Song, by Toad Records hereby release into the world what we reckon is going to become an annual free sampler, mostly as a free download, but with a few CDs given to local record shops and available at gigs as well.

The sampler is a combination of things we’ll be releasing this year, mixed in with a couple of things from 2011 and interspersed with a few brilliant moments from the late Kenneth Williams’ reading of the Wind in the Willows. Snippets from this reading litter my own weekly podcast, and inspired the name of the label in the first place, so it seemed kind of fitting to pop a couple on here.

You can download this little parcel of digital fun from Bandcamp for free, and we are sending out a few to our favourite record shops to give away as well, so if you want a CD either come to a Song, by Toad gig in Edinburgh or go to a record shop.

Tracklisting:

02. So the Wind Won’t… by Jesus H. Foxx
I’ve been waiting for their debut album through two years of ‘nearly theres’, but it is finally finished, it sounds brilliant and will be ready for release on 14th May 2012.

03. Twitching Stick by The Leg
Formerly Khaya, then Desc, The Leg are veterans of several Peel Sessions and several releases already, but have agreed to release their next album An Eagle to Saturn with us. Coming out on 30th April, this is abrasive as fuck, but definitely still surprisingly poppy, considering.

04. The Acid Test by Rob St. John
We released Rob’s debut album Weald on vinyl last year, and the response was so overwhelmingly positive we’ve decided to give it a wider release on CD too. Rob being Rob, of course, he’s already planning to record his second album, probably in our living room again.

05. Sorry by Waiters
06. Teenage Bloom by Dolfinz
08. Gay Marriage by Sex Hands
On the subject of recording in our living room, the Waiters, Dolfinz and Sex Hands tracks are from a split 12” (which will also include hotly-tipped* Glasgow band PAWS) all of which was recorded almost entirely live in the living room of our house by myself and Rory Sutherland from Broken Records. It’s sort of a compilation of some of my favourite underground, garagey (and frighteningly young) bands, and we’ve just had it mastered, so it will hopefully be ready for release in late March or early April.

09. A Mother’s Arms (demo) by Meursault
It feels like we’ve been waiting quite a long time for the third Meursault album too, doesn’t it. Well it’s finally done, and we are looking at a release date in mid-July, with a release night pencilled in for Saturday 7th July in the Queen’s Hall.

10. School (Toad Session) by The Black Tambourines
We recorded a Toad Session with these guys last year and immediately offered to release something. I’m not sure what it’ll be yet – probably an EP in the Autumn I would guess.

11. Lay Me Down by Yusuf Azak
From his unspeakably gorgeous second album, due out in 2012 sometime, depending on when I get a final master.

12. That is a Big Door! by Trips and Falls
From their second album, People Have to Be Told, released in September 2011.

13. Dead Golden Girls by Lil Daggers
From their self-titled debut album, which we released on vinyl at the end of last year.

14. Pinkening by Animal Magic Tricks
This was recorded just after 2009’s stunning Cold Seeds album, which was a collaboration between Frances from Animal Magic Tricks, Pete Harvey and Neil Pennycook from Meursault and Kenny Anderson from King Creosote. There still isn’t what you could describe as a finished version, but I am not giving up hope because it is a gorgeous album, even just as it stands at the moment.

15. Pool Attendant by The Japanese War Effort
This is from 2011’s Summer Sun Skateboard, and we hope to release another mini-album with Jamie in the Autumn of 2012.

16. Blue Overcoat by Lach
From 2011 vinyl album Ramshackle Heart.

18. Movies and Magazines by King Post Kitsch
A free dowload from kingpostkitsch.bandcamp.com After a year in Glasgow, Charlie has moved back down to London, and after his awesome debut The Party’s Over in early 2011 I am eagerly looking forward to new material.

*Yes, I know I said ‘hotly-tipped’, but honestly, they are, I’m not just copy-and-pasting from The Big Book of PR Clichés.

It may be getting dark now, but this morning was one of those days where I began to question my decision to put the office in a North-facing room.  Really, when it’s this sunny I just want to be able to enjoy the sunshine.  Mind you, I wouldn’t be able to read my computer screen, but that strikes me as a very small price to pay.

I am getting ready to go to Austin this week, leaving the house, the cats, the label and this weekend’s Ides of Toad gig in the hands of young Ian.  What, I hear you wondering, could possibly go wrong?

Actually, just getting ready to be out of the country for a couple of weeks is a major headache.  A lot of label and blog stuff can be done from foreign parts easily enough – they do have the internet in America after all – but there are a lot of practical things which I need to wrap up before I leave, so the next couple of days are going to be bloody mental, I fear.

And also, I miss all these fine gigs, which is annoying:

Thursday 8th March: Born to Be Wide Music Journalist Seminar at the Electric Circus.

