[Edit: The Mammoeth album launch night and my pal Morgan's first ever gig ever anywhere ever have been added to the bottom of the listings.  Sorry chaps.]

That Summertime music wasteland has very much settled on Edinburgh in the last couple of weeks, leaving absolutely sweet fuck all on the calendar on a boringly regular basis.

Fortunately, August is shaping up to be very interesting indeed, with the return of the ear-caressing, liver-punchingly contradictory Retreat Festival now booked in for August 28th and 29th.

Whenever anyone mentions retreat I can’t stop myself thinking of Admiral Ackbar saying ‘I saw it.  All craft prepare to retreat.’ in Return of the Jedi.  Erm, but, er, don’t worry.  I am going to take my pills and have a lie down.

Friday 23rd July 2010: Don McGlashan & Daniel Abercrombie at Cabaret Voltaire.

I first found out about Don McGlashan back in about 1995 or 6 when his band The Mutton Birds played King Tut’s in Glasgow.  One of my flatmates had a pal from school visiting and we were at a bit of a loss as to how to entertain her, so we took a flier on a gig at Tut’s on the back of little more than a couple of positive paragraphs we found in the local press.

It was an ill-considered and entirely spontaneous expedition, but we all absolutely loved the band.  McGlashan himself would occasionally play a euphonium on stage, and as well as adding to the music, it added a lot to the intrigue of the live performance.

I have to confess I have no idea what he’s been up to since the last Mutton Birds album I bought (back in something like 1998 or something like that) but I remember this particular discovery with real affection.

The Mutton Birds – The Heater

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The Mutton Birds – Envy of Angels

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Saturday 24th July 2010: Mammoeth album launch at the Wee Red Bar.

Russell from Mammoeth’s previous incarnation was one of the first times a local band got in touch with me to ask me to review their music.  I think Alex Cornish and Rob St. John were the others.  Anyway, some three years later, here is Russell’s debut album, and the debut release on Mini50 Records – apologies for missing it out the first time around.

Mammoeth – Trigonometry (Live on Fresh Air Radio)

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Sunday 25th July 2010: The Barrett Wise 3 & The Janet Effect at the Roxy Art House.

The Janet Effect are my friend Morgan’s band.  I remember being in Holland in 1997 when he picked up a guitar for the first time, and after all these years he has finally got his shit together to start a band!  And do a gig!  I know!  They may be absolute shite, they may be brilliant, I have absolutely no idea, but I am going to be along anyway, whatever happens.

I am not sure I need to say much about this.  If you want to know what I think about Mammoeth, you can go to the recent interview Ruth and I did with Russell on Fresh Air Radio recently.

This video is the first from his forthcoming debut album (26th July), and I know I am a bit of an animation fetishist, but I think it looks gorgeous.  In fact, if you go to the Mammoeth site you’ll see that the whole graphical style of everything is really, really good. I am envious.

This is the last of the sessions Ruth and I did on our Fresh Air show this year, and it can finally, finally be posted here for your listening and viewing pleasure.  Apologies to Russell from Mammoeth for the wait, but given he has a an album launch coming in a few weeks I don’t think the timing is too bad, actually.

Nascent is being released on Mini50 Records, the label which Russell himself helps to run, and there are launch gigs coming up on July 24th at the Wee Red in Edinburgh and 25th at the Classic Grand in Glasgow.

I’m actually talking to Fresh Air about potentially getting some stuff done during the Festival actually.  There are a few bands I am going to try and interview and potentially get in for sessions, so keep an eye on things over August.

Mammoeth Fresh Air Session

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Mammoeth – Scramble Eggs (Live on FreshAir.org.uk)

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Mammoeth – Trigonometry (Live on FreshAir.org.uk)

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Mammoeth – I’m Glad That I Died Today (Live on FreshAir.org.uk)

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Mammoeth – Wendy House (Live on FreshAir.org.uk)

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I managed to miss last week’s Fresh Air show because… well I somehow failed to realise that the bloody station was back on the air, which is spectacularly dumb. This week I present Toad and Ruth’s Toad and Ruth Show With Toad and a Little Bit Less Ruth Than Usual, or indeed any Ruth at all because the lovely herself can’t make it tonight, so you will be treated to the wonderful pleasure of listening to me burble on to myself about tunes and stuff and stuff and some tunes and then probably some more stuff just to cap it off.

Live on Air 8.30pm-10pm – Listen live here.

