Song, by Toad

I’ve been dancing rather coyly with Br’er’s music for the last few months, trying to get to the stage where I really could figure out quite what I made of it.  It’s tense, but not all that edgy, and can be beautiful, without ever being particularly pretty, and it is experimental but in more of an unsettling than a confrontational way.

It’s not that I intentionally try and pigeonhole music, although I suppose we all do it subconsciously, but it definitely took me a while to decide that with this stuff, I am just not that sure what I am listening to.  There are elements of chamber pop, of cinematic indie stuff, of darkly camp musical theatre, and of elaborate orchestration and plenty of other things none of which seem to end up asserting a defining character over the finished article to the extent that I would feel really comfortable trying to express what I think I’m listening to here. I mean, for Christ’s sake, there’s even some Gregorian Chanting in here, or something worryingly close.

In general I suppose it’s the theatre of the thing which grabs me the most.  It’s full of very disparate moments of high drama, all exaggerated to the point where most songs at some point have you raising an eyebrow, looking at the stereo, and thinking ‘what the fuck is this?’ with genuine curiosity.

Lyrically, I can’t make out much, to be honest, beyond to confirm the fact that the lyrical imagery seems to chime very much with the impression above: by turns theatrical, experimental, unsettling or flamboyant.  Like the rest of the album it’s weird enough that I still don’t know if I love it or might turn out to hate it, but I’m definitely fascinated by it and I do find myself playing it a lot, albeit with the same slightly puzzled look on my face most of the time.

Bre’er – Painted Lady

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Br’er – Centralia

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Website | More mp3s | Buy from Edible Onion

Woo hoo, it’s house gig day!  I am really looking forward to this.  The lineup is ace, it should be nice and busy and we can even open the windows in the lounge nowadays to air the place out, because it can get awfy toasty in our living room when it’s full of people.

Other than that, there will be recording happening in Toad Hall this weekend; lots of it. Tomorrow King Creosote and Animal Magic Tricks will be recording… er, something or other together, which sounds really promising.  And then on Sunday Neil and Pete will be recording the Meursault side of an Animal Magic Tricks and Meursault Split 10″ to be released later this year.  Actually, I don’t know if it’ll be under the name Meursault or just as Neil, because it’s only really him and Pete, the band’s new cellist, who will be involved.  I’ll have to ask about that.

Anyhew, I’m absolutely gasping for a pint.  I’ve been incredibly good at entirely cutting out midweek drinking for the last month or so, and for some reason this week I’ve come up against three or four occasions when I’ve really fancied a pint of an evening, but my resolve has held true and it won’t be until tonight that I can finally punish my liver with the wrath of a thousand scorned stalkers.

No Honeytrap Toad Session once again.  There’ll have to one more inbetweeny podcast, and then next week it will finally go up.  Then I’m down to one last one in the band – Shenandoah Davis – and the slate will finally be wiped clean.  The Honeytrap one is going to be brilliant, I think.  An editor’s nightmare, but bloody hilarious if I get it right.  There was drinking, there was comedy dancing, there were 80s singalongs.  It was an alcoholic trainwreck, basically.

So here we go with the Friday Fives, as shamelessly pinched from the Guardian Talkboards. This is the delurking amnesty, because things can seem a little cliquey in the comments here, because a lot of us know one another in real life (wait, what, like socialising but not on the internet – what madness is this?) so on Fridays all lurkers are encouraged to come out of the shadows and chip in with their five, whereafter the talking of utter pish may commence.

1. To which song do you feel compelled to do your most exaggerated and embarrassing comedy dancing?
2. Favourite movie singalong moment.
3. Worst movie singalong moment.
4. Best point-and-laugh comedy dancing moment.
5. Which song(s) do you know all or most of the lyrics to (and for the band people on this thread, no, ones you perform regularly do not count).

Here are some random things from my inbox which I am very much enjoying at the moment:

The Limes – Dead Furniture (Buy)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Khaya – Duet (Single Version) (Buy)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Br’er – Painted Lady (Buy)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Charles Bukowski – The Death of an Idiot (Buy)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

R.E.M. – Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.