Song, by Toad

There’s no real theme to this week’s podcast, but there’s plenty of splendid new music. Basically I felt so guilty about the crazy rant that the Pink Podcast descended into that I have tried to say as little as possible in this one.

I’m off to the End of the Road Festival this weekend, which is why I recorded an advance post, so you’ll be enjoying this while I’m away getting rained on. The lineup is just phenomenal actually, so it should be really quite a splendid weekend. Tim from the Daily Growl will be there, as will Jamie from the Runout Groove and I believe possibly Sweeping the Nation as well, so it may turn into quite a blog-in. Tragically, however, I will be without my Midget Companion. Mrs. Toad is away in Australia (jammy bitch) with work and doesn’t get back in time to come along, so I will be taking a book and enjoying the pleasure of my own company as best I can.

There was at least one inevitable balls-up though – when describing the Catherine Howe song I said ‘I can’t believe this is current – it sounds so old-fashioned!’ and I have since discovered that in fact it is a 2007 re-release of a 1971 record which may just explain that. In the process I also discovered that I am something of a fucking idiot.

So, End of the Road, and in the meantime, enjoy the podcast – Toad on his very best behaviour!

Toadcast #11 – Not Sure What This One’s About[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo11.mp3]

01. A.A. Bondy – Vice Rag (00.52)
02. White Rabbits – The Plot (03.39)
03. The Courteeners – Cavorting (08.19)
04. Alaska in Winter – Close Your Eyes/We Are Blind (11.46)
05. Beirut – Fork & Knife (La Fete) (18.32)
06. Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost (21.57)
07. Nathan Lawr & the Minotaurs – We Go Down (26.52)
08. David Dondero – Rothko Chapel (30.34)
09. Jackson C. Frank – Blues Run the Game (38.15)
10. Calexico – All the Pretty Horses (41.45)
11. Catherine Howe – In the Hot Summer (48.53)
12. Little Name – How to Swim & Live (53.31)
13. Emma Pollock – Adrenaline (56.36)
14. George Pringle – Fellini For Prime Minister (63.52)
15. Octoberman – By the Wayside (67.27)
16. The 1900s – When I Say Go (74.54)
17. (The Real) Tuesday Weld – Kix (79.44)

This is very much not the sort of music I would expect to like, but it’s just so gorgeous I can’t help myself.  I found this lovely lady over at Lonesome Music and somehow failed to notice that the album was in fact originally recorded in 1971.  Up until the point that the penny finally dropped I found myself thinking ‘gosh, this sounds so, so old-fashioned, I can’t believe it’s a current album’ and even ‘look at the picture, she even looks like she’s from the 70s’ and other such idiotic gems.  Well the fact that this is a 2007 re-release of an album that – wait, really? – was originally recorded in 1971, was quite enough to confuse your chowder-headed amphibious host.
Anyhow, it doesn’t matter, because it’s a genuinely gorgeous, gorgeous album.  It’s summery, woozy and dreamy soul with a lush, slightly cinematic air that lulls and relaxes and warms and cuddles.  Lovely, truly lovely stuff.  It’s even managed to subvert my generally rather limited enthusiasm for this kind of folk-soul sort of stuff.

This must be the most beautiful thing ever to emerge from Halifax – it’s barely conceivable to juxtapose this shimmering loveliness with that depressed, miserable and thoroughly unpleasant Northern sink-hole – but Halifax is where she’s from.  Mind you, the fact that the strings and woodwind backing were provided by the London Symphony Orchestra might have some bearing on the beauty of this record.  Basically, the whole album feels as if you are watching a beguilingly naive hippy girl twirling through a field of blooms on a hot Summer’s day, the whole thing shot through a lens as liberally smothered in vaseline as a choirboy’s chocolate starfish.  Splendid.  Even indie fundamentalists such as myself can love this – Dusty in Memphis, you’re next!

Catherine Howe – Up North
Catherine Howe – It’s Not Likely

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