas Mountains, This is the Kit & Babe at the Bristo Hall.

The Bristo Hall is upstairs from the Forest Cafe, and this is part of the Roofraiser series of events being put on to help save the Forest.  It will also serve as something of a Homegame wind-down for those of us going, and for those who aren’t it is the chance to see Francois, This is the Kit and Babe, the last of which is Gerard from Findo Gask’s new project.

Saturday 21st May 2011: Jonnie Common, Kill the Captains & Enfant Bastard at the Wee Red Bar.

Jonnie is a pop genius hiding behind excessive modesty, Kill the Captains make a face-melting racket and Enfant Bastard is the only person we could think of to make sense of a bill this diverse!

Saturday 4th June 2011: Avital Raz house gig.

This has just been arranged as my friend Baz (who is putting on the excellent-looking Imploding Inevitable Festival to which you should all go) was looking for dates and I was really keen, but with all the gigs we have on at this time I was a bit scared to take on anything else.  So a house gig seemed like the ideal solution, not least because we haven’t had one for ages.

Friday 17th June 2011: Meursault & Inspector Tapehead at The Caves.

Umm, gosh The Caves is a big venue. So you fuckers better all come to this because I have never booked anywhere this size before!

Saturday 2nd July 2011: Edinburgh School for the Deaf, The Louche FC & Spook School at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This could, and hopefully will, get noisy.  Edinburgh School for the Deaf make a ferocious racket, and The Louche FC may have distinctly innocent-sounding vocals, but the guitar is nasty as hell.  And I know nothing about Spook School bar the song on their Bandcamp page above, but they sound really promising.

Saturday 16th July 2011: The Second Hand Marching Band at The Wee Red Bar.

Alright, this bill might not be entirely finished just yet but I promise it will be excellent when it is.

Apparently you people like music and stuff, right – that’s why you’re here?  Well this week I like gardening.  Yes, as if to demonstrate that I am taking all these accusations of being too old and too middle-class extremely seriously, this week I am far more excited about the back garden that I am about music, sorry.

We’ve had a lot of rain this spring, so inevitably when we get a sunny week, as we did last week, everything blooms.  This, I have to confess, as someone relatively new to gardening, is incredibly exciting.  Any teenagers reading this thinking I should be more excited by cocaine and jagerbombs and threesomes with supermodels, honestly, you’re wrong.  Although quite why I feel the need to take pictures of everything with a fucking Hipstamatic I have no idea.  Just one of those zeitgeist reflexes which I find as annoying as I do perversely pleasing.

Anyhow, given Scotland’s propensity for bucketing down with rain just as you get your shorts and sandals on, I am sure I will find time to take in some music.  And should that be the case, here are the directions in which I will be casting my creepy leer.

Thursday 14th April 2011: Paul Vickers & the Leg, Andy Brown & Zed Penguin at Sneaky Pete’s.

On the subject of creepy leering, pretty much all the music on this bill has a pretty creepy leer of its own.  Zed Penguin and Andy Brown play really rather dirty, distorted blues swamp rock, if you’ll excuse the horribly mangled genre tag.  And Paul Vickers and the Leg seem to have intravenously injected Tom Waits’ Black Rider and washed it down with tiger blood, so this show will be great, if something of an assault on the senses.

Zed Penguin – Keep on Truckin’

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Saturday 16th April 2011: The Pineapple Chunks, Billy Liar, Hiva Oa & Inspector Tapehead at the Bristo Hall.

Inspector Tapehead tell me they’re coming through to Edinburgh at the Forest this Saturday, but they aren’t on the listing for this particular bill, so I am not entirely sure what’s going on here. Nevertheless, the two bands I do know (who are possibly) on this bill are very good indeed, and the Chunks have new recordings too, which is very exciting. [Edit: The Tapeheads are playing apparently.  Here is the Facebook page with all the upcoming Forest Fundraisers, for future reference.]

The Pineapple Chunks – Dark Halo

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Sunday 17th April 2011: 2:54, Eagulls & Dead Boy Robotics at Sneaky Pete’s.

It’s difficult to think who in Edinburgh would be suitable for supporting 2:54 and Eagulls, but Dead Boy Robotics don’t really spring to mind, even though they have just added a full-time drummer to the lineup.  They are still, even though they are more air-punchy than ever, much more electronic than either of the other two bands, both of whom flirt just a little with lad-rock, but have plenty of interesting elements to them as well.  It could be a bit disappointing this, but it could be great as well, depending which side of that line the two headliners end up occupying.

