Electric Circus

Edinburgh

The Electric Circus, with its shiny mirrored surfaces, flashing TV screens and lurid decor, is perhaps an unusual setting for The Rob St. John Experience and their elegant, thoughtful music. However; tonight, perhaps inspired – or reacting to – the brash surroundings, Rob and the guys delivered a bold, spiky and dynamic performance which went down very well indeed.

The Bowery

Edinburgh

Rob St. John and co. opened up procedings for This Is Music’s third birthday celebration shenanigans at The Bowery, with a typically beguiling set of their delicously languid and engagingly considered music, before finishing up with a startling but brilliant four-to-the-floor rock wig-out. I always suspected Rob was hiding a secret inner Raaawk-God!

OK. I admit it – I’m a wimp.  At 10 last night I decide to head for home even though that means missing Kid Canaveral, one of the acts I was most keen to see again. However the upside is that I hope to catch a few minutes of the Burns Unit before leaving. Inevitably however it’s running late and I get almost 45 minutes of them. They are absolutely fabulous, the perfect way to finish a great  evening with a stunning breadth of vital material. Brilliant stuff.

Earlier I was one of the lucky few to get in to see Crail resident Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit  open the whole shebang with a short acoustic set. Just 6 songs, all off MOF barring one new one, together with with a stop mid song for a gag in ‘Modern Leper’.

I also saw the excellent Rob St John and Emma Pollock (finally for the first time!). Her set isn’t the easiest to absorb since it’s mainly composed of slower, newer numbers (joined on backing vocals for a couple by Adem) but the final new song ‘Child In Me’ performed solo acoustic is superb. I’m sure the rest will follow.

Briefly boy-girl duo Slow Club were great fun – lots of energy and importantly tunes and they not only get some of the audience dancing but join us for a without amplication song to close.

That’s it for now – back off down the coast – hope to have more to say tomorrow about what looks like being a special day.

Cabaret Voltaire

Edinburgh

Rob played Duty Free at Cabaret Voltaire backed by his full band, a special event indeed!  He unveiled tracks from his new EP; Like Alchemy, which is available from his MySpace.

… and a few others.

hello again my pretties.

yup i return, quicker than kerry katatonic to the liquor store.

with much less cursing this time.

and the bloated rhetorical of how much cheese can a man eat before he dies, or becomes the aforementioned dairy product?  well?

so some things never change.  something in the eu gets someone else upset.  bin laden wants gaza jihad (tho’ what a washed up footballer’s going to do for mad arabs everywhere i don’t know).  hoho my aching sides.  nobody gave a fuck that ron asheton died and yes i seem unable to communicate with the outside world (other than the woman in the off-license across the road who sells me newspapers, bread and booze).

somewhat of an apology to the good folks who took the time to say hello and send me free shit.  most of it was shit or so inappropriate (can’t you fucking people read?) it made me laugh till wee came out so i’ll gloss over those.  and the generic p.r. emails.

but sometimes a few sneaky pete’s get through, sometimes they struck the little vibrating music nodule in my noodlesac and sometimes i say nice things about them.  except i got fat and lazy and waaaaaay too drunk for three months and as a result ignored those aforementioned good folks.

so presented below a brief catch-up (as henry kelly or whateverhisnameis might have said):

first and by no means least my old namesake bobby of dublin duck dispensary fame.  new record (yeah it’s all mpthrees, whatever) on the wonderfully mixed-results rack & ruin records.  representing everything good and pure about the diy skuzzy pop thang.  if i had a womb i’d carry his skuzzy musical nuggets in there and squeeze them out mucus stained and squealing with the pain of non-vaginal birth every nine months.  if i have one regret last year it’s that i didn’t provide alan mcghee or jimmy iovine with enough tugjobs to offer this dude a billion dollar record deal.  curse you right hand, curse you.  i’ve banged onandon about his tunesmithery before and i’ll harp on againandagain.  so go get all his stuff for free then tell him what a fucking genius he is.  go on!

• happy holidays
• roald dahl

and secundus, but by no means secondly, magical, beautiful who make lovely noise.  and i swear, by christ, to make more of an effort to listen to more of the much free shit i downloaded that lingers around their internettery parts like so much venereal disease.  there’s a mix on there that is the shit.  go git boys and, well boys.  do girls inhabit the internet (without reference to makeup, stickers, that dude from twilight or the music of whatever)?

oh and he reminded me that i forgot to include the dead science record in my oh eight round up yesterday (thousands bitched and whined about it, i falsetto-ed and danced).  thanks constellation.

• right rock
• desert turtles

next up something kindof (i think) scottish at long fucking last.  rob st john.  blessed horribly with unliveuptoable comparisons with bill callahan, john martyn, bert jansch and nina nastasia???  lucky for him he can groan out a droney tune or two.  he got lots of good press as far as i can see, so there’s no need for me to prattle on three months late as bloody usual. 

gorgeous, pastoral folk said the scotsman (truly shit paper, not generic representative of the scottish race).

he lets the song and the story be the star, along with his gorgeous and occasionally fragile voice, and seems to have an instinctive understanding of how to accentuate these with accompaniment, without ever drowning them out with over-anxiousness, overenthused songbytoad.  but i think he secrety fancies him.  ho ho.  only joking.

can’t for the lazy life of me find anything to post so here’s his myspace.

babe, terror who i loved ages before the new york times and warren ellis got in on the fucking story.  another free record, some unsettlingly ordinary video and a whole bunch of songs made by voice for big headphones.  it gets me all moist.  there’s a new (well for me anyway) song – epicentro – on myspace.  it sounds like religion.  in a good way.

finally and in many ways lastly bambi get over it.  a cruel and harsh band name.  an innocent deer orphaneded and forced to cohabit with a peripatetic rabbit called thumper who offers him food, shelter and smack in exchange for humiliating sexual favours?  hardly one for the kids.  so they make a kindof skiffle sons and daughters stram(m)ash that’s in no way unpleasant.  whoever came up with the rockabilly indie description should be sexually abused by alsatians though.  but hey, that’s just my opinion.

laters!

