I seem to have two modes of sleep it seems – well rested and relatively funtional.  As I discovered over Christmas, I can happily sleep for about ten hours a night if possible, and I feel rested and chipper and happy.  That was great.  Oh how I miss those heady days – bed at one, pished, up by ooh, nearly noon just in time for lunch.  That was special.  I actually woke up in the morning of Monday 4th to come back to work and experienced a stunning sensation: I actually felt okay.  It wasn’t even a wrench to actually wake up!

This morning I experienced something similar.  It seems that I have a more commonplace sleep pattern as well – one which is not ideal, but with which I can live quite happily: six hours.  When the blog and the label are going full pelt I tend to go to sleep either exhausted or pished – working until the very small hours or, alternatively, taking the opportunity to blow off some steam.  This means a lot of three and four hour nights, which takes its toll on you, really it does.  Then there are times when I make a point of going to bed early and getting seven or eight hours and you know what? It doesn’t help.

What does seem to do the trick is six hours.  It’s not ideal, but I just seem to wake up feeling a bit shagged but basically alright – like this morning – and it seems to be a pretty consistent phenomenon.  Apparently this is thought to be largely down to the natural sleep cycle of your body – we all have one and they are all slightly different.  It seems that about six and a half hours kind of suits me, for some reason.

I don’t know much about this, but apparently there are theories that a lot of insomnia might be linked to the differences between the world’s twenty-four cycle and a person’s natural cycle, which may be twenty-two hours, or twenty-five and a half or whatever, and sometimes the two cycles interact incredibly disruptively, making it difficult for insomniacs to to find a sleep cycle which interacts positively with their body’s natural cycle.  So it’s not a problem with sleeping, exactly, more a disruptive interaction of the two frequencies, which can be very interesting mathematics in itself.  None of this, as is presumably evident, is anything I know much about, but I read about it once in a book and found it all very interesting.  Feel free to tell me I’m talking shit in the comments of course, because it’s quite possible, but make sure and do your five first because that’s the rules.

So, erm, not quite sure how that leads into five silly questions to invite the lurkers out of the shadows, but here goes…

1. When do you get your best lie-ins?
2. Strangest place you’ve ever had a night’s sleep.
3. Most inappropriate sleeping you’ve ever managed.
4. Longest time you’ve managed without sleep.
5. Last interesting science stuff you read about.  Nothing ‘sciencey’ like the Daily Mail and their ‘official saddest day of the year, as sponsored by shitey travel agents though please.  I am tipping Becky to win this one.

The Boo Radleys – Martin, Doom! It’s Seven O’Clock

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Ben Folds Five – Narcolepsy

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Bonnie Prince Billy – Cursed Sleep

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Dan of Green Gables – Nothing Could Stop You From Sleeping Tonight

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The Beatles – I’m So Tired

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Yes, we’re back on the air with a somewhat hastily arranged programme.  I somehow managed to only realise on Monday that this show would be going out today, so we haven’t been all that big on preparation this week, I’m afraid.

There’s a slightly new format to the show this year, in that I will be joined on every broadcast by Ruth from the Bowery, and that there will be a live session performance from a band of our choice every week as well, with the video of this performance going up in the post for the following week’s show.

On air 7pm-8.30pm GMT – listen here.

This week we will be joined by Edinburgh newcomer Thomas Western, who has only just moved up here and is just starting to introduce himself to the local music scene.  He’ll be playing a few songs – maybe three or so, depending on time – picking some tunes and talking pish with Ruth and myself.

The tracklisting will appear below and be updated live during the show, so feel free to add abuse and nonsense in the comments.  Like you ever need asking…

1. The Walkmen – The New Year
2. Thomas Western – Live session track so new it’s not been named yet!
3. Jesus H. Foxx – Elegy For the Good Times
4. The Builders & the Butchers – Down to the River
5. Bonnie Prince Billy – The World’s Greatest
6. Thomas Western – The Worm Forgives the Plough (Live in Session)
7. Diamond Rings – All Yr Songs
8. The National – Fake Empire
9. The Douglas Firs – Grow Old and Go Home
10. Daniel Johnston – Walking the Cow
11. Thomas Western – Don’t Talk (Put Your Hand On My Shoulder) (Live in Session)
12. The Oldham Brothers – Wouldn’t It Be Nice (Beach Boys Cover)
13. Thomas Western – Your Front Door (Live in Session)
14. Meursault – William Henry Miller Pt. 2 (Vinyl Version)

