Song, by Toad

Well I am Ruthless and bandless to begin this term’s broadcasts, so you’ll have to wait until next week for the first Toadly Fresh Air Session I’m afraid.

Having said that, however, I have a shiteload of excellent and very shiny new material to play tonight, so people wanting the pop hits are likely to be rather disappointed as there are few old favourites and lots of new demos which I am very much hoping will end up on albums before the end of the year.

Ruth will be back with me as of next week, but she’s currently nursing Michael H. Foxx, who is in hospital with the nasties.  So best wishes to both of them, but we’ll be back in the normal swing of things from next Monday onwards.

Live on Air 8pm-9.30pm – Listen live here.

Incidentally, if you know anyone who you would recommend for a live session, just get in touch in the comments or by email (see the contact page above).

This evening’s tracklisting (updated live):

1. Django Django – Storm
2. Liars – No Barrier Fun
3. Gobble Gobble – Lawn Knives
4. Robin Grey – I Love Leonard Cohen
5. Leonard Cohen – Avalanche
6. REM – First We Take Manhattan (Leonard Cohen Cover)
7. The Burns Unit – Since We’ve Fallen Out
8. The Van Allen Belt – The Way You Look
9. Trips and Falls – That is a Big Door!
10. Sarah Lowes – Night Time
11. Findo Gask – Full Five (Demo)
12. Yusuf Azak – Eastern Sun (Demo)
13. Meursault – All Creatures Will Make Merry

Meursault – Fresh Air Session

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Meursault – Love or Limb (Live on Fresh Air)

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Meursault – Untitled Triptych (Live on Fresh Air)

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Meursault – What You Don’t Have (Live on Fresh Air)

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Meursault – Heaven Waits (Live on FreshAir)

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Hello again, Ruth and I are back on air tonight on Fresh Air, Edinburgh’s student radio station.  As per usual we’ll be having some live session stuff, this time from The Japanese War Effort.  Jamie is a bit of a band-whore actually, and plays in the Occasional Flickers and Conquering Animal Sound as well as ploughing his own solo furrow.  It’s this stuff, however, which is my favourite.  I haven’t much idea what it will sound like, stripped back to the extent that it will need to be in order to be played in the Fresh Air studio, but I am certain that it will be good.

The tracklisting will be filled out below live as we go along, and it would be nice if you would use the comment thread to chip and have your say during the show.  Believe me, it’s a hell of a lot easier than me trying to man Facebook, Twitter and bloody emails all at the same time as working the desk in the studio and the camera to record the session.  Still, Ruth’s back this week and so I should be a little calmer this time than last!

On air 7pm-8.30pm GMT – Listen live here.

Tonight’s playlist:
1. Tom Waits – The Part You Throw Away (Live in Edinburgh, July 2008)
2. The Cave Singers – Belmar
3. The Japanese War Effort- Winning Eleven (Live in Session)
4. Dan Mangan – Robots
5. The Silver Columns – Brow Beaten
6. The Japanese War Effort – Lanark (Live in Session)
7. Yusuf Azak – The Key Underground
8. Rob St John – December & Whisky (Live at the Retreat Festival)
9. Doveman – Angel’s Share
10. Hudson Mohawke – Fuse
11.. Helen Love – Debbie Loves Joey
12. Tune Yards – Hap-B
13. The Japanese War Effort – Face Like A Lemon – Ivor Cutler Cover (Live in Session)
14. Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A (Nebraska Sessions Version)
15. Japanese War Effort – Punk’s Not Dead (Live in Session)
16. Leonard Cohen – Lover Lover Lover

Here is the podcast of last week’s session with the excellent Candythief, along with the session tracks and video of the performances, after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

I admitted in a comment yesterday that I don’t really understand my general dislike of cover versions.  I don’t object to them at all, just the opposite in fact: generally I am really interested to hear them, and I like the fact that songs exist in that sort of malleable state, unfixed by any one ‘correct’ interpretation.  The problem is not in principle, just practise; I simply tend not to like them very much, and I don’t know why.

