GoldFlakePaint One of my favourite non-Scottish blogs, GoldFlakePaint celebrated their second birthday last week. To mark the occasion they have compiled a cracking wee compilation album featuring some of their favourite artists. Released on limited edition CD and as a free download, the compilation features tracks from some cracking artists, including a few Scottish acts such as PAWS, Sparrow & The Workshop and Loch Awe. You can download the album for free via Bandcamp , also while you're at it check out GoldFlakePaint's site as it comes highly recommended. <a href=" http://goldflakepaint.bandcamp .com/album/from-the-outside-lo oking-in">From The [...]
Scotland noisiest duo, Bronto Skylift have just announced details of their forthcoming Scottish tour with Lady North. Having released their new single, 'Positive Gentleman' on limited edition cassette on CATH Records , as part of this years Record Store Day. Iain and Nial are going to be hitting up Edinburgh, Dundee, Inverness, Thurso and Aberdeen this coming May. Full details on tickets and dates can be found in the bands Facebook page. <p>&amp;lt;p&a mp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp ;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp; amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;am p;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;a mp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;& ;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;a mp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt; a href=" http://cathrecords.bandcamp.co m/album/bronto-skylift-record- store-day-single-2012"& ;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;a mp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Bron to Skylift (Record Store Day Single 2012) by Bronto Skylift&amp;amp;amp;am p;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp; amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;am p;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp; amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;am p;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;am p;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;am p;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;am p;amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&am p;amp;amp;gt;</p> [...]
Well after a weekend of total mayhem in Scotland's capital city, what the fuck are we in for this time around? Well there's a few things actually, although one of my personal choices is pretty much sold out, I do believe: that being Withered Hand & the Pictish Trail at the Caves on Thursday . If there are a few tickets left I suggest you turn up at the door pretty promptly in order to score one. Tuesday 28th Feb: The Cast of Cheers & Theme Park at the [...]
I really don't like these lists very much. It is pretty much impossible to say who will have a good year, who will plod along as usual, who will split up or vanish without a trace, or anything else. It's also hard to say what counts as having a good year. Playing to a wee tent at at festival? A "triumphant" sell out gig to about 150 people in Glasgow or Edinburgh? The whole exercise always seems a tad pointless to me, you'd be better off sticking some band names on the wall and throwing darts to select them. That [...]
I really don't like these lists very much. It is pretty much impossible to say who will have a good year, who will plod along as usual, who will split up or vanish without a trace, or anything else. It's also hard to say what counts as having a good year. Playing to a wee tent at at festival? A "triumphant" sell out gig to about 150 people in Glasgow or Edinburgh? The whole exercise always seems a tad pointless to me, you'd be better off sticking some band names on the wall and throwing darts to select them. That [...]
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 [...]
Firstly, a big, big thank you to everyone who came out to see Withered Hand, Samantha Crain and Mike MacFarlane (who now goes by the name of Flash Jr.) last night. It was bloody amazing. I want to start a campaign to get more big bands to Henry's to play a wee sweatbox gig with the crowd standing mere inches away from them. Anyway, due to Thanksgiving dinner and parental visitation reasons, I didn't get the chance to record the podcast this weekend, so I shall do it this afternoon, once I have posted this. And [...]
This is called the Barfcast because I feel like utter, unmitigated shite this morning, after another awesome evening with Mrs. Toad getting scooshed and playing records. I think I had Weald on at the maximum volume our amp can actually manage. Which, for the record, is pretty fucking loud. So now I am off to get ready for not one, but three gigs. Firstly the Ides of Toad at Henry's, then Lach and Viv Albertine after that, and then Flamin' Hott Toadzzz! in Anstruther tomorrow. When the chance to have a good sleep comes, I think I will [...]
Field Music To kick this weeks freebies off we have one of the most under-rated bands in the UK, Sunderland's finest sons have just announced that their their fourth album, Plumb, will be out in February next year. As a wee teaser they've made the song "(I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing" free to download from their website . The Fruit Tree Foundation After the success of last year's First Edition album, Rod Jones of Idlewild fame has done something a bit different this year, as they've launched a [...]
