I may only have lived in the Wiltshire village of Seend for about four or five months about ten years ago (seriously, ten?) but the fact that I had no job, nor was able to find one, meant that the music I listened to ended up with an extra resonance.
Apart from looking for jobs I didn’t know how to find, I spent an inordinate amount of time browsing through copies of Uncut magazine, back before it turned to shit, and buying albums based on how well I liked the songs they chose for their covermount CDs.
There are a couple of other songs on this podcast, but I think the memories of Seend (including my goal in a 3-2 victory, having been 2-0 behind at half time) are still surprisingly strong.
01. Meursault – Bulletproof (La Roux/Radiohead Cover) (02.52)
02.The Czars – Lullaby 6000 (09.19)
03. Hamell on Trial – Choochtown (20.30)
04. Lambchop – Bon Soir, Bon Soir (24.10)
05. The Savings and Loan – The Virgin’s Lullaby (31.09)
06. Phillistine’s Jr. – The Bus Stop Song (36.55)
07. Vado in Messico – Sisma (38.50)
08. Billy Bragg – Take Down the Union Jack (47.12)
09. Kevin Tihista’s Red Terror – Sucker (51.46)
10. Cinerama – Health and Efficiency (58.49)
Due to a hectic Saturday driving from Anstruther to Edinburgh to Glasgow and then back to Edinburgh and out again to Anstruther this is the last of the Haarfest video diaries.
I woke up with a proper fucking head on me, and went to sleep plastered at four or something after being ambushed by late night at the Smugglers on the way home.
Due to collecting Mrs. Toad from the station we ended up missing most of Meursault, although we did get there in time for a gorgeous version of Martin Kippenberger, helped greatly by Malcolm from eagleowl. The Oates Field were good, and Withered Hand (new songs – NEW SONGS!) and FOUND (ditto!) were absolutely immense. And that beer they were serving all weekend, well…!
Lach’s famous New York open mic night the Antihoot is responsible for launching the careers of many of the bands people who read this site love the most. He is, in fact, the man responsible for terms like anti-folk and the movement it represents.
I have to confess I find this kind of odd. The term is something which has been so ingrained in my musical vocabulary ever since I started writing about music that the idea of it having been invented so recently seems really rather odd.
I always kind of knew I was into anti-folk as well, because the rinky-dinky super traditional stuff has never really attracted me that much, so even before I knew the term I was drawn to bands like The Pogues and Bob Dylan (and even to a degree people like Woody Guthrie and Billy Bragg) who would take traditional formats and give them a good beating before they sent them out there. In fact, Dylan’s own struggles with the New York folk establishment rather mirror those of Lach, so the concept of anti-folk has been around for a while, even if the coherent, more unified movement which gave rise to the likes of Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson did not.
Most of the Edinburgh alt-folkies I know speak of the original anti-folk movement with a kind of hushed reverence, so I guess it’s no surprise that most of them are making an appearance at some point during the Antihoot’s three week Edinburgh run.
On the first night we had a couple of Toad Records favourites down; Yusuf Azak and Neil Pennycook from Meursault. I’ve seen both of these guys perform like this many times however, so the happiest surprise of the night was actually Finn from Trapped in Kansas. He hunched over his guitar and sang in an oddly nasal voice, but his was the genuine ‘Oh, hello, what’s this?’ moment for me on the opening night, particularly as I had no idea who he was until he mentioned his band halfway through his set.
Invariably in the midst of a Festival best known for its stand up comedy there were a few in the crowd who, by one in the morning, had optimistically decided that they too were funny, funny guys. Lach himself, as compere, did a good job of keeping them quiet, but the bands dealt with it well too. Most satisfyingly, I heard a couple of the performers talking about getting their mates down on a regular basis so that there was always a hardcore presence of people who were there to enjoy the music.
