Song, by Toad

Well in all the chatter about the Beeb this week I was strongly considering ignoring it completely in this podcast and giving everyone a welcome break from the wailing and gnashing of teeth… but naah, that was never going to happen, was it.

So there’s a lot of railing against the Beeb and the threat to 6Music and yaddah yaddah you know the script don’t you.  Sadly, and somewhat ironically, we spend so much time talking about the state of the Beeb and the loss their support of small bands will represent, that we actually forgot to talk much about the small bands we ourselves put on the bloody podcast.

Toadcast #111 – The Beebcast

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01. Ballboy – All the Records on the Radio are Shite (03.21)
02. Love is All – Bigger Bolder (13.02)
03. Fredrik – Vinterbarn (15.53)
04. Exrays – Everything Goes (27.16)
05. Phil Ochs – Automation Song (34.33)
06. Ghostkeeper – By Morning (37.26)
07. The Light Footwork – Carlsbad Irrigation Project (47.54)
08. Mondrian – Rise and Fall of a Golden Boy Seen by a Porn Star Using No Sextoy (50.21)
09. The Leaf Library – Losing Places (ISAN Remix) (63.00)

16. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

This is far from Elbow’s best album, in my opinion, but it’s bloody good nevertheless.  There’s a definite confidence about Elbow these days – a swagger almost – that is pretty much the defining characteristic of this record.
Elbow – Starlings

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17. Devotchka – A Mad & Faithful Telling

It’s slightly amazing to think that these guys started off as a novelty cabaret band, considering that they’ve now released two bloody great albums of their own.  It’s more indie rock and a bit less world music, and I think I’d say it was the better for it actually.
Devotchka – Transliterator

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18. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – A Larum

I am not sure why this album finds itself so far down my list.  Maybe by the time it was released I was already so familiar with most of the songs that it failed to register quite the impact it might have made had I been hearing it all for the first time.
Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit – Brown Trout Blues

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19. Honeytrap – Follies in Great Cities

I’ve been waiting some time for this, and it didn’t disappoint.  I don’t know if it’s the tortured wail of the vocals or the demented screech of the fiddle that does it for me, but they’re both amazing.  It’s got a sightly old-fashioned sound about it as well – something of the early nineties that I can’t quite put my finger on.
Honeytrap – Eleven

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20. Ghostkeeper – Ghostkeeper and the Keepers of the Great Northern Muskeg

It’s plain-jane indie rock, this stuff, but for some reason this album really grabbed me.  It’s not earth-shattering, just really really enjoyable from beginning to end.
Ghostkeeper – Cruisin’ the Chev

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Grumble grumble. Every time I go out with those fuckwits I end up fucking hammered.

The biggest problem with bloody musicians is that none of the fuckers have fucking jobs. Consequently concepts like 9am and ‘time to go to fucking work’ have no bloody meaning for the pillocks. Nor does ‘if you get home after 4am stinking of beer your wife might just go mental’. Nobody ever fucking warns me about these things.

Anyhow, I am less than an hour away from my Friday pub lunch down at the King’s Wark. Apart from being the workplace of the rather lovely Izzy, who comments here from time to time, it is also one of the finest scoffing establishments in Edinburgh. Yum. And did I mention that they have beer?

Oh, and I got into another fucking row at a gig, you’ll be amused to hear. During Eagleowl’s show last night some silly Aussie tart came in and started jabbering away, and clearly wasn’t enjoying the music. This is fine, of course; you can’t demand that anyone likes anything, but then again if you aren’t enjoying it then Edinburgh is hardly devoid of other fucking pubs in which you might drink. If you don’t like it, sweethert, then instead of talking through the bastard thing, why not just Go Away. Eventually I suggested, in my usual diplomatic way, that she might wish to enjoy her recreation in the other fucking room if she wasn’t enjoying herself. Unfortunately, in the usual manner of vacuous bimbos, she continued to want to discuss the matter endlessly and wouldn’t just piss off and leave people to enjoy themselves.

To make matters worse, it then turned out that the grotty old mare was there with Matt, who is a friend of mine and a really lovely bloke, and who managed to stay remarkably calm whilst I insulted his pal. I do open my mouth occasionally, people, but it is usually just to change feet.

The worst thing was that later on we bumped into a couple of other plastered members of the Edinburgh music community and they confirmed that they had also heard me shush people a gigs before. So I am becoming known as the Edinburgh Gig Wheeshter which is not, I have to confess, terribly rock and roll. Honestly though – just shut up or go the fuck away. No-one is forcing you to enjoy it, but no-one is stopping just bloody sodding off either.

Grrr. Anyway, friday, bunch of favourites, de-lurk, etc etc…

You will be pleased to know that Roni Brunn from From sent me an email last night and given the monumental ripping she got from everyone, she was incredibly gracious. So whether or not you like her music it seems like she is a nice lass. Feel bad yet? You should.

