The wait is finally over, ladies and gentlemen, because… *drum roll* …I hereby announce the debut album by Edinburgh’s most elusive pop merchants Jesus H. Foxx.

To celebrate, as is our way because we’re just bloody lovely people, we are giving away a couple of singles to encourage you, largely through the cultivation of guilt, to shell out ten of your finest pounds to purchase the album. Actually, even your tattiest ones will be fine, we’re not fussy. In fact, fuck it, even if you don’t want the album, you could always just send us some money.

Anyhow, we are just looking for a suitable venue for a swanky release party and BOOM, Endless Knocking will officially be loose in the wild.  It’s a gorgeous album too, switching from frenetic to woozy, from rich and melodic to choppy and hyperactive, and it may have been a little bit of a wait, but it was very much worth it.

On the 30th April we will be releasing our first album of 2012: the rather fantastic An Eagle to Saturn by The Leg. I’ve wanted to release this album ever since I first heard Twitching Stick at the beginning of last year, and now we have it, on both fine heavyweight vinyl and CD.

As well as Twitching Stick, which was on the 2012 Song, by Toad Records Free Sampler, we are now offering Bake Yourself Silly as a free download to help you decide whether or not to buy the album (hint: the answer is Yes), which you can do here

Also, on Saturday 28th April we will be holding a very special party to celebrate the launch at a secret venue in Edinburgh’s Old Town. Due to the slightly dubious nature of the space itself we’ll be meeting upstairs at The Wash bar, which is the closest by – between 7 and 8pm, and will then all walk up to the place together.

The Leg will be supplying a little wine and maybe a beer or two – no need to bring your own.

As it’s a private party, you’ll need to be invited. This can happen by putting down a non-refundable deposit on a CD or LP – then if you want to, you can pay the balance on the night and I’ll give you your record. If you don’t, you don’t have to. Either way, if you put down a deposit, I’ll almost certainly be grateful enough to give you an invite. Simple. You can do this here:

Sorry, ticket link down now. A few should be available on the door though, so meet us in The Wash between about 7 and 8pm.

Seeing as that evening also happens to feature the excellent Papi Falso at Henry’s Cellar Bar, we can also inform you that if you wish to attend both you will receive a pound off both tickets, so we can all go and get fannied later on the cheap.

And, as promised, here is the new single which you can download from the Soundcloud player below – enjoy!

Bake Yourself Silly by Song, by Toad

Caring about music is nice, but it’s pretty easy.  We like stuff, we don’t like stuff, we grievously insult people with different opinions from ourselves… the usual tedious carping.

However, once a year we get the chance to do something a little bit more, and to actually make a bit of a contribution to the world: Mrs Toad organises the Stockbridge collection for the RNLI – the lifeboats for you acronymophobes – and on Saturday 28th April we will be asking you for a little help.

Every year we collect for the RNLI between 10am and 4pm here in Stockbridge and every year our friends and various music allies turn out to help us.  We are very grateful for the help, and once again this year we will be asking for it.  Usually the incentives we offer involve roast lamb and plenty of wine, but this year we can add another gentle inducement:

On the evening of the 28th April Edinburgh’s sonic alchemists The Leg will be launching their new album An Eagle to Saturn at a mystery venue in Edinburgh’s Old Town, and if you choose to be so nice as to help us collect for the lifeboats beforehand then Mrs. Toad and I will pay for your ticket to the album launch show.  As well as plying you with roast meat and wine.

So in other words, if you don’t turn up and help out, you must be a pretty dismal sort of fucker; shame on you. Tickets for The Leg album launch can be bought in person from me, from the band, or from Avalanche Records in the Grassmarket.

Hi-res album artwork

Since releasing the Matter EP on Song, by Toad Records in August 2009, their debut album has been, they have assured me, mere weeks away from completion.  And two and a half years later, here it is.

The album was actually finished, once, in October 2010 but when the band listened to the final mixes for some reason it just didn’t excite them – sounding a bit over-worked and not really coming together as a complete album.

So after some brutal remixing of existing stuff, stripping some songs back to no more than the original drum track, and entirely re-recording others from scratch, suddenly Endless Knocking came together almost immediately, and sounded as they wanted it right from the very beginning.

And so, after a rather quiet two and a half years, Jesus H. Foxx have a couple of singles coming up, a whole new album to present, and a considerably re-vamped lineup from the last time they regularly graced Scottish venues.  They are still very much themselves though, and I suppose that essence was what was such a challenge to capture on record.

