There are two main things happening this week, as far as I can tell.  One is the above-mentioned Ides of Toad gig of course, and the other is Record Store Day.  I am ambivalent about Record Store Day, I have to confess, as it seems to encourage the worst kind of scalping and eBay profiteering, and it also seems like a poor apology for not spending more time in record shops year round.

But at the same time it can be a really nice day, and encourages people back into shops with some really nice, limited edition products.  Also, it seems to encourage a bit more cooperation between record shops themselves and the music communities they are there to serve, which is also a good thing.

Here at Song, by Toad we will be doing some special stuff with our local record shop: Vox Box on St. Stephen’s Street. Ian has been working with them on this and will be announcing some special bits and piece, including a couple of rather brilliant in-store performances.

Anyhow, here’s a quick run-down of some interesting things happening in Edinburgh this week:

Tuesday 17th April: Library Tapes, Poppy Ackroyd & Hiva Oa at the Third Door.

This gig should inhabit the space broadly between classical, experimental and folk music.  Ah yes, that space, I hear you cry.  That well-established pop niche which has made many bands so many millions of pounds – but of course!  Well okay, I admit this might be something of a niche concern, but it sounds like a really good gig to me, and actually, for it’s hardly made anyone rich, the intersection between classical, experimental and folk music sounds like a highly fascinating place, to me.

Hiva Oa – Badger

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Friday 20th April: R.M. Hubbert, Yusuf Azak & Rory Sutherland play the Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

RM Hubbert’s mesmerising new album features all sorts of inspired collaborations to complement his intricate Flamenco guitar playing. Yusuf Azak’s new album is finished too, and should be released sometime this Summer. And opening will be Rory Sutherland, more usually known as the violin player in Broken Records. I have no idea what he will be playing, but I am sure it will be good!

R.M. Hubbert – Sandwalks

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Yusuf Azak – Lay Me Down

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Saturday 21st April: Record Store Day

Whether you’re in Edinburgh or not, this Saturday should be a fine day for music fans, as shops around the world celebrate Record Store Day.  In Edinburgh I know Avalanche have a lot planned – in-stores from Withered Hand and Ballboy, some official Record Store Day beer, and then a knees-up at the Electric Circus in the evening in conjunction with The Tidal Wave of Indifference, involving a stripped down set by The Last Battle, followed by Emily Scott and then Star Wheel Press.

We at Song, by Toad will be, as I mentioned earlier, working in conjunction with our own local record shop Vox Box, and will provide early chances to get your hands on new albums by The Leg and Jesus H. Foxx, as well as live performances by… well, I won’t mention too much about it, as it was actually Ian who went to a lot of work to set this up, so I think I will let him set it all out when he posts about it tomorrow.

 Well well well, isn’t it bloody gorgeous out. So needless to say, I am hopping on a train down to London instead of getting straight out into the back garden to enjoy the sun. People really can be idiots, can’t they. People like, er, me.

There’s a near-complete dearth of gig that you would expect me to be recommending this week – not a distortion pedal in sight, in fact – so I reckon I should embrace the fact that some of Edinburgh’s most interesting promoters have quite a lot going on, and it would be the perfect chance to step out of the same old routine and go and see something different.

Tuesday 27th March: The Doozer, Long Distance Runner & Shareholder at the Banshee Labyrinth.

The Doozer have been described this way: “The lazy man’s way to review it [would be] to call it a bridge between Syd B and Chris Knox, carrying all the weird damage and superb left field pop motion that implies” by Byron Coley in the Bull Tongue Top Ten of 2010, and as I am not so much a lazy man as an ignorant one I am going to have to go with that.  The two support bands are apparently mysterious Edinburgh supergroups, composed of various members of the city’s underground bands.  Looks intriguing.  And good.

Wednesday 28th March: As Old as My Tongue – the Myth and life of Bi Kidude at the Third Door.

Bi Kidude is apparently a Swahili musician who, as well as having a long a distinguished musical career, has continually attracted controversy due to her less than acquiescent attitude to a woman’s role in Muslim society.  This is actually a film event, with a discussion with the director afterwards, and whilst I know nothing about Kidude herself I have to say it sounds rather fascinating.

Friday 30th March: Neu! Reekie! #15 at the Scottish Book Trust.

