Song, by Toad

If you’re going to everything that’s on this week, you might wish to consider drinking cups of tea at gigs or you’ll have a liver like a fucking cricket ball by the end of all this.  You could literally drink your way through the week, the finest of music dancing in your ears, and a great big beer-hoover emptying your wallet.

My absolute definites are Withered Hand, Sparrow & the Workshop, Trembling Bells, Findo Gask and, erm, Jesus H. Foxx.  Christ.  I am going to have to make sure I have a couple of orange juice gigs in that lot or I’ll be hungover for a week and possibly divorced as well by the time Sunday comes around.

Bad liver, naughty liver, must be punished.

Monday 16th February 2009: Emmy the Great at Cabaret Voltaire.

I am a little conflicted on Emmy the Great.  It’s far too tempting to call her Emmy the Perfectly Reasonable, but that is about where I stand.  She has some very sharp lyrics, and has written some really good tunes, but on listening to her debut album I found myself perhaps less able to enjoy her music in large chunks than I was when I was sampling it in small slices.
Emmy the Great – Where is My Mind

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Tuesday 17th February 2009: Chris Whittle & Simon Kempston at the Bowery.

This will be an evening of guitary singer-songwriters, so perhaps the right time to take it easy and just bask in the music, instead of getting pickled and dancing about the place.
Chris Whittle – Stay

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Wednesday 18th February 2009: Withered Hand, Sparrow & the Workshop & Jo Foster at the Bowery.

I haven’t seen Withered Hand’s twisted folk songs performed for a while now.  Nor, actually, have I seen Sparrow & the Workshop’s clattersome Americana.  There is no way on earth I’ll be missing this gig.
Withered Hand – Cornflake

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Thursday 19th February 2009: Findo Gask, Babygod & Night Noise Team play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

Findo Gask’s new single One Eight Zero is one of the best things I’ve heard in ages – part electronic pop, but far too lovelorn and plaintive for that.  I am really looking forward to seeing them play.  I know a lot less about the other two bands, but Limbo can generally be relied upon to produce the goods, so I’ll not be late!
Findo Gask – One Eight Zero

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Friday 20th February 2009: Trembling Bells at the Bowery.

I am fascinated to see how Trembling Bells’ theatrical folk music translates live.  Carbeth, their forthcoming album, is a fantastic record, albeit one with such a distinctive style I can’t imagine it will appeal to everyone.  But for myself, there’s no chance I’ll be missing this one.
Trembling Bells – I Took to You (Like Christ to Wood)

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Sunday 22nd February 2009: Crystal Stilts & Jesus H. Foxx at Sneaky Pete’s.

Any band who want to get anywhere this year have Crystal in their name.  I never realised when I reviewed their EP last September that they would go on to be quite so buzzy, especially given the low-fi sound, grumbling away with distant vocals and C86 guitars, but here they are.  And Jesus H. Foxx have been working on all sorts of new stuff as well, which I am very excited to hear.
Crystal Stilts – Crippled Croon

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Sunday 22nd February 2009: The Spinto Band at Cabaret Voltaire.

I don’t know the Spinto Band very well, although I’ve heard the name often enough.  Still, a quick listen to their MySpace page confirms that were it not for Sneaky Pete’s I would want to be at this gig as well.  Ah well.  In a week like this, something’s got to give.
The Spinto Band – Summer Grof

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Well, no gin, no misbehaviour (except the mandatory foul language), Christ you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d sold out on you and actually grown up at last.  No fear of that actually, just a bit of liver protection.  We’re trying to guzzle just that little bit less midweek, and save the beer tokens for when we really need them, so it’s tea and slippers this time around.  In fact I thought I was being exceptionally tame until such time as I realised that I hadn’t reigned in the swearing one little bit.  Fuck, I thought to myself.

Thematically, erm, you’re on your own I’m afraid.  I’ve no real idea if you can think of anything that holds all these songs together as a coherent whole, but damned if I can.  There’s quite a bit of new stuff and quite a few stray songs that I didn’t know how to cover because I didn’t want to review the whole album, but there was a song or two that I liked.  You know what I mean.  And thirteen songs in just under an hour – fucking hell that’s efficient.

Toadcast #36 – The Domesticast

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01. Christian Williams – 30 Minutes (00.17)
02. Calexico – The News About William (05.03)
03. Crystal Stilts – Crippled Croon (07.42)
04. Glasvegas – Flowers & Fitba Tops (14.39)
05. Fishboy – Half Time at the Proper Name Spelling Bee (20.12)
06. From – One Spring Away (23.21)
07. Eef Barzelay – Make Another Tree (28.19)
08. Michael Zapruder – Ads For Feelings (34.23)
09. Okkervil River – Singer Songwriter (37.37)
10. Marc Farre – La Plaie et le Couteau (42.42)
11. Adam Balbo – Big Kid Now (48.14)
12. Christian Williams – Judas (50.24)
13. Micah P. Hinson – Throw the Stone (57.00)

Okay, if you don’t like slightly droney guitars, a deliberately low-fi sound and rather distant vocals then don’t go anywhere near this. If you care about hearing something hugely original I wouldn’t bother either.

If none of that is going to bother you, then go for it right now, because this is a really good mini-album.  It comes from the same place as a lot of the darker, less jangly indie that was very popular in the late 80s, with an insistent, but low key thrum of guitar keeping the song very much on the straight and narrow.  It reminds me of driving at night at times, with the lines on the road rhythmically forging their way through the pool of white light made by your headlights.

The song whose title most evokes that image, Bright Light Nursery, is funnily enough one of the ones whose music is least suited to the comparison.  It’s also perhaps my least favourite song on the album, so it’s not all hits all the way through.  But with the excellent Crippled Croon and Lights bookending this project the whole record has an excellent unity to it – becoming more of a journey itself than a series of unrelated pop songs.

I couldn’t tell you why this particular example of such a well-explored genre seems to appeal to – I rarely can – but for some reason these guys have managed to forego the scrabble for innovation and simply produce a good record.  And, let’s face it, how much of what anyone does is genuinely original?

Crystal Stilts – Lights

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