Amazon For a limited time, the online retailer is giving away over 150 albums for free, a lot of is pish, but there are some cracking wee samplers to be found, including albums from Saddle Creek and tunes from The Morning Benders and Girls. Define Pop EP Our fellow blogger mate Kowalsikiy of Kompimentary Korner fame has knocked up a cracking free in celebration of tomorrow's Define Pop festival. If you want some free tracks from Tango in the Attic, Little Yellow [...]
Maxwell Panther You know when radio DJ's act all wanky and refer to someone as a 'friend of the show'. They sounds like cocks don't they? Well I'm going to be a cock (yes, I know what's new - you witty bunch you). Friend of Peenko blog, and also on the Song By Toad label, Maxwell Panther, has a new album out. It's called 'Lovers reBEL' and it's free to download on his Bandcamp page . We like his music, we hop you do too. Popup Popup are back back [...]
me thinks i first became aware of maxwell panther's existence via tart of love shack baby fame, but not via her site but on twitter. thats probably too many "via's." anyway, upon initial listen, being the cranky fuck i am, i immediately dismissed him and his lo-fi offerings. the reason might have been because i had to go to myspace to check him out, and i hate going to myspace. fast-forward to a few weeks ago and i got an email about the above mentioned chap - i think he's english and isnt that what they [...]
we're only afraid of NYC This week we have not one but two Scottish bands that I have been really enjoying, first up is the wonderfully named 'we're only afraid of NYC'. They gave their debut EP away for free a couple of months ago, it was good, and now they're doing the same with their second EP. In my opinion this is better, much better in fact. It's not just me that rates them, the lovely Lauren Laverne has been playing them on her 6Music show last week. The EP is available to download now on their [...]
![Song, By Toad [Label Spotlight]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2336423_lg.jpg)
Song, By Toad Records is a little label introduced to me by friend and FensePost favorite Jon Rooney ( Virgin of the Birds , Abandoned Love Records ). It all began as a blog based in Edinburgh which, like this blog, posts album reviews, various features and podcasts (coming soon to this blog). With each release containing between 300 and 500 handmade copies, the label, like the blog, is devoted to supporting their local scene but isn't above giving a [...]
I'd never heard of this song before, but after a quick Google expedition it appears to me that this is something of a Scottish traditional (Scots, correct me if I'm wrong!): A song long associated with the late, great Hamish Imlach (1940 - 1996), whose 'evil' laugh added immensely to the number. His recording of 'Cod Liver Oil' became the most requested song on British forces Radio. Hamish was probably the most popular and best loved singer/entertainer during the Scottish folk Revival. He is sadly missed. I nabbed this from Song [...]
Allow me to introduce the latest release on Song, by Toad Records: Maxwell Panther's debut album Do You Feel Different Yet? I know we are more known as a grass roots label who try and nurture local talent (assuming we're 'known' for anything at all, that is), but before the eminently Scottish and highly anticipated releases from Cold Seeds and Meursault later in the year I have two album by non-Scots whose work deserves a lot more than to be lost in the more immediately local focus we tend to engender. One of those albums is [...]
I'm sure I got this off eMusic months ago, but it's been flagged up to my attention again just recently, so since I'm doing anything I can think of to avoid boring myself rigid by watching the Superbowl it's getting written about tonight. Maxwell Panther comes from Sunderland, but this album is released by Song, By Toad which makes it Scottish enough for Aye Tunes, just in case you were planning on having a go at me for daring to venture outside our borders. There's plenty of other things you can have a go at me for though, [...]
I often take great pleasure in being contrary; if most of the blogoshere says that 2+2=4 there's half a chance I'll say it's 5 (because on occasion it is...*). Every so often, however, I find myself agreeing with the throng. The new Maxwell Panther LP Do You Feel Different Yet? has just been released on Song, by Toad Records , and every single review that I've read makes quite a fuss of the production values. Everyone appears to be reveling in the low-fi nature of the recording, so naturally I'd made up my mind [...]
Despite previous articles here at the site, I really do like DIY/lo-fi artists. When Maxwell Panther [ MySpace ] was brought to our friends at Sony, by Toad Records , I was desperate to check out something different, while also interested in how and what he was going to have to offer. Frankly, it's a great deal. I had read good things previously on Matthew's site and knew what to expect; his taste for music is pretty similar to my own and while we might live on opposite sides of the Atlantic, I feel [...]
