Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr
Audio: zip file (right-click, save as)

The Toad Session I was probably most nervous about recording was Milk Maid, I think.  It was arranged at the last minute, they are a full, four-piece rock band, their profile is riding relatively high at the moment and I’d never really recorded anything so loud in our house before.

As it was, it turned out pretty fucking well, if you ask me, so when PAWS came in I was confident enough that we’d get decent recordings, but I have to confess I was a little nervous about how we’d get away with the racket and the general lawlessness of their performances.

There were some changes to the team this time as well, as a lot of the usual suspects couldn’t make it.  Wee Matthew was helping out on cameras again, and Rory from Broken Records was back for a second batch of filming.  But we also managed to coax former ace Edinburgh gig photographer extraordinaire Nic Rue out of retirement to take the pictures, and Rory ‘brought at friend’ to help out with the filming.  And his friend just happened to be Chris Park.  Who just happens to be a serious professional.  So if you’re wondering why this isn’t as shit as usual, that’s probably why.

As per usual, all the session mp3s are available to download for free, either below or in this zip file, we have videos of the songs and of the interview here, photos here, Nic’s slightly larger portfolio of pics here, and of course the interview podcast below, with the playlist at the bottom of the page.  Enjoy.  And pity our poor neighbours.

Direct download: Toadcast #196 – PAWS Toad Session
Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

PAWS – Jellyfish (Toad Session)

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PAWS – Bloodline (Toad Session)

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PAWS – Bird Inside Birdcage, Ribcage Inside Bird (Toad Session)

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PAWS – Winners Don’t Bleed (Toad Session)

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01. PAWS – Jellyfish (Toad Session) (07.17)
02. Bronto Skylift – Cobblepot (15.50)
03. Mr. Peppermint – Carp Act (20.25)
04. PAWS – Bloodline (Toad Session) (26.47)
05. Ultimate Thrush – Complex Cat (35.31)
06. Crystal Swells – Waco, Wasilia, Waikiki (36.41)
07. PAWS – Bird Inside Birdcage, Ribcage Inside Bird (Toad Session) (42.35)
08. Pavement – Gold Soundz (48.59)
09. Dolfinz – Blowhole (51.44)
10. PAWS – Winners Don’t Bleed (Toad Session) (61.49)

I still can’t get over just how good that version of Flittin’ is.  Bloody hell. More here.

One of the bonuses about having a Proper Job is that you get to skive.  We self-employed people never really get to skive, because the work doesn’t magically vanish at the hands of an over-eager intern or a grumbling old pro, it just sits there until the weekend or some evening or something and then stares at you accusingly until you inevitably have to do it anyway, and generally at a far less convenient time than if you’d just got the fuck on with it in the first place.

The last time anyone actually paid me to do anything we used to go to the King’s Wark for absolutely awesome Friday lunches – fine scran, a couple of pints and back to waste the afternoon.  You can see how the Friday Fives came about – after that lunch I was never capable of actually doing much else!

Anyhow, today I am awarding myself a skive.  Mrs. Toad has been away this week, and whenever she goes away I work really late, so I’ve got a lot more done this week than I was expecting to, and so you know what?  Fuck it, I am going to the pub for a lazy, boozy lunch.  Balls to you, I think I’ve earned it.

And now, of course, we get to the Friday Fives.  This is the delurking amnesty, where all you folks who sit silent get to come out of the woodwork and say hello.  Do have a go at it, it’s not like the fives require intelligent answers.

1. Best ritual at your day job.
2. Favourite pub.
3. Best breakfast cereal.
4. How long have you known your oldest friend?
5. What’s the first thing you look to do with a lazy Sunday afternoon?

Andrew Bird & Nora O’Connor – Oh Sister

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The Band – The Weight

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Big Joe Williams – Baby Please Don’t Go

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Kelly Joe Phelps – Not So Far to Go

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Pavement – Spit on a Stranger

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This podcast is all about our week’s record shopping in Austin, although I promise I am done going on about SXSW, so those of you bored to tears by the whole business are entirely safe, I promise.

We did buy a fair bit of vinyl while we were over there though, whether it be directly from the bands at their shows (usually whilst still pished and giddy from enjoying the gig) or on one of our particular excursions to either End of an Ear or Waterloo Records.

There is such pleasure to be had from poking through rack upon rack of vinyl, and whilst I have no real quibble with digital music, I think the sheer ritual and physical relationship it sacrifices can’t really be matched in the digital realm.

