As this evening brings us yet another excellent Ides of Toad lineup at Henry’s (it’s starting pretty much now – run, you might make it!) I thought I should probably write out another one of those lists of upcoming stuff, just so it lodges in the back of your mind now, and then you can all flood down in your droves on the night, filling the bands with joy and making me an unspeakably rich man in the process.

Well, it’d be nice if at least a few of you came anyway.  This is where I feel I should insert one of those internet Safety Winks, just so you know I’m joking —>

Anyhow, we now have pretty much a gig every other week booked between now and the blundering behemoth of the Edinburgh Festival, which I fully intend to boycott in its entirety this year.  Honestly, whilst a couple of our gigs last year went pretty well, I’m not sure I can be fucked with the stress this time around.  Still, last year’s posters were pretty cool.

All tickets can be purchased either online here, or from Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket.

Tuesday 22^nd May
Henry’s Cellar Bar
Bronto Skylift, Lady North & Rollor

This will be pretty full-on, I think, with Rollor returning to Edinburgh to take on the combined frantic mentalism of Lady North and the Highlands’ most fearsome band, Bronto Skylift.

Friday 15th June
Venue TBC
PAWS, Dolfinz, Waiters & Sex Hands

For the launch of the split 12″ we are releasing with the above four bands, we are organising a mini tour of the UK (London, Manchester & Aberdeen as well) and getting all four bands to play.  It will be raucous and guitary and fucking ace.  And you can buy gorgeous clear turquoise vinyl at the gigs too.

Saturday 30^th June
Henry’s Cellar Bar
Milk Maid, New Fabian Society & OP

Milk Maid return to Edinburgh, with their second album pretty much finished.  I am very much looking forward to seeing them again. They are joined on the bill by hypnotic, shoegazey newcomers The New Fabian Society, and OP who are a mysterious concoction of members of North American War and The John Knox Sex Club.

Saturday 7^th July
The Queen’s Hall (tickets for this are from their website)
Meursault Something For the Weakened album launch, with Rob St. John & Jill O’Sullivan and Jenny Reeve

Meursault’s third album Something for the Weakened is now finished and ready to be prodded out into the world. Having worked with a stable six-piece for the last two years this is much more of a band record than previous albums. Support will come from label-mate and musical collaborator Rob St. John and long-time pal Jill O’Sullivan from Sparrow and the Workshop, who will be performing with Jenny Reeve.

Wednesday 18^th July
Henry’s Cellar Bar
Dolfinz & Fantasy Rainbow

Dolfinz are on the verge of becoming the Ides of Toad’s house band, and they’re back in July, bringing another two of the UK’s finest garage bands with them.  It will be loud and messy and awesome, as per usual.

Friday 27^th July
Henry’s Cellar Bar
Jo Schornikow (The Shivers) & Scott Rudd

Jo Schornikow from The Shivers, who just released More on Fife’s Fence Records, will be touring her solo material, along with the beautiful acoustic songwriting of New York’s Scott Rudd.

The Nightcast.  Yes, night.  I am recording this at about two in the morning for the simple reason that for all I aim to do these once a week, on the weekend, once again it has been just plain impossible to actually get the damn thing done on the weekend just gone, so here I am squeezing it into the ungodly hours of Tuesday night.

Well, Wednesday now.

And of course I am off to The Great Escape in the morning.  Actually, it already is the morning.  Oh all right then, by the time this is uploaded and ready to go and I can actually get some sleep, I think I might be due to get out of bed in two hours time.  Cock and balls.  I thought the night time was supposed to be a little more glamorous than this.

Direct download: Toadcast #225 – The Nightcast

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on Mixcloud

01. The Pictish Trail – Of Course You Exist (FOUND Remix) (00.26)
02. Plastic Animals – Ghosts (07.56)
03. Playlounge – Boner Hit (Keel Her cover) (15.24)
04. Yoofs – Love at 140 (18.17)
05. Dead Rat Orchestra – The Geshin & the Guga (23.15)
06. The See See – Fix Me Up (30.24)
07. Meursault – Flittin’ (36.26)
08. Woody Guthrie – So Long, it’s Been Good to Know You (40.37)
09. PAWS – Misled Youth (46.20)
10. Blank Canvas – Golden (53.53)
11. The Eighteenth Day of May – Cold Early Morning (59.04)

Record Store (shop, shop, it’s called a fucking SHOP!) Day is always bad news for my cash reserves.  I am not, I have to confess, all that enticed by the exclusives, as honestly I find that all a bit gimmicky and pointless, but I do like the idea of encouraging people back into shops and reminding people what a pleasure it is to spend hours poking around through racks of records.