If you’re in a band and you don’t want to know more about how music journalists think, what they like and don’t like, and stuff like that then frankly you’re an idiot.  At this month’s seminar will be: Claire Sawers (Music Editor, The List), Gary Flockhart (Evening News), David Pollock (Everyone) and Sue Wilson (Sunday Herald, Songlines, The Scotsman).

Friday 9th March: The Ides of Toad, with Adam Stafford, So Many Wizards & LeThug at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

I am really looking forward to this one.  Or at least, I would be if I weren’t going to be in Austin instead.  Instead, I leave this rather excellent lineup in the hands of Ian and yourselves, and I trust none of you will let me down.  So Many Wizards are touring from the States, Adam Stafford was one of my favourite performers I saw all of last year and LeThug are a highly, highly promising new droney, electronic pop band from Glasgow.

Lose Your Mind by so many wizards

Saturday 10th March: Loch Lomond & Frances McKee from The Vaselines at Sneaky Pete’s.

It’s highly frustrating that, given I was responsible for getting Loch Lomond over here in the first place, I have found it impossible to get to any of their gigs ever since they signed with Chemikal Underground.  After a stripped back tour earlier in the year, this is apparently a full band show, and their lush, orchestral pop is bloody gorgeous, so get down to it.

Loch Lomond – Wax & Wire

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 11th March: Lach at the Third Door.

Lach is finally legal and can finally legally work in the UK, and to celebrate he has booked a UK tour for April, and to warm up his musical muscles after a couple of spoken word sets, he’ll be playing at the Third Door this weekend.

Lach – Blue Overcoat by Song, by Toad

 Lach, whose album Ramshackle Heart came out on Song, by Toad Records in July this year, and scored a clean sweep of great reviews in every single glossy music monthly in the country, which is not something we have ever managed before.

Anyhow, as you may have noticed in August, the engine room behind the New York Antifolk scene has now moved to Edinburgh and as such is the subject of a documentary on BBC Radio Scotland, which broadcasts in about forty-five minutes, and again on Sunday the 1st January, and will be available on the iPlayer after that.

I am not entirely certain, I have to confess, about how overseas people can hear the thing, but I am sure that the more determined of you can figure something out. Kids can crack this shit in minutes these days, can’t they?

 So here were are once again on another distinctly mediocre morning in one of the most utterly unremarkable months of the calendar.  I was born in November and at least November is pretty reliably completely shit, whereas October doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be.  It’s not even consistently rubbish enough to hate.

So far so fucking splendid.  I have been driven away from Facebook today by an over-abundance (i.e. one person) of grown fucking adults talking in fucking babyspeak.  “U cud of come 2 [insert name of some shit club or other].”  Dear lord, that makes me want to stamp on something fluffy and cute.

How much fucking time can you possibly be saving yourself by deliberately spelling things like a fucking clueless, infantile fucktard?  Just suppressing the urge to commit suicide for being such a shallow, vapid, hateful cunt must take more energy than just using the English language properly in the fucking first place. The universe will catch up with you twats, you know.  That kind of imbecility won’t go unpunished in a just world. Karma hates adults who think they’re illiterate twelve-year-olds, and you will get yours eventually.

Fuck it, that’s all I’ve got this week.  Here are some gigs.  Go to them.

Tuesday 11th October 2011: Lach performs at the Storytelling Night at The Stand.

Having hosted an open mic night in New York for the last thirty-odd years Lach not only has a lot to tell, but also has developed a knack for telling it.  He the kind of guy who can be funny without actually having to tell jokes – just a natural storyteller, really.

Lach – Blue Overcoat

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 13th October 2011: Men Diamler at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Men Diamler, for those of you who live in St. Andrews, will be playing on an amazing bill on the 11th, with Jeffrey Lewis and Withered Hand, but for those of us Edinburgh-bound you can catch him here on Thursday at Henry’s Cellar Bar. Rich plays solo acoustic music, but that doesn’t really even begin to describe it – he can be singing tragic ballads one minute, and bellowing in your face the next.

Men Diamler – Naughty Songwriter Blues

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 13th October 2011: Vic Galloway presents Bwani Junction, Miniature Dinosaurs & Blank Canvas at the Electric Circus.

This is the first in a series of monthly gigs hosted by Vic at the Electric Circus. He’ll be introducing and interviewing the bands from the stage as well, so you’ll get to hear the voice of Scottish music radio coming from an actual person for a change, instead of a set of speakers.

Friday 14th October 2011: Michelle Shocked at the Caves.

I genuinely have no idea what Michelle Shocked is up to these days, and I haven’t listened to her music in ages, I have to confess.  But on hearing she was playing here I happened serendipitously upon a copy of Short Sharp Shocked in a secondhand record shop, and it reminds me how much I enjoyed her early records, which I discovered back when I first moved the UK in the early nineties.