Neu Reekie is a night which amalgamates animation, music, spoken word, poetry and, I would imagine, pretty much any other kind of art form it can get its hands on.  This is the kind of night I’ve been looking for for a long time actually, so I think this Friday, especially given the excellent Withered Hand and Ryan Van Winkel are performing, might be the time to pop along.

Saturday 31st March: Khyam Allami at the Pleasance Theatre.

This is a collaboration between Powan Presents and the Edinburgh University Middle Eastern Society, and brings world-famous Oud player Khyam Allami to Edinburgh. Tickets can be purchased here.

Welcome to Toadcast number 215.  This is called the Kingcast because I have been on a bit of run promoting gigs recently, with three in the last eight days or so.  Given almost none of my friends or music associates came to these gigs and that the list of attending guests on the Facebook event pages made for pretty grisly reading, I was grimly expecting the gigs to be absolutely awful – barely attended wastelands of funlessness – but every single one was brilliant.

The people who came were almost all people I didn’t know, with a few welcome exceptions, and the gigs themselves were absolutely immense fun.  There was probably more dancing this weekend that at anything Toad-related in history.

So today I have been looking through the forthcoming gigs and getting my ticket links live and stuff like that, and realising that we have some absolute stonkers coming up.  So with a bit of luck, and rather depending on whereabouts in the world you’re listening from, I might well see you there.

Dancing!  At a Toad gig!  I know!

Direct download: Toadcast #215 – The Kingcast

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01. Withered Hand – Heart Heart (00.26)
02. Willy Mason – Restless Fugitive (07.57)
03. Robert George Saull – One Sugar Day (16.47)
04. Narrow Sparrow – Joe Meeks Dream (22.59)
05. The Dirty Three – Sometimes I Forget You’ve Gone (28.41)
06. Jad Fair, Hifiklub & KPT Michigan (32.20)
07. Jonnie Common – I’ll Be Back (38.17)
08. Shudderpulps – Time (45.10)
09. Honeyblood – No Spare Key (48.33)
10. The Soft Walls – Black Cat (54.06)

 Yep, it’s time to lie back on the shrink’s couch and ‘tell me about your childhood’.  Well.  Sort of.  Actually, my mum just happens to be in town, so I reckon that on Fresh Air Radio this week I might just play all sorts of mum songs, just for shits and giggles.

This came about because of the following comment by my brother on the thread about music formats this week:

“I need to at some point clarify Mum’s music taste for your readers because the poor woman just constantly gets dismissed as a ‘pop fan’.  

The poor woman has a massive collection of jazz, blues; a truly encyclopaedic Opera and symphonic collection and yet, one Lighthouse Family album and the poor woman’s whole musical taste just goes whooosh out the window while Dad is sanctified while you merrily ignore his David Grey albums.  Albums with an emphasis on the plural!”

Now, as you might well know by now, I am a philistine, so mum’s classical music and whatnot means absolutely bollocks-all to me.  However, I think it needs to be pointed out that I most certainly do not ‘dismiss’ my mum as a pop fan.  I fucking love the pop stuff she used to play around the house when we were growing up, and if anything it was my mum’s stuff which first properly got me into music in the first place.

On air from 3:30pm UK time – listen live here.

So for all I do indeed call her a pop fan, which she most certainly is, I do not at all mean that to be a dismissal.  As you will find out on Fresh Air today, when I will be playing all sorts of shite from my mum’s record collection.  And of course, seeing as I left home in 1993, it will be enormously 80s-tastic!

And now, while we’re at it, for the Friday Fives. Honestly, I doubt I can do much better with these questions than I’ll do with the music I’m going to play this afternoon, but Mrs. Toad and I were talking about doing a Saxcast this weekend, so I thought I might ask for some help.

1. Which instrument would you like to see get the saxophone Total Taboo treatment?
2. Best super cheesy 80s sax tune.
3. Acceptable use of sax.
4. Awesome Great Big Eighties Pop Song!
5. Most eighties of all eighties movies.

