The Toadcast

So, as I said last week, we should now be stumbling back to something vaguely resembling equilibrium here at Song, by Toad.  The releases are out, nowt else has a fixed date, we're cruising into Summer and dammit I better find something to do soon before I get a fit of the lazies.  Which is what happens to me when I have too little to do.

So this podcast is a fairly normal trip through a pile of shiny new songs, with a brief detour to mark the occasion of Mrs. Toad and I celebrating our sixth anniversary, which we did this weekend just past.

Dress Sexy at My Funeral may sound like a rather inappropriate song for an anniversary, but I like it nevertheless.  The sentiment has a certain degree of 'fuck you' to it, which is one of the things which makes our relationship rather fun to be in, from my perspective.

And as I said when introducing the Billy Bragg song, it's a funny thing to think that Mrs. Toad and I first met at school as fifteen year olds.  And presumably back then we were just normal high school kids thinking about normal high school things, with not the slightest inkling that this embryonic friendship would turn out to be the most important relationship in our lives.  Which I think is rather sweet, actually.

01. Ringo Deathstarr - Rip (00.22)
02. H. Hawkline - Black Domino Box (07.36)
03. Smog - Dress Sexy at My Funeral (15.51)
04. Billy Bragg - The Fourteenth of February (22.07)
05. Popstrangers - In Some Ways (27.27)
06. The Marble Vanity - The Autumn Woods (32.09)
07. The See See - Automobile (40.11)
08. The Louche - Salt (43.49)
09. Woodpecker Wooliams - Sparrow (48.50)
10. Dolly Parton - Little Sparrow (57.32)

ringo deathstarr, h hawkline, smog, billy bragg, popstrangers, marble vanity, the see see, the louche, woodpecker wooliams, dolly parton

Wow.  I am just - only just, mind you - about back in my right mind after the Fence Collective's awesome Away Game Festival on the Isle of Eigg.  After spending three days in the Inner Hebrides, embracing Scotland's talent for wildly variable weather to its absolute fullest, we journeyed back yesterday, stopping off to record a Vic Galloway session for BBC Radio Scotland.

That meant we got back in around one in the morning, and after eight hours' kip and a very long, very hot shower, I now feel just about ready to face the world again.  Not to take in on in a carpe diem, up and attem boy sort of a way, just ready, just about, to handle real life once more.

This podcast is, as I assume you will have noticed by now, going to be all about Away Game, with all but a couple of the songs by bands I saw play at the Festival.  And what a fucking awesome festival it was.  Well played Eigg, and well played Fence.

01. Water World - Catch Yrself (00.26)
02. King Creosote - Not One Bit Ashamed (07.09)
03. OLO Worms - Strays (17.55)
04. Y Niwl - Undegnaw (22.09)
05. Rob St. John - The Whites of Our Eyes (29.15)
06. Scott Rudd - Bullshit Love (38.01)
07. Jo Schornikow - Bird's Nest (39.47)
08. The Twilight Sad - I Became a Prostitute (Acoustic) (46.26)
09. Sparrow & the Workshop - Faded Glory (50.17)
10. Luna - Malibu Love Nest (55.49)
11. eagleowl - No Conjunction (1.04.52)

Delivered to you live(ish) from Istria, welcome to Toadcast No. 233, the Crocast, recorded whilst travelling some of Europe's prettiest coastline.

Or sort.  Actually it is recorded in one of the most horrendous resort complexes either of us has ever seen, but this is just a mere stop on the way; tomorrow we shall be travelling some of Europe's prettiest coastline!

We even managed to turn up at the rent-a-car place with an expired driving license and credit card which didn't actually work, and they still gave us a car without so much as blinking.  This is an awesome holiday!  Tonight: buttery, garlicky grilled fish and dry white wine.  And actually, the local dry whites, despite us hearing awful reports about Istrian white wine, have been really good so far.  As you can probably tell from this podcast.

01. Vadoinmessico - Archaeology of the Future (00.45)
02. Murals - Eyes of Love (09.20)
03. Sharon Van Etten - Kevin's (20.49)
04. The Lovely Sparrows - While Sailing (24.55)
05. Errors - Relics (33.24)
06. Buttonhead - Champion Bread (42.37)
07. Caravan Club - Tongue Tied (Rough Mix) (54.24)
08. Honey - Cape Canaveral (58.06)
09. Fantasy Rainbow - O, Weirdo (1.07.54)
10. The Blank Tapes - I'm Back (1.14.45)

This was originally supposed to be called something vaguely phlegm-related, due to the amount of hacking and coughing I have been doing over the course of the last few days.  It's the reason this podcast never appeared on Sunday or Monday, that's for sure, and had I tried to record it then you'd have just heard me growling my way through links like I was auditioning to replace that guy who does the voiceovers for all those macho trailers in Hollywood.

"Forced to choose between his old ways and the family he would do anything to protect" - that kind of shit, y'know?

Anyhow, sitting in muggy Edinburgh while rain interrupts play at Wimbledon, and with a rather odd tennis-themed song on this week's playlist I figured The Ballscast would be more suitable.  I am not fussed about tennis at all, but being back at my grandparents' house in Manchester during the Summer holidays and watching Wimbledon is a rather significant childhood memory for me. As was then going out to play tennis on my Granddad's carefully cultivated lawn and completely destroying it, much to his silent fuming!

01. Blur - The Puritan (00.22)
02. Zed Penguin - Heathens (07.20)
03. Vitamin Pets - Fried Eggs (11.06)
04. Paul Banks - Summertime is Coming (16.36)
05. Indian Wells - Wimbledon 1980 (21.16)
06. Keaton Henson - To Your Health (31.59)
07. Trans Manna Ray - Woman Killed, Fetus Removed (37.00)
08. The Traps - Your Headland (45.53)
09. Conner Youngblood - Gold (49.19)
10. Two Gallants - Broken Eyes (56.57)