Well after an extremely successful Ides of Toad on Saturday (a massive thanks to the excellent bands, and to the fucking loads of people who came along) I think this week I shall be putting my feet up and letting other people do the work for a bit.

And what a fuck of a lot of work they’ve been doing, too, because this week is a bit mental in terms of excellent gigs at which to drink yourself into an early grave. So much for the pre-Festival wind-down I discussed last week.

As well as having their album launch this week, Kid Canaveral are coming round to our house to record a Toad Session and get some beers down them, so umm… well, don’t expect me to be much use to anyone on Thursday, s’all I’m saying.

And from a gig-going perspective, well, Friday looks like a bit of a challenge, eh.

Thursday 21st July 2011: Sara Lowes & the Easy Tigers at the Electric Circus.

Sara Lowes is a sometime member of the Earlies and has played on some of my favourite albums of all time, by the likes of King Creosote and Micah P. Hinson.  In her solo guise she makes extremely pretty pop songs, and her new album is absolutely lush.

Sara Lowes – Night Times

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Bronto Skylift, PAWS & A Fight You Can’t Win at Sneaky Pete’s.

If, on the other hand, you want to end Thursday with bleeding ears then I recommend this one.  Bronto Skylift can head a bit too far in the direction of freeform noise for me, I have to confess, and I know next to nothing about the openers, but any chance to see PAWS should be taken, because they’re fucking great.

PAWS – Ariel

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Friday 22nd July 2011: Live Lounge at the Electric Circus with Lach, The Pineapple Chunks and Randan Discotheque.

The Pineapple Chunks have kindly agreed to let us host their album launch during the Festival, and this will be a wee preview for you, as well as being the first full gig outing for Lach on his return to Edinburgh in anticipation of the return of both his one-man show and the Antihoot to the Edinburgh Festival.

Lach – Break the Day

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Friday 22nd July 2011: Plastic Animals, Black International, Supermarionation (solo) & Loch Awe (solo) at the Wee Red Bar.

This event marks the launch of Fresh Air’s Inside Track 2011 charity album (last year’s can be downloaded here),

Plastic Animals – It Fell Apart

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Friday 22nd July 2011: The Just Joans, We See Lights & The Occasional Flickers at The Bristo Hall.

This is an Unpop night I believe, and they’ve assembled a bill of some of the finest indiepop around.  I haven’t heard much out of the Just Joans for a while actually, but when their skewed, cobbled together guitar pop and first rate lyrics really are an excellent combination.

The Just Joans – Hey Boy… You’re Oh So Sensitive

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Saturday 23rd July 2011: Kid Canaveral album launch at Avalanche Records.

I need say no more about Kid Canaveral on these pages, surely?  Indiepop.  Awesome.  Some wonderfully sad moments.  Brilliant fun live.

Kid Canaveral – Stretching the Line

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Saturday 23rd July 2011: Enfant Bastard, Moustache of Insanity & River of Slime at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

And finally we come to Enfant Bastard’s final Edinburgh gig for the foreseeable future.  Cammy is moving to Sweden, and will be supported at his farewell show by Moustache of Insanity and FOUND’s beepmaster general Kev Sim, under the name of River of Slime.

Enfant Bastard – Demo Scene

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I never really know what to do with pre-release mp3 teaser thingies on this site.  I don’t like just slapping them up on the blog without any thought, as a great many mp3 bloggers do.  It seems a bit of a waste of my time, and bit… well, a bit thoughtless I suppose.  As if suddenly the site would become a mindless news aggregator, which is not really fair, but it does feel a bit like that.

So I decided a little while back that I would use the podcasts for popping in new mp3s I had been emailed, but which didn’t have a home within a proper review of any sort.  That makes good sense, but then a lot of people don’t listen to the podcasts for varying reasons (no, not just because they’re shit), so it feels like there should be a way to pop the things up on the blog as well, for you other lot who heartlessly ignore all the hard work and effort that goes into the loving creation of a weekly podcast.

