Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr
Audio: zip download – right click, save as

I am rather embarrassed to confess that we recorded this session absolutely bloody ages ago.  First the Festival, then the mixes, then intervening sessions, and finally just the sheer amount of time these take to edit managed to delay things.  But now, finally, at long, long last here it is: the Kid Canaveral Toad Session.

This was another relatively messy, drunken one I’m afraid.  We were nice though – we made them dinner and supplied them with a beverage or several, and it happened to be a nice day too, so we were even able to sit out in the garden for a bit.

The team this time around consisted of Neil from Meursault, who recorded the session (and I hope I’ve not offended him with my mixes!), Fiona and Dylan who took the photos, and Dylan also did a lot of the video work as well.  And cooked. Whereas I just sat around, drank beer and swore at people mostly.

Direct download: Toadcast #214 – Kid Canaveral Toad Session

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on Mixcloud

Kid Canaveral – And Another Thing! (Toad Session)

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.

Kid Canaveral – Homerun and a Vow (Toad Session)

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.

Kid Canaveral – You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night (Toad Session)

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.

Kid Canaveral – Her Hair Hangs Down (Toad Session)

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.

01. Kid Canaveral – And Another Thing! (Toad Session) (06.44)
02. The Shivers – Irrational Love (14.45)
03. Sleeper – What Do I Do Now? (18.33)
04. Kid Canaveral – Homerun and a Vow (Toad Session) (31.46)
05. Washington Irving – SiSi (38.47)
06. Popup – A Year in a Comprehensive (43.16)
07. Kid Canaveral – You Only Went Out to Get Drunk Last Night (Toad Session) (52.57)
08. Built to Spill – Carry the Zero (59.42)
09. Hall & Oates – Maneater (65.13)
10. Kid Canaveral – Her Hair Hangs Down (Toad Session) (78.02)

Well if there’s any shit going down in Edinburgh this week I am not going to be there to enjoy it.  Not out of shame at having just used the term ‘shit going down’ as if I was a teenager in the nineties, but because my gigfuns will be happening in London and Glasgow this week.

Tomorrow I am in London to see Rob St. John and Neil from Meursault play at the Vortex, and then on Thursday I’ll be in Glasgow for the Fence Records Christmas party.  And funnily enough, with Detour, Frightened Rabbit and Jill O’Sullivan coming through to Edinburgh on the same night as the latter, it seems the two cities will be swapping musical populations for a week.

Then on Sunday we have a gig by three of the most promising lo-fi garage rock bands I’ve come across this year – Dolfinz, Joanna Gruesome and The Black Tambourines.  This will be a bit messy, but also really fucking loud and (mostly) tuneful!

Anyhow, I have a pile of things to tell you about this week, including something rather good on tonight, assuming you can get down to Leith in time…

[Edit:  balls, just going through my emails and realised I missed this: Plastic Animals, Trapped Mice and Supermarionation at the Wee Red Bar on Thursday 15th Dec. - sorry!]

Monday 12th Dec: Taperecorder, Hailey Beavis & Dusty Cut at the Shebeen Bar.

The Shebeen is in what used to be the Old Dock bar down near Commercial Quay in Leith, and this is the first of a series of nights of free music, which promises good things.  Leith has needed something like this since the Leith Tape Club went quiet at the start of the year.  Taperecorder also sound really interesting too, like either an indie, an experimental or a techno band, depending on what moment of what song you happen to catch.

Taperecorder – Gravel Mountain

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 16th Dec: Papi Falso at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Papi Falso is the perfect club for people who aren’t that into clubs.  The music is fucking awesome, and you can either go nuts on the dancefloor or lean at the bar and have a pint.  Guess which one I tend to favour?

Saturday 17th Dec: Kid Canaveral‘s Christmas Baubles at Summerhall.

This is another all-day Christmas shindig, with performances from the Canaverals themselves, eagleowl, Slow Club, Josie Long, Sweet Baboo and a pile of others, and is being held in pretty much Edinburgh’s most charismatic new venue: Summerhall. I’ll be there. You’ll spot me easily because I’ll be the really drunk one.

Kid Canaveral – And Another Thing!!

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 Dec: Fuzzy Star, The Oates Field & The Occasional Flickers at Sneaky Pete’s.

With Kid Canaveral already sold out, this is a fine alternative for those too slow to get tickets.  Fuzzy Star were excellent at the Ides of Toad earlier in the year, although I suspect this is likely to be a full band set, fleshing out the awkward acoustic introspection with a somewhat fuller sound.  The Oates Field make a cracking racket, and the Occasional Flickers do swoonsome indie-pop as well as anyone in Edinburgh.

