Thu, 13 December 2007
Well you know how I said I wasn't so convinced by Toadcast #17? Well it proved somewhat prophetic, although that prophesy may have been somewhat self-fulfilling of course. It's one of my least downloaded podcasts for ages, but this one should sort that out. There's some genuinely excellent music on here, although most of it is pretty obscure. There's no Arcade Fire or anything to pull in the punters, bar a bit of The Magnetic Fields, but a really good selection of new and emerging music nevertheless. And why the Homecast? Well
that's obvious of course: we're back in our house at long last and I
recorded this from my massive old lab bench that doubles as a desk and
music centre all at once. It's fucking brilliant - I really should
take a picture and post it for you so you can see. The bench is 2.75m
long, so I have computer and stuff at one end, stereo equipment at the
other and a couple of good sized speakers either side. A music anorak's
paradise! 02. 4 or 5 Magicians - Forever on the Edge (02.30) 03. Flashguns - St. George (07.53) 04. George Pringle - Carte Postale (13.52) 05. Dusty Springfield - You Don't Own Me (16.59) 06. Destroyer - Foam Hands (21.55) 07. Howlies - Aluminum Baseball Bat (28.44) 08. The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir - Aspidestra (38.36) 09. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit - Leftovers (40.48) 10. Ruth Theodore - Overexpanding (49.22) 11. Akron/Family - Ed is a Portal (55.28) 12. Victor Borge - Phonetic Puncutation (63.22) 13. Josiah Wordsworth - Drive-by Media (70.23) 14. King of Prussia - Spain in the Summertime (74.44) 15. The Magnetic Fields - Threeway (83.07) 16. The Forms - Knowledge in Hand (87.44) 17. Howlies - Smoke (90.14) 18. The Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom (95.38) 19. Found - When You Fall (102.09) Song, by Toad |
Thu, 29 November 2007
The wench is away and I am here by myself, managing the last few days of our house project. You can imagine what fun that must be, I’m sure. Still, we move back in this weekend, so it may be a crap couple of days but it’ll all be over soon and then you’ll be relieved of me constantly whinging about it, which will be nice for you. Given we’re living in a basement flat on a short term let for a month I got quite into the basementy idea with this playlist. I digressed into The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan and the Band, but mostly it’s music from ‘95/6 when I was living in a damp, grotty basement flat in Glasgow with a mate and the girl I was seeing at the time. I bought stacks of CD singles back then and lost them all when someone broke into the flat. Thanks to the joys of the internet I’ve been able to track most of them down recently, so you get a few of those, as well as some of the stuff I was listening to at the time. It’s interesting as a historical document, to me anyway, but I am not sure how well the playlist itself works. There’s something about this podcast that I’m not sure I like as much as the others, even though I like all the songs on it. I don’t know, let me know what you think. Perhaps Tears of Rage, Oasis and the Cranberries aren’t good enough songs to have all on the same podcast. Toadcast #17 - The Cellarcast 01. Blur w. Francoise Hardy - To the End (03.33) |
Thu, 15 November 2007
Morning you 'orrible lot. My wench is away being important once more. She said to me the other day when she was trying to skive off work due to a hangover: 'I can't go into work in a bad state, I handle money.' Haha, what bollocks. I love it when financial people get all delusional like that, so don't worry I set her straight. I calmly pointed out to her that if I fucked up my last job someone might have found a small metal implant buried in their spinal column. This means dead or paralysed. She stopped, fortunately. 'I handle money though.' Yeah well, I handle my penis and every last little sperm is a potential human life, so don't gimme that. The frustration's setting in again, can't you tell. This podcast has some news and some current things, and then explores the randomiser on my music library, doffing my cap to the recent Contrast Podcast episode which I was too slow to participate in. Gah. It
is also my birthday on Monday, thirty-two since you ask, and we will be
down in London to celebrate the occasion with our Southern friends, so
there's a couple of birthday thingies in there too, most screamingly
obviously the first track of course. Enjoy Toadlings, enjoy. Toadcast #16 - The Birthday Podcast 01. Clem Snide - Happy Birthday (02.18) |
Thu, 8 November 2007
