Song, by Toad

Whilst I’m still constantly amazed by how many obscure indie bands I’ve never heard of and how many legendary ones I’ve barely ever listened to (Sonic Youth and the Jesus & Mary Chain for example), I still assume that my depth of knowledge must be pretty impressive when it comes to left field independent music.

I suppose it’s almost inevitable that, as a consequence of this depth, my breadth of awareness has suffered an awful lot.  I look back on my Best of the Year lists for 2004 and 2005 and there are bands like the Killers, Bloc Party and Maximo Park on there.  Now, I make absolutely no apology for that whatsoever.  All three of those albums are brilliant pop records, and a little more in the case of Bloc Party, however badly they followed it up.  There’s no shame in liking stuff which happens to be popular, and I still listen to all of that music with enjoyment.

So what’s my point?  Well, look at my Top 10 for 2007 (Part 1 & Part 2) and 2008 (Part 1 & Part 2), and the difference is huge.  Grinderman are big and famous, and the Twilight Sad have done pretty well here and there. Umm.. Elvis Perkins is on XL I guess.  But there’s basically no-one on either list who your average punter in the street would be likely to have even heard of, never mind like.

More noticably, however, there is no pop.  I know that all music is essentially pop, just for slightly different audiences, but there’s nothing that I would describe as populist.  A lot of those albums do work really well as pop albums, of course they do, but Maximo Park seem to have the sole goal of writing irrepressible pop tunes, and they were all over the radio, as were the Killers and Bloc Party.  I don’t even know which bands would be the equivalent of that today.  Who is all over XFM and 6Music and Radio1 all at the same time?  I guess Vampire Weekend count, possibly.  And, erm… I don’t know.  I actually have no idea.  Who fills the Corn Exchange these days?

There are loads of reasons, of course.  Partly bands becoming so broadly popular seems less frequent these days, people’s listening habits are changing and how people access music is changing.  And, as Campfires & Battlefield said on a previous thread on this topic some time ago: who cares?

I am not apologising, of course: back then I listened to lots of music I loved, now I do the exact same thing.  It’s just interesting how far away from the mainstream I find myself wandering.  And if you think I’m exaggerating just imagine what the difference in total album sales between the old lists and the new lists would be – that more than anything drives the point home, as far as I am concerned.

Maximo Park – Going Missing

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Bloc Party – This Modern Love

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The Killers – Believe Me Natalie

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Yeah, Sweden, fuck you with your pleasant way of life and beautiful scenery, and legendary ladyfolk and being good at hockey and all that shit.

Well, no, that’s not what I meant by Fuck You, Sweden.  I’m sure it’s very nice there.  What I meant was to express was incredible frustration at that fact that for some inexplicable fucking reason, my computer thinks I am in Sweden.  There must be an obvious setting somewhere, but for something so simple, I can’t seem to find it.

Who cares, I hear you say, but actually it’s quite annoying. I can go straight to Google UK, for example, but when I type anything into that little search box on the top right of the browser window, it gives me the results in Swedish, and tries to send me to Swedish websites (no, not that sort of Swedish website).  This is merely annoying, but in writing yesterday’s Mimicking Birds post, I was actually sent to MySpace Sweden, for fuck’s sake.

Erm, anyway, I am writing this from the 6am train up from London after last night’s chat with Sony which was, erm, pleasant.  I am not entirely certain quite what was achieved, exactly, and I am wary of becoming part of the circle of mutual backscratching which is an inevitability for an insider in any industry.  But it was a fun evening, and it was really nice to meet Jamila, Tim and Brendan.  And it was really nice for Brendan to let me crash at his house.  As good as it was to see people at a big label in the UK start taking bloggers seriously, however, and as nice an evening as it was, I can’t help but feel that once we start going out for drinks on a major label tab we become part of the problem for the music industry, not part of the solution.

That picture at the top of the page was contributed by my friend Dev from New York, incidentally.  He does Blog Fresh Radio, which seems like it might be in the process of becoming Hype Machine radio, but I’m not entirely certain.  I’ll ask him next time we speak.  But he’s indeed right, this week’s five are going to be ‘mint’.  Gosh I’m street.

1. Oddest flavour of ice cream you’ve seen.
2. Name of a herb which sounds quite cool – just as a word, not the comestible itself.
3. Is frozen yoghurt any good?  Better than ice cream?  Just different?
4. Toppings – evil or splendid.
5. An ice cream-based anecdote from your childhood.

These five songs are all promo mp3s from recently or imminently released albums.  Isn’t that nice.  Actually, the St. Vincent one sounds rather good, I think. And My Latest Novel – can’t wait for that one.

