Song, by Toad

Baaaaaaart, help!  It appears that there is actually not one single musical event happening this week in Edinburgh which I personally would feel motivated to attened.  The only thing I’ve managed to find which I would actually like to go to is the Twilight Sad in-store performance at Avalanche Records tomorrow at one o’clock but erm, with it being one o’clock in the afternoon that might prove to be logistically challenging given I have a day job.

Generally when I write these listings, no matter how thorough I think I’ve been, ginger eagleweasel Bart pops up in the comments to set me straight about something wonderful which I have missed.  Maybe it’s my paranoia, but I always seem to read a slight smirk into his tone of voice too, the smug bastard.  In any case, come on Bart, if ever your truffle-snuffling spidey senses were needed it’s today.

Bruce Sprinsteen – 57 Channels (and Nothing On)

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So, I thought I might tell you what I am doing this weekend.  I wouldn’t bother reading this if you don’t like football, but you might enjoy the heartwarming story anyway.  On Saturday is the Sporting ICAPB Burton-Barry Cup Final, and I will hopefully be dragging my blubbery carcass around a footbally pitch for at least half of that match.  After that there will be (shit) curry and drinking. Read the rest of this entry »

The one thing I notice in this record more than anything is that it really doesn’t generate anything like the excitement in me that its predecessor achieved.  I am not sure if that is because the sheer hummability quota is slightly diminished, or just because this doesn’t really move on in any real sense from territory the band had already claimed with such aplomb.

There are certainly a few excellent air-punching, turn-it-up-really loud moments on this album, but there’s not much in terms of sheer thrill, for some reason.  Maybe that’s because a large part of that excitement tends to come from the sheer unexpectedness of a band’s emergence from pretty much nowhere, and there’s only so often you can manage that level of exuberant excitement when faced for what is basically the same thing.

And I may be wrong, but this does pretty much feel like the same thing.  There are certainly some excellent moments though: the slow, thundercloud piano of Floorboards Under the Bed is great,  and the first three songs, Reflection of the Television, single I Became a Prostitute, and Seven Years of Letters are all decent approximations of what made this band so popular.  Once that’s over, however, things seem to peter out somewhat.  Made to Disappear is sort of like before, only less so.  So is That Birthday Present and so are the last three songs, and although That Room is a little different, for some reason it sounds almost like a warm up for The Stadium Rock Album.  So I have to confess that, nah, sorry, this just isn’t doing it for me.

Oddly enough, because I’m writing a review I keep looking for reasons I don’t like large parts of this album, and there really aren’t many that I can think of.  It’s all pretty much as it should be, but the end result is not really the sum of its parts, somehow.  So despite nothing all that tangible being wrong with it, Forget the Night Ahead just ends up feeling inexplicably lacklustre.

The Twilight Sad – Reflection of the Television

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The Twilight Sad – Floorboards Under the Bed

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There’s not been a Big Famous Album reviewed on this site in bloody ages.  Partly I’ve become so focussed on what’s going on locally that I have somewhat taken my eye off the ball with regards to bigger releases, even just those which are big relative to the small world of indie music.  And partly there have been very few which have tickled my fancy in the slightest for quite a while.

There are some bits and pieces coming along though which suggest that this might change in the immediate future.  And about time too, all this navel-gazing is no good for anyone.  Look outwards, I say, cast off the Tunnel Vision of the Toad and embrace the wider world.  Alright, sorry, but sometimes I get so deeply into my own stuff I do kind of forget that from time to time.  So what do we have?

The Twilight Sad: I have a naughty copy of this, to which I am not going to confess, and have only listened to it a few times through.  It’s out on the 5th October though and is currently sounding rather promising.  I wouldn’t say I was all that into it just yet, but then I only really embraced their last album a song or two at a time, so I am prepared to take it slowly with this one.

The Avett Brothers: Their sound hasn’t changed much, but then it never did, really.  Out on the 29th September, the title track from I and Love and You has been slipped out in to the world for us to enjoy and it is full of the exact same understated warmth which I love about this band.  I know I am morally obliged to hate them because they are on Columbia these days but if the whole record sounds like this then I may find my indie snobbery very difficult to maintain.