01. The Reins, Quick
02. So the Wind Won’t…
03. Permanent Defeat
04. Elegy For the Good
05. Twins
06. Half the Man You Were
07. This is Not a Rental Car
08. So Much Water
09. Twins (reprise)
10. J+J
11. Paris

Hi-res album artwork

This is officially released on 30th April 2012, so you can order it now (and for cashflow reasons we’d be delighted if you did) but we won’t be posting them out for a little while yet.

I still can’t decide if I think this album is an amazing pop record or just plain fucking mental. Like most of the best albums I reckon it’s a bit of both.

The first song I heard from this was Twitching Stick and I can’t remember being so fucking excited to be screamed at by a madman before.  I can’t think of many more creepy lyrics, either, than “There are no stitches ’cause there was no operation”, from Bake Yourself Silly, although I’m not entirely sure what it is that’s so creepy about it.

01. An Eagle to Saturn
02. Twitching Stick
03. Bake Yourself Silly
04. Witch on the Speaker
05. Sad as Dead Monkeys
06. The Birds are Falling
07. Freda Bolt
08. God Don’t Like It
09. Jingle Bells in the Summertime
10. ?

The PR blurb for this states the following: “BioFresh is a European Union project which is putting together the scattered pieces of information about life in our rivers and lakes, to better understand, manage and protect our freshwaters for generations to come.”

In essence, that’s all you need to know, I suppose.  This is a music blog, so I guess some of you will find this a compelling reason to investigate further and some will not. I hope you do though, because it looks like a very interesting project.

Rob St. John and FOUND‘s Tommy Perman were part of the team which put together the video above, however, and it’s so nice that I really did have to post it.  Click through to either the Vimeo page for the video itself or to the homepage of BioFresh if you want to find out a bit more.  And if you don’t then just admire the animation, the wonderful delivery of the poetry and the lovely grumble of the music in the video.

First up is very simple: Meursault are playing a short-notice show at the Old Blue Last on Tuesday 27th March (yes, this coming Tuesday).  Support comes from Neverest Songs, tickets are a bargain £5.50 and can be purchased here, and the venue is in Shoreditch somewhere and can be found here.

I will be coming along as well, in case any of my London pals are around and fancy a pint.  As for the rest of you, as you were.

Secondly, as we are on the verge of Meursault’s third album, we have decided to invite submissions from people who would like to make a video for the first single from the record, Flittin’.

In order to submit please email me on toad at songbytoad.com with a sample of previous work, and a rough outline of your idea.  A couple of images might help too, if you want to show us a particular graphic style.  We’ll have a look at all the submissions over the next week or so, and then pick the one we like best.  The deadline for completion is going to be the end of April, so don’t pick anything too complicated to be achieved on that timescale.

In terms of cash, well we’re a tiny label and we don’t have much, but there will be a couple of hundred quid in it for you and we will do our best to make it worth your while in terms of promotion as well.

To try and protect ourselves from leaks and not to ruin the surprise of the single itself, we obviously won’t be sharing the finished song with anyone other than the person we ask to make the video, but to help you in your brainstorming, here’s a demo version from last year’s free Song, by Toad Records Sampler:

Shhhh! Sat 4 Feb 2012 – Rob St John from The Local on Vimeo.

Rob St. John’s album Weald was the first thing I ever worked on here at Song, by Toad Records and it’s safe to say we were all pretty chuffed with the response it got, and deservedly so. Rob is a real pleasure to work with as he is the kind of artist who just loves to create and keep busy, the fact he is a nice chap is an added bonus. We are releasing Weald on CD in a couple of months, and from someone who generally hates CD, it looks absolutely amazing. Rob has also been busy writing and recording new material. Here is a version of Stainforth Force he recorded for Shhhh! Festival and The Line of Best Fit.

The sampler is a combination of things we’ll be releasing this year, mixed in with a couple of things from 2011 and interspersed with a few brilliant moments from the late Kenneth Williams’ reading of the Wind in the Willows. Snippets from this reading litter my own weekly podcast, and inspired the name of the label in the first place, so it seemed kind of fitting to pop a couple on here.

You can download this little parcel of digital fun from Bandcamp for free, and we are sending out a few to our favourite record shops to give away as well, so if you want a CD either come to a Song, by Toad gig in Edinburgh or go to a record shop.