01. Langhorne Slim – I Love You, But Goodbye
02. Saint Etienne – Nothing Can Stop Us Now
03. The Left Banke – Evening Gown
04. Bettye Swann – Don’t Look Back
05. Lee Dorsey – My Old Car
06. The Scottish Enlightenment – All Homemade Things
07. Super Adventure Club – Hip Hop Hot Pot Pot Noodle
08. Sam Amidon – Fiddle Mayhem (Toad Session)
09. The Shaggs – What Are Parents
10. Nico Muhly – The Only Tune
11. Phil & the Osophers – Uses of a Man
12. David Tattersall – The Old Family
13. Grandaddy – Fuck the Valley Fudge
14. Elvis Perkins in Dearland – I Heard Your Voice in Dresden
15. Songdog – Obediah’s Waltz

Next week we have the splendid Loch Lomond live in session, and to tide you over until then the videos from Mammoeth’s session on the show are below the jump.  The tracklisting for tonight’s show will appear below live as we go along, and feel free to heckle in the comments.

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome back to the Song, by Toad Fresh Air show, with the lovely Ruth.  This week we have Russell from Mammoeth live in session, although the poor bugger’s already done a brilliant session for us before Christmas which was unfortunately swallowed by the Fresh Air computers, which are a bit like a suspiciously special needs version of Hal most of the time.

Last week’s Session with The Last Battle can be found at the bottom of the page, in the form of downloadable session tracks, a podcast of the interview and session videos.  The sound is really nice considering there were six of them and we only have two microphones.

Live on Air 8pm-9.30pm – Listen live here.

I’ll fill in the playlist live below from 8pm onwards, so please come and say hello, shout mindless abuse or whatever else it is you internet people spend your time doing.

1. The Besnard Lakes – Chicago Train
2. Liars – Scarecrow On A Killer Slant
3. Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse – Revenge
4. Bjork – Generous Palmstroke (Live)
5. Mammoeth- Scrambled Eggs (Live in Session)
6. Dirty Projectors – Two Doves
7. Mammoeth – Trigonometry (Live in Session)
8. Berzilla Wallin – Conversation with Death (Oh Death)
9. Sparklehorse – Heart of Darkness
10. Mammoeth – I’m Glad That I Died Today (Live in Session)
11. Mammoeth – Lap Dog
12. Fleetwood Mac – Honey Hi
13. Mammoeth – Wendy House (Live in Session)
14. Blur – Out of Time
15. Joanna Newsom – ’81

Last week’s session can be found after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Unfortunately due to technological disasters there was no recording, and not even any broadcasting, of last week’s Mammoeth session I’m afraid.  So I’d like to apologise to Russell, and promise to get him back in next year at the first available opportunity to have another go. I suppose it’s no consolation to any of you for me to tell you that he was really good?  No, thought not.

As for this week, we were supposed to have Dan from Withered Hand and Neil from Meursault doing a joint session, because they are recording a joint EP in the near future and it seemed like a nice idea.  Dan is unable to make it unfortunately, so you will have to make do with Neil I’m afraid.  Fortunately the lad can sing a bit so it’s unlikely to ruin your evening.

As per usual the playlist below will be updated live as we go along, and the comments section will be the best place for all your usual abuse/sniping/snide remarks.

Live on Air 7pm-8.30pm – Listen live here.

This week’s playlist:
1. Shearwater – Castaways
2. Navigator- Work Is Done
3. Meursault – Love or Limb (live in session)
4. Kath Bloom – Come Here
5. Clem Snide – I Heard My Mother  Praying For Me
6. Meursault – An untitled triptych! (live in session)
7. The Libertines – Tell The King
8. The Streets – Same Old Thing
9. Samamidon – Head Over Heels
10. Meursault- What You Don’t Have (live in session)
11. Wounded Knee – Oh My Captain!
12. Meursault – Heaven Waits (live in session)
13. Eagleowl – Sleep the Winter

Yes, it’s Fresh Air time again, and Ruth is back from the bring of death and ready to chatter away once more.  This week we have Russell from Mammoeth playing live in session for us.  He has an album out on Mini50 Records some time in the relatively near future, so we may try an weasel a preview out of him if we can.

We’ve also got some interesting new stuff – Eels released a new song from their forthcoming album just the other day, and we’ll be playing the phenomenal new eagleowl single as well.  We are recording a Toad Session with them in December, which is also really fucking brilliant news.

On air 7pm-8.30pm GMT – listen live here.

This week’s playlist:
1. Modest Mouse – Float On
2. Taken By Trees – Anna
3. Mammoeth – Latin Scribe (Live in Session)
4. Dr. Dog – The World May Never Know
5. Mammoeth – Scramble Eggs (Live in Session)
6. Brian Eno & David Byrne – Strange Overtones
7. Belle & Sebastian – She’s Losing It
8. Arthur Russell – Love is Overtaking Me
9. Mammoeth – Writing on the Walls (Live in Session)
10. Fleetwood Mac – Everywhere

And as always we have last week’s session below the fold – it was with the Pineapple Chunks, and we have downloadable mp3s, and interview podcast and four live videos for you to check out. (All our videos can be found on our Vimeo page.) Read the rest of this entry »