Sparrow and the Workshop recorded one of our first ever Toad Sessions.  In fact, they were the first band I ever recorded all on my lonesome and, after a few rather panicked emails to my little brother who knows about this shit, it all seemed to go pretty well.

So, not content with merely asking Meursault to join them on their next tour of England, they upped the level of niceness by offering to come round the house and record a sort of album preview podcast for their next record.

Spitting Daggers comes out in a couple of weeks, and the band came over to get pissed, to talk utter balls and to play a couple of songs from the album and a few others they’ve been listening to recently.  A good, and very drunken, time was had by all.

Direct download: Toadcast #170 – The Sparracast

01. Tegan & Sara – Walking With a Ghost (00.24)
02. Sparrow and the Workshop – Snakes in the Grass (09.53)
03. Brian Jonestown Massacre – Nevertheless (19.07)
04. Fists – Ascending (22.32)
05. John Knox Sex Club – Run William Run (30.27)
06. Meursault – Flittin’ (40.29)
07. Sparrow and the Workshop – Faded Glory (49.44)
08. Roddy Woomble – Work Like You Can (61.47)
09. Lou Barlow – Caterpillar Girl (66.20)
10. Melanie Safka – Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) (76.32)

I also like coincidences.  I can’t remember where I heard about Nottingham’s Fists for the first time, but I find myself nudged into actually posting about them by the fact that it turns out they are off on tour with Sparrow and the Workshop in early October.  Frustratingly but unsurprisingly there’s no Edinburgh date in there, so if you want to catch either you’ll have to take the Train of Joy to Glasgow and back.

Fists are, to be blunt about it, just another indie band I suppose, but they’re good and I like them.  They touch on some of the cute off-kilter psycho-kindergarten pop of bands like The Lovely Eggs, but never stray too far in that direction.  There’s also a touch of the punch of early Hot Club de Paris or the Futureheads, but then the aggressive wail of the kind of stuff CBGBs famous also makes its presence felt.

They can be melodic when they choose, but these little oases of calm don’t surface all that often in their songs, leaving the listener a little like a beaten spouse who ends up accepting whatever tenderness they can manage from their spouse.

So it may be a familiar recipe in some senses, but I like the blend they’ve achieved, and it reminds me to a degree of Ace Bushy Striptease, who were absolutely ace at Truck this year.  So yes, another reason to go and see Sparrow and the Workshop this Autumn.

Fists – Ace is the Way (from the Olympic Hits EP)

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Fists – Skit (b-side to Cockatoo)

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Recorded for you from the sunny, blazing hot mountains of Andalucia, this one is a little late being uploaded because we only just got back to Scotland and I decided I might as well wait until we got home before uploading it rather than charge all around Spain trying to find somewhere to upload from and then sitting around for ages waiting for the damn thing to… well, you get the picture.

I actually spent much of the week editing Toad Session videos, which seems just a tiny little bit pathetic, even to me.  Still, editing video whilst sat on the terrace with a beer, overlooking spectacular valley scenery isn’t exactly a hardship, but nevertheless, a holiday should be a bit more holiday-y than that I suppose.

I also think I may have happened to accidentally teach Mrs. Toad’s oldest friend’s kids some truly fucking appalling language too.  Honestly, who lets a retard like me anywhere near kids?

Direct download: Toadcast #135 – The Spaincast

01. The Japanese War Effort – Summer Sun Skateboard (02:20)
02. Benni Hemm Hemm – Shipcracks (06:15)
03. Hobart Smith & Texas Gladden – Down in the Willow Garden (13.39)
04. Blind Willie Johnson – I’m Gonna Run to the City of Refuge (16.24)
05. The Beach Boys – Sloop John B (21.02)
06. Sebastian Dangerfield – The Sycamore Tree (24.49)
07. Animal Magic Tricks – Heavenly Bodies (30.57)
08. Keaton Henson – Oliver Dalston Browning (36.27)
09. Fists – Ace is the Way (40.23)
10. Honeytrap – Little Johnny Winter (45.02)