1. Best Indiana Jones movie.
2. Custard or rice pud?
3. Painful comedian you actually like (NOT Adam fucking Sandler).
4. Drew Barrymore deserves to die. How should she achieve this?
5. Silliest sports kit – with pictures please.

Gerry Mitchell & Little Sparta – Nocturne in C
Neil Young – Heart of Gold
The Wallflowers – Josephine (For those of you who don’t know, this is Dylan Jr.)
Ghostkeeper – Solid Gold
Marcy Playground – All the Lights Went Out
That last song is one I used to listen to a lot when I first met Mrs. Toad. I lived a long way away at the time and we only saw each other every couple of weeks, and I was so dazed and in love I used to sit at my desk and hum along to this all the time… ♫yes today, all the lights went out…♪ I was developing a soft spot for the girl even then, it seems.

Ian from Broken Records sent me this, by the way. The Luminaire fucking rocks.

Fear not, this isn’t quite as horribly overbearing as it could have been. The ranting is actually fairly under control, and the self-important pontificating not quite as reckless as it could so easily have been, partly because I wasn’t quite as liberal with the gin as I have been in the past.

The reason it’s called the Popecast is because of this amazing little story about Catholics in the States issuing death threats to a kid who took a communion wafer out of the church with him.  The hilarious PZ Myers then got involved, threatening to show them what real desecration would look like, and the pandemonium reached all new levels of shrillness.

The thing that really got my goat about all this was not so much that Catholics took offence, but more the level of the hysteria and the language of persecution.  It was honestly described as kidnapping and as a hate crime by various loonies, and there was nothing like enough ‘Oh fucking grow up and get the fuck over it’ being said.  People seem to be seeking all sorts of odd legal protections for their crazy superstitions these days, and I am flabberghasted that a particular kind of idea is being so fucking mollycoddled as to be deemed immune from criticism and contempt.  Come on, people, fuck your religious convictions and learn to deal with the fact that most of the planet thinks they’re crazy – and that applies to atheists as well.

Anyhow, I promise this doesn’t take over too much of the podcast, and that the music is given plenty of space to breathe.

Toadcast #33 – The Popecast

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01. Half Man Half Biscuit – Vatican Broadside (00.07)
02. Beck – Profanity Prayers (02.27)
03. Punch & the Apostles – Nouveau Gypsy (10.20)
04. I Said Yes – The Town Crier (15.07)
05. Albert Hammond Jr. – GFC (20.47)
06. Bonnie Prince Billy – So Everyone (23.51)
07. Tom Lehrer – Vatican Rag (33.53)
08. The Savings & Loan – Catholic Boys in the Rain (37.12)
09. Derek Meins – The Gin Song (42.57)
10. Holly Golightly & the Broke-Offs – Devil Do (48.47)
11. Ghostkeeper – Solid Gold (56.02)
12. Forest Fire – Fortune Teller (60.44)
13. Silver Jews – Strange Victory, Strange Defeat (70.22)
14. Sparrow & the Workshop – Magic Tricks (77.55)
15. The Just Joans – Hey Boy, You’re Oh So Sensitive (79.43)
16. Roy Zimmerman – Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual (85.41)
17. Willard Grant Conspiracy – Evening Mass (97.16)

And just for the fun, here are the two silly songs for you to download:
Tom Lehrer – Vatican Rag[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/TheVaticanRag.mp3]
Roy Zimmerman – Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/RoyZimmerman-TedHaggardIsCompletelyHeterosexual.mp3]

I honestly didn’t get this album the first few times through, and now I have no idea how that could have happened. The hooks, delightful little tunes lapsing into growly guitar, it’s all spot on. Maybe I was just having a dopey week – it does happen, you know.

This reminds me an awful lot of a less strident version of Ravens & Chimes’ brilliant Reichenbach Falls last year, albeit without the ringing piano.  The guitar rhythms are slightly awkward, the whole presentation slipping from the melodic to the vaguely off key and abrupt, and then backagain without much warning.

It’s almost like they’re a band that could write a perfect pop song if they wanted, but they just chose to baffle everyone by smuggling it into their lives under the disguise of an album of discordant indie.  It shouldn’t take long to grow on you, but it may start quite low on your radar.  First time through it just didn’t sound very good, but once I’d separated the sound from the standard difficult indie guitar album and the hooks from the standard radio pop and started to understand quite how brilliantly the two are put together then it really started to climb swiftly in my affections until suddenly I realised that I’d decided that it really is superb.

And what do they do once the growl of the guitar and the slide of the music threatens to get a little much?  They slip in a gorgeous splash of drummer Sarah Houle’s gorgeous vocals or breezy harmonies, just to set you neatly back off balance once again.  It’s excellent; Mrs. Toad will hate it, but I think it’s great!

Ghostkeeper – Cruisin’ the Chev
Ghostkeeper – Afternoon Girl

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