Fri, 9 May 2008  The missus and I got pished and did a podcast! Huzzah! It was a lovely Summery day on Wednesday and we sat out and had a meal in the back garden and then when it got chilly we came inside and did a podcast. There's not much of a theme this week because I can get a little bored of them, and from time to time it's nice to just throw some tracks together that you like. And then get hammered and ramble on about them at interminable length. Sorry about that. 01. Lemonjelly - Nice Weather For Ducks (01.47)02. Elbow - Station Approach (10.47) 03. The Eighteenth Day of May - Cold Early Morning (19.08) 04. Aberfeldy - Tom Weir (25.56) 05. Tiny Tim - Tiptoe Through the Tulips (27.48) 06. Uncle Moon - Pepper (34.41) 07. Lo-Fidelity Allstars - On the Pier (41.32) 08. The Boo Radleys - Find the Answer Within (48.18) 09. The Libertines - The Good Old Days (56.41) 10. The Undertones - Teenage Kicks (65.51) 11. The Von Bondies - C'Mon C'Mon (68.11) 12. The Builders & the Butchers - Spanish Death Song (76.41) 13. The Walkmen - The Rat (82.59) 14. Calexico - Corona (93.33) 15. Lloyd Cole - You're a Big Girl Now (106.46) Comments[0] |
Fri, 18 April 2008 The 28th Toadcast is all about the Fence Collective. People who read this site regularly must know them, I assume, but I’ve been intending to do this post for a while as they might be my favourite label in music at the moment. After Kenny Anderson’s last band fell apart about ten years ago or more, he started releasing his own stuff on hand made CD-Rs under the name of King Creosote and between him and his brothers and some of the other local musicians he’d grown up with in Fife, a collective started to form which has grown and grown. Now, thanks to the spotlight cast their direction by Kenny’s brother Gordon’s involvement with The Beta Band and The Aliens, the success of King Creosote and James Yorkston, and the rising of KT Tunstall (also a Fence alumnus, believe it or not) Fence Records have turned into one of the most beloved record labels in the country. And actually, I think their approach of building a community rather than just pimping product might just have the potential to make them one of the success stories of Music 2.0, although that’s another story. So this podcast is all about Fence Records and the bands I have discovered due to their hard work, and why I think they’re great. What an arse-kisser I’ve turned into. (Warning: I’m drunker than I sound and there is way too much talking in this one.) 01. Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra - Our Last Needle (03.17) Comments[0] |
Fri, 4 April 2008  Well, perhaps Europop isn't quite the right term. Eurindie perhaps. This podcast is stuffed full of splendid tracks from the rest of the European continent which we, as marvellously parochial and narrow-minded Brits, seem to forget exists half the time. I have no real idea how much this music actually intersects with any of the local scenes to which it might belong, but it is certainly nicely in tune with the British scene as I know it at the moment. Scandinavia is inevitably rather over-represented, but I have managed to track down a Belgian, a little Dutch and something (tangentially) Italian to throw into the mix as well. And a special secret bonus surprise for right at the end, but wait for it patiently and don't ruin it for yourselves by peeking. The big thing I can't get over is just how much I had to leave out of this podcast actually. I'd lazily assumed that it might be a little tricky to fill an entire playlist, but I could just as easily have filled two. So don't whinge about what's not on there, because I know, I know! 01. The Divine Comedy - Europop (00.06) Comments[0] |
Mon, 24 March 2008  Here we go folks: the first ever Toad Session, with local band and all-round Toad pals Broken Records. These sessions are generally going to take place in my living room, but seeing as these guys were quite keen to record one and their single release is imminent, it seemed sensible to rush things a little. So given my equipment has yet to arrive, we went down to Banana Row Studios and recorded four session tracks and had a bit of chat, and this is the result. There's a full podcast, mp3s of the individual songs, a Flickr photo gallery and couple of videos of the whole business, so there's lots and lots of stuff to play with. I think in terms of workload I can possibly manage about one of these per month, so keep an eye out in the future. Toadcast #26 - Broken Records Toad Session The mp3s include their forthcoming single If the News Makes You Sad Don't Watch It, a couple of new tracks, Wolves and They All Fell Into the Sea, and a special Toad request, the truly beautiful Out on the Water. Broken Records - If the News Makes You Sad, Don't Watch It The videos are all posted on the main Song, by Toad YouTube page. There are session videos of Out on the Water and Wolves, but the video of the whole session will be posted a little bit later. We're new to this, so the video editing is taking a little bit of time. It should be up in two weeks', hopefully, so you'll have to gird your loins until then I'm afraid, but I promise to let you know as soon as it makes an appearance.
