I may sound like I work for the BBC, but if anyone asks me, I do tend to tell them that I am not really all that English.  My mum was born and raised in Moss Side though, which is one of the scummier parts of Manchester, and I lived in the city myself for a year apiece at the ages of seventeen and twenty-four, so if I am actually from anywhere in England in any meaningful sense, then it is probably Manchester.

I’ve always harboured a sort of simmering resentment for the place though, in that unfair way you do when your life is shit for all sorts of reasons and it ends up rather unreasonable reflecting on where you are living at the time.  I’ve been through this all before on the Manchester Podcast, but I’ll rehash it here quickly, just to explain myself a little.

The first time around was my first year of university.  Compared to everyone around me in Vienna and Singapore, where I was raised, I was really quite English.  I liked English and American music, I supported Manchester United and I visited England quite regularly to see my family in Manchester.  When I actually moved to England for the first time, however, I found it didn’t really work like that, that I wasn’t very English at all, and promptly endured a year of pretty severe culture shock.

The second time around I had been distracted for a year after graduation by accidentally becoming a restaurant manager, had been offered a design internship in Milan, only for that to fall through and for me to find myself stranded in Manchester again, flat broke, working in a pub and having a very hard time of getting the job for which my degree had allegedly prepared me.  This led to a few too many conversation which went roughly like this:

“What do you do for a job then?”
[I look around myself in a confused manner, as if the fact that I am standing behind a bar, pouring drinks and then demanding money in exchange for those drinks should make the answer to that question somewhat obvious.]
“I’m a barman.”
“No, I mean as a real job.”
“I am a bar man.”
“But surely you’re far too well-spoken and intelligent to be just a barman!”
“Well, you’d think.”

It was shit, but I did listen to some fine music while I was there.  Here are a couple of songs, one from the first spell and one from the second:

James – One of the Three (buy here)

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Yo La Tengo – Last Days of Disco (buy here)

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Anyhow, after my shite experiences living there have tainted my memories of Manchester for the last seventeen years, things have slowly started to change.  A few years ago I discovered Red Deer Club and Humble Soul, two of my favourite independent record labels in the UK.  Why, I am not sure, but for the last year or two I have just been bumping into one cool Manchester music enterprise after another, and suddenly I find my negative associations with the place starting to evaporate.

Firstly, I came across Cloud Sounds, now my favourite podcast, and the blogs Folly of Youth, A New Band a Day and Pigeon Post.  As well as being good in their own right, all of these lovely people have been incredibly supportive of what we’re up to here as well.

Secondly, Ruth from Fat Northerner kindly invited me to take part in two Unconvention events, one in Macclesfield, where my dear friend Tom Smith is from, and one in Salford, where United and stabbings are from.  Around the same time I went to last year’s In the City as well, so I ended up spending a fair bit of time in Manchester last year and honestly, I had a blast.

So with my good relationship with the city almost entirely restored, I now also seem to be finding all sorts of interesting music stuff happening there too, and have ordered a pile of vinyl from small labels in Manchester recently.

The above picture is the vinyl starter pack from Sways Records, which just dropped through my letterbox this morning, and I can’t wait to get stuck into it tonight.  I bought this for the debut single by The Louche FC, which can be heard below.  I first heard these guys on a Cloud Sounds podcast, and am trying to get them up to Edinburgh for a live show sometime soon.

The Louche F.C – Motorcycle Au Pair Boy by sways

I’ve also just received Suffering Jukebox singles from Milk Maid and Manchester’s current A&R darlings Brown Brogues, and have been playing them loads recently.  Brown Brogues are playing SXSW this year, and because they make a right old racket I might actually be able to persuade Mrs. Toad to go and see them.

I Just Don’t Know by brown brogues

Also, Static Caravan sent me through a whole pile of awesome 7″ aural pleasure recently as well – help yourself here.  I found them by searching out the debut single by The Maladies of Bellafontaine, and ended up with a pile of other records as well.