Tracklisting:

02. So the Wind Won’t… by Jesus H. Foxx
I’ve been waiting for their debut album through two years of ‘nearly theres’, but it is finally finished, it sounds brilliant and will be ready for release on 14th May 2012.

03. Twitching Stick by The Leg
Formerly Khaya, then Desc, The Leg are veterans of several Peel Sessions and several releases already, but have agreed to release their next album An Eagle to Saturn with us. Coming out on 30th April, this is abrasive as fuck, but definitely still surprisingly poppy, considering.

04. The Acid Test by Rob St. John
We released Rob’s debut album Weald on vinyl last year, and the response was so overwhelmingly positive we’ve decided to give it a wider release on CD too. Rob being Rob, of course, he’s already planning to record his second album, probably in our living room again.

05. Sorry by Waiters
06. Teenage Bloom by Dolfinz
08. Gay Marriage by Sex Hands
On the subject of recording in our living room, the Waiters, Dolfinz and Sex Hands tracks are from a split 12” (which will also include hotly-tipped* Glasgow band PAWS) all of which was recorded almost entirely live in the living room of our house by myself and Rory Sutherland from Broken Records. It’s sort of a compilation of some of my favourite underground, garagey (and frighteningly young) bands, and we’ve just had it mastered, so it will hopefully be ready for release in late March or early April.

09. A Mother’s Arms (demo) by Meursault
It feels like we’ve been waiting quite a long time for the third Meursault album too, doesn’t it. Well it’s finally done, and we are looking at a release date in mid-July, with a release night pencilled in for Saturday 7th July in the Queen’s Hall.

10. School (Toad Session) by The Black Tambourines
We recorded a Toad Session with these guys last year and immediately offered to release something. I’m not sure what it’ll be yet – probably an EP in the Autumn I would guess.

11. Lay Me Down by Yusuf Azak
From his unspeakably gorgeous second album, due out in 2012 sometime, depending on when I get a final master.

12. That is a Big Door! by Trips and Falls
From their second album, People Have to Be Told, released in September 2011.

13. Dead Golden Girls by Lil Daggers
From their self-titled debut album, which we released on vinyl at the end of last year.

14. Pinkening by Animal Magic Tricks
This was recorded just after 2009’s stunning Cold Seeds album, which was a collaboration between Frances from Animal Magic Tricks, Pete Harvey and Neil Pennycook from Meursault and Kenny Anderson from King Creosote. There still isn’t what you could describe as a finished version, but I am not giving up hope because it is a gorgeous album, even just as it stands at the moment.

15. Pool Attendant by The Japanese War Effort
This is from 2011’s Summer Sun Skateboard, and we hope to release another mini-album with Jamie in the Autumn of 2012.

16. Blue Overcoat by Lach
From 2011 vinyl album Ramshackle Heart.

18. Movies and Magazines by King Post Kitsch
A free dowload from kingpostkitsch.bandcamp.com After a year in Glasgow, Charlie has moved back down to London, and after his awesome debut The Party’s Over in early 2011 I am eagerly looking forward to new material.

*Yes, I know I said ‘hotly-tipped’, but honestly, they are, I’m not just copy-and-pasting from The Big Book of PR Clichés.

And to make matters worse, he has just moved to Florida and will therefore get to see Song, by Toad Records band Lil Daggers long before I ever get to.  Which makes me resent him even more.  The bastard.

And apart from all that, he is clearly even nicer than I described because for the second year running Jamie has put together a fantastic compilation of songs, which are now available to purchase with all funds going to benefit the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths.

We at Song, by Toad donated a couple of tracks to the compilation as well, which is a nice thing to be asked to do, so if you wish to contribute four quid or more (it should be more, really, shouldn’t it – go on, cough up, you can fucking afford it) you can hear the recording of Jesus H. Foxx’s This is Not a Rental Car from their forthcoming debut album Endless Knocking, and also PAWS’ brilliant Kill a Familiar, which we’ll be releasing on a split 12″ with Waiters, Sex Hands and Dolfinz later in the year.

You can listen to the whole thing on Bandcamp below, but please do buy the thing.  There are thirty-six songs on there, and it is well worth the money.