He doesn’t half make enigmatic little records, Mr. Rob St. John.  I’ve had a copy of this in my possession for a couple of months now but it seems to take me ages to quite come to terms with where I think the beating heart of this recording actually lies.  Previous release Tipping In also baffled me for a while: much like this my favourite songs seemed to change with every listen, and my impression of the core of the recording shifted similarly.

Funnily enough, even though I think Tipping In was a better pop record, in the sense that it had more obvious, immediate hooks, I might be starting to think that this is nevertheless the superior piece of work.  Would it be fair to suggest that, while on Tipping In he sounded a bit like James Yorkston, here he sounds very much like himself.

Having seen him play live, where he’s wielding an electric guitar these days and singing with real conviction, it seems to me that Rob has hit his stride.  This EP is spookier than his previous, and there’s an underlying tension to it which jousts subtly with the beauty he achieved so easily on Tipping In.  It may not be as lovable, and this may be why I took so long to review the EP in the first place, but I would say that this is perhaps the more satisfying record if you give it the time it needs to sink in.

Rob St. John – Paper Ships

Buy from Rob’s MySpace

Christ on a bike, after nothing at all last week, all of a sudden things are going bananas this week.  You could pretty much be at a good show every night if you wanted. I’m not going to write much in this intro because, frankly, there are so many gigs to bloody write about that the post would run on far too long otherwise.

Suffice to say that Friday’s party was, from my perspective, a massive success.  The open mic bit at the beginning was not an idea many people were overly convinced by, but I think pretty much everyone enjoyed it in the end.  I certainly did.

Tuesday 9th December 2008: Frightened Rabbit at the Liquid Room.
Despitely having rather disappointingly turned into Snow Patrol on their last album, there’s no doubt Frightened Rabbit, when they’re good, can be absolutely brilliant.  In terms of one last big gig to attend before the Hogmanay chaos, this archetypal Scottish indie would be an excellent choice.
Frightened Rabbit – Music Now

Tuesday 9th December 2008: Louis Barrabas at the Forest Cafe.
Mr. Barrabas is described as ‘vaudeville folk’ in some quarters and listening to his MySpace page it’s difficult to fault that impression.  Frankly it sounds like two things to me: firstly, the kind of gig you’d be much more likely to see during the Festival; and secondly, like it really will be absolutely brilliantly entertaining.  I don’t think (although I’m not sure) that he will be bringing a band, so the theatrical musical chaos might be slightly lacking when compared to his MySpace recordings, but that doesn’t sound like it will matter much.  Excellent stuff.
Louis Barrabas – Love Struck Me Down

Wednesday 10th December 2008: Benni Hemm Hemm at the Bowery.
I don’t know Benni’s music, but I have met him and he is a truly lovely guy.  Listening to his MySpace page, he seems less moody than the stereotypical Icelandic band, perhaps more in the style of a broader Scandinavian indie-pop, although with a lot less bubblegum.  That’s not very informative at all is it, sorry.
Benni Hemm Hemm – Veildiljod

Thursday 11th December 2008: Jack Richold & Faith Nicholson at the Bowery.
Jack plays beautifully hushed folk songs, and Faith has a truly gorgeous voice.  Are they any good?  Well Jack wrote half the songs for the Nightjar album, and both sings and plays violin on The Moth Trap, on Song, by Toad Records.  So have a listen to this alternative version he and Faith recorded of Lady of the Calico from that album and decide for yourselves.  Bloody gorgeous.
Jack Richold – Lady of the Calico

Thursday 11th December 2008: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & The Foundling Wheel at Sneaky Pete’s.
Before supporting the Weddoes the following evening at the Liquid Room, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart bring their old-fashioned indie sound to Sneaky Pete’s, alongside Edinburgh racket-merchant The Foundling Wheel.  The Pains &c. might easily have been around in the mid-eighties when the Wedding Present formed, if you were to only judge by their sound, but I reckon The Foundling Wheel might shake things up a bit.
The Pains of Being Pure of Heart – Everything With You

Friday 12th December 2008: The Wedding Present at the Liquid Room.
Okay, so the Gedgerator’s music may be slipping into the ordinary these past few releases, but the Wedding Present play a furiously brilliant live show, and they have more quality in their back catalogue is so far ahead of almost any other band out there that there’s no way you can lose at a gig like this.  Break out the guitars, boys.
The Wedding Present – Step Into Christmas

Friday 12th December 2008: This is Music, with Jesus H. Foxx & Mitchell Museum at Sneaky Pete’s.
Jesus H. Foxx are spiky indie-poppers, well known on the Edinburgh circuit, but I’ve not really heard of Mitchell Museum before.  A quick listen on MySpace leaves the impression of mid-era Britpop, well executed and definitely interesting.  A few more songs, however, bring you into a much more eccentric realm.
Mitchell Museum – Exciting But Drunk

Saturday 13th December 2008: Will Cookson, Rob St. John & Withered Hand at the Wee Red Bar.
Mr. Cookson has the best set of influences of any band in history – ever!  Just have a look.  The man must be a genius.  Apart from that, two of Edinburgh’s finest alt-folkers (sorry Rob) tread the Trampoline boards (trampolines don’t really have boards, do they) so although I can’t be there myself, this might be my most confidently recommended show of the week.
Withered Hand – I Am Nothing

Rob St. John

Like Alchemy EP (Fife:Kills, 08.12.2008)

Jaja, neue englische Welle ist Folk, ganz nach dem Motto “back to basics” and damned! – do it yourself! Und wer hat sie wieder alle? Fife:Kills, das Ausnahmelabel aus Großbritannien. Nicht nur Eagleowl sind dort gut behütete Schützlinge, sondern auch Rob St. John, ebenso aus Edinburgh. Anstatt beruflich den Regenwald zu erforschen, bastelte dieser nämlich lieber an seiner zweiten EP „Like Alchemy“, die auf 250 Stück limitiert ist. Aufbewahrt wird der Silberling in einem handbeschriebenen und eigens gestempelten Case in Recycling-Outfit. Eben ein DIY-Produkt der klassischen Art.

