Part 1: 1-10
Part 2: 11-23
Part 3: 24-36
Part 4: 37-50

Here is the official beginning of Christmas List season, here at Song, by Toad. If you want to get involved and write your own list, then please do. Go here for more details. The more of you that contribute to that the better the results we will get, so don’t be shy.

This is the first quarter of my Festive Fifty for 2008. I will also be preparing a list of my twenty favourite albums, but I might just neglect singles and EPs this time around. If you disagree with anything then do get stuck in, but bear in mind that this is far from a definitive ranking. Ask me on another day and Pictish’s brilliant I Don’t Know Where to Begin could easily be in the top five. Ask me in four months’ time and it would probably be all-change again. Read the rest of this entry »

As you can see I have complied with Mrs. Toad’s request to stop featuring cutesy Edinburgh pictures on these little posts and put up some pictures of radgy wee neds instead. This is something I think she feels is more representative of a kind of Edinburgh life that tends to be ignored (for more such pictures, go here, it’s hilarious).

I play football regularly in Craigmillar, often against teams from there or alternatively from lovely places like Craigour, Niddrie and other delightful Edinburgh tourist spots. I’ve actually been threatened with being knifed something like three or four times during various matches when we’ve played out there. It is a little unsettling actually, because for all you always have to respond with bravado – ‘Yeah fuck off – I’m more scared of your Mum you little poof’ or something equally erudite – there’s always the slender chance that one of the weaselly little fuckers is just crazy enough to mean it.

The biggest question I have with neds (pikeys, scallys, radges, whatever you local variation might be) is how they manage to find the stamina to go through life so CONSTANTLY FUCKING ANGRY. Honestly, where does that rage come from, how can they summon that level of anger, all of every day, about nothing at all? I suppose having lost at everything doesn’t help. Maybe the anger is why they live such short lives too – the rage must just burn you up.

Anyway, all that’s by the by really, isn’t it. What’s on this week then? Not much, but one absolute corker: Fence Club.

Wednesday 17th September 2008: James Yorkston & the Athletes, Malcolm Middleton, and Pictish Trail & Rozi Plain at The Caves.
In terms of lineups you’d struggle to beat this. James Yorkston’s new album is gorgeous, and given his tour is necessarily going to be a solo affair I really recommend you take this chance to see him now. The lush beauty of the sound is going to be perfect for The Caves, especially with full Athletic accompaniment. Malcolm Middleton’s literate, witty, downbeat indie takes little introduction, I would hope, and the dynamic duo of Pictish and Plain should be a treat. Tickets are getting close to selling out, too, so I’d buy one now if I were you. The official line is that there should be tickets left to sell on the door, but they aren’t certain. Book here to put your mind at rest.
James Yorkston – Queen of Spain
Malcolm Middleton – A Brighter Beat

Saturday 20th September 2008: Jonquil at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
One of Edinburgh’s own has recently agreed to become their manager, so they must be good. It’s a sort of experimental folk sound, broadly speaking, and is really bloody marvellous live. It’s a late one too, so don’t get so plastered you fail to appreciate the music. I do that all the fucking time, and it irritates the shit out of me.
Jonquil – Apparency

And, you know, I really think that’s it.

Blimey James Yorkston has hit his stride. Not to imply that he was struggling to do so before of course, but in terms of having the confidence to experiment a little, whilst not being so frantic to reinvent himself that he throws the baby out with the bathwater, he has created an album with real presence.

It’s familiar, but something quite fundamental in the rhythm, particularly the rhythm of the vocal delivery, seems to have changed. It spills more, flows like an insistent stream, not strident, but purposeful. It is in fact very much like beat poetry (and not the kind you’re thinking of) at times. What I mean by that is that Yorkston seems to be increasingly disinclined to write choruses. I mean, he still does, but I find myself identifying songs more by the rise and roll of the rhythm, rather than by the lines in the chorus.

It seems somehow symphonic, too. I somehow think of symphonic as different from orchestral – more lilting, less bombastic – but I know I am not using the words in any way literally in so doing. It’s a little grander a sound than the rather too minimal Year of the Leopard, and less traditionally assembled than the glorious Just Beyond the River and Moving Up Country. Between that and the subtly adventurous arrangements, the aforementioned impression that he is really hitting his stride starts to emerge.

As writers of hush-folk go (although Yorkston, like Rob St. John, prefers to be referred to as a writer of pop songs) I am not sure there is anyone better around today. There’s a wonderful gentleness to his music, even when the song itself is about heartbreak, which envelops and comforts you like warm evening darkness. I love this record, and even if you splash out and buy the box set, this is money well worth spending.

James Yorkston – When the Haar Rolls In
James Yorkston – Midnight Feast

Website | More mp3s | Buy from Domino

This little bit of video genius/madness was made by on of our occasional commenters, the splendid Milo, so I thought it just had to be included.  And I thought I was excited!

Unboxing of James Yorkston ‘When The Haar Rolls In’ Boxset from Milo McLaughlin on Vimeo.

