Allow me to introduce the latest release on Song, by Toad Records: Maxwell Panther’s debut album Do You Feel Different Yet?

I know we are more known as a grass roots label who try and nurture local talent (assuming we’re ‘known’ for anything at all, that is), but before the eminently Scottish and highly anticipated releases from Cold Seeds and Meursault later in the year I have two album by non-Scots whose work deserves a lot more than to be lost in the more immediately local focus we tend to engender.

One of those albums is the stunning He Was Such a Quiet Boy by Trips and Falls, and the other is this.  The first time I heard Maxwell’s music I described it as being “rough as a bear’s arse, but fucking ace” and that is still about as good as I can do.

I was a little concerned about how to release this, frankly.  It is indeed rough as a witch’s tits, and so I know it’s not exactly going to become a runaway commercial success, and I know a lot of people will basically just hate it.  I do not care, however.  I love it, and so we’re releasing it, it’s as simple as that.  Maxwell may not record in a polished style, but that’s never been something which has bothered me: basically he is a really bloody good songwriter and that’s the only important part.

We’ve had some really nice reviews so far (from Chris at the Skinny, Aye Tunes, The Devil Has the Best Tuna and Radio Exile) and they all seem to feel the same thing I do: it just somehow works.  This music has charm, wit, warmth, just enough bitterness to be interesting and just enough self-deprecation not to be too self-absorbed.  Music like this either connects with you, or it doesn’t, and from the first time I heard Maxwell Panther’s stuff it just felt right to me.

The other thing about Maxwell is that to judge him on this album is kind of missing the point.  These songs exist in different guises, he records things here and there all the time, kind of like sketches.  As such his music kind of exists all together as a single entity, more than in the kind of defined chunks we would call EPs and albums, and maybe that’s why this music connects with me so much.  Maybe it just feels like more of a conversation, and maybe the recording style actually helps that, in that it is pretty obvious there is no barrier between the musician and the listener.

So Maxwell Panther may not be bothering the charts any time soon, but his idiosyncratic, observational meanderings have a kind of awkward charm which I find completely compelling and I think they really deserve to be heard.

Maxwell Panther – My Ex-Identity

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Maxwell Panther – Lost Soul on a Roll

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Maxwell on: MySpace | Bandcamp | Buy from Song, by Toad Records

I do try and avoid shilling for the label on this blog, because no-one wants to read a twice-daily sales pitch, but I reckon it’s okay to have a look forward at what we’ve got planned for the year.  That’s what the new year is for, really, isn’t it?

So I’ve got a nice big release schedule drawn up, just like real record labels do, and honestly it scares the shite out of me.  I can pretty much plan out my free time for the whole of the next twelve months just looking at it, but there are some great releases in there.

By the end of 2010 we are going to have a back catalogue to be bloody proud of, honestly, especially when you consider that we had only been a record label for about a month at this time last year.

That picture, incidentally, is a somewhat butchered (sorry Annie) version of one of four gorgeous photos on this blog taken of the two new Meursault 7″s.

Toadcast #102 – Song, by Toad Records

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01. Trips and Falls – We Were Like Strangers Today (05.30)
02. Maxwell Panther – My Ex-Identity (09.02)
03. Cold Seeds – Leave Me to Lie Alone in the Ground (17.19)
04. Jesus H. Foxx – This is Not a Rental Car (26.43)
05. Animal Magic Tricks – Smallish Hooves (29.35)
06. The Savings and Loan – Virgin’s Lullaby (36.36)
07. Inspector Tapehead – Sugar on Your Sheets (40.02)
08. Loch Lomond – Holiday (48.25)
09. Meursault – What You Don’t Have (Live on Fresh Air Radio) (58.34)
10. Nightjar – Sweet Annie Lee (66.56)

Just a meandering, pointless, chatty post, this one, bringing up some bits of news and so on and so forth.

Did everyone know that eagleowl have a new 7″ single coming out in December?  They’re having a launch party at the Bowery on Friday 11th December which we in Edinburgh should make sure we give the most fantastic send-off you can imagine.  Bring the Bowerettes flowers and postcards and letters and drawings and photos and anything you can think of to show them how much the place meant to you.  We should bloody well do that constantly for the next two months actually – fill the walls with messages which show how much we appreciate the work they did for us all.  There you go, there’s a mission for you that should keep you out of (much) trouble for the next little while.

