This strikes me as something of a stop-gap release, and that’s normally not something I cover on Song, by Toad, but because Pillars and Tongues are fucking brilliant, I thought I might make an exception.

The video above is of a remix of a song which appears on their absolutely gorgeous album The Pass and Crossings (hint, buy it – not later, right now, I promise you’ll thank me).  There is a slight tish-tish of drums, and some subtle layers of dreamy sound in the background of this version, which makes it fit a little more with the other songs on this EP, which have a more otherworldly quality to them than the more guts and bones laments of the album.  Having said that, the remix of The Making Graceful, the third song here, is perhaps the biggest departure for the group, with full on beats and clacks and all that sort of stuff.

This perhaps takes it a little way away from the grippingly lovely emphasis on vocals and bowed strings of the album, but it’s still really interesting stuff.  And it gives me another opportunity to remind you about Thank You Oaky, below, one of my favourite songs of the year last year.

 Given that, for all my ranting, no-one really cares what I think about anything, I may have been a little careless in Brighton when I was talking at The Great Escape.  I was on a panel about new broadcasting models, which discussed internet radio, podcasting and stuff like that, as well as, belatedly, streaming, algorithm-based services like last.fm and Pandora.

When asked about these services I said “As far as I am concerned, last.fm and Pandora are fucking pointless.” It’s needlessly provocatively-phrased, I suppose, but not far from the truth when it comes to my own personal opinion.  But of course, that’s the pull-quote everyone seems to have taken from the panel, and it appeared in Wired as well as last.fm’s own blog, where they have a few digs back at me.

Now, to be absolutely fair, if last.fm had called labels, music blogs or podcasts ‘fucking pointless’ then I imagine I’d be bristling with indignation myself, so I can understand them being a bit irritated, but there are a couple of misconceptions as to what I was actually trying to say that I reckon I should try and clear up.

Firstly, I was not trying to express a general truth, more a personal opinion.  I am well aware that this kind of service is doing very, very well, and that plenty of people find a lot in last.fm and Pandora to love.  I also agree with some of the points made by last.fm about the market share that they are capturing, although funnily enough the last time I worked in an office we tried using last.fm as a radio station for a while and it didn’t prove very popular.  Nevertheless, I can easily see how it would suit office environments perfectly.

Also, if you aren’t relentlessly wading through a tidal wave of new music as I am, I can also easily see how saying ‘I like The National and Smog’ and then being recommended, say, Kurt Vile, would be a very welcome introduction.  As they point out as well, last.fm introduces people to a significant amount of music from ‘the long tail’, so they are also helping people discover relatively unknown bands, who they might not necessarily happen across otherwise.  This is all good.  I applaud this, and I genuinely think the service they provide makes a lot of sense, and I think it is a/ a very good thing, and b/ something a lot of people would be into (as they clearly are). Read the rest of this entry »

 Seeing as we are in Canada for the weekend (dear thieves, the house is not unoccupied, and the lad staying there is a fighty little fucker), I figured some Canadian songs might be in order.  I am actually half-Canadian, which is a bit odd, because I’ve never actually lived there.  So it’s always weird coming here, to a country I’m technically from, but which I really don’t know at all.

Given we played Born Gold, Odonis Odonis, Slow Down Molasses and Hot Panda on last week’s show, however, I figured that was probably enough new Canadian bands for the time being, although the excellent Hooded Fang did sneak on this one at the beginning.

But mostly, apart from the more usual new stuff I tend to play, I’ve included a handful of nostalgic songs by Canadian bands, most of which I haven’t listened to in quite a long time.  And I must say it was sort of nice to look this stuff up again, after so long.

