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.
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!
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.
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:
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