For this podcast I am joined by Ian, who is now a member of the Song, by Toad Records team, to go through a bit of a run-down of what’s going to be happening on the label this year.

We’ve got a couple of our more recent releases, like Rob St. John and Lil Daggers, as well as some of our confirmed and ready new albums for next year, by the likes of The Leg, Jesus H. Foxx and Yusuf Azak.

I’ve also got a couple of tracks from bands we’ll be releasing on a split 12″ in the Spring.  We’ll be recording that stuff in our house next week, so the songs we chose to represent those bands are for obvious reasons not the final ones we’ll be releasing, just tracks by the bands so you can get a bit of a flavour of what we’re up to.

With Ian on board and based on the good press we managed last year I am hoping we can really kick on with the label this year and make a decent impression.  Obviously the third Meursault album will  help, what with them being our most established band, but we have a good spread of stuff, from bands like Dolfinz with only a few demos to their name, to the likes of Yusuf Azak and The Leg who people know already and then the Foxx album, which has been ‘much anticipated’ for a while now.

So all in all it should be an exciting year, I reckon.  Enjoy!

Direct download: Toadcast #208 – Song, by Toad Records 2012

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01. Mongrels – I’m Gonna Murder Justin Bieber (00.21)
02. King Post Kitsch – The Make the Same Faces Whether Fuck or Fight (02.46)
03. Meursault – Flittin’ (locationmusic.tv Piano Version) (08.49)
04. Rob St. John – The Acid Test (17.59)
05. Lil Daggers – Dead Golden Girls (22.05)
06. Paws – Bloodline (Toad Session) (31.52)
07. Jesus H. Foxx – This is Not a Rental Car (40.31)
08. The Leg – Twitching Stick (43.00)
09. Sex Hands – Jinglebitch (51.56)
10. Dolfinz – Blowhole (55.36)
11. Yusuf Azak – Lay Me Down (63.12)

Sparkcast? Spark?  YES, any kind of fucking spark whatsoever will do the trick.

I remember getting in trouble at my former day job a couple of years ago for writing something rather negative about that awful sensation of being back at your desk after the excesses and indolence of Christmas.  I am not feeling negative about it now, which is good given I am self-employed, but I am certainly struggling to spark my brain back into something resembling life at the moment.

So yes, I have two new releases to get moving, by Jesus H. Foxx and The Leg, and I have five Toad Sessions to get edited and published, and a split 12″ to record (starting in about a week), so whether or not it proves to be a challenge, the old grey matter has to be brought back to life somehow, be it kicking and screaming or otherwise.

Direct download: Toadcast #207 – The Sparkcast

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01. Jesus H. Foxx – So the Wind Won’t Blow it All Away (00.13)
02. The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop (07.47)
03. Post War Glamour Girls – Suburban Barbarian (14.40)
04. Now Wakes the Sea – Another Pair of Hands (18.32)
05. Orienteers – Do You Hear What I Hear? (23.23)
06. Damon Moon & the Whispering Drifters – Seasonal Suite No. 62 (32.40)
07. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Is This Love? (41.27)
08. The Specials – Gangsters (44.30)
09. Simone Felice – New York Times (48.59)
10. Spectral Park – The Thief’s Journal (57.04)

 Morning.  Fucking brilliantly awesome get tae fuck good fucking morning to you all.  Grrrmpf.  You know those days which start out fucking shite from the very get go and before you answer a single email or deal with a single individual you’re already within a whisker of just telling everyone to piss off because you just can’t be fucking arsed with them?  Yep, one of those I’m afraid.  Hopefully El and Brian will cheer me up on Fresh Air this afternoon.

This is the last show on Fresh Air this entire term, I think, so we’ll be playing a combination of Christmas tat and end-of-year favourites, I believe.  And after that I shall be scuttling off for a much-deserved pint.

On air from 3:30pm UK time – listen live here

In the meantime, after the hugely successful song of the year vote, we are at that time of year, where I ask you to tell us all which albums you have loved the most this year.  I’ll add them up as we go along and on Monday I will announce the winner.

