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) |