The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

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The Mountain Goats: Alright, I’ll say it: I thought Sunset Tree was their best album abd I have yet to hear anything by this band that I like anything like as much, despite their considerable back catalogue.  Heretic Pride was okay, and the new song Genesis 3:23 is also… okay.  Not at all bad by any means, but I would not describe it as any better than pleasant.  This one’s also out on the 5th October.

The Mountain Goats – Genesis 3:23

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Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs is out on Monday, which somewhat makes up for the fact that they seem to have been a little less generous with preview mp3s than everyone else.  But then, with a cast-iron reputation like theirs, why would they need to?  This sounds a lot like “…I Will Beat Your Ass” and I would say that I am enjoying it, but am yet to be blown away.  There are a few more moody, quiet numbers on this record as well, perhaps a little more in line with the likes of Summer Sun and the like than the previous record was.

Flashy Python: This is a solo project by a certain hand-clapping, yeah-saying gentleman by the name of Alec Ounsworth.  He, like Julian Plenti before him, is rather keen to keep his solo project free from associations with his band stuff, and has put the whole album up for preview here.  It’s less driven than early CYHSY stuff, and generally a bit more weird, but it sounds pretty interesting to me.

Flashy Python – Skin & Bones

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Micah P. Hinson: This just dropped into my inbox this morning, and I know nothing about it bar two things: firstly, that Micah P. Hinson is fucking amazing; and secondly that the artwork, pictured above, is bloody lovely.

Langhorne Slim: His new album Be Set Free isn’t being released until 26th October, but the new song sounds brilliant.  It’s called I Love You, but Goodbye and is a little plusher and more elaborate than his earlier recordings, but unusually, I rather like this.  The piano is especially gorgeous – a times eleborate, at times rich and sonorous and at times deft and twinkly.  This augurs very well indeed – I am excited.

Langhorne Slim – I Love You, But Goodbye

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It’s about time the big(ger) boys fought back a little, frankly, but it looks like there could be some very promising recordings from some relatively high-profile artists coming our way this Autumn.

Of course there is one and only one gig worth attending in Edinburgh this week: the Song, by Toad Records Launch Party! It is the official line of this publication that no other gigs are even happening, never mind worth turning up to. Some arse has managed to sneak in some rogue listings at the bottom of the page, but believe me he will be hunted down and given a severe beating before the day is up.

It would be great to see as many of you as possible at the launch party. This is as nerve-wracking as it is exciting, so get there nice and early for your free sampler (only 25 to go round) and help us celebrate in a bit of style.

Wednesday 11th June 2008: We See Lights & Woodenbox & Emily Scott at the Wee Red Bar.
It’s all a bit folky at this month’s Trampoline gig. We See Lights are not a group I can tell you that much about, but Emily Scott’s stuff is gorgeous and Woodenbox were terrific at the T-Break Heats in Glasgow a month or so ago. It won’t be as much fun as the Toad Records Launch Night of course, but it will tide you over well enough.
Woodenbox – Situations

Wednesday 11th June 2008: Jonquil & The Occasional Flickers & Wounded Knee at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
It’s an eclectic lineup from The Gentle Invasion, with rising quirk-folksters Jonquil, pastoral indie band The Occasional Flickers and experimental soundscaper Wounded Knee all bringing something quite different to the evening. The one common thread is perhaps the laid back, comfortable vibe that should pervade, so for all it won’t be as good as the Song, by Toad Records Launch Night, it should be an enjoyable gig nevertheless.
Jonquil – Apparency
The Occasional Flickers – A Medal Won in ‘84

Friday 13th June 2008: Alex Cornish at Cabaret Voltaire.
Having played material from his debut album When the Traffic Stops both solo and with a four-piece band, Alex has finally decided to procure a string quartet to bring the full depth of his sound to the live stage at last. It should be really good, this, but don’t get too drunk because you don’t want to be hung over at the excellent Song, by Toad Records Launch Party the following day.
Alex Cornish – Counting Chimney Pots

