I managed to miss last week’s Fresh Air show because… well I somehow failed to realise that the bloody station was back on the air, which is spectacularly dumb. This week I present Toad and Ruth’s Toad and Ruth Show With Toad and a Little Bit Less Ruth Than Usual, or indeed any Ruth at all because the lovely herself can’t make it tonight, so you will be treated to the wonderful pleasure of listening to me burble on to myself about tunes and stuff and stuff and some tunes and then probably some more stuff just to cap it off.

Live on Air 8.30pm-10pm – Listen live here.

01. Langhorne Slim – I Love You, But Goodbye
02. Saint Etienne – Nothing Can Stop Us Now
03. The Left Banke – Evening Gown
04. Bettye Swann – Don’t Look Back
05. Lee Dorsey – My Old Car
06. The Scottish Enlightenment – All Homemade Things
07. Super Adventure Club – Hip Hop Hot Pot Pot Noodle
08. Sam Amidon – Fiddle Mayhem (Toad Session)
09. The Shaggs – What Are Parents
10. Nico Muhly – The Only Tune
11. Phil & the Osophers – Uses of a Man
12. David Tattersall – The Old Family
13. Grandaddy – Fuck the Valley Fudge
14. Elvis Perkins in Dearland – I Heard Your Voice in Dresden
15. Songdog – Obediah’s Waltz

Next week we have the splendid Loch Lomond live in session, and to tide you over until then the videos from Mammoeth’s session on the show are below the jump.  The tracklisting for tonight’s show will appear below live as we go along, and feel free to heckle in the comments.

Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you interested at all in even more of my inane prattling, I have recently done an interview with a certain Mr. Timothy London for his blog, which can be read here.  The interview itself was about a less cynical music industry, and I am not entirely sure I really made a great case in its favour, with some really very cynical remarks indeed.  Still, I tried to answer the questions themselves as honestly and intelligently as I could, so hopefully that counts for something!

This weekend I was down in Macclesfield for Unconvention, a day of seminars, workshops and general chats about the future of music and ways in which we can best try and generate awareness and success on a minimal budget using the myriad weird and wonderful tools the modern world has given us.  It was a really good day, and I heard some very interesting things, and also managed to make a tit of myself at the Managers Are The New Labels panel I was on.

The Scottish habit for constant and furious self-deprecation got a little lost in translation with all the English attendees, so everyone in the workshop got the rather unfortunate impression that I was really down on myself about what we’ve achieved with Song, by Toad and how qualified I may or may not be to be in the music industry and what I do or do not bring to the bands we work with.  After a particular rush of sympathy (“Noooo, it sounds like you’re doing an incredible job”) I did get close to pointing out to them that self-confidence really wasn’t an issue here, it’s just the way you learn to express yourself in Scotland and don’t worry I am well aware of how much we’ve achieved in the last couple of years just that you always have to be aware of how much there still is to achieve and honestly it just doesn’t do to sound even slightly boasty in Scotland but honestly I’m fine don’t worry.  But that might have made matters worse, so I just dropped it.

Iggy Pop – The Passenger

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Monday 10th May 2010: Langhorne Slim at Sneaky Pete’s.

Monsieur Slim is not only great live, Sean Scolnick is a fucking lovely bloke as well.  I know Monday is a shite night to go out, but honestly this will be worth it.  He swings the pace from the mournful ballad to stomping Americana in the drop of a hat, and there are few better voices out there at the moment, in my opinion.

Langhorne Slim – Sunday by the Sea

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My personal pick of the Tigerfest gigs this week would be twofold:

Wednesday 12th May 2010: Jesus H. Foxx & There Will be Fireworks at Electric Circus.

There Will Be Fireworks managed to sell over a thousand of their debut album pretty much on their own and without much press, which I can promise you is no mean achievement. Their Twilight-Frabbitry will be complemented by the emergence, blinking, into the light of Jesus H. Foxx who have been hiding away in some secret Foxxcave somewhere working on their debut album.

Thursday 13th May 2010: 17 Seconds presents Chris Bradley, The Dirty Cuts & The Last Battle at the Roxy Room.

17 Seconds Records’ newest signings The Last Battle join a couple of their more established acts downstairs at the Roxy.  Their debut album should be upon us very soon, so keep an eye out for that.