Rob St. Johns Musik erinnert an die endlosen Stunden eines sich einsam fühlenden Wandersmannes, der seinen Weg geht, dabei sinniert, aber nie anzukommen scheint. Hilflos und unselbstständig ist Like Alchemy nicht, denn zu dem Wandersmann gesellen sich auf dessen Weg immer mehr Menschen und reihen sich mit so putzig klingenden Instrumenten wie Autoharfe, Bariton Ukulele und Glockenspiel (Bart Owl von Eagleowl) ein. Double Bass (Emily Scott) und Cello fehlen natürlich auch nicht. Außerdem – und das gibt kurz Bedenken, wenn man es nicht kennt – sitzt Louis Martin vom Scottish Chamber Orchestra an der sogenannten Musiksäge und…nun ja…sägt eben Musik. Aber anstatt etwas kaputt zu machen, entsteht eher ein reizendes  Stück Lo-Fi-Folk, das durch den elegischen Gesang von Rob Waters einen gewissen Hauch Wehmut versprüht.

Fazit: Alles in allem eine sehr feine und bedachte, melancholiereiche, manchmal verträumte EP, die es sogar schon in die Endlosschleife des Players geschafft hat. Für ruhige Stunden ideal,  für Indie/Folk-Fans ein Must-Have und die kalten Winternächte werden mit Musik von Rob St. John auch endlich etragbar.

(Julia Fischer)

Tracklist:

1. Like Alchemy (05:53)

2. Paper Ships (06:02)

3. A Red Heron (06:13)

4. The Wicker Basket (04:56)

Anhören und alle Infos:

www.myspace.com/robstjohn

www.lastfm.de/music/Rob+St+John

www.myspace.com/fifekills

I talked about being approached by people promoting bands before and my inability/ reluctance to process what appear to be mass mail-outs. However when I recently got an email from someone who had obviously actually read the blog, I treated it a little more seriously.

The email was from Rob St John promoting his new EP ‘Like Alchemy’ and I decided to give the EP a good listen. Now, regular readers will know that acoustic based songs don’t necessarily jump out at me but perhaps various acoustic shows I’ve seen over the last 18 months or so have started to change my mind. Perhaps as I get older it’s becoming less necessary for bands to grab my attention and I’m becoming more patient, but whatever, ‘Like Alchemy’ is excellent.

The four songs all repay your full attention if you’re prepared to give it. They’re not immediate but instead are all fairly intricate song which reveal plenty of depth. And I’m certain I’m not doing their mournful beauty justice here at all.

So points of reference? Well, it was my comments on Rob’s other band Eagleowl which identified MPT to him and Rob definitely is coming from a similar place on the 4 tracks on the EP. Another point of reference for me is Micah P Hinson’s more polished work, not least because there is some degree of vocal similarity.

Interested? Try the lead track -

Rob St John – Like Alchemy (from ‘Like Alchemy’ EP)

The EP is released on Fife Kills next week. If you want to get a hold of a copy then go to Rob’s Myspace and follow the instructions there.

More alchemy next perhaps.

In advance of the official release dates for Song, by Toad Records things there has been a slow and steady trickle of good news from the media outlets to whom we have submitted our stuff.

We just found out last night that both Stuart Maconie and Gideon Coe have played songs from the Meursault album which is, frankly, fucking brilliant.

Is This Music? have given both Meursault and eaglowl records fantastic reviews, so massive thanks to both Ed and Brian for those.

Crack Magazine gave the Meursault album a really positive review (scroll down a bit) and eagleowl’s Sleeptide was featured in Word Magazine as one of the favourite songs on the office stereo this month, and were also featured by the Scotsman as one of Scotland’s best unsigned bands.

Apparently the Nightjar record is going to be the Single of the Issue in the next edition of Beatmag – ie at the top of this page – but I don’t want to jinx it by being prematurely delighted. Big thanks to Thomas for his enthusiasm – it’s much appreciated.

We’ve had some really positive blog reviews for the eagleowl stuff from The Next Big Thing, for Nightjar from Landcroft House, and for Rob St. John from Eaten By Monsters, so thanks to Brother Randall, Rob and Tom respectively for those.

I have to point out that the eagleowl and Rob St. John records are not Song, by Toad releases, just friends who we helped with their promo effort, in terms of mailing lists, envelope stuffing, some format advice and things like that. So I really don’t want to give the impression that I am trying to steal their thunder because I haven’t made a particularly big contribution to the success of either record. They’re both just friends, so I’m pleased for them, that’s all.

So, we’re nearly ready for the official release date of the Meursault album (at the Toad Christmas Party on the Friday 5th), complete with new, super minimal art packaging as designed by the band themselves (fucking art students), I reckon we should be a cool couple of million in the black by the end of… oh, stop it, you know what I mean.

