Song, by Toad

I’ve been humming and hawing about actually penning this review for some time and the reason is basically this: I thought the single Where My Fortune Lies was a stunning piece of work – beautiful artwork and, most importantly of course, a truly great song.  Midnight Folly, on the other hand, I am finding a less than arresting album, and I thought it would be a bit mean to laud the band in one post, and then insult them in the next.  Still, that’s the nature of reviews I guess, and as a certain Mr. Brown has recently discovered, you can never entirely escape your honest personal opinions of a record, no matter how much you might have wanted to like it to begin with.

Actually, despite my whingeing, Midnight Folly starts very well, with the thumping Long Ago a stirring addition to the very noble tradition of Western-tinged murder ballad with its narrative roots in uncompromisingly merciless storylines of frontier legend, which are themselves coloured by murderous tales common in old folk music.  It’s the kind of song which would sit very well in the generally territory mapped out loosely by the likes of Smog, Calexico,  the Willard Grant Conspiracy and Richmond Fontaine.

This is also pretty much the territory inhabited by the rest of the album in terms of musical style.  Slide guitar, baritone delivery, harmonica, and a little bit of brass backing make this album pretty firmly ‘of a type’ with a great deal of other music released in the last five to ten years.  For the most part this is hardly a problem of course, because it’s a style I absolutely love, so provided the songwriting delivers it with some elan then this isn’t an issue.  What I struggle with, unfortunately, is that for the most part the melodies of the album don’t grab my attention, no matter how many dozens of times I have now listened to this record.

Bob Dylan often doesn’t really deal in ‘choruses’, so to speak, but he has a rolling musical signature in his delivery most of the time, even when singing long, verbose, narrative songs.  Long Ago barely has a chorus, but it too is punctuated by a repeated musical signature.  When Smog were at their most hushed and plain, say in the likes of A River Ain’t Too Much to Love, there may not have been much obvious structure to the songs but there was a always a rolling, repeated refrain, even when its cycle was unusually long for a pop song.

What there seems to be lacking in these songs, for all their excellent style and lyrical strength, is something as seemingly superficial as a hook.  So far, and this is of course an entirely subjective thing, I have failed to find anything in most of these tracks to stick in my head; the music often seems to lack a distinctively individual personality from one track to the next.  I often find myself wondering if I was listening to the crescendo of the previous song, or if this was a new one with a bit more guitar.  Consequently, even after dozens of listens, large parts of the middle of this album simply failed to separate themselves out to me, and I still couldn’t identify the specific song I was listening to a lot of the time.

The genius of things like Where My Fortune Lies is that as well as everything else, it works as a joyous pop song, pure and simple.  For me, a lot of this album does not actually achieve that, rendering all the other good things about it somewhat redundant.  I find myself loving songs like Long Ago, My First Soul, Where My Fortune… and to an extent Four Rivers and that is just about it, sadly, because I really wanted to love this album.

Auld Lang Syne – Where My Fortune Lies

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Auld Lang Syne – My First Soul

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MySpace | More mp3s | Buy the album from Viper Bite Records

Gobble Gobble come out of Edmonton in Canada, part of a small but apparently quite determined experimental music community down there under the Hydeaway umbrealla who seem to be doing some very good things.  I was sent a CD sampler by this group a while ago, and it was interesting – it certainly showed that there seems to be a good bit of collective energy forming in that part of the world.

Cecil Frena, who sent me this, has assembled an eclectic and fascinating album of scratchy electronica which casts its blanket of crackling subversion over a few different genres.  This makes Neon Graveyard, for me, rather more than just another collection of indie pop songs smothered in electronic clicks and whizzes and a constant hiss of artificially created background noise.  Yes, admittedly, there is a lot of that particular technique to be found on this album, but it is never treated as the raison d’etre of the whole piece, as can happen in this particular part of the musical landscape.

What defines Neon Graveyard in my eyes is actually more the undercurrents than the surface eddies.  Songs like O Sacred Dandruff and Piles of Salt seem to actually take a lot of cues from contemporary R’n'B, particularly in the style of the vocal delivery.  They sound almost like R’n'B songs which have been put through a rather severe cycle in your dishwasher and this, you will probably not be surprised to hear, I like.  At other times a form of Gameboy pop swirls into focus, then this same approach fixes itself to an interlude of piano (Ash Fountain, for example) which sounds superfically far more like classical than anything you’d happen across in an indie pop landscape.

This flitting from one underpinning genre to another, all held together by a more uniform style at the surface, gives the album both a really solid coherence and a happy variety. The style, in fact, fits the title very well indeed. I like.

Gobble Gobble – Meteor Eschat

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Gobble Gobble – Eggs in Carrion

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MySpace | More mp3s |I have no idea where you can buy this, incidentally, but try getting in touch via MySpace

So Matthew’s plane crashed on the way back from Italy, after a rather nasty accident apparently involving a trainee pilot, gin and a difference of opinion on the work of Tom Waits.