Saturday 14th June 2008: Rags & Feathers & Ziggy Campbell & Les Enfant Bastard at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
Of course none of you will be at this, as you’ll all be at the Song, by Toad Records Launch Party. But should you be so scurrilously disloyal as to go along, then feel free to swing by Leith afterwards and brandish your stamp for free entry. You may just be able to catch Meursault (10pm – unlikely) and Celebrity Chimp (11pm – probably) if you’re quick. Ziggy Campbell is the Found frontman, and Les Enfant Bastard are possibly the living embodiment of anti-folk. Rags & Feathers I know nothing about at all, but follow the MySpace link and enlightenment is yours for the taking.
Les Enfant Bastard – U R My Fucking Sunshine U Cunt

Saturday 14th June 2008: Celebrity Chimp & Meursault & The Byrons play the Song, by Toad Records Launch Party, at The Meridian, Leith.
There is surely no way I need to tell you any more about this, but even if you don’t give a shit about the label or my own endeavours or any of that stuff – and of course, there’s no reason that you should – then you may wish to come down to see the bands anyway, as this is a really excellent lineup. More details here if you want them; hope to see you there.
Celebrity Chimp – Plastic Girl

Sunday 15th June 2008: The Twilight Sad, Broken Records & Meursault at the Bongo Club.
What finer way to nurse your prodigious hangover after the night of your life at the Song, by Toad Records Launch Night than by spinning round to see Broken Records and Meursault, probably Edinburgh’s two best bands at the moment, supporting swirling noise-merchants The Twilight Sad at the Bongo Club. It won’t be as much fun as the night before, but then, you probably just couldn’t take that much joy in one weekend anyway.
The Twilight Sad – Watching That Chair Painted Yellow

I didn’t just come for the Twilight Sad tonight, because two other highly promising Scottish bands were on the bill as well – Eagleowl and Make Model. As usual, promo company I Fly Spitfires pay attention to the whole lineup, not just the headline act.

Eagleowl I know a little about, seeing as a regular reader of mine, Bart, is in the band. I have heard some their dark, shimmering folk on their MySpace page of course, but I’ve held off writing about them since I found out that they were playing this gig. Music like this plays particularly well live. The deep, morose double bass and mournful, agitated violin play off against each other at a tortuously slow pace, counterpointed wonderfully by the interplay of Bart and Clarissa’s vocals. It’s dark music for the most part, but the vocals lift it really nicely, although something in me almost feels they should have played after the Twilight Sad, as we all wound down with a whiskey.

Eagleowl – Know by Now

Make Model were, unfortunately disappointing. They had a couple of catchy enough tunes, but for the kind of money that’s been thrown at them I was expecting to hear something more obviously special. Still, I’m sure I’ll hear them again so I may yet change my mind.

I knew exactly what to expect from The Twilight Sad, however. Menacing guitars that shimmer and grind, cranking up to one monumental wall of noise after another, all accompanied by James Graham’s anguished howl. Their album, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters was one of my favourite releases of 2007, and the only time I saw them play last year was one of my favourite gigs.

There’s something euphoric about this kind of thunderous blitzkrieg of a racket charging at you from the stage. I am not much of a mosh-pit monkey myself, I just like to stand about two-thirds of the way back and gently bounce and sway as bands like this thunder away at us. It’s not a physical experience in the exhausted, sweaty sense, more a spiritual one, in a profound stillness of experience sense.

There’s something quite fantastic about standing there doing little more than bending in the gale, like reeds in a storm, as the music swirls all around you. I came out the gig giddy and excited, buzzing and eager. Great stuff. The new songs sounded good, the old ones sounded great and all in all, this was one of the best gig nights I’ve been to in quite a while.  And as for the acapella intro to Cold Days From the Birdhouse, well… sheer spine-tingling magic.

The Twilight Sad – And She Would Darken the Memory
The Twilight Sad – I’m Taking the Train Home

A couple of big, but not massive, names are slinking around the capital city this week. The Long Blondes have sold out Cabaret Voltaire on Wednesday, and the really not very good Young Knives are at The Liquid Room. I am going along to see The Long Blondes, but as regular commenter and Edinburgh gig fiend Bart quite rightly says, what on earth is the point of plugging a sold-out gig? So that’s enough about them, then. What else is knocking around?

