Fri, 28 April 2017
This is Toad Session #39 with Breakfast Muff, recorded on the 9th December 2016 in our warehouse recording space down in Leith - The Happiness Hotel. These guys have been our pals for a few years, since before the fantastic David Cameron's Eton Mess compilation, and all three of Eilidh, Simone and Cal have been in loads of other bands we love too. This stuff is short, sharp and ferocious, at the same time as being loose, flippant and funny. Not many bands I know can combine dark humour, angry politics, outright silliness and boisterous riffery like these guys and this session was an absolute ton of fun to do. As usual, Mario Cruzado made the fantastic videos, with help from Jennifer Baker. 01. Breakfast Muff - Baby Boomers (Toad Session) (00.13) |
Fri, 28 April 2017
Tim the Mute and Kim Gray came over from Vancouver to tour in late Autumn and early Winter of 2016 and played a show for us at The Happiness Hotel on the 27th November. We managed to make time to squeeze in a wee Toad Session beforehand. Tim runs the fantastic label Kingfisher Bluez and has become a good friend and musical ally over the years, partly because I love a lot of the music he releases, partly because I like how he goes about his business, and partly because he is just a lovely guy. He's been over to play shows for us a couple of times now, co-released the first Adam Stafford record we did a few years back, and this year brought his friend Kim Gray with him on tour. They played a fantastic house gig at The Happiness Hotel and we recorded this session beforehand. As usual, Mario Cruzado made the fantastic videos, with help from Jennifer Baker. |
Tue, 11 October 2016
Firstly, NO I shall not be launching into a long-winded plea for acceptance over how long it has been since the last podcast. Other shit distracted me, as is always the case when someone doesn't do something. A lot of other shit, in this case. I don't know if any of you remember this, but in April me and my most singularly epic Volvo Bette (pronounced 'Betty' because she's a stubborn and moody old bitch and therefore named after Bette Davis) went on the Rust2Sahara trip with the Rust2Rome Pioneers group. It was, as I am sure you can imagine, a pretty fucking epic experience. After a couple of surprise detours, via Belfast for example, and the Pendine Sands in Wales, and some straight ahead burns down the motorways of Spain, we crossed into Morocco and there the really amazing stuff really began. We dodged camels, lost track of where the road was entirely, jumped sand dunes, clambered over the top of the Atlas mountains on a tiny goat track, visited a Bond villain lair in an extinct volcano, lost suspension, oil filters and exhausts and suffered punctures. We had to ask random mechanics at the side of the road to help us out, welding bits of the cars back together with fags in their mouths and no more than a pair of sunglasses to shield their eyes. We ran out of petrol so badly we ended up having to siphon between cars to get to the next town, and over the CBs we planned and executed a pit stop to swap a battery from one car to another, jump start them and resume our 100mph dash to Tangiers port that an F1 team would have been proud of. In short, it was absolutely fucking amazing. 01. Dionne Warwick - Do You Know the Way to San José? (00.23) |
Thu, 7 January 2016
Well as you probably know, Mrs. Toad and I spent the last quarter of 2015 living in Brooklyn - in Red Hook to be precise - and it was fucking amazing. Red Hook itself is a fucking brilliant neighbourhood. Still pretty industrial, but with loads of really nice places, so the balance between residents and incoming hipsters (like, I suppose, ourselves - we are the problem!) is still pretty decent for the time being. Only a matter of time, I suppose, but for now it's a pretty great place to be. Well while I was out there I went to some gigs, listened to some music, and with the help of my little brother's recording expertise and Tom from Gold Flake Paint's curatorial sagacity we made a record. That's right, the fifth Song, by Toad Split 12" (actually the one and only release on Toad Flake Paint Records) was recorded at the National Opera Centre while I was out there. So this is a mix of bands I saw, bands I listened to and bands I worked with in the three months when we could pretend to be a trendy Brooklyn record label for a bit. 01. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You (00.24) |
Fri, 18 September 2015
The Lithpcast is named after the rather impressive lisp I have developed since my dentist yanked my front-left incisor out of my mouth the other day and replaced it with empty space and stitches. There will be a new tooth bunged in there at some point, for the time being I have a rather uncomfortable denture which I don't wear, a bad lisp, and a general sense of trepidation about how I am actually supposed to fucking eat. The tunes this week are somewhat defined by the fact that various things have nudged me out of the way of new music, so there is a lot of Song, by Toad Records stuff, but for some reason also a lot of profoundly obscure other songs too. I feature three really good compilations put together by other folk, a wee plug for a pal's label, and there's even time for some surprise Chumbawamba. Who could possibly resist. 01. Blood of the Bull - Hold Your Head Up High and Go Fuck Yourself (00.22) |
Thu, 20 August 2015
So Mrs. Toad and I are back from Rust2Romania (just) and before I throw myself into the second half of the Pale Imitation Festival I thought I might take the time to reflect on the rather epic adventure we just experienced. We have some of the tunes, both excellent and just plain silly (and sometimes both), which we played as we charged about through some of the more unexpected parts of Europe. Driving from Edinburgh to Romania, for example, probably shouldn't include a chapter titled 'via Greece', but somehow it did. Getting slung in a Romanian jail also 'shouldn't' have happened either, but it was awfy close, and finally Mrs. Toad and I ended up with a wee trip down memory lane by going to a Heuriger in Vienna on the way home. It was all over the place, this particular trip, but especially fantastic because of it. 01. Simon & Garfunkel - Baby Driver (00.25) |
Fri, 31 July 2015
Hiya folks, once again in advance of the glorious Pale Imitation Festival we have a podcast exploring all the weird and wonderful bands who will be playing in Edinburgh during August for your wild and enthusiastic entertainment. Because you're coming along, right? All of you? Oh god do please come. Please. Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease! Ah fuck that, it's really undignified when I grovel isn't it. Fucking come along or you are missing the fuck out on seeing the best under-the-radar bands in Scotland at the most reasonable of prices (a fiver per show or a season ticket to the whole damn thing for £25 - all tickets here) in one of Edinburgh's most legendary underground venues. (Literally. It's actually a cellar.)
It's a bit haphazard, but it's a bloody great festival, the beer in Henry's is really good these days and the wonderful Kitchen Disco will be providing cakes and DJing on every single night because they are massive heroes and they are the reason the terrorists will never win. 01. Numbers Are Futile - Monster (00.17) 10. Happy Meals - Electronic Disco (1.03.57) |
Thu, 25 June 2015
This is what is becoming the annual Rust2Rome podcast. Not so much intentionally as such, it's just that sitting in the car with tapes is pretty much the only music I've been listening to recently that's all, so that's what the podcast is from. After two years doing the French Alps route I decided that since Mrs. Toad wasn't coming with me this time (she's coming on Rust2Romania in August) I would try the new Swiss Alps route. The driving was definitely more spectacular, if not quite as quick due to the general busyness of the roads, but it was fantastic to do the new route. And after the absolute rammy last year when there were 55 cars and 140 people, going in a group with 10 cars and a mere 22 people was blissful peace and quiet, much more sociable and of course with fewer people everything was easier too. What a fantastic expedition! And good old Bette too - ticking up towards 300,00 miles! 01. The Golden Toadstools - Silly Savage (00.21) |
Tue, 12 May 2015
What a weird, monumentally depressing and yet slightly hopeful few days we've had. A majority elected Tory government basically labels whatever percent of the imbecilic British people who voted for them as rapacious, bullying, socially vindictive, economically illiterate idiots. And there is literally nothing to be happy about in them being elected to govern Britain again. Nothing. But on the other hand, where Labour destroyed themselves by failing to refute plainly ridiculous Tory fairy tales about the economy, and by being cowed into bowing to their (plain stupid as well as utterly immoral) program of increased welfare cuts, and their (plain stupid as well as utterly immoral) crusade against immigration and asylum, at least Scotland massively embraced the most vocal, credible alternative in the whole conversation. This shouldn't be seen as a wholesale endorsement of all SNP policies, or even their track record. I don't want to live in a one-party state, and I think we'll see a far more politically diverse result during the Scottish Parliament elections, not least because we embrace proportional representation up here, and that the country will be the better for it. What this was was a complete rejection of a long-discredited economic dogma and an utterly regressive social narrative spun by one vindictive and avaricious party and barely countered at all by the self-described alternative. It was a rejection of the Lib Dems for their spineless support for a Tory government and complete abandonment of their election promises. It was basically a backlash against two parties who have show their spinelessness in the face of the other, and the narrow cowardice of the Westminster consensus. It may not fix much in and of itself, but at least up here people have called bullshit as loudly and unanimously as possible. 01. Breakfast Muff - Dishes (00.22) |
Fri, 24 April 2015