Anyhow, here are some things, most of which have been featured on every blog in Christendom already, and have also appeared on my own podcast already, but erm, I figured that non-podcasters deserved some fun too.

Sara Lowes may be best known for her work with the Earlies and Micah P. Hinson, but she is a fantastic solo artist in her own right, and this song is a teaser from a her new album Back to Creation, out, erm, soonish.  It has quite a lush pop sound, but for a change I am not going to complain about that.  Instead I am going to embrace it and say that I rather like it.  How’s that for an old dog learning a new trick then, eh?

Sara Lowes – Night Times

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My friend Phil and Little Matthew who helps with Toad Recordy things (as well as being a smart arse in the comments section) both love Eluvium, so I find myself really rather looking forward to their new record.  This teaser track sounds extremely promising, too.  The album is called Similies, is out on about the 15th Feb or so, and can be pre-ordered here.

Eluvium – The Motion Makes Me Last

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The new Eels album, frankly, ain’t really doing it for me just yet.  It’s a touch Eels-lite, but there are some good moments.  Little Bird is the official teaser for the album, End Times, which is out on Monday I think.

Eels – Little Bird

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Sam Amidon has also released an mp3 from a new album called I See the Sign.  It’s out in March sometime, and when I put it on the last podcast I remarked that it sounded a lot more like the Doveman stuff he does with his friend Thomas Bartlett, and speculated that perhaps Thomas had a lot to do with the new record.  Apparently this isn’t really how Bedroom Community (his label) work, so I may well be wrong, but I’m going to see him play in London in a week or two and I’ll ask him then.  Until then, this is How Come That Blood – nothing like the Sam stuff we know and love, but still brilliant if you ask me.  I’m really looking forward to this album.

Sam Amidon – How Come That Blood

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So, feedback time.  Do you have a preference for how to deal with this kind of newsy shite in future?  Should I have a way of just slapping up brand new mp3s sent by PR people to make sure you get your news on time, or does waiting for the review but sticking new stuff in the podcast make more sense to you?

The 28th Toadcast is all about the Fence Collective. People who read this site regularly must know them, I assume, but I’ve been intending to do this post for a while as they might be my favourite label in music at the moment.

After Kenny Anderson’s last band fell apart about ten years ago or more, he started releasing his own stuff on hand made CD-Rs under the name of King Creosote and between him and his brothers and some of the other local musicians he’d grown up with in Fife, a collective started to form which has grown and grown. Now, thanks to the spotlight cast their direction by Kenny’s brother Gordon’s involvement with The Beta Band and The Aliens, the success of King Creosote and James Yorkston, and the rising of KT Tunstall (also a Fence alumnus, believe it or not) Fence Records have turned into one of the most beloved record labels in the country.

And actually, I think their approach of building a community rather than just pimping product might just have the potential to make them one of the success stories of Music 2.0, although that’s another story. So this podcast is all about Fence Records and the bands I have discovered due to their hard work, and why I think they’re great. What an arse-kisser I’ve turned into.

(Warning: I’m drunker than I sound and there is way too much talking in this one.)

Toadcast #28 – The Fencecast

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01. Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra – Our Last Needle (03.17)
02. King Creosote – You’ve No Clue Do You (09.21)
03. James Yorkston & the Athletes – St. Patrick (16.33)
04. Art Pedro – Joanne (21.19)
05. MC Quake – It Feels Good to Be In Scotland (27.57)
06. Down the Tiny Steps – Handstand (36.44)
07. Adam Beattie – Bank Street (46.39)
08. Player Piano – Mercy (AC Mix) (49.35)
09. Candythief – A Good Day (56.47)
10. Rob St. John – Tipping In (60.06)
11. Adrian Crowley – Star of the Harbour (65.11)
12. Eagleowl – This is Not Your Lucky Day (67.47)
13. OLO Worms – Fingers & Thumbs (77.04)
14. HMS Ginafore – You Built a City Inside of Me (85.41)
15. Gummi Bako – She’s the Carrot & I’m the Stick (87.44)
16. The Pictish Trail – Words Fail Me Now (94.39)
17. Rich Amino – Chicken & Chips (99.02)
18. Sara Lowes – Uniform Days (104.22)
19. Magic Arm – Outdoor Games (108.11)
20. King Creosote – I’ll Fly By the Seat of My Pants (115.32)

< Day Two
<< Day One

Did I mention that my head hurt on the Saturday? Would you be surprised to know that it hurt on the Sunday as well? Didn’t think so. I skipped Beefball, to my shame, and only managed to pootle along to music-related shenanigans by about two in the afternoon. It was like being a student again.