Eagulls – Council Flat Blues

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Sunday 17th April 2011: A Hawk and a Hacksaw & Broken Records at The Caves.

I am not sure where the folk of A Hawk and a Hacksaw sits with the modern hipsterati these days. Despite the NME apparently scrabbling about for the next Mumford & Sons I get the impression the hip cats, as it were, don’t really want any folk in their hairspray at the moment. Nevertheless, whether the idea of folk makes you sigh the world-weary sigh that only a twenty-year-old hipster who has just realised that musical fashions may not be for Christmas exactly, but they certainly ain’t for life either, can sigh, I still think a band like A Hawk and a Hacksaw will be absolutely incredible live.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw – Gadje Sirba

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Apparently no-one visits websites anymore, because it’s all about the social media and so on and so forth, so I suppose most of you have already seen this.

In case you haven’t, however, I have uploaded a free Song, by Toad Records sampler to Bandcamp, with songs from some of our more recent releases, as well as a healthy dose of new material from the releases we have planned for the rest of the year.

Our release schedule is slowly filling up, as well.  Before a brief break for the Edinburgh Festival we have four-song 7″ releases by King Post Kitsch and Lil Daggers, we have Surrender to Summer by The Japanese War Effort on 10″ vinyl, and we have albums by Lach and King Post Kitsch.  It is going to be very fucking busy indeed.

So, before all that excitement starts I figured I might as well give away some free sweeties to get people excited.  And here it is, downloadable for free from Bandcamp.  Enjoy!

This is my annual World of Song, by Toad Records podcast, where I prattle on a bit about the stuff we have coming up in the new year.  I play a couple of things we released towards the tail end of the year, and some stuff by some of the new bands we’re going to be working with for the first time in 2011.

I also prattle on at immensely tedious length about the ins and outs of running a record label, which may or may not actually interest you at all, but it’s there whether you like it or not.

We’ve got plans for some changes for the new year as well, with a new imprint for the label being launched, and a partnership with the Brothers Grimm for the creation of new lines of merch to go with every release.  It’s going to be a bit exhausting, I think, but immense fun nevertheless.

Direct download: Toadcast #155 – Song, by Toad Records 2011

01. King Post Kitsch – Eggshells (00.21)
02. Animal Magic Tricks – Heavenly Bodies (06.31)
03. The Savings and Loan – The Virgin’s Lullaby (18.45)
04. Inspector Tapehead – Sugar on Your Sheets (22.00)
05. Rob St. John & the Braindead Collective – The Whites of Our Eyes (28.11)
06. Loch Lomond – Elephants and Little Girls (41.36)
07. Trips and Falls – This is All Going to End Badly (52.37)
08. Jesus H. Foxx – Plans (Alt. Version Demo) (54.59)
09. Meursault – Another (61.34)
10. Lach – I Want to Be With You (65.56)
11. Yusuf Azak – Lay Me Down (Demo) (76.49)

Once again this New Year’s Eve Mrs. Toad and I shall be forgoing the dubious pleasure of stumbling about in the freezing cold city centre surrounded by other people’s sick, and will instead be having a glass or two of wine in the house, like we did last year.

Like last year there will be live music, and like last year you are all invited.  Jonnie Common (Inspector Tapehead), Neil Pennycook (Meursault) and Jamie Scott (Japanese War Effort) will be playing, and the set may well include some collaborative stuff, or just three solo sets, depending how effectively they get their shit together in between now and then.

We’ll get another keg, I think, because that was a great success at the Christmas Party.  Kegs tend to cost us around £1.80 per pint (70 pints, £130) so please come prepared to chip in if you fancy guzzling posh beer all night instead of cans of Tennent’s.  Also, we’d really appreciate if you could buy your tickets in advance, just so we have an idea of numbers.  All the money goes directly to the bands, so it is for a good cause.

Sold out now, sorry.

Many thanks – hope to see you there!

This week there will be fuck all happening in Edinburgh, or at least there better be, because I will be participating in none of it.  Apparently there’s some pagan bollocks going on at the end of the week related to a fat man and some reindeer, but I wouldn’t bother paying that too much attention if I were you.

