Song, by Toad

Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr
Audio: freely downloadable below…

Loch Lomond came over to the UK in May to play some dates in Scotland, so we took the opportunity to record a Toad Session with them.  We first met the band when we went out to Pickathon in 2008 and interviewed them there.  Since then we have released a split 12″ and an EP by them over here on Song, by Toad Records.

Elephants & Little Girls is actually from that split 12″ release, but the other three songs are new, and from their next album.  That album has been finished for about three months now I believe, although I have yet to hear it, so all I know about it is from these three songs.

Many thanks to Gavin Tarling for recording and mixing the session, to Matthew Swan and Fiona Buckle for their help with the photography and video cameras, and to Chris Bryant for being in the band for the day.  Feel free to help yourselves to the downloads, and enjoy the videos.  The whole interview can be heard on the podcast below, the video at the top of the page is sort of a general video of the whole day, and those of the individual songs are embedded below.

Toadcast #138 – Loch Lomond Toad Session

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Loch Lomond – Blood Bank (Toad Session)

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Loch Lomond – Egg Song (Toad Session)

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Loch Lomond – I Love Me (Toad Session)

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Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls (Toad Session)

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01. Loch Lomond – Blood Bank (Toad Session) (04.39)
02. Run On Sentence – Out in the Woods (11.07)
03. Sallie Ford – Danger (14.35)
04. Loch Lomond – Egg Song (Toad Session) (22.10)
05. Vadoinmessico – In Spain (27.02)
06. Brothers Young – Good Deeds (32.35)
07. Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer (37.10)
08. Loch Lomond – I Love Me (Toad Session) (45.00)
09. The Generationals – When They Fight They Fight (48.24)
10. Loch Lomond – Elephants & Little Girls (Toad Session) (59.35)

I may only have lived in the Wiltshire village of Seend for about four or five months about ten years ago (seriously, ten?) but the fact that I had no job, nor was able to find one, meant that the music I listened to ended up with an extra resonance.

Apart from looking for jobs I didn’t know how to find, I spent an inordinate amount of time browsing through copies of Uncut magazine, back before it turned to shit, and buying albums based on how well I liked the songs they chose for their covermount CDs.

There are a couple of other songs on this podcast, but I think the memories of Seend (including my goal in a 3-2 victory, having been 2-0 behind at half time) are still surprisingly strong.

Direct download: Toadcast #137 – The Seendcast

01. Meursault – Bulletproof (La Roux/Radiohead Cover) (02.52)
02.The Czars – Lullaby 6000 (09.19)
03. Hamell on Trial – Choochtown (20.30)
04. Lambchop – Bon Soir, Bon Soir (24.10)
05. The Savings and Loan – The Virgin’s Lullaby (31.09)
06. Phillistine’s Jr. – The Bus Stop Song (36.55)
07. Vado in Messico – Sisma (38.50)
08. Billy Bragg – Take Down the Union Jack (47.12)
09. Kevin Tihista’s Red Terror – Sucker (51.46)
10. Cinerama – Health and Efficiency (58.49)

Contrary to what you might suspect from my location this week and the steady stream of silly videos from Anstruther , this podcast is not anything to do with the Fence Collective or Haarfest.

Actually, apart from a few brief intrusions from my pile of audio cassettes (a lot of time in the van, you see) this is generally just the usual stream of music news and new bits and pieces from my inbox.

Actually, I am way behind my inbox at the moment, due to a week of holiday and now a week in Anstruther, and things aren’t likely to get any better either, what with… oh never mind, you hear enough of my whining as it is.  Tunes…

Direct download: Toadcast #136 – The Haarcast

01. Eels – Jungle Telegraph (02.32)
02. Les Shelleys – The World is Waiting for the Sunrise (07.22)
03. Broken Records – A Leaving Song (13.41)
04. Women – Heat Distraction (19.56)
05. Let’s Talk About Trees – Wood of Rassay (23.50)
06. The Tragically Hip – Fireworks (31.57)
07. Grant Lee Buffalo – Testimony (35.48)
08. Inspector Tapehead – Grooming (44.48)
09. Nice Purse – Heart Medley (50.52)
10. Bombadil – Barcelona (54.55)

Recorded for you from the sunny, blazing hot mountains of Andalucia, this one is a little late being uploaded because we only just got back to Scotland and I decided I might as well wait until we got home before uploading it rather than charge all around Spain trying to find somewhere to upload from and then sitting around for ages waiting for the damn thing to… well, you get the picture.

I actually spent much of the week editing Toad Session videos, which seems just a tiny little bit pathetic, even to me.  Still, editing video whilst sat on the terrace with a beer, overlooking spectacular valley scenery isn’t exactly a hardship, but nevertheless, a holiday should be a bit more holiday-y than that I suppose.

I also think I may have happened to accidentally teach Mrs. Toad’s oldest friend’s kids some truly fucking appalling language too.  Honestly, who lets a retard like me anywhere near kids?

