Well, what a productive morning I’ve had, being all domesticated.  As Mrs. Toad and I have said before, we really need a wife for all this shit, because we’re both awful at it. Laundry just piles up in the corner of the bedroom until we literally have not one single item of clean clothing left.  Dishes just sit and stare accusingly at us from the sink.  Minor domestic DIY has been ignored for six years now, and counting.  Although I suppose DIY is supposed to be a Man Job, rather than a Wife Job, if we’re respecting our stereotypes here.

Anyhow, Brian, El and myself will be back on Fresh Air Radio this afternoon at 3:30pm with Song, by Toad’s Friday Fives, so please do tune in for some fine tunes, interspersed with tedious bickering. We’ll be adding to the playlist at the bottom of the page live as we go along.

Listen live here: on air from 3:30pm UK time.

And I appreciate the affection, but the cats have been showing an inordinate interest in my working day recently.  I don’t mind when they want to sit in my lap as I’m working through emails, although my legs do go to sleep eventually, but the trampling back and forth across the keyboard does get a little tedious.  I might as them to fill in this week’s Friday Fives themselves. Question 1: orwhgw90382509l;\’a/[g, Question 2: wgm9ic2i2p98p;q/ etc etc etc…

Nah, not really, it’ll be my job as usual.  So de-lurk, fill in your fives and then fritter away the rest of the afternoon talking shite.  Hey, if you’re typing you must be working, right?  They don’t know you’re just talking bollocks on the internet.

1. What is the worst touring band you’ve ever paid to see?
2. Which support band was so bad you couldn’t even enjoy the headliner?
3. How often do you arrive in time and actually pay attention to the support band?
4. Who are the most incongruous/later to become massive support band you’ve seen?
5. Who would you like to see being forced to support whom, as a lesson in humility?

Song, by Toad’s Friday Fives Fresh Air playlist:
1. Rob St. John – Domino (Acoustic Demo)
2. Rob St. John – Domino (Live at Retreat)
3. John Knox Sex Club – In the Ditch
4. SAUNA – Glitter Party
5. Elton Motello – Jet Boy, Jet Girl
6. Beirut – Elephant Gun
7. Beastie Boys – Body Movin’
8. Now Wakes the Sea – Propranolol
9. Adam Stafford – Shot Down You Summer Wannabes
10. Dead Prez – Hip Hop
11. LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great
12. Rob St. John – Domino (Album Version)

PUB!

So, erm, yes, this podcast should really have happened on Sunday, but it was so unspeakably bakingly hot (alright, in all honesty it was only about 28 degrees, but it felt much fucking hotter, okay) that there was basically no fucking chance it was going to happen.

I’ve also been adjusting to not having a day job, which in its own way made this easier.  I’d write posts when I could during the day, but at the moment my only job is Song, by Toad so I have focussed entirely on the important jobs, not on the day to day business of posting on the site.

Also, this is late and it may be (early) Thursday, but there will still be a podcast on the weekend, but I thought this was an opportunity which should not be passed up.  It’s Glastonbury for fuck’s sake, and it really did need its own podcast pretty sharpish, even if just to wonder why on Earth Glastonbury needs its own podcast when there are so many better festivals out there!

Toadcast #128 – The Glastocast

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

01. Radiohead – Idioteque (06.55)
02. Flaming Lips – God Walks Among Us Now (19.26)
03. Eels – Looking Up (24.06)
04. The Avett Brothers – Murder in the City (39.57)
05. The National – England (42.57)
06. The Books – A Cold Freezin’ Night (57.02)
07. Devendra Banhart – The Charles C Leary (70.57)
08. Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (shoreline) (73.34)
09. Wild Nothing – Your Rabbit Feet (81.06)
10. LCD Soundsystem – All Your Friends (96.59)

This is all about my beepy-bloopy tendencies and how I got into the stuff in the first place.

I better point out, right at the beginning, that I don’t see there being any difference between indie and electronica exactly.  Or at least, the dividing line is so blurred and there is so much crossover that the distinction is completely pointless, really.

I think the only reason I really make a distinction myself is because I became a music obsessive by listening to the likes of Dylan and Tom Waits and so on, and then moved onto the like of The Pogues and the Waterboys – not a beep in sight, basically.

Consequently, when I heard bands like Saint Etienne for the first time, although I loved lots of it, I didn’t explore much further because I just wasn’t used to electronic noises.  In actual fact, by the end of the podcast I think I come to the conclusion that it was actually an electronic beat which I really wasn’t used to, mostly, but in any case, I found it quite hard to get into anything vaguely electro for ages.  Given that I could barely make a distinction between the two these days, that seems kind of odd, too.

Toadcast #104 – The Bleepcast

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

01. The Pet Shop Boys – Rent (03.46)
02. Stereolab – The Light That Will Cease to Fail (12.09)
03. Dubstar – St. Swithin’s Day (15.25)
04. U2 – Lemon (23.05)
05. Jason Lytle – On a Piece of Wood I Go (30.49)
06. The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist (35.57)
07. LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum (40.42)
08. Money Can’t Buy Music – We Are All Asphyxiate (48.59)
09. Magic Arm – Daft Punk is Playing at My House (52.41)
10. Parts & Labour – Fractured Skies (57.49)
11. Jon Hopkins – Circle My Demise (King Creosote) (65.13)

IT disasters in Toad Hall meant that this podcast was delayed so long that I ended up posting pretty much all of it on the blog before I got to record the thing and all the news was so outdated that I had to find some more news. Fortunately we have some pre-release splendidness from Elbow, Goldfrapp and Stephen Malkmus to make up for it.

There’s also some excellent unsigned music to be had as well, from Maxwell Panther and Meursault, as well as some splendid new singles from Elle S’Appelle and Operahouse. So it’s late, but some of this stuff is really quite excellent. And then there’s LCD Soundsystem who have taken me so long to get into that I am only starting to even enjoy the album now, some eight months or so after its release. What a fuckwit.

There’s a fairly detailed explanation of what is going to be happened with Song, by Toad Records in the new year as well, and how I am going to move these podcasts onwards and upwards. Unfortunately it takes the longest bloody link in recorded history to actual explain it all, but explain it I do. There’s always the track timings listed at the side of the songs if you want to skip it altogether though! Have fun, chaps.

Toadcast #20 – The Late, Late News

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

1. Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks – Gardenia (01.27)
2. Elle S’Appelle – Little Flame (06.49)
3. Operahouse – Born a Boy (09.40)
4. LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends (14.54)
5. The Hollies – The Air That I Breathe (24.50)
6. Goldfrapp – Little Bird (28.51)
7. Maxwell Panther – Too Many Magazines (35.47)
8. Meursault – The Furnace (39.37)
9. The 4Qs – Pieces of a Puzzle (48.03)
10. Kid Harpoon – Riverside (50.42)
11. Dubious Ranger – Slow Day (56.18)
12. Roger McGuinn & Calexico – One More Cup of Coffee (68.29)
13. The Heavy Circles – Henri (72.45)
14. The Brute Chorus (feat. Tiggs) – The Cuckoo & the Stolen Heart (80.15)
15. Elbow – Grounds For Divorce (88.13)
16. The Cave Singers – Seeds of Night (94.51)