I’ve been itching to do this podcast for a while, but only now got my arse in gear to do it: record a podcast straight from vinyl.  It’s a bit of a nuisance, because I have to switch back and forth from the mic, for the chatty bits, to the USB input for the records… oh never mind, you don’t care about my logistical hassles do you.

The nice thing about vinyl is that the playlist is not simply going to be an inbox dump of whatever new indie has arrived this week, simply because I don’t have all that much new music on vinyl.  Some, but not lots.

Also, the electicism factor is massively increased, partly because my vinyl collection is downright eccentric, and partly because the very act of leafing through completely unsorted piles of records seems to make me lots more likely to pick something absolutely random which fits with nothing else at all and really has no excuse being anywhere near a haircut indie try-hard hipster podcast.  Which is of course exactly what this is.

Direct download: Toadcast #157 – The Vinylcast

01. Windsor Davies & Don Estelle – Whispering Grass (from It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum) (00.29)
02. Eat Skull – Heaven’s Stranger (06.27)
03. The Shop Assistants – Safety Net (12.50)
04. Beat the Devil – Mr. Ray (15.14)
05. King Creosote – The Right Form (25.47)
06. Seefeel – Faults (34.12)
07. The Japanese War Effort – Ribbit (39.09)
08. Edna McGriff – The Fool (44.29)
09. Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Heart Like a Wheel (51.19)
10. Jimmie Lunceford & his Orchestra – Well Alright Then (62.43)

I discovered Beat the Devil, Shilpa Ray’s previous band, through the brilliant Cable & Tweed, which sadly no longer covers an awful lot of music these days but used to be pretty much my number one source for new music on the internet.

I was a bit gutted when Beat the Devil packed it in a couple of years ago, but it was made clear pretty much immediately that this was just a tactical shift for Shilpa Ray herself, rather than a retirement, so it basically became a case of waiting and seeing. I covered all this on this week’s podcast actually, but I did manage to do just a little too much waiting.  Basically, I took my eye of the ball quite a bit with this release, which actually came out back in July, although that’s just inevitable from time to time I guess.

This feels significantly different to Beat the Devil, certainly. It’s really fucking rock ‘n’ roll in many places, for example.  I’m Not Frigid is a fearsome little ditty, and one with lyrics which prompt that brilliant ‘hang on, she didn’t just sing what I thought she sang did she?’ double take.  Coward Cracked the Dawn is another ballsy one, and fucking great with it, but there are times when the more upbeat moments (Woman Sets Boyfriend on Fire for example) don’t really capture my imagination quite as well – too much shouting, and not enough of that brilliant combination of menacing accordion and Shilpa Ray’s stunning voice.

Nevertheless they keep the pace varying nicely, which is crucial for any record, and works very nicely here.  The sequencing is restrained though.  This is a band who always give you the impression that they could go completely mental, but they generally don’t which makes it all the more of a release when they do, and gives a distinct smoulder to the rest of the songs.

This stuff reminds me of all the female-fronted garage blues bands which were simmering away in Detroit around the time the White Stripes emerged – bands like the Detroit Cobras who played really old-fashioned music with the roughness and vitality of modern garage punk.  Although this is a little more rock ‘n’ roll influenced, I supposed, than the blues and soul which drove those bands, but there’s not much in it.

Ultimately, influences aside, I think it’s probably a combination of the power of Shilpa Ray’s voice and the pace of the music, which switches from tense to raging in the blink of an eye, which gives this record its emotional charisma.  Really good.

Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers – Beating St. Louis

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Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers – Coward Cracked the Dawn

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The Excast is so named because I am playing a lot of people’s former bands.  There’s Shane MacGowan’s Nipple Erectors, Phil Chevron’s Radiators, Shilpa Ray’s Beat the Devil and Billy Bragg’s Riff Raff.

I concentrate so much on new music these days that I often decide whether or not I like a band on the basis of a handful of demos, maybe a single, sometimes a debut EP, stuff like that.  And of course, bands don’t stumble into the world fully-formed, it takes some of them ages to become brilliant, and a lot of the time the initial forms of a band can be really strange, presumably because the people in question were still casting around a bit for their sound.

So there’s a bit of that here, but it’s not all that rigid a theme, and the playlist is a bit messy but, erm, well never mind.  There are some great songs, so enjoy!

