Having spent the week driving Loch Lomond around the country I figured that some sort of driving-themed nonsense would be in order for this week’s podcast.

Driving music (NOT in the Top Gear sense) tends to stick in your head, probably because when listening to it there is nothing else to do but sit and absorb the whole album.  I know most musicians would probably blanche somewhat at the idea of having their work enjoyed over the thrum of wind noise, tyre noise and a grumbling engine, but a long drive is still probably one of the best places to listen to music.

Oh, and the ‘character’is supplied by all the fuckers outside having fun while I DO FUCKING WORK FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF YOU UNGRATEFUL INTERNET BASTARDS.  Erm, sorry.  I’m tired.

Toadcast #123 – The Drivecast

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01. The Twilight Sad – The Wrong Car (01.53)
02. Bear Driver – A Thousand Samurais (09.12)
03. The National – Terrible Love (14.37)
04. Band of Horses – Infinite Arms (19.11)
05. The Wedding Present – Drive (25.07)
06. The French Wives – Me vs Me (28.54)
07. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Davy’s on the Road Again (Live) (35.01)
08. Foon Yap – Gabriel Moody (41.49)
09. The Goodnight Loving Supper Club – The Pan (50.14)
10. The Men They Couldn’t Hang – A Map of Morocco (54.27)

I don’t know what I expected from this album, be it more of the same, a bit of a detour, softer, harder or angrier.  It has managed to not quite be it, though.  In fact I would go so far as to say that I am finding it very difficult to get any kind of handle on this album at all.

It’s very characteristic, that’s for sure, and doesn’t really stray that far from their well-established template.  Few bands do, of course, from one album to the next, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that this is more a gentle evolution that sudden swerve.  There was a mononous thump to early Horses stuff, however, which carried a kind of menace and is now almost entirely absent.  They had a sort of glittery, shimmery surface with a sense of deep-running foreboding, but that inner malaise seems to have seeped away from their music a little and it is the poorer for it.

In general though I am enjoying this album.  There are definitely a few soft-round-the-edges moments which I personally find a little lacking in bite, but there is also some cracking stuff here.  The hypnotic, Midlake meets early Interpol guitars are largely gone, though, and the overall vibe is a lot more relaxed, as if that frantic urge to make themselves heard had calmed down and they are a little more at ease with the world these days.

That doesn’t always make for the best music though – I mean, you could very easily and not unreasonably just dismiss it as ‘losing your edge’ – but I wouldn’t really level that accusation at this record.  Until Dilly.  I really, really do not like that song at all.  It’s part of a really downbeat triptych in the middle of the album which would be lovely, but for the really nasty FM pop-lite vibe of that song, which infects everything around it with the impression of squishy suburbia.  It distracts from the excellent title track and the lovely Evening Kitchen, and generally just seems to charicature the overall changes in atmosphere which seem to bog down Infinite Arms.

It’s an odd thing to get fixated upon, and I am probably being an idiot, but I am not convinced by this record, despite the fact that some of the songs are really good individually, and I find myself blaming the likes of Dilly and Blue Beard and Compliments and their sort, which just seem to highlight some of the things I wish the band hadn’t lost since their early records.  Because I suppose the ultimate question for me is whether or not, having bought their previous two albums, I honestly feel that I would rush out and buy this, and I am not sure that the answer is yes.  Factory and Laredo are ace, but I don’t think there is much of this that I would call compelling.  If these guys were an unknown band would this record be enough to get their name out there to a wider audience?  Well, maybe, but I do not think so.

Band of Horses – Factory
Band of Horses – Infinite Arms

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Ah, the embarrassment. What a fool I was, but such was the inevitability I can’t really feel all that ashamed. Basically, I bought my first record player since I was 17 about four hours before our housewarming party on Saturday, and you can imagine the rest. I’ve been so excited about this ever since I made the decision a couple of months ago, that I have accumulated a pretty decent stack of vinyl in the meantime, giving Scotland’s second hand shops a pretty good scouring, with plenty more to come.

So, having left my whole music collection on random through most of the party, due to not having enough time to throw together even the most rudimentary of playlists, I inevitably failed to resist the urge of old Stones singles, some Jam, some old Motown, something by The Beat, Elvis Costello and so on and so on. Of course, being a music nazi to begin with, and being all the more excited to play with my new toy, I was in no mood whatsoever to let anyone else play at all.

