Well one thing’s for sure, live in Edinburgh this week will very much not be me.  I have a rather nasty flu/tonsillitis throat infection thingy (I’m not a doctor so I am not sure which, but you know the kind of thing I mean) and it means that swallowing is extraordinarily painful, even if it is gin.

I am not sure that soaking the paracetamol in alcohol particularly aids in its efficacy either, but as I said, I am not a doctor.

We, of course, have our next Ides of Toad gig on Sunday, when the awesome Withered Hand, Samantha Crain and Mike MacFarlane will be at Henry’s.  I should also point out that I am selling tickets to the Song, by Toad Christmas Party for a mere £8 at the moment, but that price will disappear sometime this afternoon, so if you want the cheap tickets better get ‘em now, otherwise it will cost you the (still extremely good value for money) sum of £10. Go here to get yourself sorted out for the finest carnival of Christmas piss-artistry to be had in Edinburgh.

However, until then, here is some stuff to keep you entertained in Edinburgh this week:

[Edit: fuck fuck fuck, I forgot that Alex Cornish has a full band plus strings show at Cabaret Voltaire on Thursday 24th.]

Monday 21st November 2011: Rozi Plain, Jamie Harrison & This is the Kit at the Electric Circus.

I am not sure if I am even going to end up getting this posted in time for you to scoot down to the Electric Circus and catch this, but if a Fence Records/Red Deer Club one-two isn’t enough enticement then umm… well, you deserve the X-Factor or whatever it is you end up doing instead.

Rozi Plain – The Lang Toun (James Yorkston Cover)

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Thursday 24th November 2011: Django Django, The Marvels & Snide Rhythms at Sneaky Pete’s.

Django Django were absolutely all over the radio about a year and a half ago, and they’ve been quietly recording their debut album ever since.  Judging from the songs we’ve heard so far, it should be very good indeed.  They are a little like Jonnie Common in the sense that the music they make may be rather experimental in terms of its constituent components, but the end result is pure pop (although I’d be tempted to say that the similarity ends there). This stuff even gets me wanting to dance.  Yes, you read that right, even me.

Django Django – Waveforms

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Saturday 26th November 2011: Lach’s Fort comes to Le Monde.

It’s a very, very odd place to do it, but when you’re looking to put on an event which is a little different to what a place is used to, then picking a surprising venue could just end up working in its favour.  Lach is bringing his New York night to Edinburgh, with film, esoteric DJing and live performances from Seafieldroad, Lee Patterson, Emily Scott, head BMX Bandit Duglas T. Stewart, comedian Chloe Phillip and more.

Sunday 27th November 2011: Withered Hand, Samantha Crain & Mike MacFarlane play the Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

I am really looking forward to this.  Apart from the excellence, the humour and the pathos of Withered Hand, I am really looking to Sam Crain’s first Edinburgh gig.  I first me her at Pickathon in Portland in something like 2008, and we’ve pretty much had this gig in mind ever since.  He voice is amazing, and her songs are absolutely gorgeous.  Mike MacFarlane is a relative newcomer, but having seen him for the first time at the Antihoot this Summer I am really interested to see more.

Withered Hand – Providence

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Samantha Crain – We Are the Same

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Mike MacFarlane – Waltz

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Sunday 27th November 2011: Loch Lomond, The Last of Barrett’s Privateers & Pronto Mama at Sneaky Pete’s.

Loch Lomond’s new album is out now on Chemikal Underground, and having played here a couple of times, they are back with something approaching a full band (although like many bands I know and love, establishing what, exactly, their standard, full lineup is isn’t entirely straightforward). They’ll be joined by impressive Edinburgh folkies The Last of Barrett’s Privateers and Pronto Mama, about whom I have to confess to knowing more or less nothing, sorry.

Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls (Toad Session)

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I had an awesome week of live music last week, from the Dylan Uncovered on Thursday (from which there is some recorded audio of Esperi and Yusuf Azak’s sets here), to Ringo Deathstarr on Friday and finally Conquering Animal Sound on Saturday.

This week promises to be a little more spread out, but nevertheless just as good.  As well as the return of the Ides of Toad gigs on Saturday (with an ear-carressingly excellent lineup, I might add) we will be recording a Toad Session with Armellodie Records‘ Thirty Pounds of Bone.  The Rob St. John one will be published this Saturday as well, and Rob himself will be here all week recording his debut album, so I am going to be like a giddy little puppy until the inevitable crash on Sunday, I would imagine.

