Ruth is back on the air, and she and I commence our weekly Festival special show today at 7pm on Fresh Air. We’re on tonight, Sunday 22nd and 29th, and will be trying to get live session types in for each show, as per usual.

Tonight we are lucky enough to be joined by Lach, the driving force behind the anti-folk movement which started in New York and is relocating to Edinburgh for the Festival in the form of Lach’s Antihoot.

Listen live here from 7pm BST.

For anyone interested in some Neil Pennycook and Yusuf Azak solo acoustic videos and a bit of a review of the first night, click here.  In the meantime, we’ll be updating the playlist live as we go along this evening, so feel free to heckle us in the comments as we go along.

1. Donny Hue and the Colors – Corrine Corrina
2. Adam Balbo – ObligatoryHighway
3. Arcade Fire – Sprawl II
4. Lach – Lego (Live)
5. Lach – Antennae (Live)
6. Lach – Baby (Live)
7. The Chord and The Fawn – Young Executive
8. Lach – Egg
9. Meursault – Crank Resolutions

This is called the Tapecast because last night, for the first time in about ten years, I made a mixtape.  Because of the van having a tape player there is actually a point to making these bloody things now, so we got hammered and listened to records all night (again), only this time I recorded them all onto a C-90!

There is something so stupidly fascinating about making tapes in the first place, but there is certainly something surreal in resurrecting what genuinely was dead technology.  It is far from easy to actually buy blank tapes these days.  I ended up recording over a shite old one I had to hand, and there is only a limited supply of ones hanging around which I would be happy to tape over.

It was bloody fun though, so I think it might well happen again!

Oh, and as I am now hosting these podcasts on Mixcloud as well, I have a new streaming widget thingy.  Mixcloud are PRS registered, which means the artists get money when you listen using their doo-dah, which is something we should all think about.  I am not convinced about doubling up the post images so I may have to give a bit more consideration to how to integrate it into the page, but there it is anyway for the time being.

Toadcast #133 – The Tapecast by Song By Toad on Mixcloud

Direct download: Toadcast #133 – The Tapecast

01. The Humms – Blood Sucking Vampire (02.30)
02. We Can’t Enjoy Ourselves – Put Your Blue Dress On (11.19)
03. Ezequiel Ezequiel – Dear Permafrost (15.03)
04. Small Town Boredom – Apologies for Apathy (22.32)
05. Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights (30.59)
06. The Dodos – Walking (35.59)
07. Trips and Falls – I Learned Sunday Morning, on a Wednesday (41.57)
08. Br’er – Whitewash (48.41)
09. Efren – Stay High (53.22)
10. Donny Hue & the Colors – Wild Again (59.22)

Oooft.  It has been a heavy week, and oddly enough I am going to be taking the weekend as an opportunity not to drink, which is a bit backwards.  But then, that’s how these things go sometimes I guess.

The good thing about my current job, of course, is that I don’t have to be all that professional.  So instead of sitting at a desk trying to look like I’m being efficient this afternoon, I can put a movie on talk shite on the Friday Fives and fold Cold Seeds inserts.  It’s work, of course, and it does need to be done, but that doesn’t mean I have to make things hard on myself.

One nice thing about being in the house during the day is that we happen to live near just about the best butchers and the best fishmongers in the city.  So when I pop out for my lunch I can also pick up something extremely tasty for dinner as well.  I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen over the last couple of years, largely due to coming home and getting straight on the computer to do Toad things, so I have actually been quite enjoying getting back in touch with my inner housewife.

Anyhow, Fridays, as we all know, are de-lurking amnesties, where you the silent masses save me from the incessant chirping of my regular gobshites by answering five largely frivolous questions about nothing much in particular and then annoying your bosses by doing nothing at all for the rest of the afternoon except talk shite on the internet.

1. Weirdest foodstuff you have ever sampled.
2. Something you thought would taste horrid, but was lovely.
3. Something you thought you would enjoy, but was disgusting.
4. Tastiest food which is completely boring.
5. Hangover munchies of choice.

The Divine Comedy – A Seafood Song

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Grandaddy – Poisoned at Hartsy Thai Food

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Adam Balbo – Convenient Dinner

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Donny Hue & the Colors – With the Onions (from their series of free e-singles)

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Eels – Hospital Food (Live at the BBC)

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I’ve written about Donny Hue, both with and without the Colors, on several occasions now and put his last two albums (one with, one without) in my best of the year lists for the last two years running, and yet I don’t get the feeling that they are as much of a favourite with the Toad readership as they are with me myself.  This is a shame because Mr. Hue has now released three superb albums in consecutive years and that level of consistency is beyond the vast, vast majority of bands and puts him at a pretty bloody high level as far as I am concerned.