Music is a personal, physical thing for me – it involves the sense, of course it’s physical! – and gigs and community events like Record Store Day help to reinforce that, and therefore despite the needless exclusives and the exploitation of artificial scarcity, I still like the social side of it, as well as the cooperation between shops, labels, bands and venues it seems to encourage.

We have a good few things happening in the next week or so actually, starting with RM Hubbert, Yusuf Azak and Rory Sutherland at Henry’s tonight.  Then tomorrow, the RSD festivities kick in, with Withered Hand and Ballboy at Avalanche, and Neil from Meursault and PAWS down at Voxbox in Stockbridge.

Then, next weekend, we have The Leg’s album launch.  We are going to be meeting in The Wash between 6-8pm, and then walking up to a secret venue in the Old Town for a free private party.  And if, say, you were to pay a £5 non-refundable deposit for a copy of their new album (by using the button below), then we will almost certainly be touched enough to invite you.  *cough*

Anyhow, enough business, it’s Friday, and that means fucking about on the internet.  Answer these five stupid questions and I shall be happy to fuck about on the internet with you:

1. If you could re-colour an animal, what would it be?
2. What’s the first pop music you really remember being aware of?
3. What do you really enjoy shopping for?
4. And what do you hate shopping for?
5. Are you going to buy anything special on Record Store Day?

Record Store Day is a very, very good thing. Getting folk down to their local record shop in the hope they will support it all year round. This year marks the first ever RSD for Song, by Toad neighbours Vox Box Music. The shop is a real labour of love for Darren and George who run it, and they have always been more than happy to stock anything from the label. They are good people and their shop consistently has an amazing and eclectic selection.

To celebrate their first ever RSD our pals at Gerry Loves Records and I have organised a wee event for the day.

The shop is going to open as usual at 10.30am and will have a very small selection of exclusives for you to get your hands on, so you may as well try your luck. Then at 3.00pm we are going to have our very own Neil Pennycook from Meursault singing some songs from his forthcoming Melanie tribute album. After that we are going to head across the street to a secret location on the same street to see Gerry Loves band and new FatCat signing PAWS play a full blown set at 4.00pm

It’s going to be a great day. Booze, food, records and music. It’s a no brainer so do pop along.

If you don’t know where Vox Box or St. Stephen Street are, here ye go;

There are two main things happening this week, as far as I can tell.  One is the above-mentioned Ides of Toad gig of course, and the other is Record Store Day.  I am ambivalent about Record Store Day, I have to confess, as it seems to encourage the worst kind of scalping and eBay profiteering, and it also seems like a poor apology for not spending more time in record shops year round.

But at the same time it can be a really nice day, and encourages people back into shops with some really nice, limited edition products.  Also, it seems to encourage a bit more cooperation between record shops themselves and the music communities they are there to serve, which is also a good thing.

Here at Song, by Toad we will be doing some special stuff with our local record shop: Vox Box on St. Stephen’s Street. Ian has been working with them on this and will be announcing some special bits and piece, including a couple of rather brilliant in-store performances.

Anyhow, here’s a quick run-down of some interesting things happening in Edinburgh this week:

Tuesday 17th April: Library Tapes, Poppy Ackroyd & Hiva Oa at the Third Door.

This gig should inhabit the space broadly between classical, experimental and folk music.  Ah yes, that space, I hear you cry.  That well-established pop niche which has made many bands so many millions of pounds – but of course!  Well okay, I admit this might be something of a niche concern, but it sounds like a really good gig to me, and actually, for it’s hardly made anyone rich, the intersection between classical, experimental and folk music sounds like a highly fascinating place, to me.

Hiva Oa – Badger

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 20th April: R.M. Hubbert, Yusuf Azak & Rory Sutherland play the Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

RM Hubbert’s mesmerising new album features all sorts of inspired collaborations to complement his intricate Flamenco guitar playing. Yusuf Azak’s new album is finished too, and should be released sometime this Summer. And opening will be Rory Sutherland, more usually known as the violin player in Broken Records. I have no idea what he will be playing, but I am sure it will be good!

R.M. Hubbert – Sandwalks

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.

Yusuf Azak – Lay Me Down

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 21st April: Record Store Day

Whether you’re in Edinburgh or not, this Saturday should be a fine day for music fans, as shops around the world celebrate Record Store Day.  In Edinburgh I know Avalanche have a lot planned – in-stores from Withered Hand and Ballboy, some official Record Store Day beer, and then a knees-up at the Electric Circus in the evening in conjunction with The Tidal Wave of Indifference, involving a stripped down set by The Last Battle, followed by Emily Scott and then Star Wheel Press.

