I have been slow to review this because it moves slowly, like honey. It’s rich and strong, equal parts old time American folk, and deep gothic country. Williams uses his music to deliver one dark narrative after another, the tales evoking Johnny Cash and Nick Cave’s fatalistic denouements*.

It never strays into twangy country territory, this, preferring a spare, somewhat desolate tone, with an air of old-fashioned forebearance in the face of grief.  The musical landscape is in many ways familiar, but it is the subtle swaying between genres, and the judicious variation of pace that keep things interesting.  Instead of wearing you down with misery, Williams seems adept at letting things ebb and flow just enough to keep you engaged.

This is another one of these albums that didn’t blow me off my feet to begin with - I basically thought ‘ah, more decent country-folk-noir’.  This may not be far from the truth, but it is nevertheless extremely well done, and the album as a whole is a very nurturing - satisfying in some enigmatic way that I can’t quite pin down.  I like this.

Christian Williams - The Sad Song of Sequin Island

Website | MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from CDBaby

*Yes, I know, a bit wanky, but it really seemed like the right word.  I do apologise.

Hmm, nothing like a really depressing news story to start the day, even one that has been in the pipeline for some time. From the Guardian:

Illegal downloaders to get warning letter in government clampdown

Ah, splendid, just what we needed. This is, I think it is fair to say, a bit of a disaster. I am not a fundamentalist freeloader though, so my opposition to this particular approach is not entirely based upon opposition to the principle itself - not entirely.

Anyone with any sense will surely agree that the idea of government essentially mandating the eavesdropping on personal communications is pretty dubious to begin with. The fact that they are mandating it without the recourse to warrants or whatever the UK equivalent of probable cause might be is downright disturbing. And amazingly, this is the least of my objections to this deal, because with the rise in encrypted torrent traffic, the spying can be overcome with relative ease, so fuck them and their snooping.  But the internet is not just about communication, it is also a marketplace, so the argument doesn’t apply entirely that neatly.

No, the bit that really, really worries me is what amounts to the outsourcing of law enforcement to unaccountable bodies. When I objected to the privatisation of healthcare and education it was on a fairly straightforward basis: these services are supposed to be run entirely for the benefit of the ‘customer’. They are crucial and their presence and their health benefits the nation as a whole, so they should fall under the umbrella of government, it’s that simple. If you want to push it further than that, I think there is something fucking sinister about introducing the profit motive to the healing process. Do you want your doctor to have his commission in mind when he decides whether to prescribe you a massive run of anti-depressants or just tell you to get a little exercise, try and take your work less seriously and spend more time with your family? Or how about when teaching your little rugrats about something contentious like, say, political history?

Well this one goes a step further. In the Iraq war one of the most appaling developments was the massive use of ‘private defence contractors’, which is an obvious euphemism for mercenaries, who were completely rogue. Not only were they not subject to the laws of the nation they had invaded, but they have also been entirely excused from having to obey the laws of the United States, the people holding their chain. It’s fucking unbelievable - they are completely and utterly unaccountable. If you want to read more about this particular disgrace, pick any of the following articles.

So how is this relevant to this particular situation? Well basically the British government is outsourcing law enforcement within the British Isles to companies who have no accountability to the electorate. ISPs have already shown excessive enthusiasm to clamp down on people who actually use their networks. This is the ultimate free lunch argument, one more often employed by insurance companies: we are happy for you to pay for a service, however if there is any chance of you actually needing to use it, then we will be very unhappy indeed. Basically, they want rid of large data transfers, like movie and music sharing, because it burdens their networks and they can no longer get away with short-changing their consumers.

Add to that the fact that major media conglomerates hate it because it is an interaction that they do not own an can be abused in a manner that costs them money, and you can see where we are heading with this. The problem is that I have no faith whatsoever in anyone’s willing to tell the difference between legitimate, legal sharing and illegal sharing, which I will happily admit is bad and needs to be dealt with. Not like this though. Increasingly, small media outlets, and even some of the bigger ones, like record labels and DIY filmmakers are using filesharing as a method of distributing their work - of trying to gain a popular foothold without having to go through the onerous process of seeking approval from more traditional media.