Direct download: Toadcast #227 – The Maplecast

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on Mixcloud

01. Hooded Fang – E.S.P. (00.44)
02. The Tragically Hip – Ahead By a Century (09.26)
03. UMA – Drop Your Soul (feat. Silver Apples) (16.20)
04. White Heath – In a Glasshouse (19.36)
05. 54-40 – Casual Viewin’ (33.11)
06. Bruce Springsteen – Circus Song (Live on WBCN 9th Jan 1973) (41.07)
07. Giant Giant Sand – Detained (47.35)
08. Alan Watts – Africa Bats (51.37)
09. Barenaked Ladies – Wrap Your Arms Around Me (1.00.59)
10. Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Kiss and Say Goodbye (1.08.12)
11. Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Heart Like a Wheel (1.11.00)

 Mrs. Toad and I are currently in Toronto for a cousin’s wedding, leaving young Ian in charge of the cats and the house and the lab… OH NO WHAT HAVE I DONE…!

Christ.  Suicidal house-sitting choices aside, we’ve been on aeroplanes a LOT today, and I am feeling sleepy as fuck, but we did see some interesting things.

I love flying into Newark airport actually, over the industrial wasteland that is New Jersey, riddled with lakes and what looks like marshland, and seemingly all held together by filaments of rail lines, roads and endless bridges.

Today we flew over the Great Lakes into Toronto, and accidentally happened across Niagara Falls from the air. It was odd, because the general landscape down there looks largely featureless, and then suddenly there is a weird dislocation and one of the biggest waterfalls in the world.  Flying over Toronto was sort of interesting as well, in that it was one of those typical, featureless American cities*, divided into neat grid patterns, with these straight roads that went on perfectly undeviating for miles and miles and miles.  To a European, that just looks odd.

So yes, by the time most of you are sitting at your desks wishing Friday would hurry up and trundle on to pub time, I will probably only just have woken up from sleeping off my jetlag.

1. What’s the coolest place you have flown over in a plane?
2. What’s your total wedding attendance score so far?
3. Last new place you visited.
4. Worst jetlag you ever had.
5. Most irresponsible person you’ve ever left in charge of anything important.

*Disclaimer: yes, I know Toronto isn’t actually in America.  But it’s more American than any other Canadian city I know – in fact maybe more like American cities than Canadian ones altogether.

 It might be a little bit of a stretch to refer to these guys as a Scottish band, but given they tend to be described as being from Glasgow/London I think I’ll just emphasise the former and quietly forget the latter.  Dammit, they’re Scottish.  Kinda.  Enough, anyway.

Anyhow, most music discovery works through recommendation really, and people whose judgment I trust from both Manchester and Glasgow have been talking about Sacred Paws a fair bit so, well, I was always going to give them a go, really, wasn’t I.

And once again it turns out my friends were right.  All the things on their Bandcamp page are labelled as demos, so I don’t really know how close they sound to the sound in the band’s head, but it’s pretty bloody good as it is.

Tracks like Ride, above, have a nice touch of old-fashioned, disinterested indie about them, but the rest of the stuff veers vaguely in the direction of deranged afrobeat, before just heading off into some sort of frenetic wigout.  Vince, below, probably embodies this more than most, descending into a buzzy mess before its eventual demise.  Whatever it is, though, I really want to hear more.

 When I was down in Bristol for The Great Escape I went vinyl shopping.  To quite an irresponsible degree. The term I used (it might even be fair to say coined) on Twitter was ‘divorceable amounts of vinyl’.

Some of it was new, like the new Lower Dens album, and some of it was old, such as Ivor Cutler.  One thing I picked up out of the blue in Resident, however, was this double vinyl release by Bruce Springsteen.  I didn’t even know it existed, or anything about it, but fuck me it’s brilliant.

Now, I am a big fan of really early Bruce Springsteen.  I know it’s an unbearably hipster thing to say, and I don’t at all intend to downplay the quality of his later stuff, but Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey and The Wild, the Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle are phenomenal records.

Maybe it’s because his influences are still so close to the surface, and there’s so much funk in there (not something you’ll hear me say every day), but there’s something about the exuberance of those albums which I have always loved, and these radio sessions sound a little like being there when they first started to take shape.

The music is tentative and a little ramshackle, and a lot less full and forceful than you’re used to hearing from the band.  For me, particularly with a band as polished and tight as the E-Street Band, there’s something a ‘glimpse behind the curtain’ about even hearing these songs in such a sketched-out manner.