Song, by Toad’s Friday Fives radio tracklisting for today:
1. David Bowie – China Girl
2. Meat Loaf – Dead Ringer for Love
3. Bow Wow Wow – Aphrodisiac
4. Sparrow & the Workshop – Devil Song (Live)
5. Erasure – Sometimes
6. Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark
7. Withered Hand – Cornflake (Fresh Air Session)
8. Mike MacFarlane – Waltz (Fresh Air Session)
9. Simple Minds – Don’t You Forget About Me
10. Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill
11. The Magnets – Ever Fallen in Love (Buzzcocks cover)
12. ABC – Poison Arrow
13. Meursault – Lament for a Teenage Millionaire (Fresh Air Session)

Well one thing’s for sure, live in Edinburgh this week will very much not be me.  I have a rather nasty flu/tonsillitis throat infection thingy (I’m not a doctor so I am not sure which, but you know the kind of thing I mean) and it means that swallowing is extraordinarily painful, even if it is gin.

I am not sure that soaking the paracetamol in alcohol particularly aids in its efficacy either, but as I said, I am not a doctor.

We, of course, have our next Ides of Toad gig on Sunday, when the awesome Withered Hand, Samantha Crain and Mike MacFarlane will be at Henry’s.  I should also point out that I am selling tickets to the Song, by Toad Christmas Party for a mere £8 at the moment, but that price will disappear sometime this afternoon, so if you want the cheap tickets better get ‘em now, otherwise it will cost you the (still extremely good value for money) sum of £10. Go here to get yourself sorted out for the finest carnival of Christmas piss-artistry to be had in Edinburgh.

However, until then, here is some stuff to keep you entertained in Edinburgh this week:

[Edit: fuck fuck fuck, I forgot that Alex Cornish has a full band plus strings show at Cabaret Voltaire on Thursday 24th.]

Monday 21st November 2011: Rozi Plain, Jamie Harrison & This is the Kit at the Electric Circus.

I am not sure if I am even going to end up getting this posted in time for you to scoot down to the Electric Circus and catch this, but if a Fence Records/Red Deer Club one-two isn’t enough enticement then umm… well, you deserve the X-Factor or whatever it is you end up doing instead.

Rozi Plain – The Lang Toun (James Yorkston Cover)

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Thursday 24th November 2011: Django Django, The Marvels & Snide Rhythms at Sneaky Pete’s.

Django Django were absolutely all over the radio about a year and a half ago, and they’ve been quietly recording their debut album ever since.  Judging from the songs we’ve heard so far, it should be very good indeed.  They are a little like Jonnie Common in the sense that the music they make may be rather experimental in terms of its constituent components, but the end result is pure pop (although I’d be tempted to say that the similarity ends there). This stuff even gets me wanting to dance.  Yes, you read that right, even me.

Django Django – Waveforms

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Saturday 26th November 2011: Lach’s Fort comes to Le Monde.

It’s a very, very odd place to do it, but when you’re looking to put on an event which is a little different to what a place is used to, then picking a surprising venue could just end up working in its favour.  Lach is bringing his New York night to Edinburgh, with film, esoteric DJing and live performances from Seafieldroad, Lee Patterson, Emily Scott, head BMX Bandit Duglas T. Stewart, comedian Chloe Phillip and more.

Sunday 27th November 2011: Withered Hand, Samantha Crain & Mike MacFarlane play the Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

I am really looking forward to this.  Apart from the excellence, the humour and the pathos of Withered Hand, I am really looking to Sam Crain’s first Edinburgh gig.  I first me her at Pickathon in Portland in something like 2008, and we’ve pretty much had this gig in mind ever since.  He voice is amazing, and her songs are absolutely gorgeous.  Mike MacFarlane is a relative newcomer, but having seen him for the first time at the Antihoot this Summer I am really interested to see more.

Withered Hand – Providence

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Samantha Crain – We Are the Same

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Mike MacFarlane – Waltz

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Sunday 27th November 2011: Loch Lomond, The Last of Barrett’s Privateers & Pronto Mama at Sneaky Pete’s.

Loch Lomond’s new album is out now on Chemikal Underground, and having played here a couple of times, they are back with something approaching a full band (although like many bands I know and love, establishing what, exactly, their standard, full lineup is isn’t entirely straightforward). They’ll be joined by impressive Edinburgh folkies The Last of Barrett’s Privateers and Pronto Mama, about whom I have to confess to knowing more or less nothing, sorry.

Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls (Toad Session)

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I keep fretting about over-pimping my commercial enterprises on this blog, but I really should just stop worrying.  Putting on live shows is not much more than an extension of me insisting on telling you what sort of music to listen to, so really there’s not much difference between haranguing you about your buying habits and haranguing you about what you do in your free time really, is there.

So, after a fantastic gig with The Last Battle, Dad Rocks! and Shoes and Socks Off, and a brilliant day in Anstruther with Hott Toadzzz! it’s probably time to give you a wee nudge about our last five gigs of 2011.  Yes, you heard that right, five more still to come before that Post Alcoholic Stress Disorder sleep prescription taken by all Scots on the 1st and 2nd of January every year.

For those of you who want tickets in advance, which would be nice, you can get them at Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket or online from Brown Paper Tickets.

Saturday 19th November 2011: Gummy Stumps, Weird Era & Battery Face at the Wee Red Bar.

This will be a noisy one, and it also just happens to be my birthday so I warn you, I will be getting fucking shitfaced.  Weird Era are travelling up from Manchester, and will be joined by Gummy Stumps, who I thought were amazing at Retreat! this year, and Battery Face, who I was introduced to by Alastair from the excellent Deathpodal.

Weird Era – Summer Heights

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Sunday 27th November 2011: Withered Hand (solo), Samantha Crain & Mike MacFarlane at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Samantha Crain was originally introduced to me by Campfires and Battlefields, and I interviewed her at Pickathon back in 2008, back when I was embarrassingly new to interviewing. Since then she’s continued to release amazing stuff, and is finally able to make it to Edinburgh for a gig.  She’ll be joined by local favourite Withered Hand, and the fella who caught my, umm, ear the most at this year’s Antihoot – Mike MacFarlane.

Samantha Crain – We Are the Same

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Mike MacFarlane – Waltz

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Saturday 10th December 2011: Song, by Toad Records Christmas Party at the St. Stephens Centre.

I don’t have to tell you that this will just be a big, warm and fuzzy celebration of another year of sweary fun and generally releasing commercially inviable and eye-wateringly amazing records. Take that, music! Oh, and it will be both BYOB and child friendly, although I suspect the latter part will become progressively less true as the night goes on and I get more and more plastered.

Sunday 18th December 2011: The Black Tambourines, Joanna Gruesome & Dolfinz at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This will be loud and messy and awesome. Three young bands who make a racket and write bloody great pop songs. It’s on a Sunday, I know, but let’s face absolutely no-one is going to be doing any serious work that week are they?

The Black Tambourines – A Lot of Friends

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Joanna Gruesome – Sugarcrush

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Dolfinz – Coral Reefer

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Saturday 31st December 2011: Song, by Toad New Year’s House Gig at umm… our house.

We don’t have tickets available for this yet, and the lineup is unconfirmed, but well, I just thought I’d let you know that it would be happening. We’ll get two sets of live music, wander into Inverleith Park with some champagne to watch the fireworks, and then get drunk and play loud music until the last person gives in.

 If you get this in time, then turn off the internet and scarper down to the Queen’s Hall right now, as they will be screening the Sigur Ros movie INNI tonight, starting at 19:30, with live performances by Meursault and Withered Hand immediately afterwards.

And as for the rest of the week’s gig round-up, it’s actually quite an eclectic one this week, with noise, classical and antifolk on the calendar, all within a few days of one another.

But enough chit-chat, I need to shower and get out the door quick-smart or I shall miss the start of the movie.

Monday 24th October 2011: Sigur Ros ‘INNI‘ screening at the Queen’s Hall, followed by Meursault & Withered Hand.

Umm, I think I already covered this one, didn’t I.

Tuesday 25th October 2011: ASTRO, Okishima Island Tourist Association, Muscletusk at Sneaky Pete’s.

I don’t know too much about this one I have to confess, and I actually am not even entirely sure I myself would enjoy it because I’m a bit of a pop kid at heart, all told, no matter how much distortion and reverb I tend to like it slathered in.  But Braw Gigs have been doing an amazing job putting on noise and experimental shows around Edinburgh in the last year or so, and this is their latest.  Follow the Sneaky’s link to read the promoter’s description of the night, which will tell you more than I ever could.

Wednesday 26th October 2011: Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard with Seth Faergolzia (of Dufus) at The Third Door (formerly Medina).