We are bloody well homeless, which is making it very tricky to record podcasts at the moment, so I apologise for the enormous wait since the last one. I promise I’m not losing interest, it’s just been a logistical nightmare to find the time and space to actually sit down and record of late. It takes a few hours, not least because my computer is depressingly slow, so please bear with me. I’ve got a couple of new singles by The Indelicates and The National, as well as a couple of groups I’ve seen live recently, and then some more esoteric stuff towards the end including the highly uncharacteristic Nicole Atkins and a potentially naughty sneak preview of the new Raveonettes album. Enjoy, Toadlings, enjoy yourselves all to pieces. Toadcast #15 - The Homeless Podcast 01. Dragons - Here Are the Roses (01.50) |
Thu, 18 October 2007
What a lovely, lovely podcast this is. No Mrs. Toad this week (yeah, yeah, I know, fuck off the lot of you) partly because she is away in the States being important and businesslike and so forth and partly because you are all a bunch of cunts for liking her best, you shower of ungrateful bastards. Anyway, needless alienation of one's audience aside, I am a little tired of doing themed podcasts. Nothing particularly pressing leapt to mind this month so I thought I'd just throw on a pile of stuff I was really enjoying and sod having a coherent theme - that's for the professionals anyway. So it's just a big old mish-mash of stuff I'm enjoying at the moment, but I think it's quite a good playlist for all that. There are actually a couple of songs chosen for other women in my life! Oh shock horror! One is our reception lady here at work who revealed a surprisingly excellent vinyl collection when a few of us went round to her place after a staff night out recently, including Pavement and The Pixies. Who would have thought it! The other lady song is from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, after I was entirely charmed by the niece of our next door neighbour who apparently used to go out with their keyboard player. She is trying to move to New York at the moment actually, where there are plans to play fiddle and harp on the new Au Revoir Simone album, which is splendid news. Apparently this one is to be more folky than the last, which bodes very well indeed. So go Ruth! I can't wait to hear it. Better stop talking about ze laydees now of course, before I get skelped by my lovely lady. Not one of of 'em a patch on the sparkling gem that is the delectable Mrs. Toad of course, not even close! *ahem* Toadcast #14 - Total Self-Indulgence 01. The White Stripes - 300mph Torrential Outpour Blues (03.04)
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Tue, 2 October 2007
My dearest Toadlings it is with enormous pleasure and brimming pride that I present the light of my silly life, the bright and shining star at the centre of my universe and the bad tempered little Scottish strumpet to whom my every waking hour is devoted. That sounds sarcastic, but it isn’t. She treats the music I play with a sort of contemptuous indifference and has some truly shocking stuff in her rather limited collection. But she has a punk side, she loves Bob Dylan and has taken to some unexpected groups recently, like The Sequins, The Builders & the Butchers and Grandaddy. It slowly started to dawn on me that actually, Dolly Parton aside for the moment, she could probably put together a better playlist than I could, and I was absolutely mortified to be proved absolutely right. So I thought I’d get her along to co-present too, which seemed like it might be fun. It was a bit odd at first, but we warm up a bit by the end and it turns slowly into what I think it a pretty decent podcast, all told. I’m not sure I’ll be able to talk her into doing this too often, but if it proves a success I promise to do my best. Toadcast #13 - The Mrs. Toadcast 01. Lambchop - Dallas Theme Song (00.00) |
Mon, 24 September 2007
My what a splendid festival. You’ve read what I had to say about the thing (overview, day one, day two & day three), now here’s the ‘downloadable in one easy to digest chunk’ version, with more tunes. I had a splendid time at this, I really did. The line-up was spectacularly good and, despite being not much more than a well-executed variant on the standard festival format, I would highly recommend it to those of you sick of the exercise in cattle-herding and aggressively intrusive marketing that the modern festival has become. Anyhow, I’ve gone through the festival in chronological order, playing songs from artists in the order in which I attended them over the weekend. Hopefully I give you a decent overview of the festival itself as well as a taster of the quality of the lineup, from the indie legends to the connoisseur’s selection of emerging acts that made this such a quality bill. No ranting in this one either, or at least, very little. What a relief for you all. Toadcast #12 - The End of the Roadcast 1. Midlake - Young Bride (02.08) |
Mon, 17 September 2007
There’s no real theme to this week’s podcast, but there’s plenty of
splendid new music. Basically I felt so guilty about the crazy rant
that the Pink Podcast descended into that I have tried to say as little as possible in this one.
