You won’t see much of me at gigs this week, because my little brother is visiting. I am gutted at having to miss the Major Matt Mason gig last night, but I just ended up being too tired and having too much to do in too little time.

Samamidon is playing in Edinburgh next Monday, so that needs to be publicised. He’s a bit good, and Meursault are doing an acoustic slot in support, so it promises to be an amazing night. The gig is going to be at the Bowery, which is the new venue that my friend Ruth and her friend Jane are opening up. The opening party is on Saturday, for those interested in a bit of intrigue and a splash of free champagne.

Tuesday 4th November 2008: Jackie-O Motherfucker at the Voodoo Rooms.
I missed their last visit to Edinburgh but alt-folk pioneers Jackie-O Motherfucker, yet another excellent Portland band, make their way here again at last. Because Ben is visiting it might not be possible to get to this one, but I’ll do what I can to persuade him.
Jackie-O Motherfucker – Valley of Fire

Thursday 6th November: Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
My ignorance of Wreckless Eric is pretty complete, but I do have two songs by him which I really like, and he was something of a minor hero in his time as far as I am aware. I also inadvertently busted someone at an open-mic night here in Edinburgh last year, on the basis of Wreckless Eric. It is a strictly ‘no covers’ night and a certain gentleman played Reconnez Cherie on the assumption that no-one would recognise it. He counted without the music obsessive at the back, however, and at about the line about ‘nights in my Zodiac’ I leaned over to my mate, who ran the night at the time, and said ‘Fuck me, that’s a Wreckless Eric song.’ What did I learn from that evening? That no-one, absolutely no-one it seems, likes a smart arse.
Wreckless Eric – Reconnez Cherie

Saturday 8th November: Greenbelt Collective, The Second Hand Marching Band, White Heath & The Occasional Flickers at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
I don’t know the Greenbelt Collective, but TSHMB and The Occasional Flickers are both excellent, so as ways to round off your week go, this couldn’t be much better. I’ll be expecting a good sweep of the territory between folk and pop and back again.
The Occasional Flickers – A Medal Won in ’84

Saturday 8th November: The Bowery Opening Party, at the Bowery Bar.
Quite which bands will be playing is somewhat up in the air at the moment but this will be the official opening party for Edinburgh’s newest live music and arts venue. Personally I’m more interested in the music side of course, but there will be fine bands, free champagne and candles. Check out the website, designed by yours truly and featuring the photos of a certain Dylan from Blueback Hotrod. The place is really lovely, so I do recommend you get along if you can because this place could be fantastic if we all get behind it.
Lydia Lunch – Bowery Blues

Sunday 9th November: Marcus Mumford & Rags & Feathers at 99 Hannover Street.
This is a charity gig, held in one of Edinburgh’s snazzier bars, generally full of wannabe-WAGs. On Sunday, however, there’s be soulful folk-pop, so the place should be a much nicer place to be, and I am really looking forward to seeing what Marcus Mumford is like as a solo act. [Edit: this is now at Bannerman's on the Cowgate]
Rags & Feathers – Silent Movie Starlets

In my last review of Mumford & Sons I said that they had that something about them that says pretty loud and clear to me that they have the capacity to become big. I stand by that impression, and I will add to it: I think they might just have the capacity to do what Noah & the Whale signally failed to do, which is break out of the London indie-folk scene and gain mainstream recognition, without necessarily harming their appeal amongst the grass-roots fans who first supported them.

The four-part harmonies are genuinely powerful – they really hit you, grab you by the cockles and make you want to throw your arms in the air and sing along. This kind of euphoric giddiness is, I think, what makes me say that they could indeed go on to be very successful. A bigger group needs a capacity to fill a big venue, and I have little doubt that these boys have got it.

A bigger group also needs to be able to write songs that aren’t too ‘difficult’, ones that everyone can get without having to be trained into a specific sound, and I think they succeed here too. The roaring harmonies have strong gospel flavours, which brings a more immediate impact to their sound than might the English folk sound on which it is often based. The combination is heady.

Strategic record industry analysis aside, this was a brilliant show. Marcus Mumford’s voice is the centre-piece in many ways, alternately bellowed at you full-throated or snarled out of the corner of his mouth as if he wanted to kill every last member of the audience. But banjo-wielding Winston is perhaps just as important, partly for the reckless pace a banjo brings to music in general, and also for having an equally powerful and charismatic voice to add to the mixture.

This choral gospel swell, to which many of their songs ascend, does leave you with the impression that you have just attended a spiritual of some description rather than a gig. White Blank Page is enough to curl your toes back on themselves in delight, and it is not alone in their canon in being able to conjure that kind of emotion.

These lads are good. Bloody good. I really, really hope the songs can sustain this kind of level, because they only have a four-track downloadable EP for the time being, available here, and there is never any certainty of continued excellence when a group is this fresh out of the box. So for now, I guess what we have is a small number of amazing songs, some genuine potential and a live experience that is nothing short of euphoric. Brilliant stuff.

Dylan has some fantastic pictures from the gig, such as the one above, available on Blueback Hotrod.

