Alright, I know that by the end of January you are supposed to stop using terms like ‘new year’ but I reckoned it was about time for an update on these matters, and that seemed the most appropriate way of phrasing it.

So, with a flurry of album launches coming up in the late Spring/early Summer, we have a small but exciting fistful of gigs to tide us over until then, which I will list below.  Apart from the aforementioned launches, which we’ll generally try and do somewhere a bit strange, I am looking at putting on as many of my events as possible at Henry’s this year.

This is for numerous reasons, but chief amongst them Nora and Claire have been there at every gig and have been a real pleasure to deal with.  When you’re a relatively rookie promoter, having sound engineers and venue managers who just take care of shit in the calmest possible way makes a huge difference, leaving you to panic about attendance at your leisure.  Also, I just kinda like the place.  It’s scruffy, sure, but in many ways it’s a classic dive bar – it’s where gigs should be taking place.

Anyhow, our first gig is in a few weeks and it will be Armellodie Records’ Chris Devotion and the Expectations but umm… well, I’ll write down a handy list for you because, maybe even more than it loves kittens, the internet just loves lists doesn’t it. And as per usual, all tickets will be available from Brown Paper Tickets, and from Avalanche Records down on the Grassmarket.

Saturday 18th Feb: Chris Devotion and the Expectations, My Tiny Robots & Morris Major.

Chris Devotion and the Expectations have a new album out on the brilliant Armellodie Records, and will be playing some dates to support the release.  Their smart, slight stylised indie pop should work well with My Tiny Robots, who are also rather stylish indie poppers, albeit in a rather different way.

Friday 24th Feb: The Pineapple Chunks, Brown Brogues & Zed Penguin.

Er, ramshackle and idiosyncratic – is that the best way to describe this lineup?  I think it might be.  Zed Penguin have a new EP and a new full band lineup, and Brown Brogues a new single on the way, so this should be perfect timing.  All these bands make a bit of a racket, and none of them seem entirely right in the head, which er, well, should probably make for a brilliant night I reckon.

Saturday 25th Feb: Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six, Skeleton Bob (I think) and Lee Patterson at the Third Door.

Louis Barabbas were absolutely mental and absolutely brilliant when they last played Edinburgh, in the middle of last year.  They’ll be joined on the bill by Lee Patterson, who I first happened across at this year’s Antihoot in the Summer, and hopefully Skeleton Bob.  Actually, for all they said ‘yeah, awesome’ when I asked them to play, I have yet to get proper confirmation from Skeleton Bob actually, so I’d better get on top of that, now that I think about.  Also, please note that this gig is at the Third Door, not Henry’s.

Friday 9th March: So Many Wizards and LeThug.

This will be a pop night, sort of.  All the bands take their pop and make it weird, be it by fuzz or by skewed eccentricity.  So Many Wizards are over touring from the States, and LeThug are a really promising new Glasgow band I wrote about on Song, by Toad recently, and if you haven’t already checked out their stuff then you should.

Saturday 24th March: Post War Glamour Girls, Dolfinz and Slowcoaches.

Two Leeds bands accidentally ended up on the same bill here, so I hope they get on. Dolfinz are favourites of ours already, as you know, and they are touring with Slowcoaches, so you can expect some fine, garagey racket from those two.  Post War Glamour Girls are just a tad more restrained and stylish I think

I am not doing predictions, mostly because I can’t.  I have no idea what is going to be big this year and what isn’t, and even if I think a band is going to release something amazing that probably doesn’t matter, because bands I love rarely ever get all that famous anyway.  But in any case, and in no particular order, here are some things I liked about last year, and some things I didn’t.   Some stuff I’d like to see more of and some things I am looking forward to, and some things I am not.

“Something wicked this way comes”

(And by wicked, I mean good, I hear that’s how the kids are using the term these days)

Tape labels - I know they’re a little contrived, and that tape is in many ways a shit format to release on but… I don’t know, there’s a playful, youthful energy to this stuff which I can’t help but love.

You’re shit, and you know you are - Okay, so we may have swallowed an awful lot of guff this year, but it did make me laugh how most people’s reaction to pompous, self-important garbage like (Viva) Brother was to point and laugh.