Toadcast #26 Playlist: If I have one slight issue with these it's that they're a little too polished and sensible, really. Not enough of the rude, random style I tend to think gives this site its character. Maybe recording them in the house will change this, but then the recordings won't be as good. Thoughts? Too shiny? Good like this? Let me know what you think. Comments[0] |
Fri, 21 March 2008 
This is a real quickie this week as I am working my hairy little buttocks off on the Broken Records stuff at the moment. Still, in your insatiable thirst for pointless, self-indulgent rambling I was sure you'd want to listen to something splendid in the meantime. There's no underlying theme to anything this week, just me rattling on about some current and very interesting music, as well as a couple of confessions so shocking you may never come back here again. Looking at the playlist, I'm sure you can guess what they are. So good luck with this, and I am already looking forward to the next one. Toadcast #25 - The Quickcast 01. The Futureheads - Broke Up the Time (02.02) Yes, you did read that correctly. Meat Loaf. Fuck off. Comments[0] |
Fri, 14 March 2008 A week or so ago, I recorded a demo show for Fresh Air FM, the local student radio station, with a view to applying for a slot during next term, only the computer ate the bastard thing. Fucking technology. Anyhow, Sunday was Mrs. Toad’s birthday, and for some reason she was keen to get plastered and do a podcast with me, so we re-did it together. It wasn’t played quite as straight as I’d hoped, and by the time I’d had time to reflect on submitting it I was pretty certain Fresh Air would chase me out of the building with sticks. Fortunately for me, however, they didn’t hate it, didn’t seem to think I was a smart-arsed twat and didn’t dispatch me from the building with a boot print in my arse. As this show is just a pre-record and will be going out randomly over the night when they stop broadcasting, I thought I’d pop it up here for you to have a listen. I won’t be doing this with any more Fresh Air things because, well, you need to go over there and listen for yourselves really, don’t you. But for this once I thought you might like it seeing as you shower of treacherous fuckers all seem to love Mrs. Toad so very bloody much. Be warned though, because it was made for a different audience, so there may be a bit of duplication from previous podcasts, and it’s rather long, as apparently there is a lot of time to fill overnight when there are no presenters in the building. The Fresh Air plugs themselves were enough to see us kicked out. 01. Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have to Leave It (03.09) Comments[0] |
Sun, 9 March 2008 In preparation for applying for a slot on Edinburgh's student radio station Fresh Air, I thought I would challenge myself to get through an entire podcast without actually swearing because, on public access radio, you can't use naughty words. A Toad without swearing, you say, what the fuck has the world come to? Well to make sure I don't disappoint you in your noble quest for dissolute anti-culture I thought I'd compensate by playing a collection of the filthiest and most sweary songs I could lay my hands on. Thinking about it, I've managed to forget Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot's truly foul 'Je T'aime, Moi Non Plus', but there you go. I could have improved just about every playlist I've ever done in retrospect, I think, so at some point I have to draw the line. So, I use bad words when I quote other people and when I give you the names of the songs but I don't think I let a single naughty word slip during my own chat on this one, but let me know if you catch me out. 01. Aidan John Moffat - Cunt (01.09)
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Sat, 23 February 2008 Yoo hoo Toadlings, welcome to Toadcast No. 22. This one is a sort of natural follow-on from the series of movie soundtrack posts we ran on the site a week or so ago. I can't believe we managed an entire series without mentioning either Ennio Morricone or Quentin Tarantino. So I've tried to put that part right here, as well as throwing in some corkers by the likes of Nick Cave & Warren Ellis and a few others. It may come across slightly as a novelty podcast, what with the Darth Vader theme music and so on, but I still think it makes an interesting listen. It actually made an interesting listen for me this morning too, because I was so utterly shanghaied on gin by the end of it that I actually don't remember half of the introductions to the songs towards the end. So join me on a voyage of discovery and find out exactly what on earth I found to say about Nick Cave whilst pickled out of my tits on a Friday evening. 01. John Williams - The Imperial March (00.00) My Odeo Channel (odeo/03301a3286442766) Comments[0] |
Wed, 13 February 2008  Greetings and Happy Valentine’s day my little Toadlings. Wait, what’s that? You hate Valentine’s Day? Loathe it in fact? Would dearly love to nuke fucking Hallmark and every last shitty little shop peddling their tawdry baubles and meaningless rubbish that serve no purpose other than to defile the pure concept of true love and disrespect the dignity of the un-mated? Good. Me too. In fact, us too, for the wildly popular (grumble, sulk) Mrs. Toad is back to do the great Valentine’s anti-podcast with me. To bitch and moan, to get side-tracked, to ramble and to poke pointed sticks in the side of the great marketing behemoth that the most shallow and meaningless of public celebrations has become. If you do not like Valentine’s Day very much, then this is the place to be. 01. Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (00.23)02. The Velvet Underground - Femme Fatale (08.06) 03. The Raveonettes - Little Animal (10.57) 04. R.E.M. - The One I Love (13.57) 05. Half-Man Half-Biscuit - Paintball’s Coming Home (20.54) 06. The Pierces - Boring (25.43) 07. (The Real) Tuesday Weld - Terminally Ambivalent Over You (31.03) 08. Shane MacGowan & the Popes - Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway (34.41) 09. The Wave Pictures - When I Leave You For Somebody Else (38.30) 10. Pulp - Pink Glove (45.33) 11. The Raincoats - Don’t Be Mean (50.15) 12. Rufus Wainright - One Man Guy (59.34) 13. William Shatner - Ideal Woman (66.34) 14. The Sequins - Nobody Dreams About Me (71.45) 15. The Smiths - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (77.31) 16. The Walkmen - Don’t Forget Me (82.58) Song, by Toad Comments[0] |
Sun, 3 February 2008 IT disasters in Toad Hall meant that this podacast was delayed so long that I ended up posting pretty much all of it on the blog before I got to record the thing and all the news was so outdated that I had to find some more news. Fortunately we have some pre-release splendidness from Elbow, Goldfrapp and Stephen Malkmus to make up for it. There’s also some excellent unsigned music to be had as well, from Maxwell Panther and Meursault, as well as some splendid new singles from Elle S’Appelle and Operahouse. So it’s late, but some of this stuff is really quite excellent. And then there’s LCD Soundsystem who have taken me so long to get into that I am only starting to even enjoy the album now, some eight months or so after its release. What a fuckwit. There’s a fairly detailed explanation of what is going to be happened with Song, by Toad Records in the new year as well, and how I am going to move these podcasts onwards and upwards. Unfortunately it takes the longest bloody link in recorded history to actual explain it all, but explain it I do. There’s always the track timings listed at the side of the songs if you want to skip it altogether though! Have fun, chaps. Toadcast #20 - The Late, Late News 1. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - Gardenia (01.27) Comments[0] |