Almost as captivating as the songs, however, is the chat.  I didn’t see Springsteen’s keynote address at SXSW this year, but I listened to it later, and it is a confident articulate speech.  The chat on these recordings is just that of a nervous kid though, with a really dorky laugh.  It’s incredible. For some reason it’s a bit of a shock to realise that even someone as accomplished and successful as Bruce Springsteen started out like one of us: always a little bit amazed when someone takes notice.

If you’re not a Springsteen fan then fair enough, but if you are, particularly of the early records, which are the songs mostly played here, then I would get this as soon as I could possibly get my hands on it if I were you.

The Radio Versions:

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Circus Song (Live On WBCN 9th Jan 1973).mp3

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.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street (Live On WBCN 9th Jan 1973)

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.

The Album Versions:

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Wild Billy’s Circus Story

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.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?

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.

Buy from Amazon

As this evening brings us yet another excellent Ides of Toad lineup at Henry’s (it’s starting pretty much now – run, you might make it!) I thought I should probably write out another one of those lists of upcoming stuff, just so it lodges in the back of your mind now, and then you can all flood down in your droves on the night, filling the bands with joy and making me an unspeakably rich man in the process.

Well, it’d be nice if at least a few of you came anyway.  This is where I feel I should insert one of those internet Safety Winks, just so you know I’m joking —>

Anyhow, we now have pretty much a gig every other week booked between now and the blundering behemoth of the Edinburgh Festival, which I fully intend to boycott in its entirety this year.  Honestly, whilst a couple of our gigs last year went pretty well, I’m not sure I can be fucked with the stress this time around.  Still, last year’s posters were pretty cool.

All tickets can be purchased either online here, or from Avalanche Records on the Grassmarket.

Tuesday 22^nd May
Henry’s Cellar Bar
Bronto Skylift, Lady North & Rollor

This will be pretty full-on, I think, with Rollor returning to Edinburgh to take on the combined frantic mentalism of Lady North and the Highlands’ most fearsome band, Bronto Skylift.

Friday 15th June
Venue TBC
PAWS, Dolfinz, Waiters & Sex Hands

For the launch of the split 12″ we are releasing with the above four bands, we are organising a mini tour of the UK (London, Manchester & Aberdeen as well) and getting all four bands to play.  It will be raucous and guitary and fucking ace.  And you can buy gorgeous clear turquoise vinyl at the gigs too.

Saturday 30^th June
Henry’s Cellar Bar
Milk Maid, New Fabian Society & OP

Milk Maid return to Edinburgh, with their second album pretty much finished.  I am very much looking forward to seeing them again. They are joined on the bill by hypnotic, shoegazey newcomers The New Fabian Society, and OP who are a mysterious concoction of members of North American War and The John Knox Sex Club.

Saturday 7^th July
The Queen’s Hall (tickets for this are from their website)
Meursault Something For the Weakened album launch, with Rob St. John & Jill O’Sullivan and Jenny Reeve

Meursault’s third album Something for the Weakened is now finished and ready to be prodded out into the world. Having worked with a stable six-piece for the last two years this is much more of a band record than previous albums. Support will come from label-mate and musical collaborator Rob St. John and long-time pal Jill O’Sullivan from Sparrow and the Workshop, who will be performing with Jenny Reeve.

Wednesday 18^th July
Henry’s Cellar Bar
Dolfinz & Fantasy Rainbow

Dolfinz are on the verge of becoming the Ides of Toad’s house band, and they’re back in July, bringing another two of the UK’s finest garage bands with them.  It will be loud and messy and awesome, as per usual.

Friday 27^th July
Henry’s Cellar Bar
Jo Schornikow (The Shivers) & Scott Rudd

Jo Schornikow from The Shivers, who just released More on Fife’s Fence Records, will be touring her solo material, along with the beautiful acoustic songwriting of New York’s Scott Rudd.

The wait is finally over, ladies and gentlemen, because… *drum roll* …I hereby announce the debut album by Edinburgh’s most elusive pop merchants Jesus H. Foxx.