Jeffrey Lewis is a bit of a hero, basically.  He is one of the sharpest wits around, whose songs can be by turns bleak as hell, or drenched in pathos. The Third Door have installed a brand spanking new sound system in the old Medina, and suddenly we might have a new and decent venue on our hands, because the actual space down there has always been good.

Saturday 29th October 2011: The Rose Street Quartet RSE CONCERT – Music for Strings, Voices, Organ & Percussion at St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral.

This particular listing, I have to confess, is pure nepotism.  I happen to be pals with a couple of members of the Rose Street Quartet but, as Pete said when he suggested I list this particular event, people might fancy a bit of a change and it will be a pretty varied programme, so if you don’t like any particular part they’ll be moving on pretty sharpish. So if you fancy a change from the drearie indie pish (copyright Mrs. Toad 2006) I tend to recommend here, then get along to this instead.

The above photo is of the Palm House in Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens, and was taken and passed on to me by Dylan, of Blueback Hotrod legend.  And given that the weather outside is all kinds of shit I thought there would be a sort of bitter irony in using it today.  See – that’s how nice Edinburgh can be, so what the fuck is this pissing rain all about?

Anyhow, traditional British whingeing aside, it’s going to be a pretty bloody mental week this week. Thursday is going to be a particular swine, what with the awesome David Dondero going up against the Fruit Tree Foundation night in Leith, as well as the Travelling Band/Jonnie Common show at the Electric Circus.  Then it’s Oxjam takeover time on Friday.  Then Rob St. John’s album launch on Saturday.  Fucking hell, I’m going to have a liver like a cricket ball  by Sunday.

Wednesday 19th October 2011: This is Music presents Denis Jones & Adam Stafford at Sneaky Pete’s.

My pal Howard, who runs Humble Soul Records down in Manchester, absolutely raves about Denis Jones, as does Jonnie Common, and I can’t imagine two people whose recommendations I would take more seriously.  Apparently Mr. Jones does a lot of looped vocal stuff, but everyone who has told me about it has qualified that with ‘yeah, but it’s nothing like you’d expect’.  Intriguing.

Denis Jones – Elvis

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Thursday 20th October 2011: David Dondero at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.

David Dondero is kind of under the radar, I suppose, but from the relatively little I know about him, he can be fucking spectacular.  Rothko Chapel was one of my songs of the year a couple of years ago, and his sparse, acoustic Americana is really gorgeous.

David Dondero – Rothko Chapel

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Thursday 20th October 2011: The Fruit Tree Foundation presents James Yorkston, Rod Jones & Withered Hand at Nobles, Leith.

The Fruit Tree Foundation was set up by former Idlewild gentleman Rod Jones and former Delgado Emma Pollock to raise awareness for the Mental Health Foundation. My personal knowledge is a little sketchy, but I think musicians have volunteered to act as mentors for young songwriters, and together to create new music, and I think it is this which will be performed in Nobles on Thursday. Given the calibre of the musicians involved, it should be really good.

Thursday 20th October 2011: The Travelling Band & Jonnie Common at the Electric Circus.

Jonnie Common actually worked on a track by Adam Gorman of the Travelling Band for his recent Deskjob project, so this pairing makes plenty of sense from that perspective.  As to how the rousing Americana of the band and Jonnie’s idiosyncratic electropop will go together musically, erm… well, remains to be seen.

Adam P. Gorman – Hitchhiker (from Jonnie Common’s Deskjob)

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Friday 21st October 2011: Oxjam Edinburgh Takeover (Facebook link).

This is a beast of an event, with gigs happening at the Electric Circus, Cabaret Voltaire, Sneaky Pete’s, The Banshee Labyrinth and the (recently resurrected) Left Banke.  The full list of bands thus far confirmed as playing is as follows: As In Bear, Black International, Broken Records (solo), Citizens, Dead Boy Robotics, Endor, Esperi, FOUND, French Wives, i build collapsible mountains, The Last Battle, Letters, Loch Awe, The Machine Room, Meursault, PAWS, Sebastian Dangerfield, The Spook School, Trapped in Kansas, Trapped Mice, Vasquez and Verse Metrics.  It’s going to be a beast of a night, I suspect, but you’re own your own with this one, I am not digging out links for all those bands, nor attempting to describe them.  Just go.