Fuck me, sorry, I seem to have managed to not do one of these for about two months. That totally took me aback, I have to confess. Ah well, I suppose it was inevitable. Due to slightly ambitious scheduling we ended up with four or five releases all being live at the same time in the late Winter/early Spring period and I was kind of overwhelmed with all the work which needed doing for all of them I am afraid, which kind of accounts for how overwhelmed I ended up getting. The Cherryblossomcast was suggested by Stephen Lappin on Twitter, as I took that picture over there of our front door once the two cherry trees which flank the gate started flowering this week. It's been sunny and gorgeous here in Edinburgh, and we've been doing that classic thing you do in Northern cities, and sitting outside and drinking too much absolutely every available sunny second, and sometimes persisting way after it's become far too cold to reasonably sit outside. It's just such a joyous relief to feel the warmth and the sunshine, much of a Winter fetish as I do have. 01. Garden of Elks - I Hid Inside (00.22) |
Wed, 11 February 2015
I am going to be spending an awful lot of time on motorways in the immediate future (this is after a Manchester round trip last week as well) so I figured calling this the Motorwaycast made some sense. So many white lines, so many headlights. I actually don't mind long drives. I find them sort of meditative in a way, although that effect sort of diminishes when you've driven the same stretch of motorway a bit too often. Then it's just dull and frustrating, but in general long drives are kind of nice. I stick a pile of tapes on the seat next to me, get a coffee and just muse my way along the road for hours. That car in the picture is not entirely like Shirley (our new 240 wagon) but not all that unlike, and because there will be a funeral involved in one of these trips I think Shirley is rather more suitable than Bette, covered in stickers and a ludicrous green racing stripe. Shirley's good, though, she's handled a few good long round trips now so it looks like we have another long distance workhorse on our hands. 01. Le Thug - Outer Hebridean (00.37) |
Thu, 22 January 2015
So many of the songs on this week's podcast should really have been played at the very least six months ago that, honestly, it's just a little bit embarrassing. Some of these came from emails which got utterly buried in my inbox, some from things that I kept intending to feature, only to realise that I had accidentally allowed months to pass without doing so, and others I simply didn't get the chance to even read until the January lull. That's fine of course, I know none of you come here to be on the very cutting edge of the cutting edge, but some sort of vague punctuality would be nice wouldn't it. Given that, as we discovered last week, jokes have to automatically stop being funny once more than ten people have posted them to Facebook, I assume you probably have to stop enjoying songs now by the time they are three months old or so. There also seems to be a weird preponderance of all-caps bands. I know that's quite the thing these days, just as no-one ten years ago would even bring themselves to glance at a capital letter, but still, I find it unnerving. Do they care that much? Can I ignore it? Or do they hate it when people spell it like a normal word? Oh my god the anxiety. Anyway, fuck it, tunes. 01. BETS - Don't Give a Fuck (00.10) |
Wed, 14 January 2015
So, with the first podcast of the year I suppose I should be doing New Year's Resolutions, right? I guess I do have some, sort of, for a change. Firstly, I didn't exactly keep on top of the label admin well enough last year - particularly the accounts - so that really does need to improve. We're doing gigs again this year, partly because it seems to help with the general awareness of the label and partly because no-one in Edinburgh seems to be putting on the kind of gigs I want to go to. Actually, that's less of a resolution really, and more of an announcement, isn't it. And thirdly, we have to suck less at PR. I've got a few plans for this, but mostly we just have to do a better job of getting label artists covered in the bigger online magazines in particular. It's heavy work, PR stuff, but if you can't do PR then you aren't really a label so it has to be done. Also, we have a playlist on Soundcloud of all the new bands we're working with this year. 01. The Muppets - Movin' Right Along (00.00) |
Thu, 27 November 2014
Alright alright, so the name of this might have absolutely hee-haw relation to the actual content of the podcast. It's just that I went to the tip today in Bette, as I usually do, and they spat the dummy and tried to charge me commercial rates to dispose of my rubbish and recycling because the car had fucking 'advertising' on the side of it. As in, daft rally stickers. Does Bette seriously look like a fucking company car to you, you morons? Despite the fact that I emptied it all out on the ground and asked them to point to the commercial waste, of which there was precisely none, the best they could manage was 'well this time it's okay, but next time...' Next time what? Fucking what? Stupid stickers on the side of a car means I can't use the fucking municipal dump? Fucking idiots. Anyhow, pointless and utterly futile outrage aside, here are some excellent tunes for you once again. Next week will be the Virgin of the Birds Toad Session, so keep an eye out for that as well. Ahh. Pub. 01. Malcom Middleton & David Shrigley - A Toast (00.57.) |
Fri, 14 November 2014
I can't really believe I've not done an Edincast before. I mean, I live here, I work here, I run a label here and I go out to gigs here all the time. How has this not happened yet? I've done numerous Scottish ones, label ones, and even Manchester ones although I'm not really from there, but Edinburgh has never happened for some reason. And why has it happened now? Well I was at the Creative Edinburgh Awards last night and had put together an Edinburgh playlist specifically for the purpose, but the organisers (probably very wisely) just asked the DJs to play through, instead of using my stuff, so I never had the chance to annoy people with my deliberately obtuse choices. Actually, most of them weren't all that obtuse really... just one or two. So given the muzzling yesterday I figured I could just put most of these songs on a podcast and, let's face it, play them to a much more receptive audience. I mean, The Leg, The Love Gestures, Passion Pusher... not really suitable for last night's Gathering of the Middle Classes. It was fun, though. There was awesome cake and our pals Olaf (Born to Be Wide) and Tommy Perman and Rob St. John (Water of Life) both won awards. And I had too much gin. So a good night all round, really! 01. The Shop Assistants - I Don't Wanna Be Friends With You (01.40) |
Tue, 4 November 2014
So this is the second Broken Records Toad Session. We actually packed a band with four guitarists and a full drum kit into our living room and decided that, fuck it, of course it would sound fine. And you know what, somewhat magically it does. Alright the drums could have done with more than one mic, and perhaps we didn't have all that much control when we had to use one mic for two guitar amps, but they recordings sound really good if you ask me. The reason we did a second session with Broken Records is because our first was recorded in the dark days of the internet when YouTube footage was published in 640 x 480 format and those videos now look like they were recorded back before steam trains. Ironically, and to my infinite frustration, having decided to do another session in order to upgrade the quality of what we did all those years ago, we actually managed to lose all the video for this one. Yes, all of it. We actually managed to lose an entire camera when we moved house, including the memory card with all my video on it, and Gavin's hard drive, containing all his shots, had a meltdown too, so all that went as well. I cannot express how much hair-pulling has taken place ransacking old drives for backup versions, nor how incredibly sorry I am for the band going to all that effort only for this to happen, but there's nothing for it I'm afraid. It just isn't there. So what you get instead is a series of photos by Nic Rue, the interview podcast and our session recordings. It's all really, really good stuff, but not having the video still makes me smash my head against the fucking desk. 01. Broken Records - Winterless Son (Toad Session) (00.21) |
Wed, 22 October 2014
Yep, not gin anymore, these days I drink coffee with my podcasts. Nostalgia really isn't what it used to be, is it. I remember when I was wild, rude, inebriated, etc. etc... Mind you, seeing as I am driving through to Glasgow once I finish this to engage in sensitive negotiations with a 'hot new band'*, I think half a bottle of gin might not be the wisest preparation, even by my rather slapdash standards. So it's a pot of coffee and some fine new music, and you know, I may even keep the nonsensical rambling to a minimum if I can manage it. It's going to be weird driving through to Glasgow actually, because I will be taking a friend's car instead of Bette, because it has a working tape player while Bette's is currently out of action. It's still a Volvo estate, but just a normal one, and I have to confess it feels kind of weird that no-one does their 'what the fuck is that?' stare when I drive past. I've kind of grown used to that over the last year or two with the old girl. 01. Becky Becky - I Remember, I Remember... (00.16) |
Thu, 18 September 2014
This podcast is not really all that referendumy, I thin... actually, I suppose it is kind of. I'm sorry to do this to you, but it's more or less unavoidable at this stage because if you're in Scotland it's impossible to think of anything else. I started off trying to make it apolitical and just play some tenuously connected songs, but fuck it, in the end it inevitably seeped in. In the words of the utterly obscure (but excellent) MC Quake: "It feels good to be in Scotland; it feels like home." I have no idea how it's all going to go of course, and I am not the sort of ideological idiot who thinks it will be fucking amazing or fucking disastrous either way. I am looking for a marginal improvement, and that will be good enough for me. It's become my home, Scotland, almost by accident. I ended up studying here and then entirely coincidentally fell in love with a Scottish girl and found myself back, some five years after graduating. And now I'm here. Possibly permanently. Which is a strange thought, given I had no reason to end up here. 01. The Sound of Music - So Long, Farewell (00.22) |
