Well I hope you’ve all had your thinking caps on for the last few days, because today is the first of two list days here on Song, by Toad.  This week the Friday Five is going to be your chance to list your five favourite songs of the year.  On the off-chance that enough people do actually vote for the same songs I will then add them up at the end and award some sort of Toadly Prize of Music Achievement to the winners.

And if you all vote for completely different things then I just won’t bother.

The five I’ve listed below are actually five songs which are not in my Festive Fifty, and looking at them I find myself with the inescapable feeling that this might be because in some important way my Festive Fifty is wrong, somehow, because they are all brilliant songs.

Anyhow, as times to de-lurk go, this should be ideal.  No wit or humour required, just chip in with the five songs released this year which have moved you the most.  And encourage your friends to vote as well – the more people chip in the more meaningful the results become.

Next week we’ll be doing the same with albums, so get head-scratching for that one as well, and then I’ll stop being so demanding and go back to my usual job of trying my very best to keep you entertained of an afternoon with minimal participation required.  I hope you actually find these things some fun, and don’t think it’s a bit like that terrible moment when a comedian looks around the auditorium and asks for a volunteer.

And so, without further ado, your five favourite songs of 2009 are…

The Builders & the Butchers – Barcelona

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Samantha Crain – Long Division

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Bombadil – Sad Birthday

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Jason Lytle – Flying Thru Canyons

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The Low Anthem – Charlie Darwin

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Last night on Fresh Air I was talking to Ruth and Neil about how the albums which define the Noughties, or indeed any particular place or period of time, for me will probably not be the great ones.  The great ones get listened to again and again and end up with memories spread all over your life, and asssociations with all sorts of things, so I actually think it’s the stuff I have since stopped listening to that will end up with the strongest associations to a particular time and place.

So for all, say, The Libertines debut won’t make my Best of the Decade list, it will probably end up being one of the albums I most associate with the decade.  I played that record to fucking death when it came out.  Listening back, I still love it, but for some reason I really don’t play it that much any more.  Even when I think about the fact that I still love it, the urge to actually stick it on the stereo isn’t there.  Unlike, say, the Giant Sand album released at around the same time.

The Libertines – The Good Old Days

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By contrast, we played The Streets last night as well, and Christ it was embarrassing.  I was really into that album too, but it was just painful to listen back to.  Maybe that’s because his subsequent albums seemed to charicature the flaws and annoyances in his style so much that on re-listening to Original Pirate Material that has become all I can hear.  Whatever the reasons though, it’s a record I listened to quite a bit at the time and, honestly, am never likely to (voluntarily) listen to again.

The Streets – Let’s Push Things Forward

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The Killers debut Hot Fuss is another slightly different example.  A brilliant, infectious, pop record that their subsequent failures don’t negate at all.  Nevertheless, I still have no real urge to play that album particularly, and so the songs and the memories they evoke have become entirely locked in the latter years of the decade.

The Killers – Smile Like You Mean It

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So basically, I think that for all this listery is kind of interesting I do find myself thinking more, not about the best albums of the decade, but the albums which I will most strongly associate with the decade in about ten years from now, and the two really don’t overlap all that much.  I think of this one as a sort of lost list, not really one you can write down off the top of your head, more one which will slowly reveal itself over the course of time as you either continue or cease to listen to particular records.

Unfortunately due to technological disasters there was no recording, and not even any broadcasting, of last week’s Mammoeth session I’m afraid.  So I’d like to apologise to Russell, and promise to get him back in next year at the first available opportunity to have another go. I suppose it’s no consolation to any of you for me to tell you that he was really good?  No, thought not.

As for this week, we were supposed to have Dan from Withered Hand and Neil from Meursault doing a joint session, because they are recording a joint EP in the near future and it seemed like a nice idea.  Dan is unable to make it unfortunately, so you will have to make do with Neil I’m afraid.  Fortunately the lad can sing a bit so it’s unlikely to ruin your evening.

As per usual the playlist below will be updated live as we go along, and the comments section will be the best place for all your usual abuse/sniping/snide remarks.

Live on Air 7pm-8.30pm – Listen live here.

This week’s playlist:
1. Shearwater – Castaways
2. Navigator- Work Is Done
3. Meursault – Love or Limb (live in session)
4. Kath Bloom – Come Here
5. Clem Snide – I Heard My Mother  Praying For Me
6. Meursault – An untitled triptych! (live in session)
7. The Libertines – Tell The King
8. The Streets – Same Old Thing
9. Samamidon – Head Over Heels
10. Meursault- What You Don’t Have (live in session)
11. Wounded Knee – Oh My Captain!
12. Meursault – Heaven Waits (live in session)
13. Eagleowl – Sleep the Winter

In many ways this actually feels like the first Young Republic album. Their debut, 12 Tales From Winter City was essentially a compilation of earlier self-recorded EPs and as such was more of a cobbled together Best of So Far.