I’m off to the End of the Road Festival this weekend, which is why I recorded an advance post, so you’ll be enjoying this while I’m away getting rained on. The lineup is just phenomenal actually, so it should be really quite a splendid weekend. Tim from the Daily Growl will be there, as will Jamie from the Runout Groove and I believe possibly Sweeping the Nation as well, so it may turn into quite a blog-in. Tragically, however, I will be without my Midget Companion. Mrs. Toad is away in Australia (jammy bitch) with work and doesn’t get back in time to come along, so I will be taking a book and enjoying the pleasure of my own company as best I can. There was at least one inevitable balls-up though - when describing the Catherine Howe song I said ‘I can’t believe this is current - it sounds so old-fashioned!’ and I have since discovered that in fact it is a 2007 re-release of a 1971 record which may just explain that. In the process I also discovered that I am something of a fucking idiot. So, End of the Road, and in the meantime, enjoy the podcast - Toad on his very best behaviour! Toadcast #11 - Not Sure What This One’s About 01. A.A. Bondy - Vice Rag (00.52) |
Tue, 11 September 2007
The tenth Toadcast is a Pink Podcast, celebrating all things gay in indie music, but trying to steer well clear of any sort of annoying Graham Norton stereotypes. So, in avoiding anything that might have seen this lapse into the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert podcast I enlisted the help of my friend James, who was Mrs. Toad’s best man at our wedding. As well as being gay, James is a real indie fan so I though he’d be perfect to consult with on the playlist and most of these songs are his choices.It’s surprising actually, just how indie this ended up being.I left off quite a few things I really wanted to play and it’s still the longest ever Toadcast. Ultimately, I’ve tried to explore the relationship between the gay community and indie music, but needless to say there are times where it descends into slightly angry ranting. Hopefully not too much to allow you to enjoy the music though. It’s also not really ended up being as much of a discussion of gay culture as I’d hoped and that is almost entirely down to my own ignorance. I should probably have got James round to help actually present, but that would have been a right pain the arse logistically, as well as technically in terms of capturing both voices on one shitty little webcam microphone. On a technical point, there is a bit of an echo on the vocal recording. This is because I we have moved out of our house for a couple of months while builders tear it to pieces and I am having to rather make do in terms of recording location. I’ll try and sort this out by next week. Also, I at one point described the Book of Ruth as being in the New Testament, which is also wrong. What a muppet. Toadcast #10 - The Pink Podcast 01. Pet Shop Boys - It’s a Sin (01.20) |
Tue, 4 September 2007
I'm trying to kill two birds with one stone with this podcast. Firstly, I am throwing in a couple of songs that I wanted to put on the Contrast Podcast episode entitled Young a few weeks ago. I was away at my brother's wedding at the time, and I never got the chance so here they are. Secondly, a good while ago a regular reader of mine called Allen Lulu tagged me with one of these internetty meme thingies whereby you write about the music that was in the charts the year you turned 18. Well for me that year was 1993, but the chart music was abysmal, so I couldn't possibly do that to you. Instead I had a look at what I was listening to myself from that year and came across so many excellent old songs I haven't heard for ages that a quick post turned into an entire podcast. And this is that podcast - me at age 18. Toadcast #9 - The Folly of Youth 2. Stereo MCs - Connected (09.08) 3. Radiohead - Anyone Can Play Guitar (13.41) 4. Stone Temple Pilots - Plush (17.30) 5. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Loverman (25.12) 6. Levellers - This Garden (31.29) 7. James - Five-O (38.24) 8. The Long Blondes - Once & Never Again (6Music Acoustic Session) (43.12) 9. Gogol Bordello - Never Want to be Young Again (49.48) 10. The Mathletes - Linger (Cranberries Cover) (55.27) 11. Pearl Jam - Daughter (57.45) 12. Blind Melon - No Rain (63.19) 13. Soul Asylum - New World (67.57) 14. The Lemonheads - If I Could Talk I'd Tell You (71.50) 15. Portishead - Mysterons (75.24) 16. Engine Alley - Song For Someone (82.26) Song, by Toad |
Mon, 20 August 2007