In other news, I assume you’ve heard about Radiohead’s new album?  Presumably inspired by Edinburgh’s Gerry Loves Records, they are releasing the world’s second ever record packaged in newsprint.  Ah well, we all need to draw inspiration from somewhere, and apparently the Hollies don’t have any more good songs to rip off*.

I have to confess that I don’t think Radiohead have released anything which has been much cop since Amnesiac, but I really do salute their excellent adjustment to selling music in the Twenty-First Century.  I know this is all much easier when you are already as famous as they are, but absolutely no-one has adjusted as well, as quickly or as consistently innovatively as they have.  The special edition isn’t even all that pricey – just thirty quid – and I bet it’s fucking gorgeous.

Anyhow, where were we?  Oh yes, gigs:

Tuesday 15th February 2011: Ryan Francesconi, Rob St.John & The Wee Rogue at Old St. Paul’s Church on Jeffrey Street.

Ryan Francesconi is a composer who does a lot of arranging for Joanna Newsom (who has described him as a genius on more than one occasion).  He has recorded several albums of his own, including some amazing solo guitar stuff, which he will be performing on Tuesday, along with some of his Balkan stuff.  Support will come from the excellent Wee Rogue and from Rob St. John – and for those who worry about duplicating their entertainment, Rob will be playing a totally different set to Saturday’s Ides of Toad gig, so I strongly recommend going to both.

Wednesday 16th February 2011: The Last Battle, Letters & Oso Street Outreach at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This is an interesting one.  I was contacted by Letters’ US PR guys before the band had ever played in Edinburgh, which is actually their hometown.  They were described recently by The Pop Cop as ‘Scotland’s hottest new band’, which seems a little odd for a band who has never played a gig yet, and you can preview a couple of their songs here if you like, and read their interview with Kowalskiy here.

Thursday 17th February 2011: Kill it Kid & Scoundrels at the Electric Circus.

I wasn’t as smitten with the Kill it Kid album as I had expected to be, but by all accounts they are a irresistible force live, and I reckon this could well be worth a punt.  The vocals alone are powerful as hell, and when their bluesy rock ‘n’ roll really gets going I reckon it could be pretty bloody impressive.

Kill it Kid – Send Me and Angel Down

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Saturday 19th February 2011: Rob St.John, Ziggy Campbell & Thirty Pounds of Bone at the Wee Red Bar.

This is going to be a bonanza of goodness.  As well as the awesomeness promised in the official lineup, we also have a special guest added to the bill who we are, for carbonated beverage-related reasons, having to pretend is a secret (the only American band on the label, named after a certain Scottish lake, you get the picture).  Also, Thirty Pounds of Bone will be travelling up from the very bottom left hand corner of the island to play a rare gig up here, and people have told me that the last time they saw him, he was so good that they travelled halfway across Scotland to seem him play the next day again.  Oh, and Rob has promised to play Fucking Loud, by all accounts, so I am expecting heckles of ‘Judas!’ from you.  And if your musical knickers weren’t damp enough already, we also have that Ziggy fella from FOUND, whose own album is released in a few weeks too.  100% pure unadulterated lineup gold!

Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls (Toad Session)

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Saturday 19th February 2011: French Wives EP Launch at Sneaky Pete’s.

Sneaky’s have some really good stuff programmed in for the next month or two, so it’s worth just generally checking out their listings, but this is the one which stood out for me this week.

French Wives – Me vs. Me

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*Dear Radiohead fanatics, that was a joke.  Please do not form an angry mob and try and burn the house down because you hate me for poking gentle fun at your favourite band.

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)

Generally speaking when I see videos like this my reaction will be ‘oh, cool’ and I will share it on Facebook or something like that.  Danny MacAskill is an amazing cyclist, and his previous video was shot all around Edinburgh, soundtracked by Funeral by Band of Horses.

Hearing how central the song was to the video Mrs. Toad told me I should get in touch with him and ‘suggest’ to him that he use music from our label in future videos.  Now, I have no idea how to do that kind of thing without coming across as a complete twat (*smoothes eyebrows* Hi, you don’t know me pal, but it’s your lucky day… *cough cough cough*) so I never bothered.

