Song, by Toad

This Toad Session has been a wee while coming, but frankly I think it’s fucking superb.  The videos have turned out wonderfully, Neil and Gav have done an amazing job with the sound, Fee and Dylan have taken some great photos.  I’m happy as a pig in shit, quite frankly.  Johnny Lynch (Mr. Pictish Trail) had plenty of time to kill, so we drank some beer, took our time and talked a monumental amount of shite.  The podcast is really strong this time around, I think.  We talk a lot but I think it’s pretty decent stuff for the most part, not random blather, so I really think it should be an enjoyable listen.  Hopefully, anyway.

Johnny picked really nice songs, too.  He’s recorded a couple of unreleased ones, and a Lone Pigeon cover, as well as his Top of the Pops hit single Winter Home Disco.  It makes for a really nice mix.  As per usual the songs are all available for downloading, hotlinking and sharing around, the videos can be watched below, on our YouTube (yeuch) page or our Vimeo page, and the photos are all to be seen as a slideshow here or on the general Song, by Toad Flickr page here.  Go to Blueback Hotrod for more of Dylan’s live music photography.  And enjoy the podcast – it can be played below, and the tracklisting is at the bottom of the page.  I’m really proud of this, people, so I hope you enjoy it.

Toadcast #62 – The Pictish Trail Toad Session

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The Pictish Trail – Winter Home Disco (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – I Will Pour it Down (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – Won’t You Take Me Back (Lone Pigeon Cover) (Toad Session)

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And now the videos, starting with the overall session video, and then the ones we made for the individual songs:

01. The Pictish Trail – Winter Home Disco (06.04)
02. Bonnie Prince Billy – Today I Started Celebrating Again (17.33)
03. Adam Beattie – Bank Street (22.12)
04. The Pictish Trail – I Will Pour It Down (34.37)
05. Judson Claiborne – Song For Dreaming (38.30)
06. Amadou & Mariam – Sabali (43.35)
07. Why? – The Song of the Sad Assassin (48.51)
08. The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (62.31)
09. Preston School of Industry – Walk of a Gurl (69.03)
10. The Pictish Trail – Won’t You Take Me Back (Lone Pigeon Cover) (76.42)

Thanks folks, hope you enjoyed that.

Ooh, the excitement.  I do like finding new things which get me excited and then gabbling giddily about them to my crowd of internet bunnies.

Inspector Tapehead played at last week’s Trampoline gig at the Wee Red Bar and were bloody marvelous.  It’s, erm, folky indie-pop I suppose, with chunks of bluegrass and electronica thrown into the mix.  Jonnie Common from Down the Tiny Steps plays in the band and his devilish box of tricks in pretty clearly in evidence.  The other two band members, Chris Croasdale on guitar and Roy Shearer on drums, used to be in Adam Beattie & the Consultants who have produced some amazing music, but have gone rather sadly quiet recently.  So there’s plenty of pedigree in this band, although you could hardly extrapolate their provenance from their sound.

There’s definitely some playful pop sensibilities in there.  In fact, for all the folk and electronica I guess describing these chaps as a somewhat experimental pop band might be the most accurate way to get across the feeling of their music.  Each song does build rather slowly and, in some senses, a little unpromisingly, but before a minute each has launched into whatever manic energy possesses it and danced off around the room, swinging you along with it.

These songs come from a 3 song album sampler given out at the gig, and from listening to this little lot I think I can pretty much guarantee at least one sale, over here in the Toad corner please.

Inspector Tapehead – Pherenzik Tear
Inspector Tapehead – I am Your Pedigree

The 28th Toadcast is all about the Fence Collective. People who read this site regularly must know them, I assume, but I’ve been intending to do this post for a while as they might be my favourite label in music at the moment.

After Kenny Anderson’s last band fell apart about ten years ago or more, he started releasing his own stuff on hand made CD-Rs under the name of King Creosote and between him and his brothers and some of the other local musicians he’d grown up with in Fife, a collective started to form which has grown and grown. Now, thanks to the spotlight cast their direction by Kenny’s brother Gordon’s involvement with The Beta Band and The Aliens, the success of King Creosote and James Yorkston, and the rising of KT Tunstall (also a Fence alumnus, believe it or not) Fence Records have turned into one of the most beloved record labels in the country.

