Here we are at the penultimate podcast of the year, and the one immediately preceding Christmas. I really don't like 99% of Christmas music so there's pretty close to none of it at all on here, although I have made a couple of exceptions as a lazy sort of nod to the season. Let's face it, if the druids can be arsed dancing about like idiots around Stonehenge and people can fall out over half-defrosted turkeys then I can probably make the effort to shove a couple of token musical nods onto a single podcast, can't I. I [...]
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 [...]
Winecast because after soberly recording these on a Saturday afternoon for the last couple of years, I'm recording this after a bottle of wine on a Sunday evening for a change. So don't expect coherence, but it honestly isn't all that bad. Mrs. Toad and I were down looking at the Port O' Leith Motor Boat Club today, wondering if we might buy the place, move in and try and turn it into the kind of recording space and performance space we already try and use our house as. It's a great building, but I am not entirely [...]
You know, the only things in my Facebook events thingy for this week are my own gig, a friend's birthday piss-up and some club night or other. Three items. In the days before Facebook events became an invite to bury our inboxes in spam it used to be fucking useful , but now... sheesh! Still, even having investigated a little further, this really does seem to be it. Am I right? Is this it? Are we going to have to do something intellectually valid with our week instead, like read a book or go to the Cameo [...]
Género: Lo-fi, electronic, ambient, experimental pop. Escocés, Martin Moog, o James Scott, como prefieran, lanza al aire un 103 que no es atraído por la ley de la gravedad. Summer Sun Skateboard se queda flotando en el aire, como un suspiro entra, como un suspiro desaparece. Sibilino ejercicio ambiental, pop mediante, ritmos hip pop imperfectos, abstrae la base de los estilos los mezcla para resultar un sonido groove hipnótico que deja descolocado. Una pequeña gema sonora de la que me he quedado encantado. [...]
So, after the chaos of the Festival, we are back to normal service here in Ides of Toad HQ (which looks suspiciously similar to Song, by Toad HQ and bears a more than passing resemblance to Song, by Toad Records HQ). Actually, I thought I managed to get myself horribly waylaid by the Festival, but it turns out I have most of the Autumn's lineups already filled and ready to go, with only a few gaps here and there. This level of organisation rather shocks me, I have to confess, but I am sure I will find some [...]
Labyrinth Ear – Amber [mp3] (from upcoming EP, release date TBD) Blissed-out electro-pop from London. Gem Club – Twins [mp3] (from Breakers , out Sept. 27) Wistful dream pop for piano and cello. Lid Emba – Dawning [mp3] (from Terminal Muse: Blue , out now) From Atlanta comes intense electronica with [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Abbie Barrett : "Draw Me In" [mp3] from The Triples: Volume 1 (out November 8th) search for more Abbie Barrett posts at Largehearted Boy Computer Perfection : free and legal [...]
So umm... much happening in Edinburgh at the moment? There seem to be an awful lot of people about, so you'd have to assume something was going on. It was actually the T on the Fringe (what the Edge Festival used to be called) lineup which gave me a significant nudge into the world of DIY music, when I first moved up here, just before the Festival in 2005. I really wanted to go and see Yo La Tengo at the Liquid Room, Mrs. Toad wasn't going to come with me, I didn't know anyone else who might [...]
Right, this is the last of this week's spam, I absolutely promise. I am caught up now anyway, so there'll no need to keep bombarding you with stuff after this. Anyhow, what you see above is the most eye-meltingly gorgeous thing we've released to date: a clear, colour-streaked 103 vinyl record of Surrender to Summer by The Japanese War Effort . It even comes with a packet of the custom made rock sweets you see photographed there on the cover, as well as a free download of the EP itself and a fully remixed version, with reworkings [...]
So, here's a new series of podcasts that I've been thinking about doing. It's not the countdown. It's something else. Something...different. I hope you enjoy it The microphone quality is also different from normal, but thats what you get from setting up and recording on the fly! Off The Charts #1 (As always, let me know if that link isn't working...) ***Featuring*** Beck Breakbot Freestylers The Japanese War Effort Kings of Leon Matt Nathanson Passion Pit Peter, Bjorn, and John Sly & the Family Stone Sugar Ray [...]