Saturday 22nd October 2011: Rob St. John album launch with Meursault, eagleowl & Viking Moses at Pilrig St. Paul’s.

Personally, I think this is damned close to being the lineup of the year.  I’d like to see anyone else top it, in any case.  This is also, the header implies, the launch show for Rob St. John’s gorgeous debut album Weald, out on 12″ gatefold vinyl at the end of November. We have partnered with John Truckasaurus to add Viking Moses to a bill already bursting with goodness. Tickets are available at Avalanche Records and online, here.

Rob St. John – Your Phantom Limb by Song, by Toad

Saturday 22nd October 2011: Patrick Wolf at the Liquid Room.

Alright, alright, a few of you might well raise an eyebrow at this one, but I remember when Patrick Wolf first broke through.  His brand of flamboyant, baroque pop was a bit over the top perhaps, but it certainly had a certain element of fascination.  So I may of course be personally endorsing Rob St. John’s album launch, but this one still kinda caught my eye.

So, after the chaos of the Festival, we are back to normal service here in Ides of Toad HQ (which looks suspiciously similar to Song, by Toad HQ and bears a more than passing resemblance to Song, by Toad Records HQ).

Actually, I thought I managed to get myself horribly waylaid by the Festival, but it turns out I have most of the Autumn’s lineups already filled and ready to go, with only a few gaps here and there.  This level of organisation rather shocks me, I have to confess, but I am sure I will find some way to have a last-minute panic in the end.

Anyhow, apart from next week’s Japanese War Effort, Animal Magic Tricks and Yusuf Azak gig, on Saturday 17th at the Wee Red Bar, we have the following:

Saturday 1st October, just confirmed: John Knox Sex Club, Plank! and Easter at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
This is going to be a cracker.  JKSC have a new album to promote, which sounds amazing, and Plank! and Easter are coming up from Manchester.  It’s going to be one of those evenings where none of the bands have that much in common exactly, but I still think the lineup will work really well.

Saturday 22nd October: Rob St. John album launch, with Meursault and eagleowl.
The venue is TBC on this one, but we are looking for somewhere a bit interesting, rather than your usual gig club bar venue thingie.  And I would imagine that readers of this site need little introduction to eagleowl or Meursault, but as Rob plays in both those bands as well, I do find myself wondering if he’s given any thought to just how much work he’s going to have to do on the night.

Saturday 5th November: Dad Rocks! and Shoes and Socks Off, with one more TBC, at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
This will be an evening of smart acoustic pop, and we have one more band still to add to the bill. I may try and add a full band to the headline slot though, just to make sure everyone stays on their toes.

Saturday 19th November: at the Wee Red Bar, and it’s my fucking birthday as well!
The whole lineup for the 19th is TBC, because I am trying to get Manchester’s Weird Era and Glasgow’s Battery Face onto the same bill, but we are just in the process of juggling dates, so none of this is confirmed yet. I am confident it will work out though, because everyone involved is keen to make it happen.

Sunday 27th November: Withered Hand, Samantha Crain and Michael McFarlane at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
I think Withered Hand will be playing solo acoustic, although I’m not sure, and I am absolutely thrilled to get Samantha Crain here for a gig, some three years after regular commenter and sometime contributor Campfires and Battlefields introduced me to her music. And finally, Michael McFarlane is someone I knew absolutely nothing about, but he’s a local lad who played Lach’s Antihoot this Summer and I thought he was bloody excellent, so I asked him to open.

Saturday 10th December: Song, by Toad Records Christmas Party.
This entire thing is TBC, but I think this is the best date for it.  It should at least give us time to clean up the house in time for the New Year’s House Gig, in any case.

So, umm… there you go.  I have to confess I never thought ‘putting on the odd gig’ would lead to this, but er, they should be really, really good shows.  And it would be nice if you all came to them too, otherwise I am going to be in all sorts of money trouble!

It’s the Gigpocalypse! Gigmageddon! A gigantic week-long party of musical funz! The final kick in the balls your exhausted, fading liver can’t quite handle before it gives up the ghost and implodes altogether.

After a pretty lacklustre musical showing thus far, the Edinburgh Festival finally earns its spurs this week with what can only be described as the inevitable descent of total and utter carnage.

