This week’s live events will all have to get along happily without the encouragement of my excellent self, as my only live music experiences this week will be taking place in Anstruther, Fife, at the Fence Collective’s fucking marvelous Homegame Festival.
It actually looks a bit thin in my absence, I have to confess, but there are a couple of early gigs next week worth bearing in mind, because I might not get the chance to write this post in anything like a timely fashion on Monday, depending on how we do getting back from Homegame.
Next Monday 9th May, Josh T. Pearson will be playing with Drive by Truckers at the Queen’s Hall. I know nothing whatsoever about Drive by Truckers, but Josh T. Pearson is incredible, and absolutely mesmerising live, so if you can go to that, then go. Then the following day, on the 10th May, Domino Records’ latest signings Francois and the Atlas Mountains, This is the Kit and Babe will be playing at the Bristo Hall, upstairs at the Forest Cafe, from about half seven onwards. This will be a BYOB event in support of the Forest Cafe, with corkage charged on the door.
This week, however, we have the following happening:
Woodenbox are an excellent live band, full of all sorts of stompy, raucous fun, a swinging brass section (‘swinging’, am I allowed to call it that without coming across as a bit of a dick) and a sense of enjoyment and energy matched by few bands on the Scottish scene at the moment.
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The Wave Pictures are a cracking band, and brilliant live as well. Their music is so bloody simple as well and the lyrics, great as they are, sound like they could be part of any normal conversation. Highly recommended.
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I am still trying to figure out whether I am more or less busy now that I have liberated myself from the enormous inconvenience of a job which actually deigned to pay me money for my efforts and embraced idle dilettantism.
Mrs. Toad was cruelly subjected to a weekend with my side of the family this weekend, while I went off gallivanting at UnConvention Salford, and then popped out to meet a couple of new Manchester friends on Sunday.
Oddly enough, she and my mother seem to have developed an oddly functional dysfunctional relationship, based largely around telling one another to fuck off every half an hour or so. Given that my mother and I are quite similar, and my relationship with Mrs. Toad is also largely based around us telling one another to fuck off every ten minutes, I suppose this should be no surprise, but there was something oddly heartwarming about hear my wife say ‘Oh fuck off Maggie’ to my mum on a regular basis as they prepared Sunday lunch yesterday.
It’s a pretty quiet week this week though, so I am hoping to get caught up on some design work for our next two releases and sort out a mailing list for the first Yusuf Azak single, due out in a couple of weeks. So there. That’s the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle for you.
This is a post of pure ignorance I am afraid, but there is little else on this weekend and having had a listen to the MySpace pages linked above it sounds like this could be raucous and excellent fun.
The last time I saw Woodenbox they were making a full tent bounce like a happy pack of Andrex puppies at Rockness. They seem to be adding members everytime I see them, and with that, more and more of that reckless enthusiasm to their wilder moments. I guess you’d probably describe them as Americana and leave it at that, if you wanted a pigeonhole, but the brass section, whilst not quite as mariachi to my ears as it seems to be to others, gives their live set a real sense of pop joy.
This is another chatty podcast, recorded in the hostel room of the lovely (and somewhat creepy) Lloyd from Peenko and Ian from Have Fun at Dinner on Friday afternoon at GoNorth.
In terms of creepy, we were all kind of creeped out by the industry reacharounds which seemed to be going on left right and centre though. Who do you know, who likes who best blah blah blah blah blah.
I think that me and everyone I know have all decided to just fuck all this industry bollocks and do what the fuck we please. Honestly, it’s all just far far too much eating of crow for me. Fuck. Right. Off.
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01. Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers – Draw a Line (03.49)
02. Fiona Soe Paing – Deep Song (14.45)
03. The Seventeenth Century – Roses in the Park (17.40)
04. Kid Canaveral – And Another Thing!! (24.58)
05. Miaoux Miaoux – Snow (34.23)
06. Admiral Fallow – Subbuteo (38.18)
07. Mitchell Museum – Tiger Heartbeat (48.45)
08. Randolph’s Leap – Squeamish (57.53)
Okay, there aren’t any titans, but there are plenty of clashes in this week’s gig calendar. Look at Saturday for instance – The Fall, The Leg or Bear in Heaven? – it depends on the precise length and angle of your fringe I suppose. Well, that and the cut of your jeans.