Direct download: Toadcast #135 – The Spaincast

01. The Japanese War Effort – Summer Sun Skateboard (02:20)
02. Benni Hemm Hemm – Shipcracks (06:15)
03. Hobart Smith & Texas Gladden – Down in the Willow Garden (13.39)
04. Blind Willie Johnson – I’m Gonna Run to the City of Refuge (16.24)
05. The Beach Boys – Sloop John B (21.02)
06. Sebastian Dangerfield – The Sycamore Tree (24.49)
07. Animal Magic Tricks – Heavenly Bodies (30.57)
08. Keaton Henson – Oliver Dalston Browning (36.27)
09. Fists – Ace is the Way (40.23)
10. Honeytrap – Little Johnny Winter (45.02)

So, the Festival descendeth upon Edinburgh once more, and once more we are beset by London-based Home County Yahs braying their zany way through the city until finally someone snaps and sets fire to their stupid fucking stilts once and for all.

Actually, as I confess pretty sharpish, I am the classic Edinburgh Festival hypocrite, if I’m being honest with myself.  I love it as much as I loathe it and I enjoy moaning about it almost as much as I enjoy the Festival itself.

As a native you really do have to have the right attitude though.  If you come from outside just for the Festival then there’s little chance of you failing to take advantage of it, but if you live here the only way is to do it by extremes: either totally ignore it and stay as far away as you can, or just stop moaning, get stuck in, get pished and go to lots of shows.  I tend to prefer the latter option, but I’ll confess I don’t always do a good job of actually taking my own advice.

Direct download: Toadcast #134 – The Festicast

01. Thee Single Spy – OK Corral (02.53)
02. Lach – A Quiet Distance (11.50)
03. Bob Dylan – Man of Constant Sorrow (Live) (14.59)
04. Run On Sentence – Wide Open Sky (22.20)
05. Skeleton Bob – Findlove is a Housing Scheme (33.11)
06. Wounded Knee – Coffee Ballad (34.43)
07. The Delta Mirror – He Was Worse Than the Needle He Gave You (39.31)
08. Balkans – Georganne (45.50)
09. Modest Mouse – This Devil’s Workday (50.33)
10. Eels – I Put a Spell on You (58.36)

This is called the Tapecast because last night, for the first time in about ten years, I made a mixtape.  Because of the van having a tape player there is actually a point to making these bloody things now, so we got hammered and listened to records all night (again), only this time I recorded them all onto a C-90!

There is something so stupidly fascinating about making tapes in the first place, but there is certainly something surreal in resurrecting what genuinely was dead technology.  It is far from easy to actually buy blank tapes these days.  I ended up recording over a shite old one I had to hand, and there is only a limited supply of ones hanging around which I would be happy to tape over.

It was bloody fun though, so I think it might well happen again!

Oh, and as I am now hosting these podcasts on Mixcloud as well, I have a new streaming widget thingy.  Mixcloud are PRS registered, which means the artists get money when you listen using their doo-dah, which is something we should all think about.  I am not convinced about doubling up the post images so I may have to give a bit more consideration to how to integrate it into the page, but there it is anyway for the time being.

Toadcast #133 – The Tapecast by Song By Toad on Mixcloud

Direct download: Toadcast #133 – The Tapecast

01. The Humms – Blood Sucking Vampire (02.30)
02. We Can’t Enjoy Ourselves – Put Your Blue Dress On (11.19)
03. Ezequiel Ezequiel – Dear Permafrost (15.03)
04. Small Town Boredom – Apologies for Apathy (22.32)
05. Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights (30.59)
06. The Dodos – Walking (35.59)
07. Trips and Falls – I Learned Sunday Morning, on a Wednesday (41.57)
08. Br’er – Whitewash (48.41)
09. Efren – Stay High (53.22)
10. Donny Hue & the Colors – Wild Again (59.22)

This wasn’t particularly supposed to be all fuzzy and noisy, and in actual fact is probably isn’t, except for in bits. I have been listening to the Male Bonding album a lot this week, and then the split single from Thee Ludds and The No-Brainers dropped into my inbox, and then I became fascinated by the splendid mess that is I’llfinishyrfinish and suddenly I realised I had a podcast which was pretty much all over the place.

So I decided to embrace it, go for it and just appreciate the noise. There is some acoustic fuzz too, and a song by Grandaddy who can be fuzzy but often aren’t, but in general if you like your music to be played on a tape recorder down the back of the sofa in the next room, you should like this.

Oh, and we have the new Walkmen track and the new Cotton Jones one and all sorts. Aren’t we clever. Actually, who the fuck am I calling ‘we’, anyway?

