Alright, I know that by the end of January you are supposed to stop using terms like 'new year' but I reckoned it was about time for an update on these matters, and that seemed the most appropriate way of phrasing it. So, with a flurry of album launches coming up in the late Spring/early Summer, we have a small but exciting fistful of gigs to tide us over until then, which I will list below. Apart from the aforementioned launches, which we'll generally try and do somewhere a bit strange, I am looking at putting on as [...]
Well proof once more that the Pineapple Chunks can be as brilliant and as baffling as any band in Scotland - not infrequently within the same song. Their music can be loosely termed indie rock, I suppose, in the sense that for the most part it's pop music made with electric guitars. If you look at the tags the band themselves have added to free download single She Needs Answers then you'll see they refer to themselves as arty-farty, lameoid, out of time and out of tune. That isn't exactly an accurate [...]
Song, By Toad Records Edinburgh, August 17, 2011 Normally, during the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe, I like to avoid the city at all costs, coming to and from Edinburgh only to fulfil my contractual obligations I have with my employer. Trust me, it gets very busy and impossible to move when a city's population doubles for a month every year. Anyway, one thing that will get me to overcome this phobia of street performers and billions of fliers is music, so when Song, by Toad Records announced a series of gigs at Electric [...]
Yoo hoo internets, I'm ba-aack! With a friend visiting, and in no mood to waste his holiday watching me fanny about on the computer, I ended up taking an unplanned day off yesterday. We even did one of those tourist things which it is so easy to ignore when you actually live in a city: we climbed Arthur's Seat . And it was bloody amazing! So what, after a weekend of endurance drinking, does this week hold in store? Well, the general idea was 'as much sleep as I can manage', but it looks like this might [...]
I don't really need to add anything to the following, do I? Apart from a big thanks to the Electric Circus for suggesting I put these nights on, thanks to all the bands for agreeing to play and umm... well, I hope to fuck you all turn up, eh!
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 [...]
Would you care to introduce yourself? Hiya, we are "The Pineapple Chunks", but you can call us "The P chunks" for short. Or "The Chunks", or just "Ch" if you want, as in roll your eyes back and exclaim "CH!". How would you describe the music you make? Out of tune, out of time, whimsical lamoid weirdo nonsense. [...]
King Post Kitsch I know I have been banging on about King Post Kitsch for a while now and I will continue to do so as his new album is fucking ace. If you still haven't checked him out then head over to Song By Toad where you will find a free download of the excellent ' Fante's Last Stand '. Michael Cassidy First off he records a Peenko Session, then the next thing you know Michael Cassidy is being voted as one of Scotland on Sunday's Eligibles for 2011 . [...]
This week's podcast is named the Northcast because I was just up in Inverness at GoNorth, which is I suppose the biggest official Scottish music industry chatfest. I am getting better at these, I have to be honest. The music industry is heavily based around status and I do not do well when I suspect people might be looking down their nose at me, consequently my first few were quite a challenge to escape from before I picked a fight with someone I shouldn't, but as my general stature within music, and Scottish music in particular, has slowly [...]
Another week, another bank holiday in which we self-employed folks don't get to indulge. Working for yourself is great, but watching everyone else get days off when all you can do is stare at the steady trickle into your inbox and the pile of promotional copies of releases waiting to be posted, can be a little demoralising. And it's sunny, too. Fuckers. Anyhow, The Brainlove Festival was bloody good fun, only slightly ruined by an awful football match. My personal highlight was an absolutely awesome set by Mat Riviere. He was playing with a cellist whose name I [...]
Apparently you people like music and stuff, right - that's why you're here? Well this week I like gardening. Yes, as if to demonstrate that I am taking all these accusations of being too old and too middle-class extremely seriously, this week I am far more excited about the back garden that I am about music, sorry. We've had a lot of rain this spring, so inevitably when we get a sunny week, as we did last week, everything blooms. This, I have to confess, as someone relatively new to gardening, is incredibly exciting. Any teenagers [...]
This is one of those weeks where there could be two of you and you'd still probably not quite manage to get to all the decent gigs in the city this week. Personally I am going to try and keep it a bit calm, but I have my doubts as to whether or not I am likely to succeed. Mrs. Toad, no doubt, will be wildly impressed. I had fun down in London last week, incidentally. As I mentioned, I did a quick interview with Tom Robinson for BBC 6Music while I was there and, in typical fashion, [...]
Firstly, the flurry of posts yesterday, from my rather tardy podcast to radio show post, meant that my brother's Sunday Supplement - a rant about classical music - was buried rather too fast, so please do go back and check it out if you have a little time to waste this afternoon. Secondly, the Edge Festival goes bloody nuts this week, and if I listed all the gigs then I'd be here all day, and there really is no need for that, so you can have it in paragraph form instead: on Monday 23rd we have Field [...]
This is just a brief list of some stuff I'm looking forward to in the Edinburgh music scene over the coming year. I don't intend to be parochial about this, or too narrow, but I am not as close to the precise ins and outs of what's happening in the rest of the country so there's a limit to what I can meaningfully say about what's going on there. It's not meant to be exhaustive either, just some thoughts pottering about at the front of my mind. New Labels Last year saw the first steps made [...]
This is the beginning of what Milo has already pointed out is going to be a monumental period of carousing. Last week was very, very quiet in terms of gigs, but if you paid any attention to that then the sense of security into which you might have been lulled would very much have been a false one. Because it all kicks off in earnest this week, and if anything next could be even heavier. Livers of Edinburgh beware! From my own perspective I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, in the [...]
Yes, it's Fresh Air time again, and Ruth is back from the bring of death and ready to chatter away once more. This week we have Russell from Mammoeth playing live in session for us. He has an album out on Mini50 Records some time in the relatively near future, so we may try an weasel a preview out of him if we can. We've also got some interesting new stuff - Eels released a new song from their forthcoming album just the other day, and we'll be playing the phenomenal new eagleowl single as well. We are [...]
It's Fresh Air time again, and once again Ruth and I have a splendid live session. We might even have Ruth's voice back, just to make matters even more special. This week The Pineapple Chunks are going to play live in session for us. And instead of being sensible and doing it acoustically we are going to end up having the full band in the studio and are going to just have to try and find some way of arranging the mics so that we pick it all up. Basically, I think we are going to [...]
After attending a birthday party which involved the scarfing of five pig's heads yesterday I still don't feel capable of eating anything. I may have to fast for the next few days before that little lot gets digested, in fact. Fucking hell that was a meal and a half. There will be no giggenfun for me this week, unfortunately, despite a couple of natty lineups on the horizon. The label is going to require an absolutel shitload of admin work this week and if I go out gallvanting there is no way I am going [...]
As a few of you have noticed, there has been a little gig confusion, what with me promising an Autumn Toad Night with the Pineapple Chunks and then not putting it in my own listings. Basically, I have been unable to find anyone to put on the bill with them, so have been unable to promote the gig. So by the time yesterday rolled around I thought it best to just cancel, rather than put on a badly-promoted gig which would be rude to the Chunks, and not a lot of fun for everyone else. No-one wants a [...]
I feel really weird this morning. Partly I am whizzed off my tits on painkillers, which at least makes the back pain manageable, and partly I took the advice from this thread a little too seriously last night. Ouch. Pills, Caol Ila and Ardbeg: not a winning combination by the time the morning after comes around. So there's no chat this week, you'll be pleased to know. Here are some gigs. Go to them. But good luck picking what to do on Wednesday, because I've no fucking idea myself. Wednesday 23rd September 2009: [...]
Song, by Toad
Muso's Guide
Peenko
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Music Singles Chart #109