To make matters even less logical, I love people playing folk songs, and of course the whole folk tradition is one of repeating and reinterpreting songs and phrases, tunes and riffs which have gone before.  It’s one of the fundamental assumptions of the whole medium in fact: that each generation add their own layer to the existing ones, and in turn make their contribution to the richness of the art form.

In fact, if anything makes a mockery of the current abuse of copyright law by media corporations it is folk music.  The idea that you need to incentivise people to create is just laughable.  In fact the converse is true, as the art from every repressive regime in the world shows, no matter how much you discourage people from being creative you just can’t bloody stop them.  I’m not arguing against people making money from their art, but the copyright law at the moment is increasingly becoming a straitjacket to creativity, the need for which is proven a lie by folk, which is essentially a big long chain of mashups, samples, rehashing and reworking. Read the rest of this entry »

Robin is, I suspect, not the only one. I really liked his recent album Only the Missile, and this appears to a rather lovely little inbetweeny EP. There’s a gorgeous atmosphere to Robin’s stuff that I can’t quite put my finger on. He has a deep, reassuring voice and a calming, unhurried delivery which seems to bring a familiar ease to his sound.

Add a splash of female backing vocals and was simply really nice becomes bloody gorgeous. This is EP is patchy, but the title track is a lovely reminiscence on the transience of music taste, and the pleasant self-indulgence of nostalgia. The cover of the superb Kirsty MacColl song There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis is as good as the original, in an odd way. And then there’s Shakes & Shudders. Christ this is lovely. If I’ve heard a more intimate, weary song in ages I couldn’t name it: just fucking gorgeous.

I like the fact that he’s made this available under a Creative Commons license as well. It’s sort of brave, and far from clear-cut – I mean, where does this place blogs with ads? Presumably they can’t post it. I doubt Robin himself would have an issue with it of course, but it does highlight one of the inherent contradictions to which we in the blogosphere often turn a blind eye. So go here to download it, and to explore Jamendo, the Creative Commons-based music download site, which is a highly interesting idea in itself.

Robin Grey – Shakes & Shudders
And just because we all sincerely do love Leonard Cohen:
Leonard Cohen – Last Year’s Man

Remember the giddy days when this blog used to be about music, rather than futile attempts to influence political machinations incomprehensibly bigger than ourselves? It was only a week ago, but it feels like fucking ages.

I don’t have a lot of new music to post at the moment, so I thought I’d mention this interesting little snippet. Last night on my Fresh Air show I played a couple of (relatively) obscure songs, along with the popular songs which they had inspired. Which, In fact, they Inspired so very much that writing credits were given to the writers of the first song, so heavily was it borrowed from.

The first one was pretty obvious: Creep by Radiohead borrows so heavily from The Air That I Breathe by The Hollies that they were credited on the album cover to Pablo Honey, and apparently everyone but me knew this until quite recently.

The second one, however, was a little more obscure. I bought R.E.M.’s Up back when it was released, in about 1998. I loved it then, and I still do; in fact I think it might be just about their most under-rated album. They had lost drummer Bill Berry and instead of trying to paper over the cracks, they seem to have decided to turn a potential failing into a virtue. The album is shot through with synths and drum machines, successfullly embracing the fact that it is largely drumless instead of just fudging through and hoping no-one would notice Bill was gone.

About halfway through this record is a song called Hope, which I think is brilliant, but when the sharp-eared (not in a Star Trek sense) young lady I was seeing at the time made some throwaway comment about it being pretty much a Leonard Cohen cover, I was completely baffled. I just couldn’t hear any Leonard Cohen in there, so we went back through his album and eventually tracked down Suzanne. It’s such a classic I am more than a little surprised I couldn’t hear the similarities to begin with, but you know what, I still can’t. If I hear them one after another then it’s pretty obvious, but if I try and just listen to hope in isolation I genuinely can’t make the leap in my head, even though I know it’s there.