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a quite splendid podcast. Not the chat - there's actually blessed little of that for a change - but the actual music. There may not be the one or two big names I tend to try and slip in to make sure that casual listeners are more likely to have a listen and thus bring an audience to the smaller bands, and also because I quite like to throw in a few for my own benefit as well but it just didn't quite happen. For some reason they just didn't quite get a look in this week, although I did throw in a rather obscure Pogues track, but it just seemed fine without them. I really like this one though, and there are some excellent new things to hear, so get stuck in. It has quite an acoustic folk-pop sort of atmosphere, so I hope that sort of thing is your bag, but I've thrown in a couple of slightly different things, like David Cronenberg's Wife, Mother & the Addicts and A Hawk & a Hacksaw to make sure it's not too one-paced. So get stuck in, my little Toadlings, music a-plenty and jolly fine stuff too! Toadcast #8 - New Things & Englishness 2. Monkey Swallows the Universe - Jimmy Down the Well (06.19) 3. Emmy the Great - Canopies & Grapes (10.26) 4. Mother & the Addicts - Are Others (14.30) 5. Champion Kickboxer - Perforations (20.42) 6. Jake Flowers & the Carol-Anne Showband - Annabel (26.06) 7. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit - Tickle Me Pink (28.07) 8. Mirah & Spectratone International - Supper (34.09) 9. Patti Page - Old Cape Cod (38.01) 10. A Hawk & a Hacksaw - The Way the Wind Blows (41.52) 11. David Cronenberg's Wife - My Ukrainian Girlfriend (47.20) 12. The Pogues - First Day of Forever (54.08) 13. Iron & Wine - Kingdom of the Animals (57.22) 14. The Ralfe Band - Albatross Waltz (63.23) 15. A Hawk & a Hacksaw - Portlandtown (68.19) Song, by Toad |
Sun, 5 August 2007
Yes, we’re back and this time we’ve relaxed a little. There’s a bit less cussing and ranting in this podcast than usual - in fact virtually no ranting at all, which is probably as much of a surprise to me as it is to you. I’m looking at late evening music this week because Mrs. Toad and I were recently talking about the Chillout craze which kicked off about six or seven years ago. It descended into electronic muzak unfortunately, but there were some good things in there at the beginning, so I thought I’d have a look at it. I’ve thrown in some stuff I find nice and eveningy and relaxing as well just to stop it becoming too tedious. Toadcast #7 - The Chillout Tent 01. Groove Armada - At The River (01.31) |
Wed, 1 August 2007
Erm, I ave no idea how to explain what you're in for if you bother to listen to this I'm afraid. The story goes like this: it was our anniversary, we were drinking and chatting and listening to music. A classic came on the stereo and we got talking about songs that would be so popular and so ingrained in popular culture that the writer of them would never have to work again and could live off the royalties, be they from television, advertising, movies or everyone wanting to cover your song. Like that chap in about a boy, for example. Unfortunately, we were far from sober already and by the end of this, honestly: take my gin consumption, take the equivalent volume of water out of Noah's flood, and the Ark would have run aground on Clapham Common. In Toad world, apart from slurring, that means ranting and a relatively well-conceived podcast about commercial immortality descends into a rambling, incoherent tirade against the advertising industry, with songs. So listen to it at your peril, you have been warned. 1. Blur - Song 2 (02.38)
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Sun, 29 July 2007
More errant podcastery from your favourite slippery green amphibian. This week I find myself yelling abuse at JC who writes a terrible blog called The Vinyl Villain and is currently stranded in Toronto for a few months, far away from his Glasgow home. JC was pretty much the first blogger to take any interest in Song, by Toad in it's formative days and as I such I always feel rather grateful for the encouragement Jim showed me back when I was starting out. As such I thought I'd play a few songs from his favourite groups, a couple of things he's brought us in the last few months and some songs about missing folk, seeing as he'll presumably be pining like a teenager for the lovely Mrs. Villain. Well, that or masturbating himself into a zinc-deficient coma, of course. Either way, hope you're enjoying yourself JC. Here's some bloody songs for ya! Toadcast #5 - Distant Villainy 1. Belly - Trust In Me (01.54) |
