I am currently off work sick, which sucks donkey balls.  Even worse than being sick of course is actually having to phone in sick.  I get into a conundrum – I actually do feel like shit, but I don’t sound like I do at all, so how the hell do I convey the fact that I am actually telling the truth over the phone.  In one sense I feel that seeing as I really am ill I shouldn’t have to try, and then risk sounding deliberately perky, which seems like the wrong approach, but then trying to actually sound ill probably sounds forced and even less convincing.  So I think I generally just end up sounding indecisive, which is crap.  Maybe from now on I should aim to only contract illnesses which leave an obvious audible signature in my voice, like bronchitis or something like that.

It would be easier if you could just tell the person who answers the phone and bugger off back to bed of course, but we aren’t allowed to do that, we actually have to speak to the director in charge of whatever project we’re working on and explain to them, which has the rather unnerving effect of making you feel like a naughty schoolboy.  I’m thirty-three years old for fuck’s sake, why do I feel like I’ve been caught pissing in the plant pots?  Gah!

Anyway, there is going to have to be much delurking today as I am going to be asleep or in bed being a moaning baby for most of the day I am afraid.  As you can tell from recent threads, we’re a really nice, friendly bunch here and the chat, whilst obscure, is always the very epitome of good-natured.

It’s nice outisde too, and I don’t even have the gumption to go and sit in the garden with a nice cup of tea.  Moan moan moan.

1. Most unbelievable but genuine excuse you’ve ever had to make for missing work.
2. Worst thing about being off work sick.
3. Best thing about being off work sick.
4. Off sick munchie menu.
5. Bed or couch, for sleeping it off?

Alabama 3 – Too Sick to Pray

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The Sick Bed of Cuchuliann

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The Smiths – Still Ill

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Grandaddy – Pull the Curtains

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Eels – Hospital Food

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Fucking lurgy.

Anyone who has bought Animal Magic Tricks lovely Soil album (available from her MySpace page) will know of Frances’ electronic low-fi scratching, which brings a mysteriously elusive atmosphere to her songs.  Anyone who hasn’t bought her album should.  Her voice sounds fragile, but when she opens the valves she actually has a pretty impressive set of pipes on her.  Her voice is gorgeous actually, and complements the roughness of the music beautifully. Recently she’s been playing with a cellist – Pete from the Leg, specifically, who also plays with Alex Cornish – and the combination is bloody lovely.

There’s something rich and comforting about cello sounds, which gives a lovely warmth to her songs.  It’s as if the alienation of the wavering keyboard sounds and the tremble in her voice are being offered the promise that it is all alright after all.  It’s like reading the saddest part of a book with a comfortable knowledge that there’s going to be a happy ending.  Frances has recorded three songs with Pete when she was in Edinburgh recently, and played with him both at Homegame this year and the warmup gig beforehand, so hopefully this is something that we’re going to see a little more of in her recorded material because I love the combination.

These are a couple of videos from her Homegame set, so you can see what I’m talking about.

Hmmm, I feel I should issue an Angst-Free Warning when reviewing this.  It’s not saccharine by any stretch, but there is a carefree, whimsical side to their essentially acoustic pop which gives this an EP a cheerfully breezy air, even when the songs themselves are sad.

I’ve been sitting on this for ages trying to make up my mind whether or not that cheeriness was a little too much for me, but I don’t think it is.  It’s taken me a while to adjust to the sound, but I like this EP, particularly the sprightly violin work, which is really nice.  Oddly, they sound  like a calmer version of Mumford & Sons at times, without the same sort of wild-eyed helter-skelter pace about them.

Songs like Honesty Honesty and Typewriters are sad little tales actually, but the music doesn’t let them become demoralising.  As such it means that music doesn’t have a lot of edge, but that doesn’t seem to be the point of this – it’s just a laid back, enjoyable record with plenty of hooks and a really nice feel to it.

My First Tooth – Judge & Jury

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MySpace | More mp3s | Buy the EP from Alcopop

Whilst I’m still constantly amazed by how many obscure indie bands I’ve never heard of and how many legendary ones I’ve barely ever listened to (Sonic Youth and the Jesus & Mary Chain for example), I still assume that my depth of knowledge must be pretty impressive when it comes to left field independent music.

