And so the madness begins. The Edge Festival this year is still looking for something special, beyond Sebadoh and The National, but there is nevertheless an unbelievable shitload of stuff happening in Edinburgh over the course of the next four weeks.

Personally, I am going to have much more involvement this year, for two reasons.  For starters, last year I spent two weeks of August on holiday in China, and another week up at Haarfest in Fife, and this year I’ll be here the whole way through.

Secondly, of course, we will be releasing the Best of the Antihoot at the end of the Festival, meaning I will be spending an awful lot of time actually at the Antihoot, trying to figure out what I think is actually the best of it, and that means 12-3am most nights, and then a normal day’s work the next day.  Helloooooo coffee!

Monday 1st August 2011: Lady North, PAWS & Vasquez at Sneaky Pete’s.

I’ve been looking forward to the single for which this gig is the launch night for ages now.  Out on Gerry Loves Records, it is a 7″ split between PAWS and Lady North, and given the raucous excellence of the former and the reputed excellence of the latter, this should be a mightily excellent gig.

PAWS – Summer Wipeout

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Wednesday 3rd August 2011: Lach: The Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos at Cabaret Voltaire.

This is the opening night of a run of solo shows Lach will be performing over the course of the Fringe – all part of the Free Fringe, with admission being on the basis of a voluntary donation.  The Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos is named after the people Lach tended to find himself playing to at the end of the night at the Sidewalk Cafe in New York, when running the Antihoot over there.

Lach – Baby, I Don’t Want to Go

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Thursday 4th August 2011: The opening night of the Antihoot at the Gilded Balloon.

This show is also running throughout August (more of this later) and in September we’ll be releasing The Best of the Antihoot on Song, by Toad Records – compilation chosen by a combination of audience acclaim and executive decision.

Friday 5th August 2011: Avital Raz & Little Egypt at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Those of us who were at the Avital Raz and Alex Cornish Song, by Toad House Gig in June were pretty much unanimous in thinking Avital’s stuff was absolutely amazing.  Well on the back of that gig Claire has booked her for Henry’s this Friday, with support coming from a band I have to confess to not knowing, called Little Egypt.

Sunday 7th August 2011: Edinburgh Independent Record Fair at Summerhall.

Scotland’s best independent labels, promoters and bands will be gathering in the Dissecting Room Bar at Summerhall, and combining live music in the lecture theatre with a series of stalls selling all sorts of bits and pieces of musical joy, soundtracked by DJ sets from all sorts of Scottish musical muppets luminaries.

FOUND – Anti-Climb Paint

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Sunday 7th August 2011: Born to Be Wide Edinburgh Night at the Electric Circus.

Born to Be Wide is also hosting in-stores by Rachel Sermanni and Withered Hand at Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket, and then moving to the Electric Circus for the evening, and short performances by a huge variety of new Edinburgh bands, interspersed with ‘celebrity’ DJs.  Already confirmed to play are: Chasing Owls, Austen George, Capitals, Bwani Junction, Withered Hand, Rachel Sermanni, Church of When The Sh*t Hits The Fan and Lady North.

Having already written the live listings for this week, I got a couple of emails about really interesting things happening as part of the Leith Festival and I think I should add a quick update here, because I reckon it’s stuff people will (or should) be interested in.

Leith is by some distance my favourite part of Edinburgh.  It has a reputation for being scummy – it is the old docks after all – but for all there are still some pretty ropey parts, that is a long, long way from being the truth these days.  Nowadays most of my favourite Edinburgh pubs and restaurants are to found either down by the Shore itself, or in the immediate vicinity of Leith Walk.

Also, for all Leith may not be all that scuzzy these days, it is still full of enough drunks, jakeys and weirdos that it feels a lot more like a proper city than the rest of Edinburgh, which can be a bit of an uptight middle class ghetto a lot of the time: very civilised, but everso slightly dull.