As for eagleowl, they played a couple of new songs at the Withered Hand album launch, and they were gorgeous, so I am really looking forward to getting my grubby little mitts on this particular vinyl treat.

eagleowl – Sleeptide

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We have a few Toad gigs coming up over the next couple of months as well.  Maxwell Panther‘s album launch will take place in the form of a house gig as soon as I can persuade him to get on a train and come on up to Edinburgh.  I am hoping to persuade Dan from Withered Hand to play too, but the swine hasn’t answered his phone for a while, and his phone seems to have voicemail turned off.  Bloody caller ID, if only mobile phones were more anonymous I could ambush him unexpectedly.

Maxwell Panther – Lost Soul on a Roll (That’s Me)

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Then there’s the Toad Christmas Party at the Bowery on the 12th December, with Meursault, Jesus H. Foxx and the usual open-mic nonsense beforehand.  Rory from Broken Records has promised some violin-and-loop-pedal madness during that bit, which I am well looking forward to.

And finally, a gentleman called Jon Rooney who records as Virgin of the Birds is going to be in Edinburgh over New Year and we will be arranging a house gig for him around the 31st or the 1st.  Personally, I think it’s likely to be on New Year’s Eve, but planned to be over early enough for people to get off to other places for the actual New Year itself if they want to.  I’ve invited Rob St. John to play as well, as he’ll be around, but he’s still sorting out his plans for that time of year, so it’s not sorted just yet.

Do you think a house gig/New Year’s party is a good idea?  Or would everyone rather go up the town and get smashed?  I like the idea personally, but I’m flexible if everyone reckons it would be terrible.

Virgin of the Birds – Baby Let Me Trace You

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It’s been a while since we had an update on exactly what on Earth is going on at Song, by Toad Records, so I thought I might let you all know what our plans are for the rest of the year.  Partly for shits and giggles, partly because I am really excited, and partly as a desperate marketing ploy to wear you down by constant repetition into accepting that everything we ever release will be the best thing you have ever heard in the world.

It will be, you know.

So, in chronological order, here’s an brief outline of our release schedule for the rest of the year, although some of it is still a little undefined and a couple of things are still being negotiated.  We’ll be popping a label sampler in the Avalanche album club soon, so anyone subscribed to that will get a nice CD taster of what we’re planning to get up to between now and Christmas.  For the rest of you, that taste will come in digital form, below:

Jesus H. Foxx – Matter

We are planning a release party for their Matter EP on the re-opening of the Bowery in mid-September, but I told you all about this quite recently, so that’s all I’ll put in here.
Jesus H. Foxx – Trying to Be Good.mp3

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Loch Lomond & The Builders and the Butchers – Split 12″

This is being released in partnership with Matt from Bladen County Records.  We love both these bands anyway, and they were the most amazingly lovely people to hang out with when we were in Portland last year, and even offered to allow us to release this over here.  The muppets never sent me the artwork though, so I’ve used one of my own drawings, which I also really like.  And it’s our first vinyl release, which is just fucking exciting in itself.  The vinyl itself is just being made now, so it will be out in a month or so.
Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls

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Maxwell Panther – Do You Feel Different Yet?

Maxwell’s recordings are rough as hell, but his songwriting is bloody great.  I genuinely don’t know what people are going to make of this, but I love it, so I decided not to second-guess myself too much.  I like it, so it’s being released.
Maxwell Panther – Tip of the Tongue (The Quiet One)

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Meursault 7″ singles.

We’re releasing two double a-side singles on white vinyl in the Autumn, with William Henry Miller Parts 1 and 2 paired with The Furnace and The Dirt & the Roots respectively.  The band are just putting the finishing touches to the new versions of the Williams Henry Miller, and we’re looking at release dates in October for these.  Meursault vinyl.  Fucking yes!

The Savings and Loan

The Savings and Loan are my friend Martin Donnelly and former De Rosa pianist Andrew Bush, and they self-released an EP of gloomy Scottish Winter music last year.  Currently they’re fleshing it out into a full album, and have specifically decided to release it in mid-November as that’s the season they think it suits the best.  And I think they’re right.
The Savings and Loan – The Virgin’s Lullaby

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Inspector Tapehead – Duress Code

The band are still working on this, but Jonnie has news to deliver when he plays his Trampoline gig on Saturday – which is where I first heard Inspector Tapehead, funnily enough, and Meursault come to think of it.  They don’t exactly work at pace, these lads, but I love the results so I don’t really care how it all comes to pass.  I can’t tell you much about artwork or release dates or anything like that, but I reckon this should be out by the end of the year too, hopefully.
Inspector Tapehead – I am Your Pedigree (There are supposed to be naughty words in this song.  Where have they gone, boys, eh?)