And finally, Debt Records is the home to the likes of Red Tides (whose lead singer – I think – is absolutely lovely – I accidentally bumped into her upstairs at Fuel Cafe in Withington, while she was doing some embroidery or something, if I remember – this whole thing has been bit random) and Louis Barabbas & the Bedlam Six who are, of course, playing this week’s Ides of Toad gig at Henry’s.  Debt Records’ ethos is to embrace live performance, focussing on good gigs in interesting places, as a way of reacting to an environment where in order to become popular recorded music is becoming more and more boring.

So apart from all these interesting projects which I have happened across in the last year or so, what I’ve found really interesting has been the self-image of Manchester’s music scene.  A certain friend of mind has dismissed it as being ‘full of fucking sneering hipsters’, and given the city itself reminds me heavily of Glasgow, I think I always thought of Manchester as fashionable hipster haven.

But when I told one of my friends there that Edinburgh is good to work in because all the ambitious fashion whores tend to fuck off to Glasgow sharpish, which makes it hard to make progress here, but at least tends to mean that the people who remain are interesting and stubborn and not focussed on celebrity or stardom, their response was ‘Oh right, a bit like Manchester is with London then?’

And I suppose I’d never thought of it that way before. I’d always thought of Manchester as somewhere cool, somewhere to kind of envy, as a lot of other Edinburgh people think of Glasgow I suppose.  I do forget that no matter how much you achieve, especially in something as status-orientated as the music industry, there is always someone more successful to cast envious glances towards.  So next time we Edinburghers whinge about Glasgow, maybe we should just stop whining and be grateful we aren’t as isolated as Aberdeen.

Right, given we’ve come down to Manchester for the Meursault gig, I thought I might make a podcast based around the two years I spent living here.  As I mentioned on this week’s Friday Five, however, those were really not very happy times so basically this podcast is just a great big hour-long whinge about how shit my life was a couple of times a few years ago.

Nah, not really.  I mean, I do describe why life was tough then but it really isn’t just a great big moan, I promise.  For some reason the music in my life at those times seems to have really stuck in my head and become incredibly strongly associated with the period in question.  Partly, I suppose, because the emotional succour you get from music when things are a bit rough is something you’re grateful enough for for it to really form an important connection.

The other aspect is that on both those occasions I had so little music with me that the stuff I did have got played over and over again, so a really small amount of stuff really dominated my listening habits at that point, and became incredibly strongly intertwined with all of my memories of the time.  So, er, yes.  Here you go: The Manchester Podcast.

Toadcast #88 – The Manchester Podcast

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01. Pearl Jam – Dissident (03.16)
02. The Newcranes – Box of Shadows (08.53)
03. James – Say Something (17.17)
04. The Lemonheads – Into Your Arms (20.30)
05. Blur – Clover Over Dover (27.00)
06. Yo La Tengo – On Our Way to Fall (39.47)
07. Moby – Southside (41.31)
08. Calexico – Removed (48.10)
09. Jolene – Constantinople (51.46)
10. The Magnetic Fields – Yeah! Oh, Yeah! (57.57)

It’s that time of the week once again.  At 6.30pm, British Summer Time, myself and Dylan from Blueback Hotrod will be live on Fresh Air, Edinburgh’s student radio station.  There will be no theme, no coherence and no real attempt to do anything more dynamic than just chatter about music, so please do tune in and listen to us blether.

Rather than emailing or (grrr) tweeting, I thought I might just leave this as an open thread for those who want to contribute, and I’ll add the playlist live as we go along.

Click the big ‘Listen Live’ button on this page to tune in, between 6.30pm and 8pm tonight.

01. The Bluetones – Glad to See You Back Again
02. James – Sound
03. Emily Scott – Pageant Queen
04. Frightened Rabbit – Old Old Fashioned (Live)
05. Kid Canaveral – Teenage Fanclub Song
06. Popup – Lucy, What are You Trying to Say?
07. Blur w. Francoise Hardy – To the End
08. Gene – Dolce & Gabanna or Nowt
09. Meursault – Hard On (Charles Latham Cover)
10. Charles Latham – Nite Man
11. Withered Hand – Religious Songs
12. Boo Radleys – Almost Nearly There
13. White Antelope – Silver Dagger
14. Cancel the Astronauts – I am the President of Your Fanclub and Last Night I Followed You Home

Cheers, see you next week at the same time.