The X-Factor - you know how you all complain about that shitey bar full of guys in Ralph Lauren shirts or stupidly tight t-shirts, or girls with ironed hair in tight jeans who seem to forget that Footballers’ Wives was over fucking years ago? Well the X-Factor is a bit like this.  Yes, it’s fucking woeful, but it’s destroying the major labels, clearing the ground for the interesting indies and acting as a very helpful retard-sink for people who might otherwise be bothering us with their opinions about real music.  And for this I salute it.

Recognition for our fucking bands! – King Post Kitsch proved that even if you never play a single gig, and even if you release your album really early in the year you can still get great press and end up on loads of End of Year lists.  Lach got in every glossy music mag in the country – yes, that’s right, all of them.  The Japanese War Effort proved that even if you get almost no press, if people like your stuff enough then social networks can be just as effective, if not more so. And Rob St. John showed rather decisively that even if your PR lady craps out on you mid-campaign, if your shit is good, when it hits the fan it will go absolutely fucking everywhere.

“I’ve only got three bullets and there’s four of Motley Crue”

Here’s the first installment of the Song, by Toad Festive Fifty for 2011 – a collection of the fifty songs I have been enjoying the most this year.  The fifty themselves and the precise order can hardly be described as definitive of course, because you know how fluid things like ‘favourite’ songs can be, but roughly speaking this is the stuff I have been enjoying the most in 2011.

Just as a note, in order to make it a broader representation of the bands I’ve liked the most, I have made it harder and harder for bands to have a song featured on the list the more they already had on it.  So a band’s second song got a relatively free pass, but their third would be nudged down a wee bit, to try and encourage variation and stuff like that.

31.Anna-Anna – Mirrors of America I’m aware there are very few women represented on this list, and a lot of those who are seem to share the ghostly, incredibly still delivery, albeit in a more folky setting, with Anna-Anna.

32.Sonny and the Sunsets – Home And Exile I could have half of this album on here, but this one always stood out, as a gem of retro, slightly woozy pop.

33.Quiet Americans – Summer House Straightforward lo-fi garage stuff this, but a hugely, hugely hummable tune.

34.TV Girl – Benny and the Jetts Simple and enjoyable summery pop, but another one so hugely infectious you simply can’t stop humming it.

35.Yoofs – Sidewalk I love the guitar effect, the riff, the energy, everything.  Keep an eye out for this lot on the brilliant Art is Hard Records in the new year.

36.Zed Penguin – This Town A bit of a departure for an Edinburgh band, this. I think my favourite part might be the gorgeously tremulous guitar sound Matthew gets from his hand-built amp.

37.David Thomas Broughton – River Lay On an album as good as Outbreeding it takes an awful lot to stand out, but this does.  For someone who can be a little obtuse, this is such a warm, welcoming record and this track epitomises it as well as most.

38.Evil Hand – Returned In Time These guys don’t exactly push themselves forward, and their releases can be a little erratic, but when they nail it their songs are as good as anyone in Scotland at the moment.

39.Powerdove – Sickly City Ghostly, slightly disorientating, and hypnotic.  This is possibly the finest song on an album which makes a gorgeous job of using minimal instrumentation and glacial pace to turn those three characteristics into a truly beautiful album.

40.Emit Bloch – Dorothy (New Version) Given how much I loved the gorgeous acoustic version of this song which I heard last year, it’s almost inconceivable that I should then also love a big glossy pop version too.  But I do.  Good songwriting, it seems, trumps even my lazy habits.

41.The Honey Pies – Hair of the Dog Boisterous and enormous fun, this album is a gleeful romp through rock ‘n’ roll cliches, but done with such verve that you can’t help but enjoy it.  This is a bit of a Clash throwback, the most raucous song on the album and probably my favourite.

42.The Low Anthem – Ghost Woman Blues After the genius of Boeing 737, The Low Anthem show they can have just as much impact at the opposite end of the spectrum with this gorgeous ballad.

43.Loch Awe – I Will Drift into 10,000 Streams For a band who do things I like and things I don’t, this demo came out of nowhere a few months ago, and I love it.  The slow drum beat, the really sparingly used electric guitar, the way the two voices work together… fine work!

44.The Blue Runes – Stream For me to get into a classic/psych rock EP made by a band from Puerto Rico wouldn’t have been a particularly great bet at the start of the year, but The Blue Runes released a brilliant EP, and this track is probably the biggest track on it.

45.Adam Stafford – Shot-down You Summer Wannabes A cracking song by a guy whose music I only got into embarrassingly late in the day, considering how long ago his debut solo album was released.  Nevertheless, a couple of storming live performances did the trick, and I am now entirely converted.

