Record Store (shop, shop, it’s called a fucking SHOP!) Day is always bad news for my cash reserves.  I am not, I have to confess, all that enticed by the exclusives, as honestly I find that all a bit gimmicky and pointless, but I do like the idea of encouraging people back into shops and reminding people what a pleasure it is to spend hours poking around through racks of records.

Music is a personal, physical thing for me – it involves the sense, of course it’s physical! – and gigs and community events like Record Store Day help to reinforce that, and therefore despite the needless exclusives and the exploitation of artificial scarcity, I still like the social side of it, as well as the cooperation between shops, labels, bands and venues it seems to encourage.

We have a good few things happening in the next week or so actually, starting with RM Hubbert, Yusuf Azak and Rory Sutherland at Henry’s tonight.  Then tomorrow, the RSD festivities kick in, with Withered Hand and Ballboy at Avalanche, and Neil from Meursault and PAWS down at Voxbox in Stockbridge.

Then, next weekend, we have The Leg’s album launch.  We are going to be meeting in The Wash between 6-8pm, and then walking up to a secret venue in the Old Town for a free private party.  And if, say, you were to pay a £5 non-refundable deposit for a copy of their new album (by using the button below), then we will almost certainly be touched enough to invite you.  *cough*

Anyhow, enough business, it’s Friday, and that means fucking about on the internet.  Answer these five stupid questions and I shall be happy to fuck about on the internet with you:

1. If you could re-colour an animal, what would it be?
2. What’s the first pop music you really remember being aware of?
3. What do you really enjoy shopping for?
4. And what do you hate shopping for?
5. Are you going to buy anything special on Record Store Day?

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.

 Song, by Toad Records hereby release into the world what we reckon is going to become an annual free sampler, mostly as a free download, but with a few CDs given to local record shops and available at gigs as well.

The sampler is a combination of things we’ll be releasing this year, mixed in with a couple of things from 2011 and interspersed with a few brilliant moments from the late Kenneth Williams’ reading of the Wind in the Willows. Snippets from this reading litter my own weekly podcast, and inspired the name of the label in the first place, so it seemed kind of fitting to pop a couple on here.

You can download this little parcel of digital fun from Bandcamp for free, and we are sending out a few to our favourite record shops to give away as well, so if you want a CD either come to a Song, by Toad gig in Edinburgh or go to a record shop.

Tracklisting:

02. So the Wind Won’t… by Jesus H. Foxx
I’ve been waiting for their debut album through two years of ‘nearly theres’, but it is finally finished, it sounds brilliant and will be ready for release on 14th May 2012.

03. Twitching Stick by The Leg
Formerly Khaya, then Desc, The Leg are veterans of several Peel Sessions and several releases already, but have agreed to release their next album An Eagle to Saturn with us. Coming out on 30th April, this is abrasive as fuck, but definitely still surprisingly poppy, considering.

04. The Acid Test by Rob St. John
We released Rob’s debut album Weald on vinyl last year, and the response was so overwhelmingly positive we’ve decided to give it a wider release on CD too. Rob being Rob, of course, he’s already planning to record his second album, probably in our living room again.

05. Sorry by Waiters
06. Teenage Bloom by Dolfinz
08. Gay Marriage by Sex Hands
On the subject of recording in our living room, the Waiters, Dolfinz and Sex Hands tracks are from a split 12” (which will also include hotly-tipped* Glasgow band PAWS) all of which was recorded almost entirely live in the living room of our house by myself and Rory Sutherland from Broken Records. It’s sort of a compilation of some of my favourite underground, garagey (and frighteningly young) bands, and we’ve just had it mastered, so it will hopefully be ready for release in late March or early April.

09. A Mother’s Arms (demo) by Meursault
It feels like we’ve been waiting quite a long time for the third Meursault album too, doesn’t it. Well it’s finally done, and we are looking at a release date in mid-July, with a release night pencilled in for Saturday 7th July in the Queen’s Hall.

10. School (Toad Session) by The Black Tambourines
We recorded a Toad Session with these guys last year and immediately offered to release something. I’m not sure what it’ll be yet – probably an EP in the Autumn I would guess.

