Here we are at the penultimate podcast of the year, and the one immediately preceding Christmas.  I really don’t like 99% of Christmas music so there’s pretty close to none of it at all on here, although I have made a couple of exceptions as a lazy sort of nod to the season.  Let’s face it, if the druids can be arsed dancing about like idiots around Stonehenge and people can fall out over half-defrosted turkeys then I can probably make the effort to shove a couple of token musical nods onto a single podcast, can’t I.

I actually take a lot of this podcast from my recently-published albums of the year list, and from my as-yet-unpublished Festive Fifty, so it’s a bit of a yearly roundup as well.

And in fact, seeing as Christmas is a Sunday, I won’t actually be posting until Boxing Day now, so this will be the last post before Christmas so umm, in the off-chance I don’t bump into you on Facebook, Twitter or down the pub, I better wish you Happy Christmas now, hadn’t I.

Direct download: Toadcast #206 – The Scroogecast

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on Mixcloud

01. Tom Lehrer – A Christmas Carol (00.23)
02. The Black Tambourines – Bad Days (05.09)
03. The Low Anthem – Boeing 737 (10.42)
04. Timber Timbre – Woman (13.31)
05. Sons of Joy – Pig (20.25)
06. The Japanese War Effort – Our Land Could be Your Life (24.51)
07. Jonnie Common – Hand-Hand (31.37)
08. Earth Girl Helen Brown – Girls of My Dreams (35.39)
09. Weird Era – Garage Honeymoon (41.37)
10. The War on Drugs – Your Love is Calling My Name (47.46)
11. Sons of Joy – In the Bleak Midwinter (58.07)
12. Sons of Joy – Coventry Carol (60.00)

 Firstly, a big, big thank you to everyone who came out to see Withered Hand, Samantha Crain and Mike MacFarlane (who now goes by the name of Flash Jr.) last night.  It was bloody amazing.  I want to start a campaign to get more big bands to Henry’s to play a wee sweatbox gig with the crowd standing mere inches away from them.

Anyway, due to Thanksgiving dinner and parental visitation reasons, I didn’t get the chance to record the podcast this weekend, so I shall do it this afternoon, once I have posted this.

And God help our livers, there is a fuck of a lot going on this week in Edinburgh.  Mind you, it’s the same next week too, so I guess we’re going to have to just batten down the hatches and wait for January!  And I haven’t even done my end of year lists yet either.

Monday 28th November: Dems & Luxury Car at Sneaky Pete’s.

A Fresh Air-hosted return to Edinburgh for a Fresh Air alumnus, in the form of Dems’ Dan Moss.

Tuesday 29th November: Blank Canvas, the Dill Dolls, Kith & Kin and Anthony Stickings at Sneaky Pete’s.

I have to confess to knowing nothing about any of the bands on this bill bar Blank Canvas, who finished on the shortlist for this year’s Radar Prize. They play a very promising interpretation of the eighties indie sound, more as channeled via Bloc Party, and are well worth checking out.
By the Fire by Blank Canvas

Thursday 1st December: Loch Awe, Adam Stafford & Reverieme at Sneaky Pete’s.

You should all know how impressed I am with Adam Stafford’s solo stuff by now, but Loch Awe are sounding very promising at the moment too.  A new song of theirs sort of mooched its way onto the internet recently, and it’s absolutely fucking lovely.  And done with the kind of restraint and subtlety I tend (perhaps a little unfairly) not to associate with relatively young bands.

Loch Awe – I Will Drift into 10,000 Streams

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Thursday 1st December: Born to Be Wide Recording Studio Seminar at the Electric Circus.

After another excellent series of seminars, this is I believe the last one of the year for the Born to Be Wide team.  This time around they’ll be concentrating on making the best use of studio time, from preparation before you go in there, to how to best make use of your time once you’re up and running.

Friday 2nd December: Gerry Loves Records Christmas Party at the Banshee Labyrinth.

As far as I am aware, tickets for this are verrrrry nearly sold out, so go here now if you still haven’t got one.  The lineup is a great big multi-headed fun beast, with Lady North, Paws, Trapped in Kansas, Field Mouse, The Japanese War Effort & that old stand-by ‘special guests’ on the bill.  The gig also serves as a launch night for a Japanese War Effort/Field Mouse split tape, which I can tell you has me all sorts of excited.  The Japanese War Effort actually forced me to buy my first tape player in years by putting Snowbird on cassette.  I had a whole stereo system, and then this one big shiny silver machine just to play that one album.  And it was worth it!

The Japanese War Effort – Sophie Says

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Friday 2nd December: Meursault, Sparrow & the Workshop & Collar Up at Cabaret Voltaire.

