This is one of those weeks where there could be two of you and you’d still probably not quite manage to get to all the decent gigs in the city this week.  Personally I am going to try and keep it a bit calm, but I have my doubts as to whether or not I am likely to succeed.  Mrs. Toad, no doubt, will be wildly impressed.

I had fun down in London last week, incidentally.  As I mentioned, I did a quick interview with Tom Robinson for BBC 6Music while I was there and, in typical fashion, talked for about twenty minutes, forcing them into copious editing to get things down to the requisite couple of minutes of actual airtime.  You can listen to the whole thing here if you like – it’ll be up for the next week or so I think, and my bit starts just over half an hour in.

Monday 7th February 2011: The Joy Formidable at the Electric Circus.

I’ll be absolutely honest, I don’t know too much about these guys, apart from the fact that they were really quite buzzy a year or so ago, and have a new album coming out, so I am rather interested to hear what it’s all about.

The Joy Formidable – The Magnifying Glass

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Wednesday 9th February 2011: 6 Day Riot, The Pineapple Chunks & White Heath play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

Limbo really are back with a bang in 2011.  Having gone incredibly quiet last year, I wasn’t sure if we were going to see them back again, but with something like six or seven shows booked for the first couple of months of the year already it seems I couldn’t have been more wrong.  It’ll be nice to see the Chunks back in action again as well.

The Pineapple Chunks – Look Back in Horror

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Thursday 10th February 2011: Dylan Uncovered at the Voodoo Rooms.

In association with Let’s Get Lyrical, this is a night of Dylan appreciation (and covers) starring Yusuf Azak, Esperi, The Sundancer, Shock and Awe, Norman Lamont, Hookers for Jesus, Edinburgh School for the Deaf, Issac Brutal and the Trailer Trash Express, and Tribute to Venus Carmichael.

Friday 11th February 2011: James Yorkston & Marry Waterson and Oliver Knight at Pilrig St. Paul’s.

Another Let’s Get Lyrical show, this one looks gorgeous, and I think is part of James Yorkston’s tour to promote the recent publishing of his tour diaries.

James Yorkston – Steady as She Goes

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Friday 11th February 2011: Panda Su EP launch, with I Build Collapsible Mountains & Finn LeMarinel at Sneaky Pete’s.

The first of two consecutive This is Music nights at Sneaky’s, this is something of a Glasgow Allstars of Gentle Acoustic Pop kind of a lineup.

Saturday 12th February 2011: Conquering Animal Sound album launch with Miaoux Miaoux & Esperi at Sneaky Pete’s.

Conquering Animal Sound’s debut album Kammerspiel is out now, and they are touring the UK in support of it, with this being the Edinburgh leg.

Conquering Animal Sound – Bear (Lamplighter Remix)

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Saturday 12th February 2011: Come on Gang‘s farewell show with Over the Wall & Cancel the Astronauts at Pilrig St. Paul’s.

We music fans can be an ungrateful shower at times, and Come on Gang have just about had enough of us.  They are calling it a day, but going out with something of a bang – having a big old farewell bash at Pilrig St. Paul’s which is doubling as an album release show for their debut album.  Sort of an epitaph, I suppose.

So, whilst the first half of 2010 was relatively quiet on the live music front, August was absolute mayhem. And as the dust settles on another festival period, and we try to assess the physical and financial damage in a calm and orderly fashion, it doesn’t look like things are slowing down on the gig radar. Which I’m rather pleased about.

Monday 6^th September 2010: Miaoux Miaoux and Wounded Knee at Electric Circus. Bart’s House. Sneaky Pete’s.

The rather talented Justin Corrie – not content in being in one third of indie popsters Maple Leave – brings his solo electronic project to Edinburgh. Also I’ll be intrigued to see how Wounded Knee’s looped folk meanderings go down amongst the glitz and glamour of Electric Circus.

Tuesday 7^th September 2010: Super Adventure Club, Luis Franscesco Arena and Hopwood & Black at Sneaky Pete’s.

I’ve no idea about the other two, but Super Adventure Club are brilliant in a really mental way. Or maybe mental in a really brilliant way.

Tuesday 7^th September 2010: Kath Bloom, This Frontier Needs Heroes, Woodpigeon and eagleowl at the Roxy Room.

Basically, an End of the Road warm up gig. And I may be biased, but I think this is one of the most interesting line-ups the cities seen in a while – an incredible coup for first time promoters Powan Presents. This Frontier Needs Heroes will be playing their own set before joining the legendary Kath Bloom as her backing band, just as eagleowl will do the same before swelling the ranks of Woodpigeon. So basically one big old alt.folk love-in.

