Sat, 20 December 2008
Oh thank fuck it's Christmas. Or, any holiday really. I am so fucking incredibly tired I could pitch face first on the tarmac and sleep for six months without so much as coming up for air. I have been reading, with some amusement, the bickering over the religious nature of Christmas which seems to take place in the American press with monotonous regularity. Apparently the Christians are adamant that we remember the religious nature of a pagan festival, which seems a little odd considering that the Christianisation of Christmas itself was basically the Christian colonists' acceptance that they could never defeat local pagan religions. So basically they adopted Yuletide and tried to wedge their amusing Biblical myths into a story that their conquered people would never give up, and then waited a few years for it to degrade into some sort of carnival of aquisitiveness which they could have a tantrum about. So it's a pagan festival which has turned into an unbridled celebration of Western consumerist greed... erm, which part of this came up in the Bible again? Personally,
as an atheist, I love Christmas. It's got nothing to do with that
Jeebus character, it's closer akin to the the pagan celebration of
light and life in the middle of the darkest part of the year. As a
family we have always come together and spent peaceful time together at
this time of year. We play music, we read books, we cook together, but
above all we rest. We get together and enjoy one another's company.
Mrs. Toad and I will, this year, be doing nothing more than snuggling
up on the couch and wasting time. And that time wasting together is
oddly one of the most important things you can do to forge a strong
relationship. Just taking time to be together and enjoy one another's
company is, after the year we've had, going to be a rare treat, and one
which I intend to enjoy immensely. 01. Yo La Tengo - On Our Way to Fall (03.12)
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Sat, 13 December 2008
Ah, mates. Can't live with 'em, can't kill 'em. Mrs. Toad's best friend from her reckless yoof is visiting us here in Edinburgh with her gentleman friend, and consequently I got to thinking about my own old friends, and all the people who, over the years, have introduced me to so much brilliant music. So I started to patch together a playlist of all the important friends who have added a lot of music to my life. The problem is that it became way too long for my one hour restriction, so for this week I cast that aside, and allowed myself an extra ten minutes. Honestly though, old friends are so important, this
could have gone on for two hours, easily. Every one of the people I
mention here has a whole story of their own, and it was quite difficult to resist telling all of them in proper detail.
It seems such a shame, actually, to reduce all of these people to a
two-minute link. I could almost do a whole podcast for any one of
these scenarios really, and maybe I'll do that in future. For now,
though, you'll have to make do with this. It may be shabby, but it
really could have been so much worse. Meanwhile, Mrs. Toad is fucking
plastered. Oh good. Enjoy! 02. Pearl Jam - Black (11.23) 03. The Tragically Hip - Wheat Kings (18.30) 04. Gene - Her Fifteen Years (25.23) 05. Radiohead - Black Star (28.04) 06. Verve - Lucky Man (34.41) 07. Weeping Willows - Eternal Flames (39.19) 08. Billy Bragg - Days Like These (DC Remix) (45.41) 09. Bob Dylan - Po' Boy (49.42) 10. Elbow - Newborn (55.46) 11. Blanche - Do You Trust Me? (63.19) 12. Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure (69.07) |
Sat, 6 December 2008
By the time this is published I will be lying in bed in Toad Hall with a hangover like a nasty case of death warmed up. The Song, by Toad Christmas Party was on Friday 5th December, and given how exhausted I am at the moment I would imagine that about two or three gins into the evening I will be whistling Waltzing Matilda out my fucking ears. Still, the Meursault album will be out, the party will be sorted, the Song, by Toad Records publicity juggernaut will be chuntering along comfortably and I will be able to begin the gentle slide into Christmas relaxation. Finally finally finally. I am so fucking exhausted from all the bloody time I've thrown into this since the Summer, and over Christmas there will be two weeks off with little to do but move this site all over to self-hosting and tinker a little with the design. I'll be trying to make the sessions and Toad Records things a little more prominent, and generally poking about in general. The problem is that my CSS is so piss-poor that I really am limited in what I can do, so I'll just have to hope it turns out okay. I am loath to pay someone to redesign the thing for me though, because that seems to be somewhat contrary to the Spirit of All Things Toad. The Spirit of All Things Toad, of course, being gin. 02. Doveman - Teacup (06.05) 03. Samamidon - Wild Bill Jones (12.53) 04. Phil & the Osophers - High Art (22.43) 05. Miracles of Modern Science - MR2 (26.15) 06. Radiohead - Idioteque (32.49) 07. Chopps Derby - Down the Dogs (41.22) 08. The 1900s - Age of Metals (47.01) 09. Alela Diane - White as Diamonds (50.12) 10. The Wave Pictures - Leave the Scene Behind (58.07) Song, by Toad |
