Song, by Toad

Adam Balbo comes across for all the world as an exiled New York anti-folker.  His music settles slap bang in the middle of territory most well known for the likes of Jeffrey Lewis and Lach, and I am hence just a little surprised why Balbo himself doesn’t get anything like the same amount of credit.

It’s possible there isn’t a similar mutual-reinforcement society in San Francisco to the famous one in New York, but that sounds unlikely.  And really, if you want to know what I am talking about, then this might not be the best album to start with.  6 Outta 9 w/ Beats might be a more immediately accessible point of entry, but that’s only because it is just a little more conventional.

This album is a little messier in many ways.  Musically it’s pretty straightforward – experimentation has been entirely banished, to be replaced by a ubiquitously relentless scraping thrum on the acoustic guitar.  It is more in terms of song structure and lyrics that this album goes quite considerably off the rails, and I know that sounds like a critcism, but it isn’t – I think this is a terrific record.

Balbo has always been prone to writing rambling interior monologues when he pens his words.  He can be wry, witty, cynical, self-deprecating and awkward all within the space of a line or two, and in this release he takes this and runs with it.  Right out of the park.  These songs are fractured thoughts, scattered like smashed glass across an album in shards of one or two minutes or less, skittering forward at a slightly disorientating pace, firing thoughts at you with all the hectic chaos of a child with ADHD.

He frequently interrupts his own songs, almost to heckle himself as with Debating a Time Metaphor, or just as constant asides worked into the fabric of the song, as with Obligatory Highway Analogy.  He bookends Girl at My Pity Party, which mocks his own self-pity, with two songs expressing a cartoonishly exaggerated version of that same pity.

Imagine a long, involved late night conversation which veers from elaborate digression to bare emotional honesty to peculiar in-jokes which twist in on themselves to the point of becoming entirely obscure.  Imagine that this conversation took place over the course of about eight or nine hours, into the pale hours of the morning, and that instead of a conversation it was simply a tangled monologue.  Now imagine that you had a tape recorder with which to capture this, but you only managed to tape a minute or two every half an hour, resulting in a a barely-related series of weird snapshots of a conversation you don’t entirely understand.  Now set it to music.  That is what The Fix is like.

Adam Balbo – Obligatory Highway Analogy

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Adam Balbo – Self-loathing Song 1

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Adam Balbo – Girl at My Pity Party

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Oh dear god almighty I have a hangover.  Fucking bastard music people.  Last night there was gigging and drinking and wandering the streets of a most balmy and pleasant Edinburgh with an assortment of miscreants and other ne’er-do-wells.  We saw Honeytrap and Meursault play at Sneaky Pete’s – I was recording this podcast, hence late for X-Lion Tamer, sorry to both Ed and Tony – and it was fucking amazing.

And after that there was drinking.  Fuck me there was lots of drinking.  And then I came home and went into the local all night shop and purchased a couple of steaks for late-night snacking purposes, and was harassed by a bunch of young lads when I came out.  Not harassed in a bad way, but I think I was asked to buy them some fags or something like that.  Anyhow, the conversation… erm, well I’m not really sure how the conversation went, because I was fucking hammered, but at some point the van came up, which was parked just along the road.  So, ah, for some slightly bizarre reason I ended up with five high school lads and me sat in the van with the stereo up fucking loud – so loud apparently that you could hear it all the way down the street.  Or, at least, so Mrs. Toad tells me.  Because at some point she came home from wherever it was she was out drinking and hopped in as well.

So, after a little van-based rocking out, they came back into the house for a bit and Mrs. Toad played them Motorhead and The Sex Pistols and The Wedding Present so fucking loud the windows shook.  Funnily enough, these nice, polite lads kept insisting throughout that we should just let them know when we were bored and we would like them to go.  Such nice, polite boys!  I think one of them even did the dishes.  I didn’t want to have to try and explain what a couple of total fucking bozos they were dealing with, but erm, yeah, that was our Friday night.  Weird, huh?  I think we went to bed at about five, eventually.  And now to record a couple of Toad Sessions, at least one with a very, very hung over band.