And Wednesday, what do I do? Go and butter up Yusuf Azak and try and get him to join the label, or go and butter up the Foxxes and try and make sure they stay? That’s the music industry for you: so many arses to kiss and so little time in which to do it.
In other news, I have been invited down to Unconvention in Manchester to sit on a panel of labels and band managers to make some wafer-thin pretence of having something intelligent to contribute. I will try very hard to not perform my usual trick of just talking over the top of people until they shush, and make a genuine effort to be a productive and valuable member of society. Yes yes, I know, stop laughing.
Yusuf has just finished his debut album which we are hoping to persuade him to release on Song, by Toad Records later in the year, and on Wednesday he and Euan will be supporting Dan Arborise and Library Tapes down at the Roxy Room.
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The Foxx are currently writing and recording their new album, which is due out… well, about three or four months after they finish it, if we’re being determinedly practical about these things, which we have to be. They’ve been posting demos and works-in-progress on their blog, so you can pop through there and have a preview if you like.
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This is the Woodenbox album launch party, and with my own very recent experience of album launches, that means it should be a gigantic, messy, good-natured piss up. Their stomping Americana has been particularly upwardly mobile recently, which may be related to their recent hook-up with a new manager, and I am looking forward to hearing the full album.
A very Pitchforky gig, this. Efterklang were pretty good at SXSW, but I find their recent album no better than okay. Apparently earlier stuff is miles better though, so erm, well yes, good luck with this one. Lots of my friends, whose music taste I agree with in most aspects, love these guys but I don’t really know them well enough yet.
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This looks like being an extremely interesting evening of music, particularly for those looking for something a little different this week. This is something of a steel-stringed guitar masterclass, with all three bands featuring the instrument quite prominently apparently. More information is available from the Facebook page for the event.
This is a fundraiser gig, and will be headlined by The Leg, who I would probably describe as My Favourite Edinburgh Band Who I Have Inexplicably Failed to Ever See Live.
Bear in Heaven are extremely hip at the moment, and I not sure if they are more famous for being famous, or because someone famous tweeted about them, hence making them even more famous, and simultaneously a poster child for modern social media marketing. Oh, and they play quite electronic stuff, which is not bad at all.
I am clearly not as hip as I pretend to be (was anyone really fooled?) because despite their being extremely cool, I don’t actually have any music by Bear in Heaven on my drive. Out of shame, I have substituted at track by The Tragically Hip called the Bear, in the hope that you won’t notice.
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Well the Trampoline show for this Friday, with Ziggy Campbell and Yusuf Azak has been cancelled, which is a bit of a tragedy for my music fun, but at least spares me some of the Olympic amounts of typing this post is going to require all through bloody August. Fucking hell, it’s like a mini novel. Fortunately I don’t think much was actually on yesterday, when the sort of hangover generated only by consuming an entire bottle of gin prevented me from doing anything productive at all.
So this post is being written now and dated two days ago so, erm, well fuck it, shoot me, there’s always the list of course. But my listings are way better – everyone knows that. Aren’t they.
Yes is the answer to that, in case anyone was taking too much time to think about it.
I was about to say that two Toad bands on the same bill means I am guaranteed to enjoy this, but strictly speaking electro-experimental loonies Art Fag are Scotland’s hottest new unsigned act and I will have to fight every label in the land with sticks for their signature. Or, um, something like that. And Jesus H. Foxx were superb at the Forest Cafe last week, so this should be a cracking show. Jesus H. Foxx – Elegy For the Good Times
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I am really looking forward to hearing this, and genuinely curious. For all I’ve seen White Heath a few times recently I haven’t heard any of their recordings recently, and I am very much looking forward to hearing what Alex from Fentek has made of their sound, which can be chaotic to say the least when I’ve seen them live. Quite how he mixes the trombone and fiddle in with the electric guitar and drums is something I’d like to hear.