Toadcast #96 – The Excast

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01. Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers – Beating St. Louis (04.07)
02. Beat the Devil – Plea Bargain (11.09)
03. Bright Eyes – Neely O’Hara (19.56)
04. Richard Hawley – Naked in Pitsmoor (26.16)
05. The Young Republic – The Alchemist (33.20)
06. Construction & Destruction – The Signal (41.24)
07. The Nipple Erectors – Nervous Wreck (48.34)
08. The Radiators – Walking Home Alone Again (50.39)
09. The Pogues – Lorca’s Novena (56.37)
10. Riff Raff – You Shaped House (63.33)

These chaps are just a half shade away from brilliance. It’s a small step, and they may yet take it, but it’s definitely still there nevertheless. Remember the height of the White Stripes Detroit Garage Blues fever a few years back, when groups like The Come Ons, The Soledad Brothers, The Dirtbombs, The Bellrays and The Detroit Cobras had a bit of a spell in the limelight? Well Beat the Devil, despite being from New York City, fit pretty nicely into that sort of area – angry, blues-punk guitars backing a woman with the sort of voice that could bring your house down around you if you were to turn it up too loud.

They have a mini album or long EP – at five tracks, which is it? – out at the moment, and I am pretty sure you’ll like this. On opener Plea Bargin Shilpa Ray really lets those lungs of hers out of the traps, but there are plenty of people out there with great voices. For me, the noirish atmospheres created by the ghostly harmonium and constant rumbling drum work are just as crucial to the success of this sound. Hearing stuff like this I desperately wish I was in New York and could actually go and see them play live – imagine that voice.

It lags slightly, just everso slightly, in the middle, but otherwise this is a perfectly executed little EP. It’s another one of those albums I wish I owned on vinyl so I could really make some noise with the bastard!

Beat the Devil – Plea Bargain
Beat the Devil – Green-Eyed Monster, Grey-Eyed Fool

website | hype | buy

Well, not from hell exactly, just so short it’s terrifying.  I need to meet some mates tonight, which is already arranged, I need to be at work most of the weekend for a presentation next week, we have some friends of ours visiting from Canada and we have to pretty much move out of our house so that builders can take it over for the next two months.  Even if the weekend was four days long I’d still be bloody struggling.

Fucketty doo-dah.  Ah well, at least I have tonight to get well leathered and stagger around all over the place like a six year old who’s been slipped a roofie at a cub scout jamboree.

Oh, and my stats engine for the podcast has finally updated to include the latest one, which has been downloaded loads of times – thanks guys.  Even without the swearing, imagine that!

And don’t ask me what that picture is, I have no fucking idea.  I searched Google Images for ‘too busy’ and that’s what came up on the first page.  Too busy for what I don’t know, but the mind boggles at the thought.  So to show just how too busy I am, here are a pile of groups I have been investigating or will be investigating or just don’t know what to do with yet.  It’s the Harassed Toad Mix Tape, I suppose.  Have a good weekend Toadlings.

Two from bands who sent me demos or albums that I wasn’t that keen on, but definitely liked some of their stuff:
Amasser website | Amasser -  Green Like the Sky
LoveLikeFire website | LoveLikeFire – Unlighted Shadow
Two more Campfires & Battlefields recommendations:
The Prids website | The Prids -  Shadow & Shadow Another group from Portland, would you believe!
Nina Nastasia & Jim White website | Nina Nastasia & Jim White – I’ve Been Out Walking I’ll definitely be buying this one soon, so expect a review to turn up at some point in the near future.
From the ever-excellent Cable & Tweed:
Beat the Devil website | Beat the Devil – Shine in Exile What a voice – like a more menacing version of the Detroit Cobras.
Definitely one for the future:
George Pringle website | George Pringle – Fellini For Prime Minister Odd, but strangely compelling.
And a couple of stray songs I am enjoying and will be investigating further if I ever find the time:
The Amateurs website | The Amateurs – Cool By Me For more, check 17 Seconds.[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/TheAmateurs-CoolByMe.mp3]
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin website | Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – Oregon Girl The coolest band name for ages and another reference to Oregon![audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/SomeoneStillLovesYouBorisYeltsin-OregonGirl.mp3]