So, I’m back from Preston safe and sound, and looking forward to a wee jaunt to London for the Independent Label Market this weekend. It’s all go, here at Toad Hall.

Personally, I am not going to be in Edinburgh that much at all this week, and am popping through to Glasgow to see Sparrow and the Workshop at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy on Wednesday

Also, as Christmas approaches, and everycunt (yes, including Song, by Toad Records) seems to be arranging a Christmas party these days, I think calendars are about to start getting pretty full pretty quickly. This week is still a relatively relaxed affair, however, although the first of the Christmas Parties does show itself, with the awesome Papi Falso happening at Henry’s on Saturday.

As for gigs, however, well there’s a few knocking about. Chad Valley may be a bit too house for me, but I bet there are a good few of you out there pleased to know he’s playing at Sneaky Pete’s tomorrow night.

Again, it’s not my bag, but Tift Merritt (tonight) and Karine Polwart (Friday) are both at the Queen’s Hall this week, although they are perhaps respectively a touch country and a touch trad folk for my taste.

We have the Cancel the Astronauts album launch party at the Electric Circus on Friday, if you’re after a pure indiepop fix, and then two nights of raucous fun at the Wee Red Bar on the weekend. First up, on Saturday there is a four-band bill of Some Skeletons, A Fight You Can’t Win, Black International and Birdhead, and then on Sunday the Lovely Eggs are back in Edinburgh.

 This was a bit of an impromptu excursion, I have to confess, and when I realised I’d forgotten my bank card and turned up at Henry’s with no more than a fiver and a handful of coins in my pocket it looked like just a little more planning might have been advisable.  But it turned out to be a significant enough handful of coins to pay for a couple of pints, in the end, so disappointment was averted.

The gig itself was a Halloween night presented by the relatively new Edinburgh promoter John Truckasaurus, who we collaborated with in moving Viking Moses from his own bill to the lineup for the Rob St. John album launch.  This time he was working with an Edinburgh University-based fanzine The Edinburgh Rascal, and whatever they’re doing, they seem to be doing it right, because Henry’s was bloody busy for a Monday night.

Anyhow, first up were a band called Viennetta, who were pretty decent.  I’ll confess that even though I largely enjoyed it, I wouldn’t describe it as any more than a positive start.  The guitars were strongly reminiscent of The Sound of Young Scotland-era Edinburgh, which is a good thing, but very much smoothed off by the subsequent years of indie-pop, and I guess I wished they’d either be a lot more awkward and challenging, or just go the other way and write a bunch of really catchy pop songs.  Either way, they’re a new band, with more than enough time for development, and I certainly won’t be judging them on the basis of one gig this early in proceedings.

Hearts!Attack followed next, and I am fan of this band, but it didn’t really come across all that well live, unfortunately. Initially the sound guy struggled a bit, but after that the melodies still didn’t quite manage to extricate themselves from the rattle.  The songs I already knew sounded great, because I knew what I was listening for, but it was a bit like listening to music on an old car stereo – fine if you know it, but not the best way to get a feel for something new.

Hearts!attack – If You Were Dead

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After a couple of tepid responses, however, I really enjoyed The Lovely Eggs. If I am being honest, I can find them unbearably twee and cutesy on record.  There comes a point where the kookiness is so extreme that it seems a little forced and I get to the point where I find myself wondering if the band actually have anything to say, or if they’ve just been half-arsing around for the last however-many years.

Live, it’s got a very different feel, however.  The guitar snarls a shitload more, and Holly wails at you like a punk-rock banshee – well,  half the time anyway, the playful ingenue is still there somewhere.  Live, they’re a punk two piece, and the music just has a punch about it which I have yet to really encounter in their recorded stuff.  “Don’t look at me I don’t like it” takes on a whole different complexion when it’s being screeched at you by a short blond lass in a red dress making her guitar squeal like she’d embedded one of her heels in its hand.