Toadcast #71 – The Tough Lovecast

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01. Belle & Sebastian – Take Your Carriage Clock & Shove It (03.46)
02. Adam Balbo – Debating a Time Metaphor (07.16)
03. The Sequins – The Usual Delights (14.05)
04. Situationists – A Cold Front (16.31)
05. Blur – Out of Time (23.02)
06. New Ruins – Symptoms (32.37)
07. The Laurel Collective – Hindenburg Mile High Club (41.26)
08. The Lovely Eggs – Tyrannosaurus Rex for Christmas (45.07)
09. The Empty Set – A Challenge to Copernicus (49.34)
10. Honeytrap – Mussolini’s Son (55.29)

There’s a lot in my inbox at the moment, but very little indeed that I am finding terribly exciting. Fortunately an old favourite of mine (well, one album into his career, but you know what I mean) has delivered a six-song gem of low-fi, slightly off-beat songs that cheer my awkward little soul.

I loved Adam’s last record, as much for the completely no-frills recording as for the intelligent, perspicacious and occasionally venomous lyrics. This is no different, reminding me of Bob Dylan if anyone. It’s difficult to write songs with wit, I find. You don’t want it to be comedic, and this is something Balbo skirts nicely. He’s never a comedian per se, and his acerbic turn of phrase can amuse, but it is usually wielded in such a pointed, black manner that you don’t find yourself laughing exactly.

It’s difficult to describe how someone ends up with a songwriting style like this. The music isn’t merely a vehicle for the lyrics, although it does verge on beat poetry at times; it is perfectly possible to imagine him delivering all his songs acapella. Nevertheless I like the backing, rickety and simplistic as it is. I’m starting to genuinely prefer sketches. I prefer them in the art world, most of the time, to finished paintings or sculptures, and it seems that I am now getting that way in the music world.

It’s not that things are invariably ruined when they are fleshed out and polished up, it’s more that it takes surprisingly little to express an idea beautifully, and more dynamism and intrigue tend to be in the sketch than in the Great Works.

Adam Balbo – Big Kid Now
And one from previous album, the superb 6 Outta 9 w/ Beats: Adam Balbo – Samba Blues

Buy all these from Adam’s MySpace page.

Well, no gin, no misbehaviour (except the mandatory foul language), Christ you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d sold out on you and actually grown up at last.  No fear of that actually, just a bit of liver protection.  We’re trying to guzzle just that little bit less midweek, and save the beer tokens for when we really need them, so it’s tea and slippers this time around.  In fact I thought I was being exceptionally tame until such time as I realised that I hadn’t reigned in the swearing one little bit.  Fuck, I thought to myself.

Thematically, erm, you’re on your own I’m afraid.  I’ve no real idea if you can think of anything that holds all these songs together as a coherent whole, but damned if I can.  There’s quite a bit of new stuff and quite a few stray songs that I didn’t know how to cover because I didn’t want to review the whole album, but there was a song or two that I liked.  You know what I mean.  And thirteen songs in just under an hour – fucking hell that’s efficient.

Toadcast #36 – The Domesticast

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01. Christian Williams – 30 Minutes (00.17)
02. Calexico – The News About William (05.03)
03. Crystal Stilts – Crippled Croon (07.42)
04. Glasvegas – Flowers & Fitba Tops (14.39)
05. Fishboy – Half Time at the Proper Name Spelling Bee (20.12)
06. From – One Spring Away (23.21)
07. Eef Barzelay – Make Another Tree (28.19)
08. Michael Zapruder – Ads For Feelings (34.23)
09. Okkervil River – Singer Songwriter (37.37)
10. Marc Farre – La Plaie et le Couteau (42.42)
11. Adam Balbo – Big Kid Now (48.14)
12. Christian Williams – Judas (50.24)
13. Micah P. Hinson – Throw the Stone (57.00)

You all know I’ve been doing a regular slot on DC’s radio show, The Waiting Room, of late, don’t you? Well this week’s slot saw me picking a track by Sky Larkin, as well as three wonderful songs from the splendid Happy Realease Records from darn sarf*. I may have been a little rude about their sound actually, but it was inadvertent. I was trying to head off the criticism from indie snobs – What? Who? None of those round here, surely? – about the fact that they are just plain enjoyable indie-pop for the most part, and ended up implying that I thought they were lightweight. The Genius of Tact strikes again. I should teach courses in this shit.