Rob St. John – Paper Ships (Live Demo)

For those of you who missed it, Toad favourite Samantha Crain has been making telling us about the progress on her new album, over on this thread about Arizona. She has this excellent news to deliver:

We’ve finished our full length album “songs in the night” and right now it’s gettin’ all nice and pretty (mastered, artwork, pressed, etc)…the official release date for it will be April 28th but i’m sure we’ll be getting to a copy to review before then.

Bloody marvellous is all I have to say about that.

Anyway, this week you friendly neighbourhood Toad ages by the princely sum of a single year, with my thrity-third birthday falling on Wednesday 19th November. And by some remarkable instance of good fortune there happens to be a gig on that night. A very Toad-friendly gig indeed…

But first, I have no idea if I have any readers in Dundee – certainly no-one has ever mentioned it, although one or two of you have confessed to being from there – but there is a show there this Friday that a friend of mine is putting on. Mike from Manic Pop Thrills will be putting on De Rosa, Esperi and The Wildhouse at Hustlers in Dundee this Friday, 21st November 2008.  It’s scary enough thing to promote a gig, but the first one is positively terrifying, so I really wish him the best of luck, and it would be great if we could get some Toadlings down there to support.

So, that birthday show:

Wednesday 19th November 2008: Sparrow & the Workshop, Rob St. John & Meursault at Cabaret Voltaire.
My friends Tallah and HP from Fresh Air radio have rather serendipitously chosen to put on three of my favourite Scottish bands on my birthday, and entirely by coincidence too. Tickets will be £4 on the door, and I believe Rob will be taking the opportunity to launch his new EP, although I haven’t actually confirmed that with him. He’s playing an electric guitar these days, and I have to say that it really suits his sound. Neil from Meursault will be playing entirely solo this time, and Sparrow & the Workshop say they have quite a few new tunes to try out. So if you want to know what the alternative folk scene in Scotland is like
outside of the Fence Collective, then this mix of epic melancholy from Meursault, intimate loveliness from Rob and furious Americana from Sparrow & the Workshop gives you about as good a cross-section as you’re likely to find. And there’ll be the added benefit of sniggering at a certain drunken gentleman staggering about and making a tit of himself I should imagine.
Sparrow & the Workshop – Grizzly Bear

Thursday 20th November 2008: Zoey Van Goey, Over the Wall & Callel play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.
Sorry – forgot to add this one. Over the Wall were really good at the End of the Road Festival. It was an exuberant performance swinging between glitchy electronica and full on pop music, and they seem to be shaping up nicely into a very decent band indeed. Zoey Van Goey are basically an indie rock combo as far as I am aware, but I have been told they are good countless times, this will be my first chance to see them and I do not intend to miss it. Also, this is Limbo’s first birthday, following a year in which they have rather incredibly managed to put on three bands every single fucking week, which is a feat that completely amazes me. Congratulations lads, quite an achievement.
Over the Wall – Thurso

Thursday 20th November 2008: Pockets & the Kazookeylele at The Bowery.
I am not going to plug this at all, except to offer the video below if a bizarre gentleman playing The Final Countdown on one of the most peculiar instruments I have ever seen. One for the real connoisseurs, this.
Pockets & the Kazookeylele – The Final Countdown

Hurrah – autumn is finally here. The weather’s cold and damp, but it’s supposed to be; which makes a nice change from the wash-out that was summer ‘08.  And what better way to enjoy being being cozy and warm inside on a blustery day than with a preview of the new Rob St John EP, Like Alchemy. Rob’s been making small but pretty persistent waves up in Scotland for a while now, and any regular readers of Song, by Toad or the Daily Growl will already be familiar with his work, but for those new to his music, he specialises in fragile, somewhat pastoral alt./new/whatever folk music, all wrapped up in “boutique” handmade packaging.

This new EP marks a bit of a step forward, as it appears he is now actually a full band.  This record was made in one evening – recorded pretty much live – and features harmonium, autoharp, baritone uke, glock, saw (awesome!), cello and double bass, as well as Rob’s familiar gentle voice and guitaring.  The record comes out on the 8th of December (released by the lovely Fife Kills: records), but is limited to 250 “hand numbered and stamped recycled card copies”.  It’ll be avaliable in various indie record shops up north, and for the rest of us we’ll be able to find it at Rough Trade, London, but I’d recommend emailing him to pre-order a copy.

It’s only four songs long, so Rob’s asked (understandably) that I post only one mp3 from the actual release, but I’ve managed to get my grubby mitts on a live recording of one of the tracks, so hopefully there’s enough here to let you judge the music for yourself (though if you ask me, it’s a beautiful record).

Rob St John – Paper Ships

Rob St John – A Red Heron (live)

Welcome to another week tending the fertile pastures of Edinburgh’s gig scene for shuffling indie kids. I’m working flat out to get the Sparrow session done for this week’s podcast so beyond tonight I will be hiding in the house for most of the week, I’m afraid, probably swearing at the computer and cursing analogue technology for being so fucking shit and chewing all my tape of the session. Frustrating. Really, very frustrating.