Thursday 9^th September 2010: Panda Su, The Occasional Flickers and The Last of Private’s Balladeers at Sneaky Pete’s.

The Occasional Flickers will be playing a stripped down set for their first show in a  long while.

Friday 10^th September 2010: The Buzzcocks at The Liquid Rooms.

The Buzzcocks are one of only three good bands that have ever come out of Manchester. Discuss.

Friday 10^th September 2010: Francois & The Atlas Mountains at The Roxy.

Francois & the Atlas Mountains pretty much single handedly turned this year’s Homegame from a really nice community folk festival into an all out weekend dance party. And I’ll love them forever because of that.

Friday 10^th September 2010: Come on Gang!, FOUND and Jesus h. Foxx at The Caves.

Come on Gang! Single launch, featuring support from two of the most exciting and interesting bands in Edinburgh. You can’t go wrong, really.

[The wonderful Jenny Soep returns this week with more of her spellbinding illustrations, and one or two interesting matters to raise. This post was originally pencilled in for last week, hence some of the dates needing correcting, and Jenny apologises and explains further below. Even though Jenny did in fact get the article to me on the Sunday as promised; in the end, unfortunately, it arrived a little too late to be published: my inbox records the email's arrival at 11:58pm!]

Hello there. A Sunday Supplement, written on the Sunday. I’m not best known for my regard for deadlines and always live on a last minute shoestring. I was once described as having ‘a somewhat elastic sense of time’. It’s true. I live on my own little planet which runs on Jenny Time. But it is never boring and a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences. Which apparently is great for artists. Which I might be. But it’s also how I draw live music.

I feel very privileged to be writing something for this blog. It’s a fantastic blog and I’m crap because I don’t read it enough, much as I don’t religiously follow anything in particular. But I’ve seen enough of it, and know enough of the taste of its writer to know that he gives an intelligent and considered fuck about music and it’s creators. It’s also refreshingly honest.

Now being this ‘music illustrator’ – existing in this little niche I’ve been creating for myself – I’ve been asked to submit the Sunday Supplement with completely free reign on what I could write about. Last time I commented on the fact that I wasn’t going to write anything and was purely going to have a visual journal of Matt Groening’s fabulously put together ATP festival, which was wonderful to the point of my being a little hysterically radiant after witnessing so many quality bands I liked. I did however write a shite load more than was initially intended.

This time I am going to offer drawings of lesser known local bands from Scotland who I feel should get a mention. So I’ll supply images of the following musicians/bands I particularly think are destined for greatness, if not pretty much there already. They are all worth checking out.

Washington Irving, a folk pop group, young fresh and getting richer in sounds and words and self each time I see them. They’ve recently released an EP, with a great cover designed by Ryan Hays, called Little Wanderer, Head Thee Home.

The John Knox Sex Club who incidentally share the drummer with Washington Irving. They are so good live, front man Sean Cummings whipping himself into a frenzy with rantings and gnashings of teeth. I haven’t heard their recorded stuff yet, but they’ve got a very nice looking CD box which I quite fancy aquiring super soon.

Adam Stafford, Y’All is Fantasy Island and Size of Kansas band leader, film maker and creative collaborator. The film The Shutdown, directed by Adam and written by Alan Bissett, recently won the San Francisco International Film Festival award for Best Short Documentary. The soundtrack is of Alan’s unmistakeable Falkirkian voice augmented beautifully by Adam’s soundscapes. It’s great, I just saw it today at the marvellous Words Per Minute at Creative Studios in Glasgow which saw a top little solo headline performance from Adam.

John B McKenna is another great chap of experimental sounds and wordsmithery. I’ve drawn him playing by himself, and in collaborations. This picture was drawn live and projected on a big screen as interior decor for the Verden Whistle Test event in Edinburgh a teeny while ago. Great little project by the Ten Tracks initiative.

A girl, I need a girl. Well I’m going to include my little digital sketch of Lucy Cathcart Frödén from The Social Services which I drew on my new iPod Touch. It’s not the best drawing in the world, quite obviously. But I’m learning. And I really liked their music. Will draw them on paper and aim to get all of them next time. But this is when they were playing at Mono last Wednesday (2nd June).