The Last Battle – Soul of the Sea (Live on FreshAir)

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Friday 14th May 2010: We Were Promised Jetpacks & Three Blind Wolves (both solo acoustic) play the This is Music 4th Birthday celebrations at Sneaky Pete’s.

You wouldn’t necessarily think that quiet acoustic stuff would work all that well at a clubby sort of place like Sneaky’s but it actually does – I’ve seen some really good acoustic stuff there in the past.  This is the latest in a series of gigs marking the fourth birthday

Saturday 15th May 2010: Thomas Truax, 7VWWVW, Wounded Knee & The Blue Wicked Spasm Band at the Roxy Art House.

Stuffs

Saturday 15th May 2010: Conquering Animal Sound, Dead Boy Robotics & Adam Stafford play Trampoline at the Wee Red Bar.

It’s an odd lineup, this one, although in a funny sense I can actually see it working quite well.  Adam Stafford will presumably be playing an acoustic set, and Dead Boy Robotics have just launched an EP of thumping, dirty disco(ish) tunes.  Add that to the strange, shy, loopy experimentalism of Conquering Animal Sound and you certainly have an eclectic lineup, but one which I think will actually work quite well.

Sunday 16th May 2010: Hauschka, James Blackshaw & Nancy Elizabeth at the Roxy Room.

Fatcat Records, innovative composer, plays lots of piano.  Those are about all the facts I have about this one, but I have to get this published before my lunchtime internet window here at Proper Job slams shut, so I am afraid I don’t have the time to find out anything more helpful for you.  There’s always the links above though, and you’re not children, so I’m sure you’ll be fine.

As any maker of year end lists will tell you, you should only really allow yourself to make your best of the year list several months into the following year, not in November of the one you’re trying to describe. I’ve been trying to properly digest this album for months, and only now am I getting to some sort of understanding of how I feel about it, and that after an extended break over Christmas not listening to it at all.

Whereas the last record was a sort of enigmatic sweep across the Americana sub-genres, this is perhaps a little more straighforwardly rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s still difficult to pin down beyond the vague description of ‘Americana’. There are tints of country, rock ‘n’ roll, a little folk, a faint hint of pop… but it’s just it’s own beast, really. I don’t mean this in a challenging, genre-bending sort of a way, because it all sounds very familiar, it just has a distinct, comfortable character of its own.

That kind of approachable, unpretentious nature is all over this record, actually. The songs are all short and entirely devoid of noodling or showing off, the lyrics are personal, emotional and thoughtful without being tense or confrontational.

That welcoming nature perhaps put me off a little at the beginning though, I have to confess. Sean Scolnick sings about personal pain and his voice has a kind of sadness to it, whilst still giving off the conviction that everything really is going to be fine. I am perhaps becoming a little unused to such unworried music, so it came across as a little light on first listen, and it’s taken me a good few months to really make friends with Be Set Free, which is odd for such an inherently friendly record.

The piano escalates from a twinkle to a chime* as the mood swings upwards from wistful to joyful, giving the album a healthy emotional variation, with the call and response of Cinderella perhaps as jaunty as it gets, although Say Yes isn’t far behind. I Love You, But Goodbye, on the other hand, as well as being one of the best songs I’ve heard in ages, has an incredibly affectionate sadness to it. It’s exactly the emotion you might expect from the title, but there are few who can master that kind of mixture of warmth and melancholy with quite the deftness of Mr. Scolnick.

Langhorne Slim – I Love You, But Goodbye

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Langhorne Slim – For a Little While

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Website | Buy from Amazon

*Fuck off – sometimes cliches are just the most appropriate words to use. At least I didn’t call anything soaring or swirling.

11.Meursault – Love or Limb
This is almost a bloody country song, and fucking hell it’s miserable.  Like the rest of Nothing Broke, the songs really don’t seem to belong together, but they really do fit amazingly well. And one of the nicest things about this song, for someone actually involved with the release, is that it came as a total surprise – I knew nothing about it until suddenly there it was on something we were releasing.

12.Yusuf Azak – The Key Underground
Yusuf is threatening to retire from music before finishing his album.  Based on the evidence of his two EPs (free to download from his MySpace page) and this out of the blue pop gem that would be a tragedy.  It’s such a strange song, and yet so incredibly catchy.