Are Virgin fucking Media going to bother differentiating? I would put money on the answer being no. I would also put money on them basically threatening the living daylights out of anyone who seeds multiple torrents, irrespective of content and that is a big problem. I personally anticipate an attack, not on illegal activity, but on the whole bloody kit ‘n’ caboodle. ISPs hate it because it makes them work for their money, Big Media hate it because it excludes them, and the government has just given these two odious entities carte fucking blanche to do their level best to get rid of the whole shooting match.

Basically, in the worst case, which it is not entirely unrealistic to expect, the ISPs will simply be so trigger happy at shutting down filesharers of all stripes that it gradually undermines the whole enterprise. More annoyingly, and more likely, is that large companies will simply wave about legal threats, much the same way they are starting to do on YouTube, and simply have anything turned off which they don’t like, and this is the crux of the problem. All that will be needed will be an allegation, and there will be no way to challenge it, no right of appeal, not because people don’t want to or don’t have grounds, but because very few individuals would have the courage to take on a massive corporation in court.  Basically, as far as I can see, this brings an end to the concept of due process in this area, despite how many times the RIAA have been humiliated in court, when their complaints have actually been required to cut the legal mustard.

Now that requirement will vanish. Bank charges are a classic example of unaccountable corporate entities acting outside the law with almost total impunity - it tooks years of crazy fees before enough momentum was built to finally challenge the banks in court. Their only downfall was that their greed eventually got the better of them. But with the RIAA in some cases extorting $222,000 for sharing 24 files people will, as with the banks, simply obey. Why wouldn’t you when it could cost you your house? No right of independent adjudication, no right of appeal, no capacity to resist, no due fucking process.

I am reminded of America’s laughably empty government catchphrase: “by the people, for the people”. If things like law enforcement are not in any way accountable to ‘the people’ what chance is there of their ever acting ‘for the people’?

Billy Bragg - NPWA

I have been reading a few things recently about the state of music in the 21st Century. Not the state of the music industry exactly, but the state of music itself and its relationship with its fans. There are a lot of things I want to write about in response to this, so rather than one massive great big monster post, I think I’ll break it down into a small series of things which I’ll write over the course of the next day or so.

Firstly, here are the various articles that prompted this little festival of self-indulgence, so you have some idea what to expect:
A Penny For Your Thoughts by The Vinyl Villain (read the comments as well, because some of them are very thought-provoking.
Does the World Need Another Indie Band? by Tim Walker, writing in The Independent.
Why Has Modern Music Lost So Much Impact? by the Kings of A&R.
This comment, from a reader called Alex in the comment thread of my recent podcast - The Tribecast.

So, how am I going to break this down into relatively digestible chunks, so this post doesn’t just ramble on forever? Like so:
1. Fragmentation
2. Over Saturation
3. Hype Overload
4. Quality

#1 Fragmentation

I may quibble with either the existence or the seriousness of some of the other things I am going to discuss in this series, but I don’t think I can honestly argue against the fact that there is severe fragmentation in the music market. Whether it’s a bad thing or a good thing, however, I couldn’t rightly say, although I don’t think it is great for the vast majority of music fans.

If you think about it, no-one really knows where or what the mainstream is anymore. Jay-Z headlines Glastonbury, the NME left relevance behind years ago, Top of the Pops is dead, radio stations are struggling and internet ones are actually under attack from the music industry itself, so where do we all find out about the next big thing together?

Well for the fanatics like myself and probably, given you’re here reading this, you too, the fragmentation is actually a bonus most of the time. It is what allows us to be here, examining some of the more obscure
corners of the indiesphere, whilst still keeping half an eye on the wider mainstream acts at the same time. It also helps us build communities of people, even ones who have never met, nor are ever likely to.

For the more balanced music fan, however, it can be a problem. I mentioned during the Tribecast that pop music, particuarly mainstream pop music is not particularly about the music itself from an artistic standpoint. I mean, there’s a reasonably rigid formula for pop hits, and they have to be catchy as hell for some reason, so it’s not like the music can get away with being entirely inept (vapid is another question), but for the listener the social aspect is often equally important.

Culture is a crucial part of group bonding - basic tribal behaviour - and the act of sharing cultural entities is an important way of binding a community together. So it really doesn’t matter what you think of a song, what matters is its capacity to appeal to a large number of people and enough awareness that it has the chance to become something shared by as many people as possible.