I suppose it’s almost inevitable that, as a consequence of this depth, my breadth of awareness has suffered an awful lot.  I look back on my Best of the Year lists for 2004 and 2005 and there are bands like the Killers, Bloc Party and Maximo Park on there.  Now, I make absolutely no apology for that whatsoever.  All three of those albums are brilliant pop records, and a little more in the case of Bloc Party, however badly they followed it up.  There’s no shame in liking stuff which happens to be popular, and I still listen to all of that music with enjoyment.

So what’s my point?  Well, look at my Top 10 for 2007 (Part 1 & Part 2) and 2008 (Part 1 & Part 2), and the difference is huge.  Grinderman are big and famous, and the Twilight Sad have done pretty well here and there. Umm.. Elvis Perkins is on XL I guess.  But there’s basically no-one on either list who your average punter in the street would be likely to have even heard of, never mind like.

More noticably, however, there is no pop.  I know that all music is essentially pop, just for slightly different audiences, but there’s nothing that I would describe as populist.  A lot of those albums do work really well as pop albums, of course they do, but Maximo Park seem to have the sole goal of writing irrepressible pop tunes, and they were all over the radio, as were the Killers and Bloc Party.  I don’t even know which bands would be the equivalent of that today.  Who is all over XFM and 6Music and Radio1 all at the same time?  I guess Vampire Weekend count, possibly.  And, erm… I don’t know.  I actually have no idea.  Who fills the Corn Exchange these days?

There are loads of reasons, of course.  Partly bands becoming so broadly popular seems less frequent these days, people’s listening habits are changing and how people access music is changing.  And, as Campfires & Battlefield said on a previous thread on this topic some time ago: who cares?

I am not apologising, of course: back then I listened to lots of music I loved, now I do the exact same thing.  It’s just interesting how far away from the mainstream I find myself wandering.  And if you think I’m exaggerating just imagine what the difference in total album sales between the old lists and the new lists would be – that more than anything drives the point home, as far as I am concerned.

Maximo Park – Going Missing

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Bloc Party – This Modern Love

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The Killers – Believe Me Natalie

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It’s that time of the week once more, when I pop over to Fresh Air Towers and pollute the airwaves of Edinburgh’s innocent student population with my ranting and rambling for a couple of hours.  Yes, I am on Edinburgh’s student radio station between the hours of 6.30pm and 8pm this evening (British Summer Time, I think)

To listen, go to the Fresh Air homepage and click on the big Listen Live button in the top left.

I’ll update this post with the playlist as I go along, and you should all feel free to chip in with comments here and there, should you have anything to add, or just generally feel abusive.  Oh, and apparently I was voted Best Specialist Show at the awards on Saturday, while I was rather ungratefully off getting pished at Trampoline so, er, sorry guys and thanks very much.

1. Monty Python Theme Song (Oh yes, yes I did!)
2. Cherry Ghost – Mathematics
3. Elk City – Los Cruzados
4. Tom Waits – Just the Right Bullets
5. Barton Carroll – Those Days Are Gone and My Heart is Breaking
6. Helicopter Girl – Cry Mississippi
7. Lucky Jim – Our Troubles End Tonight
8. Sad Day For Puppets – Little Light
9. Haunted House – Rattled Out in Makeup
10. Donny Hue & the Colors – Oh Lord
11. Tom Waits – What Keeps Mankind Alive
12. Eels – Devil’s Dog
13. Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers – Bananfish Revolution
14. American Music Club – Mantovani the Mind Reader
15. Tom Waits – Bad Liver and a Broken Heart

That’s all for this week, folks.  Tune in again next week, same time, for the last show this semester.

I am really enjoying this album, but I have to confess that my interview with Jason Lytle somewhat pissed in my chips, unfortunately.  The reason?  Well he said that his initial instinct was to make this album a big old mess, littered with half-finished thoughts, experimentation and imperfections.  Over the course of a number of conversations with his management they slowly came to the conclusion that “you only get one chance to make a debut solo album”. Pooh.  I really, really want to hear that messy album because the early Granddaddy stuff, where they were prone to all sorts of weirdness and strange changes of direction, was their best work, dammit.