Toadcast #132 – The Fuzzcast

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01. The Walkmen – Stranded (02.20)
02. Grandaddy – Fuck the Valley Fudge (09.02)
03. Male Bonding – Your Contact (16.19)
04. Navigator – Headless Horseman (The Microphones cover) (19.44)
05. Grizzly Prospector – Oh! Grizzly Me (Slow) (Live) (21.06)
06. Cotton Jones – Glorylight and Christie (24.09)
07. The Sound of the Ladies – The 40s Never Died (27.35)
08. Thee Ludds – I’m a Moron (34.42)
09. The Walkmen – Thinking of a Dream I Had (42.06)
10. Ace Bushy Striptease – I’llfinishyrfinish (I’ll Finish You) (49.32)

My brother heads off today, so I figured we’d take one last chance to do a podcast while we can.  This is mostly new stuff and inbox though, so I am not sure how he’ll react.

Actually, he was in the room last week while I went through my inbox, played stuff, replied to emails, deleted things, and so on and so forth.  I think his response was that he simply wouldn’t be able to handle the avalanche of shit I have to get through, and that it would simply turn him off music completely.

I don’t mind that, I have to confess, because although some people do send me wildly inappropriate things, after two hours of listening to one ‘psychedelic rock band who are blazing a trail across the LA scene right now’ after another I then open an email from Allister Izenberg, which was possibly the most terse, abrupt and non-sugar-coated promo email I have ever read, even including Trips and Falls.  It was such a bad email actually that even before listening I had a sneaky suspicion I was going to really like the music, and boy oh boy was I right.  It makes all the ‘rock, hip-hop, funk fusion’s next big thing’ emails easily worthwhile.

Toadcast #131 – The Brocast

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01. Hot Lava – Pink Lemonade (02.52)
02. Burnt Island – Hiding Out (07.42)
03. King Post Kitsch – Monomaniac (11.26)
04. Glass Animals – Leaflings (19.17)
05. Allister Izenberg – Little Swan (24.24)
06. Television Keeps us Apart – Voices (33.22)
07. Ola Belle Reed – High on a Mountain (41.01)
08. Clarence Ashley – Cuckoo Bird (51.54)
09. Willard Grant Conspiracy & Telefunk – The Cuckoo (54.23)
10. Soft Cat – Blackbird (62.41)

My little brother is in town visiting, and he is the sound designer for the Boston Ballet, and on Wednesday night (I think) we got obliterated on gin and had something of a musical duel; each taking turns on the stereo, me playing some of the weirder stuff I listen to and him playing bits of classical music.  Honestly, it was fucking ace.  As a DJ set it would have absolutely delighted me anyway, even if everyone else ended up fucking off, but nevertheless, that evening was what music fandom is really about for me.

So this podcast isn’t really a recreation by any means (we are far, far too sober and nothing like argumentative enough for starters) but I thought it would be nice to do a podcast along those lines.  Personally, it’s maybe not even as classical as I might personally have liked it to be, but never mind, I really like it.

And, as usual, there is a correction to be made.  We describe the them tune to Star Trek Deep Space Nine as Theme for the Common Man, and apparently it isn’t that at all.  What it is is heavily, heavily borrowed from Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man.  So the bit of classical music Ben describes hearing before we play that song must actually have been Fanfare for the Common Man, which only reminded him of the Deep Space Nine theme without actually being it.  Whoops.  Next time research before talking!

Toadcast #130 – The Poshcast

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01. Mozart – Requiem in D Minor (02.40)
02. Yann Tiersen – La Lettre d’Explication (16.18)
03. The Flaming Lips – Watching the Planets (23.33)
04. Theme to Star Trek – Deep Space Nine (28.47)
05. Les Têtes Raides – Manuela (38.49)
06. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – The Proposition #1 (49.13)
07. The Books – S is for Everysing (52.29)
08. Nico Muhly – The Only Tune (64.00)

Housecast?  Well, yes.  One of the things I have been trying to do since I left my grown up job is get our house vaguely under control.  I have mananged to get the boxes of albums out of the hallway and into the office now, but there is still all manner of paperwork and assorted other shit all over the place.

Also, my folks are visiting at the end of next week, and you know what that means: the famous Mother-in-Law Clean.  Mrs. Toad isn’t exactly a domesticated young lady, but she will be setting about the house with a bucket of bleach and a million fistfuls of wire wool over the course of the next few days I would imagine.

I, on the other hand, just have to destroy the ropey old oven in the back garden with a pick axe.  Sometimes it rocks to get the man jobs!

Toadcast #129 – The Housecast

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01. Perfume Genius – Mr. Petersen (03.44)
02. Bottle of Evil – Same Old Story (10.02)
03. Cate Le Bon – Shoeing the Bones (15.17)
04. Warm Ghost – So Sick of the Sun (18.34)
05. Andrew Cedermark – Masterpieces (23.41)
06. Micah P. Hinson – Seven Horses Seen (29.12)
07. Yusuf Azak – Thin Air (34.23)
08. Kid Canaveral – Cursing Your Apples (38.55)
09. Communist Daughter – The Lady is an Arsonist (41.52)
10. Richard Hawley – The Ellen Vannin Tragedy (feat. the Smoke Fairies) (49.20)