We at Song, by Toad will be, as I mentioned earlier, working in conjunction with our own local record shop Vox Box, and will provide early chances to get your hands on new albums by The Leg and Jesus H. Foxx, as well as live performances by… well, I won’t mention too much about it, as it was actually Ian who went to a lot of work to set this up, so I think I will let him set it all out when he posts about it tomorrow.

A couple of quick ones for you, here.

First up is very simple: Meursault are playing a short-notice show at the Old Blue Last on Tuesday 27th March (yes, this coming Tuesday).  Support comes from Neverest Songs, tickets are a bargain £5.50 and can be purchased here, and the venue is in Shoreditch somewhere and can be found here.

I will be coming along as well, in case any of my London pals are around and fancy a pint.  As for the rest of you, as you were.

Secondly, as we are on the verge of Meursault’s third album, we have decided to invite submissions from people who would like to make a video for the first single from the record, Flittin’.

In order to submit please email me on toad at songbytoad.com with a sample of previous work, and a rough outline of your idea.  A couple of images might help too, if you want to show us a particular graphic style.  We’ll have a look at all the submissions over the next week or so, and then pick the one we like best.  The deadline for completion is going to be the end of April, so don’t pick anything too complicated to be achieved on that timescale.

In terms of cash, well we’re a tiny label and we don’t have much, but there will be a couple of hundred quid in it for you and we will do our best to make it worth your while in terms of promotion as well.

To try and protect ourselves from leaks and not to ruin the surprise of the single itself, we obviously won’t be sharing the finished song with anyone other than the person we ask to make the video, but to help you in your brainstorming, here’s a demo version from last year’s free Song, by Toad Records Sampler:

 Song, by Toad Records hereby release into the world what we reckon is going to become an annual free sampler, mostly as a free download, but with a few CDs given to local record shops and available at gigs as well.

The sampler is a combination of things we’ll be releasing this year, mixed in with a couple of things from 2011 and interspersed with a few brilliant moments from the late Kenneth Williams’ reading of the Wind in the Willows. Snippets from this reading litter my own weekly podcast, and inspired the name of the label in the first place, so it seemed kind of fitting to pop a couple on here.

You can download this little parcel of digital fun from Bandcamp for free, and we are sending out a few to our favourite record shops to give away as well, so if you want a CD either come to a Song, by Toad gig in Edinburgh or go to a record shop.

Tracklisting:

02. So the Wind Won’t… by Jesus H. Foxx
I’ve been waiting for their debut album through two years of ‘nearly theres’, but it is finally finished, it sounds brilliant and will be ready for release on 14th May 2012.

03. Twitching Stick by The Leg
Formerly Khaya, then Desc, The Leg are veterans of several Peel Sessions and several releases already, but have agreed to release their next album An Eagle to Saturn with us. Coming out on 30th April, this is abrasive as fuck, but definitely still surprisingly poppy, considering.

04. The Acid Test by Rob St. John
We released Rob’s debut album Weald on vinyl last year, and the response was so overwhelmingly positive we’ve decided to give it a wider release on CD too. Rob being Rob, of course, he’s already planning to record his second album, probably in our living room again.

05. Sorry by Waiters
06. Teenage Bloom by Dolfinz
08. Gay Marriage by Sex Hands
On the subject of recording in our living room, the Waiters, Dolfinz and Sex Hands tracks are from a split 12” (which will also include hotly-tipped* Glasgow band PAWS) all of which was recorded almost entirely live in the living room of our house by myself and Rory Sutherland from Broken Records. It’s sort of a compilation of some of my favourite underground, garagey (and frighteningly young) bands, and we’ve just had it mastered, so it will hopefully be ready for release in late March or early April.

09. A Mother’s Arms (demo) by Meursault
It feels like we’ve been waiting quite a long time for the third Meursault album too, doesn’t it. Well it’s finally done, and we are looking at a release date in mid-July, with a release night pencilled in for Saturday 7th July in the Queen’s Hall.

10. School (Toad Session) by The Black Tambourines
We recorded a Toad Session with these guys last year and immediately offered to release something. I’m not sure what it’ll be yet – probably an EP in the Autumn I would guess.

11. Lay Me Down by Yusuf Azak
From his unspeakably gorgeous second album, due out in 2012 sometime, depending on when I get a final master.

12. That is a Big Door! by Trips and Falls
From their second album, People Have to Be Told, released in September 2011.

13. Dead Golden Girls by Lil Daggers
From their self-titled debut album, which we released on vinyl at the end of last year.

14. Pinkening by Animal Magic Tricks
This was recorded just after 2009’s stunning Cold Seeds album, which was a collaboration between Frances from Animal Magic Tricks, Pete Harvey and Neil Pennycook from Meursault and Kenny Anderson from King Creosote. There still isn’t what you could describe as a finished version, but I am not giving up hope because it is a gorgeous album, even just as it stands at the moment.