Michelle Shocked – Black Widow

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 16th October 2011: Alasdair Roberts, Aileen Campbell & Wounded Knee at the Scottish Storytelling Center.

This is the Edinburgh leg of the Archive Trails tour, which I believe is a project organised by the artists and the ever-impressive Tracer Trails, creating new work inspired by the contents of the archives at the School of Scottish Studies.

Comacast?  Yes, because of the imminent onset of a post-Festival coma.

After trying to juggle two gigs of my own, two gigs I wanted to attend, the Antifolk-off and the visit of a good friend I haven’t seen in a couple of years and the Retreat Festival this weekend I think I am now ready to officially declare August over and collapse into a somnolent stupour.

In short, I need to sleep.  A lot.

Mrs. Toad came back from a ten-day holiday last night as well, and that always restores a sense of equilibrium.  She doesn’t do much except swear at me and tell me to leave her the fuck alone, but for some reason I find that inordinately comforting in times of stress.  I think it might be because I am a fucking idiot.

Direct download: Toadcast #189 – The Comacast

1. PAWS – Booger (00.08)
2. Trwbador – Sun in the Winter (07.09)
3. The Walkmen – On the Water (16.35)
4. Arcade Fire – City With no Children (20.05)
5. Enfant Bastard – Pob is Not Interested (26.33)
6. Michael Kiwanuka – Tell Me a Tale (34.49)
7. Electrelane – I’m on Fire (Bruce Springsteen Cover) (42.22)
8. The Love Gestures – Joanna Newsom 666 (49.55)
9. Ghost Outfit – Those Ghosts (52.54)
10. Lach – Blue Overcoat (60.12)

Lach is back at the Edinburgh Festival this year, and with his return Song, by Toad Records is going to end up involved in some different stuff than the more straightforward manufacturing and release of records.

There are three main things going on over the course of the next wee while, all of which you might be interested in, and some of which you might be interested in taking part in.

1. New album Ramshackle Heart out now on Song, by Toad Records
2. Lach’s Antihoot returns to the Gilded Balloon.
3. Solo show The Waitress, the Walls & the Weirdos part of the Free Fringe at Cabaret Voltaire.

First, a quick bit of background.  As I mentioned when I posted Lach’s Toad Session, the term Antifolk is bandied about so much these days it’s become a sort of generic catch-all for acoustic pop music, but the actual term originates from Lach’s Antihoot – the open stage in New York which gave starts to the likes of Jeffrey Lewis, Kimya Dawson, Beck, The Moldy Peaches and all sorts of others.  But it has a very specific origin, and a that origin was Lach.

1. New album Ramshackle Heart out now on Song, by Toad Records This album was recorded in Cornwall with Neil Halstead of Slowdive and Mojave 3 fame, and is out on 12″ vinyl, with a download code, and can be bought in Avalanche Records in Edinburgh, as well as from our own webshop.  And just as a kindness, here is a free song from it to help you make up your mind:

Lach – Break The Day by Song, by Toad

2. Lach’s Antihoot returns to the Gilded Balloon. If anyone wants to play this year’s Antihoot, just get in touch via info@antifolk.net .  The first night is this Thursday 4th August at the Gilded Balloon, and the slots are filling up fast.

This year between Lach, myself and the audience at large we will be selecting finalists to invite back to the last weekend (25th-27th August) when we’ll hold an Antifolk-off, which will basically just be a bloody great party whereby we record everyone, and a dozen or so bands will be chosen to appear on the Best of the Antihoot, which we’ll be releasing on Song, by Toad Records.

3. Solo show: Lach, the Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos. Named after the people to whom he used to find himself playing at the end of the night at the Antihoot in New York, this is going to be part stand-up comedy, part anecdote and part music. It’s part of the Free Fringe at Cabaret Voltaire, so is free to enter, although you’ll be encouraged to give a wee donation.

The first night (Wednesday 3rd August) is officially the launch night for the new album as well, so please come on down and help us celebrate.

 And so the madness begins. The Edge Festival this year is still looking for something special, beyond Sebadoh and The National, but there is nevertheless an unbelievable shitload of stuff happening in Edinburgh over the course of the next four weeks.

Personally, I am going to have much more involvement this year, for two reasons.  For starters, last year I spent two weeks of August on holiday in China, and another week up at Haarfest in Fife, and this year I’ll be here the whole way through.

Secondly, of course, we will be releasing the Best of the Antihoot at the end of the Festival, meaning I will be spending an awful lot of time actually at the Antihoot, trying to figure out what I think is actually the best of it, and that means 12-3am most nights, and then a normal day’s work the next day.  Helloooooo coffee!

Monday 1st August 2011: Lady North, PAWS & Vasquez at Sneaky Pete’s.