Anyway, swing by The Waiting Room to download this and past episodes, and Error FM to see what sort of crazy fools agree to put this sort of rubbish on the airwaves. The, er, internet airwaves. Interwav… oh never mind, you know what I mean.

The Waiting Room, Wednesday 12th March 2008

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* Darn sarf, for my non-British readers, is the phonetic spelling for how a cockney might pronounce the words ‘down South’. Which is where they are from. Yes, I know, hilarious wasn’t it.

And here’s a sneaky little bonus podcast from myself:
Toadcast #23½ – The Freshcast

A week or so ago, I recorded a demo show for Fresh Air FM, the local student radio station, with a view to applying for a slot during next term, only the computer ate the bastard thing. Fucking technology. Anyhow, Sunday was Mrs. Toad’s birthday, and for some reason she was keen to get plastered and do a podcast with me, so we re-did it together. It wasn’t played quite as straight as I’d hoped, and by the time I’d had time to reflect on submitting it I was pretty certain Fresh Air would chase me out of the building with sticks. Fortunately for me, however, they didn’t hate it, didn’t seem to think I was a smart-arsed twat and didn’t dispatch me from the building with a boot print in my arse.

As this show is just a pre-record and will be going out randomly over the night when they stop broadcasting, I thought I’d pop it up here for you to have a listen. I won’t be doing this with any more Fresh Air things because, well, you need to go over there and listen for yourselves really, don’t you. But for this once I thought you might like it seeing as you shower of treacherous fuckers all seem to love Mrs. Toad so very bloody much. Be warned though, because it was made for a different audience, so there may be a bit of duplication from previous podcasts, and it’s rather long, as apparently there is a lot of time to fill overnight when there are no presenters in the building.

The Fresh Air plugs themselves were enough to see us kicked out.

Toadcast #23½ – The Freshcast

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01. Shout Out Louds – Tonight I Have to Leave It (03.09)
02. The Shaky Hands – Whales Sing (06.41)
03. The Cave Singers – Thinking of Heaven (13.05)
04. Preston School of Industry – Straits of Magellan (17.23)
05. Adam Balbo – Talkin’ Bush (27.11)
06. Donnan Linkz feat. Baje One of Junk Science – The N Word (29.18)
07. Riff-Raff – Romford Girls (36.44)
08. The Pogues – Dirty Old Town (38.58)
09. Nicole Atkins – Neptune City (46.44)
10. Edith Piaf – Elle Frequentait la Rue Pigalle (50.11)
11. Dusty Springfield – You Don’t Own Me (53.34)
12. AA Bondy – Vice Rag (59.12)
13. Relatively Clean Rivers – Hello Sunshine (68.09)
14. The Eighteenth Day of May – Lady Margaret (71.05)
15. Celebrity Chimp – Pornstar (81.27)
16. Nightjar – Poor Man’s Son (84.01)
17. Ravens & Chimes – General Lafayette, You Are Not Alone! (93.03)
18. Eels – Love of the Loveless (95.59)
19. Glasvegas – It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry (106.49)
20. Flashguns – St. George (111.01)
21. Elle S’Appelle – Little Flame (123.09)
22. Elk City – Cherries in the Snow (125.58)
23. The Low Miffs – Also Sprach Shareholder (130.41)

In preparation for applying for a slot on Edinburgh’s student radio station Fresh Air, I thought I would challenge myself to get through an entire podcast without actually swearing because, on public access radio, you can’t use naughty words. A Toad without swearing, you say, what the fuck has the world come to?

Well to make sure I don’t disappoint you in your noble quest for dissolute anti-culture I thought I’d compensate by playing a collection of the filthiest and most sweary songs I could lay my hands on. Thinking about it, I’ve managed to forget Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s truly foul ‘Je T’aime, Moi Non Plus’, but there you go. I could have improved just about every playlist I’ve ever done in retrospect, I think, so at some point I have to draw the line.

