Morning you ‘orrible lot. My wench is away being important once more. She said to me the other day when she was trying to skive off work due to a hangover: ‘I can’t go into work in a bad state, I handle money.’ Haha, what bollocks. I love it when financial people get all delusional like that, so don’t worry I set her straight. I calmly pointed out to her that if I fucked up my last job someone might have found a small metal implant buried in their spinal column. This means dead or paralysed. She stopped, fortunately.

‘I handle money though.’ Yeah well, I handle my penis and every last little sperm is a potential human life, so don’t gimme that. The frustration’s setting in again, can’t you tell? This podcast has some news and some current things, and then explores the randomiser on my music library, doffing my cap to the recent Contrast Podcast episode which I was too slow to participate in. Gah.

It is also my birthday on Monday, thirty-two since you ask, and we will be down in London to celebrate the occasion with our Southern friends, so there’s a couple of birthday thingies in there too, most screamingly obviously the first track of course. Enjoy Toadlings, enjoy.

Toadcast #16 – The Birthday Podcast

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01. Clem Snide – Happy Birthday (02.18)
02. The Courteeners – Acrylic (08.56)
03. Joe Lean & the Jing Jang Jong – Sleazy Hughes (12.46)
04. Cloud Atlas – Cigarettes & Apricots (15.54)
05. Arab Strap – There is No Ending (24.04)
06. Malcolm Middleton – The Devil & the Angel (29.32)
07. Down the Tiny Steps – Photosynth (37.29)
08. Eef Barzelay – Make Another Tree (42.19)
09. Loch Lomond – Northern, Knees, Trees & Lights (51.35)
10. The Pogues – Bolero Del Perro Listo (59.23)
11. Crash Test Dummies – Sonnet #3 (The Cold is Here) (66.52)
12. Ben Folds – You’ve Got to Learn to Live With What You Are (68.44)
13. Cold War Kids – Hair Down (81.39)
14. The Hold Steady – The Party Pit (90.22)
15. Tom Waits – Diamonds & Gold (94.11)
16. Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra – Monsieur Le Charmant (100.18)

Song, by Toad has been nominated as Best Music Blog in the People’s Choice Awards. I didn’t actually have to nominate myself, but you can, so it’s hardly an Earth-shattering achievement, however I think it’s important we muster a bit of a turnout at the voting booth for reasons I’ll allow Tim from The Daily Growl to explain:

more importantly, I want to see proper British music blogs occupying that top 10. Not like last year where the top 5 was taken up by ‘blogs’ by top-selling artists which I cynically see as just another promotional racket (yes, I’m looking at you Mike Skinner and Dave Gilmour) and others that weren’t really music blogs at all.

…let’s see a proper music blogger – i.e. a non-professional, just writing for sheer love of music – on the podium come 2 October.

He’s right – bollocks to the well-funded, slick-arse, sphincter-polishing, devil’s shilling-grubbing professionals. That’s not what a fucking blog is, dammit. However, fortunately it turns out you can vote for numerous different blogs using the same email address and it also turns out you can vote with as many different email addresses as you have, so get out there and vote for me as often as possible. Then make your friends do it too. Then go to The Daily Growl and Fucking Dance and vote for them as well – let’s make a dent for the amateurs this year, eh! Any of my other blog pals who are in the running, let me know and I’ll link to you buggers too.

And, of course, the reason for all this bollocks in the first place – the tuuunez! And it’s nearly beer time. Woo hoo!

Depeche Mode – Everything Counts
The Siddeleys – You Get What You Deserve
Elastica – Connection
Gene – I Can’t Help Myself
Cold War Kids – Passing the Hat
Decoration – It’s OK to be Fickle
Thomas Truax – Inside the Internet