My Latest Novel – All In All In All is All

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St. Vincent – The Strangers

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Maximo Park – Wraithlike

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Hysteric

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Eulogies – The Fight (I’ve Come to Like)

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Ah, mates.  Can’t live with ‘em, can’t kill ‘em.  Mrs. Toad’s best friend from her reckless yoof is visiting us here in Edinburgh with her gentleman friend, and consequently I got to thinking about my own old friends, and all the people who, over the years, have introduced me to so much brilliant music.  So I started to patch together a playlist of all the important friends who have added a lot of music to my life.  The problem is that it became way too long for my one hour restriction, so for this week I cast that aside, and allowed myself an extra ten minutes.

Honestly though, old friends are so important, this could have gone on for two hours, easily.  Every one of the people I mention here has a whole story of their own, and it was quite difficult to resist telling all of them in proper detail.  It seems such a shame, actually, to reduce all of these people to a two-minute link.  I could almost do a whole podcast for any one of these scenarios really, and maybe I’ll do that in future.  For now, though, you’ll have to make do with this.  It may be shabby, but it really could have been so much worse.  Meanwhile, Mrs. Toad is fucking plastered.  Oh good.  Enjoy!

Toadcast #50 – The Friendcast

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01. Pink Floyd – On the Turning Away (02.27)
02. Pearl Jam – Black (11.23)
03. The Tragically Hip – Wheat Kings (18.30)
04. Gene – Her Fifteen Years (25.23)
05. Radiohead – Black Star (28.04)
06. Verve – Lucky Man (34.41)
07. Weeping Willows – Eternal Flames (39.19)
08. Billy Bragg – Days Like These (DC Remix) (45.41)
09. Bob Dylan – Po’ Boy (49.42)
10. Elbow – Newborn (55.46)
11. Blanche – Do You Trust Me? (63.19)
12. Maximo Park – Apply Some Pressure (69.07)

Oh yes indeed it does, Toadlings.  For someone who loves painting and illustration, I really never go to art galleries.  I have no good reason why, it’s just not something I think to do.

Well tonight all that changes.  Our next door neighbour, the splendid septuagenarian Peter, has invited us to the opening of his son’s exhibition, which sounds like excellent fun.  I paint, myself, from time to time and I draw constantly at work so it’s something I think I will enjoy, because I don’t go to anything like enough exhibitions.

And of course, Peter is a world class lush, and Guzzleur du Vin Rouge Extraordinaire so it won’t be all culture and sophisticated chit chat.   Thank fuck for that! More podcast joy for you little angels this week.  I have no theme, so I am quite looking forward to just firing whatever I feel like onto it for a change.  No Mrs. Toad though, I’m afraid, but I will rope her in again in future, as long as she promises not to upstage me again!

Art Brut – Modern Art
Maximo Park – Postcard of a Painting
Architecture in Helsinki – Tiny Paintings

More errant podcastery from your favourite slippery green amphibian. This week I find myself yelling abuse at JC who writes a terrible blog called The Vinyl Villain and is currently stranded in Toronto for a few months, far away from his Glasgow home. JC was pretty much the first blogger to take any interest in Song, by Toad in its formative days and I have always been rather grateful for the encouragement Jim showed me back when I was starting out.

As such I thought I’d play a few songs from his favourite groups, a couple of things he’s brought us in the last few months and some songs about missing folk, seeing as he’ll presumably be pining like a teenager for the lovely Mrs. Villain. Well, that or masturbating himself into a zinc-deficient coma, of course.

Either way, hope you’re enjoying yourself JC. Here’s some bloody songs for ya!

Toadcast #5 – Distant Villainy

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1. Belly – Trust In Me (01.54)
2. Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars (08.30)
3. The Doledrums – Midweek Dreamer (12.50)
4. Waylon Jennings – Dukes of Hazzard Theme (15.20)
5. Billy Bragg – Wishing the Days Away (Ballad Version) (18.33)
6. Alex Cornish – This One’s For You (24.28)
7. Adam Balbo – Rock Ballad (31.02)
8. Elbow – Fugitive Motel (36.24)
9. R.E.M. – Half a World Away (41.21)
10. The Doledrums – He Said (47.14)
11. The Meteors – Out of Time (51.21)
12. James – Say Something (55.33)
13. Thunderegg – Long Way From Home (59.50)
14. The Pendulums – Brand New Song (66.52)

I do like Maximo Park – they’re hardly the second coming or anything, but they write sharp, eminently catchy indie pop songs with plenty of guitar-bashing. Our Earthly Pleasures, their latest, isn’t as consistent as A Certain Trigger but there are some great tracks on it, of which Our Velocity is one of my favourites.