One thing, however, which became increasingly obvious as the night wore on was this: when the bands were good, the shushing didn’t have to last beyond the first thirty seconds of the song because the most talented musicians, irrespective of genre, were consistently able to keep the crowd’s attention. This, I suppose, is the double-edged sword of the open mic night.
I also thought the show benefitted from the format: eight minutes or two songs, whichever came first. It meant that if someone was shit, they were off too quickly to become tiresome. That alone makes it worth going along, particularly if one or two people you know are likely to be playing, because there were a lot of good performers there who I’ve never heard a whisper of before.
For those of you not so keen on the cut and thrust of the bleeding edge of alt-folk, there is the opportunity to do something to satisfy a couple of the other senses this week. On Thursday 5th August there is a bit of a foodie event taking place at the Drill Hall on Dalmeny Street, called World Kitchen. Also, on Thursday, after having your ears assaulted by my dubious DJing skills, you may wish to pop down to the Wee Red Bar for the inaugural Chops club night.
Myself and Mrs. Toad are taking a bit of holiday too, bravely leaving our house and retarded cat in the hand of Mrs. Toad’s brother. It works quite well actually. He crashes with us for a bit, we get the house and cat looked after, and he gets to make a bit of money renting out his house during the Festival. And then I’ll be back just in time to bugger off to Haarfest in Anstruther for a week and erm… well, there is a Festival in Edinburgh in August isn’t there? It looks like I might actually miss most of it, although by an odd coincidence I will be around every Sunday.
And that is a convenient happenstance, because for the month of August Ruth and my good self will be returning to Fresh Air Radio for our Toad and Ruth’s Toad and Ruth Show with Toad and Ruth, with shows from seven to half eight in the evening on Sundays the 15th, 22nd and 29th August, and a kick-off preview show which will be broadcast (Ruthlessly, unfortunately) this Wednesday 4th August from half eight. As usual we’ll be looking to get guests and live music on the show, starting with legendary New York anti-folker Lach on the 15th, who will hopefully play a few songs and chat about Lach’s Anti-hoot, his Festival show in which he will be trying to recreate the spirit of New York anti-folk in Edinburgh. Kinda like the Bowery, then.
Pilrig St. Paul’s is on the corner of Leith Walk and Pilrig Street, and is just the latest in a long list of gorgeous venues sniffed out by Jillian and Emily from Tracer Trails. It will also be the venue for this year’s christonafuckingbikeimohsoveryexcited Retreat Festival (free sampler of some of the bands involved to be found here), so this will be a chance to sneak preview the place before committing to a weekend of unspeakable joy and drunken liver-punches later in the month. I know little about this particular lineup, I have to confess, apart from the fact that Calvin Johnson shares a label with the utterly unspeakable and profoundly punchable Jeremy Jay. But I assume Mr. Johnson himself is a hell of a lot nicer or the Tracer Trails team would never be dealing with him in the first place.
This night is a preview night for Retreat, the Forest Fringe and Acoustic Edinburgh and a general statement that, Festival and imported musical exotica aside, there is plenty of awfy good stuff to be found here the rest of the year too. There will be mini acoustic sets by a selection of bands on the hour, interspersed with equally mini DJ sets of local music toilers such as myself playing five-song sets of our favourite Edinburgh records. Enfant Bastard, Meursault, Emily Scott and the brilliantly named Haftor Medboe stand out for me on the list of artists booked to play.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Villagers were very nearly reviewed on Song, by Toad when they released their debut album a month or so ago. I found it all just a tad too nice, to be honest, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be genuinely interested to hear them live. A live performance is often a little more raw than a recorded song, which often leads to me quite considerably preferring a live setting for some of the current rash of polished folk-pop.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Friday 6th – Sunday 15th August: Acoustic Cafe at the Roxy Art House.
This acoustic mini-festival starts this weekend and runs through to the end of the following one. On Friday we have Iona Marshall and the Last Battle, Saturday is The One Ensemble and Yusuf Azak and Sunday Meursault (solo) and Esperi. As well as Electric Circus, Ed from the Roxy seems to be one of the few committed to supporting local music during the tidal wave of imported bumph which swamps the place in August.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Saturday 7th August 2010: FOUND & Milk (I’m not sure that’s the right MySpace link) at the Electric Circus.