This podcast is a little bit random, I have to say.  There are songs which follow on from the like folk/hate covers posts which have appeared over the course of the last week or so on the site, a couple are related to the fact that Mrs. Toad is once more away in God Bless America shooting illegal aliens, chewing gum, whistling Dixie, or whatever the fuck it is they do over there, while most of the first half is related to the fact that my friend Andrew is coming to visit this weekend.

They do sort of relate to one another, the songs, at least.  Or there’s a bit of overlap anyway.  I never keep much track of it, but this is at least the second version of Blues Run the Game we’ve had on the podcasts, and I have no idea if I’ve ever actually repeated a song on these things.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I had, because I’m bloody disorganised when it comes to this kind of thing.

Anyhow, no scary metal bastards making your ears bleed this week, just a lot of lovely folky stuff and a couple of scratchy indie bands.  Oh, and Jack White.  I’d say that he was an egomaniacal dick, but he’s massive and would probably kick my arse, so I won’t.  Recent stuttering aside, though, he’s produced some cracking tunes, whatever you think of the guy.

Toadcast #92 – The Pantscast

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01. Soul Asylum – New World (04.17)
02. The Tragically Hip – Pigeon Camera (10.29)
03. Beck – Guess I’m Doing Fine (14.47)
04. The White Stripes – I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself (24.46)
05. Elbow – Fugitive Motel (29.57)
06. Billy Bragg – Wishing the Days Away (Alternative Version) (34.53)
07. Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy – Thunder Road (43.15)
08. Christopher Bell – Pretty Thing (53.53)
09. Nick Drake – Blues Run the Game (55.33)
10. Fairport Convention – Crazy Man Michael (60.52)

Yes, that’s right, it’s Blue Peter weekend at Toad Hall this weekend.  Not in the kiddie fiddling, coke snorting, hard drinking sort of way (well, not all of them anyway) but in the stickyback plastic, here’s one I prepared earlier sort of manner.

What crafts, you ask?  Well the Meursault singles are being recorded in the living room for starters.  But while all that’s happening, the rest of us will be in the dining room with felt tips and hot glue guns doing the following things: painting and folding the Jesus H. Foxx EPs, which arrive today; painting, shading and titling the next run of Nothing Broke, which sold out last week; adding a little colour to the Builders & the Butchers/Loch Lomond Split 12″ vinyl covers; and finally, folding the inlays for ninety Song, by Toad Records Samplers for the Avalanche Album Club.  They are going to look brilliant, so it’s a shame we’ll be giving them all away.  I’d like to sell them on the site, but divvying up the money between twelve bands would be a pretty considerable pain in the arse, so I don’t think I’ll bother.

So, I am still up do my puckered anus in Proper Job, but there is a fine meal down at the Shore waiting for me this evening, with the light of my misspent and wayward life, the beautiful Mrs. Toad.  I am very much looking forward to that.

This weekend’s podcast and Sunday Supplement will be coming from Ruth, who runs the Bowery with her friend Jane.  After being turned into a Magner’s trough during the Festival, The Bowery is reopening on Monday 7th, so this is rather good timing.  I for one will be grateful to have it back, not least because the Jesus H. Foxx EP launch is being held there on Saturday 12th September, assuming the paint has dried on all the covers by then!

1. Last really Blue Petery handcraft thingy you did.
2. Did you make your own Christmas cards when you were a kid too?
3. Favourite kids TV programme which encouraged you to do things other than TV (and no, teenage pregnancy and experimenting with hard drugs do not count, so Grange Hill is forbidden – let’s maintain some innocence here please, people).
4. Most surreal kids’ TV programme you watched.
5. At what stage in the computer revolution did your childhood generally occur?