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Trips & Falls – He Was Such a Quiet Boy

This is far from certain just yet, and I don’t want to jinx anything, but I am talking to Jacob and the band about a UK release for what is pretty much my favourite album of 2009 so far, give or take a best guess here and there.  We’ll see what they say, but I would be fucking chuffed if they wanted to release this on Song, by Toad because I think it’s weird and brilliant.
Trips & Falls – How Do You Do

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Enfant Bastard

Cammy is erratic, I suppose, and I don’t love everything he does, but I do love a fuck of a lot of it.  In general though I reckon the moments of clarity far outweigh the times it doesn’t quite come together, and anyone who’s prepared to let the times when they don’t quite get it pass them by and wait a little for it to click is going to be rewarded. As with Trips & Falls, this is hardly a done deal, but I’ve told Cammy I’d love to release the next album he wants to really put out there, so I just have to wait and hope he takes me up on it.
Enfant Bastard – Landscape Painting is Easy

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I am going to be a busy, busy boy, it appears.

Nah don’t be daft, of course it doesn’t.  Friday loves you. It loves your Mum too.  Does your Mum have great tits?  I reckon she probably does.

Today technology is King.  I remember my first few days being properly employed and how far away the things we take for granted really are.  I was working on concepts for this kind of stuff years ago, and it may not have ever come into production,  but it’s amazingly exciting to see the future actually happen, right before your eyes.  Honestly, we would sit and have meetings on just how feasible video calling was and how much the ubiquitous ‘do-it-all PDA’ would be able to do for you.  It’s odd to look back on because now, pretty much all of it is here.

Yesterday I saw my silly old folks on Skype.  I have an iPhone too, which means that despite the mild embarrassment of being an iPhone person, I can always reach people.  It’s downright bizarre – basically technology has overtaken the popular imagination in the last few years, and now all these things which seemed downright stupid a year or so ago now seem kind of sensible.  And many of them exist already.

Had it not been for technology like email and SMS messages Mrs. Toad and I might not be together at all.  For the first two and a half years of our relationship I lived in London and she in Edinburgh, so texts and emails pretty much held us together during the week, as we waited for the chance to travel 400 miles on the weekend to see one another.  I know social networking sites have their critics (mostly idiots) but their capabilities are pretty amazing, when you think where technology was even just five years ago.

So, erm, good luck with the rest of your lives and hopefully this week’s technology-based five will be up your street:

1. Name your favourite scientific theory.  Or just name one – any one.
2. Favourite gadget.
3. Do you know what the term ‘anecdotal evidence’ means?  Why the FUCK NOT?
4. Most Star Trekky bit of technology in common use today.
5. Which technology on the ‘coming soon’ list are you most looking forward to?

1. Trips & Falls – In Real Life He Wears Corduroy Pants

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2. Clem Snide – The Dairy Queen

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3. Maxwell Panther – Too Many Magazines

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4. The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Going Back to Coventry

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5. Enfant Bastard – Gremlin

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This is not so much the holiday podcast as the pre-holiday podcast because, for all we are away now, I recorded this on Thursday night before going away, as we prepared ourselves for the unspeakable burden of doing absolutely fuck all for two weeks.

I am taking a pile of books and a pile of new music and we are going to do pretty much nothing at all.  My parents used to do really adventurous travelling when we were young, but honestly I don’t have the energy.  I am so incredibly fucking exhausted from constant Toadery that actually, despite having a holiday inferiority complex, pretty much all I can cope with at the moment is a couple of weeks of fuck all.

Even last year when we went to Portland for a couple of weeks, we took all the technology and recorded interviews and all sorts at Pickathon.  It was relaxing and nice, but I still got a hell of a lot of work done.  This time I will take along some tunes which I have been meaning to catch up with, perhaps record a podcast or two, and basically spend the rest of the time lying in the sun by the pool.  My folks might not be all that impressed, but the recharging of the batteries is the sole purpose of this trip and I think we might manage just that.

