The more I read about Johny Lamb from Thirty Pounds of Bone before this session, the more nervous I became. The internet seemed to be full of all sorts of tales of him being reclusive, antisocial and very, very hard on interviewers.
Now, the press can be a little unreliable at the best of times, and personality-based reports of this nature can vary from person to person, but it almost comical how completely different this session was to my expectations. Johny was friendly, perhaps a little shy, genuinely chatty and a lovely guy. In fact, in terms of the interview podcast I think this is probably the most interesting one we’ve ever had.
Thanks are due to Mrs. Toad for the splendid bacon sarnies, to Dylan and Fiona who took the pictures, and to Matthew who did a lot of the filming. 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!
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01. Thirty Pounds of Bone – The Maritime Line (Toad Session) (11.02)
02. Birdengine – Scarecrow and the Longpig (19.00)
03. Dad Rocks – Aroused By Hair (23.36)
04. Thirty Pounds of Bone – A Lesson in Talking (Toad Session) (37.19)
05. Le Reno Amps – You Must Remember (42.47)
06. Mary Hampton – Ballad of the Talking Dog (44.56)
07. Thirty Pounds of Bone – The Jonah Shanty (Toad Session) (57.37)
08. Diamond Family Archive – I Have Forgotten (66.16)
09. Men Diamler – Waiting for the Snow to Thaw Pt. 2 (68.22)
10. Thirty Pounds of Bone – Uyeasound (Toad Session) (82.44)
Well the mammoth video nightmare of the last week is nearly over. This week I will be working in the Meursault tour diary from when they went away to the North of England for a few days in our big green van. They recorded some excellent sessions while they were touring, including three songs in the back of the van from some campsite in, erm, Lancashire somewhere I think, and also a few songs at a bandstand in Newcastle. The tour diary itself might just be mental, and but for some judicial editing could easily become the most offensive musical document ever recorded (thank you Fraser, Preston’s a bit ‘rapey’ is it?) so I hope I can get it trimmed down to something vaguely family friendly before I go away.
Here’s a preview for those of you who are interested – this is a version of a new song called Sleet, as played in the Newcastle bandstand to an appreciative audience of a great many birds, and no, not the kind your average rock star aspires to have in his audience either:
As you know, Mrs. Toad and I are off in Italy for a couple of weeks from this coming Saturday and in our absence the splendid Three Toadsketeers of Dylan, Bart and Euan have agreed to take over the Good Ship Toad. I will be enforcing a strict regime of alcoholism and offending vegetarians, so it should hopefully not be too far from the sort of unprofessional garbage you’re used to around here. But I owe them all a massive thank you for taking this on, because I think it will be much nicer for everyone than just leaving it quiet for two weeks.
So, before I bugger off, what will I be attending? Some of these things, I suspect:
Formerly Davie Fiddle and tour-mates of Mumford & Sons, these chaps play a very English-sounding indie folk. If anything, actually, it harks back more to the folk rock of the late 80s and early 90s rather than the more glacial stuff of the last couple of years. Cherbourg – Man
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This is the official launch for the EP Withered Hand recorded with King Creosote earlier this year. He’s currently working on an album, which is almost through the mixing process and vaguely pencilled in for release in August or September this year, I believe. The album is a full band job, but this EP is a much more acoustic, and the lineup for the launch party is nothing if not eclectic. Incidentally, I filmed a couple of songs by Emily Scott at Homegame but she still hasn’t got back to me to tell me what they’re called. They can be viewed here and here if anyone can supply me with the missing information! Withered Hand – Shooby (Demo)
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Cheveu are French and a little bit mental from the sounds of it. Still, this kind of, erm, noisy, crackly post-stuff music should make for a good evening. I hesitate to imagine what it might sound like live, but I think this is one of those gigs where you just have to turn up and see what the hell you get. Support comes from the very promising White Heath, making what is I believe their Bowery debut. Cheveu – Like a Deer in the Headlights
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Woodenbox are a terrific live band, who have been working on some new recordings recently – as, incidentally, have the Kays Lavelle. The former play stomping Americana, full of brass and rhythm, and the latter play piano-led indie ballads, which cross over into that sort of post-rock atmospheric aesthetic from time to time. And both bands now share a piano player, as far as I am aware. Kristoffer Morgan is a bit of a mystery to me, I must confess, this being the first time I think I’ve seen his name on a bill in these parts. Woodenbox – Situations (I think this was recorded before the addition of the Fivers)
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This is a crossover night between the ever-excellent This is Music characters and Crystal Wish Records, with a lineup full of bands I’ve never heard of. Crystal Wish appear to be pretty electronically and experimentally orientated though, and these are always great nights, so I’d definitely recommend popping along. This is Music generally do a podcast as well, in advance of their night, and that will appear here at some point in the next week, I assume.