 

Soundtracked: Matthew Young by Olivia Rafferty on Mixcloud

I have been away from the internet for the last couple of days, largely due to spending all afternoon in a restaurant with Mrs. Toad on Sunday and then yesterday lying curled up in a ball of tears fending off the ravages of an almighty hangover.  To the untrained eye it might even look like I have been entirely slacking off, but that isn’t entirely true

On Saturday I managed to find time to record three songs with Rob St. John and his band, nip into Fresh Air Radio to do a quick ‘This is Your Life’ style interview except in a musical sense.  I was invited to pick eight songs, and the player above will allow you to listen back to the show, if you’re interested.  Thanks to Olivia for inviting me down, and I hope you enjoy it.

The tracklisting, for those too lazy to even click links, is as follows:

1. Duran Duran – The Reflex
The first song I ever remember being excited about as a child.  My mum and I went out and bought Seven and the Ragged Tiger on the day of release, around my eighth birthday.  Most of my early music taste was pop stuff I got from my mum – Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Bowie, Kate Bush and stuff like that.

2. The Piranhas – Getting Beaten Up
My cousin Steve used to send me amazing mixtapes, and introduced me to The Dead Kennedys, The Specials, The Clash, REM, The Smiths, Billy Bragg, John Cooper Clark, Adam and the Ants and loads of others.  I loved this song as a kid.

3. Pearl Jam – Black
The first time I liked popular music at the time it was actually popular, and probably the first time I got music from my peers rather than my parents, because we moved around such a lot as kids that I tended to get most of my music from my parents’ record collection.  They didn’t like Pearl Jam.

4. Gene – Sick, Sober & Sorry
When I went to university I made friends with a guy called James Strath, and this was the first time I really got into bands before they’d even released their first album.  Bands like Pulp and Blur I already liked, but Strath and I eagerly anticipated (and ended up being disappointed by) both the Gene and Bluetones’ debut albums.

5. Yo La Tengo – By the Time it Gets Dark
After uni I ended up as a bit of a nomad, living in the States, Canada, Manchester and Cambridge before settling in London for about three or four years.  My music collection was all over the place at this point, and I lost loads of CDs because carrying them around was such a pain, but I really remember picking this EP up in Newberry Comics in Hyannis on Cape Cod and playing it lots when I was feeling down.

6. Billy Bragg & Wilco – Hesitating Beauty
I could pick a lot of songs to represent my marriage to Mrs. Toad, including ‘Better Off Without a Wife’ by Tom Waits which happened to be playing, by sheer coincidence, when we got back from the Mairie, having signed all our papers.  This one however is the one which Mrs. Toad likes the most, so it’s the one that sticks most in my mind.  The hesitating part is particularly fitting too, as I asked her to marry me pretty much once a day for two years before she capitulated.

7. Meursault – The Furnace
The first song I ever heard by Meursault, and the first thing we released on Song, by Toad Records.  When I heard Meursault for the first time I genuinely did that ‘sit up and take notice double-take’ thing you see in cartoons.  And now, almost four years later, here I am.

8. Waiters – Brisk
Since doing the Toad Sessions I have started doing a lot of recording as well, and this is the first thing I’ve engineered myself which we’ll actually be releasing, on a split 12″ out in May.

Except I shan’t be mostly mastering because in all honestly I have no fucking idea what that is.  Apparently it is tweaking the teeny-tiniest of things in the final mix of a song and still somehow making the most significant of differences. I’ve heard a good masterer get the most amazing clarity of instrumentation from a shitty, over-compressed mp3 file, to the extent that it sounded amazing on vinyl.

We tend to use Reuben Taylor for our mastering these days.  As well as being a lovely (if slightly mental) fellow, he does an amazing job for a very reasonable fee in a very short space of time.  He was responsible for the Meursault All Creatures vinyl, as well as the gorgeous Rob St. John record and the King Post Kitsch Honeytone EP.

Anyhow, today Rory Sutherland, who helped me record and engineer the record, and I will be off with the final mixes for the split 12″ we’ve been recording with Waiters, Sex Hands, Dolfinz and PAWS and this will be the first time I have witnessed the process first hand.  So I’ll be sure to tell you what unspeakable wizardry takes place in the mastering suite.  Assuming, of course, that I understand any of it at all.

All these photos were taken by the fantastic Nic Rue.  Except the shit one.  That was Rory.

Anyhow, two bits of news:

Meursault are touring the UK and Europe as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s main support. 

Rob St. John is playing SHHH Festival.

