After enjoying the Vinylcast I recorded a couple of weeks ago, I’m afraid I wasn’t able to resist the temptation to come bacl to my record collection for this week’s podcast as well.  In fact, I think I can safely say that this is now something which is going to become a regular feature of Song, by Toad podcasts because… er, well just because it’s fun I suppose.

This week I went to the Shelter charity shop on our street and bought about half a dozen records: some Bessie Smith, Shirley Bassey, Ella Fitzgerald, Kid Thomas and his Algiers Stompers, and a couple of old Dylan records.

If I end up ever developing a taste for jazz I am pretty sure I will be able to trace it directly to a sense of misplaced nostalgia, and the charity shops of Scotland.  I am a long way from being a jazz fan, but there’s something so fitting about the crackle of vinyl on an old jazz record.  I never used to listen to this stuff as a kid, but for some reason I get a nostalgic feeling from listening to it now.

Direct download: Toadcast #159 – The Vinylcast 2

01. The Meteors – Wrecking Crew (00.22)
02. Kurt Vile – I Wanted Everything (07.16)
03. The Ad Libs – He Ain’t No Angel (15.01)
04. Tom Waits & Crystal Gale – Little Boy Blue (17.39)
05. The Velvet Underground – Stephanie Says (24.07)
06. U2 – Twilight (29.00)
07. Girls Names – Graveyard (33.19)
08. Rene – Destination: Mars (40.00)
09. Ambitious Tugboat – Age Rings (43.07)
10. Manners – My Will (48.27)
11. Otis Redding – Pain in My Heart (56.36)

There is a large part of me which looks at the nature of the Whitehaus Family Project and wonders why the Whitehaus Family Record isn’t complete shit.  It’s not though, it’s bloody brilliant.

The Whitehaus is an actual house in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts in the States which seems to be inhabited by a shifting cast of artists, musicians and almost any other creative type – between about eight and eighteen of them at any one time, apparently. The house itself is used as studio, performance space, recording studio and all sorts, and this is where the Whitehaus Family Record comes from.

Released on double vinyl, and now down to the last fifty or so copies, this is a compilation of tracks from artists associated with the project.  There is blurb here, where you can also buy the record, but whilst evocative it is not particularly informative. The whole thing can be streamed on Bandcamp though, which is generous of them.

The results are a splendid, eclectic mess, however.  The music ranges from lo-fi to folk to experimental to quirky pop and most places in between.  But if you’ll pardon my cynicism and bear with me while I explain myself, I am going to go back to the statement in the first paragraph: I am really impressed that this isn’t total shite.

Generally projects like this rely strongly on enthusiasm to maintain momentum.  A small handful of people need to care passionately about keeping it going, and they need to pick up the slack in the ebbs and flows of the interest of others – it’s the same with any cooperative enterprise.  You can’t afford to be too picky either, because real dedication is hard to come by, and it is not wise to go turning it down, but herein lies the problem.  There are a lot of well-meaning, hard-working, generous-spirited people out there with absolutely no talent whatsoever.

This sounds enormously mean-spirited, but it’s true.  There are always useless people whose infectious enthusiasm means you can’t ignore them, but whose actual ability is limited to say the least, and I have seen a lot of collectives or cooperatives of various kinds struggle with this issue.

Whatever it is that The Whitehaus Family are doing right, though, they are doing very right indeed because this is excellent.  It manages to be both eclectic and extremely consistent which is something I have never really seen in projects of this nature before, and I am massively impressed.  Only fifty or so left, remember.  Buy one!

The Great Valley – Lucky Me

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Rene – Destination: Mars

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Ambitious Tugboat – Age Rings

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