I also generally prefer the Leith Festival to the Edinburgh one, I must confess.  Partly because it feels a lot less deliberate, and is hence looser and more fun, and partly because I just prefer smaller, more manageable festivals in general.

Anyhow, the full music programme for the Leith Festival is here, but it can be a little overwhelming, so here are the highlights which have appeared in my inbox over the last day or so:

From Quiet Jon:

Also, The Wee Baby Jesuses (AKA Cheehi and Junior Judo from assorted Fence bands) will be playing a set of Tom Waits songs as part of The Leith Festival. Happening at The Village in Leith, Wednesday night, doors 8ish [i.e.: get moving - now!].

Should be fun.

From Liz:

On Thursday, as part of LeithLate, Elvis Shakespeare have Wounded Knee, Little Pebble, Blueflint and Withered Hand.  6pm to 8pm.

I’m not sending this email as a “plug” – I just thought you might be interested, personally, in the lineup [and you'd be right] and it has the added benefit of being free!

From Matthew from Pet:

We’re playing the Leithlate festival on thursday at the Pilrig Church supporting John Knox Sex Club, HRH and also playing are Sarah and the Snakes. Here’s the link to that bit of exciting spam…
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=202251416479280

So you see, when I do get spammed it tends to be in the politest, most apologetic manner imaginable.  And actually all three of those gigs look awesome, which is why I am passing them all on to you.

Does Carl Barat at the Liquid Rooms on Thursday qualify as an interesting gig for this page?  I am not sure.  A couple of years ago it might have.  I saw Dirty Pretty Things at the Corn Exchange back in 200somethingsomething and, much like their album, found them to be highly enjoyable but always slightly short of earth-shattering.

Somehow, not all that many years later, the gig seems almost completely irrelevant, both to me and, I imagine, to almost anyone reading this. No wonder musicians often end up with a love-hate relationship with their fans – we can be a fickle bunch of bastards and no mistake.

Anyhow, it’s pretty quiet this week, so I am going to break from precedent and list a Glasgow gig for a change.  You’ll see why…

Wednesday 6th April 2011: Jonnie Common’s Deskjob launch at the Captain’s Rest (Glasgow).

See, normally I wouldn’t list a Glasgow gig, but this one is a bit special.  Jonnie is launching Deskjob this week, which is a collaborative album whereby some of his favourite bands came round to his house and recorded the bare bones of a song, and he then built up the rest of the song around this.

He’s adamant that they aren’t remixes, so I suppose you would have to call this more of an old-fashioned producer’s album.  All but one of the bands (I think) are getting together at the Captain’s Rest in Glasgow on Wednesday, and Jonnie’s being a little elusive about previews, so I am going to just embed his thirty second snippets here instead of including a downloadable song as I usually might.
Jonnie Common presents DESKJOB – album preview (paper)clips by Jonnie Common

Wednesday 6th April 2011: Broken Records (acoustic) at the Bristo Hall.

I am not sure exactly how acoustic this is going to be, but it is the latest in an ongoing series of fundraising gigs being held to help save the Forest Cafe from extinction, after the collapse of the Edinburgh University Settlement.   Broken Records can go from very loud indeed to extremely minimal with equal success, so I highly recommend this. They probably won’t be quite as pared-down as in this video, but I still like it:

Thursday 7th April 2011: Wide Days at the Teviot, with live showcases in the evening.

There’s more to explain about Wide Days than can be discussed in this brief paragraph, but here are the very brief highlights: four seminars during the day, based on providing as much practical advice to DIY musicians as possible, followed by a series of live showcases in the evening, with bands like Withered Hand, Paws, Rachael Sermanni and several others playing gigs at a variety of venues across Edinburgh.  Go to their website for a more detailed explanation – and see you there.

Sunday The Late Call, The Japanese War Effort & The Wee Rogue at the Wee Red Bar.

