Song, by Toad

(Image pinched from Gregory Nolan)

I’d heard all sorts about Kid Harpoon’s much-vaunted live performances, so I was really looking forward to this gig and for the most part he didn’t disappoint.

Support came from new Scottish group We See Lights who seemed decent, although I didn’t get there in time to catch enough of their set to say anything sensible about them. Second support were The Kays Lavelle who were shit*.

As for the Kid himself? Well he fucking loves playing, that much is obvious. Greeting a slightly tepid crowd with a beaming ‘I’m just so chuffed to be here’ he launched into opener, the brilliant Milkmaid, with a bouncing, wild-eyed enthusiasm that even a sulky Edinburgh crowd couldn’t help but be drawn into.

All throughout the gig this kind of boundless, child-like enthusiasm was just spilling out of him. He’s one of the most mobile performers I’ve seen in a while, bouncing around the stage with joyful abandon, and throwing himself heart and soul into the performance and generally acting like playing this one gig was the most fun he’d ever had doing anything, ever.

Now, I am a sucker for this kind of passion and I absolutely loved the amazing enjoyment that spilled from Kid Canaveral all the way through the show, but I have one small quibble. Some of his finest songs are the quiet ones, and there was no room for them in this set. Now, I can see him wanting to play the upbeat, energetic ones in a live setting, but actually a slight change of pace might have been good once or twice. So he was terrific, but you didn’t really get the full impression of what his music is like and I for one would have loved to hear songs like As it Always Was performed live.

Kid Harpoon – Riverside
Kid Harpoon – As it Always Was

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*Haha, of course they weren’t. They were dead good actually. The only reason I did this to their review is because Euan – regular commenter on this site, frontman for the group and main man for gig promoters Trampoline – said during the gig that they’d supported half a dozen top groups recently and never once got a mention in the reviews. So naturally I took this as an opportunity to be a smart-arse. Yes, fucking hilarious, I know. I crack me up too.

Anyway, The Kays Lavelle. Well it’s always terrifying when you go and see a friend’s band, but fortunately they were excellent. Rather dark, and sailing close to the other side of the Atlantic at times, I really enjoyed their stuff. They were that sort of group whose guitar sound is sort of threatening – like they’re about to kick off and go absolutely mental any second now, but never quite do. Instead, Euan’s piano paints grey laments as the band sort of growl around him – excellent stuff.

There’s some good stuff in the ‘Burgh this week, including a couple of highly recommended local folk acts that I have yet to catch live, so it might mean the domestic chores getting put on hold for another week. I’ve heard a fair bit recently about both My Kappa Roots and Withered Hand and they are both playing Henry’s Cellar Bar this week, the former on Monday 25th February and the latter next Sunday, 2nd March. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to either gig, which is more than a little frustrating, but I’ll try. There are, as Mrs. Toad has to keep reminding me, chores to be done.

Wednesday 27th February: Stephanie Dosen at the Ark.
What happened to her? I heard a fair bit about her about this time last year and since then, nada. God only knows why she’s playing the Ark, which is a shabby place indeed, but she’s easily their most high profile booking for ages.

Wednesday 27th February: Kid Harpoon at Cabaret Voltaire.
After the release of his Second EP a few weeks back, I am really looking forward to his slightly folky indie stuff, and apparently he’s terrific live too. I’m also looking forward to seeing local band The Kays Lavelle for the first time as well, in support.
Kid Harpoon – Flowers by the Shore

Thursday 28th February: Found & Down the Tiny Steps at Cabaret Voltaire.
Down the Tiny Steps are absolutely superb – they go from acoustic folkiness to shoegazey guitar to experimental electronica, often in the same track. They’re superb live too. I’d be here just to see the Tinies, but throw Found into the mix and there’s no chance I’m missing it – what a first class lineup.
Down the Tiny Steps – Aye Spy
Found – You’re Really Quite the Catch

Sunday 2nd March: The Futureheads at The Liquid Room.
Without really expecting it I’ve slowly turned into a really big fan of the Futureheads. The tracks from their new album have a rockier edge than the indie-pop they’ve tended to produce thus far, and they sound terrific. Oddly under-rated if you ask me.
The Futureheads – Broke Up the Time

IT disasters in Toad Hall meant that this podcast was delayed so long that I ended up posting pretty much all of it on the blog before I got to record the thing and all the news was so outdated that I had to find some more news. Fortunately we have some pre-release splendidness from Elbow, Goldfrapp and Stephen Malkmus to make up for it.

