There’s only time for a real quickie this week as I am working my hairy little buttocks off on the Broken Records stuff at the moment.  Still, in your insatiable thirst for pointless, self-indulgent rambling I was sure you’d want to listen to something splendid in the meantime.

There’s no underlying theme to anything either I’m afraid, just me rattling on about some current and very interesting music, as well as a couple of confessions so shocking you may never come back here again.  Looking at the playlist, I’m sure you can guess which ones they are.

So good luck with this, and I am already looking forward to the next one.

Toadcast #25 – The Quickcast[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo25.mp3]

01.  The Futureheads – Broke Up the Time (02.02)
02. Tapes ‘n’ Tapes – Hang Them All (05.05)
03. Meursault – Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues(13.21)
04. The Byrons – Azerbaijan (19.13)
05. The Fire Engines – Candyskin (26.04)
06. The Close Lobsters – Firestation Towers (28.53)
07. Mighty Mighty – Law (34.21)
08. Kim Carnes – When I’m Away From You (41.14)
09. Meat Loaf – Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (44.32)
10. Dirty Summer – War is Bad, Bono is Great (50.02)
11. The Low Lows – Dear Flies Love Spider (53.40)
12. Sargasso Trio – It’s Hot in Hell (58.32)
13. The Extraordinaires – High Five the Cactus (63.11)
14. Modernaire – Distraction (69.40)
15. The Indelicates – Point Me to the West (75.47)
16. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Night of the Lotus Eaters(83.47)

Yes, you did read that correctly.  Meat Loaf.  Fuck off.

The Indelicates were one of my favourite discoveries of last year. I got into them by the route of such internet-friendly song titles as Waiting For Pete Doherty to Die, but it was the truly outstanding singles We Hate the Kids and Julia, We Don’t Live in the Sixties that really made me fall hook, line and sinker.

Well their new single America is now available for pre-order, and will be released on the 24th March. If they can reproduce the jarringly direct cabaret indie rock ‘n’ roll with just a touch of glam that has illuminated their releases thus far then we should be in for something of a treat. The tracklisting for their album is out too, and it really does look a bit special – pre-order that one here.

Anyone who can write lyrics like “I give you head and cook your tea/ You make my daddy weep for me.” has to be worth your consideration. That’s from Stars, below, which is, incidentally, your new favourite song. Once you get over the casual brutality that is.  Julia Indelicate was one of the founder members of the excruciatingly bad Pipettes. I praise the day she ditched that dismal shit-fest and teamed up with Simon – what a waste of genuine talent that could have been.  The fucking Pipettes? Honestly!

The Indelicates – We Hate the Kids
The Indelicates – Waiting For Pete Doherty to Die
The Indelicates – Stars

website | pre-order single

We are bloody well homeless, which is making it very tricky to record podcasts at the moment, so I apologise for the enormous wait since the last one.  I promise I’m not losing interest, it’s just been a logistical nightmare to find the time and space to actually sit down and record of late.  It takes a few hours, not least because my computer is depressingly slow, so please bear with me.

I’ve got a couple of new singles by The Indelicates and The National, as well as a couple of groups I’ve seen live recently, and then some more esoteric stuff towards the end including the highly uncharacteristic Nicole Atkins and a potentially naughty sneak preview of the new Raveonettes album.  Enjoy, Toadlings, enjoy yourselves all to pieces.

Toadcast #15 – The Homeless Podcast

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01. Dragons – Here Are the Roses (01.50)
02. Killing Joke – Eighties (08.28)
03. The Indelicates – Sixteen (13.42)
04. The National – Apartment Story (18.30)
05. Arcade Fire – Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels) (21.51)
06. The Parish Music Box – Heavy Drinkers (30.40)
07. Rick Redbeard – Dreams of the Trees (35.45)
08. Loch Lomond – Tic (41.49)
09. Over the Rhine – Don’t Wait For Tom (48.10)
10. Ravens & Chimes – The House Where You Were Born (52.10)
11. Siberian – Islands Forever (59.27)
12. Ice Cream Socialists – Mr Crazy (65.42)
13. 586 – Rags & Tags (71.47)
14. Nicole Atkins – Brooklyn’s On Fire (75.03)
15. The Raveonettes – Aly Walk With Me (82.22)
16. The Sugars – Monsters (88.27)

Yes, another one. Mwah hah haaa. Lock up the kids, Campfires & Battlefields, because the Song, by Toad musical cuss-o-rama is back on air for more blethering, swearing, slurring and first class tunery.