Sat, 29 November 2008
This may be the limpest of all excuses I've ever had for naming a podcast. You know why it's called the Jeffcast? Because I kinda mention Jeffrey Lewis a couple of times. Oooh, yes, that makes sense. Still, sorry, I couldn't think of anything else really, off the top of my head. I suppose I am off to see Jeffrey Lewis directly after recording this, so I guess it sort of counts. He is playing a secret gig at Henry's Cellar Bar after sneaking out of the Beggars Banquet Christmas Party at the Picture House over the road. It's one of the things I love about the anti-folk crowd: you genuinely get the impression that they'd rather be playing to an appreciative crowd of their mates, rather than a bigger crowd of anonymous punters who may stand there and demand entertainment. So there you go, that's the
deal for tonight. For the rest of the weekend we're putting together
Meursault albums, ready for the official (re)launch of their record
next Friday at the Song, by Toad Christmas Party. So, after folding
and screen-printing a thousand of the bastards we'll all be well ready
for Gimme Shelter in the Caves on Saturday and a spot of Candythief
action in the Jazz Bar on Sunday. Enjoy the 48th Toadcast. 01. Yo La Tengo - Double Dare (04.12) |
Sat, 22 November 2008
I know it's a bit obvious to do a podcast like this so shortly after my birthday, but it gives me the opportunity to ramble a bit and play some classics I might not otherwise have played. There are so many wonderful songs about growing old, and I actually think I may have missed most of them. I have no fear of being old, but for some reason it feels a little more immediate this year but I don't know why. So goodnight people, it's been a pleasure. Sleep well and don't be too rough on yourselves. Take Kirsty's advice and don't be too rough on my cold, cold heart; it's all I've got left to me now." That may be
the smart-arsed line, but the most important line in this song is the
bit where she says that 'there's a light in your eyes tells me
somebody's in and you won't come the cowboy with me'. It's such a
crucial judgment, isn't it. You take a bet on someone, you throw in
your chips and you hope for the best. So if you're feeling brave, good luck to you. Look after her, I'll be there anytime soon. 02. The Band - Rockin' Chair (07.46) 03. Michelle Shocked - Memories of East Texas (11.21) 04. Hafdis Huld - Tomoko (20.57) 05. Baby Walrus - Some Dawns No Bird Will Sing (28.44) 07. Donny Hue & the Colors - The World Came Running (30.25) 08. Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man (34.21) 08. Soko - The Dandy Cowboys (43.31) 09. Kirsty MacColl - Don't Come the Cowboy With Me, Sonny Jim (47.04) 10. Neil Young - Old Man (55.09) 11. Jeffrey Lewis - Back When I Was Four (58.12) |
Sat, 15 November 2008
Christ this has taken me ages. We recorded this in late August after myself and Mrs. Toad came back from the States, but the intervention of the End of the Road Festival and an unspeakable disaster with video tape has delayed this beyond the bounds of pretty much everyone's patience. I eventually had to give up trying to extricate video from chewed tapes and make do with the video we actually had, which has been bloody frustrating. As per usual we have the videos all posted either on the Toad Vimeo page (the best quality) and YouTube (more accessible). We also have pictures taken by both my friend Morgan, who is also the official Song, by Toad camerman, and Dylan as well. Dylan has all his pictures, including these, on his own site, and we've also uploaded them to the Song, by Toad Flickr page as well. So, firstly, here is the podcast, with the tracklisting at the bottom of the page: Toadcast #46 - Sparrow & the Workshop Toad Session Here are the session tracks themselves as downloadable, shareable and loveable mp3s: Sparrow & the Workshop - Last Chance (Toad Session) Toadcast #46 - Sparrow & the Workshop Toad Session Playlist: |
Sat, 8 November 2008
Okay, not so much a podcast this week, more my effort to recreate a mix tape sent to me by my Mum's cousin when I was far too young to appreciate its brilliance. On the plus side though, despite my failure to really understand how lucky I was, they leaked more indelibly into my consciousness because I was so young that it all went beyond 'music I remember' and became something more fundamental than that. I played this tape quite literally to death. I think it finally gave up the ghost some time when I was about thirteen or fourteen - about 1988 or 1989. I forgot about it for some time after that, and it was only some ten years later, about the time of Napster, that it occurred to me to finally try and reassemble all these brilliant songs together again. Well,