R.E.M. actually credited Cohen for his influence on the song in their inlay card. I love both, frankly, and the French version of Suzanne by Francoise Hardy is also gorgeous. Enjoy.

Leonard Cohen – Suzanne
R.E.M. – Hope
Francoise Hardy – Suzanne

[You know when you haven't explained yourself properly then there's a mixup and then you end up thinking, 'ah, fuck it'. That is this post. When I invited the Readers of Toad to contribute posts for this series on soundtracks I meant entire posts - you know a couple of hundred words, a little story or a bit of a rant. When John sent me his email on why he loved the soundtrack for Natural Born Killers I thought 'Oh for fuck's sake, I've ballsed this up. I really haven't been very clear have I.'

Then I looked at the post he'd sent through and, although it crossed my mind that I should email him back and explain that I kind of had a little more writing in mind, that really wasn't necessary. I mean, what he says is coherent, makes sense and is a single, complete thought neatly expressed and in need of no further elaboration.

The other reason I wanted to post it is because John is entirely new to me. He's never left a comment and this is the first time I knew he read my blog. I get this sometimes with people who say hello on Last.fm or Facebook. This blog gets over a thousand hits a day and maybe thirty people leave comments on a regular basis. Now I am not complaining about this at all, but it means I write this stuff, throw it out there and have little idea who is out there either enjoying it, hating it or just downloading the mp3s and fucking off, never to be seen again.

So it seemed sort of fitting that the first time John took the time to say hello I should just take him at face value, post what he wrote, include the rather excellent song choices and let you all meet him too. So, without any further ado, Natural Born Killers...]

My first soundtrack love was the Natural Born Killers disc produced by Trent Reznor. Like the movie, some people say it’s too jumbled and too ecclectic, but I say it works. Even the softer tracks like Patsy Cline’s ‘Back In Baby’s Arms’ take on a sinister edge.

Leonard Cohen – Waiting for the Miracle
Patsy Cline – Back in Baby’s Arms
Patti Smith – Rock & Roll Nigger

Posts in this series:
- Crash Calloway from Pretending Life is Like a Song writes about The Commitments.
- Nate, who plays viola in The Young Republic explains why some terrible films have excellent scores.
- My dearest darling Mrs. Toad sings the praises of the High School Movie.
- DC, presenter of The Waiting Room, goes on a truly interminable ramble about the great Tom Waits and One From the Heart.
- Brother of Toad talks about how the context of music can interfere with its use in a movie.
- John sums up Natural Born Killers in three sentences.
- I have a go myself by writing about the art of referencing films in your song lyrics and what it lets you do.
- Tim from The Daily Growl digs away at the sensual texture of In the Mood For Love.
- Matt from Draped in Velvet might never forgive the false start of the world of rap-rock.
- Ian from Broken Records delivers the rant that started this all off: why soundtracks just don’t work!

You have to love this one.  I get contacted from time to time by publicity companies wanting to send me bits and pieces.  I often think it’s a bit of a waste actually, because it’s so hit and miss and seems a waste of a precious freebie.  Ah well, their decision I guess, it’s not like it’s in any way difficult to find out what kind of music I like.  I mean, there are times I think that blogs are really just a mass of free market research.

Anyhow, I was contacted yesterday by an nice lass called Natasha from Joanna Burns PR asking the standard questions about an address to send things through to.  Interest piqued,  I clicked on the link to the homepage and nearly spat coffee halfway across the office – just look at their clients!  Celine Dion, Lemar, Delta Goodrem, Santana..?  What in god’s name are they thinking?  Look at that Sergey chap, really honestly do, it’s just hilarious.  Did they know what prompting me to write about Celine Dion, or indeed any of these poor bastards was liable to result in?