They’re pretty superb live as well, although I have heard reports that Paul Smith can go from deranged looney to egotistical tosser on occasion. I loved them though, and this is an acoustic version of Our Velocity recorded, I think, for an XFM session a little while back.

Maximo Park – Our Velocity (Live, Acoustic)

[Disclaimer: I am actually on holiday at the moment, probably fucking up my brother's wedding by swearing too much in the best man's speech, so it's all a bit minimal at the moment. Normal service will be resumed after we return on about the 25th July]

There will be no discussion whatsoever of the hidden depths of Maximo Park’s music here, because frankly, Song, by Toad doesn’t give a fig for such pretension. This is a superficial, thoughtless blog full of ill-thought out piffle and proud of it, so there’s no room for philosophical or artistic pontificating. Or at least not in this post.

Maximo Park could write some of the most profound and moving lyrics in modern music, and they could create some of the most sophisticated layered harmonies since fucking Beethoven, but honestly I would find it impossible to notice – my mind just won’t go there with their music.

For Toad, Maximo Park are simply one of the premiere indie-pop bands going, no more and no less. Their music is about as catchy as I’ve heard for years, and this is not a figure of speech it is a literal statement. For this reason I did them the disservice of assuming that they would vanish after the perfectly packaged pop genius of A Certain Trigger, but no, they’re back and still bang on the money. I am not entirely convinced that Our Earthly Pleasures is as consistent as their debut, but I really don’t care. The rest of the songs may yet grow on me and they may not, but when you have managed such irresistible pop genius as Girls Who Play Guitars, Nosebleed, Our Velocity and The Unshockable it really doesn’t matter.

Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars
Maximo Park – The Unshockable

Apart from signalling the collapse of civillised society as we know it, graffiti also exists as a legitimate art form. Banksy is currently the most famous proponent of this particular skill, but I rather unjustly dismissed him out of hand when he first began to gain notoriety. Basically, the sort of people I always heard talking about him were the sort of people who were so carefully positioned at the windswept bleeding edge of alternative culture that I have long since developed a nervous twitch (often manifesting itself as something curiously resembling a punch in the head) whenever they start waffling on about anything, anything that is Quite. This. Cool. Personal prejudices aside, however, a pal of mine was given a Banksy book by his missus recently and I had a quick flip through it, and hastily ate my words. He really is talented. Just go and browse his website for a bit – you won’t be disappointed.

Most relevantly to this post I can’t help but notice that, as with other art forms, although most often ones which happen to be internet based, there are a surprising number of people out there willing to give us the benefit of their time and skills for absolutely nothing. I never cease to be amazed by the blogosphere, not by the vast mountains of dross which undeniably exist out here, but by the surprising number of really high quality writers and thinkers who so happily give away their time and thoughts for free.

Applying this to the graffiti I began the post talking about, the pictures accompanying this post are taken from a little electrical switching station thingy very near where I live. This horrendous act of vandalism and lack of respect for public property – snigger, sorry – this selfless donation of someone’s time, effort and really excellent illustration skills really impresses me. Why has he/she bothered? There’s no signature, no glory to be had, but every time I walk past this otherwise nondescript grey box I am impressed and cheered up by the quality and the impudence of these three little pieces of work.

Hooray for vandals!

Maximo Park – Graffiti

And yes, we will sing to you in French:

Marianne Dissard – Les Confettis
This is a very delicate song, so listen to it in the evening in peace. To buy the rest of the album – it’s gorgeous, by the way, so I heartily recommend it – go to her website, here. Joey Burns of Calexico fame wrote a lot of the music, if that helps convince you, and Marianne sang on their brilliant song The Ballad of Cable Hogue.

Here I sit at work, late into the night, browsing the music blogs while my computer crunches renderings and I’m reading quite a bit about this Mark Ronson character about whom I know nothing at all. More specifically, I keep coming across compliments of his version of Maximo Park’s Apply Some Pressure. Now, I am no Maximo Park acolyte by any means, but I loved their debut album and thought that Apply Some Pressure was an absolutely splendidly uplifting indie-pop gem of a song.