I’ve been on Blogfresh Radio a few times in the past, and always enjoyed the experience. I used to chat to Bill Pearis, which was always fun, but he’s moved on now. These days when I talk to them it’s with a chap called Dev Sherlock who has proved to be just as much fun to chat to as Bill. A little too much fun actually – it seems to be traditional that when I talk to Blogfresh I prattle on endlessly for fucking ages, and then they face the unenviable task of trying to cut it down to a concise minute or so. Poor bastards – still, someone’s got to make them work for their money.

Anyhow, in addition to the more usual approach where a blogger chats a little bit to introduce a song they’re really enjoying at the moment, Blogfresh have very kindly done a profile on Song, by Toad on their latest show. There’s inevitably vanity at play here, of course there is, but I am nonetheless really chuffed that they decided to feature this blog on their recent show. It’s nice because I like what they’re doing, and they’re nice people. So go an listen and make a point of listening regularly. Their shows are short and sweet, unlike my rambling dispatches, and give you a really good taster of what’s going on on the blogs that week. It’s weird to hear a blogger’s actual voice, because sometimes I’d imagined something entirely different, but rather cool nonetheless.

In other news, I am back on Fresh Air Radio (click on the Listen Live thingy) this weekend. I have two shows, Saturday 12-2pm and Sunday 2-4pm both this weekend and next.  So if you want to hear me successfully managing to not swear – no seriously, it happens – tune in.  It’s Freshers Week at the uni as well so I might concentrate on a bit of an introduction to the Edinburgh music scene, and also play some songs from my own time as a first year student. That’ll give the game away something chronic about just how bloody old I am but fuck it, why not, it sounds fun. And there’s nothing to help people settle down and get over their nerves about being new to a place that finding some silly old fart to snigger at.

Here’s a couple that I might well consider:
Lemonheads – Being Around (Acoustic)
James – Say Something

Or my first year in Glasgow:
Gene – Sick, Sober & Sorry
Pulp – Common People

As my stay in the Hotel Toadifornia draws to a close, I’m leaving you with something very special indeed.

It really was a shame that James found themselves lumped in with the silliness of the ‘Madchester’ scene of the early 1990s. Okay, so they released a couple of crowd-pleasing little pop songs such as Sit Down and Come Home, but there was always so much more to the band than that.

I used the word ‘masterpiece’ in the Swagger review, and even as I typed it I wondered what word I was going to use today to describe Laid.

I can’t think of anything better.

James have recorded a lot of good music in their career, but they haven’t released another album that approaches Laid in terms of consistency, craftsmanship or creativity; and a great deal of the credit for that has to go to Brian Eno for his exquisite production of the record.

The album was largely recorded late at night in candle-lit studios, and that’s exactly how it sounds. There’s an enveloping darkness to the sound of this record; and a quiet, eerie stillness at it’s core.

That’s not to say these songs aren’t dynamic, they very much are; but they don’t achieve their power through mere volume, but instead by paying close attention to minute details in the arrangements. Most of what we hear is acoustic; guitar, fiddle, percussion. There are some clean electric guitars, and even the odd synthesiser flourish, but the instruments are blended and layered so that the overall effect is organic, artisan and quite haunting.

To see what I mean listen to the interplay between the fiddle and slide guitar on Five-O as they entwine and swirl around each other. It’s actually incredibly complex as each instrument takes its turn in the foreground, and the result is quite hypnotic.

Which brings us to the songs I’ve chosen. Each one is subdued at the beginning, but builds incrementally to a thrilling climax. Without getting too academic, the intricasy of each arrangement is highlighted by a particular moment in each song as the arrangements build. (Here’s where the trainspotting starts!) At 2:32 in Out To Get You, listen for the faint ‘ting’ of a small bell, possibly a triangle, that signals the swell to the final choruses, it’s barely auidible, but it heralds the lift that’s about to happen in the song. There’s a chord change at 2:01 in Dream Thrum that instills an already dark and brooding song with a palpable sense of menace; and, on One Of The Three listen for the tambourine on each downbeat from 2:33 that drives the song towards its conclusion.