46.Horsecollar – Christopher A jaunty little piano line stands out immediately, but the rest of this song is bloody great too – a presumably unheard monologue delivered to a friend, and a stand out on a fine album.

47.Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On A gorgeous song on a gorgeous album.  This record is a little more approachable and a little less creepy than the last, and lush, lovely songs like this one are the reason.

48.Lady Lazarus – Nazarite Oath Ghostly, unsettling and lovely at the same time, this has a lot in common with the excellent Powerdove.

49.Silverbacks – Atta Boyz Simple this one: a cracking pop tune, good riff, and extremely hummable.

50.Pet – What You Building Another song which came as a bit of a surprise, given Edinburgh doesn’t generally do this kind of music all that well, but this is lovely.

Zip file download: right-click, save as.

1-10 | 11-30 | 31-50

 Helloooooo… once again Brian and myself will be gracing, if that’s the right word, the airwaves of Fresh Air Student Radio this afternoon.  We will also be introducing a new member of the team, the lovely and lively El Parks, who you might know from The Electric Circus. And if you don’t, you’ll soon know her from the show.

As per usual, the show will be kicking off at half past three this afternoon, and we will guide you lovingly through the last couple of tedious hours of work, before pub o’clock sweeps in like an avenging angel of inebriational joy to rescue us all from another week in our dingy offices.  Or wherever it is you happen to be foostering about this week.

On air from 3:30om: listen live here.
Or iTunes: Radio – College/University – Fresh Air, The Alternative

In the meantime, it’s de-lurking time on Song, by Toad, as it always is on Friday afternoon.  Those of you who fly by and point an laugh, why not take the chance to fritter away your afternoon answering the following five daft questions.  And then listen to us on the radio, because it will be awesome.

1. Expression or word you use all the time which you wish you could stop using.
2. Thing you wish you could have been the one to discover.
3. One great thing about living hundreds of years ago.
4. And one bad thing.
5. Coffee break routine.

The playlist for the radio show will appear live below as we go along:
1. Zed Penguin
2. PET – What You Building
3. Grandpa Was a Lion – In a Dream
4. Lady North – It’s All About Gettin’ That Claude Monet
5. Weird Era – Summer Heights
6. Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers – Get the Fever Out
7. Plastic Animals – Pirate DVDs
8. Mastodon – Black Tongue
9. Magic Arm – Daft Punk is Playing at My House
10. Luna – Sweet Child O’ Mine
11. Jack Steadman – Beatplate (Remix)
12. PAWS – A Romance in Lower Mathematics

And as May turns into June… Spring inevitably turns into November.  Fucking great, Scotland, well done.  Thanks.

Anyhow, you’d think putting on a gig on Tuesday, for all its drawbacks, would at least leave you relatively free of competition but this week, for some inexplicable reason, there are two absolutely cracking gigs on Tuesday night.  Other than that I have to confess I don’t see much on at all this week – neither in my quick skim through the websites of Edinburgh’s venues, nor in my own Facebook events calender.

In fact, am I the only person who still pays attention to event invites on Facebook?  I mean, it’s kind of my job, but when I send out invites for Toad events most people tend not to reply at all, although I suppose that doesn’t mean they don’t read them.  In any case, I have every sympathy.

Monday 23rd May 2011: Villagers at the Liquid Room.

I was never all that taken with Villagers, I have to confess.  I liked what I heard of their stuff, but it didn’t exactly thrill me, if I’m being honest. Nevertheless, I’ve heard some very complimentary words about them around and about so I thought you might be interested in this one.

Tuesday 24th May 2011: Sparrow & the Workshop, Haight Ashbury & The Stormy Seas at Sneaky Pete’s.

Sparrow are touring their new album around the UK as of this week, and I am really looking forward to seeing them live again.  Jill’s singing is more forceful than ever, and the guitar and drums are getting just plain ferocious, and they have always been an immense live band.  But they clash with The Lovely Eggs!  The bastards!  What to do?

Tuesday 24th May 2011: The Lovely Eggs, Kid Canaveral, Cancel the Astronauts & Zed Penguin at the Voodoo Rooms.