Thu, 28 August 2014
So, here we are on August 28th and I have neeeeearly made it through another Pale Imitation Festival. Nearly. We still have tonight's awesome show with eagleowl, Ian Humberstone and Smackvan, and then the closing party on Saturday with PAWS, Halfrican and Et Tu Brute! and then I will sleep for a week, and lock the doors and the shutters to the house so I don't have to speak to people until I am good and ready. That sounds like a moan, and it is I suppose, but it doesn't mean that I don't love the festival we've put on. I've loved every gig so far, and I'm incredibly proud of how well it has all gone and how well it has all been received, it's just that it's kind of exhausting and rather gets in the way of all the other things I have to be doing at the moment. Anyone who does this kind of shit knows, I guess, it's amazing but exhausting, and at the moment I am knackered. Anyhow, I recently received a most excellent package from Norman Records of about five or so new albums, and a lot of them get a spin here. Oddly enough I had to go an buy the Wytches song on iTunes again because for all Heavenly sent me a download card with the album, there was no sign anywhere of where to actually redeem it, and I couldn't find one on their site anywhere either. Weird. And of course the PR folk never sent me the album for review either so I've ended up buying an album I was asked to review, and then having to buy a song again just to play it on the damn podcast. Still, they're ten times more established and successful than we are, so I suppose in a way it's sort of reassuring to see that they can still be just as hapless. Music would be pretty shit if it was all ruthlessly efficient people in charge. 01. Temple Songs - Sunspot Dandyline (00.20) |
Tue, 19 August 2014
So, a little over halfway through the Pale Imitation Festival, and here we are. There are still four gigs to go, with Rick Redbeard, LAW, eagleowl and PAWS headlining (tickets and full details here), and the gigs are only a fiver to get into, which in Edinburgh in August represents a monumental fucking bargain. We also have a new single out on Song, by Toad Records, from David Thomas Broughton and Juice Vocal Ensemble's new collaborative album Sliding the Same Way which is now available for pre-order so I've popped that on the playlist as well, along with a Passion Pusher song from our first cassette release which is due in October or November or something like that. Other than that, there are a couple of new Scottish singles, some live gig plugs and a couple of Song, by Toad recording alumni with some bits and pieces, so it's all quite local music for local people this week. Phew. I am finding the Festival heavy going, I have to confess. Not that I'm not enjoying it, just that it does kind of wear you out, not least with all the drinking. Still, my Mum turns up on Sunday, so that should at least put the dampers on some of the worst carrying-on. Hopefully. 01. Neon Waltz - Bare Wood Aisles (00.17) |
Tue, 29 July 2014
Well as you can probably tell from the graphics and indeed also the title, this is going to just be one long plug for our August antics at the Pale Imitation Festival this year. But, as you will hear me rattling on about, I suppose the label and the gigs are essentially the same as the blog really aren't they, in that it's basically just me having a massive tantrum that the entire world doesn't completely agree with me about music. So in that sense plugging label releases and our live shows on here isn't me compromising the integrity of the site, is it, it's just an extension of the original purpose of the site in the first place isn't it? ISN'T IT? I hope so, anyway. In any case, for those of you outside Edinburgh you can't actually attend this festival but that won't really matter because basically this is just a podcast full of absolutely fantastic Scottish bands, so for a change I am being Mr. Scotland tonight, although as you will hear, I'm not all that gracious about it! 01. Adam Stafford - Vanishing Tanks (00.22) |
Wed, 16 July 2014
As you should well know by now, this is not the Bett-cast, it is the Bettycast, as our ridiculous car is named after Bette Davis, who spelled it Bett but pronounced it Betty. So there. Once again this is a bit of a Rust2Rome retrospective, with ruminations on brake fade in the Alps, grown men sporting mohicans, driving far too fast and complaining about things not being entirely predictable when on holiday in a car which cost lest than £500. There may also be a little teeny-tiny bit of ranting about stupid people, but y'know, there usually is on these things isn't there. Also, I think some of my Rust2Rome pals might end up listening to this, which is going to be weird, because they'll get to realise what depressing taste in music I have. Generally when you tell someone you work in music they think 'oh, that's interesting' and you can pretend to be cool for a bit. Then they hear the kind of music you're into and the illusion is shattered. Ah well, they had to find out sooner or later. 01. The Wedding Present - Drive (00.24) |
Fri, 20 June 2014
Wow, our 300th podcast! But honestly, I celebrated the 200th and the 250th I think, so celebrating again, a mere fifty podcasts later, seems a bit hollow. So Yay Me! for sticking at it, and Yay You! for continuing to listen to this pish, but I guess I should really keep quiet now until number 500. Also, OH WOW TEH WURLD CUPZ! Except for the fact that England are effectively out, by this stage, and so I suppose I should just appreciate the fact that now I get to pull for whoever plays the best football. So far I guess that might be Germany, Holland and Chile - at least they're the only teams who have really convinced so far, in my opinion. And finally, Woo Hoo, the first free-play podcast in ages. The last few have been strongly themed, so this is the first time in a while that I've been free to just sit down at the computer and pick whatever the fuck I want to play, which is fun. Enjoy! 01. The Victorian English Gentleman's Club - Ban the Gin (00.56) |
Fri, 13 June 2014
I first found Clem Snide back in around 2000 or 2001 when they released Ghost of Fashion, and have followed both the band's releases and Eef Barzelay's solo work ever since. I certainly never though back then that he'd end up staying in our house and that I'd interview him and record his songs in the living room one day. For someone really quite shy in person Eef because incredibly chatty as soon as we turned the mics on, and the interview itself is probably one of the longest and most interesting of any of the Toad Sessions we've published yet. Fiona, who both filmed and photographed the session also made the most amazing cookies (see the front panel of the video above), and we fed them pheasant, of all things, before the Edinburgh show. Not your usual tour food, I have to confess, and I felt just a little embarrassed, but it was tasty, and at least better than the usual service station sandwiches. As per usual we have the interview podcast below, freely downloadable mp3s of the session tracks from the Soundcloud player, and four individual song videos as well at http://toadsessions.com . As well as Fiona, I was also helped out with filming and recording by Neil from Meursault. 01. Eef Barzelay - In the Service of... (Toad Session) (00.22) |
Tue, 3 June 2014
A follow-on from (unsurprisingly) The Routecast Pt.1, this week I am playing songs which namechecks towns Mrs. Toad and I drove through on our way back from upstate New York to Phoenix to return the van, after the Meursault tour. Due to not wanting to just barrel down the motorway we tried to stay off the main roads as much as possible, and that did two things: firstly, it meant we went through some amazing countryside and down some unfeasibly small, picturesque roads in an unfeasibly large, ridiculous RV; and secondly it meant that we ended up having to spend more or less ten hours per day on the road to make up for the extra miles and rather lower speeds this particular plan entailed. It meant that there were some pretty epic drives, but I don't mind driving, in all honesty. The scenery alone made it worthwhile, and I find sitting in a car chattering away to Mrs. Toad whilst listening to awesome music to be a very nice way to spend a day. Especially if you have the Radio Alan app for your iPhone. Seriously, it's awful, but amazing. "Did that man kill the Muppets?" 01. Bruce Springsteen - Johnny 99 (00.11) |
Thu, 22 May 2014
This podcast is composed of songs which namecheck towns I drove through on my rather epic 7500 mile drive across American in March and April of this year. Part 1 is places I drove through between collecting the van in Phoenix, collecting Meursault in Texas and then driving up to New York on their East Coast Tour. Part 2, which is coming next week, will be songs about places I drove through with Mrs. Toad on our way back to drop the van in Phoenix again. Most of the connections are a little tenuous, honestly, tending to concentrate more on the fact that the song name-checks the town in the title rather than provides a touching insight into real life in that town, but you know, superficial is kind of what we do best here. 01. Bob Dylan - Romance in Durango (Live) (00.22) |
Tue, 15 April 2014
I will preempt your question: what the fuck is this? Well, on the Sunday of SXSW this year, the Sunday of our traditional and traditonally chaotic SXSW podcast, I went off to record this podcast instead, with the awesome Draught Punk gents. WHAT? Ignoring our awesome annual podcast in order to hang out with new friends? Isn't that what happens just before massive comeuppance in every high school movie in history? Have you learned NOTHING from shallow, saccharine, moralistic cinema? Well, as every cheating boyfriend ever would say, wait, I can explain. I didn't realise at the time that it would be an either/or situation, but after discussing excellent beer over the course of six or seven pints during the afternoon I got back to Peej's house and realised I was far, far too drunk to try and record anything at all. So I drank more margaritas instead, because of course I did.