Then they released the Idiot Grin EP which just never really floated my boat, despite some excellent songs.  That mirrored a band going through something of a rough time – losing members, internal strife and all sorts – which didn’t seem to stall them as much as it might have.

They kept touring through all this, and it was on seeing them live in Edinburgh last year that it became clear that for all the pain of the transition itself, these ructions would probably prove to be good for the band in the long run.  If you want to hear their take on, just listen to Tough Year (Hard Waltz) at the end of this album.

So, a year and a new album later, where are we?  Well it all feels right, that’s for sure. Unlike with Idiot Grin, they sound like a band in the right place, just for themselves as much as anyone else.  This album has a unity and a purpose which suggests that they have embraced the band they have become, rather than the band they might once have been.  Having seen them excel live I am tempted to suggest that they probably worked that out on stage as much as anywhere else; they are a great live band, after all.

It’s difficult to describe it in many ways, given it’s sort of a roustabout collage of various strains of Americana and rock ‘n’ roll all stuffed into the same package.  There’s definitely a  rock sound to the backline, there are gourgeous dramatic flourishes added by Kristin on violin, and Julian’s singing is bolder and more forceful than before.

The overall direction of the songs drift about between country and rock and some bits and pieces of other stuff as well, giving an album which is, as I said, something of a mish-mash of rock ‘n’ roll Americana with lots of different nuances to the overall flavour. Some of the songs stray too much into that rock sound for my personal taste, I must admit, because it’s just not a style of music that I’m all that keen on.  But then there are brilliant songs on here like The Alchemist, Sam Clemens, Tidal Wave and the superb title track.

It’s a really enjoyable album though, and for all it may have been a rough road for the band in getting here, I hope they think it’s worth it because it certainly seems that way to me.

The Young Republic – The Alchemist

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The Young Republic – Sam Clemens

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Right, I know this is list season, and I know that an overload of lists tends to result in distinct list fatigue, as well as spontaneous cries of  ‘Who FUCKING CARES if you think Amnesiac is better than Rocket DIY or not?’ but fuck it, why not.  It’s like making mixes for my parents around Christmas time.  Yes it’s predictable, but fuck it, it really has become part of the season by now so why not.

Anyhow, I will be compiling my own lists, and releasing them over the Christmas week, give or take a bit.  I’ve even taken up Euan’s gauntlet and decided to have a go at a Best of the Decade list, primarily because things have been awfully light at Proper Job recently and I suddenly found myself with the time.  It’s far from deeply thought-out, but even in its current form it seems like a fair enough representation of which albums have made the most impact on me over the last ten years.

So, just to give you a bit of advance warning, the Friday Fives for the next two weeks are going to be your chance to chip in with your five favourite songs of the year (this Friday) and your five favourite albums of the year (next Friday).  I’ll compile them all and add them up and announce the official winners at the end, so if you care enormously about your opinion being validated on the internets, it might be worth getting your mates to vote too.  Otherwise, just have your own say and be done with it.  Honestly, I will be very interested in the results.

So there you go, that’s three days warning.  Get listing, people, and lets hope that music is the big winner on the day, eh. Barf.

Crash Test Dummies – There is No Final Winner

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This year’s Toad Christmas Party will be a bit sad really, despite still being a big old celebration, as it is the last night at the Bowery, my favourite underground music venue in the city.  They will be closing their doors after giving Toad Records and a great many of my friends a venue to call home for the last year, and this is a very great shame.

Nevertheless, this is not the season for sulking.  The Bowery will go on, just more as an itinerant hobo than a furtive squatter, and this is our chance to give them a hell of a send-off.  We have music in the bandstand from Toad Records band Jesus H. Foxx, hopefully soon-to-be Toad Records band Inspector Tapehead, and some chancer named Rory Sutherland, more commonly known as the scruffy one in Broken Records, who has put together a unique set of violin looping and erm, well I’m not sure what, to be honest.

On top of that there will be acoustic stuff through in the bar, where The Douglas Firs, Tisso Lake, Thomas Western and the returning prodigal son Rob St. John will be performing, as well as some celebrity DJs (more likely to be some of Ruth, Jane or my pals who we manage to blackmail into helping out).

Because it’s the last night, because it’s Christmas and because we have a lot of bands, everything will be starting earlier than usual, with mince pies and mulled wine from about five or so, and the first acoustic stuff should be starting at about six or seven, to make sure we have time to get everyone on stage.

It’s going to be fucking brilliant, and remember, as it’s the last night:

the bar must be drunk absolutely dry!

Inspector Tapehead – Humdinger

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Jesus H. Foxx – Matter

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