Well after an extremely successful Ides of Toad on Saturday (a massive thanks to the excellent bands, and to the fucking loads of people who came along) I think this week I shall be putting my feet up and letting other people do the work for a bit. And what a fuck of a lot of work they've been doing, too, because this week is a bit mental in terms of excellent gigs at which to drink yourself into an early grave. So much for the pre-Festival wind-down I discussed last week. As well as having [...]
So, I spent the morning tidying up my desk and the office, and I now think I know why tidy people are tidy: it makes you feel enormously efficient, without ever actually having to accomplish anything ! Sly, skiving bastards! It's like people making a great outward show of their piety, whilst generally acting like judgmental, ungenerous bigots. Never trust tidy people, they are just trying to mask their ineffectiveness - there's a new axiom to live by! Also, in today's bone-headed news update of the week, apparently Edinburgh legend Withered Hand is being denied his visa [...]
"While most Scottish bands can be picked out from the 'happy tunes, miserable lyrics' school of thought, Loch Awe have a more traditional Scottish sound. The band popped into Fresh Air to play us a few tracks from their debut album 'Artificial Life From A Digital Sea' which is available free at their bandcamp and a couple of brand new tracks. Despite having only played one gig since forming in the summer, based on the strength of the album they're definitely a band to watch out for! " [...]
Would you care to introduce yourself? Hi, we're Matthew, Jack and Joy, we're Edinburgh University students and collectively we go by the name Loch Awe. How would you describe the music you make? Like a small bear wrestling a black hole; entirely unable to comprehend the predicament, but prepared to fight to the death anyway. Or, 'Mexican sexy-folk'. Basically, the only serious answer we have is "folky". How did [...]
It's a busy week this week, and actually I am quite happy with this fact. Sometimes busy weeks of gigs feel like a forest of looming obligations, but I don't think there's anything I feel any real guilty pressure to attend this time around, so this week may for once be assigned to fun and fun alone. Having delivered a shitty Summer, Edinburgh is doing its usual trick of starting Autumn brilliantly. It is cold now, but the sun has been dazzling, leaving me wondering why I didn't spend more time in the garden this Summer. The answer, [...]
Tracks Played 1. Cancel the Astronauts - Funny For A Girl 2. Where We Lay Our Heads - No Glamour 3. Deathpodal - Every Superstition Shall Be Removed 4. Panda Su - Eric Is Dead 5. I Build Collapsible Mountains - Rails (session track) 6. Loch Awe - The Ocean In Me 7. The Last Battle - Ruins 8. Miaoux Miaoux - Knitted 9. Martin John Henry - I Love Map 10. Golden Oldie; Joesphine - This Is Not An Exit 11. Come On Gang! - Fortune Favours The Brave (session track) [...]
Loch Awe I guess I say this a lot, possibly too much(?), but sometime things pop into my inbox that generally catch me off guard. The latest young scamps to catch me off guard were Edinburgh folk outfit Loch Awe, they remind me a lot of bands like Foxface or even a bit of Meursault, it's indie pop with a Celtic tinge. I'm probably not doing it much justice, instead of reading my ramblings you should check out their debut album, 'Artificial Life from a Digital Sea' which is free to download on their Bandcamp page. [...]
Yes okay okay, so life is easy for those of us in a remote but lovely Fife fishing village, listening to Gummi Bako rock the place to the rafters and swearing about cunts sitting down at gigs. Gigs! Honestly! Get off your fucking arse, it may be alt-folk to you but it's rock and fucking roll to me, motherfucker. Anyhew, apart from eating in the Dreel every day I have been mightily enjoying myself here in Anstruther this week, with the only imaginable improvement being the arrival of the bright shining star in the centre of my universe [...]
Peenko
Song, by Toad
Aye Tunes
Aye Tunes
I’ll Just Leave This Here #161
Young Guns - "Winter Kiss"
The Hood Internet - "See Youth" Usher x Santigold (MP3 Download)
Daft Punk graba con Giorgio Moroder