Panda Su. She’s great. This is a digital drawing I did on my Nokia mobile phone. I’m sure you’ll have heard great reviews of her. I’m not known for my wordage of music. I’ll leave that up to the most excellent wordsmiths that exist already. The pictures I post online aim to be a stamp of great music and if it’s not really my sort of music, there’s definitely an intriguing story attached that’s worth looking up. The pictures serve as pointers for you to look them up, or as memory triggers for a gig you have attended.

So there you go, an element of a few technologies and styles of drawing, and a tiny smattering of those local bands in my immediate musical consciousness.

However, the real issue burning in my mind at the moment is one unrelated to any great bands I’ve drawn recently, and is also a reason for the tardiness in this posting.

Yesterday (Saturday 5th June) I attended the demonstration in Edinburgh to free Palestine, decry the killings aboard the aid flotilla, and request an international boycott of Israel.

My week started with an awareness of limited knowledge on the situation, and has since concluded with hopefully a much more educated understanding.

When the time came at the end of the march and demonstration – a massive turnout of 5,000 people – for significant speakers to say a few words, I had to agree with most of what was said. Certain valuable points were met with roars of approval from the crowd of demonstrators, however their lack of voice to support one impassioned speaker with his hope to retaliate to Israel’s recent act by returning in increased numbers of ships but with lethal intent. ‘We will kill you!’ was met with silence from the listeners which though still spoke measures, should have been peppered with disagreements.

I do not believe in ‘getting even’ which is what another speaker suggested, but the overall message rang true. Israel needs to accept talks with the democratically elected Hamas to heal the fractured state of Palestine and work on a solution of communal living in peace. South Africa managed it, Northern Ireland managed it, and as much as Britain and the USA have played their part in the mess in the first place, and though the atrocities committed by both sides must not be forgotten, they now need to assist in persuading Israel that it is a necessary action for the peace and well-being of these two states.

The aim behind the aid flotilla was to gain international attention and focus on the totally unjust situation Palestine is in, and work towards ending the blockade.

As Henning Mankell put it (the Swedish writer of Wallander and one of the peace protesters aboard the aid flotilla):

“So as not to lose sight of the goal, which is to lift the brutal blockade of Gaza. That will happen.
Beyond that goal, others are waiting. Demolishing a system of apartheid takes time. But not an eternity.”

This is the beginning of what Milo has already pointed out is going to be a monumental period of carousing.  Last week was very, very quiet in terms of gigs, but if you paid any attention to that then the sense of security into which you might have been lulled would very much have been a false one.  Because it all kicks off in earnest this week, and if anything next could be even heavier.  Livers of Edinburgh beware!

From my own perspective I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, in the sense that the year’s tasks are approaching their completion.  This will be a monumental relief, and believe me, that last week before Christmas will be spent going to bed at about ten at night.  Until then though, no rest for the wicked.  Or the stupid.

Thursday 3rd December 2009: There Will Be Fireworks & St. Jude’s Infirmary, with solo acoustic sets from Meursault & Broken Records for the Avalanche Album Club party at the Caves.

There Will Be Fireworks’ album didn’t entirely capture my imagination, I have to confess, sounding a bit too much like an amalgalm of The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit, but they have sold a hell of a lot of copies of it off their own backs after very few gigs and a lot of very good reviews, so they are definitely doing something right.  For me this implies that I should be paying a bit more attention to what they’re doing, and this is the first time in a while they’ve played Edinburgh.

Thursday 3rd December: The Pictish Trail, Rachel & Laura Lancaster & Tisso Lake play Leith Tape Club at the Isolounge.

The Leith Tape Club is one of the nicest nights in Edinburgh.  Rachel and Laura Lancaster more commonly go under the name of Chippewa Falls (when the drummer is present), and Ian from Tisso Lake has a gorgeous voice and a really engaging solo set.  And that Pictish Trail fellow isn’t bad either!

The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (Toad Session)

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Friday 4th December 2009: Deer Tick at Sneaky Pete’s.

This is a low key gig, but I really would recommend it.  Deer Tick’s album War Elephant really is good, and apparently they’re excellent live.  There are elements of folk and indie rock in the album, although I suppose if you wanted a gigantic generalised banner to pop it under then I would probably use the term Americana.  Either way, highly recommended.

Deer Tick – Ashamed

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Friday 4th December 2009: Fanattica & Blueflint at the Penicuik Arts Centre.

I know I generally don’t cover out of town gigs – it’s all I can do to stay even vaguely on top of local ones – but Penicuik almost counts, and this one intrigued me anyway.  I’ve never been to Penicuik Arts Centre, but the flyer for this promises candlelight and an open fire.  Buses run regularly to and from Penicuik all night apparently, so if you’re looking for a romantic evening this week, and I never ever thought I would hear myself say this, Penicuik might actually be the place to be.