I was nice about it, I really was, politely suggesting that perhaps their efforts might be better spent pursuing other avenues.  It’s just possible that there might not be the natural synergy between our respective goals that they might think.  Anyhow, Natasha was genuinely nice about it and said that, although it wasn’t an obvious fit, they had some new projects in the new year approaching that might be of interest and not to worry, I wouldn’t be flooded with an avalanche of cheese.

So I now wait with bated breath.  I’ll honestly give something a fair listen if they send it, and fair play if they want to branch into the indie sphere, but looking at that front page really really did make me laugh, and I felt I just had to share the joy.

Some hits from Joanna Burns PR – see, I really am making an effort:

Jeff Finlin – Sugar Blue Too
Leonard Cohen – Sisters of Mercy
Leonard Cohen – Last Year’s Man
Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time
Jackson Five – Lookin’ Through the Windows

I am not a historian (yes, I know it’s ‘an’ historian but it really does sound pretentious) or a patriot, so I am not going to go on about this, but there are two things that bug the living shit out of me when wars are mentioned, and World Wars in particular. I think these points need to be made because they address the two most irritating misconceptions I tend to find people have about the World Wars, in particular WW2. The songs are really, really fitting too so please don’t just pop them on. Actually listen.

1: Surrender Monkeys

I hear this said about the French all the time by both Brits and Americans and it really annoys me. Germany invaded and overran France in WW2 and their advance ground to a halt there in WW1. In fact in WW1 the extent of the slaughter was unprecedented in the world, and the battles in Northern France are legendary for their brutality and loss of life.

We have a house in France, and in every village there is a war memorial. On every war memorial is a list of names. The list is so long, for both world wars, that it beggars belief the town could have been even half that big in the first place. In most cases families lose numerous men. Over the course of both wars which were, let’s not forget, only twenty years apart, many families suffered double figure losses, and this is in every single tiny little village for miles and miles around.

The UK and the US have no idea what it is like to resist an actual invading army – the Spanish Armada in 1588 is, I believe, the last time Britain has come even close – so we quite simply have no right to judge what we do not understand. Can you imagine German officers in your home town? Can you imagine almost every single man between the age of about 17 and 45 being killed defending his home – literally too, none of this ‘defending our country against Tourism’ bullshit? No you bloody can’t, so if you want to talk Surrender Monkeys do it well the fuck out of my earshot because you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.

Leonard Cohen – The Partisan Lyrics (gut-wrenching)
The Men They Couldn’t Hang – The Green Fields of France Lyrics

2: We saved your goddam asses in the Second World War

You think so do you? Well, I am not about to deny that the Americans played a hugely important role in the Second World War because that would be stupid. But you want to know who ’saved everyone’s asses’? Well, do you remember what happened to the Grande Armee de la Republique in 1812? What happened to the Germans in the First World War? The Nazis in WW2? I’ll tell you what, they all stupidly invaded Russia and their armies were slowly ground into submission in one long, horrific war of attrition after another.

How many Americans died in WW2? About half a million. British? Roughly the same. It sounds a lot doesn’t it. Well it’s peanuts – the Greeks lost a similar number. If you want to know who ’saved our asses’ in WW2 consider that current estimates put Russian casualties of that war at about 26 million, split roughly in half between civilian and military deaths. Hitler was stupid enough to invade Russia before he’d polished off Britain and his army was ground down in one of the hardest, bitterest and most miserable campaigns imaginable. Over a third of all deaths in the Second World War were Russians. That’s who saved our asses in WW2.*

Funnily enough, the second on the casualty list? China, with 20 million, roughly 16 million of whom were civillians. Browsing that list I also notice that the Poles lost 20% of their population. Russia lost 13.4%. America lost 0.32% and Britain less than 1%. Sobering, isn’t it.

Billy Bragg – Think Again Lyrics
The Waterboys – Red Army Blues Lyrics

*Dear proper historians – no, I am not claiming it was that simple, just making a single, isolated point. And yes, I do know there was a war in the Pacific as well, but that’s a whole different story.