Sat, 27 June 2009
Well, we are nearing the end of our time in Puglia. We're spending a couple of days in or near Napoli before we fly back on Sunday, presumably troughing like total pigs, rather than paying all that much attention to culture and all that bobbins. Mrs. Toad is doing Sudoku and complaining about the 'wrong sort of paper'. I kid you not, it's just like British fucking Rail and their 'wrong type of snow', but she insists it's just for that reason that she can't solve them, not because they're too hard. Personally I find myself wondering if 'evil' is used to describe the comments one's spouse will inevitably make when you fail to complete it, rather than the actual difficulty of the Sudoku puzzle itself. So yes, we have done the lazing about and there are now a few days of actually doing shit in between us and a return to the damp splendour of the British Isles. I suppose this is what you're supposed to do on holiday - pay attention to the country you're in and return, eventually - but honestly, another week of doing bollocks-all wouldn't hurt anyone would it? Toadcast #75 - The Bone Idlecast 01. Snow Patrol - An Olive Grove Facing the Sea (04.14) |
Sat, 20 June 2009
Mrs. Toad and I might be gallivanting about the Italian countryside, but we are still thinking of you, our loyal Toadlings. We may be relaxing by the pool, but we understand that life might not be quite so easy for those of you at home. Actually, fuck it, life is never this easy for us either. This is like some bizarre anomaly for us - time, peace, reading books… it’s all so fucking restful I’ve almost forgotten to swear at the locals.
The place we’re staying is just plain ridiculous. We are living in what amounts to the tiniest of little comedy garden sheds imaginable, but the outside space is some great big gigantic plaza. It’s just ridiculous.
Fortunately, there is something to lower the tone. Nature is basically a great big urinal, as we all know, and I have been doing my best to maintain a time-honoured male principle of ‘no place being too sacred or picturesque for having a sly piss’. So when the bladder beckons, so does the wall, and there I go to water the olive groves of Puglia. It feels like a public service, really it does.
Thanks again to Euan and the lads for keeping things going while we're away. The connection here is so damn slow I really haven't been able to read it all, but Mrs. Toad periodically checks up on things on her Blackberry (the woman's insane) and lets me know how things are going. This news I generally treat with an indifferent grunt, before returning to the pondering of precisely which sort of cheese I most fancy for lunch, but I appreciate her efforts.
Toadcast #74 - The Poolcast
01. The Shaky Hands - Summer’s Life (03.26)
02. Lemonjelly - Spacewalk (12.45)
03. Grandaddy - Ghost of 1672 (19.44)
04. Billie Holiday - Good Morning Heartache (24.36)
05. Animal Magic Tricks (with Neil from Meursault & Pete from The Leg) (34.42)
06. Edith Piaf - C’etait Une Histoire D’amour (38.11)
07. The Flaming Lips - Can’t Get You Out of My Head (48.12)
08. Wilco - Jolly Banker (52.17)
09. The Laurel Collective - No Pirates Left (63.04)
10. Yoshimi! - Philosophy For Fangirls (69.12)
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Sat, 13 June 2009
This is not so much the holiday podcast as the pre-holiday podcast, because for all we are away now, I recorded this on Thursday night before going away, as we prepare ourselves for the unspeakable burden of doing absolutely fuck all for two weeks. I am taking a pile of books and a pile of new music and we are going to do pretty much nothing at all. My parents used to do really adventurous travelling when we were young, but honestly I don't have the energy. I am so incredibly fucking exhausted from constant Toadery that actually, despite having a holiday inferiority complex, pretty much all I can cope with at the moment is a couple of weeks of fuck all. Even
last year when we went to Portland for a couple of weeks, we took all
the technology and recorded interviews and all sorts at Pickathon. It
was relaxing and nice, but I still got a hell of a lot of work done.
This time I will take along some tunes which I have been meaning to
catch up with, perhaps record a podcast or two, and basically spend the
rest of the time lying in the sun by the pool. My folks might not be
all that impressed, but the recharging of the batteries is the sole
purpose of this trip and I think we might manage just that. Toadcast #73 - The Holiday Podcast 02. Midnight Oil - Bushfire (10.06) 03. Headless Heroes - Hey, Who Really Cares? (Jon Hopkins Remix) (16.56) 04. Alela Diane - Pieces of String (21.05) 05. Inspector Tapehead - A Fillet of Bozo (25.42) 06. Maxwell Panther - Shiver on a Twist of Fate (33.19) 07. Jack Richold - Lady of the Calico (37.00) 08. Grant-Lee Phillips - Calamity Jane (41.16) 09. Billy Bragg - Bread & Circuses (50.20) 10. The Divine Comedy - Les Jours Tristes (57.45) |
Sat, 6 June 2009
This is called the Slowcast because there are so many songs and, more commonly, whole albums out there which I took ages and ages to get into, and for no really obvious reason. There are several reasons, I guess: how familiar a sound is, your emotional state at the time, what your mates are listening to, how popular something is and stuff like that. I know I've admitted plenty of times in the past that I have a habit of refusing to like things if they get too popular. That sounds ludicrous, but it's not exactly a conscious decision, more an instinctive recoiling. I never have liked much popular stuff, although I do certainly go through phases. Maybe that's one of the reasons that, with the label, I am not looking to sign or work with the modern equivalent of a Top 40 band - I have never much liked Top 40 music. Anyway, that's not really the point of the podcast.
This is dedicated to those albums which for some reason you have to
hear about a million times before you eventually, out of nowhere, realise that you love them. 02. Tom Waits - Goin' Out West (08.37) 03. Radiohead - My Iron Lung (14.14) 04. The Mutton Birds - Envy of Angels (23.42) 05. Mancino - Definition of an Accident (32.26) 06. The Mabuses - I'm the Greatest (36.09) 07. Interpol - Obstacle #1 (43.31) 08. My Latest Novel - Wolves (49.30) 09. The Wedding Present - 2, 3, Go! (55.29) 10. Yo La Tengo - Big Day Coming (59.56) |
