When I was down in Bristol for The Great Escape I went vinyl shopping.  To quite an irresponsible degree. The term I used (it might even be fair to say coined) on Twitter was ‘divorceable amounts of vinyl’.

Some of it was new, like the new Lower Dens album, and some of it was old, such as Ivor Cutler.  One thing I picked up out of the blue in Resident, however, was this double vinyl release by Bruce Springsteen.  I didn’t even know it existed, or anything about it, but fuck me it’s brilliant.

Now, I am a big fan of really early Bruce Springsteen.  I know it’s an unbearably hipster thing to say, and I don’t at all intend to downplay the quality of his later stuff, but Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey and The Wild, the Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle are phenomenal records.

Maybe it’s because his influences are still so close to the surface, and there’s so much funk in there (not something you’ll hear me say every day), but there’s something about the exuberance of those albums which I have always loved, and these radio sessions sound a little like being there when they first started to take shape.

The music is tentative and a little ramshackle, and a lot less full and forceful than you’re used to hearing from the band.  For me, particularly with a band as polished and tight as the E-Street Band, there’s something a ‘glimpse behind the curtain’ about even hearing these songs in such a sketched-out manner.

Almost as captivating as the songs, however, is the chat.  I didn’t see Springsteen’s keynote address at SXSW this year, but I listened to it later, and it is a confident articulate speech.  The chat on these recordings is just that of a nervous kid though, with a really dorky laugh.  It’s incredible. For some reason it’s a bit of a shock to realise that even someone as accomplished and successful as Bruce Springsteen started out like one of us: always a little bit amazed when someone takes notice.

If you’re not a Springsteen fan then fair enough, but if you are, particularly of the early records, which are the songs mostly played here, then I would get this as soon as I could possibly get my hands on it if I were you.

The Radio Versions:

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Circus Song (Live On WBCN 9th Jan 1973).mp3

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.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street (Live On WBCN 9th Jan 1973)

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.

The Album Versions:

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Wild Billy’s Circus Story

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.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?

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.

Buy from Amazon

 First things first, I must inevitably apologise for the horrendous lateness of this podcast.  Between my mum visiting, the gig on Sunday and the Samantha Crain Toad Session we recorded on Monday there just hasn’t been enough time to catch up.

It’s that end of year time, too, when lists are being made, accounts submitted, the last releases of the year tended to and plans for next year being finalised, so just when I thought that I could coast into Christmas, it turns out I actually have just as much work now as at any other time of the year.  Ah well, whinge whinge, etc.

This podcast is called the Saxcast because I happened to be listening to Timber Timbre the other night, and one of their songs features the saxophone quite heavily.  It occurred to me at the time that not only does almost no-one use that instrument at the moment, but despite the eighties ending over twenty years ago, it still seems almost completely taboo, within the kind of musical circles I move in anyway.  Needless to say, this was all it took for me to devote an entire podcast to the instrument.

Direct download: Toadcast #202 – The Saxcast

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

Subscribe to the Toadcasts on Mixcloud

01. Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band – It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City (Live) (00.27)
02. Timber Timbre – Do I Have Power (09.02)
03. Quiet Americans – Summer House (16.54)
04. Samantha Crain – Two Sidedness (20.02)
05. Hazel O’Connor – Will You (25.09)
06. Woodenbox – Twisted Mile (33.42)
07. Monster Rally & RumTum – Raindrops (39.53)
08. My Tiny Robots – Guild of Defiants (42.37)
09. David Tattersall – The Typewriter Ribbon (47.51)
10. Mark Knopfler – Going Home (Theme From Local Hero) (58.30)

Would you believe that this podcast is finished and ready and done and I am ready to go to bed by 10pm.  This is a fucking scarily strange occurrence.  I’ve only had about four beers too, which is also a little unsual. The only organisational task at which I have abjectly failed is keeping the length of this podcast down to an hour.  Basically, having different people co-present is really nice, and I think it makes the podcasts miles better, but I am still coming to terms with the discipline of keeping the talky talky down to a manageable level and sticking to that hour which has made these weekly swear-morsels so digestible in the last few months.

At the Wickerman Festival Callum from Meursault made the highly contentious statement that not all funk music was buttock-clenchingly awful and, whilst I mocked him, I decided that someone with that kind of crazy recklessness must be brave enough to bring a Toadcast full of funky classics to an audience of sulky, morose indie kids with art school fringes.  So good luck to Callum – I am going to be listening to this with the same curiosity as the rest of the audience I would think.  It’s hard to get a handle on what a podcast sounds like as you record it, so I guess if I am going to absorb the lesson of the funk then I will have to have a cup of coffee, put my feet up on the couch and listen to it the same as everyone else.