In the Tribecast I mentioned Mr. Brightside by the Killers as a perfect example of a song and an album that was so ubiquitous that it is now completely attached to the Summer of 2005 and in five or six years time, any of us who hear that song again will instantly associate it with whatever was going on in our life at the time. We’ll have that ‘Aaa, remember this!‘ conversation with a random person in a pub, and this will allow us to instantly bond that little bit more, and that little bit more easily.

At the moment there seems to be no shared mass market for this stuff, in fact Top of the Pops’ very breadth was probably what killed it. Looking at the Top Ten Albums lists for 2007, we see the Billboard Charts - the barometer of major label sales - giving us obviously ludicrous hits such as Hannah Montana and Now Fifty-Whatever. Even the superficial magazines were writing out lists full of LCD Soundsytem and TV on the Radio - a bloggers’ delight perhaps, but is it that representative of mainstream tastes? Bloggers are prominent at the moment because we are very easy to find, and there is a definite style of indie rock that seems to be very popular amongst bloggers. So we’re one of the most coherent, available voices out there, but I really have my doubts that we are representative of mainstream tastes.

All this results in the fragmentation we are talking about. As Alex said, in his comment on the Tribecast thread:

“I think songs like ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ and bands like Arctic Monkeys - that really capture the imagination of the mainstream, but that can also be looked back on a few months down the line without any hint of embarrassment - are so important. They’re the only point of cultural bonding (and drunken singalong) I can expect to have with anyone of my age in 10 years time.”

He’s right, but in other ways this fragmentation is a good thing. It allows, for example, smaller, more close-knit communities to form, often locally centred. Imagine if you find someone in ten years with a Toad Session recording in their music collection, for example. Or imagine, on a larger scale, meeting a fan of King Creosote and realising that you both talked on the Fence Beefboard at the same time. Or even just meeting someone who also reads The Vinyl Villain or, more likely, Said the Gramophone. That bond will be a hell of a lot stronger than a wishy-washy, generic ‘Oh yeah, I liked that Killers song’.

But remember that it isn’t just radio and television that forges these shared bonds. ASDA radio plays more and better indie music in an hour that pretty much any major radio station, and they probably have more listeners too, albeit not by choice. But this seeps in everywhere - in every pub and bar that plays music. If you’re in the same pubs as someone, you’re listening to the same music, and if it happens a lot you remember it, however subconsciously, so this process really hasn’t been stopped. Think about the ubiquity of cutting edge music in advertising and television as well - if we’re all watching Big Brother, we’re all listening to the same music.

Ultimately though, I think these things will consolidate. That’s what Capitalism does: builds bigger and bigger and shitter and shitter companies until there is an explosion and it all tumbles down and starts over. You can already see the growth of things like The Hype Machine and Drowned in Sound and to some extent The Guardian as well, all starting to point the way to the kinds of large entities that could easily grow out of the current sea of tiny enterprises. So for anyone worrying about the fragmentation in the actual music industry itself, I honestly doubt it will last that long.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that we often don’t know what is going to define a period of time until afterwards. What’s going to define 2008? Well we don’t know, do we - Vampire Weekend? It’s not unlikely.

The Killers - Mr. Brightside

Fear not, this isn’t quite as horribly overbearing as it could have been. The ranting is actually fairly under control, and the self-important pontificating not quite as reckless as it could so easily have been, partly because I wasn’t quite as liberal with the gin as I have been in the past.

The reason it’s called the Popecast is because of this amazing little story about Catholics in the States issuing death threats to a kid who took a communion wafer out of the church with him.  The hilarious PZ Myers then got involved, threatening to show them what real desecration would look like, and the pandemonium reached all new levels of shrillness.

The thing that really got my goat about all this was not so much that Catholics took offence, but more the level of the hysteria and the language of persecution.  It was honestly described as kidnapping and as a hate crime by various loonies, and there was nothing like enough ‘Oh fucking grow up and get the fuck over it’ being said.  People seem to be seeking all sorts of odd legal protections for their crazy superstitions these days, and I am flabberghasted that a particular kind of idea is being so fucking mollycoddled as to be deemed immune from criticism and contempt.  Come on, people, fuck your religious convictions and learn to deal with the fact that most of the planet thinks they’re crazy - and that applies to atheists as well.