Direct download: Toadcast #167 – The Shoppingcast

01. X-Ray Eyeballs – Crystal (00.22)
02. The Magnetic Fields – All the Umbrellas in London (08.15)
03. Sparklehorse – Homecoming Queen (11.33)
04. The Coathangers – Chicken 30 (17.35)
05. Lost in the Trees – Walk Around the Lake (24.30)
06. Kurt Vile – My Sympathy (32.44)
07. Pavement – Range Life (35.15)
08. Warm Ghost – Open the Wormhole in Your Heart (43.57)
09. The Books – The Future, Wouldn’t That be Nice (50.19)
10. Deerhunter – Earthquake (58.27)

So, I may be jetlagged to all fuck, but why not get on Fresh Air Radio and pass my incoherence onto you.  Hell, what could possibly be more entertaining than listening to me almost fall asleep whilst introducing songs?

Actually, it will probably work in everyone’s favour actually, as rather than the usual bollocks talking, I will probably end up playing more songs and chattering far less in between, which will presumably be much more entertaining for those of you actually listening.

I will also be joined by Olaf Furniss of Born to be Wide, who will be introducing us to lineup for Wide Days, which takes place on the 7th April 2011 at Teviot House.

Live from 8pm UK time: click here to listen.

As per usual, feel free to chip in in the comments below, and I will be adding the playlist as we go along.

1. Pavement – Spit on a Stranger
2. Preston School of Industry – Straits of Magellan
3. Sparkelhorse – Happy Pig (Live)
4. The National – Think You Can Wait (with Sharon Van Etten)
5. Lady Lazarus – Fighting Words and Fists
6. New Animal – All I Want is Gone
7. My Teenage Stride – The Genie of New Jersey
8. Dolfish – Digitised Love Letters
9. Dolfish – I’m Proud of You Joanna
10. The Zincs – Rich Libertines
11.

I am at an industry-fest and there is a lot to be gained from these things, but sometimes the avalanche of new people to interact with kinda gets me down.  When I started writing this blog absolutely not one single fucker ever read the thing.  In fact, I wrote about music for about two and a half years on my own website which had precisely no readers at all, because I can lay a website out adequately, but search engine optimisation eludes me completely.

I started writing on the pretense that my little brother, who lives in Boston, could now read about the music I was listening to without waiting for me to send him a little packet of compilation CDs twice a year.  This was something of a fig leaf, however, and one which I did at least acknowledge to myself deep down, ineffectively trying to protect my modesty from the rather geekier truth.

I wrote album reviews on my old website for over two years with not one single reader.  Looking at how things are now, where an album review going uncommented for a few hours makes me just a little jumpy, I find that kind of amazing.  No comments (I didn’t know how to do that), no readers, no actual reward of any sort beyond clattering out reviews of albums no longer than about ten sentences long for no other reason than that I enjoyed writing.  I still enjoy writing.  This blog is a tad focussed at the moment, but I promise you I could witter on for hours about more or less any subject you could mention and just enjoy the process of turning buzzing thoughts into paragraphs.

Musicians get this too – so much work that they have to remind themselves what the fuck they’re doing this for.  For me this moment is right about now.  Schmooze, schmooze, schmooze… ack, fuck off somewhere quiet and sit down and have a pint and wash the constant fucking name-dropping one-upmanship out of your fucking hair with a few dozen gins.

The first time anyone started reading Song, by Toad was a while after I moved over to a Blogspot account, which was some time in 2006, and was when one or two of my favourite bloggers started talking about the site and telling their readers that they should pop over and have a read.  That was a weird thrill – that first incoming link.  I’m not even sure who it was from, but first real comment, first proper link, you remember these things.

1. What do you grit your teeth and get through during your working day?
2. And how do you wind down from it?
3. When did someone last acknowledge something you were doing out of the blue and make you happy.
4. Who is the recipient of your most often suppressed “FUCK OFF!”
5. What do you do for the sheer pointless satisfaction of it?

Peter Gabriel – Biko (12″ Version) From Jim at the Vinyl Villain.

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Thomas Mapfumo – Mwoyo Wangu From Davy at the Ghost of Electricity.

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Beulah – Emma Blowgun’s Last Stand From Marcy at Lost in Your Inbox.

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Pavement – Frontwards (Live) From Tim at The Daily Growl.

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Richard Thompson – 1952 Vincent Black Lightning From Ed at 17 Seconds.

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I got an email today from Cogstar, one of our readers. He didn’t want anything really, just to congratulate the Meursault lads on getting that slot at Glastonbury, and to ask if I’d be there so we could have a pint. And fuck me I was relieved to be talking to an actual real person instead of a music industry fucking contact for a fucking change.

I miss Mrs. Toad.  Can you tell?

[This week's Sunday Supplement is brought to you by Jenny Soep (pronounced 'Soup'), who has made it her mission to hunt down 'bloody good gigs' and draw her experience of them onto paper. A bit more time-consuming than taking a photo. But that's what she does, and she's pretty damned good at it, if you ask me.  Last weekend Jenny was at the Matt Groening ATP, where she captured the moments below. You can see more of her stuff over on her own blog, which you should obviously take a look at.]