Monday 17th March: Cut Off Your Hands at the Cabaret Voltaire.
Cut Off Your Hands sound very, erm, current. But for all I make that sound like an insult, they definitely have some decent tunes on their MySpace page, so for those of you looking for a little something to do tonight they might be worth investigating.
Cut Off Your Hands – Fond

Thursday 20th March: Eagleowl, Make Model & Twilight Sad at The Liquid Room.
Another superb lineup put together by I Fly Spitfires, and I am really looking forward to this gig. Eagleowl are dark, gothic folk, from what I know of them so far, Make Model are radio-friendly indiepop and the Twilight Sad are epic guitar-botherers. It’s a very mixed bill in terms of styles, but I rather like that. There will be beer. O Yes, there will be beer.
The Twilight Sad – Walking For Two Hours

Friday 21st March: Rob St. John & Tisso Lake at The Collective Gallery.
You all know how highly I rate local folk charmer Rob St. John, and he’s playing with Tisso Lake as part of their nationwide tour taking place over the next few weeks. If it’s the loveliest of fragile folk music you’re after, then you can’t possibly go wrong with popping down to this one.
Tisso Lake – The House by the River

Saturday 22nd March: Simon Breed at the Voodoo Rooms.
He’s an acoustic sort with plenty of darkness to his music and was much championed by a certain Mr. John Peel, apparently. Closer to home, Billy from Spins ‘n’ Needles recently wrote a long and rather interesting article about him for Drowned in Sound.
Simon Breed – Low Blood Sugar

Saturday 22nd March: Damn Shames at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
This is Music presents the Damn Shames. Their recent Spins ‘n’ Needles review wasn’t too complimentary, but there’s enough going on in their dancey, punky indie-pop that I think I might give them a chance. It’s definitely music for The Kidz (TM) rather than old duffers like myself, but there’s something there that I’m quite liking the sound of, so I may give this a go.
Damn Shames – Last Things

Back at long last, would you believe. After the abortive attempt at a Christmas podcast and then the IT disaster in Toad Hall – when my retarded computer ground to a halt and had to have its entire operating system reinstalled – I have finally managed to record the 19th Toadcast. Sorting out the IT department was not at all as easy as it should have been, so it’s taken ages to get to the point where I could record one again.

So, excuses over and done with, what am I going to inflict on you this time? The bloody Scots, that’s who. The Scottish music scene is an amazingly fertile one, so I thought I’d review 2007 and have a bit of a look forward to 2008. So I’ve pulled together some of the big guys like Malcolm Middleton, Emma Pollock and King Creosote and interspersed a few of the lesser known acts from around here to give you a nicely rounded look at what’s going on musically in the land of Buckfast and deep-fried Mars bars.

Toadcast #19 – The Scotchcast[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo19.mp3]

01. Sons & Daughters – Gilt Complex (1.01)
02. Glasvegas – Daddy’s Gone (5.55)
03. The Low Miffs – Also Sprach Shareholder (13.58)
04. Malcolm Middleton – We’re All Going to Die (17.24)
05. Aidan John Moffat – The Boy That You Love (23.37)
06. Gerry Mitchell & Little Sparta – The Empress (28.00)
07. The Pendulums – Greenhat (34.38)
08. Broken Records – Kathy (40.49)
09. Rob St. John – Wooden Rose (45.44)
10. Found – Some Fracas of a Sissy (53.28)
11. Kid Canaveral – Smash Hits (58.49)
12. Popup – Lucy, What are You Trying to Say? (61.38)
13. Emma Pollock – A Temporary Fix (68.28)
14. King Creosote – Church as Witness (76.04)
15. Mother & the Addicts – Roll Me on Over (79.37)
16. Frightened Rabbit – Be Less Rude (88.09)
17. The Twilight Sad – Walking For Two Hours (94.37)

1. Grinderman – Grinderman

Oh yes indeed! While other artists fall away in their old age and run out of ideas, Nick Cave just gets worse, which generally means better. This is a snarling, strutting, menacing, virile beast of an album and perhaps the only hotly anticipated major record all year to deliver the goods like a sack of spanners. Guitarist Martyn Casey describes it thus: “It wasn’t consciously two fingers to maturity but I remember thinking, all the way through, “This isn’t bad for a bunch of old farts.”" No, Martin, it isn’t bad at all.