Fortunately Peej stepped in to rescue matters and recorded this for us. Bless him. Although one or two bits had to be beeped out. Mostly me. 01. Willie Nelson - I Gotta Get Drunk (00.26) |
Tue, 25 March 2014
Umm, perhaps not as slick as the usual ultra-professional fare you’ve no doubt come to expect here at Song, by Toad, this podcast is nevertheless at least not quite as howlingly mental as our usual SXSW podcast. Instead of recording the usual podcast, drunkenness compelled me to put it off, so we ended up recording one in the tour van a week later. I say ‘tour van’ but what I really mean is 30ft RV, which is what we’re actually travelling around the in instead. Late confirmations meant we couldn’t confirm the trip until the last minute, so booking hotels would have been an expensive nightmare, and a regular van was looking to be twice the price, so we, er, ended up with this. Fuckwit caper of a lifetime! 01. Meursault - Was ist Das? (00.24) |
Fri, 28 February 2014
Epicast because this is indeed epic. A double-length podcast - well, almost - and all for the reason that I simply have to clear the decks a little. Next week I go away to the States for SXSW and after that I shall be driving Meursault on their first US tour. With next week's podcast being the Adam Stafford Toad Session, the week after that being our traditional SXSW one in Peej's back yard, and fuck knows what I'll manage whilst on tour, this means that anything not played this week will be both woefully out of date and quite possibly (shamefully) forgotten by the time I get back. Besides, my inbox will build up so much after a month in the States that I'll be overwhelmed with new things by that point and barely able to process anything else. So yes, an epic podcast, almost two hours long, but if you have the patience for both the length and my drunken rambling, then one which will reward you with some truly excellent new music. This really takes me back to the early days of the podcasts, back when I would get utterly obliterated and play songs for hours until I could barely speak. Awful for the listener, I imagine, but kind of nostalgic for me 01. Panda Kid - A Long Long Summer (00.26) |
Fri, 21 February 2014
God we're shit at this. Even the most romantic thing Mrs. Toad and I can usually bring ourselves to do on Valentine's Day - i.e. get pished and do a ranty podcast together about how we hate Valentine's Day - didn't work out this year for, erm, somewhat predictable reasons: we got a bit too jolly before recording it and it was a bunch of rambling, tedious nonsense. So a week too late you get me by myself instead, recording a podcast stone cold sober in the middle of the afternoon. Romantic, isn't it. Ah well, never mind, I never did much like Valentine's Day anyway. Anyhow, Mrs. Toad is off in the States at the moment, being all important and financey, and in actual fact by the time she returns I won't have seen her for about ten days, which is loads. It'll be worse when I go to SXSW with Meursault though, because that will involve us being apart for three fucking weeks, which is the most we have ever managed since the time when I lived in London and she lived in Edinburgh. Sigh. 01. The Divine Comedy - Geronimo (00.07) |
Fri, 7 February 2014
Video – Vimeo – YouTube Photos – Flickr Session tracks - Soundcloud – zip download (right click – save as) Interview podcast – mp3 – iTunes – Mixcloud (playlist at bottom of page) Todd Umhoefer from Old Earth came to Scotland on a sort of holiday/tour late last year and Song, by Toad collaborated with his UK label Mini50 Records to put on shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and we also took the chance to record a Toad Session as well. Old Earth were actually spotted by Mini50 because of a post on Song, by Toad so it seemed rather fitting to work together to make the tour and the session happen. This was another one of those sessions which ended with Mrs. Toad making an amazing meal, and with us all drinking an absolute shitload of wine and playing records late into the night. There was something of a skeleton crew this time around, with Rory Sutherland helping me out with recording and cameras, and extra video help by Steven Tonge. Rory also edited all the video for us this time, which is why it looks rather more stylish than usual! Full interview podcast: Toadcast #290 - Old Earth Toad Session by Song, By Toad on Mixcloud Session tracks: Session track videos Podcast playlist: 01. Old Earth - Higher Th'n Houses (Toad Session) (00.21) 02. Mat Riviere - The Garden (10.51) 03. Hiva Oa - Badger (14.34) 04. Old Earth - The rest, who cares? (Toad Session) (22.50) 05. Land of Vandals - Wildfire (29.25) 06. Altos - Never Named (32.47) 07. Old Earth - Themes & Alarm (Toad Session) (43.19) 08. Williard Grant Conspiracy - Early Hour (51.31) 09. Now Wakes the Sea - Seven Apples (56.26) 10. Old Earth - Unhunted further, four each (Toad Session) (1.11.02) |
Fri, 31 January 2014
Tomorrow morning we start recording the new Meursault album: The Organ Grinder's Monkey. The only problem is, we have no idea whatsoever what's going to be on this album, just yet, but we're going to have a go nevertheless. The album is actually being fan-funded, so we thought it should probably also be fan-chosen, so if you buy a copy of the album from our Kickstarter page, you then get to vote for five songs, Meursault ones or covers, and we'll record the most popular ones for the album - hence the title. Anyhow, picking an album involving so many potential covers is a nightmare. So many great ideas, so many awful-but-brilliant ideas, so many just plain awful ideas, and you just don't know where to stop! So this podcast is a combination of the most popular tunes, the most popular bands, and some brilliant covers by bands who have already done an amazing job of this kind of shit. As to the final album - hell, who knows, you've about as much idea of how it'll turn out as I do! 01. The Flaming Lips - I Just Can't Get You Out of My Head (00.22) |
Fri, 17 January 2014
Welcome to our sneak preview of Song, by Toad Records' plans for 2014. For the most part this is the exact track listing in the exact order of the free sampler we'll be putting up for download soon, although there are a couple of little tweaks. I've even snuck in a special wee preview of Bastard Mountain - a tune which won't be on the sampler - primarily because that spot will be taken by The Leg, but I've played quite enough from Shrunken Tina Turner in the last few months, so I thought I would give you an exclusive treat, seeing as you're one of the 4-500 people who download this thing religiously every week. Actually, I suppose far fewer actually download it every single week - maybe you're one of the 8-900 people who download the podcasts 'when they think about it', which results in that regular listenership of about 500. Who knows how many 'kinda' fans you have to have to regularly get 500 listeners in the first week, but I bet it's a fuck of a lot more than 500. Anyway, however many of you there are, it's a wee treat for you. You're welcome! 01. Virgin of the Birds - Ilona, You Should Still Be My Vampire Attendant (00.22) |
Fri, 10 January 2014
Yep I feel a bit like I'm emerging from hibernation at the moment. Something about the way Christmas and New Year fell this year completely obliterated two weeks, and this week has been spent mostly trying to slow the levels of alcohol intake from Oliver Reed levels down to about George Best ones. I've also been trying to force my sleep patterns to return to something vaguely resembling normality as well. I have been an absolutely appalling weakling in the face of that 'oh just one more episode' syndrome you develop when you have access to entire series of TV shows at once, so I've been staying up until five and six in the morning watching one absolutely terrible TV show after another. I can't even claim it was something decent like The Wire or Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, it's all been absolutely dismally shallow and repetitive crime and supernatural series. Fucking dreadful. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY BRAIN? Anyhow, you can see how I am having a little bit of trouble getting back into gear for the new year, can't you. Fucking hell, WAKE UP, BOY! 01. Clem Snide - Delight (00.22) |
Mon, 30 December 2013
Yup, as you know, Song, by Toad Records is five years old so I thought a brief spin through the history of the label would be in order because, well, why the fuck not. There's quite a lot of stuff in the vaults here which has long since vanished into the mists of time, and it's interesting to look back at how we started, in two senses. Firstly, the roster was very obviously unrecognisable, primarily because it didn't really exist yet. We had a couple of pals who were willing to let us try and help promote their self-recorded bits and bobs, and some folk we thought were talented and knew were unsigned, but had no idea what they would make of us suggesting we try putting out their music for them. And secondly, there is the ambition. We started out expecting to do little more than assisting people with a self-release. We assumed we'd be working with scrappy little demos and bits of home-recorded EPs and things like that - just trying to get the bands a little bit of extra publicity which they didn't necessarily have the time to try and achieve for themselves. It think it's safe to say that, looking back five years later, I absolutely never in a million years dreamed we'd end up where we are now. Nor did I have the slightest understanding of how much we'd have to achieve, just to only get this far! But Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. Apparently it took ages. 01. Meursault - The Furnace (00.20) |
Fri, 6 December 2013
I was in Aberdeen this week, and I happened to leave town at about half three, on my way home, at which point it was pretty much fucking pitch black already. Because the Gulf Stream keeps the UK cool in the Summer and warm in the Winter you tend to forget just how very, very far North we really are. Anyhow, between that and the cold which overtakes my office during the day because it feels indulgent to have the heating on I am definitely in my Winter mood at the moment. I like Winter, though. I like the dark and the cold and the whole 'nights drawing in' thing. I suggests time with the record player and lots of red wine, and maybe a fire as well. All good things. So yes, I am uploading this and then going off to do just that. A new restaurant has opened just down the road from us and Mrs. Toad and I are going to toddle along and try it out tonight. After some gin and records, of course. Go us! 01. Absolutely Free - On the Beach (00.06) |
Fri, 8 November 2013