A bit like the previous Colors album, this is slightly less consistent than the solo record which the two sandwich, but it is still a cracking album.  It’s also put together really well – sequenced in such a way that it flows, and with the right combination of interludes and instrumentals, sad songs and happy ones to make it work extremely well as a single, whole piece of work.  I like it when this happens – it’s good when songs work together to make a larger entity, and it shows that an artist is putting a lot of thought into the broader aspects of what they are doing, rather than the simple ‘well, I wrote some songs’.

The band have a knack for the a gentle, roll-along version of Subterranean Homesick Blues-era Dylan.  It’s a similar sound, but mellowed somewhat.  The piano ambles along, chiming like a player piano, there’s a shuffling beat to the acoustic guitar and a skip-stomp rhythm to the drums.  This Dylan comparison vanishes when they slow right down, such as the gorgeous Lady Tomcat and the Turning Trees, which is a bit more distant and disquieting and very, very lovely.

As with Folkmote there are songs which don’t grab me as much as others, but on the whole this is yet another really enjoyable record.

Donny Hue & the Colors – You’re On Your Own (We Could Help)

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Donny Hue & the Colors – Lady Tomcat & the Turning Trees

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Website | More mp3s | Buy from The Kora Records | Download their ‘Freesides’ for nothing here

It’s that time of the week once more, when I pop over to Fresh Air Towers and pollute the airwaves of Edinburgh’s innocent student population with my ranting and rambling for a couple of hours.  Yes, I am on Edinburgh’s student radio station between the hours of 6.30pm and 8pm this evening (British Summer Time, I think)

To listen, go to the Fresh Air homepage and click on the big Listen Live button in the top left.

I’ll update this post with the playlist as I go along, and you should all feel free to chip in with comments here and there, should you have anything to add, or just generally feel abusive.  Oh, and apparently I was voted Best Specialist Show at the awards on Saturday, while I was rather ungratefully off getting pished at Trampoline so, er, sorry guys and thanks very much.

1. Monty Python Theme Song (Oh yes, yes I did!)
2. Cherry Ghost – Mathematics
3. Elk City – Los Cruzados
4. Tom Waits – Just the Right Bullets
5. Barton Carroll – Those Days Are Gone and My Heart is Breaking
6. Helicopter Girl – Cry Mississippi
7. Lucky Jim – Our Troubles End Tonight
8. Sad Day For Puppets – Little Light
9. Haunted House – Rattled Out in Makeup
10. Donny Hue & the Colors – Oh Lord
11. Tom Waits – What Keeps Mankind Alive
12. Eels – Devil’s Dog
13. Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers – Bananfish Revolution
14. American Music Club – Mantovani the Mind Reader
15. Tom Waits – Bad Liver and a Broken Heart

That’s all for this week, folks.  Tune in again next week, same time, for the last show this semester.

6. Barton Carroll – The Lost One

I know nothing about Barton Carroll, I wasn’t looking forward to this album at all, and then when it landed in my lap I still refused to quite get it for ages; maybe it’s because it’s stylistically quite unadventurous. The big difference, though, is that absolutely every single song on this album, despite flirting with cliche rather frequently, is compelling. They all have you perking up when they come on in their turn, thinking ‘oh good, this song’.
Barton Carroll – Those Days are Gone, and My Heart is Breaking

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7. Donny Hue & the Colors – Tell Tall Tales

This is another album which rather arrived out of nowhere. I wasn’t even aware it was in the pipeline when the promo copy was emailed through in November or so, when the album turned out to be quite so brilliant it was like an early Christmas present. It’s wry and witty, sad and playful and a simple pleasure from start to finish.
Donny Hue & the Colors – Good Time Happening

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8. Bombadil – A Buzz, A Buzz

I liked this album enough all on its own, but when I saw these guys play live at Pickathon in August I was just floored. I haven’t enjoyed a live performance so much in years – it was just overflowing with fun and zest and exuberance, and only the clinically dead could have failed to be swept away.
Bombadil – Cavaliers’ Har Hum

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9. Pale Young Gentlemen – Black Forest (Tra La La)

This is just a fantastically rewarding album to listen to. It’s delicate at times, wistful at others, and thumping at others. It’s also more instrumentally accomplished than pretty much anything else you’ll listen to for a long time.
Pale Young Gentlemen – Coal/Ivory

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10. The Pictish Trail – Secret Soundz Vol. 1

For someone who I’ve seen on stage so many times, and seen play for other people’s bands so many times, this record still still wasn’t anything like what I expected. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this ever-surprising dance from sad to playful to downright bizarre wasn’t it. It’s a cracking record though, almost because it seems so surprising.
The Pictish Trail – Winter Home Disco

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I know it’s a bit obvious to do a podcast like this so shortly after my birthday, but it gives me the opportunity to ramble a bit and play some classics I might not otherwise have played.