Two of our writers give their thoughts on the new EP by The Japanese War Effort , Surrender To Summer . The Japanese War Effort - Surrender To Summer There's a little known record label in Edinburgh called Song, by Toad Records. An unusual name, but probably more unusual is the extreme high quality of music the label is putting out. Already here at Muso's Guide we've reviewed Meursault, King Post Kitsch and Lil Daggers. The latest preview that dropped [...]
If you are wondering what happened to this weeks Friday Freebies, to put it simply the Internet is royally fucked. For the past two days Blogger has been playing silly buggers and now that it's up and running again, Twitter has gone tits up. Which means that all of the Freebie tweets that I can't get access to all of the freebies that I had saved to my favourites. On the plus side though, this has meant that I can ramble pish about some stuff that has been exciting me lately. First up, we have 'Snakes In The [...]
Sweeping the Nation turns six round about, well, now actually. For a music blog to last that long is highly unusual; most get to about the two year mark and then posting becomes less and less frequent, and eventually the only updates are rather uncomfortable 'sorry I haven't posted in ages' missives spaced an increasing number of months apart until... silence. For Simon to keep StN going for six years might just be testament to his mentalism, but I prefer to recognise someone with a familiarly psychotic need to constantly tell people what they should [...]
No, no, don't worry this isn't some sort of chillout special (although we did actually do one of those once upon a time). The only reason this is called the Chillcast is because on what was a beautifully sunny day for the rest of Scotland, Edinburgh performed its age old trick of drawing a freezing sea mist off the North Sea - the haar, as it's called - and turning a lovely Spring day into a damp, chilly sulk. Bastard. I realised a while back that I don't actually cover all [...]
Apparently no-one visits websites anymore, because it's all about the social media and so on and so forth, so I suppose most of you have already seen this. In case you haven't, however, I have uploaded a free Song, by Toad Records sampler to Bandcamp, with songs from some of our more recent releases, as well as a healthy dose of new material from the releases we have planned for the rest of the year. Our release schedule is slowly filling up, as well. Before a brief break for the Edinburgh Festival we have four-song 73 [...]
It seems like a very long time since I have given you anything like a news update on Song, by Toad Records, and that's because I usually keep things things restricted to times when I have something to give away, like an mp3 or a new video or something like that. In this case I don't have any such thing, but there has been a lot going on. So I thought I should probably give you a wee update anyway, because somewhat amazingly, we have no less than five new signings to announce (I hate that word, but [...]
I've been itching to do this podcast for a while, but only now got my arse in gear to do it: record a podcast straight from vinyl. It's a bit of a nuisance, because I have to switch back and forth from the mic, for the chatty bits, to the USB input for the records... oh never mind, you don't care about my logistical hassles do you. The nice thing about vinyl is that the playlist is not simply going to be an inbox dump of whatever new indie has arrived this week, simply because I don't have [...]
So, i've finally gotten round to compiling my other "Best of 20103 lists. Here's what twenty ten had to offer in EP form. Counting down from 10 to 1 we have..... 10. ASPEN TIDE - BITTERSWEET EP Released on 1st September 2010 TRACKLISTING 1. Bittersweet *free download* 2. Baltic Numb 3. Colours I only found out about Aspen Tide towards the end of last year when i [...]
The player for the live stream slows down the whole page massively, so I've put it below the fold so those of you who wish to can watch our house gig. My guess is that Brits will be out on the piss, so mostly Americans wasting the last of their afternoon in the office or massively hungover Australians will be tuning in. There's a chat function on the player too, if you want to say hello, and the actual music will probably start at about 9pm UK time.
Song, by Toad
Escafandrista Musical (by DJ Golden)
The Dadada
largehearted boy
Appetite for Distraction
Muso's Guide
Peenko
Someones In The Wolf
50 Best iPhone Apps 2012
Download: La Sera - "Break My Heart"
MP3 // River City Extension “There & Back Again”