11. Lay Me Down by Yusuf Azak
From his unspeakably gorgeous second album, due out in 2012 sometime, depending on when I get a final master.

12. That is a Big Door! by Trips and Falls
From their second album, People Have to Be Told, released in September 2011.

13. Dead Golden Girls by Lil Daggers
From their self-titled debut album, which we released on vinyl at the end of last year.

14. Pinkening by Animal Magic Tricks
This was recorded just after 2009’s stunning Cold Seeds album, which was a collaboration between Frances from Animal Magic Tricks, Pete Harvey and Neil Pennycook from Meursault and Kenny Anderson from King Creosote. There still isn’t what you could describe as a finished version, but I am not giving up hope because it is a gorgeous album, even just as it stands at the moment.

15. Pool Attendant by The Japanese War Effort
This is from 2011’s Summer Sun Skateboard, and we hope to release another mini-album with Jamie in the Autumn of 2012.

16. Blue Overcoat by Lach
From 2011 vinyl album Ramshackle Heart.

18. Movies and Magazines by King Post Kitsch
A free dowload from kingpostkitsch.bandcamp.com After a year in Glasgow, Charlie has moved back down to London, and after his awesome debut The Party’s Over in early 2011 I am eagerly looking forward to new material.

*Yes, I know I said ‘hotly-tipped’, but honestly, they are, I’m not just copy-and-pasting from The Big Book of PR Clichés.

For this podcast I am joined by Ian, who is now a member of the Song, by Toad Records team, to go through a bit of a run-down of what’s going to be happening on the label this year.

We’ve got a couple of our more recent releases, like Rob St. John and Lil Daggers, as well as some of our confirmed and ready new albums for next year, by the likes of The Leg, Jesus H. Foxx and Yusuf Azak.

I’ve also got a couple of tracks from bands we’ll be releasing on a split 12″ in the Spring.  We’ll be recording that stuff in our house next week, so the songs we chose to represent those bands are for obvious reasons not the final ones we’ll be releasing, just tracks by the bands so you can get a bit of a flavour of what we’re up to.

With Ian on board and based on the good press we managed last year I am hoping we can really kick on with the label this year and make a decent impression.  Obviously the third Meursault album will  help, what with them being our most established band, but we have a good spread of stuff, from bands like Dolfinz with only a few demos to their name, to the likes of Yusuf Azak and The Leg who people know already and then the Foxx album, which has been ‘much anticipated’ for a while now.

So all in all it should be an exciting year, I reckon.  Enjoy!

Direct download: Toadcast #208 – Song, by Toad Records 2012

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01. Mongrels – I’m Gonna Murder Justin Bieber (00.21)
02. King Post Kitsch – The Make the Same Faces Whether Fuck or Fight (02.46)
03. Meursault – Flittin’ (locationmusic.tv Piano Version) (08.49)
04. Rob St. John – The Acid Test (17.59)
05. Lil Daggers – Dead Golden Girls (22.05)
06. Paws – Bloodline (Toad Session) (31.52)
07. Jesus H. Foxx – This is Not a Rental Car (40.31)
08. The Leg – Twitching Stick (43.00)
09. Sex Hands – Jinglebitch (51.56)
10. Dolfinz – Blowhole (55.36)
11. Yusuf Azak – Lay Me Down (63.12)

 Morning.  Fucking brilliantly awesome get tae fuck good fucking morning to you all.  Grrrmpf.  You know those days which start out fucking shite from the very get go and before you answer a single email or deal with a single individual you’re already within a whisker of just telling everyone to piss off because you just can’t be fucking arsed with them?  Yep, one of those I’m afraid.  Hopefully El and Brian will cheer me up on Fresh Air this afternoon.

This is the last show on Fresh Air this entire term, I think, so we’ll be playing a combination of Christmas tat and end-of-year favourites, I believe.  And after that I shall be scuttling off for a much-deserved pint.

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

In the meantime, after the hugely successful song of the year vote, we are at that time of year, where I ask you to tell us all which albums you have loved the most this year.  I’ll add them up as we go along and on Monday I will announce the winner.