The Lovely Eggs embody a sort of twee Northern eccentricity which reminds me very, very strongly of the couple of years of my life I have spent living in Manchester.  There are times when I think they might possibly be awful, and then times when I think they might be unparallelled geniuses, but I never quite know what side of that fence I would come down on if forced to choose.  They’re really quite fantastically unhinged live, too, so I strongly recommend getting along to see them.  Assuming you don’t go to Sparrow and the Workshop of course, which would also be an excellent decision.  Aaaaagh, decisions!

Apparently you people like music and stuff, right – that’s why you’re here?  Well this week I like gardening.  Yes, as if to demonstrate that I am taking all these accusations of being too old and too middle-class extremely seriously, this week I am far more excited about the back garden that I am about music, sorry.

We’ve had a lot of rain this spring, so inevitably when we get a sunny week, as we did last week, everything blooms.  This, I have to confess, as someone relatively new to gardening, is incredibly exciting.  Any teenagers reading this thinking I should be more excited by cocaine and jagerbombs and threesomes with supermodels, honestly, you’re wrong.  Although quite why I feel the need to take pictures of everything with a fucking Hipstamatic I have no idea.  Just one of those zeitgeist reflexes which I find as annoying as I do perversely pleasing.

Anyhow, given Scotland’s propensity for bucketing down with rain just as you get your shorts and sandals on, I am sure I will find time to take in some music.  And should that be the case, here are the directions in which I will be casting my creepy leer.

Thursday 14th April 2011: Paul Vickers & the Leg, Andy Brown & Zed Penguin at Sneaky Pete’s.

On the subject of creepy leering, pretty much all the music on this bill has a pretty creepy leer of its own.  Zed Penguin and Andy Brown play really rather dirty, distorted blues swamp rock, if you’ll excuse the horribly mangled genre tag.  And Paul Vickers and the Leg seem to have intravenously injected Tom Waits’ Black Rider and washed it down with tiger blood, so this show will be great, if something of an assault on the senses.

Zed Penguin – Keep on Truckin’

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Saturday 16th April 2011: The Pineapple Chunks, Billy Liar, Hiva Oa & Inspector Tapehead at the Bristo Hall.

Inspector Tapehead tell me they’re coming through to Edinburgh at the Forest this Saturday, but they aren’t on the listing for this particular bill, so I am not entirely sure what’s going on here. Nevertheless, the two bands I do know (who are possibly) on this bill are very good indeed, and the Chunks have new recordings too, which is very exciting. [Edit: The Tapeheads are playing apparently.  Here is the Facebook page with all the upcoming Forest Fundraisers, for future reference.]

The Pineapple Chunks – Dark Halo

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Sunday 17th April 2011: 2:54, Eagulls & Dead Boy Robotics at Sneaky Pete’s.

It’s difficult to think who in Edinburgh would be suitable for supporting 2:54 and Eagulls, but Dead Boy Robotics don’t really spring to mind, even though they have just added a full-time drummer to the lineup.  They are still, even though they are more air-punchy than ever, much more electronic than either of the other two bands, both of whom flirt just a little with lad-rock, but have plenty of interesting elements to them as well.  It could be a bit disappointing this, but it could be great as well, depending which side of that line the two headliners end up occupying.

Eagulls – Council Flat Blues

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Sunday 17th April 2011: A Hawk and a Hacksaw & Broken Records at The Caves.

I am not sure where the folk of A Hawk and a Hacksaw sits with the modern hipsterati these days. Despite the NME apparently scrabbling about for the next Mumford & Sons I get the impression the hip cats, as it were, don’t really want any folk in their hairspray at the moment. Nevertheless, whether the idea of folk makes you sigh the world-weary sigh that only a twenty-year-old hipster who has just realised that musical fashions may not be for Christmas exactly, but they certainly ain’t for life either, can sigh, I still think a band like A Hawk and a Hacksaw will be absolutely incredible live.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw – Gadje Sirba

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I really am running out of stupid names for these fucking things.  I’m sure I’m going to end up just numbering them in future, but for now you’re going to have to put up with the bloody silly names I’m afraid.

In my effort to squeeze eleven songs into an hour I actually don’t ramble very much on this one, only to find out that the podcast ends up being much less than the usual hour and a bit, for a change.  Do I really talk so fucking much the rest of the time?

Anyhow, this is a fucking ace podcast of new music.  I don’t generally pay too much attention to how cool (or otherwise) these things might be, but I reckon any haircut merchants out there might rather enjoy this one.  For the rest of you, those without Haircuts with a capital haitch, well, just get on as best you can.  Let’s face it, if I love it all, it can’t really be all that cutting edge, can it.