Actually, I don’t think this one is anything like as good as the first, if I’m honest. It’s a bit over-long at fifteen songs so I think in future I’m going to limit myself to ten or twelve at the most, not least because my shitbox of a computer starts having a panic once I’ve stuffed that many audio files into a single project. So, fifteen songs then, with a bit of an emphasis on late 80s jangly indie guitar and containing one of the most brilliant ever drunken fuck-ups about three-quarters of the way through. Beware the horrors of letting your children turn into indie kids, people! So a bit too long, and occasionally too much inconsequential chatter, but we live and learn and the next one will be better, I promise.

Toadcast #2, the 80s English Indie One

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1. My Teenage Stride – Terror Bends (01.00)
2. Honeytrap – Let’s Do Naked Dancing (03.37)
3. The Mutton Birds – The Queen’s English (09.38)
4. The Veils – The Wild Son (17.38)
5. The 63 Crayons – Devils (21.40)
6. The Smiths – I Started Something (26.05)
7. Honeytrap – Death Before the Silver Screen (31.03)
8. Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Morning is Broken (36.14)
9. The Indelicates – New Art For the People (41.57)
10. The Indelicates – Stars (45.51)
11. MJ Hibbett & the Validators – The Lesson of The Smiths (50.32)
12. The Specials – Guns of Navarone (55.02)
13. Echo & the Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (57.20)
14. Honeytrap – Mussolini’s Son (66.06)
15. Frank Turner – Heartless Bastard Motherfucker (73.25)

London’s rather splendid Indelicates have a new single (above) out in the first week of July, and I am extremely excited.  I’ve been aware of The Indelicates for quite a while, partly due to their fabulously titled song Waiting For Pete Doherty to Die, which I downloaded from some evil and Communist downloady place in about January or February.  Oh sorry, it’s not Commies any more is it, I meant some evil terrorist place.

Anyhow, I really liked what I heard, but due to me being a bit slack and there not being a CD version it has taken me this long to get my arse in gear to get hold of their brilliant single We Hate the Kids.  Basically, I don’t have a record player and I detest the way iTunes force you to sign your life over to all things Apple, which makes me something of a pain in the arse for small record labels who can only afford to release one format of their singles.  Anyhow, the chaps over at Sad Gnome Records were kind enough to help me out and I am glad they did, because it’s absolutely superb.

We Hate the Kids is smartly written indie song, topical, direct and, despite the lack of an obvious hook, really bloody catchy.  Listen to the lyrics too, because it’s an enormous pleasure to have to bother doing this again, at last.  As well as the single, there are a couple of remixes (meh) as well, and two really quite phenomenal b-sides.  Burn All the Photographs and Stars make me wish The Indelicates had written the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge.  It may have turned into some sort of Tim Burton meets Delicatessen ghoulish nightmare, but bugger me it would have been worth watching.  Over the driving indie of Photographs soars Julia’s theatrical Sparks-like vocal, giving the whole song a sort of transcendent quality that I really struggle to put into words.  Stars is a sort of nightmarish, faux-naif modern fairytale which, again, contrasts between Julia’s innocent-sounding voice with really quite harsh lyric, resulting in a song with real impact on an emotional level beyond the sheer enjoyment of the music.

I happen to have heard Julia, We Don’t Live in the Sixties already, although I’m not entirely sure how I got my hands on it.  It’s a terrific song, so I really strongly recommend going out and buying a copy when it comes out.  You can get the single here, and earlier Indelicates stuff from Sad Gnome, here.

And never mind subversive lyrics, if I have seen album artwork more disturbing than We Hate the Kids (below), then I can’t remember it.  There is something really quite unpleasant and jarring about that image, hard to achieve in this day and age.

And finally, of course, here are some samples for your aural pleasure…

The Indelicates – Waiting For Pete Doherty to Die (Demo)
The Indelicates – Stars
The Indelicates – New Art For the People (Demo)

Album! Album! Album! Album!

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