13.Micah P Hinson – In The Pines (By Leadbelly)
Yes, I know, I don’t like this album much, and covering In the Pines by Leadbelly is an enormous cliche, but the sheer venom with which Hinson sets about this song is a bloody joy.  He just beasts the living shit out of it, start to finish.  Truly exceptional.

14.Meursault – William Henry Miller Pt1
Hmm, this song got a little lost in the debate between single versions and EP versions and all that pish, but forgetting everything else and just popping it on the stereo, it’s just a genius pop song pure and simple.  The oohs, the claps, the banjo… the fucking weird subject matter.  I defy anyone not to love this – in fact, if you are that person then all I can say is ‘Ha hahahaha – you’re an idiot.  Bad luck.’

15.Samamidon-1842-ToadSession
More banjo, and one of the most gorgeous voices I’ve heard in ages.  Sam played in Edinburgh a lot this year, and I don’t know if his second Bowery gig or his Toad Session the next day will end up being the most memorable from my perspective.  How someone can bring old folk music so powerfully to life by doing so little to it is beyond me.  The lad’s a fucking genius.

16.Withered Hand – For the Maudlin
One of the most understatedly brilliant albums I’ve heard for ages.  Almost every one of the songs on Good News should be on this list.  The only real relief for me is the fact that due to appearing on the Religious Songs EP a handful of them have disqualified themselves, otherwise Dan might fear he had a stalker.

17.Langhorne Slim – I Love You But Goodbye
I’m still getting into the album itself, but the teaser track from Be Set Free is more elaborate and involved than earlier work, but the twinkling piano and lazy strings just give this song an incredible air of indulgent, nostalgic melancholy.  If you like to wallow in your sadness yet not allow it to become too bleak, then this is the song for you.

18.eagleowl – Sleep the Winter
If you want to know what I think of this single, read this.  Otherwise just listen to the roll of the guitar refrain, the gorgeous sound of the violin and the wonderful interplay between Bart’s growl and Clarissa’s whisper – it’s just beautiful.  They make making music like this sound so incredibly easy.

19.Sparrow & the Workshop – You’ve Got it All
If I were Jill O’Sullivan’s gentleman friend I would be somewhat worried by the number of venomous, barbed songs she writes.  If I didn’t know what a sweetie she was, and just knew her by her lyrics, she’d scare the shit out of me.  This whole EP is fierce and vulnerable, but mostly fierce, and this is probably my favourite song on it.  Although… well, for now it is anyway; it’s just a great EP full stop.

20.Animal Collective – Summertime Clothes
I blow hot and cold with this album, but this track is simply a brilliant pop song.  Even I feel like a hip kid listening to this (although it’s probably eight months too late to be saying that).  But honestly, anything that makes me feel even vaguely like dancing deserves a fucking medal, and that’s what this does.

To download all ten songs as a single zip file, click here.

1-10 / 11-20 / 21-35 / 36-50

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)

There’s not been a Big Famous Album reviewed on this site in bloody ages.  Partly I’ve become so focussed on what’s going on locally that I have somewhat taken my eye off the ball with regards to bigger releases, even just those which are big relative to the small world of indie music.  And partly there have been very few which have tickled my fancy in the slightest for quite a while.

There are some bits and pieces coming along though which suggest that this might change in the immediate future.  And about time too, all this navel-gazing is no good for anyone.  Look outwards, I say, cast off the Tunnel Vision of the Toad and embrace the wider world.  Alright, sorry, but sometimes I get so deeply into my own stuff I do kind of forget that from time to time.  So what do we have?

The Twilight Sad: I have a naughty copy of this, to which I am not going to confess, and have only listened to it a few times through.  It’s out on the 5th October though and is currently sounding rather promising.  I wouldn’t say I was all that into it just yet, but then I only really embraced their last album a song or two at a time, so I am prepared to take it slowly with this one.

The Avett Brothers: Their sound hasn’t changed much, but then it never did, really.  Out on the 29th September, the title track from I and Love and You has been slipped out in to the world for us to enjoy and it is full of the exact same understated warmth which I love about this band.  I know I am morally obliged to hate them because they are on Columbia these days but if the whole record sounds like this then I may find my indie snobbery very difficult to maintain.

