Not of course, given the business I work in, like I can’t fill it up to the brim again in a second of course. I mean, there’s the Rob St. John and Ian Humberstone as well as the All Creatures Will Make Merry vinyl artwork to finalise of course.  But that can, realistically, wait until Monday.  I think.

So that leaves me with tomorrow and nothing to do but hang out with Mrs. Toad.  The house has been so hectic with guests, and with the Festival August might well be worse, that at least one day to spend just by ourselves will be a bloody relief.

Then on Sunday I am pottering through to Glasgow for Jonnie Common’s album launch. His new record Master of None was within a whisker of being on Song, by Toad Records actually, but we didn’t move fast enough (damn you holidays!) and also didn’t really have the money to press vinyl either.  Also the record label who did end up releasing – Manchester’s Red Deer Club – are one of the best indies around and Dunk Le Chunk, who runs the label, has been one of Jonnie’s staunchest supporters from back in the days of Down the Tiny Steps, so it is rather fitting that they release his debut album.

And as much as I would have liked to have the record on Song, by Toad Records, I’d rather anyone else release it if it means I get to have a copy on vinyl.  Fookin’ lovely!  Anyway, yes, The Captain’s Rest in Glasgow this Sunday if you fancy some superlative musicfuns.

1. Which bird looks the most evil?
2. Which sea creature looks the most benign?
3. Name your death metal band.
4. Best use of an animal in a film…
5. …and the worst.

Five songs from a boisterous compilation I made in the Winter about umm… six years ago is it now?

Franz Ferdinand – Darts of Pleasure

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The Von Bondies – No Regrets

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British Sea Power – Apologies to Insect Life

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The Detroit Cobras – Ya Ya Ya (Looking For My Baby)

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The Fiery Furnaces – Crystal Clear

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This EP reminds me a little of the new Sufjan Stevens album in a funny way.  I admire a lot of it, but I don’t especially enjoy listening to it.

There’s some great stuff here though.  Zeus is thumping, and very air-punchey.   Pardon My Friends is a spooky and directionless piano drift which has you scratching your head and wondering what the fuck they were thinking, but in a really good way.

There is more weird stuff too, with Mongk chanelling Blur in their more abrasive moments and the immediately following KW-h shot through with all sorts of fucked up vocoder fuzz.  Both these songs are songs I am excited that they wrote and recorded, but not songs I find all that welcoming to listen to – not that I am saying that this is a bad thing, just the opposite in fact.

The real problem, though, is that for me some of it really is just average.  Cleaning Out the Rooms does nothing for me at all, I have to confess – just plodding along like the empty shell of something they might have discarded years ago, and Bear doesn’t seem to move the band on that much either, until its epic, sparkly fadeout, which I do really enjoy.  Those two tracks in particular, though, seem to join with the parts of the new weirder stuff which I enjoy the least and just bog the whole thing down a bit.

So there’s lots that I love, and lots of things they have done here which I love, but in its entirety I am still not really all that moved by this release as a whole, sadly.

British Sea Power – Zeus

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British Sea Power – Pardon My Friends

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I just don’t understand it.  I mean, I come back from the most amazing musical weekend I think I have ever enjoyed, and instead of being interested and happy for me, when I start telling people about it they get this weird look in their eyes which looks just a little like blind homicidal rage.  Even more unusually, this look only seems to really go away when I shush and complain about the bad weather in Edinburgh this time of year.  (The weather on Eigg, by the way, was awwwwwesome!)

Anyhow, this is the epitome, in its own quiet way, of the dilemma faced by much of the music industry at the moment.  Do you make things smaller and more exclusive, and risk cutting off people who genuinely want to support you and be a part of what you are doing, or do you allow things to grow to the extent where they become unwieldy, lose their magic and you cease to actually find them rewarding yourself? Read the rest of this entry »

So, we are off to Eigg this weekend for the Fence Away Game.  Being a gallant sort I booked tickets for Mrs. Toad as well, as I thought she would enjoy such a picturesque setting, but the grumbling noises emanating from my better half over the last week or so have suggested that she is planning on weaselling out at the last minute.  Fucking typical, is all I can say.