This is of course the perfect opportunity to de-lurk and say hello.  It’s always nice to hear from people I had no idea were reading, and of course our readership is orders of magnitude larger than our commentership* so I am forever wondering who these shadowy thousands are who read the site regularly but hang about in the shadows saying nothing.  Make today the day!

So, simply, just list your five favourite albums, in no particular order, preferably in the format band – album so I can tally them easier, and we’ll see who everyone’s been enjoying the most in 2011.  And the tracklisting for the radio show will appear live below as we go along, once the show starts at half three.

1. Ian Humberstone – The House on the Hill
2. Seth Faergolzia – Weird Old Toad
3. The Leg – Witch on the Speakers
4. Jesus H. Foxx – So Much Water
5. Louis Barabbas & the Bedlam Six – Away in a Manger
6. Meursault – Christmas in Kirkcaldy
7. Warpaint – Billie Holiday
8. Tom Lehrer – A Christmas Carol
9. Yusuf Azak – Swim
10. Plastic Animals – Post-Rapture Blues
11. Trapped Mice – Just Like Christmas (Low cover)
12. Waiters – Tomorrowland
13. Battles – Ice Cream
14. Easter – Damp Patch
15. Hookworms – Teen Dreams
16. Dead Rabbits – All You Need
17. Sons of Joy – Go Tell it on the Mountain

*My sincere apologies to the English language.

Johnny Lynch very kindly suggested that I put together the bill for an all day hangover-buster/refueller the day after the Fence Collective’s Hott Loggz! Festival (see, Hott Toadzz – get it? get it?).

So, I have compiled a collection of the very finest Song, by Toad Records bands, as well as a couple of Toad Pals, and Johnny has arranged for us to use the Hew Scott hall from 2pm to 10pm, to allow those who have to be at work on the Monday to get back to their various homes.

There will be a bar in the room, and bangers and mash available upstairs at the AIA Hall, and a better way to spend a Sunday wasting time and talking pish I cannot imagine.

Tickets will be a fiver, and will be available on the door.

Presumably bored with the excessive amounts of time and work required to produce and publicise formal releases, Yusuf Azak has made a four-song EP available for free on his Bandcamp page.

Those of you listening to it as normal, innocent punters will hear lush, lovely acoustic pop tunes, swathed in strings, piano and Yusuf’s gorgeous vocals (although the familiar looping and layering is a little less prominent here than on earlier releases).

He seems to divide opinion, Yusuf, which is odd because I don’t really think of him as the most deliberately challenging or obtuse of our artists.  Nevertheless, in conversations with people about his stuff I get a lot of baffled looks on one hand, and a lot of passionate lectures about how he is by far the best band on the label on the other.  Very few indifferent shrugs though.

From my point of view, as someone who has heard and is currently organising the nuts and bolts around releasing Yusuf’s next album, I find this EP interesting for slightly different reasons.  For me the highlight is the utterly gorgeous Swim, which is also kind of significant because it hints a little at the new album, which will be out in the spring sometime.

As well as the more familiar Yusuf stuff, with the intricate guitar and the lush strings, there are a couple of absolutely stunning piano-led songs on the album which are possibly a couple of the best things I’ve ever heard from him.  I am really looking forward to it coming out, and as soon as we finish the album artwork and get a finalised master I can let you all know the release date.  Until then, enjoy this.

Yusuf Azak – Swim

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It’s a relatively manageable week, this one.  It’s quiet enough, until Saturday, which has a couple of rather unfortunate clashes, but there are definitely some great gigs on.

Pick of the bunch would, for me, be the Mazes and Milk Maid show at Sneaky’s on Wednesday, but the Emily Scott album launch also looks rather promising, with the presence of extra strings for both herself and Yusuf Azak adding a bit of extra incentive.

Once again I seem to have managed to start the week with a little bit of a hangover, annoyingly, so I have been sitting here feeling groggy all day.  Balls.  Tomorrow will be different, as I keep telling myself.

Wednesday 5th October 2011: Mazes & Milk Maid at Sneaky Pete’s.

