Song, by Toad

I remember interviewing the Silver Columns up at Homegame this year and their combination of seriousness and playfulness struck me quite strongly.  Whilst they came across as enjoying themselves hugely, and their approach to the songwriting process seemed light-hearted and not in any way precious, there was a definite undercurrent of something a little more focussed there.  They are not, in other words, just arsing around.

Generally, I don’t think discussion of their previous work is really applicable or relevant, but I think that if there is one area where it is actually appropriate to discuss the folkier background of Adem and Johnny it is this one: you know that the actual underlying songwriting is going to be of a certain standard, and we already know for sure that both guys know how to put together an album.

I am not always all that keen on electro-pop, and disco-related stuff generally doesn’t tickle my fancy all that much either, so I was not certain what I was going to make of this, to be honest.  And true to form, by the time this album builds to its central climax – the brilliant Brow Beaten – I am just that: a little brow-beaten by the constant thud of the beats, despite loving songs like Cavalier.

The comedown after that track is palpable, and song like Columns and the brilliant Warm Welcome let you sink back into your seat and draw breath a little, before things kick back in with It Is Still You.  The thing is, I still think of this particular style of music (little as I admittedly know about it) as being more about singles, EPs, remixes and one-off moments than actual albums.  Even with this one, where I love a lot of the songs and I can clearly see the thought and effort that has gone into constructing a coherent record, it still feels a little bit like the right material delivered through the wrong medium.

Nevertheless, there is loads of stuff I love here, and plenty of these songs will be on compilations, playlists and in DJ sets for a very long time to come.

Silver Columns – Cavalier

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Silver Columns – A Warm Welcome

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Homegame this year was a distinctly danceable affair for me.  Not that I did dance (I wasn’t that drunk) but the bands I enjoyed the most were the ones like Findo Gask and Django Django who are most definitely very friendly to those of the dancing persuasion.  I had to miss Silver fucking Columns though, because it clashed with the Cold Seeds gig which, being a record released on our label, I really had to attend.

Homegame was in fact the first ever Silver Columns gig, and Johnny and Adem were nice enough to sit down with us on the morning of the show, give us a cup of tea* and chat a bit about their new project.  Listening to the live footage, I think this is going to be a cracking album.  I know I’m much more into my whiney folk at the moment, but stuff like this serves to remind me that my Mum raised us with Erasure, ABC, Bronski Beat, Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, so it’s not like infectious dancefloor electro-pop is a massive stranger to my ears.

Many thanks are due to Dylan for filming both the interview and the gig.  The title shots for each video are taken from his photos from the gig, the full set of which can be found over at Blueback Hotrod.

*Alright, it was Lapsang Souching with milk, but I appreciate the thought.

We’re in Anstruther this weekend for Homegame, and so we got incredibly pissed late at night and recorded a podcast for you all, just as a special extra Sunday Supplement.

This should give you a taste of our Homegame fun and, sadly, also an idea of just how much of a wreck we all make of ourselves in Fife once a year.
Honestly, this is my favourite festival in the fucking universe, possibly only equalled by Pickathon, which is incredibl e.

Toadcast #113 – The Anstercast

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01.Withered Hand – No Cigarettes (01.34)
02.Silver Columns – Yes and Dance (Silver Columns Remix) (08.31)
03.Findo Gask – Wrapped in Plastic (Live) (14.00)
04.Adem – Everything You Need (20.02)
05.Django Django – Love’s Dart (29.52)
06.FOUND – Freaky Freaky Chancer (33.37)
07.Cold Seeds – The Perfume of Mexican Birds (43.43)
08.Love.Stop.Repeat – The Ghost of What You Used to Be (50.52)
09.FOUND & eagleowl – Some R. Kelly Cover (58.52)

This morning I have no plans.  Nothing to do, no gigs, no chores, no work to do on the house, nothing – it’s great.  I’ve been outside to the garden and had a potter… actually, let me tell you about our garden.  It’s some rock ‘n’ roll shit, babies, seriously.

When we moved into our house our back garden was basically a courtyard.  I have always had lots of plants and my family is full of gardeners, so we saw that courtyard and had only one thought on our minds.  So we bought a ton of compost and a sledgehammer and, of the course of last Summer, took up slabs one at a time, dug in some good stuff and started to take it back.

It’s been a bit backbreaking, but quite fun wielding the sledgehammer, and now we have a couple of pretty decent sized beds and what’s left of the patio in the middle.  It was mostly planted last year with very young plants, largely ordered from internet nurseries, so there’s a lot of bare earth.  Everything’s had a year to bed in and put down some roots though, so this year we’re hoping for a bit more in terms of growth – we reckon we might just have a proper garden.

So every weekend for the past month we’ve woken up on Saturday morning, poured some coffee and wandered out into the back to peer and prod at our ever-increasing number of little shoots and buds.  There’s something so exciting and satisfying about this time of year in a garden.  All the dea, brown stuff starts to sprout tight-wound little buds of new life, and the whole thing just promises so much.

We’ve not done it the right way at all, in the sense that we haven’t planned it properly and we have no real idea what we’ve put in where, but that doesn’t matter.  We’ll see what we get this year and tinker as we go along.  It’s just nice.  There’s something so relaxing about shuffling around the garden with a cup of coffee gazing at the exact same stuff you stared at last week.   I’ll take some pictures this year and post them so you can see what I’m on about.  It’s not all coke and hookers in the world of rock ‘n’ roll, you know.

So, erm, what songs go with that, then?  Saturday afternoon music, I suppose.  You know what I mean: cup of tea, pyjamas, slightly weak March sunshine, flicking through a book, but not really paying much attention.  Bliss.

The Mountain Goats – You Or Your Memory
The Mabuses – Dark Star
The Smiths – Frankly, Mr. Shankly[
(The Real) Tuesday Weld – At the House of the Clerkenwell Kid
The Innocence Mission – I Haven’t Seen This Day Before (Live)
Adem – Everything You Need