Hello folks. This is the complete antithesis of Song By Toad, as in no words of wisdom, complaint, rant or fancy shall flow forth from my firmly clamped bouche.

Not this time anyway.

Instead I am offering up the following laid out on a delightfully sparkly silver platter for you to feast your eyes and cogitating mind upon.  They are (this bit is the informative bit, so pay attention) all drawings, hand-drawn from the press pit at Matt Groening’s most fabulously embroidered-together festival set list.  I will admit they’re not the actual papery drawings – that would be impossible, and some skull-duggery has been afoot with photoshop as you may notice, but all the squiggly sketch-like marks you see on the images were done during the live performance of each artist.  I have lightened or darkened some areas to suit my memory, and for just a bit of fun really. However it has meant about 24 hours extra work that I never intended.

Yes I met Matt Groening. Yes I was inwardly spasm-dancing-about-manic-excited, but yes, I activated my super-secret-superficial-forcefield to appear composed and unaffected.  Most people at the festival met Matt, and a huge amount even got photos complete with cuddles and probably even a leg over, signed and doodled-on posters, t-shirts and other extremities, some folks queueing for hours without titbit. I however, got Matt’s email address, and the cute little lady that was with him – could have been his wife, could have been his PA. She asked specifically for my contact details. So let’s see if anything comes of it.

Meanwhile, I got a cracking load of drawings done of the best music festival I’ve had the joy of infiltrating.  Got the attention of most of the musicians, met a good few of them impressing them with my doodle power before exiting with a flourish and a promise of a copy to be mailed toute-de-suite in the digital post before a fortnight was dead and gone.

So here you are. The first instalment of my favourite acts of Matt Groening’s ATP and his delicious music taste quenchers. Enjoy.

I’ll be sticking them up on my own neglected blog at some point soon with the rest of ‘em. (PS You may have noticed, being an observant bunch, I chucked in an extra drawing of Pavement who are curating and playing their own ATP this precise weekend. I drew it at their Barrowlands gig the week before. It was an excellent but thickly steamy hot gig. I was sweating and I was just in the press-pit holding a sketchbook. Pansy.)

Click on the thumbnails below to open a larger image…

Matthew’s not here! Yay!

He’s drunk in Texas at SXSW, as evidenced by this candid image supplied by our good friend and regular contributor, Campfires & Battlefields.  Nevertheless the show goes on here in Edinburgh. Ruth’s at the helm with suport from Michael from Jesus H. Foxx, Dylan from Blueback Hotrod and HP from.. well.. the next show up on Fresh Air actually.

Tune into Fresh Air now to listen in live.

Here’s the playlist we’ll be filling in as we go.

1. The Hoosier Hot Shots – I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones
2. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers – Dodge Veg-O-Matic
3. Cold Seeds – Crank Resolutions
4. The Morning Benders – Promises
5. Beach House  – Zebra
6. Teitur – Catherine The Waitress
7. Diamond Rings – All Yr Songs
8. Pavement – Gold Soundz
9. Silver Columns – Brow Beaten
10. Alex Bleeker with Mountain – Oh Boy
11. Yo La Tengo – Take Care (Alex Chilton cover)
12. Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew – TBTF

Well, as DC pointed out on Five Friday Fatwas, the 90s revival is not quite upon us yet.  It’s both totally inevitable and somewhat due, so it will be here sooner rather than later, but for the time being it has yet to entirely arrive.

So in anticipation of the inevitable, I thought I might just make a podcast which partly tried to anticipate the revisionism and partly talked just a little about what I myself might remember when the 90s revival hits full swing in a couple of years.

I wouldn’t describe myself as a child of the 90s, but I think that I might be wrong in neglecting to do so.  When they started I was 15, just moved from Singapore back to Vienna and very much a kid.  By the time they ended I had finished my Master’s degree and spent a long time pouring pints waiting for a proper job, which in some ways I suppose might just make you an adult.  It was an interesting era for me personally and when the revival arrives, as it inevitably will, I am downright fascinated to know what the younger generation will make of the music with which I grew up.

Toadcast #61 – The 1990s

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01. Pearl Jam – Go (03.47)
02. R.E.M. – Oddfellows Local 151 (11.05)
03. Cocteau Twins – An Elan (18.16)
04. Gene – Sleep Well Tonight (21.46)
05. Counting Crows – Omaha (30.33)
06. Supergrass – She’s So Loose (38.37)
07. Echobelly – King of the Kerb (41.33)
08. Alice in Chains – Nutshell (47.47)
09. Pavement – Gold Soundz (53.22)
10. Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra – Eggshell Miles (59.01)