Grinderman – No Pussy Blues

review | website | buy

2. The Builders & the Butchers – The Builders & the Butchers

Ragged, ramshackle, raucous and fucking brilliant. Imagine shaking every last skeleton out of your closet and them all coming to life, burning down your house and dancing round the inferno, guzzling bourbon. I want to move to Portland.

The Builders & the Butchers – Bottom of the Lake

review | myspace | buy

3. The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters

Imagine every stereotype of indie miserablism you can muster and this album is it: brooding, ambitious and intense. There’s no hedging their bets with face-saving archness either, just a collection of brutally emotional songs delivered with the kind of relentless wall of guitar noise that threatens to shake your house to pieces as you get drunker and drunker and turn it up louder and louder.

The Twilight Sad – Walking For Two Hours

review | myspace | buy

4. Mother & the Addicts – Science Fiction Illustrated

An amazing, hugely infectious record that manages to stuff funk, disco, new romanticism and a bit of glam into a brilliantly fuzzy indie album. A professional reviewer (I can’t remember who, sorry, or I’d give credit) said that this album could have been released in 1986, 1992 or 2003 and it wouldn’t have sounded out of place. This sums it up far better than I can. A total joy.

Mother & the Addicts – So Tough

review | website | buy

5. Elvis Perkins – Ash Wednesday

For someone who loves downbeat emotional music as much as me I can’t believe this is the highest placed album of acoustic loveliness on the list. Perkins manages to wield wistful, heartbroken melancholy in that wonderfully intimate way that makes even the most depressing of tales sound bravely hopeful. It’s possibly the least depressing album of unhappy music I’ve heard in a long time. Catch him live too, if you can, he’s superb.

Elvis Perkins – It’s Only Me

review | website | buy

Ah, talk about a sweaty, drunken night of indie joy. Fucking marvellous. This absolutely brilliant lineup was presented by Jim Gellatly of XFM Scotland, and was every bit as good as I wish the T Break gig had been, despite the thick, men’s changing room aroma of a sweltering Bannerman’s. It was a brilliant evening though, with Rory and Gill from Broken Records and David from Kid Canaveral all coming along to check out the rather elusive Twilight Sad as well.

Mouse Eat Mouse - These lads are mental. Old school rhythms with sax and everything give a sort of ska-punk backing to the deranged stream of consciousness of frontman CD Shade. Genuinely an experience!

website | myspace | Mouse Eat Mouse – Tuim Tattie[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/MouseEatMouse-TuimTattie.mp3]

Dumb Instrument - I first heard about Dumb Instrument from Colin, who writes the wonderful And Before the First Kiss, when he posted their phenomenal track Reverse the Hearse, from debut single Songs, Ya Bass Vol. 1 but I somehow failed to quite guess what they would really be like. A duo in this case, with Alex Walsh-Todd [Edit: it was Mikey Grant actually - sorry] on keyboards and the remarkable Tom Murray on vocals. He looked a bit like a dapper version of George Clooney in Syriana, and produced an inexhaustible stream of wry, snappy Scottish poetry which glided perfectly over the top of Grant’s meandering piano, flavouring it occasionally with a little harmonica. I was quite looking forward to seeing them, completely surprised by what I saw, and yet completely taken with their performance. Keep an eye out for this lot.

website | myspace | Dumb Instrument – Reverse the Hearse[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/DumbInstrument-ReversetheHearse.mp3]

Popup - Quite how the fucking View are famous and this lot aren’t is beyond me. I may not love every song they’ve ever done, but they can bloody well write a tune. They are better than the Good Shoes/Books/whatever, better than The Wombats, and better than a host of other indie-pop disappointments whose pictures adorn the walls of the NME offices, covered in spunk from the feverish masturbation over their imagined genius. The lads write good songs, are excellent live and can actually bloody play. What more can you possibly want from cheery, dancy indie-pop?

Popup – Lucy, What Are You Trying to Say?
Popup – A Year in a Comprehensive

website | myspace

The Twilight Sad - A while ago I wrote a review of Viva Stereo and Mike from Manic Pop Thrills popped over to “confirm that they do indeed rock like bastards”, which has ever since been one of my favourite expressions to describe exactly this sort of gig.