The Lovely Eggs – Don’t Look at Me (I Don’t Like It)

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So, this week ends with a massive extravaganza of Toadliness, but it does look like it’ll be relatively quiet along the way as there doesn’t seem to be that much else around until the weekend.  Which is actually alright, sort of, because it gives me a chance to get my shit together in advance of a very busy weekend indeed.

Quite how we’re going to sort the logistics of getting half the bands in Edinburgh to and from Anstruther on Sunday I don’t know, but I am sure we’ll manage somehow.

Anyhow, in the meantime there are obviously good gigs on the weekend of course, but I reckon the dark horse is tonight at Henry’s, where Boston band hearts!attack are playing.

[Edit: fucking hell, what a tool, I managed to miss Kid Canaveral and King Creosote tomorrow at the Liquid Room, and Born to Be Wide Radio Seminar on Thursday at the Electric Circus.  And no-one pulled me up on it - do none of you fuckers read this at all?]

Monday 31st October 2011: Hearts!Attack, The Lovely Eggs & Viennetta at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Some variations on guitar pop going on here, with rough-around-the-edges hearts!attack coming over from Boston, faux-naif you’ve-got-to-be-fucking-having-me-on indie pop from Manchester in the form of the Lovely Eggs, and new(ish – I think!) Edinburgh/Glasgow band Viennetta, who have apparently emerged from some sort of fragments of The Ray Summers and The Damn Shames. Intriguing.

Hearts!attack – If You Were Dead

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Saturday 5th November 2011: The Last Battle, Dad Rocks! & Shoes and Socks Off play the Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Our next Ides of Toad night features the ever-changing lineup of Edinburgh band The Last Battle, along with touring Icelander Dad Rocks! and touring partner Shoes and Socks Off.  Dad Rocks! have a new album out around about now as well, so this’ll be your chance to get hold of a copy.

Dad Rocks! – Aroused By Hair

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Saturday 5th November 2011: PET single launch, with Conquering Animal Sound and Pumajaw at the Voodoo Rooms.

I was fully intending to pretend this gig wasn’t happening, what with it clashing with the Ides of Toad and all, but it’s too good a lineup.  So if any of you are misguided enough not to be at Henry’s for our gig, then this is where you should be. But you’ll all be at ours right.  Right?

PET – What You Building?

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Sunday 6th November 2011: Flamin’ Hott Toadzzz! in the Hew Scott Hall, Anstruther.

Alright, maybe this is in Anstruther rather than Edinburgh, but Fence asked me to put together the lineup for this all-dayer, so it is full half with Toad favourites and half with Fence crowd-pleasers. There will be bangers and mash being served upstairs at the AIA Hall as well, apparently, just to add to the splendidness.

Sunday 6th November 2011: King Charles at Sneaky Pete’s.

King Charles is a bit of a weird one, part acoustic smart-arsery, part spiky, lively pop. I don’t know that much about him, but he was a big favourite of a friend of mine called Chris Imlach who used to do an excellent new music show on Fresh Air when I first started, so it’s nice to see him playing here again – and more excellent booking from Sneaky Pete’s.

King Charles – Love/Lust

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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!

It is a very, very fine Spring day indeed, this morning in Edinburgh, and so needless to say I am going to spend it in my office talking to imaginary people on the internet.

This week we are simply going to have a bit of a trawl through my inbox.  As I mention halfway through the podcast, I now have unlistened albums totalling a mighty one day, eighteen hours and thirty-four minutes worth of music.  So if you are wondering why I haven’t reviewed this that or the other, then that probably has something to do with it.

The trickiest part, of course, is that it’s not enough to simply have listened to something. To actually have anything resembling an intelligent comment to make you need to listen to something really quite often, and know the ins and outs of an album pretty well.  This takes a lot more than just a once-over lasting for one day, eighteen hours and thirty-four minutes.