15. Pool Attendant by The Japanese War Effort
This is from 2011’s Summer Sun Skateboard, and we hope to release another mini-album with Jamie in the Autumn of 2012.

16. Blue Overcoat by Lach
From 2011 vinyl album Ramshackle Heart.

18. Movies and Magazines by King Post Kitsch
A free dowload from kingpostkitsch.bandcamp.com After a year in Glasgow, Charlie has moved back down to London, and after his awesome debut The Party’s Over in early 2011 I am eagerly looking forward to new material.

*Yes, I know I said ‘hotly-tipped’, but honestly, they are, I’m not just copy-and-pasting from The Big Book of PR Clichés.

 Don’t ask me why I used a picture of Wayne and Garth on this post I just… well the roadies in their movies were the most memorable, and this post is about touring and stuff, and I couldn’t find a picture of a Wayne’s World roadie quickly so I thought fuck it.

Anyhow, two bits of news:

Meursault are touring the UK and Europe as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s main support. 

Rob St. John is playing SHHH Festival.

The latter won’t clog up the page with tour dates, so I’ll do that first. The SHHH Festival is a celebration of quiet music and film, with bands playing, a film about David Thomas Broughton and musicians soundtracking silent movies.  It’s on Saturday 4th February at the Gallery Cafe in London and is less than a tenner too, so get your tickets here.

Now, as to the former little announcement, Meursault have been very kindly invited to support Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on their tour of the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe at the end of the month.  I’m not sure what else there is to say about this apart from the fact that it’s fucking incredible news, and to thank Clap Your Hands for inviting them. All the ticket info and the like can be found on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s website, but I’ve included a list of the dates below for ease of browsing. The only gig Meursault will be missing will be the Paris date on the 15th of February (which I haven’t listed below anyway).

25/1/12 – Dublin, Tripod
26/1/12 – Cork, Pavilion
27/1/12 – Galway, Roisin Dubh
28/1/12 – Glasgow, SWG3
30/1/12 – Leeds, The Cockpit
31/1/12 – Norwich, Waterfront
2/2/12 – Manchester, Ritz
3/2/12 – Liverpool, O2 Academy
4/2/12 – Bristol, Thekla
6/2/12 – Birmingham, HMV Library
7/2/12 – Brighton, Coalition
8/2/12 – London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire
10/2/12 – Utrecht, Tivoli
11/2/12 – Brussels, Orangerie
12/2/12 – Copenhagen, Frost Fest, Bremen Theatre
14/2/12 – Berlin, Postbahnhof
16/2/12 – Munich, Theaterfabrik
17/2/12 – Zurich, Plaza Club
18/2/12 – Bologna, Covo Club

For this podcast I am joined by Ian, who is now a member of the Song, by Toad Records team, to go through a bit of a run-down of what’s going to be happening on the label this year.

We’ve got a couple of our more recent releases, like Rob St. John and Lil Daggers, as well as some of our confirmed and ready new albums for next year, by the likes of The Leg, Jesus H. Foxx and Yusuf Azak.

I’ve also got a couple of tracks from bands we’ll be releasing on a split 12″ in the Spring.  We’ll be recording that stuff in our house next week, so the songs we chose to represent those bands are for obvious reasons not the final ones we’ll be releasing, just tracks by the bands so you can get a bit of a flavour of what we’re up to.

With Ian on board and based on the good press we managed last year I am hoping we can really kick on with the label this year and make a decent impression.  Obviously the third Meursault album will  help, what with them being our most established band, but we have a good spread of stuff, from bands like Dolfinz with only a few demos to their name, to the likes of Yusuf Azak and The Leg who people know already and then the Foxx album, which has been ‘much anticipated’ for a while now.

So all in all it should be an exciting year, I reckon.  Enjoy!

Direct download: Toadcast #208 – Song, by Toad Records 2012

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on Mixcloud

01. Mongrels – I’m Gonna Murder Justin Bieber (00.21)
02. King Post Kitsch – The Make the Same Faces Whether Fuck or Fight (02.46)
03. Meursault – Flittin’ (locationmusic.tv Piano Version) (08.49)
04. Rob St. John – The Acid Test (17.59)
05. Lil Daggers – Dead Golden Girls (22.05)
06. Paws – Bloodline (Toad Session) (31.52)
07. Jesus H. Foxx – This is Not a Rental Car (40.31)
08. The Leg – Twitching Stick (43.00)
09. Sex Hands – Jinglebitch (51.56)
10. Dolfinz – Blowhole (55.36)
11. Yusuf Azak – Lay Me Down (63.12)