I tried but I failed. The biggest problem was remembering what was on
the thing. I mean, a tape I last listened to ten years ago, whatare the chances? Still, aided by perseverance and some good fortune I prety much managed to as best I could. Some I remembered immediately, others took a while, and still others took the discovery of songs on the tape itself to trigger the memory. Easily the best playlist of any Toadcast to date, I'm only ashamed that it's me talking about this music instead of someone more knowledgeable. 01. The Piranhas - Tom Hark (02.06)
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Sat, 1 November 2008
It's teh next Great Depreshun oh noes! Or maybe we're just moaning like a bunch of fucking girls. After the doom and gloom in the papers it seems time to actually compare the current financial tantrum to the Great Depression and tell anyone who makes that comparison to fuck right off and stop being so self-indulgent. Even compared to the rough times in the fucking eighties when Margaret Thatcher eviscerated everywhere in England outside the M25. She destroyed the country. Annihilating nationalised industries which were no longer economic makes sense, but completely destroying the industries that keep a town alive at the same time as you destroy the support networks provided by the state and also refusing to do anything to encourage industries to grow that might replace the thousands of jobs you have just made vanish is just slash and burn social policy. There may be a little too much opinionated political opinion and general drunken rambling between myself and my darling girl Mrs. Toad, but erm, well, fuck it you're own your own. Listen if you think you can face it. But you must understand, we were vewy bewwwy drnk. 01. Woody Guthrie - Do Re Mi (04.20) |
Sat, 25 October 2008
The Fightcast? Yes, the fucking Fightcast. Why? Well because mp3 bloggers have been taking it in the arse with some force over the last week. Posts are being deleted left right and centre, so presumably the major labels have decided to declare all-out war on blogs. This is because they are scabby old unwashed cheesy penises. This is not slander, I can prove it with charts and graphs. Ultimately this is about corporate control of culture. I don't want to sound like a ranting conspiracy theorist, but put simply, this is how it works. People pay for things they feel passionate about. People feel passionate about art, the creation thereof and the participation therein. Consequently any company vaguely engaged in cultural endeavours desperately wants to own the loyalty and devotion of as many people as possible, and anyone participating in this arena is a threat. Because grassroots art has more emotional resonance with people it is an ever bigger threat and must be exterminated. They
want blogs to exist inasmuch as we provide free market research and
free A&R, but if we think we have any influence, any rights, or
indeed any genuine loyalty, they wish us dead. Fuck them, fuck their
little games and fuck the horse they rode in on, they are whores. If
they don't want to play with normal people then let them withdraw. Let
them take REM and U2 and fuck off. I would rather form a massive great
list of small independent record labels that do want to play
nicely and only ever cover them and unsigned bands, and let the big
boys compete with the X-Factor, if they think they can. Fuck them, let
them drown in their own greed. 02. Honey Claws - Shout Out (07.14) 03. Findo Gask - One Eight Zero (10.56) 04. The Avett Brothers - Murder in the City (23.25) 05. Yusuf Azak - Ursa Major (28.02) 06. Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen in Your Dreams (30.53) 07. How To Swim - From Here to Dundee/Eternity (33.55) 08. Jib Kidder - Flip Flap (45.09) 09. Situationists - Onwards & Upwards (46.17) 10. Yusuf Azak - 19.19 (53.45) 11. The Avett Brothers - The Greatest Sum (Acoustic) (62.02) Song, by Toad |
Sat, 18 October 2008
Oh deary me. A somewhat slurred podcast this week. I recorded this on Friday night after coming home from sharing about seven pints with my boss at Proper Job, who is a thoroughly decent chap and doesn't get out for beers as often as he used to due to an unfortunate breeding accident in which his wife had a baby, thus confining him to the house. The lesson - gentlemen, for the love of god, don't let them breed! So I came back to the house and wanted to play some loud
music. I popped a bottle of beer, bought some munchies and mumbled my
way through a pile of loud, rambunctious songs that I played far too
loud as I sorted out the playlist, and great fun it all was too. I
asked about modern rowdy music this week, and Bart kindly recommended
some bands, a couple of whom I assume I may have been a little quick to
dismiss in the past, so I am going to have another go at them. Looking through the playlist, I find one thing sticking out more