To celebrate, as is our way because we’re just bloody lovely people, we are giving away a couple of singles to encourage you, largely through the cultivation of guilt, to shell out ten of your finest pounds to purchase the album. Actually, even your tattiest ones will be fine, we’re not fussy. In fact, fuck it, even if you don’t want the album, you could always just send us some money.

Anyhow, we are just looking for a suitable venue for a swanky release party and BOOM, Endless Knocking will officially be loose in the wild.  It’s a gorgeous album too, switching from frenetic to woozy, from rich and melodic to choppy and hyperactive, and it may have been a little bit of a wait, but it was very much worth it.

Well, after a thin couple of weeks there are some rather excellent things happening in Edinburgh over the next few days.  Except I won’t be here because of a wedding.  Drat.  People really shouldn’t get married.  Mrs. Toad and I are married now, that’s all the weddings there need to be.

Alternatively, I suppose, if people weren’t getting married all the time I might well take no holidays at all, so I suppose I should be a little less ungrateful and just take the opportunity to put my feet up.

Anyhow, the Ides of Toad makes a return as well, with our next gig on Wednesday.  Which is tomorrow!  You all better come.  Please.

Wednesday 16th May: Slow Down Molasses & Smackvan play The Ides of Toad at Henry’s Cellar Bar.

As I have mentioned already, Slow Down Molasses (see video above) were fantastic at The Great Escape.  The sound was a right bloody racket when they got all three guitars, keyboards and both drummers going, but they’re still a subtle band, with a light touch.  Smackvan are a somewhat quieter proposition, and their latest album is one of the best things to come out of Scotland this year.

Friday 18th May: The Still Corners, Honeyblood & Magic Eye at Sneaky Pete’s.

This show is in celebration of This is Music turning six, which is probably something like 57 in promoter years.  The lineup is bloody exceptional though, with newcomers the dreamy Magic Eye and the raucous Honeyblood providing local support to Subpop’s excellent Still Corners.

Saturday 19th May: Jonnie Common, Mitchell Museum & Gav from Over the Wall play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

Jonnie Common is a pop genius, pure and simple.  Mitchell Museum are back after officially retiring two years ago, and Gav from Over the Wall has some solo stuff coming out very soon.  So this, as much as there is, is probably Limbo royalty, just about.

Sunday 20th May: Jonquil & Sebastian Dangerfield at the Electric Circus.

Jonquil seem, according to their website anyway, to be tropical pop these days.  I am pretty sure when I saw them they were a sort of orchestral alt-folk band, although I could be wrong about that, because I was embarrassingly drunk at the time.  Anyhow, they’re playing the Electric Circus on Sunday, so you can find out for yourselves I suppose.

Ian and myself were down in Brighton for most of last week with The Great Escape, and that’s pretty much what this podcast is about from start to finish.  It’s hardly a studied analysis of course – and I sincerely doubt you’d expect one – instead it’s more of a chatter about the Brighton fun we’ve had and the people we’ve met.

Scotland is actually rather isolated when it comes to music.  Hence, I suppose, the importance of the local Scottish music community to bands and labels based up here. Nevertheless, it is really important to connect with the rest of the UK.

A lot of our most appreciated supporters are people I know only from Twitter and the other end of an email, be they fans, label customers, writers and broadcasters who have supported us or labels who have inspired us.  So, in the interests of cementing these relationships, meeting new people and drinking an absolute fucking shitload of beer, off to Brighton we went…

Direct download: Toadcast #226 – The Rainbowcast

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on Mixcloud

01. Hot Panda – Fuck Shit Up (00.24)
02. Slow Down, Molasses – Light (07.44)
03. Born Gold – Lawn Knives (16.19)
04. Odonis Odonis – Tick Tock (23.07)
05. PAWS – Bainz (26.17)
06. The Black Tambourines – Let You Down (Toad Session Sneak Preview) (34.15)
07. Fear of Men – Doldrums (44.06)
08. PINS – Eleventh Hour (47.13)
09. Perfume Genius – Lookout, Lookout (55.02)
10. Fanzine – L.A. (62.51)