Toadcast #38 – The Deathcast
Yes, another podcast dedicated entirely to the End of the Road Festival. I did the very same last year because I do rather love this festival, and the sheer quality of the lineup easily merits a podcast to itself.
Unlike last year, Mrs. Toad actually came with me this time around. We drove this stupid old 1960s VW camper van down there, and Christ knows how we didn’t die in the process. The fucking thing steered like a bathtub full of water, there were no brakes at all and the only crumple zone was us. The other disconcerting thing is the fact that VW campers are something of a community, so everyone who passed us in one would flash their lights and wave with the sort of sincere enthusiasm that made us mortally ashamed to be mere renters – mere passengers in a club full of such obviously devoted members, Christ we felt like charlatans.
Anyway, ignore our guilt and enjoy the podcast. There’s some fucking great music on this one. And why is it called the Deathcast? Because that blasted camper van we drove down in was an absolute death trap. Honestly, want to die in a nasty accident? Try driving a 60s VW camper van around the English countryside in the middle of the night in the pissing rain.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
01. Micah P. Hinson – Patience (03.17)
02. Nick Cave & the Dirty Three – Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum (09.41)
03. The Young Republic – Shiloh (20.19)
04. Over the Wall – Thurso (23.22)
05. British Sea Power – Carrion (29.40)
06. The Pictish Trail – All I Own (36.50)
07. Shearwater – Levithan, Bound (41.31)
08. Jeffrey Lewis – Do They Owe (45.50)
09. The Wave Pictures – Leave That Scene Behind (50.39)
10. Richard Hawley – Coming Home (53.21)
11. Calexico – Minas de Cobre (For Better Metal) (59.55)
In response to the generalization of your listeners, I happen to love Calexico and have been a fairly loyal reader. So you at least have 1.
Oh this looks like a good ‘un. Once the kids are put to bed I’ll have more to say on the subject, but at first glance that’s one classy lineup.
Hello Cristina – well it wasn’t quite as one-sided as all that I suppose, but I did end up penning some ludicrous screed about why everyone should like them.
Cheers C&B, hope you enjoy. I was hammered by the end though, so don’t expect miracles!
You were hammered at the start!
It is a very drunken podcast. Surprisingly lucid though, given the circumstances.
There’s a lot been said about the tension that can exist between different songs when you play them in sequence, and the different moods different combinations can evoke.
Bands fiddle endlessly with the running order of their albums trying to get it right, anyone who’s ever compiled a mixtape knows what I mean. DJs and podcasterists will know what I mean too.
Anywho..
The little run of tracks you’ve got there from Nick Cave through The Young Republic and into Over The Wall is magic.
Unusual when you consider how different the three bands are and where they’re coming from, and also considering the fact you were pissed as a badger at the time.
Oooh, better not let Jonny hear you talking about Classics like that. You’d be on the sharp (or should I say dull?) end of a very long-winded lecture….
I do agree with you about the violin on the Dirty Three song. It’s the kind of thing that just makes you stop in your tracks and lose yourself in the sound. The strings in “Shiloh” do that to me too; that combination of fiddle and banjo is just marvelous. After the podcast finished I kept pushing it back to listen again. And again. And again.
Cheers for a great podcast!
You don’t have any Dirty Three? I would never have guessed that from your devotion to NC&TBS. Well, I have Horse Stories and Whatever You Love, You Are, and they’re both exhaustingly brilliant, to me at any rate. Time Jesum was recorded shortly after Horse Stories came out, and is in much the same vein, sans vocals. As for “classical” fiddlers who approach Ellis’ passionate intensity, check out Gidon Kremer’s 1977 performance of Arvo Part’s Tabula Rasa, Fratres, and Cantus In Memory of Benjamin Britten. It’s available on ECM and is a desert island disc for me.
And you’ll love Crass. Banned From The Roxy in particular is just one long string of vicious snarling profanity set to this great motorik driving beat. Brilliant.
Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for breakfast. I’m hungry as a badger.
eMusic don’t appear to have Horse Stories, so I am going to make do with Whatever You Love. Downloading it as we speak…
Are you sure? I’m looking at Horse Stories on eMusic right now. In fact, that’s how I got it. Is this one of those “available only in the US deals”?
The have different things available in the States and Europe, which I must admit is brilliantly clever of the record companies because there’s no way in the world that will lead to illegal downloading, is there.
You’ve inspired me, though, to go ahead and get Ocean Songs. That’s the stuff.
Finally got around to listening, and enjoyed this a lot – thanks! A (now-ex) girlfriend and I once rented a 1970s VW beetle to drive around Tasmania in, thinking it would be a romantic way to tootle about the countryside.
Bugger of a thing broke down 3 times in one week.
I did learn everything I know about changing sparkplugs, adjusting points, and otherwise nursing a decrepit engine back to life though.
A potted summary of EotR from my perspective, in no particular order:
most moving: Kurt Wagner, held the entire Big Top audience captivated.
most bizarre singalong: Akron/Family – “circle, triangle, square… yeah, yeah, yeah…” (with appropriate hand movements).
most unlikely looking band: Seabear – seriously, it looks like Sindri decided to form a band and went recruiting in the law library (this isn’t a criticism, btw, along with aforementioned Devon Sproule, they were in best new discovery category).
most disappointing: Sun Kil Moon; musically sound, but unengaging and apparently disinterested; only act I walked out on.
most likely to destroy their instruments: The Chap, during their finale (this was before I learnt that the guitarist from Low *did* actually destroy his instrument). Raucous, funny as hell and mad as (badgers?)
most ballsy performance: Thingumajig*saw, for declining the PA system and forcing a packed Bimble Inn to shut up and listen to a guy singing in falsetto and a girl playing a saw.
most altruistic act: woman standing outside toilets on Sunday afternoon handing out toilet paper and advising people which units were ‘least full’.
most annoying (in retrospect) decision: not fighting our way back into the Local for Shearwater.
ermmm… this is getting kind of long, sorry ’bout that. I’ll stop now.
[...] and Christ almighty what a fucking death-trap that thing was. As I wrote in the intro to the podcast about this festival, the thing steered like a bathtub full of water. Honestly, if you ever needed to react to anything [...]
[...] -The Deathcast #37 -The Oddcast #36 -The Domesticast #35 -Meursault Toad Session If you want to subscribe to [...]