This podcast contains a large number of songs from albums which I didn’t really enjoy enough to want to review, but which nevertheless contained some excellent songs. I never want to give a small or emerging band a shitty review because it just feels mean. For me there’s a certain threshold to be reached, after which you are fair game for anything I feel like saying because, frankly, why would you care, but smaller bands are never going to get a really hard time on this site. Unless they behave like dicks of course, but I digress.

A lot of these albums contain songs I really like, but only one or two, and I really wanted them to be heard. Also, given that your music taste and mine probably only partially overlap anyway (otherwise it would just be creepy) I think it’s quite possible you might disagree and want to explore further. It always amazes me how seriously people can take my opinion, as some sort of self-appointed arbiter of musical worthiness, when neither I nor any other critic is any better placed or more worthy to judge than any random fanny off the street. The only thing that sets us apart is not musical judgment, it’s the slightly dubious compulsion to constantly be writing or talking about it for some unknown reason.

Anyway, that’s only about half a dozen songs on this list, the rest are just there either because they don’t entirely belong anywhere else, hence the Orphaned Songs title, and partly because I just felt like it. Enjoy…

Toadcast #39 – Orphaned Songs

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01. Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers – Let the Fever Out (HearYa Live Session) (02.40)
02. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead (07.30)
03. The Hurricanes – Down Below (13.46)
04. Simon Bookish – Dumb Terminal (21.30)
05. Adam & the Amethysts – Bumble Bee (23.49)
06. KiNo – Won’t Do (29.29)
07. Rags & Feathers – Silent Movie Starlets (33.04)
08. Woodpigeon – Home as a Romaticised Concept Where Everyone Loves You Always & Forever (37.39)
09. Eagle Seagull – I’m Sorry but I’m Beginning to Hate Your Face (44.56)
10. Meursault – Westward, Ho (51.53)
11. Sun Kil Moon – Carry Me Ohio (57.26)

None of this really makes up a coherent post, so I’m going to throw out some mp3s for your consideration. Tonight is a sort of Toad Sessions Live gig at the Voodoo Rooms, with both Meursault (this weekend’s session) and Sparrow & the Workshop (next month’s session) on the ever-splendid bill at Limbo.

I am nearly finished my ‘staring at a computer screen in my underpants’ phase, thank goodness. The Meursault Session is finished. Two of the four interviews from Pickathon are done, and a third is virtually finished. So all that remains is to edit the last Samantha Crain video, post that interview, and then start work on some Broken Records video, the Builders & the Butchers Interview and the Sparrow Session. And then anything we record at End of the R… oh shit. I’m not going to be out of my underpants until fucking Christmas, am I. Ah well, at least it’ll keep me out of the pub.

Actually, Matt from Bladen County Records had an intern when we were out in Portland to visit him. Mrs. Toad reckons we should get one – some poor unfortunate from one of the numerous private schools around us, studying something like media or something equally pointless.  They could help me stuff envelopes for Song, by Toad Records promo stuff, massage my shoulders when I am editing, fetch tea and biscuits – you know, the usual highly educational vocational training.

Actually, in all seriousness, it wouldn’t be a bad assignment for someone. They’d get to go to gigs, take photos, deal with the avalanche of post, maybe write a weekly post or something like that. And they’d be my bitch, which would be a privilege for any youngster. I wouldn’t even insist on a nubile young cheerleader, because they’d be fucking useless, so it would be perfectly, erm, safe, if you.. ahem. I’ll just stop there.

Inspector Tapehead: I saw them recently at a Trampoline event, and I was really impressed. I liked their three-song album sampler that they gave out then, and I like the three songs Chris has since emailed me through. Their album should be coming together early next year, which sounds like excellent news.
Inspector Tapehead – Sugar on Your Sheets

Maxwell Panther: I bloody love Maxwell Panther. There’s something of a rough quality to his recordings, to say the very least, and he reminds me of that really old school indie era where people recorded singles on tape players and put them out on vinyl in hand sellotaped sleeves.
Maxwell Panther – Three Miles of Expectations

Adam & the Amethysts: Well this is an album I picked up in Vancouver while I was there, and although I haven’t fallen in love with all of it, there are some wonderful moments to be found. They’re a Montreal band, apparently, although what that counts for, I don’t know. As a pretend Canadian, though, it always warms my heart that little bit to find a Canadian band.
Adam & the Amethysts – Bumble Bee

Flashguns: The label gentleman I discussed this band with said to me that they would most likely be releasing a single with them ‘once they’ve finished their A-Levels’, and I sat down and patted my growing paunch, ran my hands woefully through my slightly greying hair and consoled myself with the thought that at least I probably eat pussy better than they do.
Flashguns – Panama (Demo)

Absentee: These guys are an odd one. They’re sort of on the verge of becoming quite well known, and have been for a while. Whether or not they finally crack it is yet to be seen, but I wasn’t all that fond of their latest album, bar this rather excellent tune.
Absentee – Bitchstealer