Well chaps I am absolutely buggering knackered, but never fear, for the eminently lovely Mrs. Toad and myself are off on holiday tomorrow for two weeks. Thank fucking bollocks for that – the last time we had a proper break was this time last year for our wedding and even that involved a bit too much organising and signing things and so on to be entirely restful.

Will this year’s holiday be restful? Well who knows. My little brother is getting married and I have to give a speech, so by this time next week you could be talking to the man who ruined his little brother’s big day. I say this only because he lives out in Boston and is marrying n American girl. She is brilliant, so no worries there, but about a hundred and fifty of her friends and family members will be at this bloody thing, none of whom I have met before, and the chances of my giving an even vaguely coherent speech without mortally offending half of them seem slim.

Ultimately, I get the impression Americans take weddings terribly seriously, and as you know I don’t really take much of much seriously at all. Also, as my regular readers will know, I swear, rage, rail and slander. This is pretty much my entire sense of humour, apart from baiting people who take anything at all too seriously. What are my chances of giving a speech to ahundred and fifty American Christians without causing mortal offence? I would say Nil.

So fingers crossed, chaps. Wish me luck. If all goes well, Ben will still be speaking to me at this time next week, but I wouldn’t exactly put more than a fiver on it.

In terms of the blog, I have uploaded a song for each day I’m away and have written a few mini-posts in advance, timed to be posted once a day for the two weeks I’m off. I’ll pop in from time to time to say hi and play nicely with people in the comments section, and I have pre-recorded a new podcast to go up next weekend. So you won’t be entirely neglected, but I won’t be matching JC’s awe-inspiring dedication over at the Vinyl Villain and blogging away all through my holiday. Partly because I want to stay married and partly because, obsessive though I am, I am sorry to have to confess that I just don’t love you all that much. It’s my fucking holidays, cut me some slack.

Giant Sand – Wayfaring Stranger/Fly Me to the Moon
James Yorkston – Someplace Simple
Yo La Tengo – I Feel Like Going Home
The Postal Service – We Will Become Silhouettes
James – Runaground

Mrs Toad and myself went to Bestival on the Isle of Wight last year and, although we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, I must admit that this year I was after something a little smaller. There’s something rather uninspiring about bald fields covered in a sea of broken plastic cups and a two hour queue for warm beer. Once the truly abysmal Bestival lineup for 2007 was announced – Beastie Boys, Chemical Brothers, Primal Scream? Have I gone back in time by ten years or something? – I decided that was it, I was looking for something smaller and far more friendly. Sod the bands, I just want a nice weekend.

Well I’d exchanged a few emails with Simon from End of the Road Records about The Young Republic, who are superb and recently signed to the label. I knew the label had formed from the End of the Road Festival so I thought it might be a good one to take a chance on. There wasn’t much in the lineup that I recognised, but what the hell – a festival full of smaller, less well known bands would be quite fun. And besides, Howe Gelb was on there, so that did it for me and I bought a couple of tickets.

That was something in the region of a month ago. Since then that lineup has just got better and better, as Simon has dropped one gem after another into the mix. This morning they announced Midlake and Yo La Tengo. I can’t believe it! Suddenly instead of just looking forward to this, I am excited as little boy.

Full line-up thus far (I’ve highlighted the ones I think are interesting and provided a few samples – although I haven’t used the little player this time as the javascript would slow the whole page down too much with this many links, sorry):

Alessi (music)
Archie Bronson Outfit
Architecture In Helsinki - Heart it Races
The Bees
Besnard Lakes – Cedric’s War
Brakes
The Broken Family Band
C. W. Stoneking
Charlie Parr
The Congregation
Dan Sartain
Darren Hayman
David Thomas Broughton
David Vandervelde
Devastations
Euros Childs
Findlay Brown
Fionn Regan
Herman Dune
Howe Gelb – Pontiac Slipstream
Hush the Many
Hyacinth House
Indigo Moss
James Yorkston – Someplace Simple
Jeffrey Lewis
Jim White
Joan As Police Woman
Johnny Flynn – Brown Trout Blues
Josh T Pearson
King Creosote – Missionary
Micah P Hinson – I Still Remember
Midlake – Van Occupanther
Misty’s Big Adventure
Monkey Swallows the Universe
My Brightest Diamond
Paris Motel - Entrez Dans la Salpetriere
Pete and the Pirates
Port O’Brien
Reigns
Richard Swift
Seasick Steve
Slow Club
Sons of Noel and Adrian
Stephanie Dosen – Vinalhaven Harbour
Sunny Day Sets Fire
Super Furry Animals
Telegrams
The Twilight Sad – And She Would Darken the Memory
Viking Moses
Woodpigeon – Home
Yo La Tengo – Tom Courtenay
The Young Republic – Your Heart Belongs in Tennessee

Now all Simon has to do is pull off some miracle of scheduling that allows me to see absolutely all these bands, as well as leaving some space for me to check out some of the new ones. Good luck, mate!