This is sold out, but apparently any returns will be available on Thursday. You can’t have them though, because I need them. Let’s be honest, I’m not going to miss a chance to watch one of my favourite Edinburgh bands face off against a moody musical wardrobe am I.
Dead Boy Robotics had a very successful set at T in the Park this year (see video at the bottom of this post) and apparently their new stuff is something of a shift from earlier material, which makes me really rather curious to hear what they’re up to these days. The Foundling Wheel – Out to See
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Woodenbox are a cracking live band, I don’t really know Lovers Turn to Monsters, and Shenandoah Davis is bloody lovely. We’re recording a Toad Session with her this weekend as well. Splendid. Shennandoah Davis – We, Camera
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The collection of bands playing here is in some senses irrelevant. Even if you’ve never heard of a single one of the groups playing, you can be absolutely guaranteed that this is going to be an amazing day. Those of you who like your rock music with a little bit more in the way of coke and whores may not be quite as thrilled as others by the Bristo Hall’s family and cuppa-friendly atmosphere, but I am hugely looking forward to it. And the lineup is fucking amazing, as it happens: Withered Hand, Jo Foster, Wounded Knee, Hexicon, Rob St John, Viking Moses, Tisso Lake, Moustache of Insanity, Allo, Darlin’, My Tiny Robots, Come In Tokyo, Enfant Bastard, The Pineapple Chunks, Meursault, The Leg.
Obviously, from my perspective there is one big and important gig this week:
Sunday 9th August 2009: Animal Magic Tricks (with Pete from The Leg & Neil from Meursault) at the first Toad House Gig.
Use the link below to buy tickets and please do buy them in advance because we can’t have too many people in the house, and at the same time I would be gutted if it was empty, so it would help us plan ahead a little:
In the rest of the city, however, the Edinburgh Festicle well and truly kicks off this week. This means that despite a rather quiet build-up, the weekend is just fucking mental, frankly. My personal choice is going to be Trampoline on Saturday, I think. I’m really interested to hear what Jonnie Common’s doing on his own, although Rob St. John was excellent at Electric Circus on Saturday and his show at the Portrait Gallery with Emily Scott should be fantastic. I’ve probably missed out loads, but you really are going to have to expect that during August I think because there’s just going to be so much stuff going on, and not listed in the obvious and usual places either, so I’ll probably miss a fair bit.
I sulk about the Festival, honestly, because it tends to utterly steamroll anything which would actually happen in the city otherwise, but this year there does seem to be a lot of actual Edinburgh stuff taking place, particularly in terms of music. For anyone wanting a full run down, Bart wrote an excellent summary of what to expect for the next few weeks last weekend, and you really should read it if you want a musically rewarding August.
I have never been any more than a casual fan of Woodpigeon, but I am sort of liking their recent album Treasury Library Canada. For me though, the real reason to attend this gig is the excellent Woodenbox who can be phenomenal live. Woodpigeon – Cities of Weather
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Friday 7th August 2009: The Stranglers at the Picturehouse.
No, I am not a Stranglers afficionado, yes I would just be going for the famous ones, no I don’t care. Sometimes ‘just the hits’ can be great, especially when they’re as great as Golden Brown. The Stranglers – Golden Brown
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This is the official launch night for the Trampoline August shows, and will be a good chance to hear live versions of things on the approaching Kays Lavelle album.
Even though I am not really as keen on the band as I was when I first heard them, when they honestly blew me away, they are still phenomenal live. It’s sort of gospelly banjo raucousness, I suppose, and bloody brilliant. Mumford & Sons – White Blank Page
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I pretty much described why I thought this would be good in the main post didn’t I. I shall just add that Emily is launching a new album, in case you need even more incentive to turn up.
