Solid Gold by D. Back Twin Cities News: - Head over to Radio K and vote for their Top 77 Albums of 2008 . Don't do it for your country - do it for gift certificates. - Come Pick Me Up profiles Now and Forever . - The Wake profiles Jay Walker and the Misdemeanors . - How Was The Show recaps the most recent Electric Arc Radio show . - Meg Hutchinson performs a set for The [...]
"Like Alchemy" is the latest EP from Rob St. John. The EP struck a chord with me as to how much the band were able to do with so little. The first track is the title track and it does not pull any punches it is just a quite sweeping track. Rob sound a little shy at times but that helps sell the charm of the record. Also, the faint violin that makes in appearance near the end gives it that polished and sweeping feel to the track. The song is really a beautiful gem that swept me off my [...]
In advance of the official release dates for Song, by Toad Records things there has been a slow and steady trickle of good news from the media outlets to whom we have submitted our stuff. We just found out last night that both Stuart Maconie and Gideon Coe have played songs from the Meursault album which is, frankly, fucking brilliant. Is This Music? have given both Meursault and eaglowl records fantastic reviews, so massive thanks to both Ed and Brian for those. [...]
Rob St. John release anew EP out 08.12.08 though Fife Kills Records. Strictly limited to 250 hand stamped and numbered recycled card copies. We are happy to have a track from that EP below for download. Mp3:Rob St. John - Paper Ships For more information on Rob St. John visit their Myspace
For those of you who missed it, Toad favourite Samantha Crain has been making telling us about the progress on her new album, over on this thread about Arizona . She has this excellent news to deliver: We've finished our full length album "songs in the night" and right now it's gettin' all nice and pretty (mastered, artwork, pressed, etc)…the official release date for it will be April 28th but i'm sure we'll be getting to a copy to review before then. Bloody marvellous is all I have [...]
Hurrah - autumn is finally here. The weather's cold and damp, but it's supposed to be; which makes a nice change from the wash-out that was summer '08. And what better way to enjoy being being cozy and warm inside on a blustery day than with a preview of the new Rob St John EP, Like Alchemy. Rob's been making small but pretty persistent waves up in Scotland for a while now, and any regular readers of Song, by Toad or the Daily Growl will already be familiar with his work, but for those new to [...]
You Should Know Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, rainforest ecologist and musician Rob St. John creates deliberate and haunting lo-fi folk in the same vein as Bill Callahan yet with more orchestral flair. Backed by a host of musicians that contribute on harmonium, autoharp, glockenspiel, bariton uke, cello, and musical saw, St. John's smokey vocals are fragile yet self-assured. Now backed by a full live band, St. John's EP Like Alchemy , which was recorded in one evening in Stockbridge Church in Edinburgh, will be released in December [...]
Recorded in a chirch in Edinburgh, Rob St. John (I like a man with punctuation in his surname) follows nicely on from our previous Paul Quinn post. Which is high praise indeed when you think about it. This comes from the Like Alchemy EP, in which harmoniums, saws and guitars creak and groan into a musical balm and is simply the best and most surprising thing I've heard in ages. Rob is playing in Edinburgh(see the MySpace link) so get out an see him if you get the chance. Listen: Rob St.John - Like Alchemy [...]
Welcome to another week tending the fertile pastures of Edinburgh's gig scene for shuffling indie kids. I'm working flat out to get the Sparrow session done for this week's podcast so beyond tonight I will be hiding in the house for most of the week, I'm afraid, probably swearing at the computer and cursing analogue technology for being so fucking shit and chewing all my tape of the session. Frustrating. Really, very frustrating. Still, I think we have time for one last session this year, but I will be renting a digital camera this time, [...]
[The third in our Introduce Your Local Record Shop series is the first celebrity post, in which local pop superstar and all round glamorous lothario, the Russell Brand of Edinburgh, Rob St. John describes his deprived upbringing in a tiny little village in Hobbiton somewhere. He's going to kill me for this, isn't he.] Independent record shops have a pivotal role in the expansion and evolution of many people's listening habits and I'm no exception. I grew up in village in rural Lancashire, and Townsend Records was the only record shop (ok, I'm definitely excluding [...]
Firstly, well done to Elbow for winning the Mercury Prize . I tend to slag off the Mercury Prize a little bit, largely due to the appearance of tokenism (one for black people, one for intellectuals, one obscure one to make us look clever) but also because I often just don't like many of the bands very much. The accusation of tokenism is neatly refuted by one of the judges in this nice little article in the Guardian , and an award dominated by my narrow taste would be dull as shit for everyone, so I [...]
I am away, so this is a phantom post which I VERY KINDLY wrote before leaving, just to make sure you all remain up to date during my absence. Wouldn't want you needlessly wasting your money on shit gigs now, would we. I may not be there in person, but fucked if I'm having you degenerate lot misbehave in my absence. There are good gigs out there and if I catch any of you wasting your money on aural effluvium like Newton Faulkner then there will be serious repercussions. Or Kate fucking Nash. Unspeakable. [...]
I bumped into Bart of Eagleowl and Kays Lavelle fame the other day. We were both hanging out in one of the achingly cool vintage vinyl record stores where you tend to find hip cats like us... Okay, it was Tesco's... but anyway, I promised I'd post a reminder about the fabulous Retreat festival Bart's involved in that's coming up this week. The Retreat festival has everything going for it: All the shows take place over a series of nights throughout August, and in one centrally-located venue; St. John's Church hall on the corner [...]
Rob St. John - Tipping In The sounds that blow in at the start of this song, notes raked out from new guitar strings like leaves scattering in the wind in your family's front garden, they sound lightless and make you feel that lightlessness too. You're back home, away from worries, one of those Atlantic-coast days when you were unburdened by worries and between terms, and okay being alone, because alone means you and the wind rattling the scene around you, or you and the sea and nothing in between. This is a song for [...]
Here's something rather good that came my way the other day and shows me again that it's often worth following up these emails that constantly pop into my inbox. Obviously people can tell what I like by looking at what I post about here (that doesn't include the folks who sent me Celine Dion CDs obviously), but this guy has nailed it very nicely indeed. It was the mention of Fence Records and Amiina in the email that perked my curiosity. Rob St John is originally from Lancashire but now resides in Edinburgh. His is [...]
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