Mumford & Sons – White Blank Page
Mumford & Sons – Hold On to What You Believe

It’s late, I know, leave off. I just couldn’t face anything yesterday, after four consecutive nights of industrial drinking and four consecutive early rises. I was tired, horribly hungover and just wanted to stare into space for eight hours until I was allowed to go home. Even an hour of stomach-churning 5-a-side football wasn’t enough to make it all go away, so I went home, had a bath and collapsed in bed. I’m better now. Sweet sleep, I had missed it so.

So I hope you don’t begrudge me my day off. I wasn’t much use to anyone, never mind the internets. There’s just no time for anything at the moment – writing, film editing, attending gigs and meetings – never mind things like relaxing or, shock horror, reading books. Thank fuck we don’t have kids.

Wednesday 8th October 2008: Roots Manuva at the Liquid Room.
If ever I was going to get into hip hop I’ve often thought that it might be via Roots Manuva, quite possibly because of how Rodney Smith (snigger) mixes it up with all sorts of other things. I’m still on the first couple of listens of his latest album, but this show kind of intrigues me so I might just scoot along.
Roots Manuva – A Haunting

Thursday 9th October 2008: Lykke Li at Cabaret Voltaire.
This is an over-14s gig, so it might be just a little bit of a paedo show, full of young lads trying to hide the bulge in their shorts as the rather pretty Miss Li swoons and pouts on the stage. Personally, I’m more of a passive fan than an active one – I think she’s okay and I’ve heard a couple of decent songs – but she gives the impression of someone who might be quite good live, for some reason. Might be worth a punt, if you don’t mind being the oldest person in the room.
Lykke Li – Dance Dance Dance

Thursday 9th October 2008: James Pants, Found & Penpusher play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.
Firstly, Found are great and I haven’t seen them for ages and secondly, I am not entirely convinced that this is going to be my cup of tea otherwise. That doesn’t make sense, I know, but I am boring myself with my narrow taste at the moment and I think it’s about time I got off my arse and tried something a bit different.
James Pants – Theme From Paris

Saturday 11th October 2008: Mumford & Sons at the Voodoo Rooms.
Marcus Mumford’s voice would be enough, but in general these guys are one of my favourite finds of recent times. There is the scope for them to go all anodyne like Noah & the Whale if they have too many of the rough edges sanded off them by a label, but for the time being the warmth and scratch combines beautifully with the more soaring choruses, which can be almost like gospel music at times. One not to miss.
Mumford & Sons – Roll Away Your Stone

There’s an intriguing wee scene blossoming down in London around a little indie label called Chess Club Records. Toadfans may well have encountered them already as they’re home to the magnificient Mumford & Sons, who have been received favourably here at Toad HQ both live and on record.

They also look after the affairs of one Justin Hayward-Young, who apparently shares a house with Marcus Mumford, and records under the rockiest of rock’n'roll monikers; Jay Jay Pistolet. His star seems to be on the rise following last year’s release, on Chess Club, of a single called We Are Free, which has been attracting mainstream attention. Jay Jay Pistolet has a lighter, more whimsical style than the thrills and drama of the Mumford boys, but I’m liking what I’m hearing. The two acts share common ground in the deft instrumental work and imaginative arrangements.

The label’s latest release is in less of an acoustic vein. Released on Monday, Australian band Ghostwood’s debut UK single, Red Version, is taken from an eponymous EP that’s already been on release down under, and which seems to have gone down reasonably well with our colonial cousins. They have the sort of epic mid-80s sound that evokes early Cure and U2, which means you’ve already decided whether you’re going to like it or not just upon reading that. It’s certainly a well-worn furrow they’re ploughing, but they could find a healthy market slipstreaming the success of bands like Bloc Party and Maximo Park.

So, interesting times down at the Chess Club. It looks like they’re putting a lot of hard work into finding unusual new acts to promote, and seem to be refreshingly allergic to anything too mainstream. That’s something to be commended if you ask me, and enthusiatically supported. I definitely think this little label are worth keeping a close eye on.

Mumford & Sons – Roll Away Your Stone
Jay Jay Pistolet – We Are Free
Ghostwood – Red Version

Website | MySpace

When I lived in Glasgow, back between 1994 and 1999, the Captain’s Rest was a shitty-looking Rangers pub with the sort of forbidding exterior and clientele that meant I never stepped inside once in the four years I lived virtually next door to the place. It’s all been spruced up now, although the exterior still isn’t exactly what I’d call welcoming, and is in the process of reinventing itself as a rather snappy little venue with a consistent knack for good underground lineups.

Going to a gig in what is basically the basement of a pub the first thing that struck me was the price: £7.50 are you fucking joking? For a small band with barely a single four-song release to their name? Well it turns out it was something of a bargain.