This is of course the perfect opportunity to de-lurk and say hello.  It’s always nice to hear from people I had no idea were reading, and of course our readership is orders of magnitude larger than our commentership* so I am forever wondering who these shadowy thousands are who read the site regularly but hang about in the shadows saying nothing.  Make today the day!

So, simply, just list your five favourite albums, in no particular order, preferably in the format band – album so I can tally them easier, and we’ll see who everyone’s been enjoying the most in 2011.  And the tracklisting for the radio show will appear live below as we go along, once the show starts at half three.

1. Ian Humberstone – The House on the Hill
2. Seth Faergolzia – Weird Old Toad
3. The Leg – Witch on the Speakers
4. Jesus H. Foxx – So Much Water
5. Louis Barabbas & the Bedlam Six – Away in a Manger
6. Meursault – Christmas in Kirkcaldy
7. Warpaint – Billie Holiday
8. Tom Lehrer – A Christmas Carol
9. Yusuf Azak – Swim
10. Plastic Animals – Post-Rapture Blues
11. Trapped Mice – Just Like Christmas (Low cover)
12. Waiters – Tomorrowland
13. Battles – Ice Cream
14. Easter – Damp Patch
15. Hookworms – Teen Dreams
16. Dead Rabbits – All You Need
17. Sons of Joy – Go Tell it on the Mountain

*My sincere apologies to the English language.

Johnny Lynch very kindly suggested that I put together the bill for an all day hangover-buster/refueller the day after the Fence Collective’s Hott Loggz! Festival (see, Hott Toadzz – get it? get it?).

So, I have compiled a collection of the very finest Song, by Toad Records bands, as well as a couple of Toad Pals, and Johnny has arranged for us to use the Hew Scott hall from 2pm to 10pm, to allow those who have to be at work on the Monday to get back to their various homes.

There will be a bar in the room, and bangers and mash available upstairs at the AIA Hall, and a better way to spend a Sunday wasting time and talking pish I cannot imagine.

Tickets will be a fiver, and will be available on the door.

 Yoo hoo internets, I’m ba-aack!  With a friend visiting, and in no mood to waste his holiday watching me fanny about on the computer, I ended up taking an unplanned day off yesterday.  We even did one of those tourist things which it is so easy to ignore when you actually live in a city: we climbed Arthur’s Seat.  And it was bloody amazing!

So what, after a weekend of endurance drinking, does this week hold in store? Well, the general idea was ‘as much sleep as I can manage’, but it looks like this might turn out to be something of a challenge, as we have a pretty busy gigging week ahead of us here in Edinburgh, from the looks of it.

Wednesday 17th August 2011: The Pineapple Chunks‘ album launch at the Electric Circus, with Dolfinz, and Mutch & Thomas.

This is the first of our four Toad at the Circus gigs, which we’re putting on in association with the Electric Circus over the next couple of weeks.  It also happens to be the launch of the Pineapple Chunks’ excellent new album A Dog Walked In (which can be previewed and purchased on their Bandcamp page).  Joining them on the bill will be lo-fi slacker indie outfit Dolfinz from Stonehaven, and a new project by Dan Mutch and Alun Thomas from The Leg.  It will be wonky and messy, this, but I think it’ll be fucking brilliant as well.

Dolfinz – Hot Pants

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Wednesday 18th August 2011: The Cave Singers at Cabaret Voltaire.

The second Cave Singers album underwhelmed me slightly, but their first was brilliant and they’re a cracking live band.  Their stomping Gothic Americana comes out really powerfully in a live setting, and I’d be intrigued to hear how well the ballads, which were the strongest songs on their second record in my opinion, come across live.

The Cave Singers – Beach House

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Thursday 18th & Friday 19th August: Kristin Hersh at Cabaret Voltaire.

Do I really need to explain much about the legendary Kristin Hersh?  If the answer is yes, then go and look up the Throwing Muses, and have a look around her own website.  As well as musically, I have a lot of respect for Kristin Hersh for other reasons as well.  When the digital panic reached its most shrill she was one of the first to start genuinely looking for new solutions, instead of simply trying to pretend that technological progress should be forbidden from happening.

