THIS WEEK IS THE MOTHERFUCKING SONG. BY TOAD CHRISTMAS PARTY! OH YES IT IS! And isn't that jolly exciting. You'd best all be very excited indeed or I will be most upset - I'm a sensitive soul after all! I've also just realised that although I ordered tickets, I forgot to take them down to Avalanche, because I am a fool, so I will do that today. And you can buy them online too remember. However, firstly, a spot of boasting, if that's okay. I know I just did this last week but a couple of [...]
Apart from the gig stuff happening this week, I will be on this panel in Glasgow tomorrow. It is about the use of social media in music, and although I am not entirely certain quite how qualified I am to give actual advice, I do notice for example that our social media-based stuff for the record label tend to yield a lot more interest than our mailing list, so I guess there are a few things to talk about. And then on Saturday we'll be recording a Toad Session with the truly awesome PAWS. Quite how [...]
It's kind of funny that Song, by Toad Records is known, if it is know at all, by our strong association with Edinburgh and the Edinburgh music scene. And yet, when you think about it, almost none of the best Edinburgh bands release with us; from Broken Records on 4AD, FOUND on Chemikal, eagleowl on Kilter, Withered Hand on SL/Absolutely Kosher, The Leg on SL... and now The Douglas Firs on Armellodie. As with FOUND and David Thomas Broughton already this year, Happy as a Windless Flag is a surprisingly conventional album. For some (probably silly) [...]
The Floydcast is named after that furry fuckwit in the picture: the Song, by Toad house cat and Mrs. Toad's imbecilic companion of the last seven years. Last night we had him killed. I know you're supposed to say 'put to sleep' or whatever, but when the poor wee fucker is looking plaintively at you because you're the only person at the vet's that he actually trusts it really does feel like execution. We think he had lung cancer of some form or other. His lungs had clouded up, the vet had tried more or less every trick [...]
Kicking off with a sound like The Free Design shaking hands with Orange Juice, the long gestation period of this album of solo compositions from The Douglas Firs - aka Jesus H. Foxx member Neil Insh - certainly seems to have been well rewarded. The Douglas Firs - Happy As A Windless Flag Happy As A [...]
Today sees the release of the debut album from former Fresh Meat starlets, The Douglas Firs. Now this isn't the most comfortable of listens, for me it took a long while before the album actually sank in. It's very much a late in the evening kind of album, that the band reckon would be verging on prog-rock if they could play their instruments - their words, not mine. It's the kind of album that you will love or hate, there is no in between. Personally I think it's a great wee album, hence the reason why I asked [...]
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat Every man and his dog seems to raving on about how amazing, Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat's new album 'Everthing's Getting Older' is, sadly I have yet to hear it, but their session for Vic on Monday night was really quite breath taking. If you follow this link then you might get a better inclination of what to expect as there's a free download of their song 'The Copper Top' up for grabs. The Douglas Firs If blogger hadn't let me down then I would [...]
Label: Armellodie Records Release Date: 16/05/11 Link: Official Site Buy: Amazon Edinburgh based The Douglas Firs have spent the last seven years working on Happy as a Windless Flag . Thankfully for the band it seems like this was time well spent, as the amount of work gone into the album-recorded in churches, bedrooms, sheds and local halls-ensures it has a perfectly complete sound. The work favours organic instrumentation and [...]
I think Tom Waits could be playing in Edinburgh this week and I would strongly consider missing it. I have already spent a day sleeping it off, but I am still not convinced I have entirely dealt with the damage of Homegame just yet. In fact, I'm pretty sure I haven't. What I have done though is just about pull myself together to the point where I feel emotionally capable of dealing with our excellent lineup at the Bristo Hall tonight: Francois , This is the Kit and Babe . With the [...]
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Next Friday is a going to be a busy wee evening in Glasgow for gigs, at Stereo my good mate Jim has gone solo and is putting on his first ever 'Ayetunes Presents' gig with Boygirlanimalcolour, Kochka and Trapped Mice. Tickets are only £3 in advance and £5 on the door. After that's all finished it will be time to head up to Bloc for the first in the series of nights beng put on by Armellodie Records. Cleverly billed as 'Barmellodie', this 6-month residency sees the label putting on a [...]
It's Christmas eve and what better way to celebrate than putting up your christmas tree... MP3 - The Douglas Fir - Your Gorgeous Mess : The Douglas Fir - Myspace : Last.FM decorating it with tinsel... MP3 - The Tinsel Fairies - All Wrapper and no Candy : The Tinsel Fairies - Last.FM and lights... [...]
I feel I could start these listings posts with 'Christ, 25th October, already?' pretty much every single week at the moment. Not that the world is getting away from me exactly - in fact it all seems to be slowly locating some semblance of normality after a couple of months trying to get my head around my new full-time responsibilities - it's just that I have been constantly busy since I left Proper Job and in those circumstances time just buzzes past at a frightening rate. This weekend we finally got into the territory of proper cold. Not [...]
So, a holiday coming up (an actual one this time - no computer, no work, no nothing) and so many things to get done. I reeled them off in the van this morning when I was driving Mrs. Toad to work and she asked me if there were actually enough hours in the day to get everything done, and I had to answer in the negative. Not even if I didn't actually sleep at all. So now it's just a case of choosing what not neglect, which for an obsessive like me is not a comfortable decision to have to [...]
Would you care to introduce yourself? Hello, my name is Neil, and I make music under the moniker "the douglas firs", which I have done so since Summer 2003 How would you describe the music you make? It is the music of one man, potentially mad, going mad again, and again... In actuality, the first record was an amalgamation of all my favourite music thrown into a mixer and reproduced badly, in effect accidentally [...]
It turns out there's quite a lot of bands named after Douglas Firs . Who would have thought? In the interests of fairness, let us list them all: The Douglas Firs - a 'Jam Funk' band, influenced by - yikes! - Ben and Jerry's favourites Phish; The Douglas Firs - a contemporary acoustic duo with 'thought provoking lyrics' who probably don't know who Phish is (lucky them); The Douglas Fir [...]
I Build Collapsible Mountains Last week, the legend that is Luke Joyce designed that pretty new banner you see above, then he went and topped it all off by tipping me off about this band. At first he failed to mention that it's his own little side project, which was kind of embarrassing as I had gotten highly over excited and started gushing over it. God I sound like such a girl sometimes. Anyway, there are three songs available for free download on their Bandcamp page. I strongly suggest you check them out, then you [...]
This is called the Dolecast for... well, for obvious reasons. I am on the downward slope to imminent joblessness, with my last day at Proper Job now pencilled in for the 23rd of June - the day before Glastonbury, rather handily. Actually festivals are something of a feature this Summer, as there's that one, Kelburn, Rockness, Fusion out in Germany, and then Knockengorroch, which I will be driving out to the very second I hit 'post' on this. We're also looking at going out to Musicfest Northwest this year as well, and of course the rather splendid Fence [...]
This is called the Dolecast for... well, for obvious reasons. I am on the downward slope to imminent joblessness, with my last day at Proper Job now pencilled in for the 23rd of June - the day before Glastonbury, rather handily. Actually festivals are something of a feature this Summer, as there's that one, Kelburn, Rockness, Fusion out in Germany, and then Knockengorroch, which I will be driving out to the very second I hit 'post' on this. We're also looking at going out to Musicfest Northwest this year as well, and of course the rather splendid Fence [...]
The Douglas Firs played their first ever set a month or so ago, in support of eagleowl at the latter's EP launch. And just in case you didn't think that the Edinburgh alt-folk scene was so incestuous that it is probably f**king itself, never mind a close relative, what is nominally a solo project was [...]
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