Jay Farrar – Cahokian

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Howe Gelb – Felonious

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Jim White – Christmas Day

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Kelly Joe Phelps – Taylor John

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Bonnie Prince Billy – Wolf Among Wolves

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Well, only if you are Nicolas Cage.  And actually, if you were Nicolas Cage, then some of the films you have made in the last ten years or so might well merit a rampaging witch-hunt by some of the more embittered members of the acting community as you comically jam your two facial expressions (grim determination and spastic incomprehension) into one tedious, one-dimensional character after another for millions of dollars in reward, while they subsist on the breadline only by waiting table and selling their tender little chocolate blossoms in the backstreets for an insulting pittance.

Actually, maybe Song, by Toad should be looking to start some sort of ‘Burn Nicolas Cage campaign’.  It would be a righteous mission and I think we could get a lot of people on board.

Erm, not sure how that started.  Oh yes, Wickerman.  Myself, Mrs. Toad and several of Scotland’s finest young bands will be heading down to the Wickerman Festival this weekend (that’s why I was thinking of burning Nicolas Cage).  I am trying not to work too hard, so I haven’t arranged an awful lot of interviews, and I will not be taking the video camera with me.

What I will try and do though is record a podcast, or maybe two, while we’re there.  I’ll be taking our wee Tascam voice recorder and my Blue Snowflake microphone and will try and get some bits and pieces from the bands and some chat and so on and upload it all on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  I have no idea about the press facilities though, so god knows how successful this little plan is likely to be.  If it all fails, I will simply upload a podcast on Sunday afternoon when we get back.  So you’ll have to wait, but it will happen, promise.

In the meantime let’s get Five-tastic… no, sorry, that’s a disgraceful turn of phrase, I can’t countenance that sort of garbage.  Come on then, spit out your Friday Fives and remember that Fridays are de-lurking amnesties, open to all and sundry and especially encouraged for those who have never commented before.  Could this be your day?  Go on, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

1. Most hated pointless remake of a classic film.
2. Mostly guiltily loved pointless remake of a classic film (no, Star Wars as a remake of The Fortress does not count).
3. Favourite Nic Cage film.
4. Most abysmal Nic Cage film.
(I’ll even help you with those – no need to know much, or even to care, just click here.)
5.Name another wooden beefcake actor who irritates the living shit out of you.

Is this post sexist?

Bonnie Prince Billy (fuck his fucking quotation marks) – You Will Miss Me When I Burn

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Sargasso Trio – It’s Hot in Hell

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Bruce Springsteen – I’m On Fire

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The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Hellfire & Damnation

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Fortunately, the festival will be over by Sunday, but rain is never a bad bet in Scotland:
The Groove Farm – It Always Rains on Sunday

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People do not seem to love this album very much, and I am slightly surprised.  Mind you, I am no more than a casual Bonnie Prince Billy fan, so I guess I just take his albums lightly, pop ‘em on the stereo and see what I enjoy.  In this case, I’d say, the answer is ‘most of it’.

Maybe it’s because I have no great emotional attachment to most of his previous stuff that I can allow the cod-Country-Gospel to wash over me without being too bothered, because there are some moments of fairly heavy-handed pastiche on this album.  If, however, you accept the change of tone – it’s positively Playschool compared to the glacial stillness of Master & Everyone – then this is an enjoyable record.

I can see why it is disliked though.  Various red flag instruments, including bongos and a saxophone, make appearances in quite a few places, and the arrangements are never restrained enough to allow the songs to breathe properly.  I’d be very interested to hear this record played with a minimal band, to see how the songs stand up.  As it is, it’s almost impossible to tease them out.

But, all that aside, if you want a lovely, melodic alt-country album to wash over you and enjoy then this will do the trick nicely.  I would rather he not continue too much further down this particular path, but at the moment I am quite happy to go along and see where he gets to.

