Whenever people discuss landmines they always show you pictures, either of the device itself, which is a harmless enough looking tin can, or they show you ‘plucky survivors’ with nicely sealed stumps and big grins – people who are presumably just happy not to be dead.  You don’t see a lot of the destroyed bodies of the people who are victims to these things – which is to say that because people seem to want to show us stories of courage in the face of adversity, we seem to miss out on understanding just how many human souls we utterly destroy when we discard the rules of normal everyday life.

The results of the American and British genocide in Iraq have been bad enough, but the US still refuses to sign up to an international ban on landmines and cluster munitions.  Between that and their continued insistence that they should have the right to torture people and imprison them without trial, I don’t think there’s very much argument that lobbying to try and limit the brutality represented by the picture above is needed.  Press release follows:

The Plug Five Project is a new non-profit initiative to promote the work of the anti-landmine charity MAG (Mines Advisory Group). Each month, the most blogged about bands will curate a new edition of Plug Five, a secret email-blog of recommendations, which will be delivered into email inboxes around the world at exactly 1pm on the last friday of every month – Blogs Not Bombs Day.

Issue 01 of Plug Five will include band and artist recommendations from John Vanderslice, Wavves, A Hawk and Hacksaw, Om (Emil Amos), Woods, King Creosote, Crystal Stilts, Imaad Wasif and many more.

As part of an effort to clear an area the size of San Francisco of landmines, guest bloggers are also offering up their current recommendations of bands and artists. Issue 01 will include contributions from Largehearted Boy, Culture Bully, PIXELHORSE, the Culture of Me and of course Song, by Toad.

Subscribers can also look forward to some exciting new plans being developed for the Plug Five Project, including a foray into the worlds of film and literature, collecting secret recommendations from its leading lights. In addition, readers should watch this space for a unique competition to win a signed 1973 LP recording of Charles Bukowski live in San Francisco, exclusively open to Plug Five subscribers.

To obtain the secret link for Plug Five, go to http://plugfiveproject.tumblr.com where you will be instructed on the next steps.

I know that was a bit spammy, but apart from drinking beer and having fun I don’t think we really make much of a contribution to the world around here, so please sign up and help out.

And apart from that, this is the Friday Five of course.  So I am either in Paris with Mrs. Toad fucking out two weeks of tension brought on by geographical deprivation, or alternatively I am sat in Edinburgh fucking airport gnashing my teeth and slowly going crazy.  So delurk and introduce yourselves, and chip in with your five.  Lurking is all well and good, but there’s no real point in the long run, is there.

1. What will next year’s bear/crystal/fuck/wolf band word be? Please give an example.
2. Favourite river.
3. Favourite soap opera.
4. Foreign accent you mimic far more often than you really should.
5. Favourite sandwich.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Every Night I Die at Miyagi’s

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Scout Niblett – Ruler of My Heart

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The Blue Aeroplanes – Big Sky

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Mark Lanegan – Nothin’ in the World Can Stop Me Worryin’ ‘Bout That Girl

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Pink Mountaintops – Plastic Man, You’re the Devil

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Wow. This was a tough one. I didn’t know which songs to leave off.

During my time on the bridge of the Starship Toad, I’ve been pushing my luck a little bit by including three songs in my posts instead of Matthew’s usual two. This is just because I’m an indecisive bugger. Never go to dinner with me if you want to order in a hurry.

So I was utterly at a loss when trying to decide which songs to leave off my post for The Blue Aeroplanes’ 1990 masterpiece; Swagger; the second of my ever so self-indulgent ‘Milestones’ series, and the album that first suggested to me I might be interested in music slightly off the beaten path.

Nevertheless, I eventually whittled the album down to three songs. Although I’ve cheated there too, but more of that later*. Let’s start with the some of the gems that didn’t make the cut.

For some reason I haven’t included the album’s stunning opener Jacket Hangs. It really is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in the side one, track one position. It’s up there with REM’s Begin The Begin from Lifes Rich Pageant. First to arrive are the heavy, low, overdriven notes of the nagging guitar riff that drives the song along. Then, for the first time, we hear Gerard Langley’s unusual, staccato but rhythmic spoken-word delivery. “Pick a card..” Langley suggests, “Any card”, then the drums explode to life to the singer’s triumphant announcement: “Wrong!” This is a song heavy enough to have been wrought in a foundry, but with a deftness of touch in the guitar work and a shuffling groove to the rhythm. It’s fantastic. And I left it off.

What It Is is another that didn’t make the cut. It’s a dark, brooding number. Guitar riffs glow and glimmer and pass in the darkness. Langley’s vocal performance swings from the louche to the tortured and back. It’s terrifying and wonderful. For fuck’s sake; this song has Michael fucking Stipe on backing vocals and I didn’t include it here! What am I thinking?

I left off one of Rodney Allen’s best efforts; Careful Boy. Allen played guitar in The Blue Aeroplanes, and was about 16 years old when Swagger came out. He was also a fine songwriter in his own right, and regularly throughout the band’s career, Gerard Langley would take a backseat for a song or two here and there, and allow Allen to take the spotlight; Allen’s sweet singing voice juxtaposing with Langley’s spoken incantations. Unfortunately you won’t get to hear Rodney Allen today, and that’s a shame.

I could go on and talk about World View Blue‘s engaging stop-start chorus, or the eerie pagan folk sorcery of Cat Scan Hist’ry, or even the cheerful rock n’ roll of Love Come Round. All fine songs and deserving of a place here.

So what did make it? Well, these three. And bloody hell, they’re good.

The Blue Aeroplanes – Anti-Pretty
The Blue Aeroplanes – Your Ages
The Blue Aeroplanes – Weightless …And Stones

*Weightless and …And Stones are actually two songs, but they join up in the middle. So they’re one song really. Kind of. It’s worth giving me a little bit of leeway here so you can get to hear the bit where they join up, and the astonishing guitar work that links the two songs together. The guitarist is a chap called Angelo Bruschini. I think he’s nearly as good as Newton Faulkner.

Milestones # 1: Milltown Brothers – Slinky

Milestones # 3: James – Laid