Friday 19th August 2011: Randolph’s Leap, Amber Wilson, and Matthew Healy at the Electric Circus.

This is our second Toad at the Circus night, and instead of ramshackle and potentially (hopefully) rather awkward guitars, this lineup  is more of the folk-pop variety comprised of the quirky sentimentality of Randolph’s Leap, Amber Wilson’s first full band show in Edinburgh (I think) and a solo outing by Matthew Healy from Loch Awe.

Randolph’s Leap – Going Home

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Friday 19th August 2011: Chad VanGaalen, Jesus H. Foxx, and Tom Gilbert at Sneaky Pete’s.

More evidence, to follow up the point made by Bart in the comment on last week’s listings, that Sneaky Pete’s have a consistently excellent lineup throughout August.  Nice to see the Foxx back out and about as well.

Chad VanGaalen – City of Electric Light

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Saturday 20th August 2011: Conquering Animal Sound, and Hiva Oa at Sneaky Pete’s.

I’ll be honest, Hiva Oa and Conquering Animal Sound don’t sound like the most obvious combination on which to base a lineup, but CAS’s debut album is one of the most critically successful* to come out of Scotland in a good while, and if you haven’t seen their looping, emotive live set yet, then you should.

*I say ‘critically’ because I have no idea what the actual sales figures are like of course.

Most live scenes tend to peter out a little from late June/early July onwards as the Festival season starts to cannibalise what remains of the audience after the students have gone home, and people tend to take what little chance they get to be outside in the sun, if it ever appears, rather than in a sweaty basement listening to pale young men complaining about their feelings.

The Edinburgh live scene, on the other hand, tends not to be as dependent on students, not to have to fear too much from oft promised but never delivered good weather, but nevertheless to peter out for a different reason: the lumbering behemoth that is the Edinburgh Festival.

Now I don’t hate the Festival as much as a lot of locals, but I am nevertheless a little ambivalent.  Yes it’s awesome, yes it brings all sorts of cool stuff to the city for a month, but there are obviously some drawbacks.

Firstly, the practical.  If you are ever trying to get anything done in August, it’s a fucking nightmare.  People and shit everywhere, and everyone making the smug plea of those with nothing pressing to get done: ‘Just chill out man, it’s the festival dude, we’re on vaykayshun, relaaaax!’  No. It is Tuesday, and I have shit to do.  Get the fuck out of my way before I make you massively grateful for the Communist oppression of a functioning National Health Service.

Secondly, local music really does just have to stop.  There is no point a Scottish label or band releasing anything in August, as the local press simply haven’t a sliver of column space to devote to it.  Also, gigs tend to stop as well, because the Edge Festival won’t let any local bands they book play at all, anywhere else in August, venues are near-impossible to come by, local fans often turn their eyes and wallets to the more exotic imports and advertising against the maelstrom of confetti generated by the Festival is basically impossible.

Did I mention that I’m putting on four gigs at the Electric Circus in August?  What a dick.

Anyhow, Acoustic Edinburgh and The Retreat Festival have been brilliant over the last few years, and Electric Circus are following their lead this year: booking lots of local stuff and offering amazingly good deals on drinks too, so we can all afford to actually go.

This week, however, due to what I assume is pre-Festival wind-down, there is really not that much, except for the ever-reliable awesomeness of The Ides of Toad.  Yes, really, for once I am not joking.

Tuesday 12th July 2011: Out of the Bedroom at the Montague Bar.

Of the (admittedly relatively few) open mics I’ve attended in Edinburgh, Out of the Bedroom has been my favourite, and this week Lach will be playing.  Lach is the man who invented Antifolk and whose Antihoot open stage in New York launched the careers of the like of Beck, Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson.  He is moving to Edinburgh and releasing an album with us in a week or so (which should absolutely delight some people).

Lach – Stunned

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Thursday 14th July 2011: Papi Falso at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This isn’t a gig, and I’m not sure I could even call it a club night really, more a late night drinking opportunity where some distinctly odd and distinctly excellent people will play distinctly odd and distinctly excellent music.  I wanted a night like this all through my twenties and have had to wait until I am thirty fucking five to actually find it.