Direct download: Toadcast #168 – The Springcast

01. The Lovely Eggs – Don’t Look at Me (I Don’t Like It) (00.40)
02. Lady Lazarus – Fighting Words & Fists (06.46)
03. Bill Callahan – Drover (12.09)
04. Evil Hand – Returned in Time (20.32)
05. Weird Era – Garage Honeymoon (24.41)
06. Teens – Golden Years (28.36)
07. The Spook School – Hallam (32.57)
08. The Sandwitches – Lightfoot (38.37)
09. Honeydrum – Human Stuff (45.09)
10. Timber Timbre – Woman (46.42)
11. Clem Snide – Pale Blue Eyes (54.29)

[In this week's Sunday Supplement, our favourite raconteur and bon vivant Campfires & Battlefields talks us through his experiences at this year's South By Southwest festival, which included meeting a certain infamous amphibian acquaintance of ours. Don't forget, if you'd like to contribute to the Sunday Supplements, just email your article in to sunday(at)songbytoad.com]

Well that was fun.

I flew into Austin pretty late on the Tuesday night, but my SXSW experience really began a few hours earlier, while I waited for my connecting flight out of Dallas.  Anyone who has passed through the Dallas Airport knows that it’s typically all ten-gallon hats, oversized NASCAR belt buckles, and poorly-concealed firearms.  But on this one night, in this one terminal, the place was almost entirely given over to the pallid, assless hipster set in their tight black jeans, one knot of whom particularly caught my eye.  There were five of them, and they were almost complete strangers to one another, having just met about ten minutes before, but despite all this they were busily hatching a plan to rent a car together so they could cover that last few hundred miles to Austin in case they didn’t get a standby seat on the plane.  I shuddered and thought to myself, “this is how horror movies begin,” then gratefully patted my inside pocket for the hundredth time, just to make sure my plane ticket was still there.  It was, and so I boarded, my head filled with disturbing visions of those poor suburban youths, stranded along some lonely stretch of highway in an overheated Kia, easy prey for any one of the thousands of sunken-eyed drifters who vote in Texas elections every year.  May god have mercy on their souls.

Anyhoo, what can I say?  SXSW was a complete blast.  Even better than I’d expected.  In four days I think I saw about 30 bands, including Shearwater twice, Liars (who fucked me right in the ear socket and made me their bitch), Quasi, Plants and Animals, The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Low Anthem, Fanfarlo, Timber Timbre, Basia Bulat, Midlake, Twin Atlantic, We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Black Angels, The Wave Pictures, Slow Club, Titus Andronicus, Japandroids, Morning Benders, St. Deluxe, Lou Barlow, Yellow Fever, The Lovely Eggs, yadda yadda yadda.  I saw bands in proper clubs and I saw bands in churches and hotel lobbies and clothing stores and pizza parlors and bowling alleys and vacant lots.  And all over the streets.  Highly concentrated musical awesomeness from 11:30 am to 2:30 am every day, plus vast quantities of free beer, tasty chow, and about a million people all being remarkably civil to one another.  And great weather, except for Saturday, which was freezing and raw but still a good day for boozin’ and chattin’.   What’s not to love?

In my inexperience I bought a SXSW wristband and stayed at a hotel out near the Austin airport, so I needed to take a shuttle back and forth every day and night.  It was fine, but in retrospect I probably should’ve passed on the wristband and shuttle and put my money to better use by getting a hotel room right in downtown Austin, within staggering distance of Sixth Street, SXSW ground zero.  The wristband doesn’t guarantee admission to shows, it just allows the wearer to enter official showcases before the proletariat and without paying a cover charge.  But seeing as the wristband cost $165 while the cover charges were only $15-$20 per showcase, I didn’t like how the math turned out at the end of the week.  The unofficial day parties, where I saw one amazing band after another, were free and wide open to the public, wristband or not, although a few (like the Paste Magazine party) required people to RSVP online beforehand, which is not particularly burdensome.  If you can drag yourself out of bed by noon, getting into these day parties is not difficult.  I highly recommend it.

