First of all, many apologies to Matthew over at Song, By Toad for not writing this sooner, but I hope he will forgive me.

Song By Toad’s most recent releases have been on vinyl (lucky man), and these have included two 7″s singles by Meursault (I have no.s 99/500 of both!) and today’s special feature. This is a 12″ single, originally put out in America on Bladen County Records, in Portland, Oregon. It comprises two bands, Loch Lomond and The Builders & the Butchers. Each band do their own unique take on Americana. The orginal release was a couple of years ago, and now Matthew and Kate (or Mr. and Mrs. Toad, to give them their blog names) have re-issued it in the UK with new artwork on 12″ vinyl again, and this time with a free cd-r. Matthew actually gave me a copy of the original American 12″ (despite writing like Genghis Khan he is actually a thoroughly decent human being in person…sorry, did I blow your cover there?!) but I’m sure I’ll go and buy the release anyway.

These new editions are limited to 300, designed by Matthew and coloured in by him and his better three-quarters.

These two bands have produced really great songs on this sorta double EP (well, it’s a split single with four, rather fine tracks each).

Hear them, and go and support a fellow blogger cum record company owner.

Loch Lomond -‘A Field Report.’ mp3

The Builders and The Butchers -‘Vampire Lake.’ mp3

The resepctive myspaces for Loch Lomond and The Butchers and The Builders are here.

To buy it, click here. To buy the meursault 7″s start with Avalanche in Edinburgh.