Unfortunately, most of my music is not party music, especially not my vinyl purchases, so inevitably as I got drunker and less concerned with everyone else, the music got more and more maudlin. Billy Bragg, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, James Yorkston, even Leonard Cohen may have made an appearance. It got to the point where I insisted on trying again and again to play a Bruce Springsteen record that clearly had something wrong with it.

The only saving grace was that I was so exhausted after working from 8am to 1am virtually all week to get the house ready and so drunk from quaffing at the sort of reckless pace that giddy relief brings that I passed out some time at, apparently, three or four in the morning (it may have been earlier – I was pretty wasted). This left the remaining heroes of booze a good two or three hours of uninterrupted access to my month and a half’s worth of music, and freedom was theirs at last!

What a fool. But I slept the sleep of the contented that night, I tell you!

Something I played really early on: Edith Piaf РMon L̩gionnaire
Something I was asked to play but I think I forgot. Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost
Something I probably played far too often: The Beat – Tears of a Clown

A little like Beirut, Band of Horses have released a superb ‘as you were’ follow-up to a hugely successful debut album.  Not much has changed here at all, in the sonic sense, although the songs are quieter for the most part and the overall atmosphere is a little more sombre than their previous effort.

I can’t tell you much about them that you don’t know already.  Their grand, sweeping brand of epic Southern rock ‘n’ roll is much the same as before, almost like a cross between Creedence Clearwater Revival and Lift to Experience, in a slightly odd way.  The quieter tracks have an almost gospel air to them, and the guitars, when they really hit them, chime like church bells.

Their slightly apocalyptic brand of indie rock gets downright dreamy and wistful on occasion, which is a nice counterpoint to tracks like Is There a Ghost.  Funnily enough they start with that song, which seems like an offering to their fans to ease them into the new, more contemplative Band of Horses.  It’s right off Everything All the Time, that one, but things change pretty quickly with Ode to LRC which is lovely, but never quite kicks off, despite threatening to do so on numerous occasions.  By the time you get to the lovely No-one’s Gonna Love You you know well and truly that you are dealing with a rather different animal.  Excellent stuff.

Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost
Band of Horses – No-one’s Gonna Love You

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There’s no real theme to this week’s podcast, but there’s plenty of splendid new music. Basically I felt so guilty about the crazy rant that the Pink Podcast descended into that I have tried to say as little as possible in this one.

I’m off to the End of the Road Festival this weekend, which is why I recorded an advance post, so you’ll be enjoying this while I’m away getting rained on. The lineup is just phenomenal actually, so it should be really quite a splendid weekend. Tim from the Daily Growl will be there, as will Jamie from the Runout Groove and I believe possibly Sweeping the Nation as well, so it may turn into quite a blog-in. Tragically, however, I will be without my Midget Companion. Mrs. Toad is away in Australia (jammy bitch) with work and doesn’t get back in time to come along, so I will be taking a book and enjoying the pleasure of my own company as best I can.

There was at least one inevitable balls-up though – when describing the Catherine Howe song I said ‘I can’t believe this is current – it sounds so old-fashioned!’ and I have since discovered that in fact it is a 2007 re-release of a 1971 record which may just explain that. In the process I also discovered that I am something of a fucking idiot.

So, End of the Road, and in the meantime, enjoy the podcast – Toad on his very best behaviour!

Toadcast #11 – Not Sure What This One’s About[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo11.mp3]

01. A.A. Bondy – Vice Rag (00.52)
02. White Rabbits – The Plot (03.39)
03. The Courteeners – Cavorting (08.19)
04. Alaska in Winter – Close Your Eyes/We Are Blind (11.46)
05. Beirut – Fork & Knife (La Fete) (18.32)
06. Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost (21.57)
07. Nathan Lawr & the Minotaurs – We Go Down (26.52)
08. David Dondero – Rothko Chapel (30.34)
09. Jackson C. Frank – Blues Run the Game (38.15)
10. Calexico – All the Pretty Horses (41.45)
11. Catherine Howe – In the Hot Summer (48.53)
12. Little Name – How to Swim & Live (53.31)
13. Emma Pollock – Adrenaline (56.36)
14. George Pringle – Fellini For Prime Minister (63.52)
15. Octoberman – By the Wayside (67.27)
16. The 1900s – When I Say Go (74.54)
17. (The Real) Tuesday Weld – Kix (79.44)