The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

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The Mountain Goats: Alright, I’ll say it: I thought Sunset Tree was their best album abd I have yet to hear anything by this band that I like anything like as much, despite their considerable back catalogue.  Heretic Pride was okay, and the new song Genesis 3:23 is also… okay.  Not at all bad by any means, but I would not describe it as any better than pleasant.  This one’s also out on the 5th October.

The Mountain Goats – Genesis 3:23

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Yo La Tengo: Popular Songs is out on Monday, which somewhat makes up for the fact that they seem to have been a little less generous with preview mp3s than everyone else.  But then, with a cast-iron reputation like theirs, why would they need to?  This sounds a lot like “…I Will Beat Your Ass” and I would say that I am enjoying it, but am yet to be blown away.  There are a few more moody, quiet numbers on this record as well, perhaps a little more in line with the likes of Summer Sun and the like than the previous record was.

Flashy Python: This is a solo project by a certain hand-clapping, yeah-saying gentleman by the name of Alec Ounsworth.  He, like Julian Plenti before him, is rather keen to keep his solo project free from associations with his band stuff, and has put the whole album up for preview here.  It’s less driven than early CYHSY stuff, and generally a bit more weird, but it sounds pretty interesting to me.

Flashy Python – Skin & Bones

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Micah P. Hinson: This just dropped into my inbox this morning, and I know nothing about it bar two things: firstly, that Micah P. Hinson is fucking amazing; and secondly that the artwork, pictured above, is bloody lovely.

Langhorne Slim: His new album Be Set Free isn’t being released until 26th October, but the new song sounds brilliant.  It’s called I Love You, but Goodbye and is a little plusher and more elaborate than his earlier recordings, but unusually, I rather like this.  The piano is especially gorgeous – a times eleborate, at times rich and sonorous and at times deft and twinkly.  This augurs very well indeed – I am excited.

Langhorne Slim – I Love You, But Goodbye

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It’s about time the big(ger) boys fought back a little, frankly, but it looks like there could be some very promising recordings from some relatively high-profile artists coming our way this Autumn.

1. Meursault – Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues

I know I can’t be objective with regards to this album, but believe me I am being honest when I tell you that it is the best thing I’ve heard all year.  Whether it’s the obvious hits, the peculiar interludes, the perfect blend of pop songs and experimental electronica, or the trajectory and integrity of the album as a whole, I don’t think I’ve heard better than this for years.
Meursault – Salt Pt.1

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2. The Felice Brothers – The Felice Brothers

A warmer, more immediately emotional album I couldn’t really imagine.  The voice and the slow pace are so rich and arresting that you find yourself overcome by sadness almost immediately, and that hold on your emotions is never once loosed for forty minutes.
Felice Brothers – Greatest Show on Earth

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3. Langhorne Slim – Langhorne Slim

Of this top five, all but the Felice Brothers have firmly enhanced their reputations with me with superb live performances.  With Langhorne Slim it wasn’t the emotive power of bands like Meursault, Shearwater or the Low Lows, it was sheer charm.  Sean Scolnick delivered his songs with such easy charisma that you just couldn’t help but warm to him.  Like Barton Carroll, this is an album whose style is far from revolutionary – more a familiar mish-mash of  what I would vaguely describe as Americana.  That familiarity is something which turns out to be a bonus in the end though, as the album worms its way under your skin like few others.
Langhorne Slim – Diamonds & Gold

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4. Shearwater – Rook

Occasionally beautiful, but often thunderous, this album was an immediate success with me, building up to all sorts of crescendos oozing a ferocity you rarely expect.  I still don’t know if it’s the loveliest or the angriest album of the year.
Shearwater – Leviathan, Bound

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5. The Low Lows – Shining Violence

This is another album I didn’t necessarily expect to find this high on the list when I first heard it, but for some reason it’s just grown and grown on me this year, while more highly anticipated records have kind of dropped away.  It broods and snarls, growling it’s tunes at you from behind a wall of reverb.
The Low Lows – This Modern Romance

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Part 1: 1-10
Part 2: 11-23
Part 3: 24-36
Patt 4: 37-50

And so we stumble on to the penultimate post in the countdown to the Toad’s favourite song of the year.  At this point the idea of some sort of hierarchy of love is becoming rather ridiculous.  Do I genuinely prefer Make Another Tree to Frankie’s Gun?  No, of course I don’t.  Do I really get more goose bumps or feel more lightheaded with glee when Out on the Water comes on the stereo, compared to, say, Restless?  No, not in the slightest so what am I going on, here?  Well I don’t know, it’s just a gut reaction I suppose, largely dependent on my mood at the time at which I finally turned a ‘bunch of songs’ into some sort of list.