What do I have to say about this? The man was Talking Heads! To cap that he’s been incredibly positive about what the internet can mean to young bands and had some very well-considered things to say about how to make the most of the new environment in the music industry. Talking Heads – Hey Now (Yes, I know this isn’t ‘David Byrne’ per se, but bugger off, I love this album.)
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This should be very low-fi and somewhat scratchy but with lovely underlying melodies, if my knowledge of both Jonnie Common and Animal Magic Tricks is anything to go by. I don’t know Conquering Animal Sound, but then that’s why we go to gigs, isn’t it.
Well the mammoth video nightmare of the last week is nearly over. This week I will be working in the Meursault tour diary from when they went away to the North of England for a few days in our big green van. They recorded some excellent sessions while they were touring, including three songs in the back of the van from some campsite in, erm, Lancashire somewhere I think, and also a few songs at a bandstand in Newcastle. The tour diary itself might just be mental, and but for some judicial editing could easily become the most offensive musical document ever recorded (thank you Fraser, Preston’s a bit ‘rapey’ is it?) so I hope I can get it trimmed down to something vaguely family friendly before I go away.
Here’s a preview for those of you who are interested – this is a version of a new song called Sleet, as played in the Newcastle bandstand to an appreciative audience of a great many birds, and no, not the kind your average rock star aspires to have in his audience either:
As you know, Mrs. Toad and I are off in Italy for a couple of weeks from this coming Saturday and in our absence the splendid Three Toadsketeers of Dylan, Bart and Euan have agreed to take over the Good Ship Toad. I will be enforcing a strict regime of alcoholism and offending vegetarians, so it should hopefully not be too far from the sort of unprofessional garbage you’re used to around here. But I owe them all a massive thank you for taking this on, because I think it will be much nicer for everyone than just leaving it quiet for two weeks.
So, before I bugger off, what will I be attending? Some of these things, I suspect:
Formerly Davie Fiddle and tour-mates of Mumford & Sons, these chaps play a very English-sounding indie folk. If anything, actually, it harks back more to the folk rock of the late 80s and early 90s rather than the more glacial stuff of the last couple of years. Cherbourg – Man
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This is the official launch for the EP Withered Hand recorded with King Creosote earlier this year. He’s currently working on an album, which is almost through the mixing process and vaguely pencilled in for release in August or September this year, I believe. The album is a full band job, but this EP is a much more acoustic, and the lineup for the launch party is nothing if not eclectic. Incidentally, I filmed a couple of songs by Emily Scott at Homegame but she still hasn’t got back to me to tell me what they’re called. They can be viewed here and here if anyone can supply me with the missing information! Withered Hand – Shooby (Demo)
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Cheveu are French and a little bit mental from the sounds of it. Still, this kind of, erm, noisy, crackly post-stuff music should make for a good evening. I hesitate to imagine what it might sound like live, but I think this is one of those gigs where you just have to turn up and see what the hell you get. Support comes from the very promising White Heath, making what is I believe their Bowery debut. Cheveu – Like a Deer in the Headlights
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Woodenbox are a terrific live band, who have been working on some new recordings recently – as, incidentally, have the Kays Lavelle. The former play stomping Americana, full of brass and rhythm, and the latter play piano-led indie ballads, which cross over into that sort of post-rock atmospheric aesthetic from time to time. And both bands now share a piano player, as far as I am aware. Kristoffer Morgan is a bit of a mystery to me, I must confess, this being the first time I think I’ve seen his name on a bill in these parts. Woodenbox – Situations (I think this was recorded before the addition of the Fivers)
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This is a crossover night between the ever-excellent This is Music characters and Crystal Wish Records, with a lineup full of bands I’ve never heard of. Crystal Wish appear to be pretty electronically and experimentally orientated though, and these are always great nights, so I’d definitely recommend popping along. This is Music generally do a podcast as well, in advance of their night, and that will appear here at some point in the next week, I assume.
