Edinburgh = The Centre of The Universe

By Milo | December 9, 2008

So, it’s official, Edinburgh currently has the best music scene anywhere in the world.

If anyone was in any doubt, the Song by Toad Christmas Party at the highly recommended new venue The Bowery drove it home – an hour of so-called open mic, which included already established acts like Eagleowl, Les Enfant Bastard, and one of the blokes out of Broken Records, along with some great new discoveries (for me at least) – White Heath with their tuba/fiddle, and the Japanese War Effort with his “amazing” tape cassettes. (disclaimer: Believing it was an open mic and not realising everyone else was going to be so bloody good, I also played a couple of songs which everyone was very nice about considering the company I was keeping!)

Not only that, but after a lovely set of ukelele tweeness by honorary Edinburger Allo’ Darlin, Meursault played a blinder that cemented their status as the best band in the city at the moment. That is, on top of their rave reviews by Plan B, Mojo, Word Magazine, Said The Gramophone, The Skinny, etc etc blah blah blah.

And then there was that letter to the NME.. (don’t believe what they say about Les Enfant Bastard though!)

All I can say is congrats to Meursault, obviously, and Matthew Song By Toad for all the hard work he put into this. I reckon his blog, which I’ve only recently discovered, is one of the reasons why the scene has improved so much here, along with of course a bunch of very clued up and enthusiastic promoters such as Tracer Trails, the Gentle Invasion, Trampoline, Limbo, Black Tape, This is Music? etc, and of course the wonderful peeps who work their asses off getting the word out, on the whole for zero pay, at Fresh Air radio, Leith FM, The Skinny Magazine and www.isthismusic.com (apologies, and let me know if you should have been mentioned here, I can be a bit dozy sometimes).

With his new label Song By Toad Records, he’s made it possible for anyone who wants a copy to get hold of two of this year’s best releases Meursault’s Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues (album artwork by the aforementioned Mr Bastard ) and eagleowl’s For the Thoughts You Never Had both digitally and in CD format – and he’s done a damn professional job of it too. There are a few other obvious people he needs to sign too but the poor bloke must be knackered so perhaps he can sign Withered Hand, Rob St. John, Les Enfant Bastard and the rest in the New Year.

Related Posts

Comments are closed.