Still, I think we have time for one last session this year, but I will be renting a digital camera this time, instead of all this tape shit, so hopefully there won’t be any such problems in futre

Monday 10th November 2008: Samamidon & Meursault at the Bowery.
After the Bowery’s splendid opening party they keep the ball rolling this week with Samamidon supported by a largely solo set from Meursault’s Neil Pennycook. Samamidon’s All is Well is a gorgeously gentle acoustic album, so I’m really looking forward to this, as well as hearing what Neil sounds like with no accompaniment, except for a bit of banjo and backing vocals here and there.
Samamidon – Saro

Monday 10th November 2008: Rob St.John, Molly Wagger, Alison & the Mings & Simon Kempston at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
Rob is playing an electric guitar these days, and the hushed, breathy folk of recent years seems to be slowly yielding to a more confident, assertive attitude. His performance at the Bowery on Saturday was superb, and he has a new EP coming out shortly which is also sounding excellent, so I strongly recommend you catch him either this week or next, when he plays Cabaret Voltaire with Meursault and Sparrow & the Workshop.
Rob St. John – Wooden Rose

Friday 14th November 2008: Rbrbr, Funkspiel & The Foundling Wheel at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
If you fancy something a little more experimental this weekend then Henry’s is the place to go, with some electronic pop stuff and then the thunderously deranged Foundling Wheel. Really, just go for the Foundling Wheel. I don’t know who stole Ted’s pills, but it seems to have had the desired effect.
The Foundling Wheel – Mixed Minds & Missteps

Friday 14th November 2008: Death Cab For Cutie at the Corn Exchange.
Given it’s nearly twenty quid for a band I actually have very little time for then it’s safe to say that I won’t be going. Still, a lot of people into the same sort of stuff as gets written about on this site like these chaps an awful lot, so I thought it worth mentioning. Their dreamy, hazy, downbeat, slightly electronic indie has never quite captured my imagination, despite being pretty much right up my street. Almost, just not quite.  Oh well, so it goes.
Death Cab For Cutie – The New Year

[The third in our Introduce Your Local Record Shop series is the first celebrity post, in which local pop superstar and all round glamorous lothario, the Russell Brand of Edinburgh, Rob St. John describes his deprived upbringing in a tiny little village in Hobbiton somewhere.  He's going to kill me for this, isn't he.]

Independent record shops have a pivotal role in the expansion and evolution of many people’s listening habits and I’m no exception. I grew up in village in rural Lancashire, and Townsend Records was the only record shop (ok, I’m definitely excluding Woolworths) in the nearest market town, Clitheroe. Now, in communities this size, to be viewed as ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ is as easy as watching MTV2 or dabbing on a bit of black mascara. There’s very little of the one-upmanship (“what do you mean you don’t own Tigermilk on vinyl, you philistine!?”) I later encountered and wholeheartedly avoid in the inevitable move to the big-ish city. Even the “The band” explosion of the Libertines/Strokes/White Stripes in my late teens caused barely a ripple outside a devoted few. Mentioning Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy brought a response of “yeah, he’s that Scottish guy – dead, isn’t he?”

Yet in this musical backwater, with no bands (except, ahem, Zydeco Blues, lets say little more on that..) and aside from one multimillion white elephant of a venue run by religious zealots who wouldn’t allow gigs, no venues, Townsend did, and still does, pretty well. We had sporadic and slow internet, and very little preconception of what was “in” and what wasn’t. Hearing new music was pretty much the Peel Show or mate’s compilations. This was two or three years before file-sharing became accessible to us. As a result, the varied, even unashamedly random stocking policy in store led to adventures in buying CDs for their name/cover art/vague recommendation etc, resulting in some huge successes (Television, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mercury Rev, Pavement, The Beta Band) and some shockers which I still look at ruefully in my CD collection (Athlete remain the main culprits here).

There was a 3 for £20 deal on all but the newest CDs, but the stock at the shop was so low that there were barely ever three CDs you cared to buy. So we learnt to covertly accumulate viable purchases in out-of-the-way and dusty parts of the shop like classical and “golden oldies” and hope that in the next week new stock would arrive to make up the deficit. Sometimes, of course they would disappear in the interim, though I do like the idea that a classical music fan happened upon and subsequently bought the GY!BE or Soundgarden CD I was stashing. Compared to these (slightly wealthier, but not much) days, I bought so much more music then. We were the poorest patrons around, and that the shop still survives in such a musically stagnant town heartens me, particularly when bigger and more varied independent shops in cities are closing their doors. As ever, if you are in the area (and I would recommend it for a day or a week, though not 18 years), pop in, have a look, keep tiny indie shops like this alive, some of my 3 for £20 stashes will probably still be in the free jazz section, slowly eroding.

Here’s three discoveries from albums that still remain favourites:

Gomez – Get Miles (from Bring It On)

Firstly, well done to Elbow for winning the Mercury Prize. I tend to slag off the Mercury Prize a little bit, largely due to the appearance of tokenism (one for black people, one for intellectuals, one obscure one to make us look clever) but also because I often just don’t like many of the bands very much. The accusation of tokenism is neatly refuted by one of the judges in this nice little article in the Guardian, and an award dominated by my narrow taste would be dull as shit for everyone, so I suppose I should back off a little. At least it’s not the frothing, corporate nonsense of the NME awards or the joyless fogeyism of Q.

Anyway, whilst I acknowledge that it is somewhat hypocritical to crticise an award and then profess yourself pleased for the winners, I feel I really have to congratulate Elbow. If you listen to Guy Garvey on 6Music or go to any of the Elbow shows they really do seem to come across as a really nice bunch of lads, so it’s extremely good news in that respect. From a musical point of view it’s nice too. They were supposed to be the Next Big Thing when they released Asleep in the Back, but that hasn’t quite happened. They slipped a little, in my view, with Cast of Thousands, but between those two, Leaders of the Free World and the album for which they won the award, Seldom Seen Kid, they have put together a pretty consistently impressive collection of records.

A great band, and a bloody good result. Pimm’s all round.

Elbow – The Fix (Nice ironic choice, this one)

Secondly, Tennents Mutual have announced an amazing series of gigs throughout Scotland, all coming up over the next few months. They’ve done it by some slightly weird voting system which has had a couple of really notable results. Firstly, the venues are spread far and wide which is – although I am not all that delighted, living in Edinburgh – a great thing for Scotland and Scottish music as a whole. If you live in Dumfries, for example, when do you ever get to see a decent gig? The other thing that is brilliant is the pairing of established acts like King Creosote and Malcolm Middleton with up and comers Withered Hand and Rob St. John.