Bonnie Prince Billy – My Life’s Work

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Bonnie Prince Billy – I Won’t Ask Again

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Website | More mp3s | Buy from Amazon

This Toad Session has been a wee while coming, but frankly I think it’s fucking superb.  The videos have turned out wonderfully, Neil and Gav have done an amazing job with the sound, Fee and Dylan have taken some great photos.  I’m happy as a pig in shit, quite frankly.  Johnny Lynch (Mr. Pictish Trail) had plenty of time to kill, so we drank some beer, took our time and talked a monumental amount of shite.  The podcast is really strong this time around, I think.  We talk a lot but I think it’s pretty decent stuff for the most part, not random blather, so I really think it should be an enjoyable listen.  Hopefully, anyway.

Johnny picked really nice songs, too.  He’s recorded a couple of unreleased ones, and a Lone Pigeon cover, as well as his Top of the Pops hit single Winter Home Disco.  It makes for a really nice mix.  As per usual the songs are all available for downloading, hotlinking and sharing around, the videos can be watched below, on our YouTube (yeuch) page or our Vimeo page, and the photos are all to be seen as a slideshow here or on the general Song, by Toad Flickr page here.  Go to Blueback Hotrod for more of Dylan’s live music photography.  And enjoy the podcast – it can be played below, and the tracklisting is at the bottom of the page.  I’m really proud of this, people, so I hope you enjoy it.

Toadcast #62 – The Pictish Trail Toad Session

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The Pictish Trail – Winter Home Disco (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – I Will Pour it Down (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – Won’t You Take Me Back (Lone Pigeon Cover) (Toad Session)

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And now the videos, starting with the overall session video, and then the ones we made for the individual songs:

01. The Pictish Trail – Winter Home Disco (06.04)
02. Bonnie Prince Billy – Today I Started Celebrating Again (17.33)
03. Adam Beattie – Bank Street (22.12)
04. The Pictish Trail – I Will Pour It Down (34.37)
05. Judson Claiborne – Song For Dreaming (38.30)
06. Amadou & Mariam – Sabali (43.35)
07. Why? – The Song of the Sad Assassin (48.51)
08. The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (62.31)
09. Preston School of Industry – Walk of a Gurl (69.03)
10. The Pictish Trail – Won’t You Take Me Back (Lone Pigeon Cover) (76.42)

Thanks folks, hope you enjoyed that.

Fear not, this isn’t quite as horribly overbearing as it could have been. The ranting is actually fairly under control, and the self-important pontificating not quite as reckless as it could so easily have been, partly because I wasn’t quite as liberal with the gin as I have been in the past.

The reason it’s called the Popecast is because of this amazing little story about Catholics in the States issuing death threats to a kid who took a communion wafer out of the church with him.  The hilarious PZ Myers then got involved, threatening to show them what real desecration would look like, and the pandemonium reached all new levels of shrillness.

The thing that really got my goat about all this was not so much that Catholics took offence, but more the level of the hysteria and the language of persecution.  It was honestly described as kidnapping and as a hate crime by various loonies, and there was nothing like enough ‘Oh fucking grow up and get the fuck over it’ being said.  People seem to be seeking all sorts of odd legal protections for their crazy superstitions these days, and I am flabberghasted that a particular kind of idea is being so fucking mollycoddled as to be deemed immune from criticism and contempt.  Come on, people, fuck your religious convictions and learn to deal with the fact that most of the planet thinks they’re crazy – and that applies to atheists as well.

Anyhow, I promise this doesn’t take over too much of the podcast, and that the music is given plenty of space to breathe.

Toadcast #33 – The Popecast

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01. Half Man Half Biscuit – Vatican Broadside (00.07)
02. Beck – Profanity Prayers (02.27)
03. Punch & the Apostles – Nouveau Gypsy (10.20)
04. I Said Yes – The Town Crier (15.07)
05. Albert Hammond Jr. – GFC (20.47)
06. Bonnie Prince Billy – So Everyone (23.51)
07. Tom Lehrer – Vatican Rag (33.53)
08. The Savings & Loan – Catholic Boys in the Rain (37.12)
09. Derek Meins – The Gin Song (42.57)
10. Holly Golightly & the Broke-Offs – Devil Do (48.47)
11. Ghostkeeper – Solid Gold (56.02)
12. Forest Fire – Fortune Teller (60.44)
13. Silver Jews – Strange Victory, Strange Defeat (70.22)
14. Sparrow & the Workshop – Magic Tricks (77.55)
15. The Just Joans – Hey Boy, You’re Oh So Sensitive (79.43)
16. Roy Zimmerman – Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual (85.41)
17. Willard Grant Conspiracy – Evening Mass (97.16)