Friday 15th July 2011: The Deadly Winters, Plastic Animals & The Oates Field at The Electric Circus.

Since Tallah and JP took over the booking at the Electric Circus they have really started to book some good stuff, including Live Lounge, which seems to be a lineup of good live music every Friday.  I don’t know the Deadly Winters, I have to confess, but the other two bands are very good indeed.

The Oates Field – Nae Luck (Jonnie Common’s Deskjob version)

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Saturday 16th July 2011: The Ides of Toad present Jesus H. Foxx, The Second Hand Marching Band and Pet at The Wee Red Bar.

Jesus H. Foxx have finished their album!  Yes, finished their fucking album, I kid you not!  This means that they will be out and about playing an awful lot more from now on, and that singles will be starting to appear in the Autumn.  Get in!  It sounds fucking great, too.  Add to this the beast that is The Second Hand Marching Band, and brand new Edinburgh popsters Pet and we have a great wee lineup for you.  Better get down early though, because there’s so many musicians in these bloody bands that they could end up pretty much filling the venue by themselves!

The Second Hand Marching Band – Paper Year (Demo)

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Another week, another bank holiday in which we self-employed folks don’t get to indulge.  Working for yourself is great, but watching everyone else get days off when all you can do is stare at the steady trickle into your inbox and the pile of promotional copies of releases waiting to be posted, can be a little demoralising.  And it’s sunny, too.  Fuckers.

Anyhow, The Brainlove Festival was bloody good fun, only slightly ruined by an awful football match.  My personal highlight was an absolutely awesome set by Mat Riviere.  He was playing with a cellist whose name I unfortunately don’t remember, but the stuff they played was absolutely brilliant – building from beautiful melodies to aggressively experimental cacophonies.

The Brixton Windmill also ended up being good to its description: a highly unpromising building which actually turned out to be a cracking wee venue.  I want one here please.

Tuesday 31st May 2011: The Travelling Band, Jesus H. Foxx and The Last Battle at the Electric Circus.

I harassed the Travelling Band at SXSW this year because one of them happened to be wearing a ‘Homegame 2006*’ t-shirt.  Anyone who’s been asked to play Homegame (and is loved by Cloud Sounds) is good enough for me, plus this gig sees the long-awaited return from mothballs of Jesus H. Foxx, complete with a near-finished new album and a somewhat tweaked lineup.

The Travelling Band – Fairweather Friends

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Wednesday 1st June 2011: eagleowl, The Scottish Enlightenment & Silver Fox play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

I had to add this later, because I am a total idiot and forgot it the first time.  God knows why because this looks like pretty much the highlight of my week as far as music is concerned.

Friday 3rd June 2011: The Dead Man’s Waltz, The Stormy Seas & James Metcalfe at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This should be a rattling good night.  I don’t know anything about the Dead Man’s Waltz, but a quick listen to their stuff sounds very promising – all jaunty banjo and acoustic, foot-tapping Americana.  James Metcalfe from the Pineapple Chunks will be playing solo as well.

The Dead Man’s Waltz – Cry On Me

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Saturday 4th June 2011: Avital Raz & Alex Cornish Song, by Toad House Gig.

Alex let me know last week that he is bringing a string bloody quartet to this gig, which makes it just about the coolest thing we’ve done in the house for a long time. Tickets are available here, and I would be nice if you could buy them in advance

Saturday 4th June 2011: Detour present FOUND at the Electric Circus.

Detour’s Wee Jaunt stumbles about Edinburgh all day, finishing up at the Electric Circus where FOUND will be closing the night with their usual exuberance.  I assume one of the tracks played will be new single Anti-climb Paint, the subject of an absolutely ludicrously brilliant-sounding edible, playable chocolate 7″ single.  Video below.

Sunday 5th June 2011: Julian Lynch, Ducktails & Big Troubles at Sneaky Pete’s.

This gig is being put on by the reprobates behind Gerry Loves Records, and that is good enough for me. It’s less electronic than a couple of their recent releases, nudging more into Kurt Vile territory, but this is fine territory to be in if you ask me.

Julian Lynch – Stomper

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*2005?  2006?  Something like that.

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)

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.