Here’s a sample lineup: Fort William, BA Club: King Creosote, The Pictish Trail, Chris ‘Beans’ Geddes (Belle & Sebastian).
Or how about this one: Ayr, Town Hall: Glasvegas, Laura Marling, Malcolm Middleton. Ayr fucking Town Hall? Blimey!
And congratulations to some friends of Toad for landing these slots:
Inverness, Ironworks: Teenage Fanclub, King Creosote, Rob St John.
Stirling, Tolbooth: Malcolm Middleton, Withered Hand.
Fat Sams, Dundee: Malcolm Middleton, Los Campesinos, Eagleowl.
Glasgow, CCA: James Murphy, Findo Gask, Kid Canaveral, Chris ‘Beans’ Geddes (Belle & Sebastian), David Barbarossa.

I have to confess I lost interest a little in Tennents Mutual due to the fact that from the outside very little seemed to be happening, and I saw too many uninspiring bands at the very top of the list – Muse, eck! Mob rule doesn’t always produce the best results. The fact that a lot of the very top bands weren’t up for it has resulted in a much better festival though, as far as I am concerned, and I love the lineups and the fact that they are in slightly less-travelled places.

Tennents interest me actually. They have sponsored some amazing things in Scotland – the Versacoustic gigs, the previously excellent T on the Fringe and the much-missed Triptych – but this year’s Edge Festival lineup was woefully thin, despite a few last minute gambits that did up the quality right at the death. I don’t know how much Tennents themselves have to do with the nature of the things they end up being involved with but all of the aforementioned stuff is bloody excellent. Triptych and Versacoustic were particularly interesting because it required genuine musical enthusiasm and knowledge to put together those kind of shows, and it’s rarer than purple fucking snow that corporate sponsorship embraces something so esoteric, eschewing the NME dross in favour of really making the effort to bring new and interesting things to people. Those shows actually took real risks in the name of helping people to broaden their horizons, and it’s a real shame they’re gone. Here’s hoping The Edge Festival can get its act together in future and that the excellent work of Triptych isn’t gone forever.

Malcolm Middleton – Superhero Songwriters

I bumped into Bart of Eagleowl and Kays Lavelle fame the other day. We were both hanging out in one of the achingly cool vintage vinyl record stores where you tend to find hip cats like us…

Okay, it was Tesco’s… but anyway, I promised I’d post a reminder about the fabulous Retreat festival Bart’s involved in that’s coming up this week.

The Retreat festival has everything going for it: All the shows take place over a series of nights throughout August, and in one centrally-located venue; St. John’s Church hall on the corner of Princes’ Street and Lothian Road (The one in the photo). The festival is charging a bargain flat-rate entry fee of just £3 for each show, doors are at 8pm each night, and an irresistable array of local talent will be on display. It would be plain daft to miss out.

Monday 4th August
Rob St. John, Emily Scott

Wednesday 6th August
The Pictish Trail, Button Series, HMS Ginafore

Friday 8th August
Randan Discotheque, The Wee Rogue

Monday 11th August
Wounded Knee, Jess Bryant

Friday 15th August
Withered Hand, Jo Foster

Saturday 16th August
Eagleowl EP launch featuring Allo, Darlin’

Wednesday 20th August
Ziggy Campbell, Little Pebble

Saturday 23rd August
My Kappa Roots, Royal Edinburgh Music

Sunday 24th August
Mersault, John Egdell

by Alexander Lawrie

A MUSICIAN who had a rare instrument stolen after a gig has had it returned – after finding it for sale on Ebay.

Rob St John, 22, and his band were travelling back to Edinburgh by train after playing a gig in Glasgow in April when he noticed the band’s prized harmonium had disappeared.

After reporting the theft to the transport police, the up-and-coming singer songwriter put the experience down to bad luck.

Thinking the harmonium was gone for good St John started to scour websites looking to buy a replacement.

But as the Edinburgh-based musician searched Ebay for a similar piece, he could not believe his eyes when he spotted the band’s stolen harmonium advertised for sale.

St John immediately contacted Ebay and the police to alert them to the sale and the expensive musical instrument was instantly pulled from the auction site.

Mr St John said: “We were traveling back to Waverley from Glasgow after playing a gig at Tchai Ovna and had all our gear packed away in the luggage compartment.

“The train was really busy and we were keeping our eye on things, but must have turned our back for a couple of minutes when the train stopped at Falkirk High.

“We only noticed it was missing when the train pulled away, and by then it was too late.

“The harmonium actually belongs to Rob Waters, a bandmate of mine, and he was absolutely gutted to have it nicked.”

But police managed to track down the sneak thief who had taken the £400 harmonium after the former Edinburgh University graduate spotted it for sale on Ebay.

He said: “Luckily for us the thief was a bit dozy because he used a picture of the tea chest we had the harmonium stored in on the Ebay site. It was covered in our handwriting making it really easy to spot.

“I just couldn’t believe our luck. We had been searching for a new one, and in the faint hope of finding our own one, but I really thought it was gone for good.”

“It actually sold to some unlucky punter for £50. I just hope he managed to get his money back.”

The rare instrument was put up for sale on the Ebay auction site by a seller in the Falkirk area calling himself paulpat1964.

A British Transport Police spokesman said: “On a positive note, the harmonium has been recovered and has been returned to its rightful owner.

“Our enquiries regarding the theft are still ongoing.”

A spokesperson for Ebay said: “We are the most transparent online marketplace.

“When an item is confirmed as stolen by law enforcement agencies, we remove it promptly from the site, as we understand happened on this occasion.

