Fri, 27 February 2009
Live recordings - in fact, specifically, live albums - came up in a recent post on Song, by Toad and the idea of doing a podcast composed entirely of live recordings really appealed to me because there are so many great ones. That said, on the post in question there arose a debate, one voice expressing my deepest hatreds of the genre, and another being perhaps over-generous in the other direction. Frankly, I despise the vast majority of live albums. Mostly they are shit recordings of songs we already know, released for the sole reason of fleecing fans whose devotion has already been established, and whose wallets can clearly be plundered for a few more empty sheckles. Despite that, of
course, there are some truly stunning live recordings. In fact, I'd
argue that some of the most memorable, legendary recordings of all
time are in fact live ones. Bob Dylan live at the Free Trade Hall in
Manchester in 1966. Bruce Springsteen pretty much any time in the
seventies. Basically, for all live recordings are mostly rip-off
bollocks, there are some truly phenomenal live albums, ones which open
your eyes to the artist, ones which fill in that artist's musical
upbringing, and some which are just genuinely amazingly wonderful
recordings in their own right. Therefore we bring to you the
Livecast. Enjoy, Toadlings... Toadcast #57 - Production Values 02. Andrew Bird - Why (11.47) 03. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Papa Won't Leave You Henry (16.22) 04. The Moulettes - Country Joy Song (25.29) 05. Colin Meloy - Blues Run the Game (32.49) 06. Quasar Wut-Wut - The Partisan (35.45) 07. Jeff Mangum - Two Headed Boy (43.04) 08. Tom Waits - Diamonds on My Windshield (54.37) 09. Billy Bragg - Days Like These (DC Remix) (56.46) 10. Ben Folds Five - Satan is My Master (60.15) 11. Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone (64.16) Song, by Toad |
Sat, 21 February 2009
After a week spent debating it, how about a podcast embodying the discussions we've been having about production values I thought a podcast which sort of pulls all the disagreements and moans and whingeing and so on into one big mp3 of joy would be a good idea. So we've got some Big Production, some demo scratchy stuff and a few bands who have dabbled with both. I fart on about production values as if I have the faintest idea what I'm talking about, which of course I don't. I'm not sure how well it works as a playlist - it might be a bit disjointed - but in general I like it. I like the debate in general, I like the thought process we've all gone through together this week, and in general, by association, I like this podcast. Toadcast #57 - Production Values 01. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA (Original Nebraska Sessions Demo Version) (04.31) |
Sat, 14 February 2009
We both hate Valentine's day and have no desire to take part in its consumerist pantomime. It seems to have created its own little rituals in our house though: we have an annual Valentine's hate-fest, which lasts a couple of days, where we pour scorn on both the event itself and anyone who takes part in it. The problem is, in doing so, we have sort of made ourselves part of what gets on our own nerves. Fucking people and their fucking stupid valentine's traditions like, er... this one. This is probably only the second in what will probably
become an annual Valentine's Scorn-o-rama, but it already feels like a
time-honoured tradition. So if you're single, generally antagonistic,
miserable, lonely or just plain indifferent then this is the podcast for you. We even have an odd conversation where we wonder what the point of marriage is - a slightly bizarre thing for a married couple to start wondering about. But that's the Toadcasts for you. Toadcast #56 - Valentine's Schmalentine's 01. Nirvana - Rape Me (00.57)
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Sat, 7 February 2009
The day after his amazing live set at the Bowery, Sam Amidon came round to the house to record a Toad Session. He didn't have all that much time, and I don't think he quite knew what he'd let himself in for either, so this one is pretty brief. Still, between this and the footage from the live show I think we have a really nice portrait of the guy, who is so different in person from his recordings. Whilst the latter may be beautiful, and whilst All Is Well is an amazingly lovely album, his personality dominates his live show so much it gives you such a different perspective on his music. As per usual, we have the session podcast below, and after that the Toad Session mp3 files, which you are free to pass around as you please. The videos are posted below that, and can all be found on the Song, by Toad Vimeo page (recommended) as well as the YouTube page (shit, but popular, so I have to put them there too). There's also a series of photos from the session, which can be found on our Flickr page. The tracklisting for the podcast is at the bottom of this post - enjoy! Toadcast #55 - Samamidon Toad Session And the downloadable, shareable, huggable mp3s from the session: Samamidon - 1842 (Toad Session) Samamidon - Pretty Fair Damsel (Toad Session) Samamidon - Fiddle Mayhem (Toad Session) And the videos:
And the playlist for Toadcast #55 - Samamidon Toad Session: 01. Samamidon - 1842 (Toad Session) (05.23) |
