Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr – Blueback Hotrod
Free mp3 downloads: zip file (right click – save as)

I first got into The Scottish Enlightenment back in 2007 when they released the Eyes single on Moojuice Records.  Then they went silent for a couple of years, to the extent that I thought they might have actually called it a day, but last year they came back stronger than ever before.

Two fantastic EPs and an equally excellent album were released on Glasgow’s rather awesome Armellodie Records, and in general I think it’s fair to say that it was a toss-up between them and Kid Canaveral as to who I thought the Scottish band of 2011 was (*cough cough* Song, by Toad Records bands apart of course)

Mrs. Toad operated one of the video cameras this time, and Dylan was on still and video cameras.  I recorded and edited this one – the first full band I’ve recorded since Sparrow and the Workshop back in 2008.  As per usual we have the podcast below, the freely downloadable session mp3s underneath that, followed by the videos we made for all the individual songs.  The tracklisting for the podcast is at the very bottom of the page.  Enjoy!

Direct download: Toadcast #177 – The Scottish Enlightenment Toad Session

The Scottish Enlightenment – Black Dog

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The Scottish Enlightenment – Earth Angel

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The Scottish Enlightenment – Get My Limousine

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The Scottish Enlightenment – The Universe is Drifting Apart

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01. The Scottish Enlightenment – Black Dog (Toad Session) (07.53)
02. Mitchell Museum – Warning Bells (14.53)
03. Lower Dens – I Get Nervous (18.54)
04. The Scottish Enlightenment – Earth Angel (Toad Session) (33.00)
05. At the Drive In – Arcarsenal (43.15)
06. Low – Starfire (46.10)
07. The Scottish Enlightenment – Get My Limousine (Toad Session) (55.55)
08. Eef Barzelay – The Ballad of Bitter Honey (63.25)
09. Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper (67.14)
10. The Scottish Enlightenment – The Universe is Drifting Apart (Toad Session) (79.47)

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

I love videos like these.  Some Australian chappie made loads, and I stumbled across them a few months ago and just couldn’t stop watching them.

You know, the funny thing about quitting my job is how incredibly easy I have found it to be disciplined about my new job.  I don’t sleep in, I still work late, although not as crazily late as I used to have to, and I don’t even skive and piss about on the internet during the day.

This morning, however, I slept in.  Shit.  Until eleven, which is quite bad, and even then I had to drag myself out of bed like a member of the living dead.  I’ve always been a sleeper, however.  I can miss out on all the sleep in the world by staying up late, but for some reason getting up early is absolutely beyond me.  To tackle this, Mrs. Toad makes me get up and drive her to work in the morning these days, which ensure I am out and about by nine every morning.

This makes plenty of sense, because once you’re up, you’re up, really, aren’t you, and it seems to work… until a band buggers off in the van meaning that whatever my good intentions, I can’t drive her to work, which is what happened this morning.  And there’s something deeply unsatisfying about sleeping in when you are your own boss and the only person getting cheated is YOU!  Dammit, world, what have you done to one of my great pleasures in life?

So yes, wake up, rub your eyes and de-lurk, for ’tis Friday, the day for drinking, fornicating and snoozing at your desk in the mid-afternoon!

1. Do you have a really bad sleeping in story?
2. Would you rather work late or get up early if you have a lot of shit to do.
3. Favourite sleeping place.
4. Which dead music publication do you miss the most?
5. If you were starting a music magazine, name one thing you definitely would or would not do.

This Friday’s five tunes are all from the covermount CD of an old Comes With a Smile issue.  The late, very much lamented Comes With a Smile.

Low – Walk into the Sea (Acoustic Version)

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Jens Lekman – No Time for Breaking Up

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Dolorean – Holding On (Live)

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Brendan Benson – Between Us (Uncensored Version)

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The Eighteenth Day of May – Sir Casey Jones

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