Sun, 15 July 2007
I’m in America at the moment at my brother’s wedding, but I very kindly recorded this before I went away. I’ve thrown in some stuff about weddings and some summery happy tunes too.Also, he’s getting married on Cape Cod, and I worked there as a waiter for two Summers when I was a student - with my everso English accent the tips were quite splendid - so I’ve thrown on a few songs that remind me of my Summers on Cape Cod, although not all are obviously related. All in all it’s a cheerful, happy mix with a nice atmosphere to it, so you should like this one. By the time you hear it though I could very easily have sworn myself into exile and ruined my relationship with my new in-laws forever. Wish me luck, Toadlings, wish me luck. 1. Billy Bragg - The Marriage (0.46)
2. Tom Waits - Better Off Without a Wife (5.10) 3. Clem Snide - Happy Birthday (9.38) 4. Gomez - Make No Sound (13.36) 5. Dave Matthews Band - Two Step (19.56) 6. Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (26.49) 7. Judy Garland - Get Happy (30.20) 8. Tom Waits - Never Let Go (34.59) 9. Bell X1 - Bound For Boston Hill (38.12) 10. Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Funeral Face (43.37) 11. Luna - Sweet Child O’ Mine (48.41) 12. Len - Steal My Sunshine (54.07) 13. Billy Bragg & Wilco - Hesitating Beauty (59.28) |
Sat, 7 July 2007
It's all gone a bit American this week, Toadlings. I have no intention of putting out a series of strictly themed podcasts, but it's still early days and there are so many massive chunks of my music collection I want to poke about in that this may happen a couple of times before things settle down. So I started with a couple of vaguely American-sounding tracks this week and before you know it I ended up with a podcast with a definite Americana theme. I'm quite happy with how it's all turned out though, I must confess - a nice combination of classics and small, small bands, so the playlist is working quite well by itself. And actually handling the microphone is getting easier as well. I am quite liking this podcasting business, I'd say! 1. The Band - The Weight (02.16) |
Sun, 1 July 2007
Yes, another one. Mwah hah haaa. Lock up the kids, Campfires & Battlefields, because the Song, by Toad musical cuss-o-rama is back on air for more blethering, swearing, slurring and first class tunery. Actually, I don't think this one is anything like as good as the first, if I'm honest. It's a bit over-long at fifteen songs so I think in future I'm going to limit myself to ten or twelve at the most, not least because my shitbox of a computer starts having a panic once I've stuffed that many audio files into a single project. So, fifteen songs then, with a bit of an emphasis on late 80s jangly indie guitar and containing one of the most brilliant ever drunken fuck-ups about three-quarters of the way through. Beware the horrors of letting your children turn into indie kids, people! So a bit too long, and occasionally too much inconsequential chatter, but we live and learn and the next one will be better, I promise. Toadcast #2, the 80s English Indie One 1. My Teenage Stride - Terror Bends (01.00) Technorati Profile |
Fri, 29 June 2007
Bugger me, what fun! How about a podcast! By Me! With mandatory exclamation marks! Lots of them!! Sorry about this chaps, but in truly characteristic all-or-nothing fashion, instead of getting my miserable arse in gear to record a meagre intro for the splendid Contrast Podcast I have, on my first outing, gone right out and recorded an entire podcast of my own. Bloody typical. I tell you what, if I don't finally get off my lazy, disorganised and generally fucking useless arse come the next Contrast Podcast time then I deserve to be tarred and feathered, so please hold me to that, I bloody deserve it. And you've got to tell me what you think too, because believe me this is far more personal than blogging - shit, my own actual voice! The shield of a computer screen and four thousand miles' distance is some insulation believe me, whereas all you lot listening to me talk idiotically to myself in the middle of my own living room, well quite frankly it scares the shit out of me. So let me know - good? bad? indifferent? more? never again? It's in your hands, people, so make your voices heard. Fancy a listen? Well click like fiends, Toadlets, like fiends! Here's the tracklisting: 1. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic (01.22) |