So imagine my surprise when I pressed play on his latest video, only to hear something awfully familiar playing through the speakers: Wax & Wire by Loch Lomond. So of course, it pretty much had to go up here as well, didn’t it!  I have no idea if it’s in the film because Danny is an Edinburgh lad and he knows about what we’re up to here, or if he’s just really into American music (as his earlier use of Band of Horses might suggest) and thus happened across the band independently, but either way, it’s pretty cool.

The song is downloadable below, and can be found, if you’ll forgive the blatant plug, on their Night Bats EP which is available on Song, by Toad Records here.

Loch Lomond – Wax & Wire

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[I am off to Eigg this weekend for the Fence Away Game and, well, Egg Song... sorry.]

Do all of you buggers follow my inane rambling on Facebook as well as here?  Well if so then this little tale will probably sound a little familiar, as I couldn’t resist making snide comments about it when it happened, but I reckon I am still just a little irritated by the whole thing so, well… there’s more, you know I can’t just let things drop.

Apparently some anonymous but quite impressive sounding production company in London is making a documentary about music fans and the passion they have for music.  They phoned Kevin from Avalanche who rather kindly pointed them in my direction.

Anyhow, during a brief conversation with this lot it very quickly became clear that what they wanted was not passionate music fans, but music fans who jump around a lot.  Now, I can see their point of view, and they were very nice about it, but there is still something pretty depressing about the whole thing.  Obviously some retard flailing about at the front of the mosh pit like an electrocuted octopus is going to make for some pretty compelling viewing.  I mean, let’s face it, what could be more compelling, in film terms, than some drunken douchebag barging about like a fool during someone’s show?  I know, essential cinema, I was thinking the same thing.

Anyhow, at the time I was phlegmatic enough and pointed the nice lady in the direction of some people I thought might jump around a bit more, seeing as that was her number one and clearly most non-negotiable criterion, and thought no more of it.  But over the week it has continued to come back to fucking irritate me again and again.  I think about all the musicians I know who can’t get a proper job, because they couldn’t work as hard at their music if they did, who constantly irritate their other halves with the time they dedicate to music, or who traipse to one shitty twenty-person outhouse gig after another just in case the next one is the buzzing wee venue we all hear so much about, and a fair number of whom have seriously damaged their future prospects in any other careers because they have devoted all their energy to one of the most ungrateful ones of them all, and it all just pisses me the fuck off.

Is ‘passion for music’ really manifested in jumping about like a fuckwit on a Friday night and getting so pissed off your head that you can’t remember a single thing about the actual show the next morning?  Really?  Or is it manifested in deciding not to go to the cinema tonight and sitting in all day and all evening with a cup of tea, watching mind-numbing telly because you’ve got a gig to play in Dundee tomorrow and you need to be able to afford the price of the fucking Megabus?

Mrs. Toad lets strangers crash in our house whenever I ask her, and she lets the living room be turned into a recording studio for weeks on end, and endless drying prints for record sleeves litter the place every month or so.  That doesn’t sound like much, but every single other woman she works with and every wife of every man she works with has a nice, normal house and has dinner parties and coffee and wouldn’t for a fragment of a second entertain allowing that kind of encroachment into her personal life.

Fuck it, I myself just waved goodbye to a credible ten-year career as a design engineer – a career which meant that pretty much no matter what happened in the future, I would always be able to support myself – to do this nonsense full time.  And I still work into the small hours most fucking nights.

And to think that, really, to demonstrate passion for music all I really needed to do was leap around a bit more… well fuck, I would never have invested all this time and money if I’d known that’s all it took. And I know this company don’t care what’s really going on here, and that they are making a specific film with a pre-determined narrative, and they were nice about it and all…

But I still get fucking angry as fuck, I can’t help it.  Fuck all the people, including myself, who work so fucking hard at this shit but are deemed not passionate enough about music simply because we don’t act like the front three fucking rows at a Bon Jovi concert. And ironically enough, if you get pissed and hang out with even the quietest musicians around here for long you’ll find out that there actually is a fair bit of drunken jumping around, just rarely in the middle of someone’s fucking show (depending of course upon the band).

