Well the Funkcast was probably about as gentle a ‘tell me about this genre’ podcast as you’re likely to get.  This, on the other hand, is not gentle.  I suppose it was never likely to be – there’s only so gentle an introduction you can give to this kind of music.

Basically, I was becoming increasingly curious about the number of alt-folkies I know who come from heavy metal backgrounds.  Loads of my friends here who I know because we all listen to indie rock or alternative folk or all sorts of things inbetween seem to have been really into metal when they were young.  This doesn’t entirely make sense to me because I see very little connection between the two kinds of music, and for so many people to have made that transition it must be a strong connection.

Then, of course, it turns out that loads of people whose music I listen to – alt-folk, once again – also grew up listening to metal.  The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle, Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie and, more locally, Dan from Withered Hand and Neil from Meursault.  So, having been round at the house doing artwork for their single releases I asked the Neil and Chris from Meursault and Matthew who helps out with the label to put together a metal podcast.  It might not be quite as pleasant to cook your bacon sandwiches to on Sunday afternoon, but erm, well I never made any promises with these bloody podcasts anyway – just deal with it, we’ll probably be back to the alt-folk next week.

Toadcast #91 – The Metalcast

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01. Half Man Half Biscuit – Vatican Broadside (0.00)
02. Withered Hand – Takeaway Food (05.03)
03. AC/DC – Whole Lotta Rosie (13.17)
04. Slayer – Jesus Saves (17.25)
05. Mount Eerie – Wind’s Dark Poem (24.21)
06. Nirvana – School (35.13)
07. Dinosaur Jr. – On the Way (37.50)
08. Lightning Bolt – Ride the Sky (42.59)
09. Richard Cheese – Rape Me (47.47)
10. Children of Bodom – The Trooper (53.50)
11. Meshuggah – Autonomy Lost (57.05)
12. The Mountain Goats – No Children (62.01)
13. Anal Cunt – You’re Old (Fuck You) (73.27)

Hello, welcome to the Ruthcast.  Why the Ruthcast?  Because my friend Ruth who runs the Bowery with Jane came round to the house last week to thoroughly upstage me on my own podcast.

Last year Ruth was a guest on my Fresh Air radio show and completely and utterly upstaged me, and in this podcast we agreed that she would come on every week this year.  And that, frankly, sounds like a bloody good idea to me.

I mentioned on the Friday Five a couple of weeks ago that Ellie Greenwich had died, and as this is something which upset Ruth rather a lot, so the podcast is absolutely chock-full of Ellie Greenwich songs

Toadcast #85 – The Ruthcast

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01. The Ronettes – Baby I Love You (05.51)
02. Golden Ghost – If You Are in Love Then Why Are You Asleep? (13.36)
03. The Crystals – Then He Kissed Me (16.07)
04. Parenthetical Girls – A Song for Ellie Greenwich (23.25)
05. The Shangri-Las – Leader of the Pack (34.25)
06. Jeremy Jay – Beautiful Rebel (37.10)
07. The Blank Tapes – Listen to the One (41.41)
08. Dusty Springfield – What Good is I Love You (43.59)
09. Julie Doiron – Last Night (56.52)
10. Mount Eerie – Between Two Mysteries (69.06)

[This week's Sunday Supplement is written by Matthew, who has kindly volunteered to help out with the label and the blog until he goes back to college in the Autumn.]

I think it’s safe to say Wind’s Poem is Phil Elverum’s third proper studio release under Mount Eerie, though I could be wrong; he has released compilations and various other bits and pieces which I haven’t really been able to keep up with, sadly, but I don’t think they’re albums per se.  Phil had said that this album would be “black metal”, which rather confused me. I thought it might be a joke. I’m still not quite sure really.

The album is just plain weird – great, but weird. It completely deviates from the quintessential acoustic lo-fi genius that everyone knows from No Flashlight and The Microphones albums. It’s dark, mysterious, eerie, quietly loud and foggy. When I say foggy, I mean it’s like looking out into a foggy street and feeling relieved to be inside. I do love when an album can take you somewhere.

It can be divided into two parts: the songs that are discordant and raucous and those that are calm and comforting. I personally prefer the latter, which is thankfully the majority, with it’s soothing ability and strange imagery. The loud songs are probably what Phil meant when he said “black metal”. I don’t know about you, but black metal in my dictionary means awful headache.

Only a few tracks prevent this album from being absolutely fucking fantastic. Shame really.

Mount Eerie – Summons

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Mount Eerie – Between Two Mysteries

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