Assuming you are all boycotting Valentine's Day which, let's face it, you really should, we finally enter a week in Edinburgh where there are plenty of options for Superior Fun, after a longer than usual hangover from the Christmas period this year. Limbo is back on Friday too, which is good news. It's not really my kind of lineup I must confess, but Limbo gigs are always good ones, so check it out here . It's also quite a Toady week as well, which is nice. We have our first house gig of the year [...]
Yoofff, wake up, my dozing brain! I think I am going to blame Mrs. Toad, but we have recently taken to having weekends of such epic sloth that even by seven in the evening on Monday my brain is still very much stalled. Of course, back when I had a day job this still used to happen of, except I had to sit at my desk looking fucking useless all day. It's just that now when I spend a day being just a little bit vacant and useless - or glaikit as the Scots rather excellently [...]
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 [...]
The Muppets win at everything. That's all I have to say on the matter. In other news, Mrs. Toad and I went out into the garden this weekend, to try and tackle the small jungle which has slowly been developing since the Summer. The weather has been so spectacularly shit since July and August that we just haven't been out there, so our window boxes have all died and every bed was overrun with weeds. Still, due to our particularly indelicate methods of gardening - a little closer to slash and burn than anything you might [...]
Is it just me or is the gig calendar around these parts taking ages to shudder back into life after Christmas? I know there have been good shows here and there, but most weeks I find myself looking at a list of one, rather than the more plentiful goodness we can usually count upon in Edinburgh. Ah well, Mrs. Toad's two new cats are capering about the house like loons, so I suppose they'll keep me entertained in the absence of significant musicfun. What's fucking happening in Edinburgh anyway? Neither the Liquid Room nor Cabaret Voltaire [...]
Man, as a blogger who works from home is there such thing as 'taking a day off sick'? I don't think there is, but if there's one thing I miss from the days of having a grown up job it's being able to take a day off sick knowing that someone else would have to take care of the shit you were supposed to do, and it wouldn't all just pile up and sit in wait for you until you got back. So here I sit, secretly wanting to curl up in bed, but knowing full well that, [...]
So, what's happening with you lot this week? I myself am getting ready to do a spot of recording with Waiters and Sex Hands, who are up from Manchester to put together a split 123 which we'll be releasing in, er... April, I think, assuming all goes well. So, once more to offend the neighbours with the battering of drums and the sound of loud guitars. The good news is that Mrs. Toad is off to the States on grown-up business this week, so that's at least one less person to annoy with the racket and the mess. [...]
Holy fuck my brain is still resisting any and all attempts to get it working again. I lived on a boat down in London, and I remember when I first bought the thing it was semi-submerged, and I had to pump out the engine compartment just to get the old Lister engine above water for the first time in about two years. Even after two years under the fucking Thames, all I had to do was crank it manually a couple of times to flush the water out, replace the battery, press start and boom, the ancient bastard [...]
Aaaaaaand another year rolls around, and we find ourselves once again at New Year's Eve. Or approaching it anyway. And this time we have something a little different for you, an idea which was suggested to me the day that Kev from River of Slime (and FOUND ) played a set in our front room which we streamed for Social Media Week. There were three or four of us watching that evening, but it was pretty obvious there should have been more, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to put that right. [...]
Well if there's any shit going down in Edinburgh this week I am not going to be there to enjoy it. Not out of shame at having just used the term 'shit going down' as if I was a teenager in the nineties, but because my gigfuns will be happening in London and Glasgow this week. Tomorrow I am in London to see Rob St. John and Neil from Meursault play at the Vortex, and then on Thursday I'll be in Glasgow for the Fence Records Christmas party. And funnily enough, with Detour, Frightened Rabbit and Jill O'Sullivan [...]
Just a quick reminder about tomorrow's festivities, as well as some practical details. Firstly, I never got my shit together to get tickets to Avalanche, for which I apologise, but it's a really big venue, so you shouldn't have any problems getting in, assuming you turn up relatively early (i.e. not 9pm). Secondly, it is both child-friendly and BYOB. Thirdly, bands will play roughly from doors at 2pm to 6pm, when there will be a break for some scran and a stretching of legs, and [...]
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 [...]
BUT DON'T WORRY! After last week there will be no surprise eighties bonanza, just good old whinging indie pish, as you've probably come to expect these days. After the radio show there will be a bite to eat, and then a slow slide into oblivion as I go from Collar Up, Sparrow & the Workshop and Meursault at Cabaret Voltaire to the Gerry Loves Records Christmas Party at the Banshee Labyrinth. It might get messy. On air from 3:30pm UK time - listen live here . Also, yesterday I dropped off some Toad [...]
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 [...]
Well one thing's for sure, live in Edinburgh this week will very much not be me. I have a rather nasty flu/tonsillitis throat infection thingy (I'm not a doctor so I am not sure which, but you know the kind of thing I mean) and it means that swallowing is extraordinarily painful, even if it is gin. I am not sure that soaking the paracetamol in alcohol particularly aids in its efficacy either, but as I said, I am not a doctor. We, of course, have our next Ides of Toad gig on Sunday, when the [...]
Sorry about the delay getting this post up, but today has been the day of bureaucracy. Magnificent, steaming bureaucracy. Anyhow, apart from the momentous occasion of my birthday, there's actually quite a bit going on in Edinburgh this week. If you're really quick, and really keen you can nip down to the Liquid Room tonight and catch Wild Beasts . Their latest album may be a little tepid, despite the frantic fluffing from Drowned in Sound, but Two Dancers was incredible and they are a cracking live band. Also, Yuck are [...]
I keep fretting about over-pimping my commercial enterprises on this blog, but I really should just stop worrying. Putting on live shows is not much more than an extension of me insisting on telling you what sort of music to listen to, so really there's not much difference between haranguing you about your buying habits and haranguing you about what you do in your free time really, is there. So, after a fantastic gig with The Last Battle, Dad Rocks! and Shoes and Socks Off, and a brilliant day in Anstruther with Hott Toadzzz! it's probably time to [...]
So, this week ends with a massive extravaganza of Toadliness, but it does look like it'll be relatively quiet along the way as there doesn't seem to be that much else around until the weekend. Which is actually alright, sort of, because it gives me a chance to get my shit together in advance of a very busy weekend indeed. Quite how we're going to sort the logistics of getting half the bands in Edinburgh to and from Anstruther on Sunday I don't know, but I am sure we'll manage somehow. Anyhow, in the meantime there [...]
If you get this in time, then turn off the internet and scarper down to the Queen's Hall right now, as they will be screening the Sigur Ros movie INNI tonight, starting at 19:30, with live performances by Meursault and Withered Hand immediately afterwards. And as for the rest of the week's gig round-up, it's actually quite an eclectic one this week, with noise, classical and antifolk on the calendar, all within a few days of one another. But enough chit-chat, I need to shower and get out the door quick-smart or I shall miss the [...]
The above photo is of the Palm House in Edinburgh's Botanic Gardens, and was taken and passed on to me by Dylan, of Blueback Hotrod legend. And given that the weather outside is all kinds of shit I thought there would be a sort of bitter irony in using it today. See - that's how nice Edinburgh can be, so what the fuck is this pissing rain all about? Anyhow, traditional British whingeing aside, it's going to be a pretty bloody mental week this week. Thursday is going to be a particular swine, what with the awesome David [...]
Song, by Toad
New Music From Cribs
Jack White – Love Interruption (MP3, Video)
Usher - Climax (Produced by Diplo)
Ed Sheeran & Yelawolf - The Slumdon Bridge EP