As good as the music was, the fellowship was better.  I got to spend some time with Matthew, who turned out to be an excellent companion despite the odor, and I also met Peej, Esquire, and the lovely ladies in his life, the Honorable Vic Galloway who hospitably offered me a cigarette about five seconds after meeting him (a simple but endearing, open-handed gesture I thought), a very sweet kiwi songstress named Michelle, and a drunk guy on the street who used Michelle’s camera to take pictures of his own ass.  Good peoples all.  And at long last, I managed to see Broken Records perform live.  In fact, I got to see them play two absolutely scorching sets in two very different venues, and even had the good fortune to meet those enterprising Sutherland boys and nearly the whole Broken Records posse.  Pardon me for getting all fan-boy, but that felt good.  They made a gorgeous racket and did Edinburgh proud, rest assured.  Oh, and during “the pause” in Slow Parade?  Total silence.

Guy Clark – Dublin Blues

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Liars – Mr. Your on Fire Mr.

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The Black Angels – Black Grease

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The Lovely Eggs – Have You Ever Heard A Digital Accordion?

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Broken Records – Slow Parade

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Oh dear god almighty I have a hangover.  Fucking bastard music people.  Last night there was gigging and drinking and wandering the streets of a most balmy and pleasant Edinburgh with an assortment of miscreants and other ne’er-do-wells.  We saw Honeytrap and Meursault play at Sneaky Pete’s – I was recording this podcast, hence late for X-Lion Tamer, sorry to both Ed and Tony – and it was fucking amazing.

And after that there was drinking.  Fuck me there was lots of drinking.  And then I came home and went into the local all night shop and purchased a couple of steaks for late-night snacking purposes, and was harassed by a bunch of young lads when I came out.  Not harassed in a bad way, but I think I was asked to buy them some fags or something like that.  Anyhow, the conversation… erm, well I’m not really sure how the conversation went, because I was fucking hammered, but at some point the van came up, which was parked just along the road.  So, ah, for some slightly bizarre reason I ended up with five high school lads and me sat in the van with the stereo up fucking loud – so loud apparently that you could hear it all the way down the street.  Or, at least, so Mrs. Toad tells me.  Because at some point she came home from wherever it was she was out drinking and hopped in as well.

So, after a little van-based rocking out, they came back into the house for a bit and Mrs. Toad played them Motorhead and The Sex Pistols and The Wedding Present so fucking loud the windows shook.  Funnily enough, these nice, polite lads kept insisting throughout that we should just let them know when we were bored and we would like them to go.  Such nice, polite boys!  I think one of them even did the dishes.  I didn’t want to have to try and explain what a couple of total fucking bozos they were dealing with, but erm, yeah, that was our Friday night.  Weird, huh?  I think we went to bed at about five, eventually.  And now to record a couple of Toad Sessions, at least one with a very, very hung over band.

Toadcast #71 – The Tough Lovecast

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01. Belle & Sebastian – Take Your Carriage Clock & Shove It (03.46)
02. Adam Balbo – Debating a Time Metaphor (07.16)
03. The Sequins – The Usual Delights (14.05)
04. Situationists – A Cold Front (16.31)
05. Blur – Out of Time (23.02)
06. New Ruins – Symptoms (32.37)
07. The Laurel Collective – Hindenburg Mile High Club (41.26)
08. The Lovely Eggs – Tyrannosaurus Rex for Christmas (45.07)
09. The Empty Set – A Challenge to Copernicus (49.34)
10. Honeytrap – Mussolini’s Son (55.29)

This is the last Song, by Toad show on Fresh Air for this term – so the last one until about October time, basically.  As the band are long time Toad friends, and as their long (loooong)-awaited debut album is being released on Monday, it seemed only fitting that Broken Records pop into the studio and have a chat about things, talk through the album itself (read: TOAD EXCLUSIVE!!!1!1 or something like that), and generally shoot the breeze.

To tune in, go to the Fresh Air homepage and click on the big Listen Now button on the left hand side, from about 6.30pm-8pm, UK time.  As per usual, I’ll fill in the playlist below, and you can take the opportunity to leave compliments, questions and abuse in the comments section as you see fit.

01. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Hard to be a Saint in the City (Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1975)
02. White Antelope – Wild Mountain Thyme
03. Broken Records – Wolves (Toad Session)
04. Linfinity – Holy Rain
05. Ambulances – Come With Us
06. Broken Records – Lies
07. Sparrow & the Workshop – Last Chance (Toad Session)
08. The Lovely Eggs – Have You Ever Heard a Digital Accordion
09. The Low Miffs – Dear Josephine
10. Broken Records – Nearly Home
11. Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark

Whee – pub!

This week I discovered Women’s Shoes Syndrome.  I wore leather shoes for the first time in something like six years on Saturday and Christ am I paying the price now.  I’m sure the women reading this are most likely to be making comments along the lines of men not being able to take the suffering and not really understanding the concept of pain and childbirth is shit etc etc etc but that really isn’t my question.  My question is Why?  Honestly, if it’s always this painful, why the fuck do you bother?  It’s the equivalent of a child burning itself on the stove.  If, after repeatedly causing yourself considerable pain, you do not cease to do the thing which causes you pain then what the fuck is in your head?  That’s crazy talk.  Meet your new friend, Mr. Pair of Trainers – comfortable, soft and will never bite you angrily in the heel for no reason.  Christ, how much better do you think these things make you look, that you’re prepared to go through this every goddam time?

In other news, tonight I will be commencing work on a painting for the next Toad Records release, because it really is high time that was finished.  One thing that will be finished this week is my run of shows on Fresh Air.  It’s the end of term and the station shuts down over the Summer, so Tuesday will be the last Song, by Toad show until some time in September, I think – maybe even October.  This is a shame as I find the Fresh Air shows tremendous fun, but it’s hard enough to get students into university during term time, never mind the holidays, and it is a student radio station after all.  Gigs… well, maybe towards the end of the week.  Limbo looks good this week, and there’s no way I am missing Meursault and Honeytrap on Friday.

Monday 25th May 2009: Zoey Van Goey & We See Lights at the Bowery.

Zoey Van Goey have a new album out round about now, which is encouraging news.  I know scandalously little about them, but their indie-pop is very much respected amongst people whose opinions I trust, so if you have some time tonight this should be a good evening.
Zoey Van Goey – City is Exploding

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Thursday 28th May 2009: The Lovely Eggs, Second Hand Marching Band & The Pineapple Chunks play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

The Lovely Eggs, from what little I know about them (ie: a cursory MySpace listen) seem like they are completely mental, but in the best possible way.  The Pineapple Chunks have a similar, slightly spasmodic element to them, but where this fits with the loveliness of the Second Hand Marching Band alt-folk hydra is a little beyond me.  Should be a good night though.
The Lovely Eggs – Sexual Cowboy

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Thursday 28th May 2009: St. Deluxe, Gothenburg Address & Bronto Skylift play Skinny Dip at the Bongo Club.

Whilst this lineup doesn’t excite me very much (anyone championed by Alan McGhee is to be treated with deep, deep suspicion) what is interesting is seeing the Skinny start to move into gig promotion.  Given their involvement with music retail in the form of Ten Tracks, their involvement with the local music scene is becoming pretty varied, it seems.  Good on them.
St. Deluxe – New Wave Stars

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Friday 29th May 2009: Meursault, Honeytrap & X-Lion Tamer at Sneaky Pete’s.

I am really excited to see Honeytrap at long last.  They were one of the first small bands I ever discovered after Song, by Toad finally drifted into its current guise.  Infuriatingly, I found out about them something like a week after they’d played Henry’s, and it’s been something like two years of waiting before I’ve had a second chance to see them live.  I will not be passing this one up.
Honeytrap – Broken Violin

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Saturday 30th May 2009: Cancel the Astronauts, Moustache of Insanity & Conquering Animal Sound play The Gentle Invasion night at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Moustache of Insanity pretty much lay their cards on the table with their choice of name, and Conquering Animal Sound is the first outing for a new project involving Jamie from the excellent Japanese War Effort.  Headliners this month are Edinburgh indie boys Cancel the Astronauts, who have a new EP available for sale, called I am the President of Your Fanclub, and Last Night I Followed You Home.  Freaks.
Cancel the Astronauts – Country Song

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