The Gentle Invasion’s return to the world of promotion so pleased me that I managed to forget to include this initially, so sorry about that! The Late Call make rather lush acoustic pop, The Japanese War Effort could be playing anything from solo with guitar to solo with all sorts of loop pedals and odd boxes which make strange noises, and The Wee Rogue play gorgeously hushed folk songs. This will be a good gig, I can pretty much promise you.

Apologies for the lateness of this week’s podcast, but inevitably the chaos of SXSW nudges schedules into the background a little.

Last year, several margaritas the worse for wear, we sat down with Ben from Instinctive Racoon, Stuart from Creative Scotland, Vic Galloway from BBC Radio Scotland and Peej from Dear Scotland, and recorded a ramshackle, lurching podcast about the fun of the week.

This year, perhaps goaded into something bordering on professionalism by the presence of the BBC camera crew who have been following Vic around all week, things were a little smoother.  Although this may also have been related to the fact that the margarita-hoovering didn’t actually start until afterwards this time. Ben wasn’t here this time, but we did have myself, Peej, Vic and Stuart sharing a beverage on Peej’s back porch and talking something approaching the usual gubbins.

Oh, and the Detour Scotland Big Walk video we mention in the podcast can be found here.

Direct download: Toadcast #166 – The Tequilacast

01. Admiral Fallow – Squealing Pigs (00.37)
02. Withered Hand – Religious Songs (10.40)
03. Menomena – Taos (23.02)
04. Clock Opera – A Piece of String (28.13)
05. Ringo Deathstarr – Imagine Hearts (35.32)
06. The Twilight Sad – Cold Days From the Birdhouse (48.50)
07. Josh T. Pearson – Sweetheart I Ain’t Your Christ (62.27)
08. Erland & the Carnival – My Name is Carnival (74.19)
09. King Creosote – Grace (Jeff Buckley cover) (82.49)

Before we get back to the serious business of in-depth journalism (and, of course, gin and swearing) I thought you might like to see the difference between the sort of bollocks I’ve been filming this week, and the kind of high quality scoop produced by the real professionals.

A BBC crew have been following Vic Galloway around this week, shooting a documentary about the Scottish bands at SXSW, and one of them had time to prove that, even without the fancy equipment, a professional cameraman still gets the best footage even when using a lowly iPhone.

And then he was kind enough to share it with me. Forgetting, perhaps, that as an amateur, things like professional scruples or discretion mean nothing to me at all, and now it’s on the internet. Mwah-hah-ha-haaaaaaaaa….!

(Oh, and this is a bit of a Scottish music in-joke, so apologies to anyone who doesn’t find this funny in that particular way. It’s still an amusing video of a man dancing around like a muppet though, so hopefully you can still enjoy it in some sense.)

This pretty much speaks for itself, I think. The hundredth best venue in Austin would probably be by far the best venue in Edinburgh, so it is partly awesome fun and partly making me green with envy!

I am Ruthless for this week’s show on Fresh Air Radio, so it will just be me prattling on by myself instead.  I have a John Darnielle tribute to the assault on organised labour in Wisconsion, I have the original version of that song, and I have some Withered Hand, in honour of his SXSW visa troubles.

Other than that, I am pretty worn out from a night of epic drinking in Stockton (which is not even Middlesbrough) last night after the excellent seminar thingy hosted by The Generator at which I (inevitably) drank and talked far too much.  There is a certain inevitability to these things, isn’t there.

Live from 8pm UK time – click here to listen.

As per usual the playlist will appear below as I play things, and feel free to swing by the comments and have your say.