They are making the film they want of course, but any arse can tell you that you don’t start a film about passionate music fans by checking how much people flail about at gigs first.  Fuck off. Fuck you.  Your film isn’t going to tell anybody anything interesting or new about music, or about being a fan of music. Fuck off.

1. Most intense gig at which you didn’t dance at all.
2. Most fun you’ve had leaping around like an arse at a gig.
3. Longest you’ve held a grudge.
4. Where is your passion for music most evident?
5. Person whose intensity of feeling you most underestimated.

Smog – Held

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Grant Lee Buffalo – It’s the Life

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Marianne Faithfull – Crazy Love

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Jay Farrar – Feed Kill Chain

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Soundtrack of Our Lives – Borderline

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Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr
Audio: freely downloadable below…

Loch Lomond came over to the UK in May to play some dates in Scotland, so we took the opportunity to record a Toad Session with them.  We first met the band when we went out to Pickathon in 2008 and interviewed them there.  Since then we have released a split 12″ and an EP by them over here on Song, by Toad Records.

Elephants & Little Girls is actually from that split 12″ release, but the other three songs are new, and from their next album.  That album has been finished for about three months now I believe, although I have yet to hear it, so all I know about it is from these three songs.

Many thanks to Gavin Tarling for recording and mixing the session, to Matthew Swan and Fiona Buckle for their help with the photography and video cameras, and to Chris Bryant for being in the band for the day.  Feel free to help yourselves to the downloads, and enjoy the videos.  The whole interview can be heard on the podcast below, the video at the top of the page is sort of a general video of the whole day, and those of the individual songs are embedded below.

Toadcast #138 – Loch Lomond Toad Session

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Loch Lomond – Blood Bank (Toad Session)

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Loch Lomond – Egg Song (Toad Session)

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Loch Lomond – I Love Me (Toad Session)

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Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls (Toad Session)

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01. Loch Lomond – Blood Bank (Toad Session) (04.39)
02. Run On Sentence – Out in the Woods (11.07)
03. Sallie Ford – Danger (14.35)
04. Loch Lomond – Egg Song (Toad Session) (22.10)
05. Vadoinmessico – In Spain (27.02)
06. Brothers Young – Good Deeds (32.35)
07. Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer (37.10)
08. Loch Lomond – I Love Me (Toad Session) (45.00)
09. The Generationals – When They Fight They Fight (48.24)
10. Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls (Toad Session) (59.35)

We’re a bit more organised this week, back with Ruth, back with a band in the studio, back with the usual dysfunctional bickering and general bollocks.  Loch Lomond are visiting to support the release of Night Bats on Song, by Toad Records and to play a wee tour and it seemed only sensible to invite them into the studio to record live with us.

Listen live here.

Live in session with Loch Lomond.

and Ruth too…aren’t you chuffed?!

Tracklisting:
01. Beirut – Elephant Gun
02. Danny & The Champions of The World – Henry The Van
03. David Tattersall – The Typewriter Ribbon
04. Loch Lomond – Bird and a Bear (Live)
05. The Generationals – When They Fight, They Fight
06. Loch Lomond – Wax and Wire
07. Loch Lomond – The Egg (Live)
08. Arthur Russell – Letter
09. The Books – Beautiful People
10. Loch Lomond – I Love Me (Live)
11. Jens Lekman & Tracey Thorn – Yeah! Oh Yeah! (Magnetic Fields Cover)
12. Loch Lomond – Elephants and Little Girls (Live)
13. The Mabuses – I’m The Greatest

I’m afraid the gig listings this week are going to be little more than a great steaming post of Toadspam.  We’ve a lot on at the moment, and I’d hate to think you’d let other people’s wonderful creative efforts distract you from the fact that the most important thing you can do this week is give a needy, gin-soaked virtual amphibian a bit of validation.

So as such please bear in mind that it is most definitely NOT the This is Music fourth birthday celebrations this Friday, and Meursault are certainly NOT going to go down to Sneaky Pete’s to rock the shit out of the place, oh no no, nothing of the sort.

