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

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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)

Fookin’ marvellous, not only is it Friday but this weekend is supposed to be stunning and there are all sorts of fun and capers planned between now and Monday.  Firstly, tonight Honeytrap – one of my favourite bands – are playing Sneaky Pete’s with Meursault, and I am really looking forward to it.

Then tomorrow we have a marathon double Toad Session day of mentalism, with Found coming in at about two in the afternoon and Honeytrap at six.  It is going to be, I think it’s safe to say, fucking hectic and probably very drunken, but the stuff we get out of it should be absolutely fucking amazing.   It’ll no doubt take some time to get through all of the stuff we generate, but I think it will be worth it for a couple of brilliant sessions.

So, while I go out and find somewhere to have a couple of pints in the sun over lunch, please take this opportunity to come out of the shadows and have your say.  Fridays are de-lurking amnesty threads, so if you’ve never chipped in before, why not make today the time you pop your cherry.  Fill in your five and then talk total pish with everyone else for the rest of the afternoon, whilst you’re supposed to be working hard but are secretly just waiting for 5pm so you can bugger off down the pub.

1. Most sinister-looking animal.
2. Favourite movie villain.
3. What goes best on toast?
4. Favourite cocktail.
5. Best place to have a cup of tea.

Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – The Summer’s Been Good From the Start

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Shivaree – Reseda Casino

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Mark Eitzel – Move On Up

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The Come Ons – Strangelove

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Rufus Wainright – One Man Guy

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Okay maybe not blues, maybe a bit more souly, but you know what I mean. There’s a whole area of this kind of music where these boundaries blur to the point of meaninglessness for me. Lovely old songstress lullabies might be more appropriate.

I know virtually nothing at all about Bettye Swann, although a cursory internet search reveals her to be a 60s soul singer who knocked out all of the old standards from that time and before. I have no real urge to explore further as this is generally not a style of music I can get all that excited about, but I do have one stray song of hers that I love.

It appeared on a sampler about five years ago. I’ve no idea which one, but it really stuck with me – such a compassionate song about getting over a lost love and finding the strength to move on. It’s a very stripped-down version as well, which gives is a sort of scratchy sincerity that can get a bit lost in the over-production of songs of this sort. Gorgeous.

Bettye Swann – Don’t Look Back

Around about the time The White Stripes seriously hit the big time they caused – or simply embodied, I’m not sure – a massive surge of interest in stripped down garage blues, and the Detroit scene in particular. A mass of groups were knocking about the city at that point, all mixing old blues and soul sounds with grungy, aggressive guitars. I liked a lot of it, although inevitably there was a lot of dross in the mix as well.

One group I never really took to were The Come Ons, but they did do this one gorgeous track called Strangelove. It’s a simple love song that, given I was in the very early months of a whirlwhind, preposterous romance with Mrs. Toad, became something of a staple of our late night listening. Even now it still strikes a significant chord with me for that reason. Happy days indeed…

The Come Ons – Strangelove