You get the picture. This is a record that means a lot to me, I’ve listened to it more than once or twice over the past fifteen years. However, despite all that wonderful detail in the arrangement, it’s the mood and emotion of these songs that still gets to me. There’s a contradiction to this record that’s irresistible, the album is by turns dark, chilling and ethereal; but then it’s warm and reassuring. Maybe there’s something primal and universal in the themes of longing and loneliness that are reflected in both the music and the lyrics.

Or maybe it’s just a fucking excellent album.

James – Dream Thrum
James – Out To Get You
James – One Of The Three
James – Five-O

Milestones # 1: Milltown Brothers – Slinky

Milestones # 2: The Blue Aeroplanes – Swagger

I’m kind of curious to know what the 90s revival is going to spit out. I mean, it’s presumably inevitable that some time in about 2012 or so we all start looking back at that decade with a sort of patronising, nostalgic affection, but I am still struggling to entirely picture it.

Firstly, perhaps because of my age, I don’t yet look at the 90s with a kind of horrified fashion thrill that is something like revulsion mixed with fascination. This kind of curious horror preceded both the 70s and 80s revival, for me, but I can’t quite see what was so incredibly 90s about the 90s just yet. I’m sure it will come.

I also can’t quite picture the music that will have to be critically re-appraised. The 90s was the era of Britpop, basically, but Britpop doesn’t really sound either laughably old-fashioned or woefully misguided to my ears. Sure, there were shit bands, but the movement itself doesn’t make me cringe enough to be the pre-cursor to a good ironic reinvention. Maybe this will come with time.

Still, I may not be able to imagine quite what music the 90s revival will seize upon and drag back up to the peak of Mount Revisionism just yet. I can’t picture quite what that smug prick of a hipster will put on the stereo with an unbearable look of arch irony and condescending, self-satisfied superiority while all his friends gape in awe at his audacity. ‘Oh my god, dude, that’s like so nineties.’ Mind you, perhaps not. Because things being ‘like so‘ anything is just like so nineties to begin with.

Anyway, I remember making a tape once which I called Learn to Bop With the Brits, which was basically a 90s Revival tape made in about 1998. It had some Wonderstuff, some Inspiral Carpets, a bit of Morrissey, some Echobelly, a bit of James and god knows what else on it. The tape itself is long gone, and I barely remember what was on the thing, but it wouldn’t make a bad starting point for that 90s revival that we’re presumably all going to succumb to in the next four or five years.

Inspiral Carpets – Saturn V
James – Sound
Belly – Untitled & Unsung
Wonderstuff – Welcome to the Cheap Seats
Morrissey – Seasick, Yet Still Docked

I’m trying to kill two birds with one stone with this podcast.  Firstly, I am throwing in a couple of songs that I wanted to put on the Contrast Podcast episode entitled Young a few weeks ago.  I was away at my brother’s wedding at the time, and I never got the chance so here they are.

Secondly, a good while ago a regular reader of mine called Allen Lulu tagged me with one of these internetty meme thingies whereby you write about the music that was in the charts the year you turned 18.  Well for me that year was 1993, but the chart music was abysmal, so I couldn’t possibly do that to you.  Instead I had a look at what I was listening to myself from that year and came across so many excellent old songs I haven’t heard for ages that a quick post turned into an entire podcast.  And this is that podcast – me at age 18.