Anyhow, this week’s podcast is the usual mixed bag of new stuff and old stuff, and also includes an expectation of the dubious concept of Mixtape Infidelity, as well as new tracks from Honeytrap, British Sea Power, Mount Erie, The Scottish Enlightenment and the Savings and Loan.

Please do not confuse this with the Eggcast, by the way.  I know the names are awfully similar, but I only have a limited imagination and couldn’t be arsed thinking of anything more original.

Direct download: Toadcast #141 – The Eiggcast

01. Honeytrap – Roslin in a Cylon (00.17)
02. Mount Erie – I Whale (06.50)
03. Timber Timbre – Lay Down in the Tall Grass (15.17)
04. Wilmer Watts & the Lonely Eagles – She’s a Hard-boiled R0se (20.12)
05. British Sea Power – Zeus (27.30)
06. The Scottish Enlightenment – Drip Feed (36.22)
07. Grant Lee Buffalo – Crashing at Corona (45.45)
08. The Raincoats – Don’t be Mean (49.47)
09. The Savings and Loan – Pale Water (58.01.)
10. Neutral Milk Hotel – Snow Song Pt.1 (63.15)

Playing With the Past is an annual (we hope) event at the Edinburgh Film Festival where contemporary bands are invited to write new soundtracks for old films.  Last year was the first of these, when the superb British Sea Power wrote a brilliant score for Man of Aran, a (slightly fake) documentary about the lives of the inhabitants of a remote island off the West Coast of Ireland (extract here).

This was such a success that the band have been performing it all over the place ever since.  This year David Drummond, who put the event together, decided to invite three different bands to work with roughly half an hour or so of footage each, and he started off by inviting eagleowl, who suggested a number of other bands, from which David chose FOUND and Meursault.

We decided not to include more than a few excerpts of the music in this because the bands were a little uncomfortable about listening to too much of their stuff in the absence of the film to which it belongs.  So a big thank you to Tommy, Bart and Neil for coming in to talk about their music, and to David and Theresa from the Filmhouse who came by to chip in at the beginning, before having to rush off.  It may not be the catchiest of podcasts in a musical sense this week, but I think this is easily one of the best podcasts we’ve done – one of the most interesting, certainly.

Also, although I haven’t tracked down all these films on the internet, I have got some bits and pieces for you to give you an idea of what was going on.  Confusingly, they all have the original scores on these clips, but erm… well, hopefully you’ll find them instructive.

The Films:
1. eagleowl: Granton Trawler
2. eagleowl: Begone Dull Care
3. Meursault: Stan & Ollie
4. Meursault: Night Mail (Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3)
5. FOUND: Camera Makes Whoopee (Sorry, couldn’t find this one anywhere – here’s a Google search though if you want to have a go yourself. And a bit more about Norman McLaren, here.)

Toadcast #84 – The Playing With the Pastcast

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01. British Sea Power – Oh Larsen B (06.17)
02. eagleowl – Granton Trawler (Excerpt) (17.16)
03. eagleowl – Begone Dull Care (Excerpt) (24.46)
04. Six Organs of Admittance – Eighth Cognition/All You’ve Left (27.34)
05. Meursault – Night Mail (Excerpt) (35.46)
06. Meursault – Stan & Ollie (Excerpt) (43.24)
07. The Books – All Our Base are Belong to Them (46.25)
08. FOUND – Camera Makes Whoopee (Excerpt 2) (56.43)
09. Marvin Gaye – T Plays it Cool (68.39)
10. FOUND – Camera Makes Whoopee (Excerpt 1) (72.56)

This Saturday Mrs. Toad is in charge of collecting for the lifeboats in Stockbridge, and any help we can get with the collection would be hugely appreciated.  We will repay you all with beer and food throughout the afternoon, so it should be sociable and plenty of fun, but an hour or so of your time would be much appreciated.