Anyhow, the Loch Lomond Night Bats launch tour kicks off tomorrow, in the Slaughtered Lamb in London, then trundles through Glasgow on Wednesday (the first ever Glasgow Toad Night, as per the above poster), then Aberdeen on Thursday, Berwick on Friday, Leith on Saturday and back down to London to play The Black Heart in Camden on Sunday night.  Because I am driving around with them, posting might be somewhat disrupted this week, but I will try and make sure I get a couple of reviews written up this afternoon so that they are available to post over the course of the week.  Otherwise you are in the hands of Dylan, rather famously referred to as Baldrick in the comments for the last podcast, much to his distinct lack of amusement and my descent into the giggles.

Anyhow, at the Roxy Art House there will be some poetry and music from the Wintergreens on Wednesday, and then some sprightly indie-pop from Come On Gang on Friday, but there’s not an awful lot else that I can find in Edinburgh which looks like my kind of thing, honestly.  Social Services look kind of interesting, although I know nothing about them at all, and they’re on at Sneaky Pete’s on Thursday 20th.  And that seems to be it, although it’s far from unusual that I miss at least one good gig from these listings every week of course.

Wednesday 19th May 2010: Meursault, Loch Lomond & Jonnie Common play the Song, by Toad Records Showcase at Mono, Glasgow.

It’s been a while since I’ve been through to a gig in Glasgow, and I am really looking forward to this one – Mono is a lovely venue by all accounts.  I was toying with the idea of trying to get more Glasgow bands on the bill, and then it struck me how silly it would be to to go to all the trouble of putting on a gig in Glasgow, only to put bands on the bill they can see every other week anyway.  I reckon we should start doing a few of these showcases actually – help small Glasgow labels to put them on here, and then encourage Edinburgh ones to do things through there.  If that worked out we could even extend it to places like Aberdeen or Manchester or stuff like that, but I’m probably getting a bit ahead of myself here…

Loch Lomond – Tic

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Friday 21st May 2010: Meursault & Islet play This is Music at Sneaky Pete’s.

Yes, yes, yes, I will be in Berwick and unable to attend this one, very funny.  I reckon the idea of the Meursault playing a full band set live in a little club like Sneaky’s should be bloody brilliant, to be honest with you. It is hopefully going to be very, very loud.  Due to excessive workloads I haven’t had the chance to actually go to a bloody good late night piss up for a while, and this is the one I would pick if I could.

Meursault – Red Candle Bulb

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Saturday 22nd May 2010: Sam Amidon, Loch Lomond & Leif Vollebekk at the Queen Charlotte Rooms in Leith.

The return of the Bowery, with early evening crafts, some poetry reading, and music this should be a lovely night.  The Queen Charlotte Rooms (the pink building just next to The Compass in Leith) is a building caught in a bloody timewarp, but that makes it an absolutely incredible place.  It looks for all the world like somewhere my grandma would have gone for one of her industrial-strength rum and cokes to meet her friends from the British Legion.  The music will be folky goodness from Sam Amidon, Loch Lomond, Leif Vollebekk all kicked off by a solo acoustic performance by Neil from Meursault.

Sam Amidon – Wild Bill Jones

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This podcast is called the Greencast because we have the most hobbled government in recent memory – Cameron has kinda, sorta, maybe won, in the sense that he is actually the PM.

On the other hand Clegg, having been butchered at the polls, after a promising campaign, is now in a position of more influence than he was ever likely to gain from the election alone.

And yet Labour, despite being deposed, seem to have come out of it all better than anyone.  They may be out of power, but they are free from the millstone of the next few years of cuts, they can sit back and watch the Tories and the Lib Dems squabble for a couple of years and achieve nothing at all, and once the coalition has made fools of themselves for a couple of years Labour can pop up again with a new, smooth, television-friendly leader and trade on the inevitable failure of the preceding government.

So, as read in the Guardian, Labour may actually have won by losing.  And here are some tunes.  Utterly unrelated tunes!

Toadcast #122 – The Greencast

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01. Loch Lomond – Spine (05.49)
02. The Man From Delmonte – Drive Drive Drive (13.00)
03. The Magnetic Fields – Drive On Driver (15.24)
04. Modernaire – Bloodshed in the Woodshed (21.27)
05. Rats With Wings – Hungry Like the Wolf (29.27)
06. Pet Shop Boys – Rent (36.09)
07. David Bowie – Let’s Dance (40.59)
08. Huey Lewis & the News – The Power of Love (54.50)
09. Glaciers – Brooklyn (61.15)
10. The Moulettes – Bloodshed in the Woodshed (71.25)

Time again for bit of a Song, by Toad Records and Various Other Bollocks update, because there are several little bits of news in which you may all be interested.  No, make that very interested.

