Song, by Toad

Last night on Fresh Air I was talking to Ruth and Neil about how the albums which define the Noughties, or indeed any particular place or period of time, for me will probably not be the great ones.  The great ones get listened to again and again and end up with memories spread all over your life, and asssociations with all sorts of things, so I actually think it’s the stuff I have since stopped listening to that will end up with the strongest associations to a particular time and place.

So for all, say, The Libertines debut won’t make my Best of the Decade list, it will probably end up being one of the albums I most associate with the decade.  I played that record to fucking death when it came out.  Listening back, I still love it, but for some reason I really don’t play it that much any more.  Even when I think about the fact that I still love it, the urge to actually stick it on the stereo isn’t there.  Unlike, say, the Giant Sand album released at around the same time.

The Libertines – The Good Old Days

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By contrast, we played The Streets last night as well, and Christ it was embarrassing.  I was really into that album too, but it was just painful to listen back to.  Maybe that’s because his subsequent albums seemed to charicature the flaws and annoyances in his style so much that on re-listening to Original Pirate Material that has become all I can hear.  Whatever the reasons though, it’s a record I listened to quite a bit at the time and, honestly, am never likely to (voluntarily) listen to again.

The Streets – Let’s Push Things Forward

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The Killers debut Hot Fuss is another slightly different example.  A brilliant, infectious, pop record that their subsequent failures don’t negate at all.  Nevertheless, I still have no real urge to play that album particularly, and so the songs and the memories they evoke have become entirely locked in the latter years of the decade.

The Killers – Smile Like You Mean It

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So basically, I think that for all this listery is kind of interesting I do find myself thinking more, not about the best albums of the decade, but the albums which I will most strongly associate with the decade in about ten years from now, and the two really don’t overlap all that much.  I think of this one as a sort of lost list, not really one you can write down off the top of your head, more one which will slowly reveal itself over the course of time as you either continue or cease to listen to particular records.

Unfortunately due to technological disasters there was no recording, and not even any broadcasting, of last week’s Mammoeth session I’m afraid.  So I’d like to apologise to Russell, and promise to get him back in next year at the first available opportunity to have another go. I suppose it’s no consolation to any of you for me to tell you that he was really good?  No, thought not.

As for this week, we were supposed to have Dan from Withered Hand and Neil from Meursault doing a joint session, because they are recording a joint EP in the near future and it seemed like a nice idea.  Dan is unable to make it unfortunately, so you will have to make do with Neil I’m afraid.  Fortunately the lad can sing a bit so it’s unlikely to ruin your evening.

As per usual the playlist below will be updated live as we go along, and the comments section will be the best place for all your usual abuse/sniping/snide remarks.

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This week’s playlist:
1. Shearwater – Castaways
2. Navigator- Work Is Done
3. Meursault – Love or Limb (live in session)
4. Kath Bloom – Come Here
5. Clem Snide – I Heard My Mother  Praying For Me
6. Meursault – An untitled triptych! (live in session)
7. The Libertines – Tell The King
8. The Streets – Same Old Thing
9. Samamidon – Head Over Heels
10. Meursault- What You Don’t Have (live in session)
11. Wounded Knee – Oh My Captain!
12. Meursault – Heaven Waits (live in session)
13. Eagleowl – Sleep the Winter

When was the last time Pete Doherty was stumbling across the front page of the tabloids, jacked up to the tits on smack/horse tranquilizers/coco pops/whatever he gets his kicks from these days?  I ask, not because I particularly care, but because I’ve just realised that I don’t really remember seeing that much of him recently.  Kerry Katona and Amy Winehouse seem to be the self-destruction poster children du jour, and of course Jade Goody has kept everyone more than occupied enough for the last little while.  So I’ve not seen that much of Pete, I think, although I could be wrong.

The only reason I bring that up is because this album just does not have the disjointed chaos about it that you might expect from the kind of lifestyle for which he has recently been most famous.  It’s actually kind of mellow, relaxed and, crucially, really rather warm.  It’s a sad, regretful album in many ways, but there’s none of the wild-eyed undercurrent which has given his previous work both its best and its worst moments.  He sounds, and you may wish to re-read this sentence carefully just to be sure you got it right, but he sounds really rather together.  I’ve no idea if he is, but to listen to this album that is how he sounds.