And actually, I think their approach of building a community rather than just pimping product might just have the potential to make them one of the success stories of Music 2.0, although that’s another story. So this podcast is all about Fence Records and the bands I have discovered due to their hard work, and why I think they’re great. What an arse-kisser I’ve turned into.

(Warning: I’m drunker than I sound and there is way too much talking in this one.)

Toadcast #28 – The Fencecast

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01. Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra – Our Last Needle (03.17)
02. King Creosote – You’ve No Clue Do You (09.21)
03. James Yorkston & the Athletes – St. Patrick (16.33)
04. Art Pedro – Joanne (21.19)
05. MC Quake – It Feels Good to Be In Scotland (27.57)
06. Down the Tiny Steps – Handstand (36.44)
07. Adam Beattie – Bank Street (46.39)
08. Player Piano – Mercy (AC Mix) (49.35)
09. Candythief – A Good Day (56.47)
10. Rob St. John – Tipping In (60.06)
11. Adrian Crowley – Star of the Harbour (65.11)
12. Eagleowl – This is Not Your Lucky Day (67.47)
13. OLO Worms – Fingers & Thumbs (77.04)
14. HMS Ginafore – You Built a City Inside of Me (85.41)
15. Gummi Bako – She’s the Carrot & I’m the Stick (87.44)
16. The Pictish Trail – Words Fail Me Now (94.39)
17. Rich Amino – Chicken & Chips (99.02)
18. Sara Lowes – Uniform Days (104.22)
19. Magic Arm – Outdoor Games (108.11)
20. King Creosote – I’ll Fly By the Seat of My Pants (115.32)

Given Mrs. Toad and I shall be spending the weekend at the Fence Collective’s Homegame Festival in Fife I thought I might take the opportunity to mention some of the unsung heroes of their roster this week, so that I can rave about the new finds when I get back. They may be known for James Yorkston and King Creosote, but what about the smaller artists – the ones, to an extent, that make Fence Fence.

It is rare that I get much more than a non-commital shrug from Mrs. Toad about the music I play but last year, at our first Homegame, even she was excited about one act who stood head and shoulders above the others. So much so that, despite our rather tatty financial status*, we both agreed we shouldn’t leave Anstruther without the album. That chap was a fellow called Adam Beattie and he played an absolutely captivating set of blues-folk with the assistance of no more than an acoustic guitar accompanied by a double bass.

Now hooked up with a band called the Consultants, it’s difficult to tell what he’s up to at the moment. I’ve emailed him to ask, so I’ll let you know as soon as I find out anything.

Anyhow, digressions aside, the album is fantastic. It’s all typically introverted, thoughtful Glaswegian storytelling, mixed with a few rambling inner monologues. Something about his voice is really emotionally engaging, and at times he sounds like a slightly bluesier version of a young Tom Waits. Owners of The Early Years will know what I’m on about (you know me – any excuse whatsoever to mention Tom Waits). Adam’s not playing this year, it seems, which is a shame, but it’s worth finding out what this chap is up to – he’s a talented fella if you ask me.

Tom Waits – I’m Your Late Night Evening Prostitute
Adam Beattie – Lonesome Pigeon
Adam Beattie – Bank Street
Adam Beattie – Seabreeze

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*The reason for this is ludicrous actually. We went for a posh meal on the Friday and I ordered a bottle of red wine to accompany our fish as I don’t hold with all this red/white with such and such bollocks. I drink wine I like with food I like and if you think that is crass then you are a bit of a dick. Anyhow, when the waitress appeared, proffering a bottle of white instead, with exactly the same name, I thought I must have been mistaken about the colour of the wine and didn’t say anything. After all, we were both having fish, so a bit of white wasn’t going to hurt. On receiving a rather astronomical bill including a £75 bottle of fine white wine I thought I’d have a quick check of the wine list on the way out and discovered that I had actually ordered a red wine after all. There were two identically named bottles on the wine list – one a reasonably priced bottle of red and one a rather extravagantly priced white. The one time in my life I decide to actually keep my mouth shut for a change, and it costs us nearly fifty quid. Jesus, what an arse I felt!