I’ll start with the tour stuff, I think.

Meursault get back from their European tour this weekend, and I am generously going to give them about half an hour to rest and recuperate, before getting the lazy fuckers’ noses back to the grindstone.  They are playing a homecoming gig at next Friday’s (21st) This Is Music birthday party at Sneaky Pete’s.  This will be packed, noisy and sweaty, so I recommend you get your tickets early because Sneaky’s just ain’t that big.  Tickets here.

The following night, Neil will also be playing some solo acoustic bits and pieces to open Toad and Ruth’s Toad and Ruth Gig With Toad and Ruth and Sam and Ritchie and Leif and Neil (which is a damn snappy title, if you ask me).  That night will take place in the brilliant Queen Charlotte Rooms in Leith, and is also part of Loch Lomond’s Night Bats EP launch tour.  Leif Vollebekk is playing as well, the amazing Sam Amidon is headlining, and because this is a Bowery night there will also be poetry readings and crafts.  There are only eighty tickets available, so I’d get them in advance if I were you – from here.  If everyone from the Facebook thingies actually comes, we’ll need the room twice.

Loch Lomond‘s Night Bats tour has been fleshed out with a couple of London dates.  As well as playing the first ever Song, by Toad Night in Glasgow (Mono, Wednesday 19th May, tickets here) they will be playing:
Tuesday 18th: Electroacoustic at the Slaughtered Lamb, London.
Wednesday 19th: Mono, Glasgow, with Meursault.
Thursday 20th: The Tunnels, Aberdeen, with The Tim and Sam Band.
Friday 21st: The Barrels Alehouse, Berwick, with The Tim and Sam Band.
*Saturday 22nd: Avalanche Records instore, Edinburgh, 5.30pm* – TENTATIVE.
Saturday 22nd: Queen Charlotte Rooms, Leith, with Sam Amidon.
Sunday 23rd: The Black Heart, Camden, London, with The Ghost Bees.

Loch Lomond – Tic

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Next, we have three definite releases scheduled before the end of the year, and two slightly more uncertain ones.

Inspector Tapehead‘s debut album, Duress Code was scheduled for release in Summer 2008 and is, er, finally finished. I’ve been a fan of theirs for ages so I am bloody thrilled that they want to release it with us, and the album itself is fucking great.  They’ll be booking a bit of a tour for September to promote it, with the release date currently down as being August 17th, if I remember correctly.

Inspector Tapehead – Sugar on Your Sheets

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Yusuf Azak has also finished his album, which he has rather unimaginatively titled ‘Yusuf Azak’s Album’.  I don’t know if that’s final or not, but in any case, it too is bloody gorgeous, and is scheduled for release in September/October or so.  I’ve been hassling Yusuf about this record for ages now, and I think I may have finally bored him into submission.

Yusuf Azak – Eastern Sun

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The Savings and Loan album was due out around Christmas last year, and will now be out at Christmas this year.  I reckon early December, it’s that kind of album.  Anyhow, Andrew and Martin have been tinkering with their original EP and have now fleshed it out to a full album.

The Savings and Loan – Her Window

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As well as those three, we have Animal Magic Tricks in the studio*, recording an album with Neil Meursault, and Jesus H. Foxx working on their full length debut.  Until this stuff is actually finished I can’t really give you much more detail, but they are both going to be on Song, by Toad Records and I am really excited to hear both records.

Further to that – yes, there’s more – Rob St.John has written an album’s worth of new songs, and we are trying to find a good time to get him up to record with Neil in the Summer some time.  Whether he wants to release it with us, as a self-release, or with someone else I don’t think he’s decided just yet, but as far as I am concerned that album has to happen, so anything we can do to make sure it does will be done, irrespective of how he wants to release it.  Oh, and you can bet your arse that Meursault will come up with some stupid project or other before the end of the year, knowing them.  There are rumours of another collaboration in the offing, but that’s all still up in the air.

Jesus donkey-fucking Christ I am going to be fucking busy in the second half of the bloody year.  It hurts just to look at that bloody list.

* By ‘studio’ I really mean our living room.  It sounds better if I say studio though.