1. Lil Daggers – Give Me the Pill
2. King Post Kitsch – Don’t You Touch My Fucking Honeytone
3. Meursault – And Butter Would Not Melt (from Jonnie Common’s Deskjob)
4. Withered Hand – No Cigarettes
5. Tom Waits – Anywhere I Lay My Head
6. John Darnielle – There is Power in a Union
7. The Louche FC – Only in a Dream
8. Irk the River – Mind That Child
9. The Son(s) – Radar
10. REM – It Happened Today
11. Billy Bragg – There is Power in a Union
12. Elbow – Jesus is a Rochdale Girl
13. David Thomas Broughton – Ain’t Got no Sole
14. Clem Snide – Pale Blue Eyes
15. Warm Ghost – Open the Wormhole in Your Heart
16. Dam Mantle – Grey
17. Dolfish – Your Love is Bummin’ Me Out
18. The Honey Pies – Hair of the Dog

Apologies for the late appearance of this post, but erm, gin interfered with my ability to function like a normal member of society yesterday so umm… well, you’ll just have to forgive me I suppose.  Rest assured it hurt me more than it hurt you.

Anyway, it’s sort of a busy week this week, although it takes its own sweet time to get going. Mondy, blah, Tuesday, booring, Wednesday, nah nothing much, Thursday: MAYHEM!  Well sort of.  For me there will the the Wide Days launch at the Teviot during the day, and the Electric Circus in the evening, then my Fresh Air Radio show with Ruth, and then scampering off to the Voodoo Rooms to catch what I can of FOUND’s Factorycraft album launch.

Then we have the Ides of Toad returning on Friday, in Henry’s Cellar Bar this time, which will be a bit of a blast from the past for me.  I went to tons of gigs at Henry’s when I was first getting interested in music in Edinburgh, but that just doesn’t seem to happen so much anymore so it’ll be nice, if a little strange, to be back there. Anyhow, this stuff is all in the Big Ol’ List below, so there’s no point prattling on about it here is there.

Thursday 3rd March 2011: FOUND at the Voodoo Rooms – album launch for Factorycraft, hosted by Limbo.

FOUND’s new album is out on Chemikal Underground, and for those who don’t already know how eye-caressingly lovely it looks, have a bit of a gander here. The album itself is surprisingly more indie rock than I would have ever have expected, and there are some absolute stormers on there.  This album has been waiting to find a home for some time now, and many of the tracks are already firm live favourites – like You’re no Vincent Gallo, f’rinstance.  I am not sure what tracks they might or might not be happy to share at this stage, so here’s a Toad Session version of that song.  The one on the album, I promise you, is very different.

FOUND – You’re No Vincent Gallo (Toad Session)

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Friday 4th March 2011: The Leg, Louis Barabbas & the Bedlam Six & Zed Penguin play The Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

This one should be a stomper: we have the excellent, raucous Leg, the extravagant, mental Bedlam Six and the brand spanking new Zed Penguin. I’ve not been down to Henry’s for ages, but this should be the perfect gig to return with: loud, dirty and a little bit mental.

Zed Penguin – This Town

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Saturday 5th March 2011: Withered Hand, Zoey Van Goey & O Messy Life play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

This is a joint fundraiser to send Withered Hand and Zoey Van Goey out to SXSW this year, and the latest installment in the Limbo chaps’ frantic start to the year.

Withered Hand – New Dawn

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Sunday 6th March 2011: Dan Michaelson & the Coastguards, The Heebie Jeebies, The Wooden Sky, This Daring Move at Sneaky Pete’s.

This has a touch of Cousteau, a touch of Richard Hawley and even a touch of our own Savings and Loan to it, and for those whose liver hasn’t been utterly obliterated by the preceding three days, I think this looks like a really good bet, particularly if you are looking for something non-local for a change at the end of the week.

No, not mine, that’s a secret for a little while longer.  Well, at least until I figure out which five they are at least, which might take another week or so.  No, this is yours.  For those of us sleeping off hangovers from Thursday’s drinking, and preparing to give ourselves whole new ones tonight, I think this might be the perfect diversion: simply list, in order, your five favourite albums of the year.

I am not sure how to score this, frankly.  I could either award five points for a number one, four for a two and so on, or just add up each mention as a single vote like I did with the songs of the year – what do you think? Perhaps when you add your answers you could give me a steer on how to score it – one mention, one vote or sliding scale.