Maxwell Panther From: Sunderland, North East, United Kingdom Sunderland no-fi troubadeur Matthew Panther is so D.I.Y he should be on the shelves at B&Q. His short, sharp, rough diamonds have been cut from a crystal forged from the back catalogues of The White Stripes , Syd Barrett , The Moldy Peaches and late 60s' Paul McCartney at his pithiest Matthew doesn't trouble himself [...]
I do try and avoid shilling for the label on this blog, because no-one wants to read a twice-daily sales pitch, but I reckon it's okay to have a look forward at what we've got planned for the year. That's what the new year is for, really, isn't it? So I've got a nice big release schedule drawn up, just like real record labels do, and honestly it scares the shite out of me. I can pretty much plan out my free time for the whole of the next twelve months just looking at it, but there are [...]
Nippy In The Shade mp3 Maxwell Panther (demo for Sound is a Place EP) hop over to his bandcamp.com page and pay-what-you-will for this cool little EP Lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi, lo-fi.... That's what greets you when you hit Maxwell Panther's MySpace page . And unlike many (if not most) of the new music that gets labeled as lo-fi, his stuff really is lo-fi. It's just his guitar and him. Sometimes he turns the reverb up a bit, sometimes the distortion [...]
Just a meandering, pointless, chatty post, this one, bringing up some bits of news and so one and so forth. Did everyone know that eagleowl have a new73 single coming out in December? They're having a launch party at the Bowery on Friday 11th December which we in Edinburgh should make sure we give the most fantastic send-off you can imagine. Bring the Bowerettes flowers and postcards and letters and drawings and photos and anything you can think of to show them how much the place meant to you. We should bloody well do [...]
It's been a while since we had an update on exactly what on Earth is going on at Song, by Toad Records, so I thought I might let you all know what our plans are for the rest of the year. Partly for shits and giggles, partly because I am really excited, and partly as a desperate marketing ploy to wear you down by constant repetition into accepting that everything we ever release will be the best thing you have ever heard in the world. It will be, you know. So, in chronological order, here's an [...]
Nah don't be daft, of course it doesn't. Friday loves you. It loves your Mum too. Does your Mum have great tits? I reckon she probably does. Today technology is King. I remember my first few days being properly employed and how far away the things we take for granted really are. I was working on concepts for this kind of stuff years ago, and it may not have ever come into production, but it's amazingly exciting to see the future actually happen, right before your eyes. Yesterday I saw my silly old folks on Skype. [...]
This is not so much the holiday podcast as the pre-holiday podcast because, for all we are away now, I recorded this on Thursday night before going away, as we prepared ourselves for the unspeakable burden of doing absolutely fuck all for two weeks. I am taking a pile of books and a pile of new music and we are going to do pretty much nothing at all. My parents used to do really adventurous travelling when we were young, but honestly I don't have the energy. I am so incredibly fucking exhausted from constant Toadery that actually, [...]
Spring makes a fucking colossal difference, doesn't it. People have been tripping around Edinburgh with a spring in their step for the last week, when the sun has come out and the air, whilst it may still be a little chilly, is notably warmer. It's gentler, I suppose, is the main difference. There's something of a release about Spring, as if all the uncomfortable restraint of Winter no longer has to be acknowledged. Does anyone remember that episode of Northern Exposure when the ice melted? Everyone went nuts, and the relieved exhalation we all express on the coming of the [...]
Alright, the Alela Diane thread has been one of the most interesting on this site for a while, so it's time to destroy all that mature and considered debate and return to the sort of trivial internet white noise which, if we're being honest with ourselves, is really what we do best, here at Song, by Toad. This weekend holds a trip to Manchester and a discussion with a pal of mine about possibly putting some design thinking into this site. I am not happy with it, but I decided to stop buggering about and just accept it [...]
None of this really makes up a coherent post, so I'm going to throw out some mp3s for your consideration. Tonight is a sort of Toad Sessions Live gig at the Voodoo Rooms , with both Meursault (this weekend's session) and Sparrow & the Workshop (next month's session) on the ever-splendid bill at Limbo. I am nearly finished my 'staring at a computer screen in my underpants' phase, thank goodness. The Meursault Session is finished. Two of the four interviews from Pickathon are done, and a third is virtually finished. [...]
Peenko
Captain's Dead
Fensepost
It All Started With Carbon Monoxide
Song, by Toad
Aye Tunes
the Eaten by Monsters blog
Radio Exile
The Devil Has The Best Tuna
Love Shack, Baby
Diplo & Usher “Climax”
A-Trak - "Round of Applause" / "Where My Money At" (MP3 Download)
Skrillex Uses Satanic and Homosexual Influence to Win Grammys
Diplo x Usher: ‘Climax’