Toadcast #9 – The Folly of Youth

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1. The Spin Doctors – Two Princes (03.21)
2. Stereo MCs – Connected (09.08)
3. Radiohead – Anyone Can Play Guitar (13.41)
4. Stone Temple Pilots – Plush (17.30)
5. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Loverman (25.12)
6. Levellers – This Garden (31.29)
7. James – Five-O (38.24)
8. The Long Blondes – Once & Never Again (6Music Acoustic Session) (43.12)
9. Gogol Bordello – Never Want to be Young Again (49.48)
10. The Mathletes – Linger (Cranberries Cover) (55.27)
11. Pearl Jam – Daughter (57.45)
12. Blind Melon – No Rain (63.19)
13. Soul Asylum – New World (67.57)
14. The Lemonheads – If I Could Talk I’d Tell You (71.50)
15. Portishead – Mysterons (75.24)
16. Engine Alley – Song For Someone (82.26)

More errant podcastery from your favourite slippery green amphibian. This week I find myself yelling abuse at JC who writes a terrible blog called The Vinyl Villain and is currently stranded in Toronto for a few months, far away from his Glasgow home. JC was pretty much the first blogger to take any interest in Song, by Toad in its formative days and I have always been rather grateful for the encouragement Jim showed me back when I was starting out.

As such I thought I’d play a few songs from his favourite groups, a couple of things he’s brought us in the last few months and some songs about missing folk, seeing as he’ll presumably be pining like a teenager for the lovely Mrs. Villain. Well, that or masturbating himself into a zinc-deficient coma, of course.

Either way, hope you’re enjoying yourself JC. Here’s some bloody songs for ya!

Toadcast #5 – Distant Villainy

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1. Belly – Trust In Me (01.54)
2. Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars (08.30)
3. The Doledrums – Midweek Dreamer (12.50)
4. Waylon Jennings – Dukes of Hazzard Theme (15.20)
5. Billy Bragg – Wishing the Days Away (Ballad Version) (18.33)
6. Alex Cornish – This One’s For You (24.28)
7. Adam Balbo – Rock Ballad (31.02)
8. Elbow – Fugitive Motel (36.24)
9. R.E.M. – Half a World Away (41.21)
10. The Doledrums – He Said (47.14)
11. The Meteors – Out of Time (51.21)
12. James – Say Something (55.33)
13. Thunderegg – Long Way From Home (59.50)
14. The Pendulums – Brand New Song (66.52)

Well chaps I am absolutely buggering knackered, but never fear, for the eminently lovely Mrs. Toad and myself are off on holiday tomorrow for two weeks. Thank fucking bollocks for that – the last time we had a proper break was this time last year for our wedding and even that involved a bit too much organising and signing things and so on to be entirely restful.

Will this year’s holiday be restful? Well who knows. My little brother is getting married and I have to give a speech, so by this time next week you could be talking to the man who ruined his little brother’s big day. I say this only because he lives out in Boston and is marrying n American girl. She is brilliant, so no worries there, but about a hundred and fifty of her friends and family members will be at this bloody thing, none of whom I have met before, and the chances of my giving an even vaguely coherent speech without mortally offending half of them seem slim.

Ultimately, I get the impression Americans take weddings terribly seriously, and as you know I don’t really take much of much seriously at all. Also, as my regular readers will know, I swear, rage, rail and slander. This is pretty much my entire sense of humour, apart from baiting people who take anything at all too seriously. What are my chances of giving a speech to ahundred and fifty American Christians without causing mortal offence? I would say Nil.

So fingers crossed, chaps. Wish me luck. If all goes well, Ben will still be speaking to me at this time next week, but I wouldn’t exactly put more than a fiver on it.

In terms of the blog, I have uploaded a song for each day I’m away and have written a few mini-posts in advance, timed to be posted once a day for the two weeks I’m off. I’ll pop in from time to time to say hi and play nicely with people in the comments section, and I have pre-recorded a new podcast to go up next weekend. So you won’t be entirely neglected, but I won’t be matching JC’s awe-inspiring dedication over at the Vinyl Villain and blogging away all through my holiday. Partly because I want to stay married and partly because, obsessive though I am, I am sorry to have to confess that I just don’t love you all that much. It’s my fucking holidays, cut me some slack.

Giant Sand – Wayfaring Stranger/Fly Me to the Moon
James Yorkston – Someplace Simple
Yo La Tengo – I Feel Like Going Home
The Postal Service – We Will Become Silhouettes
James – Runaground