I still can’t get over just how good that version of Flittin’ is.  Bloody hell. More here.

One of the bonuses about having a Proper Job is that you get to skive.  We self-employed people never really get to skive, because the work doesn’t magically vanish at the hands of an over-eager intern or a grumbling old pro, it just sits there until the weekend or some evening or something and then stares at you accusingly until you inevitably have to do it anyway, and generally at a far less convenient time than if you’d just got the fuck on with it in the first place.

The last time anyone actually paid me to do anything we used to go to the King’s Wark for absolutely awesome Friday lunches – fine scran, a couple of pints and back to waste the afternoon.  You can see how the Friday Fives came about – after that lunch I was never capable of actually doing much else!

Anyhow, today I am awarding myself a skive.  Mrs. Toad has been away this week, and whenever she goes away I work really late, so I’ve got a lot more done this week than I was expecting to, and so you know what?  Fuck it, I am going to the pub for a lazy, boozy lunch.  Balls to you, I think I’ve earned it.

And now, of course, we get to the Friday Fives.  This is the delurking amnesty, where all you folks who sit silent get to come out of the woodwork and say hello.  Do have a go at it, it’s not like the fives require intelligent answers.

1. Best ritual at your day job.
2. Favourite pub.
3. Best breakfast cereal.
4. How long have you known your oldest friend?
5. What’s the first thing you look to do with a lazy Sunday afternoon?

Andrew Bird & Nora O’Connor – Oh Sister

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The Band – The Weight

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Big Joe Williams – Baby Please Don’t Go

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Kelly Joe Phelps – Not So Far to Go

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Pavement – Spit on a Stranger

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I think it would be only fair to describe this podcast as a little bit messy.  We recorded it immediately after first Craigcast two weeks ago, and so by the end of it we were all fucking hammered.

I promise I have tried to edit out as much of the madness as I could, but it was difficult.  The problem with incoherent drunken rambling is there don’t tend to be a lot of natural breaks, so it was devilishly hard to cut down.

Anyhow, this won’t be the first or last time you listen to a load of mental old nonsense on the Toadcasts, so I am going to just have to wish you luck and let you get on with it.

Toadcast #95 – The Craigcast Pt.2

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1. Mississippi Fred McDowell – Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (04.31)
2. RL Burnside – Fireman Ring the Bell (12.22)
3. RL Burnside – Don’t Let My Baby Ride (22.08)
4. Junior Kimbrough – Stay All Night (24.59)
5. Charles Caldwell – Old Buck (34.31)
6. Robert Lucas – Miss Being High (40.35)
7. Steve James – Grain Alcohol (45.22)
8. Kelly Joe Phelps – House Carpenter (57.06)
9. North Mississippi Allstars – Circle in the Sky (66.57)
10. Buddy Guy – Baby Please Don’t Leave (75.50)

Yes, that’s right, it’s Blue Peter weekend at Toad Hall this weekend.  Not in the kiddie fiddling, coke snorting, hard drinking sort of way (well, not all of them anyway) but in the stickyback plastic, here’s one I prepared earlier sort of manner.

What crafts, you ask?  Well the Meursault singles are being recorded in the living room for starters.  But while all that’s happening, the rest of us will be in the dining room with felt tips and hot glue guns doing the following things: painting and folding the Jesus H. Foxx EPs, which arrive today; painting, shading and titling the next run of Nothing Broke, which sold out last week; adding a little colour to the Builders & the Butchers/Loch Lomond Split 12″ vinyl covers; and finally, folding the inlays for ninety Song, by Toad Records Samplers for the Avalanche Album Club.  They are going to look brilliant, so it’s a shame we’ll be giving them all away.  I’d like to sell them on the site, but divvying up the money between twelve bands would be a pretty considerable pain in the arse, so I don’t think I’ll bother.

So, I am still up do my puckered anus in Proper Job, but there is a fine meal down at the Shore waiting for me this evening, with the light of my misspent and wayward life, the beautiful Mrs. Toad.  I am very much looking forward to that.

This weekend’s podcast and Sunday Supplement will be coming from Ruth, who runs the Bowery with her friend Jane.  After being turned into a Magner’s trough during the Festival, The Bowery is reopening on Monday 7th, so this is rather good timing.  I for one will be grateful to have it back, not least because the Jesus H. Foxx EP launch is being held there on Saturday 12th September, assuming the paint has dried on all the covers by then!

1. Last really Blue Petery handcraft thingy you did.
2. Did you make your own Christmas cards when you were a kid too?
3. Favourite kids TV programme which encouraged you to do things other than TV (and no, teenage pregnancy and experimenting with hard drugs do not count, so Grange Hill is forbidden – let’s maintain some innocence here please, people).
4. Most surreal kids’ TV programme you watched.
5. At what stage in the computer revolution did your childhood generally occur?

Jay Farrar – Cahokian

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Howe Gelb – Felonious

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Jim White – Christmas Day

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Kelly Joe Phelps – Taylor John

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Bonnie Prince Billy – Wolf Among Wolves

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