The Stallcast you ask?  Yes indeed the Stallcast, because my brain is still stuck in neutral after the Christmas break and seems annoyingly resistant to being asked to function properly at the moment.  I’ve had half a week back ‘at work’, if I can really call it that, and I still feel like the the old grey custard is still spluttering a bit, rather than firing on all cylinders.

The playlist reflects this in many way too, because it’s a bit all over the place.  Good tunes though, although I suspect those amongst you with Haircuts might not be as impressed as others.

Anyhow, the mission for this week is to get fucking moving, clean out the foostiness in the brain and properly embark upon 2011.  A jump start may be needed, however.

Direct download: Toadcast #156 – The Stallcast

01. R.E.M. – It Happened Today (00.23)
02. Sin Fang – The Only Living Boy in New York (09.24)
03. Jamie Cameron – When You’re Almost Done, Run (15.14)
04. Johnny Hawaii – The Lonely Smurfer (20.10)
05. Speak & the Spells – She’s Dead (26.51)
06. Beth Gibbons & Rustin’ Man – Tom the Model (35.34)
07. Future Bible Heroes – A Thousand Lovers in a Day (39.09)
08. Kurt Vile – Jesus Fever (43.15)
09. Charles Latham – Hard On (48.25)
10. FOUND – Machine Age Dancing (55.39)

I seemed to forget why this was called the Fallcast until the very end, so it clearly isn’t a very central concept to the podcast itself.  Basically, I just rattle on about some new music for a bit, which means there’s hardly an excuse to call this bloody podcast anything, really.

Still, next week we have the Inspector Tapehead Toad Session, which is nearly finished, and then after that I was thinking about doing podcasts from vinyl.  I reckon I can probably just run a lead into to the microphone jack of the computer, straight from the Tape Out RCA connection on the back of the amp, although that may well not work I guess.  I could just get myself an mp3 turntable, but that’s expensive.  Still, doing the podcasts straight from vinyl seems like a good idea to me for the future.

For now, though, it’s just me sitting and talking shit to my computer, sorry.

Direct download: Toadcast #145 – The Fallcast

01. Broken Records – Modern Worksong (00.17)
02. Kurt Vile – In My Time (09.09)
03. Twin Shadow – When We’re Dancing (12.28)
04. Husband – Feelings (20.39)
05. Houses – Endless Spring (27.00)
06. Laku Noc – Sleep (29.53)
07. Brown Brogues – Treet U Beta (37.22)
08. Shapers – Virginia Reel (41.29)
09. FOUND – String Theory (44.33)
10. Ravens & Chimes – Division Street (54.31)

11. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – vs. Children
Owen Ashworth has a sort of shambolic charisma to him which translates pretty neatly to his music.  It’s unhurried, thoughtful and has the air of a good friend, right from the first moment you hear it.  This may be a fuller sound than his older fans are used to, but I think the extra instrumentation is used very carefully, and never smothers his songwriting.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Man ‘o War

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12. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
This record suffers from a bit of earnestness and the distinct whiff of adjectives like ‘soaring’, but nevertheless there are so many great songs, so much much energy and such euphorically infectious tunes that you just can’t help but love this album.  It is folky, but if anything there’s more of a gospel-style, rousing feel to this record than anything I would call folk.

Mumford & Sons – Dustbowl Dance

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13. Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy
Childish Prodigy is a rough, loose album which I pretty much liked right from the start.  It swings from rough garage rock to plucked acoustic music, always full of grumble and distortion though.  For an album with little extra instrumentation, this is still really varied both of pace and mood, and manages to keep shifting all the way through the record.

Kurt Vile – Dead Alive

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14. Broken Records – Until the Earth Begins to Part
This album received some of the most scathing 3/5 reviews I’ve ever read, but I still think it’s fucking great.  The old songs like A Good Reason and Eilert Loevborg are raucous as fuck and some of the newer material gives us hints of new directions for the next album.  Maybe the production wasn’t all that sympathetic and maybe the album could have done with some quiter moments to offset the louder ones, but that doesn’t matter because Jamie has a great voice, and this record just thunders along at pace from start to finish and that’s how I enjoy it best.

Broken Records – Ghosts

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15. The Van Allen Belt – Meal Ticket to Purgatory
Erm, well, this is just a bit weird.  It stops and starts, leaps all over the place and is generally just a weird and wonderful box of treats.  It’s been a really good year for Indiecater Records, but this is probably my favourite of the lot.

The Van Allen Belt – Dr Layman’s Terms/The Hills are Alive

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For an album I didn’t know to expect and still know pretty much nothing about, I really do think this is brilliant.  It’s rough and energetic and is enlivened by a kind of loose freedom and light touch which applies even to the slower, more threatening songs.

It’s an album which simply doesn’t feel laboured or difficult in the slightest.  It almost feels like Vile himself was confident enough to write it in a week, record it on the weekend and still have time to get to the pub for a few pints on Sunday evening.

It sounds like a rough recording, this, but it really isn’t.  The guitars are played with plenty of edge to them, but when it all slows down you can hear real warmth in the way the piano and acoustic instruments are treated – Blackberry Song, for example.  Vile’s voice may be a little reverby, but in general this has quite an immediate and friendly feel for what are in many ways quite rough and ready songs.

One of the other things I like about this album is the constant shifting of pace and atmosphere.  Just as it sounds like it’s going to become a grungey garage rock album it stops and layers picked acoustic guitars, then it’s broody piano and distant vocals, then something else – Vile keeps you guessing all the way through.

The emotional sense of the songs also shifts around a lot.  Sometimes it’s melancholy, sometimes spiteful, sometimes wistful, sometimes urgent.  It may not finish as strongly as it starts, but for the most part this is a surprising, and a surprisingly good album.

Kurt Vile -  Dead Alive

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Kurt Vile – Blackberry Song

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Well this podcast has been recorded from my sick bed, given my current immobility.  Actually, recording the Toadcast from bed was quite pleasant, once I got over the slightly unusual surroundings.  Imagine me in my pants and scratching my balls whilst talking to you and you’ll pretty much have the ambience down pat.

I sort of intended this to be a selection of poppy little tunes from my inbox, because all the last podcasts have been so heavily themed, but instead it’s ended up a little bit on the experimental side, through no real intent of my own.  Nevertheless, if you’re happy to listen to the growl of Polvo, the monologues of George Pringle and the peculiar electro-experimentalism of Mark Linkous and Fennesz all in one podcast then, fuck it, you’re in the right place.

Toadcast #86 – The Paincast

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01. Langhorne Slim – I Love You But Goodbye (03.11)
02. Cast Spells – Glamorous Glowing (07.39)
03. The Pineapple Chunks – Art Storage (13.02)
04. The Leg – A Rat’s Health (17.04)
05. Polvo – Fractured (Like Chandeliers) (22.40)
06. Vandaveer – A Might Leviathan of Old (29.22)
07. Sparklehorse & Fennesz – If My Heart (from In the Fishtank #13) (40.13)
08. George Pringle – SW10 (45.03)
09. X Lion Tamer – Tugboat (52.40)
10. Kurt Vile – Blackberry Song (59.54)