Toadcast #83 – The Funkcast

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.

01. Parliament – Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker) (06.23)
02. Shuggie Otis – Inspiration Information (17.21)
03. Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band – The E-Street Shuffle (25.55)
04. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges (30.15)
05. The Come Ons – Strangelove (37.00)
06. Charles Mingus – Boogie Stop Shuffle (49.39)
07. Bob Marley & the Wailers – Mr. Brown (54.33)
08. Sly Stone – Can’t Nickname the Truth (63.09)
09. Funkadelic – You Scared the Lovin’ Outta Me (74.53)

This is the last Song, by Toad show on Fresh Air for this term – so the last one until about October time, basically.  As the band are long time Toad friends, and as their long (loooong)-awaited debut album is being released on Monday, it seemed only fitting that Broken Records pop into the studio and have a chat about things, talk through the album itself (read: TOAD EXCLUSIVE!!!1!1 or something like that), and generally shoot the breeze.

To tune in, go to the Fresh Air homepage and click on the big Listen Now button on the left hand side, from about 6.30pm-8pm, UK time.  As per usual, I’ll fill in the playlist below, and you can take the opportunity to leave compliments, questions and abuse in the comments section as you see fit.

01. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Hard to be a Saint in the City (Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1975)
02. White Antelope – Wild Mountain Thyme
03. Broken Records – Wolves (Toad Session)
04. Linfinity – Holy Rain
05. Ambulances – Come With Us
06. Broken Records – Lies
07. Sparrow & the Workshop – Last Chance (Toad Session)
08. The Lovely Eggs – Have You Ever Heard a Digital Accordion
09. The Low Miffs – Dear Josephine
10. Broken Records – Nearly Home
11. Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark

Whee – pub!

Live recordings – in fact, specifically, live albums – came up in a recent post on Song, by Toad and the idea of doing a podcast composed entirely of live recordings really appealed to me because there are so many great ones.

That said, on the post in question there arose a debate, one voice expressing my deepest hatreds of the genre, and another being perhaps over-generous in the other direction.  Frankly, I despise the vast majority of live albums.  Mostly they are shit recordings of songs we already know, released for the sole reason of fleecing fans whose devotion has already been established, and whose wallets can clearly be plundered for a few more empty sheckles.

Despite that, of course, there are some truly stunning live recordings.  In fact, I’d argue that some of the most memorable, legendary recordings of all  time are in fact live ones.  Bob Dylan live at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1966.  Bruce Springsteen pretty much any time in the seventies.  Basically, for all live recordings are mostly rip-off bollocks, there are some truly phenomenal live albums, ones which open your eyes to the artist, ones which fill in that artist’s musical upbringing, and some which are just genuinely amazingly wonderful recordings in their own right.  Therefore we bring to you the Livecast.  Enjoy, Toadlings…

Toadcast #57 – Production Values

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.

01. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – 10th Avenue Freeze Out (04.09)
02. Andrew Bird – Why (11.47)
03. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Papa Won’t Leave You Henry (16.22)
04. The Moulettes – Country Joy Song (25.29)
05. Colin Meloy – Blues Run the Game (32.49)
06. Quasar Wut-Wut – The Partisan (35.45)
07. Jeff Mangum – Two Headed Boy (43.04)
08. Tom Waits – Diamonds on My Windshield (54.37)
09. Billy Bragg – Days Like These (DC Remix) (56.46)
10. Ben Folds Five – Satan is My Master (60.15)
11. Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone (64.16)

After a week spent debating it, how about a podcast embodying the discussions we’ve been having about production values I thought a podcast which sort of pulls all the disagreements and moans and whingeing and so on into one big mp3 of joy would be a good idea.

So we’ve got some Big Production, some demo scratchy stuff and a few bands who have dabbled with both.  I fart on about production values as if I have the faintest idea what I’m talking about, which of course I don’t.

I’m not sure how well it works as a playlist – it might be a bit disjointed – but in general I like it.  I like the debate in general, I like the thought process we’ve all gone through together this week, and in general, by association, I like this podcast.

Toadcast #57 – Production Values

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.

01. Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA (Original Nebraska Sessions Demo Version) (04.31)
02. Radiohead – Everything in its Right Place (11.13)
03. Enfant Bastard – Vessel (20.19)
04. Half Man Half Biscuit – 1966 and All That (22.37)
05. U2 – Red Hill Mining Town (29.56)
06. Snow Patrol – Last Ever Lone Gunman (37.40)
07. The Divine Comedy – Life on Earth (42.10)
08. Yann Tiersen – Geronimo (Black Session w. Neil Hannon) (46.07 )
09. The Wave Pictures – A Long Way Away From Me (53.34)
10. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 1975) (57.35)