And just for the fun, here are the two silly songs for you to download:
Tom Lehrer – Vatican Rag[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/TheVaticanRag.mp3]
Roy Zimmerman – Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/RoyZimmerman-TedHaggardIsCompletelyHeterosexual.mp3]

Well, after the genius of The Letting Go, I’ll admit that my hopes were very high for this album.  I wouldn’t say they’ve exactly been fulfilled though, and it might be possible that Mr. Oldham has gone just a little bit too pop.  The Letting Go, from 2006, took earlier ultra-hushed work like Master & Everyone and gave it a looser, more melodic, hook-laden working over.

This time around the jauntiness seems to slightly derail the beauty of Oldham’s usual songwriting.  There’s nothing wrong with any of it exactly, just that as the songs take off and start to flit and dance around, playing with muted brass and careful harmonies, they tend to forget to take the listener with them.

I don’t know how else to put it – it’s all there and all in the right places, but somehow I am constantly finding myself left behind as the song pulls off into the distance.  Some of it is just plain gorgeous of course – with Will Oldham how could it not be – with So Everyone my personal favourite, highlighted by a wonderfully equivocal duet that rises to a question and then disappears before furnishing an answer.  There are plenty more moments like this as well, and I would never say that there aren’t any great bits to be found, it’s just that generally I don’t seem to be following where it is leading.

Bonnie Prince Billy – So Everyone
Bonnie Prince Billy – For Every Field There’s a Mole

Website | More mp3s | Buy from Amazon

Hello and welcome back to the Toad Sessions. I was a little drunk when I noticed that Alela Diane was playing in Edinburgh as part of the Triptych Festival, so the idea of emailing her label and inviting her to do a Toad Session didn’t seem quite so preposterous. In the morning, I thought I was mad and would be laughed at, but amazingly they agreed, and now here it is.

This one was also recorded by Nick at Bananarow and he’s done another amazing job – the songs sound absolutely gorgeous. Dylan’s pictures can be found at the Flickr page, and we have some more videos at the Song, by Toad YouTube page. Here’s the interview podcast, with the tracklisting at the bottom of the page.

Toadcast #30 – Alela Diane & Mariee Sioux Toad Session

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Here are the sessions tracks themselves. The Cuckoo is a traditional song, and Dry Grass & the Shadows is from Alela’s new album which should hopefully be out later this year. Mariee’s songs are Flowers & Blood from her recent album Faces in the Rocks, whereas the gorgeous Icarus Eye is an old song from a home release.

Alela Diane – Dry Grass & the Shadows

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Alela Diane – The Cuckoo

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Mariee Sioux – The Icarus Eye

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Mariee Sioux – Flowers & Blood

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Here are the videos, all hosted at the YouTube page. Again, the interview is going to have to go up later because I seem to have entirely lost Morgan, my resident editing expert, so I’ve had to cobble these things together myself. I am going to work on the interview movies as best I can, so they should hopefully be available in a week or two.

01. Alela Diane – Dry Grass & the Shadows (Toad Session) (04.51)
02. The Shaky Hands – Summer’s Life (08.36)
03. Johnny Cash – I See a Darkness (11.45)
04. The Holy Modal Rounders – Hesitation Blues (20.42)
05. Neutral Milk Hotel – The Communist’s Daughter (24.10)
06. Mariee Sioux – Flowers & Blood (Toad Session) (26.07)
07. Hem – Half Acre (32.29)
08. Bonnie Prince Billy – No Bad News (41.41)
09. Willard Grant Conspiracy – Twistification (46.05)
10. Vashti Bunyan – Glow Worms (53.35)
11. Mariee Sioux – The Icarus Eye (Toad Session) (58.10)
12. Alela Diane – The Cuckoo (Toad Session) (62.56)

Well I hope you like these. The next session is going to be with local band Meursault, and will be the first one to be recorded in Toad Hall. Very exciting!