The Oates Field – Nae Luck

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 18th Dec: Doflinz, Joanna Gruesome & The Black Tambourines play The Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

I am really looking forward to this one.  All three bands play rough and ready, lo-fi garage stuff, but still keep enough tunes in there that you aren’t just battered with a racket.  This should be messy and loud though, and might well be my final gig of the year.

Dolfinz – Coral Reefer

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.

Joanna Gruesome – Madison

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.

The Black Tambourines – Bad Days

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 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

 Well after an extremely successful Ides of Toad on Saturday (a massive thanks to the excellent bands, and to the fucking loads of people who came along) I think this week I shall be putting my feet up and letting other people do the work for a bit.

And what a fuck of a lot of work they’ve been doing, too, because this week is a bit mental in terms of excellent gigs at which to drink yourself into an early grave. So much for the pre-Festival wind-down I discussed last week.

As well as having their album launch this week, Kid Canaveral are coming round to our house to record a Toad Session and get some beers down them, so umm… well, don’t expect me to be much use to anyone on Thursday, s’all I’m saying.

And from a gig-going perspective, well, Friday looks like a bit of a challenge, eh.

Thursday 21st July 2011: Sara Lowes & the Easy Tigers at the Electric Circus.

Sara Lowes is a sometime member of the Earlies and has played on some of my favourite albums of all time, by the likes of King Creosote and Micah P. Hinson.  In her solo guise she makes extremely pretty pop songs, and her new album is absolutely lush.

Sara Lowes – Night Times

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.

Bronto Skylift, PAWS & A Fight You Can’t Win at Sneaky Pete’s.

If, on the other hand, you want to end Thursday with bleeding ears then I recommend this one.  Bronto Skylift can head a bit too far in the direction of freeform noise for me, I have to confess, and I know next to nothing about the openers, but any chance to see PAWS should be taken, because they’re fucking great.

PAWS – Ariel

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 22nd July 2011: Live Lounge at the Electric Circus with Lach, The Pineapple Chunks and Randan Discotheque.

The Pineapple Chunks have kindly agreed to let us host their album launch during the Festival, and this will be a wee preview for you, as well as being the first full gig outing for Lach on his return to Edinburgh in anticipation of the return of both his one-man show and the Antihoot to the Edinburgh Festival.

Lach – Break the Day

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 22nd July 2011: Plastic Animals, Black International, Supermarionation (solo) & Loch Awe (solo) at the Wee Red Bar.

This event marks the launch of Fresh Air’s Inside Track 2011 charity album (last year’s can be downloaded here),

Plastic Animals – It Fell Apart

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 22nd July 2011: The Just Joans, We See Lights & The Occasional Flickers at The Bristo Hall.

This is an Unpop night I believe, and they’ve assembled a bill of some of the finest indiepop around.  I haven’t heard much out of the Just Joans for a while actually, but when their skewed, cobbled together guitar pop and first rate lyrics really are an excellent combination.

The Just Joans – Hey Boy… You’re Oh So Sensitive

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 23rd July 2011: Kid Canaveral album launch at Avalanche Records.

I need say no more about Kid Canaveral on these pages, surely?  Indiepop.  Awesome.  Some wonderfully sad moments.  Brilliant fun live.

Kid Canaveral – Stretching the Line

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 23rd July 2011: Enfant Bastard, Moustache of Insanity & River of Slime at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

And finally we come to Enfant Bastard’s final Edinburgh gig for the foreseeable future.  Cammy is moving to Sweden, and will be supported at his farewell show by Moustache of Insanity and FOUND’s beepmaster general Kev Sim, under the name of River of Slime.

Enfant Bastard – Demo Scene

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.

This week’s podcast is named the Northcast because I was just up in Inverness at GoNorth, which is I suppose the biggest official Scottish music industry chatfest.

I am getting better at these, I have to be honest.  The music industry is heavily based around status and I do not do well when I suspect people might be looking down their nose at me, consequently my first few were quite a challenge to escape from before I picked a fight with someone I shouldn’t, but as my general stature within music, and Scottish music in particular, has slowly grown I am finding these events easier to handle.

It also helped that as well as helping Lloyd from Peenko and Jason from the Popcop curate one of the stages, I did some one-to-one mentoring sessions (yes, I know!) and was on two of the panels myself.  That in itself gives you a kind of status which means people seem less awkward if it comes time to approach them asking about something they can do for you – I suppose it just feels like you’re on a more equitable footing.  And in general this makes me less jumpy.

None of this stops you drinking far, far too much at these things though.