I can't believe I've never recorded a Lovecast before, but honestly, I looked back through the old titles and it didn't come up. So here we go, the counterpoint to last week's Hatecast is this. I am full of the joys of life, relaxed and happy. Would you believe it? Actually, the reason this podcast exists is not because I feel some need to eradicate the rage of last week. I like to live by the words of Clem Snide: "don't be afraid of your anger". I am not afraid of my anger. I actually love my anger. My anger, inner rage, permanent sense of simmering resentment - whatever you want to call it - is what makes me who I am, what drives me on, and what makes me enjoy what I do. Fuck it, you can deal with my anger. Instead, this podcast simply exists because last week's ragefest has genuinely lifted the black cloud which it represented clean away from my life. I feel refreshed and released by having got it off my chest and am in a genuinely good mood these days. Who'd have thought it! 01. Plastic Animals - Sheltered (00.10) |
Sat, 26 October 2013
I am pretty pissed off at the moment. It's not particularly obvious - in fact it tends to manifest itself more as a smouldering sulk than any sort of rage, but you may believe me, the anger is under there somewhere. Y'see, in the music industry, you're always supposed to maintain some sort of level of politeness - never burn any bridges, never lose your rag, you never know when you might need to be friends with someone. But you know what, bollocks to that. I spend so many hours of my life working on making things good - artwork, endlessly repetitive PR stuff, designing posters for gigs, trying to drum up some sort of interest in our gigs, our releases, our bands, and you know what - FUCK PEOPLE. People are just fucking wrong about music. They approve of shite bands, they listen to garbage they're too lazy to move beyond, they write about bands they already know are popular rather than ones which are new and might be interesting, and they generally just don't give a shit and then pretend that it's your fault for not grabbing their lazy, indifferent attention. So fuck people, fuck music, and fuck you. Welcome to this week's podcast. 01. PAWS - Winners Don't Bleed (Toad Session) (00.21) |
Sat, 19 October 2013
This is called the Unioncast because I have had a really bad habit of working into the evenings recently, as well as all bloody weekend, and I am starting to thing I need a union representative to protect me from my own boss. Who, rather sadly, happens to be me. Stand up against myself for the downtrodden worker! I had no idea what I was going to play this week, but it turned into a surprisingly good playlist, including personal highlights from SWF and the awesome new EP by Shilpa Ray. Right, enough blabbering about this one, I am off up to the Pleasance to see Rob St. John, Adam Stafford and Ian Humberstone. It's an amazing venue, so I am really looking forward to it. And there's the mega double-blowout label showcase next week as well, so all sorts of musicfuns for you to take advantage of. 01. Lambchop - Hey, Where's Your Girl (00.22) |
Fri, 4 October 2013
Smash as in smash hits, of course, we don't condone vandalism here at Song, by Toad! No, this week we have a podcast full of what can really only very tenuously indeed be described as banging number one smash hits. Or, perhaps more accurately, a lot of single releases. We've the next 7" from Gerry Loves Records, some new stuff by Vadoinmessico, the new single from local favourites Honeyblood and Halfrican, and the something off the new Black Tambourines album. I add to the smash hit single vibe by including a couple of absolute corkers from varying degrees of yesteryear, in the form of The Animals and the Shout Out Louds, largely because they've been on tapes in the car while we were driving to France and back to visit Mrs. Toad's family. While I was there I took the opportunity to mix a whole pile of new Toad Sessions, and they're all awaiting editing now, so I thought I'd also include one from the recent Old Earth Session as well. I think you've heard stuff from The Yawns and Sparrow and the Workshop already, so I figured something new might be interesting for you. And there you go, that's pretty much the lot. Pour a big ol' gin, as I am about to, and wrap yer lugs round this little lot. 01. The Animals - House of the Rising Sun (00.44) |
Fri, 20 September 2013
It's, erm, okay to make fun of old people injuring themselves isn't it? I mean on the internet, not in real life of course, that would be barbaric. But on the internet this shit is okay, right? I mean, we even let the Daily fucking Mail on here, we can't be that picky. I only ask because the reason this is called the Ribcast is in salute to my cantankerous old father, who managed to fall off a ladder the other day and break a couple of ribs. This, like most rib injuries, has proven to not be all that dangerous, so all we have is a bad tempered old man in lots of pain, unable to laugh, roll over in bed, cough or - heaven forbid - sneeze! I've cracked ribs myself, before, although never broken them, and it really is an incredibly painful injury. Coughing and laughing are everyday occurrences, but holy shit you fucking notice them when this happens to you. Sneezes are terrifying, because holy crapsticks they fucking hurt! But as long as it's not life-threatening then pain is quite funny, right? 01. The Leg - Chicken Slippers (00.24) |
Fri, 6 September 2013
Yep, a couple of days into September and Scotland really has decided that it's Autumn now, all of a sudden it's fucking Autumn. Cold, crappy rain, wind, all the usual fun and games. Season OVER! We are into shitty territory now, just you accept it! Anyhow, I have never figured out whether good (more likely to leave the house) or bad weather (more likely to want to be inside in a venue) weather is more likely to lead to good gig attendances, but I suppose it's always nice to have the excuse either way if no-one turns up to your gig. One nice thing about the weather turning shitty, of course, is that the fucking builders who repaired our roof - Traditional Roofing and Building - whilst excellent in every other respect, managed to paint my office windows shut and are ignoring my requests to come out and fix them. So at least if it's cold I won't just be sat up here fucking sweltering all day. Enjoy the tunes! 01. Temple Songs - Passed Caring (00.16) |
Thu, 22 August 2013
August is traditionally the month where my slender grasp of Song, by Toad Records admin is finally broken and everything collapses into a massive pile of shit. And that is just what has happened this year: I am behind on the accounts, haven't opened a single envelope which has been delivered to the house for about two months, and my inbox is a sprawling, out-of-control mess. Boo fucking hoo. Nevertheless it all has to be smartened up by September. I have a new accountant, having been kicked to the kerb by the previous one for being too disorganised to be worth the hassle, so I can't fuck this one up or I really am in trouble! So August gets to be messy, and then I have to get my shit together for real and get this whole nasty mess under control again. There are plenty of old favourites on this podcast - blog-era favourites, not real oldies, but nevertheless, some artists I haven't played for ages. There's also a wee taster from the new batch of Toad Sessions we're working on, to give you a taste of the new stuff. They are going to be a lot of work, but still tremendous fun to do, and I think the results are likely to be awesome. 01. Frog - Ichabod Crane (00.16) |
Wed, 7 August 2013
As the run of dates gets into full swing, I figured The Palecast was a tediously inevitable name for a podcast but for all the predictability, I honestly couldn't come up with anything else, sorry. Although I hope I'm not being too annoying about it (and I'm beginning to suspect that I am), I do take the opportunity to plug this week's Pale Imitation Festival gigs, but there's other stuff too. There is the by-now-mandatory song from the car, picked from whatever tape I happen to be listening to a little too much at the moment. In this case it's Texarkana from REM's far-from-classic early nineties album Out of Time. It may not be a classic, but there are some really good tunes on there, mostly on the second side, and it's been fun to hear them again for the first time in ages. Then we have a couple of new unsigned bands for you, and someone else's selections from my vinyl collection. Job's a good 'un. 01. R.E.M. - Texarkana (00.22) |
Thu, 25 July 2013
The Rustcast is of course dedicated to the Rust2Rome adventure we returned from last week. We went with a bunch of tapes, and all the tunes on this podcast come from those tapes. In fact, these come from a relatively narrow selection of the tapes, because I took a few fairly downbeat tunes along and we never listened to them. I love listening to quiet music when I drive, but generally only at night, and there was no night driving on the trip, so those tapes tended to stay in the bottom of the box, unlistened. In fact, you may not believe me, but there was plenty of time when we actually listened to nothing at all. We have no air-conditioning in the car and it was so hot we had to drive large chunks of the way with all the windows rolled down, and when the car picked up any speed at all the noise made it pretty much impossible to hear anything unless it was being played at uncomfortably loud volumes. Nevertheless, there was plenty of music to be listened to and this is a collection of my favourite bits. 01. Eels - Rags to Rags (00.22) |
Sun, 16 June 2013
After writing about the SAY Award, I thought I might well do a podcast about it, given there are more than enough ace bands and ace records on that list, last year's list and I assume next year's list to make a couple of podcasts. I play a couple of shocking, scandalous omissions from this and last year's long- and shortlists, and stamp my little foot about them. I play a couple of tracks from bands who I reckon should be in with a very strong shout of making next year's shortlist. And I play a random tune by David Thomas Broughton because he, along with Rick Redbeard who I tip for next year's shortlist, is playing a show in Edinburgh this week. David on Thursday with Rachael Dadd and Ichi, and Rick on Saturday with the awesome Ian Humberstone. And again, I try and remind people not to get too worked up about this kind of thing, because, well, if no-one agrees with you that something is excellent, it should hardly make you love it any the less, should it. And equally, being told that yes, you are right, this album is good, shouldn't particularly improve your enjoyment of it should it. So these things are here to be bickered over and are good fun, as well as being fantastic for the artists who win them, but they aren't of course to be taken too seriously. 01. Meursault - Untitled (00.26) |
Sun, 2 June 2013
Welcome to the Autocast. The Autocast? Yes, we have a new car. So exciting! It is, much in the style of pretty much every car I have ever owned in my life, a bit of a shit-heap. In fact, it's a total shit-heap: a 1992 Volvo estate. I will be driving it up to GoNorth in Inverness this week, to see if it's going to prove to be reliable in the long run. It made it all the way from Oxford to Edinburgh a week or so ago though, and that was seven hours, so I reckon it should be fine. Hopefully. The thing about spending £350 on a car is that you can be pretty much certain that something serious must be wrong with it. A properly functioning car is worth more than £350, more or less whatever it is. Anyhow, GoNorth should be fun. It usually is, and now that we are a bit more established within the Scottish music community it's a nice chance to catch up with pals who I might not necessarily see that much of because for some reason Glasgow seems too far away most of the year. Ridiculous, really. 01. Book Group - Year of the Cat (00.22) |