Toadcast #73 – The Holiday Podcast

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01. MJ Hibbett & the Validators – Being Happy Doesn’t Make You Stupid (04.17)
02. Midnight Oil – Bushfire (10.06)
03. Headless Heroes – Hey, Who Really Cares? (Jon Hopkins Remix) (16.56)
04. Alela Diane – Pieces of String (21.05)
05. Inspector Tapehead – A Fillet of Bozo (25.42)
06. Maxwell Panther – Shiver on a Twist of Fate (33.19)
07. Jack Richold – Lady of the Calico (37.00)
08. Grant-Lee Phillips – Calamity Jane (41.16)
09. Billy Bragg – Bread & Circuses (50.20)
10. The Divine Comedy – Les Jours Tristes (57.45)

Spring makes a fucking colossal difference, doesn’t it.  People have been tripping around Edinburgh with a spring in their step for the last week, when the sun has come out and the air, whilst it may still be a little chilly, is notably warmer.  It’s gentler, I suppose, is the main difference.  There’s something of a release about Spring, as if all the uncomfortable restraint of Winter no longer has to be acknowledged.  Does anyone remember that episode of Northern Exposure when the ice melted?  Everyone went nuts, and the relieved exhalation we all express on the coming of the sunshine does remind me in many ways of a tame version of the exact same mania depicted in that episode of, erm, a serialised drama from the, er, mid ah nineties…  anyone still reading?  Never mind.

In any case, this is a purposeless but musically excellent podcast which is something of a lazy one, if I’m honest.  Frankly though, I think I deserve it after the effort put into the Pictish Session, so fuck you if you have an issue with that.  Tee hee.  There’s a lot of new release stuff on here, a couple of bands reviewed recently on the site, and a couple who are going to be reviewed later this week.  Next week I’ll think of a theme. Promise.

Toadcast #63 – Sprrring is Here!

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01. The Soft Pack – Right & Wrong (01.33)
02. Maxwell Panther – A Shade Away (08.24)
03. Phil & the Osophers – They Threw a Shoe at You (11.16)
04. The Felice Brothers – The Big Surprise (15.34)
05. The Empty Set – Alice & Bob (Forlorn Photo Love) (24.01)
06. The Van Allen Belt – The Revolution Will be Merchandised (27.24)
07. Meursault (no, not that Meursault) – Blindfolds (33.31)
08. Outlaw Con Bandana – Rainy Season (37.16)
09. Dame Satan – Ghost Dance (39.25)
10. Peter Doherty – 1939 Returning (49.30)

Alright, the Alela Diane thread has been one of the most interesting on this site for a while, so it’s time to destroy all that mature and considered debate and return to the sort of trivial internet white noise which, if we’re being honest with ourselves, is really what we do best, here at Song, by Toad.

This weekend holds a trip to Manchester and a discussion with a pal of mine about possibly putting some design thinking into this site.  I am not happy with it, but I decided to stop buggering about and just accept it for the time being, until I was well and truly ready to design it properly, once and for all.

Now, seeing as we had such a splendid discussion about production values this week, and seeing as last week’s five was so racy as to terrify the living shit out of a large number of people and hence curtail participation, here’s a fitting and much more family fucking friendly Five For Friday.  Emerge, join in, release yourselves from the travails of skulking lurkitude.  Then get absolutely cabbaged, fuck someone wildly inappropriate and wake up in and empty house in a bath full of ice with a suspiciously angry scar across your abdomen. And have a splendid weekend in the process.

1. Favourite song or band which is as rough and ready as fuck.
2. Favourite song or band which is Big!  Big Sound, Big Production, the works.
3. Which ultra-low-fi band could you imagine doing really well with a bit of shiny recording and production?
4. Which big shiny band would you like to hear record a rough-as-a-bear’s-arse demo?
5. Your biggest culture shock when a band you love went glossy.

Maxwell Panther – Rewire

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Nicole Atkins – The Way It Is

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Enfant Bastard – Plastic Bag

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Bruce Springsteen – I’m on Fire

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The Wave Pictures – Kiss Me

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This week’s Toadcast has no theme at all because, erm… well, frankly they’re difficult to come up with and therefore seem just a tiny little bit like hard work.  So given I’m podcasting once a week now, I am not going to be arsed coming up with some immaculately scripted (ah ha haaa!) arrangement once every seven days, so this week it’s really just a brief tour of inbox fodder.