Friday 4th December 2009: FOUND, Meursault & Panda Su play the Ten Tracks Christmas bash at the Roxy Art House.

I think this might be Meursault’s last gig of the year, for which I would imagine they will all be truly grateful.  Being a record label is fucking hard work, but when people put this much effort into their band then it never seems like a chore for a moment.  FOUND have been playing new album material recently, and I have yet to see any of it, so I am not going to miss this.

FOUND – Mullokian

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Saturday 5th December 2009: Schwervon, Withered Hand, the Pineapple Chunks & Enfant Bastard at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Our Christmas party (ie, our personal one, nothing to do with Toad) happens on this particular evening, and I am sizing up the likelihood of being able to sneak out to see such a cracking lineup without Mrs. Toad taking a big stick to my gentleman’s appendage.  Unlikely, I think, which is a shame because in terms of general wonkiness this bill includes three of Edinburgh’s best bands if you ask me.  And all different, too.  Shite.

The Pineapple Chunks – Art Storage

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Saturday 5th October 2009: The Last Battle single launch at Carter’s Bar.

Another rather intriguing gig here.  Single release?  Already?  Wow!  The Last Battle haven’t been going that long, but have already snuck up on my blind side with a new single, which they’ll be launching at Carter’s Bar, just down the road from Henry’s, on Saturday night.

After attending a birthday party which involved the scarfing of five pig’s heads yesterday I still don’t feel capable of eating anything. I may have to fast for the next few days before that little lot gets digested, in fact. Fucking hell that was a meal and a half.

There will be no giggenfun for me this week, unfortunately, despite a couple of natty lineups on the horizon. The label is going to require an absolutel shitload of admin work this week and if I go out gallvanting there is no way I am going to be able to get all of it done. We have Meursault single promos to do, Foxx promos, Split 12″ numbering, Maxwell Panther printing and label sampler cutting and folding. Then there’s the Fresh Air show on Wednesday with the Japanese War Effort, which I’m looking forward to.

Did everyone see that FOUND’s musical cupboard of magnificence won the BAFTA for Best Interactive Thingumajig? Well done lads, brilliant, and thoroughly deserved. Must have been a bit depressing for the others shortlisted though – how the fuck do you compete with something like the bloody Cybraphon?

Anyway, on with the task at hand. What should you be doing while I’m in the house folding paper, cutting out inserts and stuffing CDs into slip-cases? Well if you’ll hang on, I’ll tell you:

Wednesday 11th November 2009: The Pineapple Chunks, Ruthelise Snowe & Andy Brown at the Bowery.

I know little about this gig, so if anyone knows anything about who’s supporting please let me know in the comments. I’ve linked to an Andy Brown MySpace page, but I really don’t know if it’s the right one and, er, I can’t find Ruthelise Snow at all. The Chunks themselves however make, erm… mental guitar music basically. It’s off-kilter, surprisingly melodic and brilliant fun.

The Pineapple Chunks – Dark Halo

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Thursday 12th November 2009: Graham Coxon at the Queen’s Hall.

Most people I know absolutely love Graham Coxon, and cite his departure from Blur as the moment they became shit. That’s bollocks of course, because Think Tank is a great album, but that’s a whole new argument. Anyhow, here I am pootling along in my ignorance, with little real awareness of Coxon’s solo work and no more than a fairly casual liking for what little I have heard. The last album was really quite folky though, and I believe this is an acoustic setup, so that’s about all I can tell you.

Graham Coxon – All Has Gone

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Thursday 12th November 2009: The Leg, Your Loyal Subjects and Lipsync For a Lullaby play Versus at the Voodoo Rooms.

Apparently I sounded a little lukewarm on the concept the last time I mentioned the Versus gigs, but I really didn’t mean to be. All three bands will play separately, together and everything inbetween, and there will be inter-set entertainments as well. Basically it is going to be a gigantic musical mish-mash. The last one was apparently brilliant, so if Ted and his minions can pull that off again this should be a brilliant night.

Saturday November 14th: Riley Briggs from Aberfeldy at Carter’s Bar.

This is a free gig (Riley also plays alternate Thursdays down at the Shore in Leith, I believe) and will be a solo acoustic performance, but the band’s breezy indiepop should be perfectly suited to this kind of setup.

Aberfeldy – Love is an Arrow

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Saturday November 14th: Trashcan Sinatras, Brother Louis Collective & the Seventeenth Century at Cabaret Voltaire.