Fri, 24 May 2013
Yes, the Sousedcast, mostly because I am fucking steaming. Getting shitfaced and swearing at the internet about music may sound irretrievably sad, but it is one of the great pleasures in my life. Seriously, listen to this shit, is it not completely brilliant? I don't listen to my own podcasts again and again - that would be a bit like wanking with a fistful of your own toothpaste - but I listen to the playlists for these things all the time, because even if my chat is shit, the playlists to our podcasts are brilliant. They really are, aren't they. Anyhow, Mrs. Toad is away at the moment, which is why I am getting shitfaced and shouting at you on the internet. IN ALL CAPS! But this week we have the best possible balance between hipster pop shit and genuinely weird bollocks. Go weirdos! GO! 01. Le Thug - Swam (00.26) |
Thu, 9 May 2013
Welcome to The Schoolcast wherein I acknowledge a few of the people who have educated my music taste more than most. Without a Musical Big Brother figure in my life I have relied on a motley crew of people from all over to get me into music to which I might otherwise never have been exposed, and the process continues today of course. For someone who is an accidentally self-appointed arbiter of taste* I actually know relatively little about music, and particularly the history of pop music. I don't know much Neil Young, for example, I don't know much Pink Floyd, I don't know much Dinosaur Jr. or Guided By Voices, or even Can - and those are just the ones for which I have been directly chided. Anyhow, I am making inroads into some of this ignorance, and it's actually a shitload of fun, as you can imagine. As with last week's Neil Young write-up, I think I'll start covering some of these records on the blog a bit more often, as I think the blend of brand new stuff and older music will work really nicely. Enjoy! 01. Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine (00.22) |
Thu, 2 May 2013
Salford is to Manchester pretty much what Leith is to Edinburgh - the scummy port town which is close enough to be pretty much part of the city, but still maintains a separate identity. And indeed Salford may be a good way behind Leith in this aspect, but it too seems to be slowly becoming nicer and nicer, and shrugging off some of its rough image. Salford has a very long way to go I suppose, but there does seem to be a fair bit of decent arty stuff happening down there at the moment, which tends to be how these things start. Anyhow, on Sunday I am going to down to Salford for the Sounds From the Other City festival. There will be stages booked by all sorts of excellent Manchester promoters, like Comfortable on a Tightrope, Underachievers, Now Wave and Manchester Scenewipe, and plenty of people knocking around who I haven't seen for a while, so I am rather looking forward to it. I also get the chance to see my Granddad and have a wee whisky together on Saturday night, which will be excellent. My Granddad and I get on really well these days, but when I first moved to England and spent some of my first year at university living at his house it wasn't always the case for various reasons. Consequently, the fact that we get on so well is something we both take great pleasure from and make sure we don't take for granted, which is a nice thing. Whisky: bringing people together since the 1400s. 01. Black Market Karma - Sole Abuser (00.21) |
Mon, 15 April 2013
The Gnomecast could have been called many, many things. It could have been called The Widecast after Wide Days, the Edinburgh-based music convention I attended in the middle of last week, and from the showcases at which two of the songs on this podcast were chosen. Equally, it could have been called the Witchcast, due to the fact that the vicious old Fucker of Working Britain is now a thing of the past. In fact, now that I think about it, a whole podcast dedicated to anti-Thatcher songs would probably have been a distinct possibility, but my feelings on her death are not quite so clean cut. Yes, I am glad she is dead, but it's more of a sense of relief, just a sort of feeling of peace now such a vindictive, spiteful cause of so much harm is finally gone, rather than the sort of air-punching, high-fiving glee which was in evidence after Osama Bin Laden was finally rubbed out. But make no mistake, Thatcher was far more evil than Osama Bin Laden. Never mind domestic politics, her support for despots around the world was directly involved in the deaths of many, many more people than amateurs like Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden. The fact that these people were mostly brown, or at least brownish, leads us to underestimate the horror for which she was responsible, but responsible she most certainly was. To be fair, of course, I don't doubt that Hussein and Bin Laden would have been capable of far, far worse deeds had they had the power to actually carry them out, but I am not sure that should really be an excuse for the likes of Thatcher, Reagan, Bush and Blair. Sorry, that really had nothing at all to do with gnomes, did it. Ah well, move along. 01. Judy Garland - Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead (00.19) |
Thu, 4 April 2013
It took me ages to name the Cranecast, primarily because it's a tenuous name, doesn't really pertain to the podcast at all, and there weren't many other options immediately springing to mind either. |
Thu, 28 March 2013
The Semitoadcast is not an erection joke, it is so named because there are four tracks on this one by Song, by Toad Records bands. Two - the Yusuf Azak and Lil Daggers tunes - are not actually on the label, and two - Sparrow and the Workshop and Plastic Animals - are. 01. Program - Waiting (00.17) |
Mon, 18 March 2013
Yes, another year, another total shambles of a podcast. Oddly enough, the one time this has been even vaguely together was the one year the BBC happened to show up to film it. How we managed to get it together for that one occasion I have no idea. Maybe the TV cameras scared us into behaving. 01. Paws - Sore Tummy (00.22) |
Thu, 7 March 2013
The Queuecast is the best I could come up with in an attempt to amalgamate the anticipation of heading off to SXSW on the weekend, with the inevitable queueing to get into stuff once there. 01. Mike Higbee - Secret Life (00.28) |
Tue, 26 February 2013
Man Edinburgh's being a little tease at the moment. It's cold, but the sun is out, and from the safe confines of my office it's all too easy to look out the window and think that Spring really is in the air. Of course, once you go outside such myths are dispelled, but there's nevertheless something immensely cheering about bright sunshine, even if it's cold. In fact, probably especially if it's cold. Anyhow, what the fuck ever, we're off to SXSW next week for Margaritas in the sun and Bloody Marys at Rio Rita's and the ludicrous carnival of commercialism which is SXSW. It's fun to go to, but honestly I wouldn't want to have to go there with ambitions to work because, honestly, you'd just get utterly swamped. That's all for later though. For now, sunshine! Aaaahhh... 01. Jonnie Common - Figurehead (FOUND's The Wetter the Better Remix) (00.44) |
Wed, 6 February 2013
The Stiffcast is not the cheap innuendo I am sure you assume it to be. No no no, not that sort of stiff, the sort where every joint and muscle in your body aches because you are woefully out of shape and attempting to run around like a teenager. That sort of stiff. |
Wed, 23 January 2013
The Plumbcast is so named because we are currently having an awful time with plumbers. My flat in Leith has a leak into the flat below and we've had three different fucking plumbers out to look at the thing and they just can't find anything wrong. Couple that with a general lack of desire to take on a difficult job - and after all why would you when there are far easier jobs out there for good money - and we are having a godawful fucking time with the plumbers of Edinburgh and the moment. 01. The Yawns - Butterfleyes (00.20) |
Sun, 13 January 2013
Another podcast from the South Coast, as I am down in Brighton again this weekend, visiting my parents. My wee brother happens to be over visiting from the States as well, so we went to see Brighton & Hove Albion yesterday, which was rather fun, despite the rain. 01. D. Gwalia - In Puget Sound (00.04) |
Sun, 6 January 2013
Welcome to 2013, Toadcast listeners. As is tradition around these parts, we start the year with a podcast of songs we will be releasing this year on Song, by Toad Records, combined with a few we have released quite recently. There are a few things I didn't put on here, because it seemed a shame to spill the beans too early - we have a new Rob St. John single coming soon, as well as a new album by The Leg and that collaborative album between Jill from Sparrow and the Workshop, Neil and Pete from Meursault, Rory from Broken Records and Reuben Taylor and Rob St. John - but it didn't feel right to play anything from those just yet. What we do have is new stuff from Trips and Falls, stuff from our next split 12" with Magic Eye, Zed Penguin, Le Thug and Plastic Animals, as well as brand new and hugely exciting label signings Adam Stafford and Sparrow & the Workshop, who we'll be doing a couple of EPs with as they prepare their new album. All in all, this is going to be a fucking amazing year for the label, I think, and I am really, really looking forward to it. Hopefully by the end of this podcast, so will you. 01. Sparrow & the Workshop - Shock Shock (00.26) |
Mon, 24 December 2012
Grinch, not because I am being deliberately all Scroogey and slagging off Christmas, just because I am somehow entirely failing to find any Christmas spirit at all. I like Christmas actually. Although, I suppose to be fair, like a lot of people I despise the hysteria of the presents and all that shit. Particularly the way the shops start punting it in late September, and the fucking adverts ladle on the emotional blackmail to imply that anything less than an entry-level mortgage spent on presents is some sort of horrendous slight on your loved ones. Fairly standard anti-commercialisation moaning aside, though, I like the cold and the darkness and the time spent quietly with family doing next to nothing. I also like the ritual preparation of a huge meal, and then lying on the sofa watching Back to the Future or Star Wars or Indiana Jones all evening because you're too bloody full to do anything else. But I'm not doing that this year, am I. No, I am doing the accounts and editing sessions. Because I'm a dick. 01. Eddie Izzard - Covered in Bees (00.26) |
Fri, 14 December 2012
What the fuck am I doing calling something a Currycast, I hear you ask. Music cannot be curry-themed, and nor is it. This is called the Currycast simply because I am visiting my Granddad in Manchester and he has just asked me to cook a curry for him tomorrow night. 01. Inspector Tapehead - I Am Your Pedigree (00.12) |