than anything else: how the hell can you tell a Sex Pistols demo from a
Sex Pistols recording? 02. The Von Bondies - Shallow Grave (08.59) 03. The Bellrays - Blues For Godzilla (12.05) 04. Ian Dury & the Blockheads - Ballad of the Sulphate Strangler (17.49) 05. The Damned - Thrill Kill (23.07) 06. Hoggboy - Left & Right (29.31) 07. Liars - Mr You're on Fire Mr (35.33) 08. Monster Magnet - Kiss of the Scorpion (37.57) 09. The Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK (Demo) (43.24) 10. The Fall - Two Librans (49.47) 11. The Small Faces - All or Nothing (Live) (.) 12. The Detroit Cobras - Hey Sailor (.) Song, by Toad |
Sat, 11 October 2008
This week's Toadcast has no theme at all because, erm... well, frankly they're difficult to come up with and therefore seem just a tiny little bit like hard work. So given I'm podcasting once a week now, I am not going to be arsed coming up with some immaculately scripted (ah ha haaa!) arrangement once every seven days, so this week it's really just a brief tour of inbox fodder. This weekend there are loads of good things happening, not least a performance by Mumford & Sons at the Voodoo Rooms, and a first look for me at what could potentially become an excellent new venue in Edinburgh. That's a secret though, so no more details than that. So, for now enjoy the Soulcast, so named for no better reason than that the first couple of songs have the word soul in the title. Piss-poor excuse really, isn't it. 01. Nat Johnson - Dirty Rotten Soul (02.39) |
Sat, 4 October 2008
Hello people, more podcastenfun once again. Having done the Deathcast recently, I thought it might be nice to do the polar opposite - the Birthcast. This week's podcast is all about the birth of Song, by Toad. I'll tell you about how I started writing about music, how I discovered blogs, how I discovered that what I was writing was in fact a blog and how I ultimately ended up on Wordpress writing what you are now reading. r casually skimming over, depending on your bent. It has also ended up being something of a 2004 retrospective, because that's when this all started, however slowly, and that side of it has been nice. I had met Mrs. Toad by this point, and I was all excited, and despite the fact that my job was bollocks, living in London was great fun. I was on a narrowboat at Nine Elms Pier at this point, which was an amazingly brilliant place to live, and I used to cook myself kettle noodles because I couldn't be arsed firing up the stove. I'd boil some water, throw it over some noodles and some stock and chuck in lots of fresh veg - bloody delicious. Toadcast #40 - The Birthcast 01. Modest Mouse - Bury Me With It (01.39) |
Sat, 27 September 2008
This podcast contains a large number of songs from albums which I didn't really enjoy enough to want to review, but which nevertheless contained some excellent songs. I never want to give a small or emerging band a shitty review because it just feels mean. For me there's a certain threshold to be reached, after which you are fair game for anything I feel like saying because, frankly, why would you care, but smaller bands are never going to get a really hard time on this site. Unless they behave like dicks of course, but I digress. A lot of these albums contain songs I really like, but only one or two, and I really wanted them to be heard. Also, give that your music taste and mine probably only partially overlap anyway (otherwise it would just be creepy) I think it's quite possible you might disagree and want to explore further. It always amazes me how seriously people can take even my opinion, as some sort of self-appointed arbiter of musical worthiness, when neither I nor any other critic is any better placed or more worthy to judge than any random fanny off the street. The only thing that sets us apart is not musical judgment, it's the slightly dubious compulsion to constantly be writing or talking about it for some unknown reason. Anyway, that's only about half a dozen songs on this list, the rest are just there either because they don't entirely belong anywhere else, hence the Orphaned Songs title, and partly because I just felt like it. Enjoy... 01. Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers - Let the Fever Out (HearYa Live Session) (02.40) |
Sat, 20 September 2008