Far more popular in the States, for some reason, than they are over here The Twilight Sad make a ferocious noise when they get going, and James Graham’s impassioned howl is absolutely spell-binding. Honestly, he looks like he’s experiencing some sort of demonic possession as he faces stage left, gazing at the ceiling and lets forth a torrent of Scottish rage. He’s not a talker, apart from half-apologising for not being a talker, but the spectacle of the music as it washes over him in spasms is quite amazing.

Whilst Mark Devine on drums looks like he’s performing a feat of athletic endurance, guitarist Andy MacFarlane rivals only the rather lovely Mia Clarke from Electrelane in terms of looking entirely nonchalant whilst creating an absolutlely phenomenal wall of noise. They both have their eyes closed half the time, and seem to channel their particular brand of cacophonous racket from a place far beyond the stage. Add to that the casual indifference – he could almost be reading the Sunday papers – of bass guitarist Craig Orzel and you have a rather weird but nevertheless wonderful spectacle.

As MacFarlane generates more and more terrifying barrages of guitar onslaught, descending occasionally into a faintly intimidating hum, almost like the sound of an enormous engine ticking over, before cutting loose with venom once more, Graham’s utterly gripping voice takes an absolutely vice-like grip of your heart and the four of them proceed to put you through the mill almost as powerful as that which Graham himself seems to endure.

They do indeed rock like bastards.

The Twilight Sad – That Summer at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy
The Twilight Sad – Cold Days From the Birdhouse

website | myspace | amazon

It’s been an utterly dismal year for highly anticipated records by the big groups in 2007, but fortunately the slack has been taken up by loads of smaller acts bringing new things to the table. Except for one thing.

A really big, angry pair of rock ‘n’ roll bollocks.

I got accused, when talking about gratingly affected furry-minged feminist hippy intellectuals as part of my St. Vincent review, of being part of the ‘testosterone-fuelled indie rock blogosphere’. The cheek! But Wendy was right – I have been reviewing sensitive, introspective, subtle and slightly eccentric albums for a depressingly long time now. Not that I don’t like the music, but what my inner Neanderthal is crying out for at the moment is some raging, furious, guitar-battering indie howl. Take the shackles off lads, get your balls out and beat the shit out of your guitars. I mean, seriously, what the fuck am I supposed to listen to when I’m three-quarters of the way through a bottle of gin, it’s three in the morning and I want to play something fucking loud?

So far this year, although there has been the odd really good ‘turn it up fucking loud’ song, it’s always in total isolation, and very few and far between to begin with. Nothing with the snarl of the Von Bondies’ first album, for example. Or the Libs’ first. Or half of The Wedding Present’s early material. Or Yo La Tengo at their most incoherent. Or early Nick Cave when he went all apocalyptic on us. Even Grandaddy have a couple. Grandaddy!

It doesn’t have to be completely mental and just making a lot of noise isn’t enough. ‘Rawk’ is dreadful and need not apply. It has to have an insistent beat, be drenched in pain, and have some real fucking menace to it. Then, at some point it has to get properly fucking loud, with guitars that drive you into spasms of lurching, drunken air guitar, face clenched like a Baptist’s buttocks at Pet Shop Boys concert.

This year’s best examples:

Parts & Labour – Fractured Skies That frenetic beat, when it gets going, is enough by itself, but when the guitar kicks in..
The Twilight Sad – And She Would Darken the Memory It may take its time to get going, but it’s well worth the fucking wait.
Kings of Leon – Charmer Not especially loud, this one, but that insistent beat and the pained screech still do it for me.
The Arcade Fire – Intervention This is a big, angry song – brilliant!
Grinderman – No Pussy Blues If you nee d this exp laining to you, then you will never understand anyway.

Some classics from yesteryear:

The Von Bondies – No Regrets
The Strokes – Juicebox Just listen to that beat – fucking marvellous – and there’s a distinctly prog-tastic guitar solo in the middle as well. Fucking great
The Wedding Present – Blonde The definitive song of wounded indie rage?