Thu, 6 December 2012
Don't worry, the chances of me actually playing party music on a Toadcast are about as good as Lana Del Rey getting some semblance of life back into that blank, empty, defeated gaze of hers. |
Thu, 29 November 2012
Winter has been slow to arrive this year, but it certainly feels like it's here now. The last few days have been pretty cold, but more importantly when you live this far North, it's getting fucking dark. It's not something I dislike, actually. We may not get much real cold in Edinburgh, nor indeed very much which anyone else would describe as Summer, but Edinburgh is at a surprisingly high latitude and during the Winter months it really is dark around these parts. So there I was sitting at my desk at four in the afternoon and it was already really rather fucking dingy outside, and in the absence of an obvious theme it seemed about as relevant as anything else I could have come up with. And let's face it, without that this is just a mish mash of new stuff which has been piling into my inbox over the last little while, and where's the fun in that, eh? Well? Where? 01. Temples - Shelter Song (00.21) |
Thu, 8 November 2012
My folks are spending a couple of months in Rottingdean down on the South coast, and after the Meursault, Rob St. John and Withered Hand gig at the Islington Assembly Hall in London on Tuesday I have come down to spend a few days with them, before pootling on back to Edinburgh tomorrow. 01. Elton John - Ballad of a Well-Known Gun (00.10) |
Wed, 31 October 2012
Coffeeeeeee... so very, very much coffee! Christ on a bike, I know I need to not be dozing off at my desk at the moment but I've had so much fucking coffee in the last couple of days I am starting to go fucking cross-eyed. Mostly this is down to trying to get my head together after the Cold Seeds 2/Wolf Bear Crystal Toads recording sessions over the weekend which, despite my lack of real direct involvement, still managed to knock the usually ruthlessly efficient Toad machine somewhat cockeyed for a few days. Anyhow, the disruption continues with a trip to London for the Meursault show at the Islington Assembly Hall next week, and some panel appearances in Aberdeen and at Unconvention in Preston both coming up as well. And you thought I just fucked about on the internet all day! 01. Elvis Costello - Couldn't Call it Unexpected No.4 (00.31) |
Mon, 22 October 2012
The Ivorycast centres, not altogether surprisingly, on the piano. I remember being mocked at school by someone (a fucking idiot) I knew for swithering on whether the piano or the violin was my favourite instrument in pop music. She was adamant that the obvious and only answer to that question was the guitar, but then she also liked Lenny Kravitz, so I think that her opinion can be utterly disregarded on principle. 01. The Divine Comedy - Geronimo (00.26) |
Tue, 16 October 2012
So, after a couple of slightly misnumbered podcasts - 245 coming after 243, and then 244 having to come after that to try and correct the mistake, hoping two wrongs might , if not make a right exactly, at least gloss over the original wrong somewhat - we are back on track with #246. In the right order and everything. |
Tue, 9 October 2012
Ah yes, the Hypecast, so called because some of the discussion on the Chvrches thread made me think about what it is I really dislike about the concept of hype, and why I mistrust it. 01. Silver Columns - Warm Welcome (00.10) |
Tue, 2 October 2012
Today I rediscovered toast. Yes, let it be proclaimed that toast is an awesome snack and that I deserve to be booed and hissed for neglecting it for so long. At university I pretty much subsisted on cups of tea, toast and tins of Heinz Big Soup, but for some reason despite working from home, I haven't resurrected the toast habit. Well today I put that right, and it was awesome. |
Mon, 24 September 2012
The recovery in the title of this podcast is down to the fact that I actually managed to spend a full, undisrupted week in the office last week. Whilst that is a ludicrously banal thing to be celebrating, getting things back on the rails, or at least moderately close to being back on the rails, does feel like something of a relief at this stage. |
Wed, 19 September 2012
Given how little time I've had to do anything recently, I certainly haven't been able to make time for new music. So this means that this week's podcast is a little backward-facing really, looking at some of the 80s and 90s music I was into at the time - not the most famous stuff, just some of the stuff I personally liked the best, of course. |
Wed, 12 September 2012
The Stagcast is a confused, late and distinctly creepy podcast. There are a few reasons for this, and they all sound vaguely like the making of inadequate excuses but umm… well, I hope you'll hear me out. 01. The Pixies - Where is My Mind (00.16) |
Sun, 2 September 2012
Yes, mosherama! This podcast draws its name, slightly sadly, not from the fact that I have been in one insane moshpit after another this week, which might have been quite cool, but from the rather more mundane circumstance that I have simply been to quite a lot of gigs. I did mosh, in a sense. In the fat, sad old man sense that I stood sort of in the middle and nodded my head vaguely in time to the music. I know, I know, who will save society from such excess? This must be a job for Carol Vorderman. Defeatist self-mockery aside, I genuinely did see three fantastic gigs one after another this week, so the podcast is going to reflect this. Once again we have multiple Grandaddy songs, which means my fandom is probably tipping the balance into sad, slavering fanboy territory but umm... well, it's too late for me to make a last-minute scramble for dignity anyway, so fuck it, they were absolutely fucking amazing and you are just going to have to sit through it and pretend to love them as much as I do. 01. Grandaddy - Stray Dog & the Chocolate Shake (00.21) |
Sun, 26 August 2012
The Curiocast because there are indeed some odd little bits and pieces on this week's podcast. Listen to it and you might not notice much different - it's not exactly shocking or all that strange or anything like that, but there are most certainly a few odd little things here and there. |
Mon, 20 August 2012
This weekend I was dragged down to the Beacons Festival in Yorkshire because pals of mine had spare tickets and umm... well, I figured why the fuck not. Also, go to the website and take a look at that lineup. Amazing! |
Mon, 13 August 2012
This podcast, I suppose I am going to have to accept from the start, really isn't going to be for everyone, is it. There is plenty of music in here, but not all that much which would make it onto a regular Toadcast. |
Wed, 8 August 2012
I have named the Nursecast in honour of the fact that Mrs. Toad has been unthreateningly but rather inconveniently ill for the last few days and I have been nursing her gently back to health. And by nursing of course I mean taking the opportunity to lounge around in bed next to her and watch stupid videos while she suffers. I know, I know, I'm a gem. |
Tue, 31 July 2012
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. |
Tue, 24 July 2012
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. 01. Water World - Catch Yrself (00.26) |
Sat, 14 July 2012
Delivered to you live(ish) from Istria, welcome to Toadcast No. 233, the Crocast, recorded whilst travelling some of Europe's prettiest coastline. |
Tue, 3 July 2012
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. |
Sun, 24 June 2012
Despite this being called the Applecast (imaginative, don't you think?) and being recorded in New York, it has preciously little to do with anything American. We just happen to be here at the moment. As soon as I record and publish this I will be heading out to watch England's inevitable hard-luck story as we go out of the Euros to Italy in the quarter finals, as seems to be traditional with England. And then I get on a ferry to the Governor's Ball, which is a music festival on Randall's Island, which looks like it will be rather fun. Mrs. Toad might actually be able to get a three-month secondment out here, which might be fun. We'd have to find some way of making sure the cats were fed in our absence, and that the house was looked after in general, but given I can basically work from a laptop pretty much anywhere, it seems like it would be a really rather fun thing to do, don't you reckon? The Song, by Toad Records New York office! 01. Milk Maid - Stir So Slow (Toad Session) (00.16) |
Tue, 19 June 2012
So, I know what you're all thinking (well, those of you that give a shit anyway). Yes, that's right, last week, for the first time in about three years, I missed a weekly edition of this podcast. I can whinge about excuses all I like, but you don't really care do you? Suffice to say that I genuinely was too busy. Or, I suppose, too hungover. Because there was a window - one, tiny, podcast-recording-shaped window of time - where I could actually have got the damn thing done, in the middle of the afternoon in Iceland, before the England game I suppose I might have been able to squeeze it in but you know what? Yes, I bottled it. I bottled it because I was hungover. I know. I feel the shame. So there you go, whinging out of the way, let's get on with this week's music choices. 01. Adam Stafford - Vanishing Tanks (00.07) |
Sat, 2 June 2012
It's Jubi-fucking-lee weekend, so whilst we are all engaging in various levels of plotting against the Royal Family and being resentfully grateful for a couple of days off. Although given we've had this fucking pantomime and that grotesque carnival of obsequiousness and vulgarity of a Royal Wedding, surely we wouldn't have to be pillaging old people's pensions if we'd just made the fuckers pay for it all themselves, and kept the people's money in the people's coffers. Mind you, given that their hands are permanently in the fucking public purse anyway, the idea of 'their money' and 'our money' is a little blurred. Burn the fucking lot of them I say. Burn them alive and do it in public. Why? Because having done away with inherited rule, we now have another stratum of unelected persons running countries, in the form of the pornographically super-rich. Burning the Royal Family alive might just serve as a warning to the bankers that we like the people who run the country to actually be fucking accountable, thank you very much. 01. Chumbawamba - Farewell to the Crown (00.) |
Mon, 28 May 2012
The Philcast is named after the detestable little Tory weasel Phil Collins, as a result of this comment on this post by James who writes Appetite for Distraction. So you can all blame him. In addition to Phil Collins, we have some Phil Spector, Phil Ochs, Phil & the Osophers and, somewhat more tenuously, Esther Phillips. Also, for some utterly inexplicable reason, the Spider Man theme song came up when I searched my iTunes library for 'Phil'. Any ideas? Was it written by Phil Phillips from Philadelphia? Also, we have the first 'Fucking Preposterous Song of the Week', in the form of Phil Collins' Easy Lover. For reasons of being a fuckwit, mostly, I suppose, I'd quite like to make this a regular feature. Next week Turn Around Bright Eyes by Bonni Tyler or Hello by Lionel Richie - whaddaya reckon! 01. Billy Bragg - I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night (01.20) |