Yes, another podcast dedicated entirely to the End of the Road Festival. I did the very same last year because I do rather love this festival, and the sheer quality of the lineup easily merits a podcast to itself. Unlike last year, Mrs. Toad actually came with me this time around. We drove this stupid old 1960s VW camper van down there, and Christ knows how we didn't die in the process. The fucking thing steered like a bathtub full of water, there were no brakes at all and the only crumple zone was us. The other disconcerting thing is the fact that VW campers are something of a community, so everyone who passed us in one would flash their lights and wave with the sort of sincere enthusiasm that made us mortally ashamed to be mere renters - mere passengers in a club full of such obviously devoted members, Christ we felt like charlatans. Anyway, ignore our guilt and enjoy the podcast. There's some fucking great music on this one. And why is it called the Deathcast? Because that blasted camper van we drove down in was an absolute death trap. Honestly, want to die in a nasty accident? Try driving a 60s VW camper van around the English countryside in the middle of the night in the pissing rain. Toadcast #37 - The Oddcast[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo38.mp3] 01. Micah P. Hinson - Patience (03.17) |
Sat, 13 September 2008
Bill Oddie, for those of you who don't know, is a legendary British television birdwatcher - twitcher as they're known. He is also the subject of one of the most famous of all mondegreens: Madonna's "Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie, put your hands all over my body". Anyhow, as a legendary feather flutterer it seemed only appropriate that his name should adorn a podcast entirely made up of bands with ornithological names. We have everything here, from the albatross to the gull to the guillemot to the owl to the sparrow to the pigeon. Honestly, this podcast could have been twice the length that it is, there were just so many appropriate bands - no Flock of Seagulls, for example, no Sparrow & the Workshop, no Sheryl Crow. So I hope
you enjoy it. While you're listening to this, Mrs. Toad and I will be
enjoying the End of the Road Festival, and hopefully getting a few
interesting interviews in for you all. It'll be my first ever
attendance as a legitimate press person, so I am feeling very full of
myself at the moment, but with a bit of luck I'll justify the inflated
sense of self-importance and bring back some fine bits and pieces for you to enjoy in the next week or two. 01. Hate Beak - Feral Parrot (02.27) |
Sat, 6 September 2008
Well, no gin, no misbehaviour (except the mandatory foul language), Christ you'd be forgiven for thinking I'd sold out on you and actually grown up at last. No fear of that actually, just a bit of liver protection. We're trying to guzzle just that little bit less midweek, and save the beer tokens for when we really need them, so it's tea and slippers this time around. In fact I thought I was being exceptionally tame until such time as I realised that I hadn't reigned in the swearing one little bit. Fuck, I thought to myself. Thematically,
erm, you're on your own I'm afraid. I've no real idea if you can think
of anything that holds all these songs together as a coherent whole,
but damned if I can. There's quite a bit of new stuff and quite a few
stray songs that I didn't know how to cover because I didn't want to
review the whole album, but there was a song or two that I liked. You
know what I mean. And thirteen songs in just under an hour - fucking
hell that's efficient. Toadcast #36 - The Domesticast[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo36.mp3] 01. Christian Williams - 30 Minutes (00.17) |
Mon, 1 September 2008
It's been a while since the last Toad Session, but this one is a bit good and thoroughly worth waiting for. Meursault's debut album is one of my favourite of the year, and their acoustic set is easily as good. This is the first session to be held in our house too, which brought its own challenges and then some. Mrs. Toad's preposterous cat makes an appearance at one point, and the videos look very, very, erm... green? Blue? Whatever fucking stupid colour it is we've painted our living room. Anyway, the recordings have come out really nicely, and I think the videos are good too. I've posted a few here, but the whole lot can be found on the Song, by Toad YouTube page. The photos turned out rather well too, so go to the Flickr page for the ones we liked. And, without further ado, here is the Meursault Toad Session podcast (the track listing is at the bottom of the page): Toadcast #35 - Meursault Toad Session[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo35.mp3] Here are the individual songs: Meursault - The Furnace (Toad Session)[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/ToadSessions/Meursault-TheFurnace-ToadSession.mp3]
01. Meursault - The Furnace (Toad Session) (06.14) |
Wed, 20 August 2008
This is the podcast to accompany all the Portland and Pickathon
things I've been slowly but surely writing up over the course of the
last couple of weeks. With all the video to edit it may take a while
to get it all sorted, but just follow this Pickathon search and you'll find it all. My full review of the festival is here. This is a musical journey through our trip, from the Shaky Hands and The Builders & the Butchers who got us out there, to Eef Barzelay who we saw in Portland, several bands from the Pickathon Festival and even a song from Ray Rude's Gameboy pop outfit Operation Mission. It's rather shorter than usual, but that is part of a new strategy: shorter podcasts more often. I am going to try and go for once a week, and make them a maximum of an hour long. I can't promise anything, but I am going to try, and I think this might be a better approach for all of us, frankly. Toadcast #34 - The Portland Podcast 01. The Shaky Hands - A New Parade (2.20) |