Lach’s one-man show is back on (after illness) at Cabaret Voltaire, free every night this week at 8:45pm, and of course the Antihoot will be on every night this week except Tuesday from midnight to 3am in the Gilded Balloon.

Then there’s also the next two Toad at the Circus gigs, firstly an acoustic strummer affair, and then on Friday a thumping racket.  I will be DJing at these gigs, but don’t let that put you off, they might still be quite fun.

As well as conventional gigs, Avalanche Records have a full list of really rather excellent in-stores this week too, featuring the likes of Emily Scott and Edinburgh School for the Deaf – full details here. Oh, and of course the week finally stumbles to an alcoholic close with the return of the fantabulous Retreat Festival.  It will be awesome, and my liver will be begging for mercy long before the end.

Tuesday 23rd August 2011: Ulrich Schnauss & Jonnie Common at the Electric Circus.

This will be a carnival of electro loveliness.  I know less about Mr. Schnauss, but Jonnie’s album is pretty damn close to being the best Scottish album of the year, for my money.

Jonnie Common – Summer is For Going Places

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Wednesday 24th August 2011: Neil Pennycook, Benjamin Shaw & John Egdell at the Electric Circus.

It’ll be an all-acoustic affair for our third Toad at the Circus gig.  Apart from Meursault’s Neil Pennycook performing solo, we have the amazing Benjamin Shaw coming up from London and the equally excellent John Egdell from Newcastle.

Benjamin Shaw – 12,000 Sentinels

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Wednesday 24th August 2011: Sebadoh at Cabaret Voltaire.

This is a bit straightforward isn’t it.  Sebadoh are lo-fi indie rock legends (to paint with the broadest of brushes) and they are playing in Edinburgh.  I think this might be sold out though, so there might be little point listing it but umm… it’s Sebadoh, y’know.

Sebadoh – Nothing Like You

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Thursday 25th August 2011: Withered Hand, eagleowl, Woodpigeon (solo) & Meursault (solo) at the Queen’s Hall.

Something of an Edinburgh all-stars gig this one.  If you aren’t from here and want to know why those of us in Edinburgh have been so excited by our homegrown music scene recently, then this and Retreat are the ones to show you.

Withered Hand – Religious Songs

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Thursday 25th August 2011: Willy Mason at Cabaret Voltaire.

Willy Mason has sort of slipped off the critical radar since the pop smash (relatively speaking of course) of Oxygen back in about 2005 or so.  I saw him live back in London before moving up here actually, and it was absolutely brilliant.

Willy Mason – We Can Be Strong

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Friday 26th August 2011: Brown Brogues, Ghost Outfit & Rollor at the Electric Circus.

Let’s see the babbling hen sluts talk over this.  Fuck you, motherfuckers, tonight is going to be loud!  Brown Brogues are a clattering racket and according to The Pigeon Post Ghost Outfit are the best live band in Manchester at the moment.

Brown Brogues – Treet U Beta

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Friday 26th & Saturday 27th August 2011: Lach’s Antihoot Antifolk-off at the Gilded Balloon.

As the Antihoot has been taking place this year Lach and myself have been selecting, with the help of the audience, the favourite act of each night and we’re inviting them all back this weekend, where we’ll be recording the performances to release as The Best of the Antihoot on Song, by Toad Records.  It’ll also be a fantastic way to have a big fuck off party to celebrate the end of an awesome run at this year’s Festival which has, of course, seen me make my stand-up comedy debut.  But the less said about that the better.

Saturday 27th August 2011: The Machine Room, Land of Cakes & Plastic Animals at Sneaky Pete’s.

Continuing the excellence of their Festival booking, Sneaky Pete’s have three excellent new Edinburgh bands on on Saturday.   I’ll be at Retreat, but if it happens to sell out then this looks like an excellent alternative.

The Machine Room – Your Head on the Floor Next Door

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Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th August 2011: Retreat Festival at Pilrig St. Paul’s church.

There are a couple of events which define my musical calendar.  Most Fence events would pretty much be included in there, and the other would be Retreat.  The best bands in Edinburgh, fucking lovely people and the nicest atmosphere at any music even I’ve been to in the city.  Bart Owl is a hero. A sarcastic, ginger hero.