So, a holiday coming up (an actual one this time – no computer, no work, no nothing) and so many things to get done.  I reeled them off in the van this morning when I was driving Mrs. Toad to work and she asked me if there were actually enough hours in the day to get everything done, and I had to answer in the negative.  Not even if I didn’t actually sleep at all.  So now it’s just a case of choosing what to neglect, which for an obsessive like me is not a comfortable decision to have to make.

So, if anyone has ever wanted to write anything for these pages, this week would be a splendid time to get in touch.  Dylan can be reached at sunday@songbytoad.com – just email a post through as he has kindly offered to generally administer the site in my absence.  It can be anything, from a gig review to a band recommendation, to a rant about something, to just a general ramble about something in your musical past – anything really.

Anyhow, after an enforced absence of several weeks due to holidays, Haarfests and suchlike, it is time to get back to the Wark of a Friday evening.  Mrs. Toad and I haven’t been there for bloody ages, and we are both starting to get twitchy with withdrawal symptoms.

Oh, and of course, the Festival is nearly over, so if you want to take one last chance to catch some things then this is the last week you’ll have the chance.  Lach’s Antihoot finishes this weekend, and they are getting in sort of a greatest hits lineup to mark the finale.  And of course, the Retreat Festival is this weekend at Pilrig St. Paul’s Church in Leith.  If you like music and you don’t go, you are an idiot, it is as simple as that.

So all that remains is for me to ask you to delurkify and chip in your answers to five stupid Friday questions, and then piddle away the rest of your day bickering with people because, let’s face it, you were never really going to do any work on Friday afternoon were you?  Honestly?  Nah, of course not.

1. Chore you will avoid doing this weekend.
2. Biggest treat in store for the weekend.
3. Tune for the afternoon.
4. What should you be doing at the moment instead of fannying about on the internet?
5. Bit of really mindless entertainment you will enjoy most this weekend.

Five bands from the Retreat Festival sampler, which can be downloaded here for free:

Enfant Bastard – Twix Party

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The Wee Rogue – I Cross My Heart

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eagleowl – Eat Hats

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The Douglas Firs – Soporific

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The Leg – Switches

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Firstly, the flurry of posts yesterday, from my rather tardy podcast to radio show post, meant that my brother’s Sunday Supplement – a rant about classical music – was buried rather too fast, so please do go back and check it out if you have a little time to waste this afternoon.

Secondly, the Edge Festival goes bloody nuts this week, and if I listed all the gigs then I’d be here all day, and there really is no need for that, so you can have it in paragraph form instead: on Monday 23rd we have Field Music at Sneaky Pete’s and Bear in Heaven at Electric Circus (late).  Tuesday sees The Phantom Band at the Electric Circus, Wednesday Eels at the Picturehouse and Thursday Mark Lanegan at the Liquid Room (who have finally got a website worthy of the name).  Friday is quiet, and then on the weekend we have Harlem at Sneaky Pete’s on Saturday and Modest Mouse at the Picturehouse on Sunday.  All these things you can Google yourselves if you are interested, and there is more info on the Edge site, here.

When it comes to more homegrown things, however, there is still plenty on this week, a good deal at the reassuringly active Bristo Hall – a really nice space which doesn’t get used as often as it might.

Monday 23rd August 2010: Pet, The Leg, The Pineapple Chunks, Sara & the Snakes at the Bristo Hall.

This might well be a late one (11pm-3am) so check it out before you go or you’ll be totally fucking wasted by the time the first band comes on.  I haven’t heard much from the Chunks for a while, as I believe they’ve been recording, so it would be rather cool if there were some new material here to be enjoyed.  There’s quite some distance covered from Sara & the Snakes’ swampy, bluesy garage stuff, the Chunks’ ramshackle whateverthefuckitistheyplay, and the Leg, who are so good they makes themselves sick down themselves (or so I hear anyway, because I have yet to see them live, for shame).

The Pineapple Chunks – Art Storage

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Tuesday 24th August 2010: White Heath, French Wives, Fiction Faction (Formerly Casino Brag,) Sebastian Dangerfield, Washington Irving, and Foxgang at the Bristo Hall.

This is a big lineup selected by Foxgang for their Festival Special.  Given the reluctance of local promoters to do anything at all during the festival (and I have every sympathy – I do the same) it is good to see these guys putting on their own showcase.  Highlights for me would be the indie-pop of Sebastian Dangerfield, and Glaswegian indie pair Washington Irving and French Wives, from Instinctive Raccoon.