FOUND’s rather fantastic (Machine Age Dancing! MACHINE AGE DANCING!!!) new album is out soon. How soon I don’t quite know I have to confess, but I can tell you this about it: it’s more of an abrasive indie-rock album that I ever expected from these lads which, frankly, is just showing off. Get back in your pigeonhole you alt-folk glitch-hopsters!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
[This week's Sunday Supplement is a personal message from Phil Quirie]
Hello boys and girls!
I’m not exactly sure just how to start this transmission off, so forgive me if it seems poorly structured, but I owe a lot of people some serious gratitude, appreciation, and thanks.
Why? Well, as a fair amount of you may know, there was an appeal launched recently called Let’s Buy Phil’s Guitar, which was an effort to raise enough funds to save my guitar from a very lucky ebay bidder. I guess I should write a brief background and overview as to how this situation arose.
I have been friends with Neil Pennycook and Meursault for a number of years – probably since around 2005. I was introduced to Neil via a mutual friend who Neil had met at art college (the living legend that is “Party Marty”). I was aware of Neil’s music, but had never listened. Then, a few months later, our mutual friend instigated a gathering of souls for his birthday celebrations, with the venue to be Edinburgh. That night, a two-piece Meursault consisting of Neil and Fraser played a show in Bannermans. I was utterly gob-smacked with what I saw and heard, and from then on became a proper fanboy, snapping up the debut EP, and frequently putting on shows in Aberdeen and inviting them up to play. My friendship with the band grew until I was invited to join the band, about two years ago. Initially, although hugely flattered (and confused – why me!?), I resisted because I was in a steady job in Aberdeen, along with great friends and family. Due to liquidation, I lost said job, and Neil then asked me to join the band again. This time, I couldn’t resist and I upped sticks to Edinburgh and officially joined Meursault. That was almost one year ago.
Given that Meursault were my favourite ever band, I was willing to take a lot of risks and work really hard touring with them and recording the second album. With this, came the realisation that I wouldn’t be able to hold down a full-time job and commit to touring. But I was still willing to put my heart, soul and money into Meursault. So I tried to strike a balance between temporary agency jobs and the band. This balance is very difficult to calibrate, as any musician will testify, and it eventually came to a head: in order to survive, I had to sell off any assets I may own. It just so happens that the only material possession of any value was my music gear, so the decision was made to sell my Fender Jaguar guitar. This decision did not come lightly, but heck, I have rent and tax to pay, as well as a stomach that seems to want food from time to time. So I put the guitar on ebay, and I received a call that night from Neil, claiming that “he and friends would raise the money”, so long as I agreed to take the guitar off ebay. As an overly proud individual, I tried to resist, but he was adamant that, as a friend, he could do this for me and that others are willing to help out and that “you’d do the same for me, Phil.” And he was correct. Thus, Let’s Buy Phil’s Guitar was created.
Now, I don’t know just who all were involved in the creation of this, but I owe Neil, Dylan and Matthew some serious handshakes and manly embraces for their part in this astounding example of community spirit and friendship. But most of all, I owe every single donor (regardless of amount donated) a large amount of thanks and gratitude. The fact that the guitar has been saved is, frankly, nothing short of completely overwhelming. Friends, Meursault fans, Debutant fans, and anyone else who contributed: I thank you with all my heart. You’ve not only saved me, but a part of Meursault, too.
As a thank you, I will record a digital EP consisting of a couple of acoustic Debutant tracks, a Meursault cover (would it be considered a ‘cover’?), and a cover of Red House Painters’ Song for a Blue Guitar, and every donor will receive the EP. This will only be available to those who donated. Expect it within a month or so.