The RNLI is a charitable body and hence rely entirely on public donations.  This is a fucking scandalous tax dodge by the government, if you ask me, but that doesn’t change the fact that the support of the public is absolutely crucial to what they do.  A lot of the readers of this site were up in Anstruther recently, which has a lifeboat station of its own, and was once home to a considerable fishing fleet.  Pittenweem appears to be more of a working harbour than Anstruther these days, but in general those communities who hosted us have given their fair share and it might be nice if we respected their commitment by showing a little willing of our own, as a way of repaying their hospitality.

The first collections will go out at about ten in the morning, no-one need do more than an hour, and whilst we are starting with tea and cakes we will finish up with scran and bevvies in the evening, and quite possibly some antisocially loud music at night time.  So if you can possibly help and fancy coming round, please get in touch.  Giving a few quid would also be a big help, but actually participating and helping out is much harder to do where charity is concerned, so we’d really appreciate it if you could come round and lend a hand.

The Divine Comedy – A Seafood Song

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And, erm, I hope it’s not too tasteless, but this is the obvious song to choose:
British Sea Power – Fear of Drowning

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Yes, another podcast dedicated entirely to the End of the Road Festival. I did the very same last year because I do rather love this festival, and the sheer quality of the lineup easily merits a podcast to itself.

Unlike last year, Mrs. Toad actually came with me this time around. We drove this stupid old 1960s VW camper van down there, and Christ knows how we didn’t die in the process. The fucking thing steered like a bathtub full of water, there were no brakes at all and the only crumple zone was us. The other disconcerting thing is the fact that VW campers are something of a community, so everyone who passed us in one would flash their lights and wave with the sort of sincere enthusiasm that made us mortally ashamed to be mere renters – mere passengers in a club full of such obviously devoted members, Christ we felt like charlatans.

Anyway, ignore our guilt and enjoy the podcast. There’s some fucking great music on this one. And why is it called the Deathcast? Because that blasted camper van we drove down in was an absolute death trap. Honestly, want to die in a nasty accident? Try driving a 60s VW camper van around the English countryside in the middle of the night in the pissing rain.

Toadcast #38 – The Deathcast

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01. Micah P. Hinson – Patience (03.17)
02. Nick Cave & the Dirty Three – Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum (09.41)
03. The Young Republic – Shiloh (20.19)
04. Over the Wall – Thurso (23.22)
05. British Sea Power – Carrion (29.40)
06. The Pictish Trail – All I Own (36.50)
07. Shearwater – Levithan, Bound (41.31)
08. Jeffrey Lewis – Do They Owe (45.50)
09. The Wave Pictures – Leave That Scene Behind (50.39)
10. Richard Hawley – Coming Home (53.21)
11. Calexico – Minas de Cobre (For Better Metal) (59.55)

This album has been so enthusiastically and so publically fellated by everyone who has set their sweaty little mitts to a keyboard in the last month or so I feel slightly soiled even writing about it.  In terms of thematic content, furious live shows and anthemicism these lads probably have more in common with Toad favourites iLiKETRAiNS than anyone else I would compare them to at the moment.  The obsession with British identity and recent history is very similar, but British Sea Power are a much more melodic group, which has is probably why they have been so fawningly embraced by the mainstream.

After the genius of their gorgeous slow burner Open Season and the ungodly clatter of debut The Decline of British Sea Power I am at a little bit of a loss as to quite what is so much better about this album that seems to have everyone so excited.  I actually found it harder to get into, and I already knew half the songs from live shows.  It has the same big choruses as earlier releases and the same chiming, dare I say it stadium-friendly guitar climaxes.

Unfortunately, while most people love the middle ground this seems to have struck between their two previous albums, personally what I hear are songs just a little short on the fury of the first or the brooding menace of the second. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a terrific record, but I would be mildly surprised to find it on my end of year list for 2008.  Mind you, if you want a fucking good rock ‘n’ roll album to stick on, turn up offensively loud, and dance around to drunk as a skunk then you couldn’t do much better.