There’s also some excellent unsigned music to be had as well, from Maxwell Panther and Meursault, as well as some splendid new singles from Elle S’Appelle and Operahouse. So it’s late, but some of this stuff is really quite excellent. And then there’s LCD Soundsystem who have taken me so long to get into that I am only starting to even enjoy the album now, some eight months or so after its release. What a fuckwit.

There’s a fairly detailed explanation of what is going to be happened with Song, by Toad Records in the new year as well, and how I am going to move these podcasts onwards and upwards. Unfortunately it takes the longest bloody link in recorded history to actual explain it all, but explain it I do. There’s always the track timings listed at the side of the songs if you want to skip it altogether though! Have fun, chaps.

Toadcast #20 – The Late, Late News

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1. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Gardenia (01.27)
2. Elle S’Appelle – Little Flame (06.49)
3. Operahouse – Born a Boy (09.40)
4. LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends (14.54)
5. The Hollies – The Air That I Breathe (24.50)
6. Goldfrapp – Little Bird (28.51)
7. Maxwell Panther – Too Many Magazines (35.47)
8. Meursault – The Furnace (39.37)
9. The 4Qs – Pieces of a Puzzle (48.03)
10. Kid Harpoon – Riverside (50.42)
11. Dubious Ranger – Slow Day (56.18)
12. Roger McGuinn & Calexico – One More Cup of Coffee (68.29)
13. The Heavy Circles – Henri (72.45)
14. The Brute Chorus (feat. Tiggs) – The Cuckoo & the Stolen Heart (80.15)
15. Elbow – Grounds For Divorce (88.13)
16. The Cave Singers – Seeds of Night (94.51)

It’s brief, it’s cheap and you should buy it.  The music is a sort of a halfway station between Johnny Flynn and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes: at once a sort of distracted acoustic indie, turning sharply into rhythmic English folk from time to time.  Tom Hull’s voice has a terrific rasp to it at times, and he has that crucial ability to be able to turn it from ragged to tender in the blink of an eye.  There’s actually even the odd hint of Colin Meloy here and there.

Hull seems like a slightly secretive sort, perhaps a little protective of what the pop world might do to someone like him and, more specifically, his music.  His website is accessible only by entering a code from one of the wristbands he distributes at gigs.  I guessed lucky and managed to sneak in, and you can see why he isn’t too keen on random punters swanning about in his internets.

More so than any other artist I’ve come across he seems to use this as a place to communicate directly with his audience in an unfiltered way that would give the CEO of EMI either a heart attack or a belly laugh.  He posts demos, little musical thoughts, things he’s been playing with and ideas he’s playing with, all with the request to please not post them elsewhere as they are entirely unfinished.  A lot has been made of Radiohead’s new business model, but that works easily for them as they are already global.  This kind of model, genuinely making friends with your fans, is a really nice idea and one I think other people should seriously consider emulating.

It all hinges, needless to say, on whether or not the music is any good but on this count you need not fear.  He lacks the pastoral irony of Johnny Flynn perhaps, but his brisker, more direct style works for me in a different way.  When he slows it down and the stomp becomes more delicate the picked guitars and odd embellishment of harp bring a melancholy atmosphere to songs illuminated by Hull’s well-judged shifts in melody.  There’s great variety on this little record actually, from rattle-along folk to the sadder acoustic tales like As it Always Was, to the borderline psych-folk of the terrific Aeroplanes & Neon Lights.

If he can keep up this sort of superb output I am really looking forward to what Kid Harpoon brings us in the future.  Really nicely done.

Kid Harpoon – Small Town War
Kid Harpoon – First We Take Manhattan

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