Whilst I’m here, I would also like to thank all the guys in Meursault, who have welcomed me into the band like a brother and supported me. And, despite the heartache and struggle, it’s been 110% worth it to be in the privileged position of being able to play music with them.
Given I have now sworn off festivals with a population over about five thousand, I think it’s only fair that I start noseying around some of the smaller ones and seeing what they have to offer.
I have loved Homegame and Pickathon, narrowly missed out on the Insider and Kelburn, but I think I will be making it to this one: Doune the Rabbit Hole on the 30th and 31st July. I don’t really know the organisers, but they’re two young lads from Glasgow taking a chance, apparently, and my friend Ed from the Roxy is now helping them out too.
Add to that the fact that there are two Toad Records bands on the bill – Meursault (who are at Truck this weekend too) and Inspector Tapehead – and two Fence ones too – Francois and the Atlas Mountains and Rozi Plain – and I think that this will do very nicely for me indeed. Oh and Doune Castle is, I believe, the location of the insulting Frenchman and the English knight whose mother was a hamster and whose father smelled of Elderberries (see below).
And if you fancy it you can get discounted tickets from me, here, now. Generally they’d be £48, but you can get them from the link below for £38 if you fancy coming along.
First things first, this post is me asking a favour from a friend, but not from everyone. A lot of people who read this site do so from a long way away, physically or figuratively, and most of you can probably ignore this post as it really isn’t your problem.
For the rest, Phil is a good friend of mine who has recently moved down to Edinburgh from Aberdeen, and in doing so has put himself in pretty dire financial straits. So dire that he recently put his prize Fender Jaguar up for sale, and you might want to ask a musician if you don’t know how much of a wrench that must have been for the guy.
We’ve all wavered on this, honestly. Partly, sometimes people just can’t afford things, and you can’t have a big teary appeal every time life is not as sentimental as we would like it to be. On the other hand, I have been in pretty rotten financial states myself from time to time in the past, and without fail my friends have fished me out of the shit every time, despite there really being nothing in it for them at all.
Phil isn’t just a good mate, he has done an awful lot for me since he moved down here, and I owe him a lot for all the extra work and help and support he has provided, and I am far from alone in this. So we had a look at the actual sums, and realised that pretty much anyone would happily buy a mate a pint, and if we could find about a hundred and fifty such people to donate the price of a pint we could actually buy Phil’s guitar for about as much money each as anyone would happily lose down the back of the sofa without a second thought.
So anyone who has a reason to be grateful to Phil, be it in his capacity as promoter under the name of Slanted and Enchanted, or as guitarist in Meursault or his own musical project Debutant, or just because he is a fucking lovely guy, it would be nice if you wanted to help. He’s a proud fucker, so talking him into this wasn’t exactly easy, and in the words of Lando Calrissian: “Come on Han old buddy, don’t let me down.”
I know this doesn’t concern most of you, so please feel free to ignore it and I hope you don’t feel intruded upon, but for those of you who wish to help out, please go here and make a donation.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I suppose that if we are talking about Scottish gigs this week, I really do have to mention T in the Park, or Nedstock as my far-funnier-than-I friend refers to it over at the Vinyl Villain. I’ve actually only been once myself, back in 1996 I think it was, when Radiohead and Pulp headlined the Saturday and Sunday spots respectively. The thing is, I looked it up on Wikipedia and it seems that was indeed 1996, but then, it says Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were also on the bill and although I cannot for the life of me imagine missing one of my all time musical heroes I have absolutely no recollection of seeing them that year.
The one thing I do remember, however, was watching a hunched introvert and an awkward geek effortlessly engage one of the biggest crowds I’d ever been a part of. I think it was probably the first time I ever really understood what real star power actually was, because both Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke had the whole gigantic main stage crowd eating out of the palms of their hands.
