Song By Toad

Music-themed Christmas parties round-up

Festive shindigs on offer from Song, By Toad, Phantom Band, James Yorkston, Fence and more

13 Dec 2011

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas in Scotland’s indie village without a bunch of our favourite bands getting together to chip in for mince pies and mulled wine and treat us to / inflict upon us some of their most diligently practiced seasonal covers. Yes…

Trips and Falls - People Have to Be Told

Sophomore effort from the Quebecois guitar-poppers

19 Sep 2011

(Song, By Toad) People Have to Be Told is the second album from Quebec based guitar pop outfit Trips and Falls. Building on the spooky promise of last year's He Was Such a Quiet Boy, Trips and Fall's new record is a more consistent and polished…

The best Scottish websites

The top 30 websites made for and by Scots

21 Jul 2011

When putting together this list, we weren’t necessarily looking for the biggest or the best-known cultural websites in Scotland. We were looking for unique and interesting ideas, cleverly realised and lovingly maintained on the web. This might mean that…

The best Christmas gigs in Edinburgh and Glasgow

Burns, Zombie Nation, Ballboy and Broken Records among Christmas party gig highlights

10 Dec 2010

Stars In Their Eyes special/ Song, By Toad’s Christmas party/ Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles/ Death Disco’s XXXmas Party/ Radio Magnetic’s Winter Rave/ Mungo’s Hi-Fi/ Bill Wells’ Black Christmas In a bygone olden, golden era – circa 1995 BC…

Inspector Tapehead - Duress Code

Cleverly made and head-scratchingly catchy debut

5 Aug 2010

(Song, By Toad Records) Inspector Tapehead are folkies; but not in the strictly traditional or rather cynical ‘I’m a Mumford, me’ sense. Yes, Duress Code boasts clattering rhythms, acoustic strumming and the raw delivery and lyrical romance you might…

King Creosote, Meursault & Animal Magic Tricks - Cold Seeds

10 Jun 2010

(Song, by Toad) Eerie and sumptuous as the participants list might suggest, this corker’s only let-down is its sporadic tendency to meander without direction.

How the capital sound of Edinburgh's music scene is rising

31 Mar 2010

For a long time it’s felt as though Edinburgh’s music scene has had to play second fiddle to its cooler, bigger West Coast brother, picking up on Glasgow’s trends and regularly borrowing its records, its clothes and a little of its cachet. But while the…

Trips and Falls - He Was Such A Quiet Boy

22 Mar 2010

(Song, By Toad) Guitar pop from Montreal, via pivotal Edinburgh blogger and label-runner Song, By Toad. Thoughtful, twinkling alt-country, where everything gets cloaked in a eerie cobweb of quirky keyboards and slowly-bowed cellos. Spookily charming.

Labels of love: Song, By Toad Records

6 Jan 2010

When and why did you launch the label? Basically, we got plastered with Broken Records and promised them that if they didn’t get signed by March 2008 then we’d release their album. They did get signed [to indie institute 4AD], but by then the idea had…

Music Websites

Where to go to find great new music

2 Oct 2009

The Hype Machine (www.hypem.com) An oldie but a goodie. Trawl blogs from around the world here, stream new bands and normally stumble across tons of fresh remixes. Set aside a long skive break, as it can get quite distracting. (Claire Sawers…

Art Fag (Song by Toad Night) - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sun 30 Aug

3 Sep 2009

There’s a communal feel at this night for local record label Song By Toad, in Edinburgh’s cosiest venue. Everyone seems to know everyone as the applause is fierce, and nobody feels right standing at the back. It does mean the impact of Art Fag’s Neil…