Actually, there is the Christmas Songwriters’ Club down in Leith on Thursday which looks rather excellent.  I have been trying to buy tickets, but am finding WeGotTickets to be an unspeakable shitfest of password requirements and expired logins and all this other shite.  If you can manage that though, tickets are to be found here and I’d recommend it, because the lineup looks splendid.

Last week, however, was fucking spectacular.

The Song, by Toad Christmas Party was fucking excellent, if a little bit hectic (for us anyway, there was no evidence the audience really noticed).  Everyone came round straight after work, so we had no more than an hour and a half to set up two PAs and soundcheck six bands.  This, as many of you will know, is simply not possible.  Nevertheless, we seemed to get away with it entirely.

The Queen Charlotte Rooms was decked out to the nines in tinsel and fairy lights, and the whole affair was a ludicrous, brilliant shambles.  I was working a bit too much to properly let my hair down (one pint all night, one fucking pint!) but everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, and in general I can’t imagine a better way to close out what has been a rather dizzyingly dramatic year for all of us.

A massive thank you to everyone who came, and everyone who played. The Scotsman wrote us a five star review the very next day, and the Herald tried to, but apparently there was a mistake somewhere and we were robbed of two stars, dammit.  They are sorting this as we speak, I believe. Thanks to David Pollock and Nicola Meighan for the writeups.

Eagleowl’s Stars in Your Eyes was the following night at Pilrig St. Paul’s and, although I wasn’t there myself due to parental commitments, apparently I (and any of you who also rather foolishly neglected to attend) missed Neil from Meursault as Tranny Lennox, Jesus H. Foxx as Johnathan Richman, eagleowl as Talking Heads, and Broken Records as REM.  I dearly wish I had been able to go, but I am going to have to content myself with watching Milo’s video above, stolen from this post here, and sighing wistfully to myself.

By Saturday, Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles was the final nail in my liver’s coffin.  I was DJing inbetween bands and, for all my combination of naff eighties hits, indie obscurata, and the odd inclusion of I Feel Pretty from West Side Story and Nothing Like a Dame from South Pacific, I have to confess I rather doubt that my contribution was at all significant.  I did, however, save everyone from a constant repeat of Now That’s What I Call Christmas 64 or whatever else they had on the stereo when I got there, so let’s not underplay it either.

In any case, it was a bloody brilliant night, and by the time I staggered home I think it is fair to say that the weekend had been officially seized.

So, a day late with this, sorry.  I blame a combination of Virgin Media and vast amounts of drinking.  I woke up yesterday, still slightly hungover, and found that Virgin have managed to break our internet.  Here I am today a day and a half later and it is still fucking broken.  They offered us a fiver refund without me even asking for it, so I assume they must have fucked up something pretty significant, but I felt too shitey to venture out to find an internet cafe to write this, sorry.

All of this meant that I missed the chance to plug the Withered Hand gig at the Wee Red Bar last night, sorry.  He is playing tonight at the Captain’s Rest in Glasgow though, with the excellent Japanese War Effort, so I recommend getting along to that if you accidentally find yourself on the wrong side of Scotland this evening.

It’s funny, I remember a couple of years ago the mere fact that there was one music based Christmas party was enough to pique my interest.  This year it seems that every cunt in fucking Scotland is having on, ourselves included.  After the awesome Gerry Loves Records one a couple of weeks ago, this week is the week it all kicks off proper like:

Thursday 16th December 2010: Song, by Toad Records Christmas Party at the Queen Charlotte Rooms, Leith.

We’ll have six bands, and two stages, with Jesus H. Foxx, Inspector Tapehead and Meursault on the noisy stage, and Yusuf Azak, Rob St. John and The Savings and Loan on the quiet stage.  We’ll stagger the bands, but whilst we can sell 180 tickets, only eighty or so people can fit in to the upstairs acoustic room at any one time, so please be understanding if you can’t get in – and prepared if there’s something you really want to see.  Tickets are shifting rather quickly, so I’d recommend getting them in advance (or turning up rather early – but we’ll be starting promptly to get all six bands on, so that might be wise anyway) from either Brown Paper Tickets, or the new Avalanche Records shop down on the Grassmarket.

Friday 17th December 2010: Stars in Their Eyes Christmas at Pilrig St. Paul’s.

