Snooze!  Yes, a genuine, proper weekend snooze was had this morning and it was fucking amaaaaazing!  I haven’t actually had the chance to lazily sleep in for fucking months and it was an enormous pleasure.  And not even a guilty one, because I genuinely don’t have to rush about being efficient today.  Awesome!

This week’s podcast contains a fair bit of plugging, I have to confess.  Not all for myself though.  I plug the Kurt Vile tour, Jonnie Common’s Deskjob as well as his new album, the new Oates Field album and the new album by The Leg.

Then, just for good measure, I also plug the upcoming Ides of Toad gigs, and two new releases on Song, by Toad Records.  I hope it doesn’t get too much for you, but I don’t think so, because all the songs are very good and hopefully you know me well enough by now to know full well that I don’t plug anything I don’t genuinely like.  So there.  Enjoy.  That’s an order.

Direct download: Toadcast #190 – The Snoozecast

01. Jonnie Common – Infinitea (00.21)
02. The Oates Field – Nae Luck (09.50)
03. Adam Balbo – Just Singing a Song (15.37)
04. The Leg – Twitching Stick (17.22)
05. Kurt Vile – IN/OUT Blues (23.40)
06. Easter – Damp Patch (30.03)
07. Trips and Falls – I Learned Sunday Morning, on a Wednesday (38.41)
08. Rob St. John – Your Phantom Limb (41.39)
09. Sea Pinks – Fountain Tesserae (46.47)
10. Tuesday Glass – Franklin (50.16)
11. John Knox Sex Club – Above Us the Waves (59.23)

Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr
Audio: zip dowload (right click, save as)

This session came together in an extremely short space of time, and as such I am extremely pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out – from an audio point of view in particular these are some of my favourite session recordings.

We invited Milk Maid to play an Ides of Toad gig in June, they arrived the night before the gig, and we happened to be having beers and listening to some records when I mentioned that we sometimes record in our living room.  I showed them the Scottish Enlightenment Toad Session, and they suggested recording a session too, the next day, before the gig.

Recording a band with a full drum kit, two guitarists and a bass in one room made me nervous enough, and actually getting anyone to help seemed improbable at such short notice, but thankfully Fee and Rory were able to make it down, so I owe them both a massive debt of gratitude for their help.

As per usual we have a full set of photos, freely downloadable session mp3s, a full interview podcast (immediately below, and with the tracklisting at the bottom of the page) and videos of both the whole day (above) and each individual song (below).  Enjoy!

Direct download: Toadcast #186 – Milk Maid Toad Session

Milk Maid – Can’t You See (Toad Session)

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Milk Maid – Girl (Toad Session)

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Milk Maid – Stir So Slow (Toad Session)

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Milk Maid – Not Me (Toad Session)

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01. Milk Maid – Can’t You See (Toad Session) (04.11)
02. Women – Black Rice (12.14)
03. Weird Era – Summer Heights (15:26)
04. Milk Maid – Girl (Toad Session) (20.19)
05. Irk the River – Mind That Child (26.22 )
06. Daily Life – No Eyes (28.43)
07. Milk Maid – Stir So Slow (Toad Session) (36.32)
08. Evan Dando – Hard Drive (45.12)
09. Easter – Holy Island (48.24)
10. Milk Maid – Not Me (Toad Session) (62.50)

 Another one of those incredibly difficult band names to track down on Google.  Not as incriminating as Teens, Girls, Women or (shudder) Sexy Kids, but nevertheless, you try tracking down a band called Easter when all you know is that they have a song called Holy Island.  I sifted through a lot of religious shit and quasi-spiritual bollocks before I finally tracked them down.

I was actually introduced to this band by the lads from Milk Maid, when they came in to record their Toad Session and play an Ides of Toad gig a month or so ago.  The asked to put Holy Island on the Session podcast, which was the first I’d heard of the band.

Having finally tracked them down on Soundcloud, I am really enjoying their stuff; it’s quite grandiose, actually, and just a little bit proggy in places.  There are even moments when I am reminded of bands like Shearwater, albeit more in the emotional character of the songs, rather than any musical resemblance.

In amongst the clatter and the engine noise of the guitars, the actual vocal is cold and a little bit unwelcoming.  I don’t mean that as a criticism though, because it gives the songs a nice, distinct character of their own, but again I find myself reminded just a little of Jonathan Meiburg.  It’s not that it’s an unemotional voice, more that the emotions to which it does succumb are resented and bottled up as much as possible – almost as if their breaking through into the song feels like some kind of failure to the singer, who doesn’t really trust us enough yet to really want to share too much.

It’s hard to make much of just three songs, as I say constantly on these pages, but this lot look really promising.

Easter – Somethin’ American

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