The hardest thing about working with a band from Foreign Parts is that there is a bit of a limit to what you can do for them from far away, especially when you’re our size.  Generally, all the things I can do to help a band out around here – Toad Sessions, tell my friends about them, try and get them written about on blogs or on the radio or on live bills and so on – are much harder if no-one gets the chance to see them and have my general pestering backed up by other people.

Loch Lomond have their second Song, by Toad Records release coming up in May, when their gorgeous Night Bats EP comes out over here.  We’ve already had a rather positive review from SoundsXP, and their split 12″ with the Builders & the Butchers was also very well received, I reckon this EP will hopefully go down very well indeed.

Anyhow, to help us promote the release, the band have made the incredible commitment of travelling over to Scotland to play some gigs and do some sessions in support of the EP.  I really appreciate this, as it is far from a significant expense.

So they are playing four dates, one of which gives us the chance to come through to Glasgow for our first label showcase, so it’s all pretty exciting.  Please come along and support these guys if you can – it’s no small thing they’re doing, coming over here to entertain you ungrateful fuckers, you know.

Wednesday 19th May: Song, by Toad Records Label Showcase at Mono, Glasgow.
With Meursault, Loch Lomond and Jonnie Common – £5 on the door.

Thursday 20th May: The Tunnels, Aberdeen.
With Tim and Sam’s Tim and Sam Band.

Friday 21st May: The Barrels Alehouse, Berwick.
With Tim and Sam’s Tim and Sam Band.

Saturday 22nd May: Toad and Ruth’s Toad and Ruth Show at The Queen Charlotte Rooms, Leith.
With Sam Amidon & Meursault (solo acoustic).

Loch Lomond – Wax & Wire

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How many of you are there?  There’s only one of me, which looks like it might prove troublesome this week, particularly late on when the clashing gigs really start to stack up.  I am just back in Edinburgh after the Jason Lytle interview, which went very well in terms of being a most pleasant sort of chat, yet didn’t provide a particularly obvious hook on which to hang an article.  I may have to listen back and digest for a couple of days before writing it, I think.  It’s odd to suddenly find yourself in conversation with someone whose music you’ve been listening to for over ten years, though, so I guess that in itself might be an interesting angle to take.

This week’s activities on Toad will involve beginning to work on that interview, the writing up of a couple of gig reviews, and editing a big pile of Broken Records live videos.  So in other words it’s going to be fucking busy again.  I am also going to have a chat with Andy about redesigning both this website and the label site.  I find myself feeling inordinately guilty about not designing it myself, oddly.  This whole site has been entirely DIY so far, so that’s probably the reason, but at the moment I need it to be able to do things which are well beyond my own rudimentary understanding of code, and I simply don’t have the time to begin with, so there you go.  I’ll have a big input of course, and the Toad sketches will remain, but basically I’m going to try and let Andy get on with it as much as I can.  As a designer myself, at Proper Job, I know there’s nothing worse than a client who stares over your shoulder constantly while you’re trying to do your job.

So that’s it, this is being posted in the wee hours, and I am going straight to bed so that I can at least pretend to be functional in the morning.  I actually find a lack of sleep worse than a hangover in terms of its damage to my productivity these days, so these half one bedtimes really do have to stop.

Thursday 2nd April 2009: St Deluxe, French Wives & Team Turnip play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

St. Deluxe are the new hot tamales around town, apparently.  I’ve had a listen to their MySpace and they do indeed sound pretty decent, although with such a brief listen I’m really in no position to say much one way or another.  They’re quite a rough and noisy band though, where French Wives and Team Turnip are a little poppier, but all three groups on this bill sound like good value to me.
St Deluxe – New Wave Stars

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Thursday 2nd April 2009: Tim & Sam’s Tim & the Sam Band With Tim & Sam at Cabaret Voltaire.

Tim and Sam and so on and so forth are big favourites of me old pal Drunk Country over at the Waiting Room, so he’ll be chuffed to know that they’re putting in an appearance in these parts.  I am rarely ever much of a fan of bands who play instrumental music, but I think that’s probably laziness on my behalf, and certainly these chaps make fine music under any circumstances.  It’s even better live, according to DC, so I’d recommend this one.  It’s a late one though, I think, so check the times before turning up.
Tim & Sam etc.. – Join the Dots

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Friday 3rd April 2009: Frightened Rabbit & Meursault at the Bowery.

I am fairly (but not entirely) sure that Frightened Rabbit are intending to play an acoustic set at the Bowery on Friday instead of their more usual melodic indie rock, and I do believe Meursault are following suit and unplugging all their electronic faffery as well, so this should be quite a special one.
Frightened Rabbit – I Feel Better (Live)

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Friday 3rd April 2009: Jesus H. Foxx, Y’All is Fantasy Island & the Hindle Wakes at Sneaky Pete’s.

Jesus H. Foxx will be mentioned some time later today when I write up their gig at the Bowery from last Friday, but believe me they are sounding very, very good at the moment.  Where previously they seemed to be fairly single-faceted (is that physically possible – never mind) there’s a lot more depth and a lot more confidence to their music these days.  They have an EP on the way too, which I am very excited to hear indeed.
Jesus H. Foxx – Trying to Be Good

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Friday 3rd April: Thomas Truax, Withered Hand & Greg Dodgeson at Cabaret Voltaire.

Is Dan from Withered Hand playing every single gig in Scotland at the moment?  Ah well, good for us if he is.  Apart from the music, Thomas Truax’s truly amazing homemade instruments make this a gig you really should attend.
Thomas Truax – The Butterfly & the Entomologist

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Saturday 4th April 2009: The Wee Rogue, Rob St. John & Ben Wetherill at the Bowery.

I don’t want to say anything that’s going to get me beaten up by an angry mob of nice, sensitive young men, but this is probably the least ‘anti’ of the many great anti-folk gigs you can find in Edinburgh in any given week.  I mean that in the sense that the ‘anti’ part is something I tend to treat as describing a certain lack of prettiness in anti-folk music, but even as specific a genre description as anti-folk is a bit too broad for that sort of thing these days.  Where was I?  Oh yes, expect fine, fragile and lovely music.
The Wee Rogue – Into the Mist

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Saturday 4th April 2009: The Gothenburg Address, North Atlantic Oscillation & San Sebastian at Sneaky Pete’s.

Should the loveliness at the Bowery prove just a little too gentle for you then Sneaky Pete’s is probably the place to be, where there will be Post Rock a-gogo.  It’ll be loud, I’d imagine, so get there early, find a spot facing the stage and just let it all wash over you.
San Sebastian – New

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Sunday 5th April 2009: Come On Gang, Vendor Defender & The Kays Lavelle at Sneaky Pete’s.

Come On Gang should be in a fine mood after their SXSW adventure, so their punk pop should have even more zip to it than usual.  It’s going to be a busy week at Sneaky Pete’s.  Is their booking getting better and better or is it just that I’m only just starting to realise that I should be paying more attention to what they’re doing?  Good stuff, anyway.