This weekend there are loads of good things happening, not least a performance by Mumford & Sons at the Voodoo Rooms, and a first look for me at what could potentially become an excellent new venue in Edinburgh.  That’s a secret though, so no more details than that.

So, for now enjoy the Soulcast, so named for no better reason than that the first couple of songs have the word soul in the title.  Piss-poor excuse really, isn’t it.

Toadcast #41 – The Soulcast

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01. Nat Johnson – Dirty Rotten Soul (02.39)
02. Maxwell Panther – Lost Soul on a Roll (06.21)
03. Deerhoof – Chandelier Searchlight (11.40)
04. Aberfeldy – Claire (15.01)
05. Hot Lava – Blue Dragon (21.11)
06. Deathbot – The Cold Wind Revival (23.20)
07. Lambchop – Sharing a Gibson With Martin Luther King Jr. (28.41)
08. Wilco – Company in My Back (35.45)
09. Woodenbox – Twisted Mile (39.17)
10. Pale Young Gentlemen – There is a Place (46.33)
11. Japanese Motors – Spendin’ Days (54.52)

None of this really makes up a coherent post, so I’m going to throw out some mp3s for your consideration. Tonight is a sort of Toad Sessions Live gig at the Voodoo Rooms, with both Meursault (this weekend’s session) and Sparrow & the Workshop (next month’s session) on the ever-splendid bill at Limbo.

I am nearly finished my ‘staring at a computer screen in my underpants’ phase, thank goodness. The Meursault Session is finished. Two of the four interviews from Pickathon are done, and a third is virtually finished. So all that remains is to edit the last Samantha Crain video, post that interview, and then start work on some Broken Records video, the Builders & the Butchers Interview and the Sparrow Session. And then anything we record at End of the R… oh shit. I’m not going to be out of my underpants until fucking Christmas, am I. Ah well, at least it’ll keep me out of the pub.

Actually, Matt from Bladen County Records had an intern when we were out in Portland to visit him. Mrs. Toad reckons we should get one – some poor unfortunate from one of the numerous private schools around us, studying something like media or something equally pointless.  They could help me stuff envelopes for Song, by Toad Records promo stuff, massage my shoulders when I am editing, fetch tea and biscuits – you know, the usual highly educational vocational training.

Actually, in all seriousness, it wouldn’t be a bad assignment for someone. They’d get to go to gigs, take photos, deal with the avalanche of post, maybe write a weekly post or something like that. And they’d be my bitch, which would be a privilege for any youngster. I wouldn’t even insist on a nubile young cheerleader, because they’d be fucking useless, so it would be perfectly, erm, safe, if you.. ahem. I’ll just stop there.

Inspector Tapehead: I saw them recently at a Trampoline event, and I was really impressed. I liked their three-song album sampler that they gave out then, and I like the three songs Chris has since emailed me through. Their album should be coming together early next year, which sounds like excellent news.
Inspector Tapehead – Sugar on Your Sheets

Maxwell Panther: I bloody love Maxwell Panther. There’s something of a rough quality to his recordings, to say the very least, and he reminds me of that really old school indie era where people recorded singles on tape players and put them out on vinyl in hand sellotaped sleeves.
Maxwell Panther – Three Miles of Expectations

Adam & the Amethysts: Well this is an album I picked up in Vancouver while I was there, and although I haven’t fallen in love with all of it, there are some wonderful moments to be found. They’re a Montreal band, apparently, although what that counts for, I don’t know. As a pretend Canadian, though, it always warms my heart that little bit to find a Canadian band.
Adam & the Amethysts – Bumble Bee

Flashguns: The label gentleman I discussed this band with said to me that they would most likely be releasing a single with them ‘once they’ve finished their A-Levels’, and I sat down and patted my growing paunch, ran my hands woefully through my slightly greying hair and consoled myself with the thought that at least I probably eat pussy better than they do.
Flashguns – Panama (Demo)

Absentee: These guys are an odd one. They’re sort of on the verge of becoming quite well known, and have been for a while. Whether or not they finally crack it is yet to be seen, but I wasn’t all that fond of their latest album, bar this rather excellent tune.
Absentee – Bitchstealer