Sat, 28 January 2012
This session was recorded in Glasgow before Josh's performance at Oran Mor on 22nd November last year. The first attempt to record a session with him was at Stereo, but recording in a venue really didn't work out, so this time we decided to take up the kind offer of Phil from PAWS to record it in his bedroom instead. Again we were a little pressed for time, because Josh had a marathon day, recording a session with the BBC and conducting an interview before doing our session, and then having the gig to play afterwards. So we only recorded three songs, and for simplicity's sake we did the interview in one chunk and I have just chopped bits of it into the podcast where appropriate. Given the incredibly punishing schedule he tends to have I really do appreciate Josh taking the time to re-record this session, as well as the infallibly good humour and cooperative nature showed by both himself and Peter and Tom, his management team. It may have been tight to get done, but this is a really, really nice session if you ask me. As usual, the videos can all be found on our Vimeo and YouTube pages and the photos, which were jointly taken by Stephanie Gibson and Dylan Matthews, are collected on our Flickr page. The session mp3s can be downloaded below, or in a zip file here, the session podcast can be played or downloaded below too, and the tracklisting for the podcast can be found at the bottom of the page. Player Direct download: Toadcast #211 - Josh T. Pearson Toad Session Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes Subscribe to the Toadcasts on MixcloudJosh T. Pearson - Woman When I've Raised Hell (Toad Session) [audio:http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/ToadSessions/JoshTPearson-WomanWhenIveRaisedHell-ToadSession.mp3]
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Sun, 22 January 2012
After reading Vic Galloway's rather nice article in today's Herald on the rise of bands in Scotland influenced by both grunge and lo-fi slacker indie rock. Recording for our upcoming split 12" with Manchester bands Waiters and Sex Hands has seen pals recommend I have a good listen to The Meat Puppets too, if that's the kind of stuff I'm into - particularly if that's the kind of guitar sound I am enjoying at the moment. So that's what this podcast is loosely about. As I explain, despite growing up at the perfect time to have been into all this stuff the first time around, I ended up being only vaguely aware of it, due to being almost entirely insulated in the bubble of the international expat community in Vienna at the time, and hence only really having MTV to introduce me to new music, beyond what I happened across by accident in the record shops around town. Which generally wasn't Dinosaur Jr. 01. Nirvana - Love Buzz (Shocking Blue cover) (00.26) |
Sun, 15 January 2012
The Fishcast is so called because Dolfinz are here recording for our split 12", and erm, well dolphins aren't fish are they, but umm... well it sounded better than The Aquaticmammalswhichlookabitlikefishbutaren'tcast. 01. Fuck (00.20) |
Fri, 6 January 2012
For this podcast I am joined by Ian, who is now a member of the Song, by Toad Records team, to go through a bit of a run-down of what's going to be happening on the label this year. We've got a couple of our more recent releases, like Rob St. John and Lil Daggers, as well as some of our confirmed and ready new albums for next year, by the likes of The Leg, Jesus H. Foxx and Yusuf Azak. I've also got a couple of tracks from bands we'll be releasing on a split 12" in the Spring. We'll be recording that stuff in our house next week, so the songs we chose to represent those bands are for obvious reasons not the final ones we'll be releasing, just tracks by the bands so you can get a bit of a flavour of what we're up to. With Ian on board and based on the good press we managed last year I am hoping we can really kick on with the label this year and make a decent impression. Obviously the third Meursault album will help, what with them being our most established band, but we have a good spread of stuff, from bands like Dolfinz with only a few demos to their name, to the likes of Yusuf Azak and The Leg who people know already and then the Foxx album, which has been 'much anticipated' for a while now. So all in all it should be an exciting year, I reckon. Enjoy! 01. Mongrels - I'm Gonna Murder Justin Bieber (00.21) |
Tue, 3 January 2012