I’m glancing over this year’s lineup and wondering who I would go and see, and apart from maybe Big Pink and Dirty Projectors on Friday, and Frightened Rabbit and Mumfords on Saturday, I’d stick with the ‘also appearing’ bit at the bottom of that poster where you see the likes of Sparrow & the Workshop, the Boy Who Trapped the Sun, French Wives, Mitchell Museum, The Seventeenth Century and Washington Irving. Most of them are playing the T-Break Stage, where Meursault are also making a guest appearance on Friday.
I really don’t know anything at all about Rickie Lee Jones from a musical perspective, but I have heard one or two songs I like here and there. And given people have repeatedly advised me never to ever put gigs on in the Summer, I suppose it should come as no surprise that this is the only one I could find this week that I liked. Any suggestions welcome in the comment thread.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Ah the cooling touch of sweet, clean porcelain. And it may well be hot in our house, but dammit I have never experienced such an unpleasant sleeping experience as being baked alive inside a tent when the sun comes up as fiercely as it did this weekend at Glastonbury. Dear God almighty that was a nasty way to wake up, especially with a vindictive little bastard of a hangover kicking away at the inside of your head.
We didn’t do too badly for facilities actually – it’s the single greatest advantage of going to festivals with a band – but I am reminded of a daft little toilet story from my old job (no, STOP IT, it’s nothing like that, honestly) which I have intended to mention for a while and always forgotten.
Scotland is a very long way north, a very, very long way north in fact, and this means that during the Winter you arrive and leave work in the dark. It can be lighter in the mornings, but by the time four in the afternoon rolls around, it is generally pitch fucking black outside. Add to that the fact that we used to do most of our work on computers, even when the sun was shining the blinds were generally pulled right down so that people could see their monitors.
So yes, it was quite a dark place to work, with one glorious exception: you guessed it, the men’s toilet. I’m not kidding. That side of the building was south-facing so, you could be sitting in a dingy office with the blinds drawn all day, arrive and depart in the dark, but every once in a while, on one of those beautifully clear sunny days that Scotland has, you would walk into the loo and be confronted by this blaze of sunshine. It was great. It just lifted your spirits.
Now I’ve managed to tell you that little story in total sincerity and with a (largely) straight face, do you think I can trust you to be grown ups about it in the comments? No, probably not. Honestly, you people…
The Last Battle’s new album is due out on 17 Seconds Records, and this is the first single from that record. They play quite traditional folk, with cello and lovely male/female vocals but this song is a bit rockier in that ‘Christ alive, is that an electric guitar?’ sense, and a good, beefy introduction to the band. I have a feeling the Meursault might be solo acoustic, but I am not entirely sure.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
To be brutally frank, my little experience in the music industry has taught me that the following is as close to a cast iron rule as there exists: labels and PR, cannot make you famous, only you can make you famous. You can only do that if you play as often and as well as possible, and in doing so build up enough momentum and buzz around your band that everyone else, be it press, radio, fans, whatever, absolutely has to take notice, or they simply wouldn’t be doing their jobs. There are exceptions of course, there always are, but that is pretty close to a hard and fast rule. Booking tours and getting gigs is far from easy however, I’ve done it myself and it was shit and I was shit at it, so I strongly recommend you come along to this and pick the brains of some professional booking agents.
This may be a little more related to the likes of blues and traditional folk than most of you are used to, but I think there’s a lot of good stuff going on in Stringjammer’s music. Long Road Home, on their MySpace page, is a case in point, and there is more there like that. There’s a lot of experimental and strange stuff in there, but they obviously started from quite traditional base material before they went and made it all weird, so I think this one should appeal to readers of Toad.
Tickets for this can be bought from the band here, and I recommend you do so. Kid Canaveral are not exactly a fashionable band – they’re not even close to being arch enough for that – but they have an amazingly consistent talent for writing infectious indie-pop melodies. Also, The Scottish Enlightenment – I might finally get a chance to see the bastards play!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I may only have lived in the Wiltshire village of Seend for about four or five months about ten years ago (seriously, ten?) but the fact that I had no job, nor was able to find one, meant that the music I listened to ended up with an extra resonance.