As this week’s five songs, I have picked one from each of last year’s top five albums, but I feel obliged to point out that Timber Timbre was actually re-released this year on a UK label (the brilliant Full Time Hobby), so is very much eligible for this year’s vote.  And if I were to nudge you in any one direction that would probably be it.  It’s a fucking incredible album, and would be very highly placed in my own list this year had I not already included it last year.

Timber Timbre – Magic Arrow (from Timber Timbre)

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Navigator – Danger Dragon (from Bad Children)

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Withered Hand – Providence (from Good News)

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Samantha Crain – Get the Fever Out (from Songs in the Night)

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Trembling Bells – When I Was Young (from Carbeth)

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Well I was really looking forward to seeing Julie Doiron’s new project Daniel, Fred & Julie this week, but it turns out the fucker’s cancelled, leaving us with little else but a gigantic, all-venue clusterfuck to disentangle on Saturday evening.

I generally don’t feel like the poor relation in musical bun-fights in Edinburgh, but on Saturday Yusuf’s album launch at the St. Stephen’s Centre is going toe to toe with the Leith Tape Club all-day special and, if that wasn’t bad enough, the three-venue, all day extravaganza which is Sneaky Fest.

I feel a bit like a comically feeble Disney character, armed with little more than a dinner fork, with a fire-breathing dragon on one side and an army of homicidally angry vikings on the other, desperately wondering if we can’t all just get along.  But these coincidences, annoying as they are, do just happen in the world of promotion, so only one thing to do: stop whining and just deal with it.

Actually, the Song, by Toad Records Commercial Strategy Department suggested that I just quietly neglect to mention either Sneaky Fest or the Leith Tape Club this week, but the grizzled, indomitable editorial team at Song, by Toad held out for journalistic integrity in the face of insidious commercial pressure – brave chaps, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Oh, and apart from those gigs listed below, Wounded Knee and Remember Remember are listed as playing the Electric Circus this week, but whilst it seems clear enough that Remember Remember are on Thursday 25th, the Electric Circus website is an utter nightmare to get any kind of useful information from, and although Wounded Knee are clearly written down there in the live music bit, it is not next to anything so useful as an actual date.  So erm, good luck.

Oh, and Laura Marling’s at the Liquid Room on Sunday too, but it’s already sold out and she’s incredibly fucking boring anyway, so no skin off anyone’s nose there.  Although a few of you perverts do actually like her stuff, don’t you?  I will never understand the internets.

Saturday 27th November 2010: Yusuf Azak, The Japanese War Effort and Ethan Ash at the St. Stephens Centre.

I’ve talked about the three Scottish launch dates in much more detail here, so suffice to say that I think the St. Stephens Centre looks like a fantastic venue, now that we’ve finally found one, and I would be deeply grateful to anyone forsaking our more glamorous competition to potter on down there on Saturday and enjoy some fine tunes and a glass of wine (it’s BYOB, incidentally, but there are plenty of places nearby).

Yusuf Azak – Eastern Sun

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Saturday 27th November 2010: Leith Tape Club All-Day Special at Cruz.

From Withered Hand to eagleowl, and from FOUND to Over the Wall, taking in a special mystery guest on the way, I have to confess that this looks like a brilliant evening.  And apart from sitting on the top deck in the blazing sunshine, it may be the first recorded instance of actual Fun taking place at Cruz since the days when it was the Guinness family yacht, and presumably saw parties that would turn even Lindsay Lohan’s hair white.

Withered Hand – Religious Songs

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Saturday 27th November 2010: Sneaky Fest three-venue, all-day bonanza.

This takes place in the Electric Circus, Cabaret Voltaire and Sneaky Pete’s, with one ticket covering all shows in all venues all day.  The full lineup is to be found by following the Sneaky’s link above, and includes the likes of Kid Canaveral, Washington Irving, My Tiny Robots, Kid Canaveral and Three Blind Wolves.