Sparkcast? Spark? YES, any kind of fucking spark whatsoever will do the trick. I remember getting in trouble at my former day job a couple of years ago for writing something rather negative about that awful sensation of being back at your desk after the excesses and indolence of Christmas. I am not feeling negative about it now, which is good given I am self-employed, but I am certainly struggling to spark my brain back into something resembling life at the moment. So yes, I have two new releases to get moving, by Jesus H. Foxx and The Leg, and I have five Toad Sessions to get edited and published, and a split 12" to record (starting in about a week), so whether or not it proves to be a challenge, the old grey matter has to be brought back to life somehow, be it kicking and screaming or otherwise. 01. Jesus H. Foxx - So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away (00.13) |
Fri, 23 December 2011
Here we are at the penultimate podcast of the year, and the one immediately preceding Christmas. I really don't like 99% of Christmas music so there's pretty close to none of it at all on here, although I have made a couple of exceptions as a lazy sort of nod to the season. Let's face it, if the druids can be arsed dancing about like idiots around Stonehenge and people can fall out over half-defrosted turkeys then I can probably make the effort to shove a couple of token musical nods onto a single podcast, can't I. I actually take a lot of this podcast from my recently-published albums of the year list, and from my as-yet-unpublished Festive Fifty, so it's a bit of a yearly roundup as well. And in fact, seeing as Christmas is a Sunday, I won't actually be posting until Boxing Day now, so this will be the last post before Christmas so umm, in the off-chance I don't bump into you on Facebook, Twitter or down the pub, I better wish you Happy Christmas now, hadn't I. 01. Tom Lehrer - A Christmas Carol (00.23) |
Sat, 17 December 2011
The baubles in question would be twofold: Firstly, the Song, by Toad readers are awarding their own baubles for the year's musical endeavours, both in terms of anointing their song and their album of the year. And secondly, the very second I post this I am heading up into town to Kid Canaveral's Christmas Baubles, their second of what I assume will become an annual Christmas knees-up, this time hosted at Edinburgh's rather amazing Summerhall. This week on Song, by Toad I will be publishing my own top twenty albums of the year, and then moving on to the Festive Fifty - basically your average predictable blogger's December rituals. If you don't like it I guess you're a bit stuck until the new year I'm afraid. 01. Mongrels - Massive Cunt (00.25) |
Mon, 12 December 2011
PHEW! Thank fuck that's (more or less) over. This year has been a bit full-on, I have to confess, but the bulk of the hard work now seems more or less over. Our last release (Lil Daggers) came out last week, and our label Christmas Party is now done and dusted which leaves me a relatively comfortable run into the Christmas period from now on, which is some for which I am quite grateful. 01. Coolrunnings - Rusk (00.04) |
Sun, 4 December 2011
Bleerch, bleurgh... I feel completely disgusting. I had a really good sleep last night, but that translated into a day spent wasting my time fannying about and just lolling in that way that seems like a good idea at the time, but invariably ends up making you feel completely disgusting by the end. Also, to make matters worse, we ordered pizza, which is something we hardly ever do and something which we absolutely always regret. So here we sit on a Friday evening feeling bloated and slightly soiled and wondering whether at this time of the night there's any point really trying to redeem the day, and perhaps it's best just to forget it and wait for tomorrow. Bleuch. 01. Joanna Gruesome - Madison (00.27) |
Tue, 29 November 2011
First things first, I must inevitably apologise for the horrendous lateness of this podcast. Between my mum visiting, the gig on Sunday and the Samantha Crain Toad Session we recorded on Monday there just hasn't been enough time to catch up. It's that end of year time, too, when lists are being made, accounts submitted, the last releases of the year tended to and plans for next year being finalised, so just when I thought that I could coast into Christmas, it turns out I actually have just as much work now as at any other time of the year. Ah well, whinge whinge, etc. This podcast is called the Saxcast because I happened to be listening to Timber Timbre the other night, and one of their songs features the saxophone quite heavily. It occurred to me at the time that not only does almost no-one use that instrument at the moment, but despite the eighties ending over twenty years ago, it still seems almost completely taboo, within the kind of musical circles I move in anyway. Needless to say, this was all it took for me to devote an entire podcast to the instrument. 01. Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band - It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City (Live) (00.27) |