His reasoning was that despite the fact that he actually likes to listen to really confrontational music like Metallica and Mastodon, he doesn’t really want to put his fans through that himself.  Life is, he says, shitty enough.  Personally I disagree with this line of reasoning altogether, although I suppose that if I were to show you an artist who recklessly and unapologetically pushed the boundaries at all times, then you could almost certainly show me one who made very, very little money from their work.  There are a few exceptions of course, but rarely in the field of popular music.

So what we have is much closer to the Grandaddy of Sumday (I am not counting the somewhat stillborn Fambly Cat) rather than the Grandaddy of Under the Western Freeway.  In fact the start of the album could be lifted right from the Sumday Sessions, from a stylistic perspective.  It’s almost like a conscious olive branch to the fans who have waited so long for the album, and to those who are slightly sceptical about what will actually come of his music in the absence of the band itself.

Perhaps oddly for someone who has gone to a lot of effort to leave behind a lot of the aspects of modern life which he found so overwhelming, these themes do nevertheless still crop up quite frequently in this record.  There are certainly tales of nature-based redemption which sound borderline autobiographical, but little of this record calls to mind a man who has redefined himself and left any kind of old life behind.  Mind you, he pretty much said as much in the interview.

So eventually I find this album drifting to a quiet close with a distinct sense of ‘plus ca change…’  I really do like it, and Jason Lytle is still a terrific songwriter.  But it certainly doesn’t feel like an album where he’s really pushed either himself or us, and as such I am never going to really love it, I don’t think.

Jason Lytle – Your Truly, the Commuter

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Jason Lytle – Flying Through Canyons

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Website | More mp3s | Buy from Amazon

Whilst up in Fife at Homegame this year pretty much everyone crashed on the floor of the two cottages Mrs. Toad and I rented in Pittenweem, and this is also where we all ended up retreating to finish off the day’s drinking after the pubs of Anstruther finally got sick of all the folkies and closed their doors.

My old pal DC from the Waiting Room had intended to get a quick interview with Neil from Meursault all weekend, but they never quite managed to make it happen, unfortunately.  Consequently DC had to settle for a couple of songs performed at the end of Sunday evening in the cottage after everyone had spent the best part of the day pouring beer down their gullets.

These videos and the accompanying mp3s may be just a tiny little bit shonky, but they are rather funny and do give you something of an idea of the weekend .  For those who were there, this particular evening turned into something of a carnival of offensive and spectacularly inappropriate humour, pretty much all of which I’ve edited out.  Sorry people, but it’s best for everyone this way.  The only way to find out just how bad it got is to come next year.

The episode of the Waiting Room on which these recordings appear, and which includes the overall wrap-up of Homegame in general, can be found here.

Meursault – William Henry Miller Pt.1 – Waiting Room Session (The ‘Dylan Gives Everyone the Clap’ Version)

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Meursault – Hard On – Waiting Room Session (Charles Latham Cover)

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Well, after a bit of a lull last week there’s all sorts of crap going on in and around Edinburgh this week, so choose wisely because trying to attend everything could just be the end of you.  As well as the usual recommendations there are a couple of half-recommendations this week; gigs I feel I should want to go to, but am actually not that fussed about.  Crystal Antlers (I mean, come on, they have Crystal in their name, they have to be good, almost as guaranteed as having Fuck in your name last year, or Bear the year before that, or Wolf… well, never mind) are playing at Sneaky Pete’s with Times New Viking and Dupec.  These are all bands I feel I should like more than I do, for some reason.

The same applies to all of Glenn Tilbrook, Kristin Hersh and Alastair Roberts who are playing Cabaret Voltaire on Tuesday 19th, Wednesday 20th and Friday 22nd respectively.  I should be excited about them (well, maybe not Mr. Tilbrook in particular, no offence) but for all it is good that these guys are playing Edinburgh I find myself no more than vaguely interested in their gigs.  The splendid Rob St. John is supporting Alastair Roberts though, so that one is definitely the most appealing of the lot.