So don’t take it too seriously, just enjoy that fact that there have been this many brilliant songs released this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Christ this has taken me ages. We recorded this in late August after myself and Mrs. Toad came back from the States, but the intervention of the End of the Road Festival and an unspeakable disaster with video tape has delayed this beyond the bounds of pretty much everyone’s patience. I eventually had to give up trying to extricate video from chewed tapes and make do with the video we actually had, which has been bloody frustrating.

As per usual we have the videos all posted either on the Toad Vimeo page (the best quality) and YouTube (more accessible). We also have pictures taken by both my friend Morgan, who is also the official Song, by Toad camerman, and Dylan as well. Dylan has all his pictures, including these, on his own sit Blueback Hotrod, and we’ve also uploaded them to the Song, by Toad Flickr page as well. So, firstly, here is the podcast, with the tracklisting at the bottom of the page:

Toadcast #46 – Sparrow & the Workshop Toad Session

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Here are the session tracks themselves as downloadable, shareable and loveable mp3s:

Sparrow & the Workshop – Last Chance (Toad Session)

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Sparrow & the Workshop – Magic Tricks (Toad Session)

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Sparrow & the Workshop – The Gun (Toad Session)

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Sparrow & the Workshop – My Crime (Toad Session)

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First we have the overall video, and then a couple of videos for individual songs:

Toadcast #46 – Sparrow & the Workshop Toad Session Playlist:
01. Sparrow & the Workshop – Last Chance (Toad Session) (07.21)
02. Scuff – Step a Little Closer (10.14)
03. Skeeter Davis – My Last Date With You (17.50)
04. Micah P. Hinson – Come Home Quickly Darling (21.22)
05. Sparrow & the Workshop – Magic Tricks (Toad Session) (26.19)
06. Rob St. John – Tipping In (30.17)
07. Langhorne Slim – Restless (35.27)
08. Sparrow & the Workshop – The Gun (41.50)
09. The Everley Brothers – Crying in the Rain (46.56)
10. The Skids – Into the Valley (48.51)
11. Sparrow & the Workshop – My Crime (Toad Session) (58.25)

This is the podcast to accompany all the Portland and Pickathon things I’ve been slowly but surely writing up over the course of the last couple of weeks.  With all the video to edit it may take a while to get it all sorted, but just follow this Pickathon search and you’ll find it all.  My full review of the festival is here.

This is a musical journey through our trip, from the Shaky Hands and The Builders & the Butchers who got us out there, to Eef Barzelay who we saw in Portland, several bands from the Pickathon Festival and even a song from Ray Rude’s Gameboy pop outfit Operation Mission.

It’s rather shorter than usual, but that is part of a new strategy: shorter podcasts more often.  I am going to try and go for once a week, and make them a maximum of an hour long.  I can’t promise anything, but I am going to try, and I think this might be a better approach for all of us, frankly.

Toad’s Pickathon pictures | Toad Vimeo page | Other Pickathon Features

Toadcast #34 – The Portland Podcast

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01. The Shaky Hands – A New Parade (2.20)
02. The Builders & the Butchers – When It Rains (08.47)
03. Eef Barzelay – Numerology (12.21)
04. Operation Mission – Aqueous (19.30)
05. Lackthereof – Choir Practise (23.22)
06. Langhorne Slim – Restless (31.20)
07. Bombadil – Cavalier’s Har Hum (40.47)
08. Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers – Beloved, We Have Expired (43.26)
09. Oz St. Fossils – Jeweller’s Daughter (53.54)
10. Loch Lomond – Tic (59.49)
11. The Cave Singers – Cold Eye (66.34)