Mark Ronson’s version is so bad it makes me want to punch myself in the head just for having ever heard it. Being an imbecilic glutton for punishment I meandered over to his myspace page (no, I’m not going to link to it – if you’re that bent on self-harm then you are going to have to do it to yourself) where his full abomination of an album is available for preview. It appears to be a big steaming pile of cover versions – oh brilliant, cover versions – all of which are so toe-curlingly awful I nearly fractured my spine, I cringed so hard. It actually makes you contort yourself into some sort of overwhelming spasm of embarrassment – like your body it trying to fold in on itself in an Herculean effort to pretend that it isn’t there, being subjected to this horror. It’s so bad I can’t even summon any vitriol. It’s like musical Kryptonite – honestly, I’m absolutely and utterly aghast.

He actually makes me feel sorry for the Kaiser Chiefs, he’s that bad. I don’t even like the Kaiser Chiefs, but no-one deserves to have virtually their only decent song butchered so horribly. And then, when it’s down on the ground and bleeding, it’s last shred of dignity utterly shrivelled to nothing, he delivers the Coup de Grace. The Allen. Yes, he beats their song to death and then pisses on its bleeding corpse by inviting Lily Fucking Allen to join in his carnival of musical masturbation.

There’s a Jam cover in there too, but I honestly couldn’t even bring myself to listen to it. I swear, if any of you even considers for a second buying this album I am giving up and going home. It’s not even amusingly bad.

Mark Ronson – Apply Some Pressure
Mark Ronson featuring, yes, Lily Fucking Allen – Oh My God
Maximo Park – Apply Some Pressure

I really do apologise. If you listened to those, then you will never get those six or seven minutes of your lives back. It’s just wrong, isn’t it? Christ I need a gin.

And the, er, title was clearly a slight exaggeration.

There have been such a lot of highly anticipated albums in the last few months that I have been complete let-downs. I’ve been all childishly excited about at least half a dozen albums, mostly sophomore efforts, and they have proved to be almost without exception to be massive disappointments:

Bloc Party – Dismal
The Killers – Predictably shit
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Tense & nervy
The Good, the Bad & the Queen – Patchy
Willy Mason – Just not quite there
Andrew Bird – Struggling, but growing on me, so I may end up changing my mind

Fortunately, The Arcade Fire is excellent and Grinderman is absolutely blinding, or I’d be crying into my cornflakes like a 5-year-old girl wondering why Flopsy has decided to go to Wabbit Heaven and doesn’t want to play with her anymore. Surprisingly though, after being let down by the high-indie-cred sorts such as Bloc Party, it looks like the year for the big boys might be rescued by a couple of highly unlikely sources: Maximo Park and Art Brut.

As much as I liked their debut, I pretty much wrote off Art Brut as being a borderline novelty act. Lines like ‘we’re just talking to the kids’ seemed so hackneyed that either they were shit or the levels of archness were just unbearably high – I’d always imaged poor old Emily Kane cringing into a grotty glass of warm pub Chardonnay whenever her song came on the jukebox. And as for Eddie Argos’ singing voice, well it just never seemed serious. Amazingly though, despite my assumption that they would promptly vanish without trace, they are back and looking in the rudest of health. The knack for a tune that brought us gems like ‘modern art makes me want to rock out’ has been refined a little since we saw it last, and a couple of the pre-release tracks have been seriously, seriously good. Direct Hit isn’t great, but when you aren’t expecting anything at all, who cares? Nag Nag Nag and Pump Up the Volume are excellent, catchy, bouncy and infectious and, better still, they are about people who love listening to music. Art Brut are one of us, people!

Art Brut – Nag Nag Nag Nag
Art Brut – Pump Up the Volume – Sorry guys, verboten. But the record company asked me to remove them in such a nice way that I think it needs to be mentioned, given what a bastard I am to record companies most of the time. Basically I got an email with a pleasantly worded request and a tip off about another new band, Assembly Now, who I’ll post more about later in the week. Dear Record Industry, please see ReverbXL for tips on how to interact civilly with human beings.

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Then there’s Maximo Park (no, I’m not even going to bother with the stupid fucking typography) whose debut, A Certain Trigger, was so infectiously enjoyable that I just lazily assumed they’d be a group who captured the mood of the time and made a successful album because of that rather than any merit of their own. A little like The Killers. That was a bit casual, it seems. I was first tipped off that they might actually be good when I saw them live and they were absolutely smoking. I’ve subsequently heard reports of posturing and faffing about, but when I saw them they were great, and that is always a really good sign for a band. Listening to their own pre-release leaks it seems their infallible knack for an irrepressible tune is completely intact, their sound is becoming slightly more aggressive (Mr. Toad always likes this.) and if they serve up another helping of songs as infectiously hummable as the last lot then I think we might be in for a surprise treat.

Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars This one is really, really good. We all used to talk about girls who play guitars.
Maximo Park – Our Velocity

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