There are so many wonderful songs about growing old, and I actually think I may have missed most of them.  I have no fear of being old, but for some reason it feels a little more immediate this year but I don’t know why.

So goodnight people, it’s been a pleasure.  Sleep well and don’t be too rough on yourselves.  Take Kirsty’s advice and “don’t be too rough on my cold, cold heart; it’s all I’ve got left to me now.”

That may be the smart-arsed line, but the most important line in this song is the bit where she says that “there’s a light in your eyes tells me somebody’s in and you won’t come the cowboy with me”.  It’s such a crucial judgment, isn’t it.  You take a bet on someone, you throw in your chips and you hope for the best.  So if you’re feeling brave, good luck to you.  Look after her, I’ll be there anytime soon.

Toadcast #47 – The Oldcast

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01. The Rolling Stones – Mother’s Little Helper (00.01)
02. The Band – Rockin’ Chair (07.46)
03. Michelle Shocked – Memories of East Texas (11.21)
04. Hafdis Huld – Tomoko (20.57)
05. Baby Walrus – Some Dawns No Bird Will Sing (28.44)
07. Donny Hue & the Colors – The World Came Running (30.25)
08. Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man (34.21)
08. Soko – The Dandy Cowboys (43.31)
09. Kirsty MacColl – Don’t Come the Cowboy With Me, Sonny Jim (47.04)
10. Neil Young – Old Man (55.09)
11. Jeffrey Lewis – Back When I Was Four (58.12)

Donny Hue’s last album, Folkmote, was a blissfully lovely indie folk pop pleasure, and at first listen to this new record I was a little disappointed at the absence of the more luxuriant embellishments.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  I actually think this is a far better album, although it took a couple of listens.  It’s stripped down to just the man himself, an acoustic guitar and a harmonica and he uses this to evoke the kind of literate, arch protest folk that inspired early Bob Dylan.  In fact, you could easily say that this is in many ways his Bob Dylan record – a bit of a Blonde on Blonde – but I think older music fans than myself might be more likely to point to Woodie Guthrie and his ilk instead.

Musically, instead of Neutral Milk Hotel* this is more evocative of the brilliant Adam Balbo, albeit more acoustic and in perhaps sadder, some of the time, and less angry.  It’s arch, too.  The lyrics are very evocative, occasionally intricate and beautifully put together.  Just taken as an instrument, his voice is inventively and diversely used.  I suppose it needs to be, given how little help such a sparse setup affords a singer’s voice in terms of conveying the emotional centre of the music.

If anything, one of the most impressive things about this album is how cleanly it is able to carry your emotional state along with it.  At the Lover’s Ball is gorgeous and melancholy, but even though it is bookended by two of the sassier, more strident numbers, you find yourself slipping instantly into the mood of the song without so much as noticing the change of attitude.  Beautifully done – this is simply a brilliant album.

Donny Hue & the Colors – Good Time Happening
Donny Hue & the Colors – Alone in the Rain With the Sun

Website | Buy the album from The Kora Records

*See how often I make this reference, now I’ve finally discovered them!  I’ll be pretending I prefer their early demos to their later, more commercial work next.

16. Bob Frank & John Murry – World Without End

It’s a deep, emotional and an amazingly harrowing record.  True murder ballads delivered with pathos, yet never shying away from their inherent horror.   Johnny Cash and Robert Fisher would be proud.

Bob Frank & John Murry – Joaquin Murietta, 1853

review | website | buy

17. Ice Cream Socialists – Belles & Missiles

Sheer, unhinged mental brilliance.  Imagine if indie, pop, rock, and at times even classical, country and hip-hop were let loose in the circus and sung by Kermit the Frog.  It may sound nuts but it works.  Sheer genius.

Ice Cream Socialists – Zagnut’s Revenge

review | myspace | buy

18. The Mabuses – Mabused

The indie band that kidnapped a couple of classical musicians and told them they were in a new band now, without ever explaining to them what indie music is.  It’s laid back indie pop, but the musical inventiveness lifts above just about anything else in this particular territory.

The Mabuses – Havana

review | website | buy

19. Paris Motel – In the Saltpetriere

I think I’ve described these guys as the band on the Marie Celeste and I don’t think I can better that.  Ethereal fairy tales, with a hint of the macabre, although I couldn’t find a single standout track for my Festive 50, the album as a whole is one of the best I’ve heard this year.

Paris Motel -  City of Ladies

review | website | buy

20. Donny Hue & the Colors – Folkmote

I’ll admit this didn’t seem that special to me at the time, although I enjoyed it very much.  There’s just something I find incredibly satisfying about it.  I couldn’t quantify what it is about this album, but it sits perfectly with me nonetheless.

Donny Hue & the Colors – Mountain Piece

review | website | buy