“We work very closely with the Police and last year alone, we helped to secure over 200 arrests and guilty verdicts in nearly 70 cases.”

Up until now, Ben Reynolds‘ solo albums have been a mixed bag.

Drone orientated pieces with titles like ‘O Time Thy Pyramids’(on ‘O Joy & Beyond) or ‘The Bard’s Vision Over Stinking Fires’ (on ‘Silver Songs’) left little doubt of his skills or his experimental intentions but somehow lacked a real heart, coming across too often as exercises in style rather than genuinely expressive.

They are interesting and sporadically striking works but Reynolds’ personality seemed strangely hidden.

This cannot be said of his beautiful new album – ‘Two Wings’ out now on Strange Attractors Audio House.

Ben hasn’t abandoned the drone or the Psych elements but the record sounds more integrated and personal.

Over five extended instrumental pieces,the Middle-Eastern and Indian Raga improvisations follow the path of Robbie Basho and, more recently, Sir Richard Bishop.

His accomplished playing helps give the record a balance and consistency lacking on his previous releases.

It’s yet another indicator of the ‘New Weird’ sound stretches way beyond the American borders. artists like Reynolds, Rob St John , Tisso Lake, James Blackshaw, Richard Youngs and Alex Neilson – all based in Northern England or Scotland are proving the movement has a thriving heartland in the UK.

There’s not much of a unifying theme to this podcast, but there are a healthy number of breaking tracks in the playlist, so I guess calling it the Newcast will suffice for want of anything more inspired.

There’s new tracks from the impending singles by Kid Canaveral and The Left Outsides, a good few new bands you’ve never heard of, a couple of JC’s selections for the Toad Records Launch Night and some of the tracks from the sampler that I gave away at the party itself.

There’s also the first Recorded and Produced by Toad song in the world: Fearing Lothian by Uhersky Brod.  The band are friends of mine and we used the Toad Sessions recording equipment to put togethera demo for them.  It’s the first time I’ve ever recorded anything, so I presume there must be all sorts of issues with it but, well, you’ve got to start somewhere.  It’s a cracking song, whatever I’ve ended up doing to it.

So I hope you enjoy this rather disjointed collection of songs, because for all the lack of any real coherence it’s a good collection of songs nonetheless.

Toadcast #31 – The Newcast

01. Cinerama – Health & Efficiency (03.57)
02. David Cronenburg’s Wife – My Ukrainian Girlfriend (12.39)
03. The Ukrainians – Batya (Bigmouth Strikes Again) (16.14)
04. The Lucksmiths – T-Shirt Weather (21.34)
05. Porlolo – There is No I in Athens (26.22)
06. Uhersky Brod – Fearing Lothian (33.17)
07. Sparrow & the Workshop – Grizzly Bear (38.46)
08. The Futureheads – The Beginning of the Twist (43.24)
09. Kid Canaveral – Teenage Fanclub Song (47.11)
10. The Left Outsides – The Third Light (53.15)
11. King Creosote – Ear Against the Wireless (61.34)
12. Eagleowl – Blanket (64.50)
13. Rob St. John – Domino (72.22)
14. Les Enfant Bastard – Plastic Bag (79.27)
15. Dinosaur Pile-Up – My Rock ‘n’ Roll Demo (85.43)
16. Computer vs. Banjo – Give Up on Ghosts (95.06)

The delicate charm of Rob St John’s ‘Tipping In’ EP shows that inspiration of New Weird America is far from being just a stateside phenomenon.This is a magical record which I had no hesitation in giving a 10 star rating in my Whisperin’ & Hollerin’ review.

Three tracks and less than 15 minutes left me wanting to hear more and also made me curious to find out more about the man behind the sound.

Rob very kindly agreed to answer some questions.

So if you want to know why Jack Johnson sucks, how musical dots can connect Godspeed You Black Emperor with Bert Jansch or simply need a hearty veggie meal in Edinburgh, read on …….

Good question. I study the ecology of rainforest trees, with particular focus on how they’ll respond to climate change. It’s something I think about a lot, so yes, I guess that feeling can permeate its way into the songs. ‘Tipping In’ actually came about from trying to find a bookbinder to make a book for me, which proved difficult as it’s a dying art. Tipping In is the process where pages from old books can be seamlessly reinserted into the right place. I like the idea of making do and mend, of restoring. It’s intentionally ambiguous, in that not many people are well versed in bookbinding. I try and achieve the same thing to an extent in my lyrics. I think the individual meanings people find and relate to in the song are more important than what I originally mean. I guess to ‘tip in’ suggests a sudden change resulting from a long period of stress. If someone can take something from the song, then that’s far more important than me prattling on about my life.

Your songs have a very poetic quality – is this something that comes easily to you or do you have to work at it? (What writers – musical or literary – have been a particular strong influence?)

I find it difficult to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and write a song from scratch, it’s a self-defeating process as more often than not it’ll end up pretty one-dimensional. The best songs, in my opinion, are the ones in which you have to delve into layers of meaning in the lyrics. I write snatches of lyrics pretty much every day. I get through loads of little notebooks like this, and I think my songwriting would be scuppered if I lost them, as with them I have the bare bones of a song, I’ll go to these notebooks and try and piece together a song. This can be pretty disastrous and disjointed (there’s dozens and dozens of songs that’ll never see the light of day), but when it works, I hope it gives a depth to the lyrics, I guess with the common theme of how I think about and view things around me. As for influences, I like the economy and poise of Bill Callahan, James Yorkston and Nina Nastasia, and the way Will Oldham is happy to sing out of tune/time whatever, but still put across a million times more emotion than someone classically trained and boring. Bert Jansch is a real influence too, the directness and honesty of his songs. Stephen Malkmus is a fantastic lyricist, I like the way he’ll choose words not just for their meaning but for how they actually sound and can be sung.Writers I like are Hermann Hesse, Ernest Hemingway, Salman Rushdie and, in particular Dylan Thomas. I really enjoy writing about nature from people like Aldo Leopold and Alfred Wainwright as they never really slip into an overtly romanticised, pastoral and picturesque view of nature, instead one which is realistic.

