Toadcast #162 – Rob St. John Toad Session
Video: Vimeo – YouTube.
Photos: Flickr.
Free mp3 downloads: zip file (right click – save as).
We actually recorded this Toad Session in the Queen Charlotte Rooms in Leith before the Song, by Toad Christmas Party back in December. Partly this was because it seemed like a fun thing to do, and partly because swapping our traditional and rather overpowering turquoise backdrop for their Christmas lights and tinsel.
Also, we had six different bands playing the Queen Charlotte Rooms that night, as sort of a Song, by Toad Records Christmas celebration, and as Rob had only just agreed to release his debut album on Song, by Toad Records (later this year – probably in the Autumn sometime) it seemed fitting that he headline one of the rooms on the night itself.
In terms of manpower we were woefully, woefully understaffed for this session. The only person who could help at all was Wee Matthew, and even he couldn’t make it for the start, so I pressed my parents into service. Well come on, they’ve got be more use than just glue, eh? So my mum took some pictures and did some filming, I set up the recording and the main camera, and then she passed the video camera on to Matthew when he arrived and the stills camera on to me.
And miraculously, it wasn’t a total disaster. In fact, the actual recordings, whilst more than a little noisy, in part due to the hum of the fridges behind the bar, are some of my favourite-sounding Toad Session recordings. As usual, we have all the individual song videos embedded below, or on our Vimeo or YouTube pages, and the photos can be found on Flickr. The main interview podcast can be streamed or downloaded immediately below, as can the individual session tracks, with the playlist for the podcast at the bottom of the page. As per usual feel absolutely free to share and pass around any of this stuff – that’s what it’s for.
Direct download: Toadcast #162 – Rob St. John Toad Session
Rob St. John – Whites of Our Eyes (Toad Session)
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Rob St. John – Your Phantom Limb (Toad Session)
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Rob St. John – An Empty House (Toad Session)
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Rob St. John – Muted Flourish (Toad Session)
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01. Rob St. John – Whites of Our Eyes (Toad Session) (07.33)
02. Smog & the Dirty Three – Cold Discovery (Peel Session) (15.20)
03. James Yorkston & the Athletes – Hermitage (21.33)
04. Rob St. John – Your Phantom Limb (Toad Session) (29.35)
05. Grouper – We’ve All Time to Sleep (36.07)
06. Ben Frost – Hibakusja (39.17)
07. Rob St. John – An Empty House (Toad Session) (51.19)
08. Earth – Hung From the Moon (57.29)
09. Micah P. Hinson – Patience (65.13)
10. Rob St. John – Muted Flourish (Toad Session) (72.06)
Rob St John talks about music in the way Prof Brian Cox talks about the galaxies!
And he plays music the way Steve Podborski approaches a downhill.
You know, you are getting bloody good this at Matthew. This is gorgeous.
Cheers Peej, I love this one. It helps that Rob isn’t exactly shite as well.
[...] Rob St. John [...]
[...] St. John recorded a Toad Session last February, here is two songs called « Whites of Our Eyes » and [...]
beautiful session, thank you !
I post the videos on our website.
Oh that’s wonderful, thank you very much.
[...] can listen to Rob St. John in a session on Toadcast #162. Check him out on [...]
[...] my old friend and WH collaborator Neil Pennycook. It gets confusing! Former Edinburgh resident Rob St John, an artist in his own right, has played in all of those bands and in [...]
[...] Weald is (or more accurately, was) the Old English word for ‘forest’. It’s pronounced /wiːld/, started as a West Saxon word and was later assimilated by the Anglian wold and the Kentish wild, both of which are still around today (source, OED Online). Bet you didn’t know that. Well, in addition to being a linguistic fragment of our savage past, Weald is the title of the rather savagely brilliant debut album from Rob St John. [...]
[...] St John did a Song, By Toad Session which you can listen to here. Buy his music [...]