I’m not sure where the warmth comes from; it could be the unhurried, comfortable vocal delivery.  It could equally be the more considered musical construction, which seems confident enough to trip from bare acoustic guitar laments to richer, lusher textures which bring some songs to the verge of the club croon.  Maybe the cathartic nature of the lyrical content has given him the confidence to tackle the music with a little more abandon.  Maybe it’s the steadying  presence of Blur’s Graham Coxon on guitar.  Maybe he genuinely is in a good place right now, in a personal sense, and this is just the kind of music he is capable of making.

Either way, this album sort of makes me sad.  It’s really good – not exceptional, but really good nevertheless.  I don’t know if I’m sad for the past, for what he’s had to do to himself to get here, or whether I’m sad for the future which could still so easily be his if this little island of calm proves to be temporary, because when he’s this together he’s clearly still got a lot to offer and it would be a shame if he were to rob himself of the chance to do so.  I, for one, hope he does not.

Peter Doherty – Last of the English Roses

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Peter Doherty – A Little Death Around the Eyes

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Oh deary me.  A somewhat slurred podcast this week.  I recorded this on Friday night after coming home from sharing about seven pints with my boss at Proper Job, who is a thoroughly decent chap and doesn’t get out for beers as often as he used to due to an unfortunate breeding accident in which his wife had a baby, thus confining him to the house.  The lesson – gentlemen, for the love of god, don’t let them breed!

So I came back to the house and wanted to play some loud music.  I popped a bottle of beer, bought some munchies and mumbled my way through a pile of loud, rambunctious songs that I played far too loud as I sorted out the playlist, and great fun it all was too. I asked about modern rowdy music this week, and Bart kindly recommended some bands, a couple of whom I assume I may have been a little quick to dismiss in the past, so I am going to have another go at them.

Looking through the playlist, I find one thing sticking out more than anything else: how the hell can you tell a Sex Pistols demo from a Sex Pistols recording?

Toadcast #42 – Noise Please

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01. The Libertines – What a Waster (02.56)
02. The Von Bondies – Shallow Grave (08.59)
03. The Bellrays – Blues For Godzilla (12.05)
04. Ian Dury & the Blockheads – Ballad of the Sulphate Strangler (17.49)
05. The Damned – Thrill Kill (23.07)
06. Hoggboy – Left & Right (29.31)
07. Liars – Mr You’re on Fire Mr (35.33)
08. Monster Magnet – Kiss of the Scorpion (37.57)
09. The Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK (Demo) (43.24)
10. The Fall – Two Librans (49.47)
11. The Small Faces – All or Nothing (Live) (53.41)
12. The Detroit Cobras – Hey Sailor (59.44)

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)

In preparation for applying for a slot on Edinburgh’s student radio station Fresh Air, I thought I would challenge myself to get through an entire podcast without actually swearing because, on public access radio, you can’t use naughty words. A Toad without swearing, you say, what the fuck has the world come to?

Well to make sure I don’t disappoint you in your noble quest for dissolute anti-culture I thought I’d compensate by playing a collection of the filthiest and most sweary songs I could lay my hands on. Thinking about it, I’ve managed to forget Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s truly foul ‘Je T’aime, Moi Non Plus’, but there you go. I could have improved just about every playlist I’ve ever done in retrospect, I think, so at some point I have to draw the line.

So, I use bad words when I quote other people and when I give you the names of the songs but I don’t think I let a single naughty word slip during my own chat on this one, but let me know if you catch me out.

Toadcast #23 – The Filthcast

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01. Aidan John Moffat – Cunt (01.09)
02. The Pogues – Boys From the County Hell (05.24)
03. Adam Balbo -Let’s Make a Porno (10.03)
04. Celebrity Chimp – Pornstar (13.06)
05. The Tacticians – Hardcore Porn (15.37)
06. Billy Bragg – St. Swithin’s Day (21.05)
07. Grinderman – No Pussy Blues (26.05)
08. The Libertines – I Get Along (33.10)
09. Carbon/Silicon – What the Fuck (35.47)
10. Frank Turner – Heartless Bastard Motherfucker (42.03)
11. Les Enfant Bastard – U R My Fucking Sunshine U Cunt (44.52)
12. Plans & Apologies – Tony Blair Fucknut (49.50)
13. The Libertines – What a Waster (57.00)
14. Lambchop – Your Fucking Sunny Day (60.49)
15. The Ex-Men – Suck Her (67.35)
16. Micah P. Hinson – Patience (73.04)
17. Eels – It’s a Motherfucker (76.59)
18. Doug Anthony Allstars – I Fuck Dogs (80.07)