What is the average time it takes from when the muse first strikes to the point when you are happy with a finished version of a song?

It really depends, often an idea will be floating around for ages, and then one day I’ll hit upon some lyrics to suit. Anything from 10 minutes to a year (what a non-answer!!).

There’s a wonderfully diverse assortment of instruments on the tracks on your EP – Louise Martin’s musical saw is a particularly inspired touch – is this backing carefully planned or does it come together spontaneously?

I really admire people like Bill Callahan, Will Oldham and Nick Cave for using each album to push themselves into new territory. There’s a lot of acoustic dross out there, and you have to do something to avoid being part of it, avoiding the uninformed journalistic soma that is the “Nick Drake” or “Jose Gonzales” genre (for the record, I love Nick Drake’s music, in parts, but feel there’s so many poor imitators out there, and lazy journalists willing to lump them all together, that I try and avoid being part of all that).The instrumentation came about a month before the EP was recorded, up until then I had a constant band mate in Rob Waters on the harmonium, but brought in Andy on the cello and Louise on the saw to try and fill out and add texture and layers to the sound. I listen to a lot of Godspeed You Black Emporer, Amiina etc, and think folk music has the amazing (and relatively unexplored) ability to mirror post-rock through jumping from very hushed guitar and vocals to a very loud crescendo. I play these songs live with drums, bass, and sometimes electric guitar, which when you’re playing on bills with dreary acoustic acts it can make things very interesting!!I trust everyone in the band to bring their own parts to the songs, and I’ll suggest changes if I think they need them, but otherwise am pretty relaxed. Everyone’s far better musicians than me, and so parts come together very quickly. The next record is going to be even more orchestrated I think, with more quiet/loud passages, and more obscure instrumentation.

You have declared a healthy (and understandable!) disregard for Jack Johnson – if challenged, how do you distinguish what you do from what he does?

Where to start? To me he typifies all that is wrong about seemingly ‘alt‘ mainstream bands, so dreary. There’s no wit or invention or any sign of spark in his lyrics. It’s wallpaper music of the lowest order.

A multiple choice question : if someone calls you a folk singer do you: a) Punch them b) Smile condescendingly and change the subject c) Agree wholeheartedly and exchange a list of trad songs you both love d) None of the above

A mix of b) and c) i think. I have a real love for folk music, but am constantly aware that every generation should be charged with making progress in whatever they do. James Yorkston is fantastic at playing old songs (for example “the snow it melts the soonest”) but playing them as if they are Can or Faust with folk instruments. For me, that’s so much more interesting than hearing the same old reels being played like a broken record.

What are your thoughts on the New Weird America label?

In general, a brilliant thing. When it reached Britain a few years ago, it was a real inspiration to hear so much interesting and new music. Joanna Newsom is another who is great at taking elements of old folk songs and totally reinventing and updating them. I’m a little dubious of how that generation has in some ways sold itself to TV advertising, but I guess if you’re a full time musician, you’ve got to pay the bills one way or another.

I get the impression that there’s a very positive and supportive community based around The Forest Social café & arts space in Edinburgh – can you describe how this works and say how you (as a non Scot) came to be part of it?

I don’t really have that much to do with the Forest Cafe. They were kind enough to grant me some money to make ‘Tipping In’ – which I’m very grateful for – but I think in general, our musical views and ethos diverge. They’re generally good people though, and are definitely trying to do a good thing.

Is downloading killing music?

No way, it’s invigorating it. For artists like myself, the main way you’re going to make any money at all, and keep going, is by playing gigs, and selling merchandise there. People are unlikely to come to your gig unless they can hear you through the internet. There’s a real backlash with so many artists finding it viable to release 7 inch vinyl, as listeners now crave something tangible and permanent, which can only be a good thing.

Why is the record label called ‘Fife Kills‘?

The people who run it are from Fife in Scotland. I think it lends itself to great puns…for example: Fife Kills: London (a tour we did) and Fife Kills: hippies (a gig we played). Everyone’s very supportive of each other, which leads to a great environment from which to do something interesting and new. We all help out on each other’s songs as well. I would suggest starting with artists like The Great Bear, Tisso Lake, The Wee Rogue, My Kappa Roots, Eagleowl and Randan Discotheque if anyone’s interested. No one has any masterplan for being in the NME or famous or anything like that. Once you crave fame and success, it becomes too easy to take yourself too seriously, which can only be a bad thing. That there’s so many people doing interesting and worthy music outside of the public eye, with no regard for getting there, can only be a great thing for the state of music in general. I think this stems partly from a disillusionment with the state of the major record industry, and the mess it’s in.

Do you have any plans to tour outside the UK? (My token Bob Harris question!)

What I hope is to be mildly famous in a small European country with good weather (Macedonia/Croatia/etc) where I can tour in the sunshine for the rest of my life.

Finally, a culinary closer – What would you recommend from the Forest Cafe’s current menu?

The food there is hearty, wholesome and cheap (they pay me, literally, to say that). I always go for a delicious Burrito washed down with a tasty Zapatista coffee. Fantastic (and superb value!).

You can hear tracks off Tipping In and more at Rob’s My Space .

Two tracks (Domino & Rainy Day Parade) are available to download for free from Last.fm