In fact so severe was my hangover that the only thing you could really do with it was give the bastard a taste of its own medicine, so yes, more beer it was! I bumped into The Pictish Trail on the way down to the Hew Scott Hall, and he was nice about Mary Hampton that I decided to see what the lass was made of. She was a skinny lass and friendly of demeanour, and played her songs with an intense, otherworldy air to her. It was nice – lovely English folk in the modern hippy style, if you know what I mean. That and a couple of quick bottles of Becks made for a fine way to ease into the day.

I tried to get in to see James Yorkston, but by the time we made it up to the hall it would have involved climbing over half of Homegame, so there seemed no real point – grab a paper and head to the pub. There is little more pleasant than convivially drinking away your hangover in the pub on a Sunday, as Scotland’s weather never quite makes up its mind outside. It was almost a shame there was all this bloody music to intrude on matters.

Again, I found myself taking it kind of easy on the Sunday evening – relaxing in the Hew Scott Hall at the Red Deer Club night, and enjoying some bloody marvellous acts*, like George Thomas, Sara Lowes and Magic Arm. The latter two have released superb mini albums this year, and their performances here had all the wit and warmth of those records. I was a bit pished by this point, and had wandered over to Dunc le Chunk to ask about the re-jigged lineup and ended up pestering him, Sara and Marc from Magic Arm for most of the rest of the evening. The shame of it.

Anyhow, assuming I didn’t ruin their evening, I certainly didn’t ruin my own, which was brilliant. Again, folk wandered in and out from time to time, and I ended up chattering with all sorts of people I didn’t really know particularly, but who were unfailingly tolerant of my drunken enthusiasm. The gigs themselves were really excellent as well. It was such a relaxed, friendly atmosphere that it seemed to spread to the musicians themselves, as they all appeared to take it pretty easy, enjoy the evening and play with a kind of relaxed ease that made the evening such a pleasure. It really was like they’d just popped round your house to play some songs and have a laugh.

Magic Arm – Move Out
Sara Lowes – Down & Out

*Did you know that The Red Deer Club released the Moulettes EP earlier this year? No, me neither, first I’d heard about it.

Tim at The Daily Growl tipped me off to this lovely little mini-album, a mere six songs long, but I had been well aware of Sara Lowes since her work with King Creosote and The Earlies. He has a fine ear for this sort of low-key indie pop stuff with plenty of folk in it and a laid back, evening-with-a-glass-of-wine vibe and this is another excellent discovery by the internet’s favourite ex-Weegie.

By evening music I don’t, as I often do, mean really downbeat. It’s definitely a pop record, and opener I Wish puts you in no doubt of that with a funky, old-fashioned, borderline-R’n'B rhythm. She switches pace quickly however, slipping down into a dreamy ballad that could easily have come out of one of the folkier Northern Soul records in the 70s. This broad span encapsulates the extremes of this album quite well actually. In parts Kate Bush (Down & Out), touches of old school folk, touches of the show tune and a hint of the more soft-focussed kind of jazz siren at times as well. There’s even a bloody 70s disco *pscheuw* sound in Down & Round, of all things.

Perhaps if Feist had been more obsessed with folk than pop she might have produced an album not dissimilar to this one. It’s full of flute, swoonsome harmonies and gentle rising strings. The overall mood of the thing may not be angry or miserable enough to be entirely my kind of music, but this is a really lovely little record.

Sara Lowes – Uniform Days

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