This will be a fine, loud end of year blowout, as well as the chance to see new band Collar Up play, which will be rather intriguing.  Meursault are, I believe, going into hibernation in the new year, as we get ready for the release of their third album which will be out in (roughly) May 2012.

Sparrow & the Workshop – Snakes in the Grass

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday 3rd December: Beard of Truth Christmas Party with The Spook School & Calypso Brown at the Wee Red Bar.

Pop fun to end the week, with excellent Edinburgh newcomers The Spook School joined on the bill by Calypso Brown, who is another artist I saw for the first time at this year’s Antihoot.  Pet have had to pull out, so the Beardmeister will be working frantically this week to find someone to step in and fill their shoes.

The Spook School – Hallam

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 Winecast because after soberly recording these on a Saturday afternoon for the last couple of years, I’m recording this after a bottle of wine on a Sunday evening for a change.  So don’t expect coherence, but it honestly isn’t all that bad.

Mrs. Toad and I were down looking at the Port O’ Leith  Motor Boat Club today, wondering if we might buy the place, move in and try and turn it into the kind of recording space and performance space we already try and use our house as.  It’s a great building, but I am not entirely certain how popular a place in Newhaven might prove to be to Edinburgh people reluctant to go more than a block or two for their musicfunz.

Anyhewww, here we have another ten songs of unbelievable brilliance, for which you will no doubt be enormously grateful and umm *cough cough* well, you’re more than welcome.

Direct download: Toadcast #192 – The Winecast

01. Prize Pets – It Takes Time (00.09)
02. Ian Humberstone – House on the Hill (07.34)
03. Waiters – Tomorrowland (15.05)
04. Former Bullies – Golden Chains (20.21.)
05. Talvihorros – Beta (26.39)
06. Palms – Wolf (37.23)
07. Burning Yellows – Chopsticks (42.32)
08. Debutant – Yeah! Currahee! (51.00)
09. The Japanese War Effort – Dreaming of a New Labour (54.49)
10. King Creosote & John Hopkins – Bats in the Attic (Unravelled) (62.52)

You know, the only things in my Facebook events thingy for this week are my own gig, a friend’s birthday piss-up and some club night or other.  Three items.  In the days before Facebook events became an invite to bury our inboxes in spam it used to be fucking useful, but now… sheesh!

Still, even having investigated a little further, this really does seem to be it.  Am I right?  Is this it?  Are we going to have to do something intellectually valid with our week instead, like read a book or go to the Cameo and see some Romanian film with Cantonese subtitles or something like that?  I’m not sure I can handle that type of highbrow shit anymore.

Friday 16th September 2011: Indie Funday at Henry’s Cellar Bar with Night Noise Team, The Spook School, Thank You So Nice, Little Love, Alex Foottit and Coral Brierley.

Indie Funday looks to be extremely aptly named.  I assume with so many bands on the bill that this will be going on late, and from the looks of the bill the term ‘indie’ applies as much to the aesthetic usage – as in a blanket term for guitar pop – as it does to the ethos of the bands. Should be a highly enjoyable night.

Spook School – Hallam

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday 17th September 2011: The Japanese War Effort, Animal Magic Tricks & Yusuf Azak at the Wee Red Bar.

This will be our first post-Festival Ides of Toad night.  Most of the rest of them are booked up already, so we’ll have a full schedule between now and Christmas.  All three of these artists have the ability to be as obscure as they do melodic, and I think that ambiguity is a large part of what attracts me to them.

The Japanese War Effort – Surrender to Summer

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

So, after the chaos of the Festival, we are back to normal service here in Ides of Toad HQ (which looks suspiciously similar to Song, by Toad HQ and bears a more than passing resemblance to Song, by Toad Records HQ).

Actually, I thought I managed to get myself horribly waylaid by the Festival, but it turns out I have most of the Autumn’s lineups already filled and ready to go, with only a few gaps here and there.  This level of organisation rather shocks me, I have to confess, but I am sure I will find some way to have a last-minute panic in the end.

Anyhow, apart from next week’s Japanese War Effort, Animal Magic Tricks and Yusuf Azak gig, on Saturday 17th at the Wee Red Bar, we have the following:

Saturday 1st October, just confirmed: John Knox Sex Club, Plank! and Easter at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
This is going to be a cracker.  JKSC have a new album to promote, which sounds amazing, and Plank! and Easter are coming up from Manchester.  It’s going to be one of those evenings where none of the bands have that much in common exactly, but I still think the lineup will work really well.