Sebastian Dangerfield – The Flood (Pt.1)

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Saturday 28th August 2010: Broken Records and Sparrow & the Workshop at the Liquid Room.

These are two of the original Song, by Toad bands, in a certain sense.  Both now have labels and albums and careers, dammit, and it’s weird.  With debut albums fairly well in the rearview mirror I would imagine that there will be a fair amount of new material on show here, although I know Broken Records don’t want to ruin the surprise for when their second album comes out later in the year.  Their new stuff sounds a lot more layered and guitary and a lot less folky than their earliest material, and I am deeply curious about the new record.

Broken Records – A Leaving Song

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Saturday 28th/Sunday 29th August 2010: Retreat Festival at Pilrig St. Paul’s church.

A free download sampler featuring a large number of the bands playing can be downloaded from here, if you’d like a bit of a preview.  Other than that, take it from me, this is going to be the highlight of the Edinburgh gig calendar, no exceptions – full details here, and I reckon you should probably buy tickets in advance (weekend – Saturday – Sunday) too as I doubt there will be too many left on the door.

The Retreat Festival and its organisers do not like to be called twee.  They fucking well are though – you can’t have tea and toast advertised on your posters and decorate a hall with bunting and then complain about being called twee, can you?

Then again, the same festival featured mental drummers, garage rock two-pieces, ear-splitting guitar solos, and the frontman of the headline band being sick through his stage mask.  So not all that twee, exactly.  In fact, that’s probably what I like best about Retreat: yes it’s twee, in a sense, but it would be just plain wrong to use that to pigeonhole it in any sense.

In the words of Enfant Bastard’s Cammy Watt, it was just like Wayne’s World 2.

For example, this year’s festival was all about the guitars, for me.  I did turn up late, so maybe I missed some of the early afternoon’s less raucous acts but Enfant Bastard, Meursault (with their new electric guitarist) and the splendidly mental Pineapple Chunks were my highlights.  My Tiny Robots were really good as well, as was what little I could see of Rob St. John over the wall of sweaty backs which faced me when I arrived.  I caught some Come in Tokyo as well, but they are slightly less my cup of tea, in all honesty.

Enfant Bastard

Particularly as a live performer Rob is just getting better and better, so losing him to Oxford is a big shame for the music scene around here.  His electric version of Domino was as excellent here as it was at his recent Electric Circus set, and it will be a real shame to see him go.

After a wee comfort (ie beer) break, My Tiny Robots kicked off the evening schedule.  They’re not a band I have seen before, partly because I think they lost their drummer recently, and subsequently drifted for a bit, but they were really good.  Their guitar sound in particular has an old-style sound, sort of combination of lounge and rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s a sound I really like.

Enfant Bastard played next, although it was more of a Love Gestures set, something Cammy described as ‘like sleeping with an ex-girlfriend’ seeing as how the Love Gestures haven’t really existed for over a year now.  It was fucking brilliant, whatever it was.  Cammy is forever apologising and telling us how under-rehearsed the band are and how shit the music is, but he’s talking bollocks.  This was bloody exuberant, completely ramshackle and fucking great.  He’s more than happy to tease with his ‘just not bothering to sing’ vocals and ‘can barely be arsed to even play this’ guitar style but the man writes great fucking pop songs, it’s that simple.

Enfant Bastard – Michael Jackson

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The Pineapple Chunks were also bloody good.  They make a right bloody noise, their rhythms seem to be all over the place – just barely under control half the time – but there was a real dynamism to their performance on Sunday.  Maybe it’s because I was drunker than the last time I saw them, but for some reason I just seemed to ‘get it’ a  hell of a lot more clearly this time than when I saw them at Limbo about six months ago.  It’s quite melodic indie, to listen to the mp3s, but there’s a hell of a lot more edge to them live, where they play with real aggression.  Fantastic.

The Pineapple Chunks – Look Back in Horror

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Meursault were my headliners because, for domestic reasons, I had to scoot home before the increasingly infamous mask-barfing episode from The Leg frontman, which is gutting.  They were brilliant apparently, chunks and all, and I have still to actually see the buggers play, which is really starting to get on my tits.

Meursault have added a guitarist to their lineup – Debutant guitarist Phil Quirie – and his first show with them was bloody seamless.  I can’t say how impressed I am with how the new material is shaping up.  Some of it is just fucking sensational – Crank Resolutions, Sleet, that song with the duelling omnichords – the new album is going to be really, really fuckin good.

So a massive thanks to Bart and Emily – an absolute triumph, yet again guys.