The latter won’t clog up the page with tour dates, so I’ll do that first. The SHHH Festival is a celebration of quiet music and film, with bands playing, a film about David Thomas Broughton and musicians soundtracking silent movies.  It’s on Saturday 4th February at the Gallery Cafe in London and is less than a tenner too, so get your tickets here.

Now, as to the former little announcement, Meursault have been very kindly invited to support Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on their tour of the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe at the end of the month.  I’m not sure what else there is to say about this apart from the fact that it’s fucking incredible news, and to thank Clap Your Hands for inviting them. All the ticket info and the like can be found on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s website, but I’ve included a list of the dates below for ease of browsing. The only gig Meursault will be missing will be the Paris date on the 15th of February (which I haven’t listed below anyway).

25/1/12 – Dublin, Tripod
26/1/12 – Cork, Pavilion
27/1/12 – Galway, Roisin Dubh
28/1/12 – Glasgow, SWG3
30/1/12 – Leeds, The Cockpit
31/1/12 – Norwich, Waterfront
2/2/12 – Manchester, Ritz
3/2/12 – Liverpool, O2 Academy
4/2/12 – Bristol, Thekla
6/2/12 – Birmingham, HMV Library
7/2/12 – Brighton, Coalition
8/2/12 – London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire
10/2/12 – Utrecht, Tivoli
11/2/12 – Brussels, Orangerie
12/2/12 – Copenhagen, Frost Fest, Bremen Theatre
14/2/12 – Berlin, Postbahnhof
16/2/12 – Munich, Theaterfabrik
17/2/12 – Zurich, Plaza Club
18/2/12 – Bologna, Covo Club

Man man man man man this was fun.  And it sounds fucking brilliant!

Yesterday afternoon was spent at Toad Hall recording half of the songs for the Split 12″ we’ll be releasing in roughly April or May this year.  I described this on the Song, by Toad Records 2012 podcast we posted on the weekend, and included songs by all but one of the bands (for the fourth, see this podcast).

The plan, simply enough, is to record four songs by four bands we happen to think are brilliant, and then release them on a 12″.  We’re recording most of the tracks live, a lot like the Toad Sessions, and will be releasing videos of songs which we shoot live as we record, again a lot like the Toad Sessions.  I suppose you could describe this release as being like a release of a Toad Session recording, albeit a little more polished and without the interview bits and stuff like that.

Anyhow, Manchester bands Sex Hands and Waiters came through yesterday to record their bits, Dolfinz are recording on Friday and Saturday, and then Paws, who have business in London, will be doing their songs after they play Vic Galloway’s next Electric Circus night at the end of the month.

I remember when the Cold Seeds album was finished, and when Rob, Neil and Tom Western emerged from the living room after finishing the recording for Weald – everyone was high as a kite and absolutely wired.  I’ve been the same today – absolutely unable to do anything except work on preliminary mixes of yesterday’s recording to send down to the bands for feedback.

I know the industry is full of cynicism and all sorts of shit, but making music is just plain fucking exciting!

Here are a couple of videos to let you know who I’m talking about here:

We’ve got a couple of our more recent releases, like Rob St. John and Lil Daggers, as well as some of our confirmed and ready new albums for next year, by the likes of The Leg, Jesus H. Foxx and Yusuf Azak.

I’ve also got a couple of tracks from bands we’ll be releasing on a split 12″ in the Spring.  We’ll be recording that stuff in our house next week, so the songs we chose to represent those bands are for obvious reasons not the final ones we’ll be releasing, just tracks by the bands so you can get a bit of a flavour of what we’re up to.

With Ian on board and based on the good press we managed last year I am hoping we can really kick on with the label this year and make a decent impression.  Obviously the third Meursault album will  help, what with them being our most established band, but we have a good spread of stuff, from bands like Dolfinz with only a few demos to their name, to the likes of Yusuf Azak and The Leg who people know already and then the Foxx album, which has been ‘much anticipated’ for a while now.

So all in all it should be an exciting year, I reckon.  Enjoy!