We missed a good deal of Davie Fiddle, the openers, because we were upstairs guzzling beer, but the three or four songs that we did hear were excellent. It’s quite a staple of the indie scene at the moment: four posh boys playing folky music with an old-time English fiddle sound, but these guys were excellent. Listening to their MySpace page, the charm of the music doesn’t seem to quite come across in the recorded version, but believe me that they are worth seeing live. Dylan and I thought Phil was playing a viola at first, the sound of it was so deep, but apparently it’s just a normal fiddle. Did they say there was a string missing, to make that distinctive sound? They may have, but I was drunk and I don’t remember that clearly.
Davie Fiddle – Chasing Reason

Next came a brief interlude from Derek Meins, ostensibly there simply as a compere, he stood up with the Mumford lads as his backing band and played a brief but brilliant set of country, folky, bluesy, gospelly crazy music. His contorted, evangelical delivery was superb, and I can hardly believe I’ve not heard anything about this guy before. His album, for sale at the gig, has been licensed to Sony BMG thought, so clearly someone has. Again, I find myself not loving the album as much as the live show just yet, but give me time. And if you get the chance to see this lad, defintely, definitely do it.
Derek Meins – The Gin Song (Yes, the Gin Song – I should make this the official Song, by Toad anthem!)

And finally, on to the main attraction. I’d pretty much have been happy with the value for my £7.50 already at this point, but to add cherries to the top of the sundae, Marcus Mumford and his Minions were absolutely superb as well. The performance itself was tight as hell – absolutely perfectly executed, and with easily enough Big Pop grandeur mixed into the indie-folk to suggest that these guys really do have the capacity to become very, very big indeed. I make no claim to knowing how these sorts of chains of events are set off of course, nor how much luck is involved, but I am getting to the stage now where I am confident enough to say so when I think I hear the potential for a band to make an impact outside the confines of the narrow little genre in which I tend to interest myself. The music is euphoric, emotive, arresting and all the other good things you would imagine and if they can keep this up there should be plenty of excitement on the horizon. Their new (and fucking brilliant) EP is only to be found at rawrip.com at the moment, but vinyl copies should be available soon.
Mumford & Sons – White Blank Page

Hello, more Toadcastery. I’ve, erm, focussed on Dadrock for this one. Not too much of it on the playlist, fortunately, although there’s a couple of well-known names on there. In my defence though, I couldn’t bring myself to feature Coldplay, so I was forced into the compromise of playing an almighty butchering of one of their songs by the splendid Richard Cheese.

Basically I spend most of this podcast trying to justify the presence of so much bland music in the charts and how the hell that came to pass. There’s plenty of chatter about how music is used as a sort of social glue as well, in which case the quality of the stuff becomes almost secondary. There are some really good new bands on this as well – The Velcro Quartet are particularly brilliant, as are the songs by Mumford & Son, Yoshimi! and Honeytrap. Enjoy responsibly.

Toadcast #32 – The Tribecast

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01. Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules Theme (01.32)
02. The Velcro Quartet – Dead Dog’s Hill Replaced with Johnny Cashback, at the band’s request. (07.53)
03. Seabear – Teenage Kicks (11.17)
04. Athlete – Shake Those Windows (21.02)
05. Richard Cheese – Yellow (30.31)
06. ESL – Czarne Oczy (31.59)
07. Emiliana Torrini – Me & Armeni (39.50)
08. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal (43.24)
09. Snow Patrol – Last Ever Lone Gunman (48.11)
10. The Killers – All These Things That I’ve Done (58.17)
11. The Pictish Trail – All I Own (66.52)
12. Mumford & Sons – White Blank Page (73.01)
13. Honeytrap – Song For Nona (82.17)
14. The Velcro Quartet – How to Kill Your Wife (87.04)
15. Yoshimi! – Song For Suzy (Demo) (94.34)
16. Frank Turner – The Outdoor Type (100.34)

Oh, now this lot are a little bit good.  They sound like Noah & the Whale might do if they played a gig and Broken Records had been on the stereo as they drove to the venue.  There’s bits of Johnny Flynn in there as well.  The elements will be familiar to readers of Toad: a slightly ramshackle stumble of rolling folk music.  They use plenty of banjos and brass and something of a joyous carnival atmosphere to the music.

The elements may all be pretty familiar, but they pull it off with sincerity, panache and energy.  One of the most captivating talents they are showcasing here is the ability to mix the rattle of their more upbeat music with the genuinely sad, and just a little epic, sadness of their more lovelorn songs.  In fact it is in the sweeping sadness that they escape from their folkier underpinnings – they’re plinking and strumming along and suddenly it all breaks free and starts swooping and turning through some sort of clear sky of melancholy, letting its direction be determined by the elusive currents of the upper atmosphere.

Maybe that’s where the Broken Records comparisons come in.  Mumford & Sons don’t actually sound like them at all, they sound much more like the more English folk of Johnny Flynn and so on, but there is something of the grand about them somewhere, which kind of vaguely evokes Edinburgh’s epic racket-merchants in glimpses.

There’s nothing to buy as yet, but their EP will be available on their MySpace page in the next couple of days, and there’s a tour to accompany its release which will be bringing it through these parts – well vaguely: the Captain’s Rest in Glasgow – in the next couple of days.  Having heard three of the four songs on the EP I would really recommend you try and catch them and pick up a copy of the EP.

Mumford & Sons – Awake My Soul