Saturday 22nd October: Rob St. John album launch, with Meursault and eagleowl.
The venue is TBC on this one, but we are looking for somewhere a bit interesting, rather than your usual gig club bar venue thingie.  And I would imagine that readers of this site need little introduction to eagleowl or Meursault, but as Rob plays in both those bands as well, I do find myself wondering if he’s given any thought to just how much work he’s going to have to do on the night.

Saturday 5th November: Dad Rocks! and Shoes and Socks Off, with one more TBC, at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
This will be an evening of smart acoustic pop, and we have one more band still to add to the bill. I may try and add a full band to the headline slot though, just to make sure everyone stays on their toes.

Saturday 19th November: at the Wee Red Bar, and it’s my fucking birthday as well!
The whole lineup for the 19th is TBC, because I am trying to get Manchester’s Weird Era and Glasgow’s Battery Face onto the same bill, but we are just in the process of juggling dates, so none of this is confirmed yet. I am confident it will work out though, because everyone involved is keen to make it happen.

Sunday 27th November: Withered Hand, Samantha Crain and Michael McFarlane at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
I think Withered Hand will be playing solo acoustic, although I’m not sure, and I am absolutely thrilled to get Samantha Crain here for a gig, some three years after regular commenter and sometime contributor Campfires and Battlefields introduced me to her music. And finally, Michael McFarlane is someone I knew absolutely nothing about, but he’s a local lad who played Lach’s Antihoot this Summer and I thought he was bloody excellent, so I asked him to open.

Saturday 10th December: Song, by Toad Records Christmas Party.
This entire thing is TBC, but I think this is the best date for it.  It should at least give us time to clean up the house in time for the New Year’s House Gig, in any case.

So, umm… there you go.  I have to confess I never thought ‘putting on the odd gig’ would lead to this, but er, they should be really, really good shows.  And it would be nice if you all came to them too, otherwise I am going to be in all sorts of money trouble!

Godcast?  The fucking Godcast?  No, don’t worry, there are no theological debates, nor even any snide remarks about the ludicrous nature of religion (except that one).

This is called the Godcast because Anthony from God Don’t Like It (promotions, press, parties, DJing, drunken tomfoolery and almost everything else) happens to be visiting this weekend to hang out, have a few beers, go and see stuff at the Edinburgh Festival and enjoy the first week of the football season.

I am not entirely sure what regular listeners to this podcast will make of Anthony’s choices but erm… well fuck off, it can’t be all ‘moaning indie pish’* all the goddam time, can it.

*Copyright Mrs. Toad 2007

Direct download: Toadcast #187 – The Godcast

01. The Shivers – Irrational Love (00.25)
02. Dels – Capsize (06:47)
03. Sneakpeek – Walk All Over Me (15.02)
04. Baanex – Weird Dance 2 (17.54)
05. Solo Banton – No (27.01)
06. The Japanese War Effort – I Can’t Wear Jackets Inside (I’m Afraid) (36.34)
07. The Pineapple Chunks – Dog Shit (39.15)
08. A.A. Bondy – The Heart is Willing (46.57)
09. Funghi Girls – Some Easy Magic (51.03)
10. Seams – Motive Order (58.05)
11. The Offset Spectacles – Elements (67.54)

 So umm… much happening in Edinburgh at the moment?  There seem to be an awful lot of people about, so you’d have to assume something was going on.

It was actually the T on the Fringe (what the Edge Festival used to be called) lineup which gave me a significant nudge into the world of DIY music, when I first moved up here, just before the Festival in 2005.  I really wanted to go and see Yo La Tengo at the Liquid Room, Mrs. Toad wasn’t going to come with me, I didn’t know anyone else who might be interested.

I decided I most certainly wasn’t going to not go and see a band I really wanted to see, just because of not having anyone to go with, and thus was born my habit of solo gig-going.  And when you go to a lot of gigs by yourself, you start to recognise people, and so you slowly get drawn more and more into the ‘underground scene’ or whatever you want to call and Boom – six years later you’ve started a record label, quit your job and made an office in your spare room.

The Edge Festival is supposed to be the music side of the Edinburgh Festival and it’s generally pretty good, but this year is absolutely appalling – almost entirely devoid of interest and with a lineup comprising little more than one or two gigs I want to see over the course of the entire month.  I suppose sometimes things just don’t click for whatever reason, but this year’s Edge Festival has an absolutely awful lineup. Good thing we have Retreat! and my four gigs at the Electric Circus, or things really would be rotten.

Anyhow, if it’s music you want, rather than the Festival, there are two things this week which look interesting:

Friday 12th August 2011: The Occasional Flickers and The Japanese War Effort at the Forest Cafe.