I don’t really know what to expect from this gig. The Foundling Wheel and Wounded Knee are a little more experimental than Meursault tend to be most of the time, but Meursault have been slipping some new material into their recent Edinburgh gigs and they definitely have it in them to be a little weird from time to time, so this might well be a bit of a treat for everyone. If you like your music a little off the beaten track, that is. The Foundling Wheel – Out to See
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Diane Cluck is an (anit-)folk legend, so I really wouldn’t miss this if I were you. Unless you’re going to the Wee Red, because I wouldn’t miss that either. Thank fuck I’m not here to have to make this terrible decision! Diane Cluck – Save Me
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Phew, and I thought it was going to be a quick on this week!
You can’t fucking move in Edinburgh this week but for accidentally walking in on a quality gig. Honestly, you could end up with a liver like a cricket ball if you went to all of the bastards, so there may be a few orange juice gigs (yes, I know, boom-tish and all that) for me this week, or I’ll have to spend all of December sobering up.
Given what Christmas is generally like anyway, I suspect that’s what January is likely to be for but, as with Christmas itself, it seems that the party season is starting earlier than ever this year. Anyhow, there are a couple of really major ones this week, so unless you are at gigs from Wednesday until Sunday with barely a pause for breath, then bollocks to you.
Wednesday 26th November 2008: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds at the Corn Exchange.
I don’t think I need to tell you what a legend I think Nick Cave is. Along with Tom Waits and Bob Dylan he forms some sort of Unholy Trinity here at Song, by Toad and as his age increases so, seemingly, does his swagger. Dig, Lazarus, Dig may not have been the most brilliant of his albums, but the stage show is still pretty amazing, helped considerably by the presence of demonic dervish Warren Ellis, torturing his violin to within an inch of its life. Not to be missed.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Opium Tea
Wednesday 26th November 2008: Mary Hampton & Pete Greenwood bring the Green Man Tour to the Bowery.
If you can’t face the plastic glassed, beer stained, sweaty aircraft hangar which is the Corn Exchange then this is place for you. The Bowery’s cosy setting is as perfect as I can imagine for the kind of delicate folk that the Green Man tour will be bringing to town. Peter Greenwood is a little more popsome than Mary Hampton, so the two should provide a nice counterpoint to one another and a splendid evening altogether.
Pete Greenwood – Negotiations & Last Words
Thursday 27th November 2008: The Limbo 1st Birthday Party at the Voodoo Rooms, with Micachu, A-Lix, Dead Boy Robotics & Ex Lion Tamer.
Quite how Limbo have managed to put on a gig every week for a year is bloody well beyond me. This will be at the dancier, electro-spazzier end of the spectrum of music you’ll hear about on this site, but then again this is supposed to a party after. So well done to Dave and Andy at Limbo, and you can be assured that I will be there with bells on. And, while we’re at it, well done to Ex Lion Tamer on signing with Seventeen Seconds Records.
Ex Lion Tamer – Go Ghost
Thursday 27th November 2008: Oxjam at the Hive, with Thieves in Suits, My Tiny Robots, Found, Sorren MacLean, Black Diamond Express Saint Jude’s Infirmary & the Wee Baby Jesuses.
Forgive me if I don’t link to every single MySpace page for this one, but you can all use Google. This is the second of two nights in the capital this week with an all-star lineup of bands and all sorts of shadowy-sounding extra entertainment, like Ox-Factor stage, a Guitar Hero Arena and a cocktail bar.
