Mrs. Toad and I might be gallivanting about the Italian countryside, but we are still thinking of you, our loyal Toadlings. We may be relaxing by the pool, but we understand that life might not be quite so easy for those of you at home. Actually, fuck it, life is never this easy for us either. This is like some bizarre anomaly for us – time, peace, reading books… it’s all so fucking restful I’ve almost forgotten to swear at the locals.

The place we’re staying is just plain ridiculous. We are living in what amounts to the tiniest of little comedy garden sheds imaginable, but the outside space is some great big gigantic plaza. It’s just ridiculous.

Fortunately, there is something to lower the tone. Nature is basically a great big urinal, as we all know, and I have been doing my best to maintain a time-honoured male principle of ‘no place being too sacred or picturesque for having a sly piss’. So when the bladder beckons, so does the wall, and there I go to water the olive groves of Puglia. It feels like a public service, really it does.

Thanks again to Euan and the lads for keeping things going while we’re away. The connection here is so damn slow I really haven’t been able to read it all, but Mrs. Toad periodically checks up on things on her Blackberry (the woman’s insane) and lets me know how things are going. This news I generally treat with an indifferent grunt, before returning to the pondering of precisely which sort of cheese I most fancy for lunch, but I appreciate her efforts.

Toadcast #74 – The Poolcast

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01. The Shaky Hands – Summer’s Life (03.26)
02. Lemonjelly – Spacewalk (12.45)
03. Grandaddy – Ghost of 1672 (19.44)
04. Billie Holiday – Good Morning Heartache (24.36)
05. Animal Magic Tricks (with Neil from Meursault & Pete from The Leg) (34.42)
06. Edith Piaf – C’etait Une Histoire D’amour (38.11)
07. The Flaming Lips – Can’t Get You Out of My Head (48.12)
08. Wilco – Jolly Banker (52.17)
09. The Laurel Collective – No Pirates Left (63.04)
10. Yoshimi! – Philosophy For Fangirls (69.12)

Chillout music really is the valium of our generation, isn’t it. And oddly, in my case, associated with Napster because it is the genre I discovered through using it, at least the most clear cut one anyway. Most early chillout was essentially electronica, not a genre with which I have a particularly easy relationship, and so I rather eyed it with suspicion at the beginning.  Besides which, it started life as comedown music for drug takers, which I never was, so our paths never really crossed.

Q Magazine released a brilliant compilation years ago, something like 2000 or 2001 (yes, that actually is years ago now), called Chillout which mixed all this downbeat electronica with some gorgeous acoustic tracks from the likes of Fairport Convention and John Martyn. This CD introduced me to Goldfrapp and, I think, Lemonjelly, but it was access to Napster that really allowed me to explore and enjoy bands like them, Thievery Corporation, Dzihan & Kamien and all sorts of others from a genre I might never have touched otherwise.

In many ways it’s easy to forget just how crap Napster was. You could end up dowloading any old shit, and the quality was often dismal. But it was great for exploring things you weren’t familiar with and taking a chance on new music. I did even less at work back then than I do now, and I remember sitting there watching a huge long list of things ticking over slowly as they downloaded. Oddly enough, I also remember getting loads of messages from disaffected teenagers in Australia because of my huge collection of Doug Anthony Allstars material, but that’s largely beside the point.

My relationship with Chillout was always pretty ambivalent, to be honest. I prefer acoustic music to electronic if I’m relaxing, provided it doesn’t become so morose that I fear for my guests’ will to live. Then there was the fact that almost the instant the concept caught on, it was replaced by unspeakably bland electronic mush that had absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever. Was ever a musical movement so swiftly eviscerated as Chillout? I can’t think of another. By the time the likes of Zero 7 came along it was time to put the whole bloody lot in the bin and slam the lid.

It’s like people forgot that a mere mood is not enough. This is fucking music, you cretins, not interior fucking decorating. Although maybe that crossover was the heart of the problem. Go to IKEA, get some shitty furniture, throw in some nice paint and a feature wall with Habitat wallpaper, and then add some stylishly packaged pap with no musical merit whatsoever just to show people that you’ve all read the same edition of Wallpaper.

But the unconscionable garbage that it became, and that most of its better propents ultimately surrendered to, masks the fact that there were a couple of pretty good things that came out of it, early on. And the concept is sound. It thrives in indie and folk circles: close, intimiate albums full of melancholy and suited to nothing better than an evening by the fire with a glass of red wine.

So it’s gone, and not entirely lamented, but it is nevertheless a genre I sort of pity in a way.

Lemonjelly – Nervous Tension
Goldfrapp – Pilots
Thievery Corporation – Un Simple Histoire
Zero 7 – Destiny Yeuch

The missus and I got pished and did a podcast! Huzzah! It was a lovely Summery day on Wednesday and we sat out and had a meal in the back garden and then when it got chilly we came inside and did a podcast.

There’s not much of a theme this week because I can get a little bored of them, and from time to time it’s nice to just throw some tracks together that you like. And then get hammered and ramble on about them at interminable length. Sorry about that.

Toadcast #29 – The Summercast

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01. Lemonjelly – Nice Weather For Ducks (01.47)
02. Elbow – Station Approach (10.47)
03. The Eighteenth Day of May – Cold Early Morning (19.07)
04. Aberfeldy – Tom Weir (25.56)
05. Tiny Tim – Tiptoe Through the Tulips (27.47)
06. Uncle Moon – Pepper (34.41)
07. Lo-Fidelity Allstars – On the Pier (41.32)
08. The Boo Radleys – Find the Answer Within (48.17)
09. The Libertines – The Good Old Days (56.41)
10. The Undertones – Teenage Kicks (65.51)
11. The Von Bondies – C’Mon C’Mon (68.11)
12. The Builders & the Butchers – Spanish Death Song (76.41)
13. The Walkmen – The Rat (82.59)
14. Calexico – Corona (93.33)
15. Lloyd Cole – You’re a Big Girl Now (106.46)

Yes, we’re back and this time we’ve relaxed a little.  There’s a bit less cussing and ranting in this podcast than usual – in fact virtually no ranting at all, which is probably as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.

I’m looking at late evening music this week because Mrs. Toad and I were recently talking about the Chillout craze which kicked off about six or seven years ago. It descended into electronic muzak unfortunately, but there were some good things in there at the beginning, so I thought I’d have a look at it.  I’ve thrown in some stuff I find nice and eveningy and relaxing as well just to stop it becoming too tedious.

Toadcast #7 – The Chillout Tent

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01. Groove Armada – At The River (01.31)
02. The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist (04.32)
03. Calexico – Human (10.31)
04. Cinerama – Diamonds Are Forever (15.14)
05. Jazzy Jeff – For Love of Da Game (19.02)
06. Fear of Pop – In Love (23.12)
07. The 18th Day of May – Cold Early Morning (31.11)
08. Lucinda Williams – Ventura (35.40)
09. Lemonjelly – In the Bath (41.51)
10. Sandy Bull – Carmina Burana Fantasy (48.28)
11. The Hold Steady – The Chillout Tent (54.04)
12. RJD2 – Ghostwriter (57.36)
13. Edith Piaf – La Vie en Rose (63.22)
14. Marilyn Monroe – Through With Love (67.02)
15. The Divine Comedy – Theme From Casanova (69.50)