The Occasional Flickers make swoonsome, gentle indie-pop.  The Japanese War Effort, whilst he too makes pop music, tends to bugger about with it a bit more, using loops, effects and electronics to bend his creations into shape.

The Japanese War Effort – Pool Attendant

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sunday 14th August 2011: Admiral Fallow & Kid Canaveral at the Liquid Room.

Pop.  The first with added folk and the second with added indie.  Easy.

Kid Canveral – Smash Hits

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

And that is about that, although I will remind you (*warning – spam approaching*) that Lach’s one-man show, The Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos is on every night at 8:45 at Cabaret Voltaire as part of the Free Fringe, and the Antihoot is on every night apart from Tuesday at the Gilded Balloon (The Teviot Underground, for those of you who live here).  To play the Antihoot, and for the chance to be on the Best of the Antihoot album we’ll be releasing after the Festival just get in touch with Lach on info@antifolk.net

Right, this is the last of this week’s spam, I absolutely promise.  I am caught up now anyway, so there’ll no need to keep bombarding you with stuff after this.

Anyhow, what you see above is the most eye-meltingly gorgeous thing we’ve released to date: a clear, colour-streaked 10″ vinyl record of Surrender to Summer by The Japanese War Effort.  It even comes with a packet of the custom made rock sweets you see photographed there on the cover, as well as a free download of the EP itself and a fully remixed version, with reworkings by the likes of Jonnie Common, Fox Gut Daata, Tennis Shoes, Fieldhead and FOUND.

It’s only eight quid plus shipping, and an absolute fucking bargain at that price.  If you don’t like this then you probably just don’t like life very much, and I pity you. Buy it here.

Summer Sun Skateboard by Song, by Toad

Sweeping the Nation turns six round about, well, now actually.  For a music blog to last that long is highly unusual; most get to about the two year mark and then posting becomes less and less frequent, and eventually the only updates are rather uncomfortable ‘sorry I haven’t posted in ages’ missives spaced an increasing number of months apart until… silence.

For Simon to keep StN going for six years might just be testament to his mentalism, but I prefer to recognise someone with a familiarly psychotic need to constantly tell people what they should be listening to, and can only admire his endurance.

I don’t know what earns respect for music blogs.  Do you end just respecting the ones whose taste you agree with the most, the ones who are firstest and fastest to absolutely everything (twats), the ones who write interesting, in-depth features, or simply the ones who stick it out the longest?  I really have no idea, but I do know that Sweeping the Nation has always had an aura of respect about it, both from bands and other bloggers, and I would like to congratulate Simon on the work he’s done over the last six years.

To mark the event StN are releasing a charity compilation to benefit Macmillan’s Cancer Support.  It can be downloaded from Bandcamp here, for a minimum of £3 and a maximum of whatever you chose to give, and Simon has written a full run-down of the tracks he chose here. There are a couple of Song, by Toad Records band in there as well – it’s nice to be able to support someone who has given our label so much encouragement over the last few years – as well as donations from the excellent Alcopop and Popty Ping labels.  Please give generously.

No, no, don’t worry this isn’t some sort of chillout special (although we did actually do one of those once upon a time).  The only reason this is called the Chillcast is because on what was a beautifully sunny day for the rest of Scotland, Edinburgh performed its age old trick of drawing a freezing sea mist off the North Sea – the haar, as it’s called – and turning a lovely Spring day into a damp, chilly sulk.  Bastard.

I realised a while back that I don’t actually cover all that much Scottish music, despite the location of this blog being quite a prominent feature of the thing. This week, though, we have something like five Scottish (or Scottish-based) bands on this, and all of them relatively under the radar ones as well.

Anyhow, I am off to play nicely with Mrs. Toad’s colleagues for the rest of the day, in some sort of horrific bonding exercise.  Ah well, it pays the bills I suppose, and it’s not like she doesn’t have to spend an awful lot of time hanging out with my ‘colleagues’.

Direct download: Toadcast #171 – The Chillcast

01. The Sandwitches – Summer of Love (00.11)
02. The Japanese War Effort – Pool Attendant (7.41)
03. King Post Kitsch – Don’t You Touch My Fucking Honeytone (10.42)
04. PAWS – Summer Wipeout (16.22)
05. Marcy Playground – Wave Motion Gun (25.05)
06. The Low Anthem – Boeing 737 (33.40)
07. Horsecollar – Christopher (39.12)
08. Morris Major – In Amongst My Ideas (47.11)
09. Plastic Animals – It Fell Apart (Demo) (50.34)
10. Earth Girl Helen Brown – Girls of My Dreams (59.06)