(Full Toad Session can be found here .) So, I may have been a little tardy to make this an actual Christmas present, but The Savings and Loan would like to make you all a present of their self-titled EP, which you can download for free from their Bandcamp page . This EP formed the basis for their debut album Today I Need Light , which we released on Song, by Toad Records at the end of 2010. They then added a couple of songs, re-recorded a couple and [...]

It's easy to say, isn't it, but oh so very hard to do: whatever else you do in the music business, never get into the habit of resenting other people's success. I had an absolutely awful temper as a kid. I don't think anyone I currently know has ever really seen me lose it, because it doesn't really happen these days. But I went through a couple of years of getting into fights, shouting at referees, smashing up things in frustration, and just generally giving too much vent to my feelings. Eventually I got myself sent [...]

The Savings and Loan with their debut album Today I Need Light have slowly and gently burrowed a hole in my skull and inserted themselves in my frontal lobe. The Scottish duo craft a haunting brand of burning, melodic folk that sneaks up on you. The Savings And Loan - Lit Out

The internet works in unusual ways. I know Jon Rooney because he sent through his music (the excellent Virgin of the Birds ) for review on Song, by Toad, then he happened to be in Edinburgh for New Year's Eve a couple of years back and ended up playing a house gig at our place, and then sent us an email nudging us towards some of the best places in Austin when we were out for SXSW last month. He also introduced me to Levi who writes Ball of Wax , and also curates the [...]

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 [...]

mit dem album "today i need light" nähern wir uns einem neuen release auf song, by toad records , dem kleinen label, das dem gleichklingenden musikblog anhänglich ist. es gab dort in der jüngeren vergangenheit einiges zu bejubeln, nicht zuletzt schottischen nachwuchs. daran hat sich nichts geändert. mit martin donelly und andrew bush treffen wir unter dem moniker the savings and loan auf ein glasgower duo, das seine musik mittlerweile in edinburgh ausübt. sechs jahre haben die beiden, hier der singer / songwriter (er hat zudem einige gedichtbände veröffentlicht) und dort der multiinstrumentalist, für ihr debut benötigt. [...]

This is my annual World of Song, by Toad Records podcast, where I prattle on a bit about the stuff we have coming up in the new year. I play a couple of things we released towards the tail end of the year, and some stuff by some of the new bands we're going to be working with for the first time in 2011. I also prattle on at immensely tedious length about the ins and outs of running a record label, which may or may not actually interest you at all, but it's there whether you like [...]

Well, let's face it, things round these parts have been a wee bit quiet of late. This has been caused mainly by the fact that 'Proper Work' got mad hectic, baby daughter became increasingly all-encompassing and well, Christmas kinda happened upon me... Anyways, excuses out of the way, the upshot meant that there has not really been much time dedicated round these blogging parts over the last few weeks, which has meant that we missed out on quite a few decent little single/EP releases... [...]
El grupo The Savings & Loan nos traen un regalo de Navidad mucho antes de que ese día llegue. El segundo sencillo de su disco Today I Need Light, Swallows, está disponible para que lo descargues o lo disfrutes aquí mismo. Desde el principio del track quedarás impactado por la suavidad de la música, que [...]
This week there will be fuck all happening in Edinburgh, or at least there better be, because I will be participating in none of it. Apparently there's some pagan bollocks going on at the end of the week related to a fat man and some reindeer, but I wouldn't bother paying that too much attention if I were you. Actually, there is the Christmas Songwriters' Club down in Leith on Thursday which looks rather excellent. I have been trying to buy tickets, but am finding WeGotTickets to be an unspeakable shitfest of password requirements and expired [...]

So, a day late with this, sorry. I blame a combination of Virgin Media and vast amounts of drinking. I woke up yesterday, still slightly hungover, and found that Virgin have managed to break our internet. Here I am today a day and a half later and it is still fucking broken. They offered us a fiver refund without me even asking for it, so I assume they must have fucked up something pretty significant, but I felt too shitey to venture out to find an internet cafe to write this, sorry. All of this meant that I [...]

So, a day late with this, sorry. I blame a combination of Virgin Media and vast amounts of drinking. I woke up yesterday, still slightly hungover, and found that Virgin have managed to break our internet. Here I am today a day and a half later and it is still fucking broken. They offered us a fiver refund without me even asking for it, so I assume they must have fucked up something pretty significant, but I felt too shitey to venture out to find an internet cafe to write this, sorry. All of this meant that I [...]
Video: Vimeo - YouTube Photos: Flickr Audio: download links below This Toad Session is something a little different, in that instead of setting up a studio environment in the house, we actually just recorded the songs at a house gig. The gig was in fact also the band's first live appearance in four or five years. So the whole atmosphere of the session is massively different to the usual ones we record. The interview took place all at once before the gig, rather [...]
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: Bird By Snow : "Across the Water" [mp3] from Common Wealth search for more Bird By Snow posts at Largehearted Boy Galleries : "Rocket Science" [mp3] from [...]

River Rising Quickly mp3 Danny Drugs in (C# Major) mp3 Joshua English flew into my inbox this week. I liked what I heard, I think you will too. It's Americana, folksy, and adorned in the right way, in the right place so as to be not too bare boned, despite the title. There's a little bit of Amy Ray in the way he puts his words to the melody. I like that level of masculinity about her and therefore, about him. I guess I'm not in the mood for [...]

"skins" wird am 15. februar auf dem bandeigenen scrawny records erscheinen, einen ersten musikalischen hinweis gibt es bereits, es ist, als zöge man seinen alten lieblingspullover über, oder so ähnlich: buffalo tom - arise, watch ebenfalls am 15. februar gehen diese jungs an den start, das selbstbetitelte werk wird immerhin von fat possum begleitet, es gehen ihnen eh einige marktschreier voraus, mal sehen: yuck - rubber "the mistress" ist ein album aus dem oktober, jedoch soll es am [...]
New music from Scottish duo the Savings and Loan.

Okay, this was a bit of a stretch for a "theme" post - but I was listening to the new Savings & Loan again (awesome album) and last night I was trolling some forums that were talking about the new Jeffrey Foucault album (Cold Satellite). Both had promotional tracks with birds, so I just thought I would pass it on with a couple of bonus tracks. ~~~ "Swallows" - The Savings and Loan This is a fantastic album of mood music, somber at its [...]
Swallows is the second single to come from The Savings and Loan's debut album Today I Need Light , which arrived from the manufacturers yesterday and should be in shops within a week or so, depending on how our distributors get on with the snow. We've had a decent enough start with the press for the album, with the Skinny describing it as "quiet, dangerous and likely to sink deep into your brain" , while we even got a few kind words out of Contact Music, who generally dislike everything we release. Despite referencing Coldplay early [...]
[ MP3 ] The Savings and Loan - Swallows