PHEW!  Thank fuck that’s (more or less) over.  This year has been a bit full-on, I have to confess, but the bulk of the hard work now seems more or less over.  Our last release (Lil Daggers) came out last week, and our label Christmas Party is now done and dusted which leaves me a relatively comfortable run into the Christmas period from now on, which is some for which I am quite grateful.

Nevertheless, The Leg album, the Jesus H. Foxx album and the second album by Yusuf Azak are all on the menu for early next year, so those need to be nudged into motion, so it’s not exactly like my feet are going up and my hands reaching for the remote control and a bag of popcorn.

Well maybe, but mostly between Christmas and New Year, I can’t really bring myself to work then!

Next week I’ll be going through the Song, by Toad readers’ top five songs and albums of the year vote, so if you want to chip in then just fill in your top albums of the year on this week’s Friday Five.

Direct download: Toadcast #204 – The Phewcast


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01. Coolrunnings – Rusk (00.04)
02. The National – I Need My Girl (09.35)
03. Islet – This Fortune (15.44)
04. Saintseneca – Acid Rain (20.45)
05. Doe Paoro – Can’t Leave You (25.46)
06. Mark Lanegan Band – The Gravedigger’s Song (32.47)
07. Micah P. Hinson – My God, My God (40.30)
08. Liars – Scissor (43.17)
09. Jackson C. Frank (51.43)
10. Monster Rally – Creeping Ghost (58.22)
11. Monster Rally – Sahara (59.57)
12. Monster Rally – Crystal Ball (62.09)

Fresh Air, after giving its hard-working students an entirely deserved and not at all excessive four months off over the Summer, is back on the interweb airwaves this week.  And you know what that means, don’t you?  Yes, Ruth calling me names for an hour and a half while we play songs!  Hooray!  Kind of.

We’ve been off the air for ages, and I actually haven’t seen Ruth all that much in the intervening time, so it will be nice to have a chat and catch up, although I promise to try and do most of that whilst the songs are playing so as not to bore you too much.

Live from 8pm (UK time) – listen here.

The player on the page linked to above can be a little flaky, so just pause and un-pause it and that should sort it out.  Alternatively I am pretty certain you can find us on iTunes quite easily.  We’ll be updating the playlist live below as we go along, so feel free to chip in with comments during the show and we’ll… well, probably just tell you to piss off, really.

1. Meursault – Crank Resolutions
2. Jackson C. Frank – Blues Run the Game
3. Sweet Baboo – I’m a Dancer
4. Onions – I Want to be a Dancer
5. The Decemberists – Down by the Water
6. The National – Terrible Love (New Version)
7. The Driftwood Singers – Coco Ellis
8. Oz St. Fossils – The Jeweller’s Daughter
9. Trips and Falls – I Learned Sunday Morning, on a Wednesday
10. REM – I Believe
11. Ray’s Vast Basement – The Story of Lee
12. Pet Shop Boys – What Have I Done to Deserve This?
13. Sparta Philharmonic – Devotion
14. Nick Drake – Blues Run the Game

I have pretty much had to burrow backwards in time to discover where this song came from, but find it I think I finally have.

The last time I ever bought a Counting Crows records was Hard Candy, and I was sufficiently underwhelmed not to bother with them again.  I was already rather losing interest by that point anyway, but two brilliant singles changed my mind.  Not the singles themselves, mind you, but their quite splendid b-sides.  Blues Run the Game was one of those and it never occurred to me that it was anything other than a somewhat unfortunately abandoned moment of Crows genius.

As I have a habit of doing with music I love, I put it on a CD for my folks and of course they loved it too.  However, some months later my Dad came back to me and said ‘Did you know that was originally a Simon & Garfunkel song?  I just heard their version of it – it’s brilliant as well.’  Again, I never really questioned this either, given Simon & Garfunkel were pretty great songwriters whether or not you like their soft-focus hippy delivery, which I do most of the time.  And it would make sense that Adam Duritz & Co. would be exploring the back catalogue of legendary American songwriters on their b-sides.

Anyhow, yesterday it turned out that this still wasn’t the whole story.  Before striking folk gold as half of Simon & Garfunkel Paul Simon spent some time in the burgeoning English early 60s folk scene where he happened to produce the only complete album by another American refugee, the extremely troubled Jackson C. Frank.  I was reading this post at Motel de Moka and I discovered that, following a fire in his school classroom which killed several classmates, Frank was able to use the insurance money to travel to England, which resulted in his collaboration with Simon.  Apparently he is still well known in folkie circles, although I’d never heard of him, but the likes of Bert Jansch and Nick Drake rated him very, very highly apparently.  To read the whole story go to Motel de Moka – I’d really recommend it.  It’s a rather sad tale of a troubled artist whose problems ultimately overwhelmed his artistic output, and apart from a few abortive session tracks in 1975 he only ever released a single, self-titled album.

So this post is the result of one long, obtuse train of musical thought that started for the music back in 1964 and for myself back in about 2001.  Given the fact that for so many people the work of Jackson C. Frank has largely vanished into the obscurity of time I somehow feel that I am performing some sacred act of reverence here in passing it on to a new audience to hear.  Enjoy the songs.

Counting Crows – Blues Run the Game
Simon & Garfunkel – Blues Run the Game
Jackson C. Frank – Blues Run the Game
Jackson C. Frank – Marlene

There’s no real theme to this week’s podcast, but there’s plenty of splendid new music. Basically I felt so guilty about the crazy rant that the Pink Podcast descended into that I have tried to say as little as possible in this one.

I’m off to the End of the Road Festival this weekend, which is why I recorded an advance post, so you’ll be enjoying this while I’m away getting rained on. The lineup is just phenomenal actually, so it should be really quite a splendid weekend. Tim from the Daily Growl will be there, as will Jamie from the Runout Groove and I believe possibly Sweeping the Nation as well, so it may turn into quite a blog-in. Tragically, however, I will be without my Midget Companion. Mrs. Toad is away in Australia (jammy bitch) with work and doesn’t get back in time to come along, so I will be taking a book and enjoying the pleasure of my own company as best I can.

There was at least one inevitable balls-up though – when describing the Catherine Howe song I said ‘I can’t believe this is current – it sounds so old-fashioned!’ and I have since discovered that in fact it is a 2007 re-release of a 1971 record which may just explain that. In the process I also discovered that I am something of a fucking idiot.

So, End of the Road, and in the meantime, enjoy the podcast – Toad on his very best behaviour!

Toadcast #11 – Not Sure What This One’s About[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo11.mp3]

01. A.A. Bondy – Vice Rag (00.52)
02. White Rabbits – The Plot (03.39)
03. The Courteeners – Cavorting (08.19)
04. Alaska in Winter – Close Your Eyes/We Are Blind (11.46)
05. Beirut – Fork & Knife (La Fete) (18.32)
06. Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost (21.57)
07. Nathan Lawr & the Minotaurs – We Go Down (26.52)
08. David Dondero – Rothko Chapel (30.34)
09. Jackson C. Frank – Blues Run the Game (38.15)
10. Calexico – All the Pretty Horses (41.45)
11. Catherine Howe – In the Hot Summer (48.53)
12. Little Name – How to Swim & Live (53.31)
13. Emma Pollock – Adrenaline (56.36)
14. George Pringle – Fellini For Prime Minister (63.52)
15. Octoberman – By the Wayside (67.27)
16. The 1900s – When I Say Go (74.54)
17. (The Real) Tuesday Weld – Kix (79.44)