Only kidding, folks. Matthew’s alive and well, but figured he’d be trawling through unread e-mails all day, so you have to endure my own personal brand of humour and warped self importance for one more post. Sorry.

Tuesday 30th June 2009 – I Heart Hiroshima and the Pineapple Chunks at the Bowery

I Heart Hiroshima are a three-piece Indie pop act from Brisbane, Australia, known for their “bass-less” lineup, which tends to offer a distinct sound (thank you wikipedia). Pineapple Chunks is rhyming slang for spunk (thank you google). They’re also rather deranged gararge pop goodess.

Tuesday 30th June 2009 – Findo Gask and St Deluxe at Electric Circus

I’ve still yet to see Findo Gask live, but very much enjoy the recordings I’ve heard. Maybe a bit like the synth pop of FOUND, but with a heavier electronic influence. St. Deluxe I’ve heard good things about also. Bonus.
Findo Gask – Va Va Va

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Thursday 2nd July 2009 – The Twilight Sad, the Foundling Wheel and Adam Stafford at the Bongo Club

The Twilight Sad have a new album soon. They play loud guitars and sing and that. They’re good. Also with the cathartic noise of the Foundling Wheel and maniacal rantings of Adam Stafford (of Y’all Is Fantasy Island, or ‘yifi’ as the kids call them. Not my kids, of course. The kids. I don’t have any kids. Don’t worry, Matthew will be back tomorrow), this should be a great show.

Friday 3rd July 2009 – The Wind Whistles, Tisso Lake and Jo Foster at the Bowery

The Wind Whistles and Jo Foster both make rather charming folk pop. Tisso Lake was absolutely stunning at the recent Viking Moses show, and his set for this outing has been described as ’synth-heavy’. Make of that what you will. Everyone should come to this. EVERYONE.
The Wind Whistles – Spooks

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Well, we are nearing the end of our time in Puglia.  We’re spending a couple of days in or near Napoli before we fly back on Sunday, presumably troughing like total pigs, rather than paying all that much attention to culture and all that bobbins.

Mrs. Toad is doing Sudoku and complaining about the ‘wrong sort of paper’.  I kid you not, it’s just like British fucking Rail and their ‘wrong type of snow’, but she insists it’s just for that reason that she can’t solve them, not because they’re too hard.  Personally I find myself wondering if ‘evil’ is used to describe the comments one’s spouse will inevitably make when you fail to complete it, rather than the actual difficulty of the Sudoku puzzle itself.

So yes, we have done the lazing about and there are now a few days of actually doing shit in between us and a return to the damp splendour of the British Isles.  I suppose this is what you’re supposed to do on holiday – pay attention to the country you’re in and return, eventually – but honestly, another week of doing bollocks-all wouldn’t hurt anyone would it?

Toadcast #75 – The Bone Idlecast

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01. Snow Patrol – An Olive Grove Facing the Sea (04.14)
02. Beck – The Golden Age (12.33)
03. Belle & Sebastian – Simple Things (19.32)
04. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Tom Justice, the Choirboy Robber (21.00)
05. Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues (29.10)
06. Navigator – Work is Done (NOT Change, as we announced, sorry!) (34.44)
07. Lord Cut Glass – Holy Fuck! (40.19)
08. Son Volt – Sultana (46.46)
09. Smog – Drinking at the Dam (56.30)
10. Alela Diane – Age Old Blue (60.17)

Well, it was inevitable, wasn’t it?

I had another Friday Five with a really great theme ready to go, but then last night’s news broke and I figured everyone would end up talking about this anyway.

So with a startled ‘Yip!’ and a heartfelt ‘Shamone!’ here’s your Friday Five:

1. What’s your earliest memory of Michael Jackson as a performer?

2. The media is making a great deal of the trilogy of albums Jackson made with Quincy Jones; Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad. Words such as ‘classic’, ‘legendary’ and ’seminal’ are being used. Discuss.

3. Do you think Jackson’s legacy will be the music or the madness?

4. Heard any good Jacko jokes yet?

5. What would you do with a pet monkey?

Chris Cornell – Billie Jean

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Ian Brown – Thriller

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Alien Ant Farm – Smooth Criminal

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Apologies for only putting three songs up on the Friday Five. I got stuck tracking down Jacko covers, and then I got bored. If you think of any more good suggestions feel free to send them through!

Well then, one more Friday five and I believe that’s Dylan, Bart and myself done. I for one have really enjoyed myself these past 2 weeks and will now skulk off back to my own blog and leave this site to the master himself!  But if you have enjoyed the music I’ve posted about then please do come and say hello from time to time as there’s a lot more of that kind of thing going on over at my site.  Anyways, big thanks to Matthew for trusting me to be part of this.  Hopefully he’ll be relieved to return from Italy to find his site still in tact and pleasantly surprised about the quality of posting.   For all the fun it was winding him up about what we were going to do to his site in his absence it was never anyone’s intention to do anything other than post some quality music.  I have taken this opportunity to get bands that I love, and that perhaps don’t get enough wider media coverage, out to a wider audience.  Hopefully I’ve managed that.  However, before I return to the world of simply commenting on this site rather than posting I will leave you with some great tunes by some wicked artists in a Matthew styled podcast except without the insane ramblings, just good music.  Enjoy.