Having recorded a (rather fantastic, if I do say so myself) Toad Session with Milk Maid when they played up here in the Spring, I am really looking forward to seeing them again, along with Manchester compatriots and Fatcat label-mates Mazes.

Milk Maid – Not Me (Toad Session)

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Thursday 6th October 2011: Born to Be Wide music video seminar at the Electric Circus.

Born to Be Wide put on consistently interesting seminars designed to help out today’s DIY musician.  This month’s topic is music videos, and confirmed for the panel so far we have this lot: Aman Khullar – VPL, Scott Macdonald – KFM Records, David Weaver – Detour.

Friday 7th October 2011: Indie Funday Friday at Henry’s Cellar Bar with The Asps, Morris Major, Son of Portslade, Steven Borthwick & The Friendly Vibes.

Raising money for the Sick Kids Friends Foundation, this is the second Indie Funday Friday.  Morris Major played the very first Ides of Toad night in January this year, but I have to confess to not knowing all that much about the other bands.  That’s what those links are for of course, so you can decide for yourselves.

Morris Major – Seymour Grove

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Saturday 8th October 2011: Birdhead, Edinburgh School for the Deaf & Plastic Animals play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

More Limbo jollies, this time with plenty of guitar noise. I will be extremely interested to see what people make of Edinburgh School for the Deaf, now that co-vocalist and guitarist Kieran has moved to London.  The last time I saw them play, he battered his head off the wall at Henry’s and played his guitar so loud his fingers bled. Is it too much to demand that his replacement do at least as much?

Edinburgh School for the Deaf – Love is Terminal

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Saturday 8th October 2011: Emily Scott album launch with Yusuf Azak & Lorraine McCauley at The Third Door.

I believe The Third Door is the venue which used to be Medina, just downstairs from Negociants on Bristo Square. It was never a bad space before, although the PA was horrible, but that is all changing apparently, with a new system, new decor, a new layout and a new name all slowly being sorted out. Both Emily and Yusuf will be playing with added strings, so this should be a lush, gorgeous gig.

Yusuf Azak – The Key Underground

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Saturday 8th October 2011: Papi Falso at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

Papi Falso isn’t a band, nor is it strictly a ‘club night’ per se, although I suppose it cleaves closer to the format of the latter than the former.  It is a bunch of interesting people with good taste in music playing records all evening, simple as that.  There is no obligation to make people dance or sing along, and the general guiding principle is, as far as I know (I’ve been drunk every time I’ve discussed it, sorry), eclecticism. Perfect, in other words, for those of us who love music, want to drink late and fucking hate night clubs.

You know, the only things in my Facebook events thingy for this week are my own gig, a friend’s birthday piss-up and some club night or other.  Three items.  In the days before Facebook events became an invite to bury our inboxes in spam it used to be fucking useful, but now… sheesh!

Still, even having investigated a little further, this really does seem to be it.  Am I right?  Is this it?  Are we going to have to do something intellectually valid with our week instead, like read a book or go to the Cameo and see some Romanian film with Cantonese subtitles or something like that?  I’m not sure I can handle that type of highbrow shit anymore.

Friday 16th September 2011: Indie Funday at Henry’s Cellar Bar with Night Noise Team, The Spook School, Thank You So Nice, Little Love, Alex Foottit and Coral Brierley.

Indie Funday looks to be extremely aptly named.  I assume with so many bands on the bill that this will be going on late, and from the looks of the bill the term ‘indie’ applies as much to the aesthetic usage – as in a blanket term for guitar pop – as it does to the ethos of the bands. Should be a highly enjoyable night.

Spook School – Hallam

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Saturday 17th September 2011: The Japanese War Effort, Animal Magic Tricks & Yusuf Azak at the Wee Red Bar.

This will be our first post-Festival Ides of Toad night.  Most of the rest of them are booked up already, so we’ll have a full schedule between now and Christmas.  All three of these artists have the ability to be as obscure as they do melodic, and I think that ambiguity is a large part of what attracts me to them.

The Japanese War Effort – Surrender to Summer

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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!