Wed, 23 July 2008
Fear not, this isn’t quite as horribly overbearing as it could have been. The ranting is actually fairly under control, and the self-important pontificating not quite as reckless as it could so easily have been, partly because I wasn’t quite as liberal with the gin as I have been in the past. The reason it’s called the Popecast is because of this amazing little story about Catholics in the States issuing death threats to a kid who took a communion wafer out of the church with him. The hilarious PZ Myers then got involved, threatening to show them what real desecration would look like, and the pandemonium reached all new levels of shrillness. The thing that really got my goat about all this was not so much that Catholics took offence, but more the level of the hysteria and the language of persecution. It was honestly described as kidnapping and as a hate crime by various loonies, and there was nothing like enough ‘Oh fucking grow up and get the fuck over it’ being said. People seem to be seeking all sorts of odd legal protections for their crazy superstitions these days, and I am flabberghasted that a particular kind of idea is being so fucking mollycoddled as to be deemed immune from criticism and contempt. Come on, people, fuck your religious convictions and learn to deal with the fact that most of the planet thinks they’re crazy - and that applies to atheists as well. Anyhow, I promise this doesn’t take over too much of the podcast, and that the music is given plenty of space to breathe. 01. Vatican Broadside - Half Man Half Biscuit (00.07) |
Tue, 8 July 2008
Hello, more Toadcastery. I've, erm, focussed on Dadrock for this one. Not too much of it on the playlist, fortunately, although there's a couple of well-known names on there. In my defence though, I couldn't bring myself to feature Coldplay, so I was forced into the compromise of playing an almighty butchering of one of their songs by the splendid Richard Cheese. Basically I spend most of this
podcast trying to justify the presence of so much bland music in the
charts and how the hell that came to pass. There's plenty of chatter
about how music is used as a sort of social glue as well, in which case
the quality of the stuff becomes almost secondary. There are some
really good new bands on this as well - The Velcro Quartet are
particularly brilliant, as are the songs by Mumford & Son, Yoshimi!
and Honeytrap. Enjoy responsibly. 02. The Velcro Quartet - Dead Dog's Hill (07.53) 03. Seabear - Teenage Kicks (11.17) 04. Athlete - Shake Those Windows (21.02) 05. Richard Cheese - Yellow (30.31) 06. ESL - Czarne Oczy (31.59) 07. Emiliana Torrini - Me & Armeni (39.50) 08. Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal (43.24) 09. Snow Patrol - Last Ever Lone Gunman (48.11) 10. The Killers - All These Things That I've Done (58.17) 11. The Pictish Trail - All I Own (66.52) 12. Mumford & Sons - White Blank Page (73.01) 13. Honeytrap - Song For Nona (82.18) 14. The Velcro Quartet - How to Kill Your Wife (87.04) 15. Yoshimi! - Song For Suzy (Demo) (94.34) 16. Frank Turner - The Outdoor Type (100.34) Song, by Toad |
Thu, 19 June 2008
There’s not much of a unifying theme to this podcast, but there are a healthy number of breaking tracks in the playlist, so I guess calling it the Newcast will suffice for want of anything more inspired. There’s new tracks from the impending singles by Kid Canaveral and The Left Outsides, a good few new bands you’ve never heard of, a couple of JC’s selections for the Toad Records Launch Night and some of the tracks from the sampler that I gave away at the party itself. There’s also the first Recorded and Produced by Toad song in the world: Fearing Lothian by Uhersky Brod. The band are friends of mine and we used the Toad Sessions recording equipment to put togethera demo for them. It’s the first time I’ve ever recorded anything, so I presume there must be all sorts of issues with it but, well, you’ve got to start somewhere. It’s a cracking song, whatever I’ve ended up doing to it. So I hope you enjoy this rather disjointed collection of songs, because for all the lack of any real coherence it’s a good collection of songs nonetheless. 01. Cinerama - Health & Efficiency (03.57) |
Sat, 31 May 2008
Hello and welcome back to the Toad Sessions. I was a little drunk when I noticed that Alela Diane was playing in Edinburgh as part of the Triptych Festival, so the idea of emailing her label and inviting her to do a Toad Session didn't seem quite so preposterous. In the morning, I thought I was mad and would be laughed at, but amazingly they agreed, and now here it is.