So a slightly qualified thumbs up from myself I suppose.  But I’ve been slow to ease my way into British Sea Power albums in the past, and they’ve made me eat my words, so keep an eye on those above and see if I’m not served them alongside a nice, generous slice of humble pie come the end of the year.

British Sea Power – A Trip Out
British Sea Power – Down on the Ground

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Well it wasn’t quite the unhinged insanity of their brilliant set at the End of the Road Festival, but British Sea Power can be counted on to put some serious welly into a gig.  They get stuck in and make a right fucking noise, and this puts them right up there with iLiKETRAiNS and The Twilight Sad in my favourite guitar-bothering gigs this year.

Cabaret Voltaire was unusually full actually – I really hope this means the message is getting out that of all the places in Edinburgh you can actually see some seriously good indie music, this is the one.  There’s nothing like enough decent, current indie in Scotland’s capital and Cab Vol (as The Kidz seem to call it) is the just about top of the list of those seriously trying to change that.  I sincerely hope they are rewarded for their efforts.

British Sea Power are warming up to an album release, although I’m not quite sure when.  Judging from the new stuff they played, including the typically ferocious Atom, the album will satisfy without shocking.  What do you call a band too young to be stalwarts and too old to be greenhorns?  British Sea Power evolve their sound slowly, so they won’t shock anyone, but they write such consistently good songs I’d be amazed if this album proves to be anything less that the solid indie excellence of Decline… and Open Season.

The 80s indie vocals, slightly tormented, morph into howls of rage and guitars build from pounding rhythm to ear-ringing squeals as they throw themselves into their songs.  It’s odd, because I tend to associate groups with the charisma of the lead singer, but BSP pass that baton between Scott and Neil Wilkinson during the gig without missing a beat.  Seamless it may be, but the effect is nevertheless slightly odd.  It’s like the character of the group changes subtly, although the music stays consistent.

Both of them throw themselves into their vocals though, and Martin Noble’s confrontational, angry guitar brings it all together into a passionate indie assault.  They bring cornet and violin for some of the subtler moments, but it is all entirely drowned out by the three guitars.  The craft and atmosphere of their albums tend to be forsaken for pure adrenaline during live performances.

Good.

Once again I leave a British Sea Power gig with my ears ringing and my spirits charged.  If you get a chance to go and see them – do it!

British Sea Power – Blackout
British Sea Power – Atom
British Sea Power – Good Good Boys

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Krankenbollocks more like. Can you believe in the age of Google I actually can’t find anywhere to buy this bastard new EP.  It’s not even available on Rough Trade Digital and they’re signed to bloody Rough Trade.  I know the two enterprises have gone their separate ways, but sheesh! So if, given I don’t have iTunes, anyone thinks they can help me out then please do. The only place I found stocking the bloody thing had something up with their online purchasing, so couldn’t process the bloody transaction. Well, the CD will be available from the 20th November anyway, so I may just have to wait.

Their site says this:

The tracks Atom and Down On The Ground are from the forthcoming BSP album, Do You Like Rock Music? The other tracks – Straight Down The Line, Hearing Aid and The Pelican – are exclusive to the EP.

Anyway, Atom doesn’t sound much like recent British Sea Power. It sounds rather more like their debut album The Decline of British Sea Power, rather than the mellower follow-up Open Season. This is no bad thing though, as it suggests to me that there will be plenty of opportunity for the unhinged live mentalism for which they are rightly renowned.  Down on the Ground, the only other track I have heard, is more of an Echo & the Bunnymen job of the sort one might expect from Open Season.

So no great departure seems to be on the cards, but I like this lot so I don’t care.  I am going to see them play Edinburgh in early November (at Cabaret Voltaire), and am really looking forward to seeing them go ballistic and make our ears bleed again.  Magic!

British Sea Power – Atom
British Sea Power – Down on the Ground

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