Direct download: Toadcast #164 – The Roadcast

01. FOUND – Machine Age Dancing (00.25)
02. Girls Names – Seánce on a Wet Afternoon (07.00)
03. Sonny & the Sandwitches – A. Grassley – Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die (12.19)
04. The Honorable Worm – Wouldn’t Mind Dying (14.46)
05. Li’l Daggers – Ya Tu Sabe (22.54)
06. The Louche FC – Back Bedroom Casualty (29.27)
07. Milk Maid – Such Fun (33.24)
08. Brown Brogues – Treet U Beta (35.56)
09. The Honey Pies – Hair of the Dog (41.07)
10. Zed Penguin – This Town (46.49)
11. Manners – Knives (56.44)

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.

Ruth and I are back on Fresh Air in a couple of hours, so it is naturally time for much rejoicing on the airwaves of the interwebs. In fact, I am sure the internet could barely be more excited about the prospect than it clearly is already.  Can’t you see it trembling with anticipation?

While we’re indulging in hyperbole, incidentally, last week the unbelievable happened: Ruth was genuinely impressed with one of my music choices.  I think it was Do It Every Time by Ringo Deathstarr, but the shock when she raised her eyebrows and said ‘this is really good’ rather than just rolling her eyes and letting out a weary sigh almost knocked me clean out of my chair.

On air from 8pm UK time – click here to listen live.

As per usual, if you have any trouble with the audio stuttering (a problem which seems to be solved now) just pause and un-pause the player, or find us in the ‘College Radio’ section on iTunes.

The playlist will appear below, as we play it, so feel free to stop by and heckle.

1. TuneYards – Bizness
2. Joni Mitchell – Little Green
3. The Honey Pies – Get it Right
4. Dr. Dog – Breeze
5. The Leg – Twitching Stick
6. Zed Penguin – This Town
7. Dusty Springfield – I Thing it’s Gonna Rain
8. Leonard Cohen – Hey, That’s No way to Say Goodbye
9. Seefeel – Dead Guitars
10. David Byrne & Dirty Projectors – Knotty Pine
11. Wolf Eyes – Track 1
12. Active Child – Body Heat (So Far Away)
13. Virgin of the Birds – Love Among the Cannibals

There’s a lot of talk in the media at the moment about the death of rock ‘n’ roll and whether or not this year will see some sort of rebirth of guitar music and so on and so forth.

The whole debate seems to centre on the wrong subjects, for the most part, not least an awful lot of needless hot air about the NME featuring a band called Brother on their cover who are not very good, have achieved little, and are by all accounts an unspeakable shower of cunts.

All this talk about the coming year is kind of beside the point, if you ask me, and this is something of a non-discussion to begin with.  Music moves in cycles, obviously enough, and we’ve been through times when intricate folk dominated the conversation, to the last few years where more unusual blends of electronica have dominated.

Inevitably, no matter how interesting a particular direction the zeitgeist happens to be exploring, people and bands will inevitably get bored and move onto something else.  As with all things fashionable, this tends to start with a persistent series of whispers, before suddenly becoming an avalanche of the obvious.

When you look at some of the stuff the ultra-hip London indie Tough Love Records was releasing last year – Male Bonding and Girls Names, for example – it seemed obvious already that the fashionable love of lo-fi which so dominated the last year was bringing, along with the often rather tedious Chillwave bands, a healthy new bunch of raucous guitar bands to the fore.

Since I moved to Edinburgh I’ve haven’t seen a lot of guitar bands – in the rough-as-nuts garage sense – that I have really thought much of, but there are a couple of quite promising ones I’ve come across recently which suggest that this might be about to change.

Zed Penguin is not rough in the ear-splitting, death-by-moshpit sense, but the guitar sound is unrefined and fantastic.  The amp is homemade apparently, and the sound that comes out of it is bloody gorgeous.  It reminds me of a slightly less explosive relation of Waylon Thornton & the Heavy Hands, which I reviewed recently, and growls along really nicely.

This is a simple little EP, four tracks recorded on a four-track, and available to download from Bandcamp for £1.50.  I was sufficiently impressed with it the first time I heard it that I invited Matthew to play at a Toad Night more or less immediately – he’ll now be sharing a bill with Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six on the fourth March at Henry’s Cellar Bar, and I am really looking forward to seeing this stuff live.

Zed Penguin – This Town

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