This one was also recorded by Nick at Bananarow and he's done another amazing job - the songs sound absolutely gorgeous. Dylan's pictures can be found at the Flickr page, and we have some more videos at the Song, by Toad YouTube page. Here's the interview podcast, with the tracklisting at the bottom of the page.
Toadcast #30 - Alela Diane & Mariee Sioux Toad Session
Here are the sessions tracks themselves. The Cuckoo is a traditional song, and Dry Grass & the Shadows is from Alela's new album which should hopefully be out later this year. Mariee's songs are Flowers & Blood from her recent album Faces in the Rocks, whereas the gorgeous Icarus Eye is an old song from a home release.
Alela Diane - Dry Grass & the Shadows
Alela Diane - The Cuckoo
Mariee Sioux - The Icarus Eye
Mariee Sioux - Flowers & Blood
Here are the videos, all hosted at the YouTube page. Again, the interview is going to have to go up later because I seem to have entirely lost Morgan, my resident editing expert, so I've had to cobble these things together myself. I am going to work on the interview movies as best I can, so they should hopefully be available in a week or two.
Alela Diane - Dry Grass & the Shadows movie.
Mariee Sioux - The Icarus Eye movie.
01. Alela Diane - Dry Grass & the Shadows (Toad Session) (04.51)
02. The Shaky Hands - Summer's Life (08.36)
03. Johnny Cash - I See a Darkness (11.45)
04. The Holy Modal Rounders - Hesitation Blues (20.42)
05. Neutral Milk Hotel - The Communist's Daughter (24.10)
06. Mariee Sioux - Flowers & Blood (Toad Session) (26.07)
07. Hem - Half Acre (32.29)
08. Bonnie Prince Billy - No Bad News (41.41)
09. Willard Grant Conspiracy - Twistification (46.05)
10. Vashti Bunyan - Glow Worms (53.35)
11. Mariee Sioux - The Icarus Eye (Toad Session) (58.10)
12. Alela Diane - The Cuckoo (Toad Session) (62.56)
Well I hope you like these. The next session is going to be with local band Meursault, and will be the first one to be recorded in Toad Hall. Very exciting!
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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) |
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) |
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) |
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. |
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. |
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) |
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) |
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 |
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) |
Sun, 27 January 2008
Back at long last, would you believe. After the abortive attempt at a Christmas podcast and then the IT disaster in Toad Hall - when my retarded computer ground to a halt and had to have its entire operating system reinstalled - I have finally managed to record another podcast. Sorting out the IT department was not at all as easy as it should have been, so it’s taken ages to get to the point where I could record a podcast again. So, excuses over and done with, what am I going to inflict on you this time? The bloody Scots, that’s who. The Scottish music scene is an amazingly fertile one, so I thought I’d review 2007 and have a bit of a look forward to 2008. So I’ve pulled together some of the big guys like Malcolm Middleton, Emma Pollock and King Creosote and interspersed a few of the lesser known acts from around here to give you a nicely rounded look at what’s going on musically in the land of Buckfast and deep-fried Mars bars. Toadcast #19 - The Scotchcast<
01. Sons & Daughters - Gilt Complex (1.01) |