So, I use bad words when I quote other people and when I give you the names of the songs but I don’t think I let a single naughty word slip during my own chat on this one, but let me know if you catch me out.

Toadcast #23 – The Filthcast

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01. Aidan John Moffat – Cunt (01.09)
02. The Pogues – Boys From the County Hell (05.24)
03. Adam Balbo -Let’s Make a Porno (10.03)
04. Celebrity Chimp – Pornstar (13.06)
05. The Tacticians – Hardcore Porn (15.37)
06. Billy Bragg – St. Swithin’s Day (21.05)
07. Grinderman – No Pussy Blues (26.05)
08. The Libertines – I Get Along (33.10)
09. Carbon/Silicon – What the Fuck (35.47)
10. Frank Turner – Heartless Bastard Motherfucker (42.03)
11. Les Enfant Bastard – U R My Fucking Sunshine U Cunt (44.52)
12. Plans & Apologies – Tony Blair Fucknut (49.50)
13. The Libertines – What a Waster (57.00)
14. Lambchop – Your Fucking Sunny Day (60.49)
15. The Ex-Men – Suck Her (67.35)
16. Micah P. Hinson – Patience (73.04)
17. Eels – It’s a Motherfucker (76.59)
18. Doug Anthony Allstars – I Fuck Dogs (80.07)

I am posting this, less as a review because I haven’t heard the whole album yet, but more as a little chunk of excitement because I am really looking forward to it. I’d never heard of Adam before, but he sent me a song as a music submission which I really liked, so I asked for a couple more and loved them too, so I bought the album. The CD itself is still en route, but I thought I’d pass this on.

Imagine if Adam Green was less of a self-absorbed, irritating smart-arse. Ah, what a relief, I hear you say. Well that is pretty much Adam Balbo’s territory. He describes himself as ‘roughly-hewn folk numbers and casio beat anthems’ which is pretty accurate. The casio backing brings a slightly naive, toy-town atmosphere to the music, and the simply strummed acoustic guitar gives the whole enterprise a lo-fi, DIY sound which is deceptively unsophisticated.

Ultimately for me, the big difference is the cleverness of the lyrics. Nice turns of phrase and unusual thoughts pack each song and the wit is never anything like as overbearing or cloyingly deliberate as a certain Mr. Green. In fact, it is the casual amusement and sharpness that makes this record as engaging and rewarding as it is. Go Toadlings: go and purchase!

Adam Balbo – Samba Blues
Adam Balbo – Let’s Make a Porno

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More errant podcastery from your favourite slippery green amphibian. This week I find myself yelling abuse at JC who writes a terrible blog called The Vinyl Villain and is currently stranded in Toronto for a few months, far away from his Glasgow home. JC was pretty much the first blogger to take any interest in Song, by Toad in its formative days and I have always been rather grateful for the encouragement Jim showed me back when I was starting out.

As such I thought I’d play a few songs from his favourite groups, a couple of things he’s brought us in the last few months and some songs about missing folk, seeing as he’ll presumably be pining like a teenager for the lovely Mrs. Villain. Well, that or masturbating himself into a zinc-deficient coma, of course.

Either way, hope you’re enjoying yourself JC. Here’s some bloody songs for ya!

Toadcast #5 – Distant Villainy

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1. Belly – Trust In Me (01.54)
2. Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars (08.30)
3. The Doledrums – Midweek Dreamer (12.50)
4. Waylon Jennings – Dukes of Hazzard Theme (15.20)
5. Billy Bragg – Wishing the Days Away (Ballad Version) (18.33)
6. Alex Cornish – This One’s For You (24.28)
7. Adam Balbo – Rock Ballad (31.02)
8. Elbow – Fugitive Motel (36.24)
9. R.E.M. – Half a World Away (41.21)
10. The Doledrums – He Said (47.14)
11. The Meteors – Out of Time (51.21)
12. James – Say Something (55.33)
13. Thunderegg – Long Way From Home (59.50)
14. The Pendulums – Brand New Song (66.52)