Direct download: Toadcast #178 – The Northcast

01. David Thomas Broughton – Nature (00.06)
02. Edinburgh School for the Deaf – Orpheus Descending (07.09)
03. John Knox Sex Club – Katie Cruel (14.57)
04. Post War Glamour Girls – Ode to Harry Dean (Concrete Hearts) (21.00)
05. Tim Minchin – Storm (24.46)
06. The Pineapple Chunks – Look Back in Horror (40.01)
07. Scott Hutchison & Rod Jones (Fruit Tree Foundation) – I Forgot the Fall (45.23)
08. PAWS – Jellyfish (52.40)
09. Kid Canaveral – And Another Thing!! (55.29)
10. Crystal Swells – Goethe Head Soup (63.15)

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.

And as May turns into June… Spring inevitably turns into November.  Fucking great, Scotland, well done.  Thanks.

Anyhow, you’d think putting on a gig on Tuesday, for all its drawbacks, would at least leave you relatively free of competition but this week, for some inexplicable reason, there are two absolutely cracking gigs on Tuesday night.  Other than that I have to confess I don’t see much on at all this week – neither in my quick skim through the websites of Edinburgh’s venues, nor in my own Facebook events calender.

In fact, am I the only person who still pays attention to event invites on Facebook?  I mean, it’s kind of my job, but when I send out invites for Toad events most people tend not to reply at all, although I suppose that doesn’t mean they don’t read them.  In any case, I have every sympathy.

Monday 23rd May 2011: Villagers at the Liquid Room.

I was never all that taken with Villagers, I have to confess.  I liked what I heard of their stuff, but it didn’t exactly thrill me, if I’m being honest. Nevertheless, I’ve heard some very complimentary words about them around and about so I thought you might be interested in this one.

Tuesday 24th May 2011: Sparrow & the Workshop, Haight Ashbury & The Stormy Seas at Sneaky Pete’s.

Sparrow are touring their new album around the UK as of this week, and I am really looking forward to seeing them live again.  Jill’s singing is more forceful than ever, and the guitar and drums are getting just plain ferocious, and they have always been an immense live band.  But they clash with The Lovely Eggs!  The bastards!  What to do?

Tuesday 24th May 2011: The Lovely Eggs, Kid Canaveral, Cancel the Astronauts & Zed Penguin at the Voodoo Rooms.

The Lovely Eggs embody a sort of twee Northern eccentricity which reminds me very, very strongly of the couple of years of my life I have spent living in Manchester.  There are times when I think they might possibly be awful, and then times when I think they might be unparallelled geniuses, but I never quite know what side of that fence I would come down on if forced to choose.  They’re really quite fantastically unhinged live, too, so I strongly recommend getting along to see them.  Assuming you don’t go to Sparrow and the Workshop of course, which would also be an excellent decision.  Aaaaagh, decisions!

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.

More Ides of Toad action this week, as Kid Canaveral, Thee Single Spy and Monster Island take to the stage at Henry’s.  I hadn’t been to Henry’s for so long before The Leg, Louis Barabbas and Zed Penguin show, and I’d rather forgotten that it is actually a cracking little grubby indie club.  One of those places whose drawbacks actually seem to add to its charm, so please come down this weekend, and come down early to make sure you catch Monster Island.

And there may be some excellent gigs happening in Edinburgh this week, but there are a couple of ongoing things which also need to be mentioned, so for those of you looking to get out and about, enjoy the sun and indulge in some afternoon pintage, there will be plenty of excuses.

Firstly, Avalanche Records have a few events this week, including an Aberfeldy in-store and a Glasvegas meet-and-greet on the weekend.

Secondly, and pretty much my personal highlight of 2011, there is a Muppets Festival at the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Anyone who knows anything about me at all will know that if I am unavailable this week or fail to respond to your emails as quickly as you think I should, then this is why.

Thursday 21st April 2011: That Fucking Tank, Shield Your Eyes, Battery Face & Mr. Peppermint at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This will be noisy.  Apparently That Fucking Tank don’t play Edinburgh all that often, so if you like your music to delivery you a good hard slap in the ears then this will be very much up your street I should imagine.

That Fucking Tank – Keanu Reef

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

This is going to be boisterous fun.  Three different takes on indie music, with Kid Canveral’s boisterous pop contrasting with the laconic Americana-tinged Thee Single Spy and the ramshackle, yeah so what delivery of Monster Island.  I am really looking forward to this one.

Monster Island – The Green Room

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 23rd April 2011: Edinburgh School for the Deaf, Black Heart Generator & Verse Metrics at the Wee Red Bar.

I don’t actually know too much about the other two bands on this bill, but Edinburgh School for the Deaf are fuzzy, shoegazey and loud as balls.

Edinburgh School for the Deaf – Love is Terminal

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.

This pretty much speaks for itself, I think. The hundredth best venue in Austin would probably be by far the best venue in Edinburgh, so it is partly awesome fun and partly making me green with envy!