I don’t really know what to expect from this gig. The Foundling Wheel and Wounded Knee are a little more experimental than Meursault tend to be most of the time, but Meursault have been slipping some new material into their recent Edinburgh gigs and they definitely have it in them to be a little weird from time to time, so this might well be a bit of a treat for everyone. If you like your music a little off the beaten track, that is. The Foundling Wheel – Out to See
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Diane Cluck is an (anit-)folk legend, so I really wouldn’t miss this if I were you. Unless you’re going to the Wee Red, because I wouldn’t miss that either. Thank fuck I’m not here to have to make this terrible decision! Diane Cluck – Save Me
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Phew, and I thought it was going to be a quick on this week!
It’s a quiet, but hardly barren week in Edinburgh this week, although I think I may skip a fair bit of it and concentrate on getting the Pictish Trail Session up and posted.
What a shitty fucking weekend it’s been, though. I got some really bizarre message from an old school friend of mine asking me if I was blanking him on Friday, which I haven’t been. We haven’t exchanged messages for years, but that’s been true in both directions. Then on Sunday, before I’d responded, he sent another saying ‘Okay, I’ll delete you from my Facebook wotsit, have a good life buddy.’ For fuck’s fucking sake. It’s no skin off my nose one way or another, but it was really weird coming right out of the blue like that.
Then I completely forgot a friend’s stag do and failed to attend because I had managed to pile too much other stuff into the weekend. That, believe me, does not feel like a nice thing to do. Especially when you get the phonecall and it dawns on you what you’ve just done. Fucking bollocksing fuck.
I also got in trouble at Proper Job for excessive Toading on Friday, which wasn’t fun. So there will be something of a kibosh put on work-time activity around here, and fair enough. They’ve been more than patient with my little obsession, and quite frankly they’d be more than justified in giving me a formal warning, but it’s very nice that they haven’t. About time I was equally nice back, I think it’s fair to say.
Then there was the Biblical amount of alcohol consumed over Friday and Saturday night, leading to a general feeling of uncleanness ever since, and of course there was the jolly banter about the Shitecast this weekend. Fucking hell, I am looking forward to football tonight and the chance to just run it all off.
I think Trade Union may be on rather late, so don’t rush down, but if you’re up for night of giddy bouncing to Edinburgh’s finest punk-pop trio then swing by from 11pm and send them on their merry way to SXSW with a cheer. Come On Gang – Wheels
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This band are one I know very little about, but they’ve been talked about very favourably since I’ve been up here. This is one of those Mill gigs – beware, nothing but that god-awful piss-water Miller to drink – so you’ll have to click here to get a ticket. Support band Tamika’s Treehouse are a band I know nothing about whatsoever, not even rumours or whispering, so any enlightenment would be appreciated. After no more than a single MySpace listen they do sound catchy and enjoyable though, so this should be a good night. Futuristic Retro Champions – Speak to Me
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It’s all going to be rather electro-dance-pop at Limbo this week, but there’s easily enough edge to it all to keep me interested, despite being slightly outside my comfort zone with this sort of stuff. Ex Lion Tamer’s new single is out on 17 Seconds Records this week, although only on digital for the time being. Hang about though, the vinyl will be here any moment now. Sugar Crisis – Taking Names & Heartbeats
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More boisterous pop fun with plenty of synths and bounce. Sneaky bastarding Pete’s keep on deviously selling out of tickets at the moment too, so you might want to get one in advance for this. I’m sure they’re doing it just to thwart me. RBRBR – 27 Russian Friends
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This is Trampoline’s second (I hope) birthday party, and what a lineup. Apart from Little Pebble it’s very Americana influenced in a slightly undefinable way. I don’t know what exact type of Americana I would describe Sparrow or Woodenbox as being, but they definitely have some sort of influence in there. They’re both absolutely thumping as well. Little Pebble doesn’t have a lot in common with them, but having only seen him once, I am really keen to see more because he was absolutely excellent. This is my definite Little Pebble – Pirate
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So actually, it’s not a quiet week at all, really, is it.
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