In terms of gigs I am likely to be attending, well let’s go, shall we.  And, er, just check Saturday out.  The Edinburgh gig going public might well be spread very thinly indeed this Saturday:

Thursday 21st May 2009: White Heath, Yusuf Azak & Colourmusic play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

Well all know I think Yusuf Azak is bloody brilliant, but White Heath were also excellent at Trampoline last Saturday.  Their sound is very crowded, and their lead singer sounds a little like a muezzin who has rather badly lost his way, but they sound really, really promising to me.  Trombone and mental fiddle solos? Count me in!  And they even play the bongos without sounding shite, which is an achievement in itself.  They’re going to be working on some new recordings with Alex from Fentek Audio in the near future, and Alex appears to be carving out a reputation as one of Edinburgh’s most trusted sound guys, so this is very good news.  I’ll definitely be at this one.
Colourmusic – Spring Song

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Thursday 21st May:Benni Hemm Hemm and Withered Hand at the Bowery.

Glacial Icelandicism is no surprise these days, but this is more of a style we might associate with the rest of Scandinavia, with an almost januty instrumental pop style never far from the surface.  Benni will be at the Bowery on Thursday with the brilliant Withered Hand.

Friday 22nd May 2009: The Mannequins, The Pineapple Chunks and quite a few others at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

In amongst a lot of bigger names this week, I reckon this looks like the pick of the bunch when it comes to more under the radar slots.  I’ve been slack at checking the Henry’s listings recently because they’ve been rather quiet since the new year, but I hear that that is about to be taken firmly in hand and they will be making a bit of a push in the coming months.  The Mannequins have some pretty decent pop songs from the sound of it, and The Pineapple Chunks have done well at Limbo in the past, so I think this is gig to go to if you’re looking for something a little off the beaten track.
The Mannequins – Little Black Book

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Saturday 23rd May 2009: Cats in Paris & Mitchell Museum at Cabaret Voltaire.

I should really be at the Stag & Dagger Festival in Glasgow watching Meursault on Saturday, but they asked me to sign release forms so that Meursault’s set could be both filmed and recorded and then denied me permission to film at the festival myself, so they can go and fuck themselves with a bag full of scorpions, frankly.  Instead, I will be at Cabaret Voltaire watching the very fashionable Cats in Paris and the very excellent Mitchell Museum.  The last time I saw Mitchell Museum was in a rather large venue, so somewhere more intimate and a little sweatier should be great fun.
Mitchell Museum – Arthur Loves the Shadows

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Saturday 23rd May 2009: Found, Player Piano, The Pictish Trail & King Creosote at the GRV.

I just don’t go the GRV, not really on purpose, more because they so rarely have my kind of music on the bill there that I get a little lazy about checking the listings.  This one is pretty bloody obvious though: a kind of Fence Collective Allstars get together, with all the charismatic alt-folk you could wish for.  Player Piano is more of a lush pop band though, and Found aren’t really folky at all, so I don’t think this would be the Fence Collective of hushed and lovely balladry which you might expect if you were coming along on the basis of a hundred-word newspaper clipping.
Player Piano – Anything At All

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Saturday 23rd May 2009: Anathallo, Samamidon, The Stormy Seas & Your Boy Blair at Sneaky Pete’s.

Anathallo, although I know very little about them, sound rather lovely from a quick skim of their MySpace page.  Also on the bill is the truly gorgeous Samamidon, and anyone who missed either of his Bowery gigs this Winter really should not miss this.  He has the loveliest voice and the most amazing way with a banjo you are likely to hear anywhere, ever.
Anathallo – The River

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Saturday 23rd May 2009: Lach at the Bowery.

Lach pretty much started what is generally thought of as the modern anti-folk movement in New York, and he certainly coined the phrase itself.  It’s hardly a new thing of course – Bob Dylan rubbed the folkies all up the wrong way when he first turned up as well, but they couldn’t really ignore him for all that long.  Getting a legendary figure like Lach to the Bowery is something of a coup as far as I’m concerned so, er, what the fuck am I going to do on Saturday with all these bands to see.  I can’t miss this one.
Lach – A Quiet Distance

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Sunday 24th May: Defiance Ohio, Madeline, Withered Hand, Torn Strings & Billy Liar at the Bowery.

Madeline is a big favourite of my pal Rich who writes the Georgia (no, the one in the States) blog Cable & Tweed, so I really think I should go to this.  After all, without Rich we would have no Porlolo, no Builders & the Butchers, no Loch Lomond, no Sleepy Horses and no 63 Crayons.
Madeline – White Flag

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My Homegame review is pretty brief, but it is here, and there is a wee video thingy as well for you to enjoy.  This is of course the accompanying podcast, with songs either from the bands I saw there, or from EPs and bits and pieces I acquired at the merch table up in Fife.