The Trashcan Sinatras are something of a blast from the past for me, I have to confess. I remember absolutely loving A Happy Pocket when I bought it back in my universoty days. I have to confess to having barely a clue what they’re up to these days, but I’d be really curious to see them. I don’t know Brother Louis Collective really, but the Seventeenth Century are excellent.

Trashcan Sinatras – The Therapist

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Saturday 14th November 2009: Panda Su, John B McKenna & the Last Battle play Trampoline at the Wee Red Bar.

The Last Battle are what happened when Thieves in Suits called it a day and I’ve heard very good things about them, without having had the chance to see them myself. Panda Su seem to be drawing all sorts of praise, and John B McKenna also sounds rather interesting. It’s a low-key lineup this one, but Euan has definitely found a really good spread of underground artists I’d personally like to see, and then kindly put them all in the same place on one evening for me.

It’s a rather varied week of gigging this week, with Richard Hawley at the Queen’s Hall at one end of the spectrum and the Japanese War Effort at the Traverse Bar tonight at the other.  There are a few side-notes worth mentioning as well – like the vanishing Whispertown 2000 gig at Sneaky’s on Saturday which I would have liked to go to, but which I assume was cancelled and the appearance, for free, of 4AD’s Big Pink at Sick Note, late at Cabaret Voltaire on Thursday.

I think I can manage maybe a couple of these shows, but probably no more because if I don’t start showing Mrs. Toad some proper attention pretty damn sharpish there may end up being a little jar of pickled toad testicles on a shelf somewhere in our house.

Monday 12th October 2009: Japanese War Effort at the Traverse Bar.

The Japanese War Effort are one of my favourite bands (well okay, we all know it’s just Jamie) in Edinburgh at the moment.  I personally think his recorded stuff has been a little variable, if I’m being honest, but if you’re prepared to pay attention, Jamie is an engaging live performer whose live assembly of his loops and beeps, and the occasional emergence of an actual song from in amongst them, is always worth seeing.
Jamie says it’s somewhere under the Usher Hall, and when I Googled I got this, so good luck to you.

Japanese War Effort – Chocolat Froid

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Tuesday 13th October 2009: Richard Hawley at the Queen’s Hall.

Richard Hawley is one of the best live performers you’ll see.  Charming and witty without being in the slightest over-bearing, he brings his domestic, heartfelt crooning to life on stage to extent he doesn’t always quite manage on record.  It’s fucking expensive though – £21 quid, are they mental?

Richard Hawley – Born Under a Bad Sign

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Wednesday 14th October 2009: Girls, Swanton Bombs & St. Jude’s Infirmary at Sneaky Pete’s.

The band intent on making themselves utterly un-Googlable have named their band Girls and their album Album.  Fuckwits.  It doesn’t matter though, I still really like their music, which is scratchy and rough low-fi indie – breaking back and forth to something warmer from time to time, which makes for a nice dynamic, if you ask me.  I’m still listening to their album, but there will be a review on the site fairly soon.

Girls – Headache

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Wednesday 14th October 2009: Glaciers at the Bowery.

This is rather experimental and peculiar, apparently, so I can imagine it moistening the gussets of a fair few of my readers.  Have a listen on the MySpace link, but it sounds really rather interesting to me – very mysterious and atmospheric, which rhythmic, looping vocals and wheezing backdrops.

Thursday 15th October 2009: Meursault & the Red Well at Cabaret Voltaire.

This is a Mill gig, so you may have to drink unspeakable beer all night.

Friday 16th October 2009: Stricken City, North Atlantic Oscillation and My Cousin I Bid You Farewell at Sneaky Pete’s.

I know next to nothing about these bands, but Stricken City seem to be doing a nice job of re-interpreting female fronted 90s Britpop bands.

Stricken City – Tak O Tak

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Friday 16th October 2009: Panda Su & Last Battles at the Bowery.

Last Battles are about as fresh out of the box as it gets, I think, and I have yet to see them live, but it all sounds very promising if you have a listen to the MySpace stuff.  Male/female duets do it for me every time!

Sunday 18th October 2009: The Wave Pictures, Stanley Brinks & Freschard at Cabaret Voltaire.

I fucking love the Wave Pictures, and I fucking love the Wave Pictures live as well.  The roughness of their recordings translates really well into a free and relaxed live show, and the band generally seem to be really enjoying themselves.

The Wave Pictures – Your Heart is on Your Sleeve

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