Anyhow, I promise this doesn’t take over too much of the podcast, and that the music is given plenty of space to breathe.

Toadcast #33 - The Popecast

01. Vatican Broadside - Half Man Half Biscuit (00.07)
02. Beck - Profanity Prayers (02.27)
03. Punch & the Apostles - Nouveau Gypsy (10.20)
04. I Said Yes - The Town Crier (15.07)
05. Albert Hammond Jr. - GFC (20.47)
06. Bonnie Prince Billy - So Everyone (23.51)
07. Tom Lehrer - Vatican Rag (33.53)
08. The Savings & Loan - Catholic Boys in the Rain (37.12)
09. Derek Meins - The Gin Song (42.57)
10. Holly Golightly & the Broke-Offs - Devil Do (48.47)
11. Ghostkeeper - Solid Gold (56.02)
12. Forest Fire - Fortune Teller (60.44)
13. Silver Jews - Strange Victory, Strange Defeat (70.22)
14. Sparrow & the Workshop - Magic Tricks (77.55)
15. The Just Joans - Hey Boy, You’re Oh So Sensitive (79.43)
16. Roy Zimmerman - Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual (85.41)
17. Willard Grant Conspiracy - Evening Mass (97.16)

And just for the fun, here are the two silly songs for you to download:
Tom Lehrer - Vatican Rag

Here’s a bit of 7″ pleasure that no-one with any vaguely folky inclinations should permit to pass them by. The Left Outsides were born in the fallout of the demise of brilliant London psych-folksters The 18th Day of May. Alison and Mark played viola and guitar respectively in that much-lamented band, and have since continued to play together, forming The Left Outsides fairly hot on the heels of the breakup.

There are times when their music is a little glacial of pace for my liking, but they are capable of doing some really brilliant things at times too. Their new single is out on Hi Beat Records, a small London imprint from the looks of it, and contains two sides of genuine brilliance.

I really, really want to play you the song, but even an internet fundamentalist like myself knows it would be a bit self-defeating to ask you to go and pay £3.50 for a single I’ve just allowed you to download for nothing. It’s frustrating though. I can be previewed here, at their MySpace page, however and I recommend you do so because it’s an excellent track. The b-side is a Found remix of Deep Rivers Move In Silence; Shallow Brooks Are Noisy; Found’s trademark glitchery is very subtly applied, and as remixes go this is about as effective as I’ve heard.

All in all then, a bag of boyish enthusiasm from this amphibian. I have ordered one myself and I bloody well expect you lot to as well.

The Left Outsides - Fallen by the Wayside (from And Colours in Between)

I don’t like to just trot things out like some sort of parrot-powered news service if I can avoid it, but this news is very fine news indeed.

Calexico, who are one of my very favourite bands, have released a teaser mp3 for their new album, which will be called Carried to Dust and will be available on September 9th of this year. I am not sure if there are different release dates for the UK, but given the idiocy of international distributors it wouldn’t surprise me. Anyhow, the song is called Two Silver Trees, is downloadable from their MySpace page, and is bloody excellent. Has the pre-release mp3 leak become the new, revenue-less single these days? It looks like it I guess, and I suppose it makes a degree of sense if you treat a single as being there to drum up excitement and anticipation for the album.  Less so if you think of it as a revenue-generator in its own right, of course.

Anyhow, yes, there’s a new album. And they’re playing here. Yes, instead of the more habitual trail to Glasgow that bands visit Scotland tend to beat, we are getting Calexico at the Queen’s Hall on Thursday 11th September.

In terms of my favourite bands, I think it is safe to say that Calexico are right up there with the best. I bought and sort of liked Spoke, before somewhat losing track of them for a while. Then with Feast of Wire I was hooked, and have since explored forwards and backwards through their back catalogue with what I suppose can be described as gleeful abandon. When Mrs. Toad and I get a little tipsy of an evening, and the stereo is on just that little bit too loud, the chances of Calexico coming on the Toad Hall PA system are very, very high indeed.

Calexico - Two Silver Trees

Does the title of that song remind anyone else slightly of Dr. Seuss? “Through three cheese trees, three free fleas flew. Through these cheese trees, freezy breeze blew.” Or something vaguely like that!