I should really have included some interviews and shit in this podcast, shouldn’t I, but then I wasn’t actually as well prepared or as organised as I should have been, really.  Inasmuch as I kind of think I would prefer my video to have turned out a bit more like Milo’s, I would also have preferred my podcast to turn out a little more like DC’s Homegame show over at the Waiting Room.  I’m not saying that I dislike the stuff that I’ve done this year, just that to my eyes it lacks a little bit of fizz and personality, unfortunately.  Oh well, it’s all a learning process, and by the time Wickerman comes around I reckon I should be able to produce something a lot better.

Toadcast #69 – The Fifecast

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01. The Phantom Band – Island (03.00)
02. The Hand – Happa Yori (15.02)
03. King Creosote – Nothing Rings True (19.52)
04. James Yorkston & Adrian Crowley – Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Your Grieviance (25.42)
05. Jake Flowers – One For the Ditch (30.07)
06. Love.Stop.Repeat – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (33.25)
07. Viking Moses – Clown School (39.03)
08. Inspector Tapehead – A Fillet of Banjo (46.14)
09. Animal Magic Tricks – Smallish Hooves (51.26)
10. Jonnie Common – Taken Out (57.16)

Well we’ve heard back from the lifeboat lady, and apparently our efforts (here, and the aftermath here) have managed to raise pretty much double the amount of previous years.  This, frankly, is fucking brilliant news so massive thanks to everyone who came along – Dave & Michael from The Stormy Seas, Neil from Meursault, Dylan from Blueback Hotrod, a random hot chick from Mrs. Toad’s work, Morgan from, er, Glasgow and Ed from 17 Seconds (& 17 Seconds Records).  Brilliant stuff – same again next year?

In other slightly random news, Mrs. Toad is getting all excited about the possibility of us doing house gigs.  We have most of a PA system which we use for the Toad Sessions, the living room is pretty big, and we have a massive fridge for beer.  The nice thing about this is that in the absence of paying a sound guy and room hire, we could easily ask for a fiver donation, all straight to the band, and it could actually turn out way more lucrative for a musician.  It would also be a really nice atmosphere, because our living room would look full with twenty people in it, never mind fifty, so if we were taking a chance on someone interesting but not at all famous, that might be a good way to do it.

We’d have to think of someone good to start with, I think, and be careful to keep it kind of low key at the beginning.  I was a little skeptical at first, I have to confess, but I have yet to speak to anyone who thinks it’s a bad idea, so we are likely to go ahead with it sooner rather than later.

And with that, maybe it’s time to start this Friday’s Fives.  This is everyone’s opportunity to get beyond the same old smart-arsed muppets in the comments section, de-lurk, and have their say, so lets go for it, people.  There’s no need to worry about not being the funniest or the cleverest (although, lets face, the bar is set pretty fucking low if you’re the competitive sort), but you will be mocked for your opinions.  Kindly, of course, but mocked you will be, and once you’ve written your five you can mock back.

So get going, you fruitcakes, it’s fucking Friday and I am going to some sort of crazy executive dinner part tonight with Mrs. Toad’s work.  She wants me to get my beard trimmed (which I won’t do), get my hair cut (which I might do) and actually iron a shirt (which, alright okay, I will do).  So while you’re out getting pickled out of your tiny little minds, spare a thought for me surrounded by braying yahoos from the financial services sector.  I’ll try not to get too pished and tell everyone to fuck off.  Try.  I’m making no promises.

1. Science Fiction – a good thing or a bad thing?
2. Your most inappropriate behaviour at a formal event.
3. Ever spent an evening as a trophy wife/husband/boyfriend/etc..?
4. Most painful first date activity.
5. Least favourite TV presenter.

Jeffrey Lewis & Laura Marling – Brain Damage (An Eminem cover, apparently – for more info and some ace Jeffrey Lewis movies see here.)

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Richard & Linda Thompson – Withered and Died (Thanks to Campfires & Battlefields)

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The Thermals – When We Were Alive

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The Mummers vs Passion Pit – Sleepyhead (Isn’t this one of those remix/mashup things?  Have I sunk this low?)

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The Sailplanes – The Bridge (New album coming soon, and they sound promising.)

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