This is going to be magic.  Broken Records, eagleowl and Toad Records superstars Jesus H. Foxx and Meursault will be performing as their favourite bands.  Tickets are very, very nearly sold out for this though, so act very sharpish if you want to go along – available here and from Avalanche.  There will be a couple left on the door, but this is not something I recommend you count on.

Saturday 18th December 2010: Tentracks at the Forest Cafe.

As part of the ongoing efforts to save the Forest Cafe from closure, Tentracks are hosting a night there, featuring Not Squares, Foxgang, Logikparty and Fueldiva.  Given that Kid Canaveral has already sold out Saturday’s Christmas party this looks like the perfect place for all you lost and wandering souls in search of a gig this weekend.

Snow!  Awesome!  Actually, we haven’t got that much snow here in Edinburgh but I am sufficiently snow-starved that I am pretty excited nevertheless.  Not as excited as the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo will presumably be of course, but excited nevertheless.

Yusuf’s three album launch shows last week were fantastic, but I am pretty pooped and will be taking it quite easy today.  We’ve the Savings and Loan’s album release to work on for Monday, but apart from that the label is now entering a rather quiet Winter – well, apart from our official Song, by Toad Records Christmas Party of course, which will be anything but quiet.

The Christmas parties start here, in fact, with two this week, a couple of very good gigs and the opportunity to help save the Forest Cafe.  Enough for you to be getting on with for one week?  Thought so.  Welcome to the December eat/drink/hangover cycle which leaves us begging for fruit juice and fresh vegetables by January.

Xavier Rudd and Dar Williams are both (separately) at the Queen’s Hall this week, which might interest some of you.  For myself, the following gigs stand out the most:

Tuesday 30th November 2010: The Wedding Present and Ringo Deathstarr at the Liquid Room.

The Wedding Present’s absolutely brilliant, and now ‘classic’ album Bizarro is twenty or twenty-five years old or something like that, so the Weddoes are out on tour, playing the album in its entirety by way of celebration.  Just as interesting from my point of view are support band Ringo Deathstarr who make an excellent amount of fuzzy noise and whose new single is bloody excellent; I await the album with great interest.

The Wedding Present – No

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Tuesday 30th November 2010: Jenny & Johnny at Cabaret Voltaire.

Jenny Lewis is an excellent live performer with more than a little hint of swagger.  Her album, recorded with snuggle bunny Johnathan Rice, has its bland moments to be sure, but some of it is genuinely excellent, dreamy, harmony-drenched Summer pop.

Jenny & Johnny – Little Fly

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Thursday 2nd December 2010: Yahweh, Emily Scott & Union Canal at Sneaky Pete’s.

Three of the more underground bands on the week’s list of musical funz, but between Yahweh’s sweeping cinematics and Emily Scott’s musical prettiness this should be a good ‘un.  Union Canal I know nothing about whatsoever, I have to confess.

Friday 3rd December 2010: Gerry Loves Records Christmas Party at the Banshee Labyrinth.

Four of the most innovative bands in Scotland play what promises to be a very high early watermark for the tide of Christmas parties this year*.  Expect a lot of beeping and looping and stuff – which, for the less knowledgeable, is a technical musical term.  The Banshee Labyrinth is rather small, so I strongly recommend getting your tickets in advance for this one.  There will be a special guest too – one I promise you really is very thpeshul indeed.

The Japanese War Effort – Fake Tanned Out Yr Tits

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Friday 3rd December 2010: Save the Forest gig at Pilrig St. Paul’s.

This gig has been arranged to raise fund to help save the Forest Cafe, an Edinburgh institution under considerable threat after the collapse of the Edinburgh University Settlement.  Finn Andrews of The Veils will be playing, which is amazing.  The Veils are a fucking great band and although I have no idea what a Finn Andrews solo performance will be like, I would be fascinated to find out.

The Veils – Not Yet

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Saturday 4th December 2010: Limbo Christmas Party at the Voodoo Rooms.

Bands such as Toad favourites FOUND and Enfant Bastard, and Toad Records heroes Yusuf Azak and Inspector Tapehead are joined by Night Noise Team and others.  I think there will be some collaborating and some other Christmas jiggery-pokery too, but I am not entirely sure what to expect, honestly.  Apart from the fact that I am going to get very drunk indeed.

FOUND – Let Fidelity Break

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*Apologies if that analogy was just a little too tortured.  I know it was, and I judge myself.