Friday 28th November 2008: Withered Hand, Ish Marquez, Stanley Brinks and an Uber-Secret Special Guest at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
Even without the Very Special Guest this is a pretty special lineup for fans of scratchy anti-folk twisted with unrest and disquiet. Withered Hand is pretty much head of the Edinburgh arm of the anti-folk society, and certainly the one who fits most cleanly with their sound.
Jeffrey Lewis – If You Shoot the Head You Kill the Ghoul
Saturday 29th November 2008: White Heath & Fanattica at The Tron.
I am not entirely convinced about White Heath’s recordings on their MySpace page, but Euan put them on at Trampoline the other week and said that they were excellent live, so this should be worth checking out. Recorded, there is quite a straightforward indie rock foundation to songs subsequently spiced up with real instruments. Live apparently there is much more of an unhinged carnival atmosphere than I have thus far detected, so maybe it’s just not quite been captured on the recordings. Fanattica are excellent live, with plenty of influence from the considerable Edinburgh Polish population, which they churn up with plenty of spirit and deliver with plenty of mayhem.
Saturday 29th November 2008: Gimme Shelter at the Caves, with pretty much the cream of the Edinburgh music scene. I can’t be arsed linking all the MySpace pages, but here’s the list: Broken Records, Ballboy, Wake the President, Steve Mason (DJ Set), The European Union, De Rosa, Found (DJ Set), Withered Hand, Meursault, eagleowl, Jesus H Foxx, Little Pebble, The Kays Lavelle, Team Turnip, Kat Healy. Basically, as you can probably tell, one great big fuck off extravaganza of music. Surprisingly enough, my tip for the day is Team Turnip. It may be a silly name, but Russell was one of the first people to ever submit music to Song, by Toad and his songwriting is really good. He’s been under the radar somewhat since then, so I’ll be really interested to see how he’s getting on after almost two years.
Did I mention that my head hurt on the Saturday? Would you be surprised to know that it hurt on the Sunday as well? Didn’t think so. I skipped Beefball, to my shame, and only managed to pootle along to music-related shenanigans by about two in the afternoon. It was like being a student again.
In fact so severe was my hangover that the only thing you could really do with it was give the bastard a taste of its own medicine, so yes, more beer it was! I bumped into The Pictish Trail on the way down to the Hew Scott Hall, and he was nice about Mary Hampton that I decided to see what the lass was made of. She was a skinny lass and friendly of demeanour, and played her songs with an intense, otherworldy air to her. It was nice – lovely English folk in the modern hippy style, if you know what I mean. That and a couple of quick bottles of Becks made for a fine way to ease into the day.
I tried to get in to see James Yorkston, but by the time we made it up to the hall it would have involved climbing over half of Homegame, so there seemed no real point – grab a paper and head to the pub. There is little more pleasant than convivially drinking away your hangover in the pub on a Sunday, as Scotland’s weather never quite makes up its mind outside. It was almost a shame there was all this bloody music to intrude on matters.
Again, I found myself taking it kind of easy on the Sunday evening – relaxing in the Hew Scott Hall at the Red Deer Club night, and enjoying some bloody marvellous acts*, like George Thomas, Sara Lowes and Magic Arm. The latter two have released superb mini albums this year, and their performances here had all the wit and warmth of those records. I was a bit pished by this point, and had wandered over to Dunc le Chunk to ask about the re-jigged lineup and ended up pestering him, Sara and Marc from Magic Arm for most of the rest of the evening. The shame of it.
Anyhow, assuming I didn’t ruin their evening, I certainly didn’t ruin my own, which was brilliant. Again, folk wandered in and out from time to time, and I ended up chattering with all sorts of people I didn’t really know particularly, but who were unfailingly tolerant of my drunken enthusiasm. The gigs themselves were really excellent as well. It was such a relaxed, friendly atmosphere that it seemed to spread to the musicians themselves, as they all appeared to take it pretty easy, enjoy the evening and play with a kind of relaxed ease that made the evening such a pleasure. It really was like they’d just popped round your house to play some songs and have a laugh.
Magic Arm – Move Out
Sara Lowes – Down & Out
*Did you know that The Red Deer Club released the Moulettes EP earlier this year? No, me neither, first I’d heard about it.
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