Direct download: Toadcast #208 – Song, by Toad Records 2012

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on Mixcloud

01. Mongrels – I’m Gonna Murder Justin Bieber (00.21)
02. King Post Kitsch – The Make the Same Faces Whether Fuck or Fight (02.46)
03. Meursault – Flittin’ (locationmusic.tv Piano Version) (08.49)
04. Rob St. John – The Acid Test (17.59)
05. Lil Daggers – Dead Golden Girls (22.05)
06. Paws – Bloodline (Toad Session) (31.52)
07. Jesus H. Foxx – This is Not a Rental Car (40.31)
08. The Leg – Twitching Stick (43.00)
09. Sex Hands – Jinglebitch (51.56)
10. Dolfinz – Blowhole (55.36)
11. Yusuf Azak – Lay Me Down (63.12)

(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 embellished a couple more with a little extra instrumentation to flesh out the full album, and the band wanted to make this available as a free download so you can see where it all came from.

I actually received a copy of the EP anonymously before I ever started Song, by Toad Records and that’s how we ended up working with the band.  Enjoy.

Anyhow, as you may have noticed in August, the engine room behind the New York Antifolk scene has now moved to Edinburgh and as such is the subject of a documentary on BBC Radio Scotland, which broadcasts in about forty-five minutes, and again on Sunday the 1st January, and will be available on the iPlayer after that.

I am not entirely certain, I have to confess, about how overseas people can hear the thing, but I am sure that the more determined of you can figure something out. Kids can crack this shit in minutes these days, can’t they?

The guys from La Blogotheque have been incredibly supportive of both Song, by Toad and, in particular, Meursault over the last few years, but due to their living in Paris and I in Scotland I’ve never actually met them in person.

Nevertheless, on their last European tour Meursault managed to finally take advantage of their long-standing invitation to record a session, although it was something of a stretch to actually manage it.  Having played their last show in Berlin the night before, and with a ferry booking later in the afternoon, Sam drove for eleven hours to get the band to Paris, dozed in the van while they recorded the session, and then carried on to the ferry and then Oxford without stopping.

Just in case you thought we didn’t work the little fuckers hard enough…

La Blogotheque have just published the session, and it looks fantastic. They’ve been doing this for a long time now so the sessions are bloody great, and their archive is truly amazing.  I’d like to thank them for their patience in waiting for this to finally happen, and also for the amazing support they’ve given us over the last few years.  Enjoy!

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 then more music from 7pm until we have to bugger off at eleven.  No hints as to who and when though, sorry.

The venue is here.  And the event is in the community hall downstairs, which is to be found through the door shown in Streetview below.

Umm… that’s about it.  Hope to see you there.  Happy Christmas!

Cheers,
Matthew
]]> http://songbytoadrecords.com/news/song-by-toad-records-christmas%c2%a0party/feed/ 0 http://songbytoadrecords.com/news/lil-daggers-%e2%80%93-dead-golden%c2%a0girls/ http://songbytoadrecords.com/news/lil-daggers-%e2%80%93-dead-golden%c2%a0girls/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:01:55 +0000 Matthew http://songbytoad.com/?p=13010

Well folks, here we go, our last release of the year! Happy Christmas and all that, and feel free to forget about presents for the kids and buy one last lovely piece of vinyl instead.  Honestly, they’re just kids, they probably won’t remember and they’ll end up resenting you anyway, whatever you do, because kids are ungrateful little shits like that.

Anyhow, Song, by Toad Records’ final act of 2011 (apart from our awesome all-day label Christmas Party on Saturday) is to release the self-titled debut album by Miami’s Lil Daggers.  It’s a nasty record, and my favourite review so far (well, apart from the 5* one we’re apparently getting in Artrocker, which is awesome) was published in Subba Cultcha, where Emma Rochford produced the following little gems:

“this is music which is unashamedly ugly and hostile and it works all the better for it.”

“There are points when, for me, Lil Daggers push it too far and border on the unlistenable which makes this record a bit too much of an uncomfortable listen but I guess that’s pretty much the point. You’d be hard pushed to find a band that can give you the creeps quite like Lil Daggers.”

Now, I might suggest that it’s a little bit more of a pop album than that, but then I have a fairly well developed taste for this kind of growl these days.  Actually I reckon it’s a pretty hummable record, with the possible exception of the ungodly snarl of Ghost Herd, and to prove this we hereby present our usual enticement of a free download, this time of Dead Golden Girls, which can be snagged from the Soundcloud widget below.  And the album, should this tickle your fancy, can be bought here or in Avalanche Records down on the Grassmarket, either on black vinyl or very limited edition grey marbled vinyl.

Dead Golden Girls by Song, by Toad