Sat, 19 May 2012
Seeing as we are in Canada for the weekend (dear thieves, the house is not unoccupied, and the lad staying there is a fighty little fucker), I figured some Canadian songs might be in order. I am actually half-Canadian, which is a bit odd, because I've never actually lived there. So it's always weird coming here, to a country I'm technically from, but which I really don't know at all. Given we played Born Gold, Odonis Odonis, Slow Down Molasses and Hot Panda on last week's show, however, I figured that was probably enough new Canadian bands for the time being, although the excellent Hooded Fang did sneak on this one at the beginning. But mostly, apart from the more usual new stuff I tend to play, I've included a handful of nostalgic songs by Canadian bands, most of which I haven't listened to in quite a long time. And I must say it was sort of nice to look this stuff up again, after so long. 01. Hooded Fang - E.S.P. (00.44) |
Mon, 14 May 2012
Ian and myself were down in Brighton for most of last week with The Great Escape, and that's pretty much what this podcast is about from start to finish. It's hardly a studied analysis of course - and I sincerely doubt you'd expect one - instead it's more of a chatter about the Brighton fun we've had and the people we've met. Scotland is actually rather isolated when it comes to music. Hence, I suppose, the importance of the local Scottish music community to bands and labels based up here. Nevertheless, it is really important to connect with the rest of the UK. A lot of our most appreciated supporters are people I know only from Twitter and the other end of an email, be they fans, label customers, writers and broadcasters who have supported us or labels who have inspired us. So, in the interests of cementing these relationships, meeting new people and drinking an absolute fucking shitload of beer, off to Brighton we went... 01. Hot Panda - Fuck Shit Up (00.24) |
Wed, 9 May 2012
The Nightcast. Yes, night. I am recording this at about two in the morning for the simple reason that for all I aim to do these once a week, on the weekend, once again it has been just plain impossible to actually get the damn thing done on the weekend just gone, so here I am squeezing it into the ungodly hours of Tuesday night. Well, Wednesday now. And of course I am off to The Great Escape in the morning. Actually, it already is the morning. Oh all right then, by the time this is uploaded and ready to go and I can actually get some sleep, I think I might be due to get out of bed in two hours time. Cock and balls. I thought the night time was supposed to be a little more glamorous than this. 01. The Pictish Trail - Of Course You Exist (FOUND Remix) (00.26) |
Mon, 30 April 2012
This is called the Repeatcast because I sometimes wonder that the constant flow of new music I fire into these podcasts might just passing you by. I know I struggle to stay on top of things sometimes myself, so maybe you just listen when you can be bothered and sometimes things just go in one ear and out the other. I've been considering doing an artist of the week thing, like Ted from http://www.cloudsounds.co.uk/ where he plays two tracks from an artist one week (well, one month now that the show's monthly) and then one from the same artist the next week as well, so there is a degree of reinforcement Knowing me, I doubt I'll ever get round to it, honestly, but you know, it seems like a good idea. Or something vaguely like it seems like a good idea, because it would be a shame if all this music just vanished into the ether. So this week we have a lot of repetition of bands already played on the podcasts, just to make sure you're paying attention properly. Like you should be. 01. Easter - Damp Patch (00.21) |
Mon, 23 April 2012
This is called the Justcast because, whilst it may well be late, it is entirely justifiably late, so piss off and stop moaning at me. And come on, stop being coy, I know you're secretly tutting. Or at least I fucking hope you are, because the other option is that you don't really give a fuck, and where would that leave us? 01. The Leg - Witch on the Speaker (00.15) |
Mon, 16 April 2012
We are in St. Andrews this weekend for the Fence Collective's Eye of the Dug Festival. Needless to say, The Dugcast or something to that effect might have been more suitable, but there are so many golf twats around town that I really couldn't ignore them, not after all the effort they make to look like complete prats. I get the impression that with golf, the costumes became so ludicrous that really the only way to look cool, instead of dressing like a normal person, was to try and look like an even bigger fuckwit than the rest of them. Which, given the exceptionally high bar that has already been set, takes some doing. Anyhow, there is no danger of me ever taking up golf. None at all. I already find playing pool frustrating enough, and it strikes me as really quite similar in the following crucial way: you play what turns out to be a perfect shot, then the next time you do what feels like the exact same fucking thing, and yet somehow the shot you produce is dreadful. With no clue what you've done differently. It would drive me round the fucking bend. Anyhow... erm, oh yes, the podcast: 01. Broncho - Try Me Out Sometime (00.09) |
Sun, 8 April 2012
The Dutchcast was named after football. I was at the pub all day watching United play QPR and City getting done by Arsenal. For some reason this reminded me of living in Holland, primarily because Arsenal have dropped off the pace in the Premier League a lot recently, but when I was in Holland it was the height of the Wenger vs. Ferguson clashes, so watching the team play again and actually caring about the result reminded me really strongly of a time when Arsenal actually mattered as a football club. Harsh, but fair. 01. Supergrass - Cheapskate (00.26) |
Sun, 1 April 2012
April Fool's Day really does bore me to tears. The jokes are so weak and obvious most of the time that they really are pointless, although Avalanche's Withered Hand futon did make me laugh. It's the forced bonhomie which I find the most tedious, I have to confess. 'Oh yes, ha ha, very funny, well done you, gosh how everso fucking hilarious'. And then just occasionally you hear news, like Viva Brother splitting up which, whilst it is painfully obviously an April Fool, is just too close to real, actual good news we'd actually all want to hear to cause any real merriment. And then there's the Republican candidates for the presidency of the United States. Tragic, frightening, comical, and depressing. And sadly not an April Fool's joke either. 01. Two Tears - Heisse Hexe (00.22) |
Sat, 24 March 2012
The Procast is so called because this week has been an awfy professional one. The third Meursault album is approaching, and because there are publishers, managers, bookers and all sorts involved in this one we had to have a Serious Meeting about it and make sure the planning was all being done properly. 01. John Knox Sex Club - Above Us the Waves (00.17) |
Mon, 19 March 2012
After last year's relatively sensible podcast (I think the BBC cameras scared us into some degree of sensibleness), this years is far, far less sensible. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's probably a little more honest. This time around, as well as the more usual suspects of Messrs. Galloway, Reid, Thomas and myself, we are joined by The Two Jamies: Webster who manages Three Blind Wolves and Gilmour who manages We Were Promised Jetpacks. This is helpful because instead of drunken fuckwits gabbling at one another, we actually have some proper insight from people who have brought bands out to SXSW and have something useful to add. And for the rest of it me, Vic, Peej and Stuart just take the piss out of one another. So umm... well, you have to take the rough with the smooth I suppose. 01. Grave Babies - Nightmare (00.21) |
Sun, 11 March 2012
The Airconcast? Yes, because I am recording this in our hotel room in Austin, surrounded by a noisy fridge and an even noisier air-conditioning unit. It was so loud I actually turned it off during the recording, but the room then quickly became uncomfortably stuffy, so this podcast was recorded with me sitting in my pants in a slightly uncomfortable sweat - picture that if you will. 01. Trogons - Solo Amor (00.10) |
Sat, 3 March 2012
I honestly thought I was done with politics. Watching us commit genocide in Iraq despite the protests across the entire country, and then watching the Lib Dems spinelessly capitulate to the rapacious, craven Tory lizards once they got their little sniff of power just sickened me. Right, I thought, I am done with this shit, it is just a gigantic waste of everyone's time. However, the Tories haven't just been shit, they've been a repellent disgrace, governing with a sort of vindictive, cackling glee generally reserved for people in plastic armour in the Star Wars movies. Between that and the SNP deciding that forcing all minor cultural events to require a financially prohibitive and bureaucratically obstructive license, I find my simmering rage for politics to be reinvigorated. There's no fucking point voting whatsoever, but that doesn't mean you can't get stuck the fuck into these cunts. 01. Aidan John Moffat - Dear Donald (00.25) |
Sun, 26 February 2012
Welcome to Toadcast number 215. This is called the Kingcast because I have been on a bit of run promoting gigs recently, with three in the last eight days or so. Given almost none of my friends or music associates came to these gigs and that the list of attending guests on the Facebook event pages made for pretty grisly reading, I was grimly expecting the gigs to be absolutely awful - barely attended wastelands of funlessness - but every single one was brilliant. 01. Withered Hand - Heart Heart (00.26) |
Sun, 12 February 2012
Don't worry, this podcast really isn't about football. I might have been tempted, but in all honesty, but I can't really think of all that many good songs about football and if I am being truthful with myself I can't imagine you lot really enjoying a podcast about football all that much. More to the point, I am back playing football myself now, after something like two years out with back problems. Two years really is a long time to miss out on something you love doing, and even more so when you're past your mid-thirties and every year you miss is one of the last you'll get the chance to play at all. So, in amongst the new songs and all the usual things you would expect from a Toadcast (i.e. mostly swearing) there are a couple of songs which represent my reaction to getting back to playing football again, and my reaction to some of the more newsworthy moments of the footballing week as well. 01. Morris Major - Seymour Grove (00.17) |
The Toadcast
Indie Podcast From songbytoad.com, with Added Gin & Swearing
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