I’ve been looking forward to the single for which this gig is the launch night for ages now.  Out on Gerry Loves Records, it is a 7″ split between PAWS and Lady North, and given the raucous excellence of the former and the reputed excellence of the latter, this should be a mightily excellent gig.

PAWS – Summer Wipeout

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.

Wednesday 3rd August 2011: Lach: The Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos at Cabaret Voltaire.

This is the opening night of a run of solo shows Lach will be performing over the course of the Fringe – all part of the Free Fringe, with admission being on the basis of a voluntary donation.  The Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos is named after the people Lach tended to find himself playing to at the end of the night at the Sidewalk Cafe in New York, when running the Antihoot over there.

Lach – Baby, I Don’t Want to Go

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 4th August 2011: The opening night of the Antihoot at the Gilded Balloon.

This show is also running throughout August (more of this later) and in September we’ll be releasing The Best of the Antihoot on Song, by Toad Records – compilation chosen by a combination of audience acclaim and executive decision.

Friday 5th August 2011: Avital Raz & Little Egypt at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Those of us who were at the Avital Raz and Alex Cornish Song, by Toad House Gig in June were pretty much unanimous in thinking Avital’s stuff was absolutely amazing.  Well on the back of that gig Claire has booked her for Henry’s this Friday, with support coming from a band I have to confess to not knowing, called Little Egypt.

Sunday 7th August 2011: Edinburgh Independent Record Fair at Summerhall.

Scotland’s best independent labels, promoters and bands will be gathering in the Dissecting Room Bar at Summerhall, and combining live music in the lecture theatre with a series of stalls selling all sorts of bits and pieces of musical joy, soundtracked by DJ sets from all sorts of Scottish musical muppets luminaries.

FOUND – Anti-Climb Paint

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 7th August 2011: Born to Be Wide Edinburgh Night at the Electric Circus.

Born to Be Wide is also hosting in-stores by Rachel Sermanni and Withered Hand at Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket, and then moving to the Electric Circus for the evening, and short performances by a huge variety of new Edinburgh bands, interspersed with ‘celebrity’ DJs.  Already confirmed to play are: Chasing Owls, Austen George, Capitals, Bwani Junction, Withered Hand, Rachel Sermanni, Church of When The Sh*t Hits The Fan and Lady North.

 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.

Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr - Blueback Hotrod
Audio: zip download (right-click, save as).

Lach is the man behind the Antihoot, the New York open stage which gave rise to the term and the movement called Antifolk.  People bandy the word about so much these days it’s almost become as nebulous as the term ‘indie’, but it had a very specific origin and a very specific meaning back at the beginning.

Last year Lach brought the Antihoot to the Edinburgh Festival, and we recorded a Toad Session with him while he was here.  When we figured out that we would actually be releasing his new album as well, and that he would be returning to Edinburgh this year – running both the Antihoot at the Gilded Balloon as well as a free fringe show called Lach, the Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos in The Speakeasy at Cabaret Voltaire – I figured we might as well wait a little while to publish this session.

Well Lach is back now, his album comes out on Song, by Toad Records on Monday and we are starting to get ready for both the one-man show at Cab Vol, and also the return of the Antihoot (tickets).  If you want to play at the Antihoot yourself, then just get in touch: info@antifolk.net.  The rules are that you get either two songs or eight minutes, whichever is shorter, and that has to include your setup, so best keep it simple, but otherwise pretty much anything goes.

Also, this year we’ll be picking a semifinalist each night, by a combination of audience acclaim and executive decision, and inviting them back to the Anti-idol on the last three nights of the show.  Those three nights will be recorded, with the best dozen or so performances being released on a Best of the Antihoot album on Song, by Toad Records.

As per usual with the Toad Sessions, the full interview podcast is immediately below, followed by free mp3 downloads of all the session tracks (zip file here), videos of the individual tracks themselves (all video here), and finally the tracklist for the podcast.  There aren’t as many pictures as usual, but that’s because we were a little short-staffed this time, and Dylan was too busy with the video camera to produce the usual number of pretty pictures.

Direct download: Toadcast #183 – Lach Toad Session

Lach – A Quiet Distance (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.

Lach – Ambition Burns (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.

Lach – Another Night Without You (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.

Lach – Coffee Black (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. Lach – A Quiet Distance (Toad Session) (12.40)
02. The Love Gestures – Hey Man (16.40)
03. Phil Ochs – Small Circle of Friends (20.31)
04. Lach – Ambition Burns (Toad Session) (32.41)
05. Kirk Kelly – Stephen Foster (37.42)
06. Roger Manning – Pearly Blues (41.14)
07. Lach – Another Night Without You (Toad Session) (55.31)
08. Neil Halstead – Might Engine (62.05)
09. Lach – Coffee Black (Toad Session) (75.06)

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

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 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)

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 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)

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.