These Icey Waters – Adrian Crawley

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Old Devils – William Elliott Whitmore

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I Want To Be Someone When I Die – Team Turnip

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The Ongoing Debate Concerning Present Vs Future – Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

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Erla’s Waltz – Olafur Arnalds

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Jocky Venkataraman is an intriguing proposition.  I have been informed that he is one of Frightened Rabbit’s favourite artists, having recently appeared as a support act at their sold out acoustic show at the Captain’s Rest.  Well, having digested this album a couple of times, which you can download for free here, it’s safe to say that he’s found a pretty fond spot with me as well.  I’ve never seen him live, though I am now eager to do so, and this is indeed my first exposure to his music but there’s something of the Daniel Johnston’s about his music and that really can never be a bad thing.  Perhaps it’s the genius lyrical content which makes him stand out from the crowd?  Perhaps it’s the almost child like delivery of the vocals?  Or perhaps it that there are a lot of really catchy tunes on this record, which make it instantly appealing.  This record is quirky and diverse to say the least.  It’s challenging for sure.  ButI think it’s a gem.  He releases his second LP ‘Motorways Died Young/This is Not Food, This Isn’t Even Food’ through Glasgow label Wiseblood Industries this year. You’re either going to love this or hate it.  Either way,  enjoy.

Parcel People (Xmas Eve)

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Airport Marches – Jocky Venkataraman

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Never Gets Dark In June – Jocky Venkataraman

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Sometimes people come into your life and touch you with their music in a way that’s hard to explain.  Sometimes they write more miserable songs than you.  Sometimes they smoke like a chimney.  Sometimes they write the most heart wrenching tunes imaginable.  Sometimes they are from Paisley.  Sometimes they just happen to be one of the most important people you’ve met through music.  Sometimes they deserve much, much more media attention than they get.  Sometimes you get the opportunity to write about them and let a wider audience know about them.  Sometimes these things happen.  Sometimes they don’t. 

Small Town Boredom are Fraser McGowan and Colin Morrison who create ‘ whiskey soaked tales of loss & longing providing constant reminders of what was & what could have been.’  They have a new album out sometime in the future (not sure what date as yet – probably a year away knowing Fraser!) entitled ‘Notes From The Infirmary’.  I have been told by Fraser that I’m not allowed to review it on pain of death, or perhaps just some mild bodily harm.  Given his Paisley roots, I have no intention of breaking my word.   However, I do have a track to let you hear from the new album called ‘Void Lighting’ and can confirm that the album is brilliant.  I will also post a track from their wonderful debut album ‘Autumn Might Have Hope’ for your enjoyment.    This record was as Fraser describes ‘a testament to sorrow and self pity, a brutally truthful account of a functioning alcoholic and the loss of his so called loved ones.’  It’s content may be dark but the music is simply breathtaking.

I met Fraser through Bart, who as it happens plays for STB live and also appears on the new record and yet strangely has not heard it yet.  Fraser works in mysterious ways!  Anyways,  he has recorded a number of demo’s for me in the past and we’ve become really good friends over the years.  He even named his son after me.  Joke Fraser!  Anyways, Small Town Boredom are a wonderful band who deserve so much more.  The chorus of ‘Void Lighting’ gives me goosebumps.  Genius.  Under-rated genius.

Void Lighting – Small Town Boredom

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Local legends, Toadworld faves and all-round good eggs Sparrow And The Workshop have, of late, been pounding the highways – and the byways – of our sceptered isle on their first proper UK tour. The band have taken the opportunity to become part-time documentary film-makers and produced this video diary of their adventures.

They’ve visited many of the UK’s major towns and cities, and Bristol, on their expedition, which was largely in support of that other bunch of stalwart Toad-buddies; Broken Records, who even make a brief cameo appearance in part three – keep an eye out for that!

The guys also visit England’s most revered site of ancient spiritual significance at Glastonbury Tor, and a place of equal religious significance to Wales: Neath.

The video itself breaks new ground in the surreallist docu-comedy genre, and has been described as “Luis Buñuel meets Benny Hill”. Well, I don’t know about that myself, but the monkey-skeleton scene in the museum (4:26 in part three) is nothing short of genius.

So to round-up, this whole thing is mad as badgers. As, clearly, are the band themselves.

Enjoy…

I’ve been trying to think of how to introduce this, but I think some things work better the less information you have about them. (Though before you all start ranting about song structure, please note this is more of a visual art project than a musical one.) This is just beautiful: understated, intimate, and emotional. It shouldn’t really need more explanation than that. A perfect example of how ideas are more important than budget. Enjoy.