Sorry this one’s a bit late, but that gorgeous graphic above didn’t just draw itself y’know. That is, as the more perceptive of you will have already surmised, the official announcement of our next Song, by Toad house gig.  Avital Raz is touring the UK and Alex Cornish is friend of mine since back in the earliest days of the blog, and has a new album on the way.

It will be the usual score, a fiver each, all of which goes directly to the artists, and you can either bring your own booze or chip in toward the keg of Stewart’s somethingorother which Mrs. Toad and I will provide. Tickets can be bought here, and please do buy them in advance, because it really helps us to have some idea of numbers, and the last two house gigs did sell out:

Now, time to waste what little remains of Friday afternoon before sauntering off down the pub to get battered, get in a fight, and wake up on a container ship bound for the Philippines with no idea how you got there.

1. If you were to wake up in the bowels of a container ship with no idea how you got there, at which port would you prefer to be moored?
2. What exotic animal would become your faithful chum on the long journey home.
3. And what name would this faithful chum be given?
4. What would be your chief mode of transport?
5. Which foreign language do you most wish you could speak?

And five songs, in this case from my childhood in Vienna.  These are mostly songs my mum would approve of (that’s not me trying to deflect the guilt in a guilty pleasure – I like them too).

Culture Club – Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

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Huey Lewis & the News – The Power of Love

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Kim Carnes – Mistaken Identity

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Alison Moyet – Steal Me Blind

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Billy Joel – Piano Man

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Yes, the whole family is currently here at Toad Hall, inspecting the place and making sure that we are running our relationship in a satisfactory manner.  I have had advice on everything from which chores to do in order to make Mrs. Toad happy when she gets back from God Bless America (about an hour ago) to how to order my working day now I am a gentleman of leisure.  Oh what jolly fun it’s been.

Mrs. Toad got back to a demand from a debt collection agency for the sum of forty pounds, which included the statement “this amount includes an adminisration fee of forty pounds”.  What a great business to be in!  You send people letters claiming that the very act of sending them a letter obliges them to reimburse you for sending it.  I am in the wrong fucking business.

I sat and played my folks some old Smithsonian Folkways stuff the other night actually, which was rather fun.  I played them some Sam Amidon as well, and some Alela Diane and some Jackson C. Frank and some stuff from the gorgeous FOUND Toad Session.  I am not sure that being sat down and told to listen to a series of songs I am convinced they Must Like is quite what they came here for, but hey.  If they’re going to lecture me about domestic duties, I am going to force them to listen to music all night.

And once again it is Friday, de-lurking day and King’s Wark for our tea day, so all is well with the universe.  Oh, and Mrs. Toad is home as well, which is very good news.  I do miss the bad tempered old bag when she goes away.  So please come out of hiding and answer five silly questions before wasting the rest of your Friday afternoon talking shit, when you really should be at work being productive.

1. Biggest pretence about your life you still maintain in front of your folks.
2. Most unreasonable thing you make them tolerate when they visit you.
3. Time before the novelty wears off.
4. Most preposterous debt collection conversation you’ve had.
5. Who do you write like?

Five songs from when I lived at home:

Kim Carnes – Mistaken Identity

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Culture Club – It’s a Miracle

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Alison Moyet – Love Resurrection

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Hazel O’Connor – Will You

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Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time

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Erm, really sorry that this is so very, very late, but life rather caught up with me this week.  So I never quite managed to find time to get my shit together until this evening, unfortunately.

It’s surprising how much of my time these weekly podcasts seem to take up – it can be quite hard to find an evening every single week to record these things.  What I find amazing is that I don’t run out of blather.  I don’t recall ever saying anything profound or all that intelligent either, so this little collection must represent hours and hours of inconsequential rambling.

On Friday a nice young lady in the pub asked me “Has anyone ever told you that you talk loads and loads.”  I suppose, looking back at a hundred and some podcasts the miracle is that actually the answer to that question is ‘no, not really, not that I can remember’.

Oh, and yes, that is Tina Turner and Kim Carnes you see there.  Suck it up, hipsters.

Toadcast #107 – The Tardicast

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01. The Walkmen – This Job is Killing Me (03.30)
02. Grandaddy – Hey Cowboy, the Phone’s For You (09.57)
03. Comaneci – Satisfied Girl (15.51)
04. Tina Turner – Private Dancer (17.50)
05. Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou – England (27.33)
06. Ruth Theodore – False Alarm (34.09)
07. The Waterboys – Sweet Thing (40.54)
08. Kim Carnes – Bette Davis Eyes (48.04)
09. R.E.M. – Half a World Away (53.55)
10. Radiohead – Creep (Acoustic) (59.59)

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.