After writing about the SAY Award, I thought I might well do a podcast about it, given there are more than enough ace bands and ace records on that list, last year’s list and I assume next year’s list to make a couple of podcasts.

I play a couple of shocking, scandalous omissions from this and last year’s long- and shortlists, and stamp my little foot about them. I play a couple of tracks from bands who I reckon should be in with a very strong shout of making next year’s shortlist.  And I play a random tune by David Thomas Broughton because he, along with Rick Redbeard who I tip for next year’s shortlist, is playing a show in Edinburgh this week.  David on Thursday with Rachael Dadd and Ichi, and Rick on Saturday with the awesome Ian Humberstone.

And again, I try and remind people not to get too worked up about this kind of thing, because, well, if no-one agrees with you that something is excellent, it should hardly make you love it any the less, should it. And equally, being told that yes, you are right, this album is good, shouldn’t particularly improve your enjoyment of it should it. So these things are here to be bickered over and are good fun, as well as being fantastic for the artists who win them, but they aren’t of course to be taken too seriously.

Toadcast #271 – The SAYcast by Song, By Toad on Mixcloud

Direct download: Toadcast #271 – The Saycast

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01. Meursault – Untitled (00.26)
02. PAWS – Bird Inside Birddcage, Ribcage Inside Bird (06.40)
03. Rick Redbeard – Any Way I Can (14.35)
04. David Thomas Broughton – River Lay (20.10)
05. Now Wakes the Sea – Propranolol (28.47)
06. RM Hubbert – Car Song (With Aidan Moffat and Alex Kapranos) (35.42)
07. Django Django – Love’s Dart (39.59)
08. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Bats in the Attic (45.36)
09. Rob St. John – Stainforth Force (52.54)
10. The Pictish Trail – I Will Pour it Down (1.02.06)

 The Scottish Album of the Year Award longlist has been announced, and there happens to be a little Song, by Toad Records interest this year, as Meursault have been nominated for Something For the Weakened. Now, of course, from my point of view they are the one and only justifiable winner of this award and if it goes to anyone else it will be a fix/swizz/further evidence of the Glasgow-centric, incestuous cliqueyness of the Scottish music industry (delete as appropriate).

I would also like to make it clear now that if it goes to someone who sold more records then the process is clearly just about rewarding commercial pop shite, rather than art, and if they just understood real music they would never have made such a terrible decision.  However, if it happens to be awarded to someone who has sold fewer records then it will simply prove that the panel only ever wanted to award it to their mates, are trying to be obscure just because they’re a bunch of sneering hipsters, and are snobbishly refusing to take notice of how many people loved this album.

Right, excuses all in? Good, we may proceed.

As well as Meursault there are a few albums on there I think would also thoroughly merit this award. Most notable amongst them would be PAWS and R.M. Hubbert, whose respective albums in 2012 are both huge favourites in Toad Hall. The Twilight Sad and Django Django also both made excellent records, so if it goes to any of those guys I will be delighted.

There are definitely a few on there I know nothing about, of course, and a good few I simply haven’t heard a note of yet, and I think this is a good thing. The relative diversity of last year’s list compared to most other Best Of lists out there suggested to me that it was relatively unbiased list, which was pleasingly broad in scope, and I’d say the same this year. It may make us less likely to win, but the breadth of the initial selection panel is a good decision, and although it risks excessive populism (Emeli Sandé and Calvin fucking Harris? You’re having a fucking laugh, surely) I do think it’s the best way to strike a sensible balance between respecting knowledge and expertise on one hand and simple, broad brush appeal on the other.

So good luck to everyone. The full longlist is at the bottom of the page, after four songs by the bands (other than Meursault of course) I would personally prefer to win.

Full list below:

Admiral Fallow – Tree Bursts In Snow
Auntie Flo – Future Rhythm Machine
Calvin Harris – 18 Months
Dam Mantle – Brothers Fowl
Django Django – Django Django
Duncan Chisholm – Affric
Emeli Sandé – Our Version of Events
Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic
Human Don’t Be Angry – Human Don’t Be Angry
Karine Polwart - Traces
Konrad Wiszniewski & Euan Stevenson – New Focus
Lau - Race The Loser
Meursault – Something For The Weakened
Miaoux Miaoux – Light of the North
Paul Buchanan – Mid Air
PAWS – Cokefloat!
RM Hubbert – Thirteen Lost & Found
Stanley Odd – Reject
The Twilight Sad – No One Can Ever Know
The Unwinding Hours – Afterlives

A quick video diary of our time at the the SXSW festival 2013, featuring Cheetahs, Paws, Thee Oh Sees, Sky Ferreira, Youth Lagoon & Mac Demarco.

A quick video diary of our time at the the SXSW festival 2013, featuring Holy Esque, Paws, Foxygen, Jim James, and Vic Galloway and Ally McCrae from the BBC.

The rest of the videos will be added to this playlist as they are completed.

 Yes, another year, another total shambles of a podcast. Oddly enough, the one time this has been even vaguely together was the one year the BBC happened to show up to film it. How we managed to get it together for that one occasion I have no idea. Maybe the TV cameras scared us into behaving.

Anyhow, this year’s podcast is probably the biggest shambles since the very first SXSW podcast. We are joined, at various times, by Mrs. Toad, Young Ian, Pandy from Gerry Loves Records, Ben Soep, the managers of Tango in the Attic and We Were Promised Jetpacks, as well the BBC’s ultra-credible and in-no-way-inebriated Ally McCrae who definitely wasn’t still a total shambles from St. Mirren’s League Cup win earlier in the day. And that’s before the usual subjects as myself, Vic Galloway, Peej and Stuart from Creative Scotland.

We were a few Margaritas down already, and it only got worse during the podcast, honestly. I am not sure this tells you much about SXSW, but it sure gives you a pretty clear idea of what it does to people.

Toadcast #263 – The Tatcast by Song, By Toad on Mixcloud

Direct download: Toadcast #263 – The Tatcast

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01. Paws – Sore Tummy (00.22)
02. Doe Paoro – Hallelujah (07.49)
03. Young Fathers – The Guide (20.21)
04. Tango in the Attic – Sellotape (23.52)
05. Sinkane – Runnin’ (30.47)
06. Reuben Dangoor – Being a Dickhead’s Cool (36.12)
07. Indians – Somewhere Else (43.30)
08. Thee Oh Sees – Carrion Crawler (48.41)
09. Ghostface Killer – The Mask (57.57)
10. Holy Esque – St. (1.08.57)
11. Dave Carroll – United Breaks Guitars (1.12.21)

I think you get 9 out of 10 on the hipster scale for VIP passes to Youth Lagoon, don’t you? You better, anyway, because young Ian pretty much had a hipstergasm when this happened to us yesterday.  I don’t even know the band that well, but everyone I know seems to love them, so I was very much looking forward to seeing them play, and they really were bloody excellent.

While last year it seemed like I was kind of done with music after a couple of days, this year I’ve managed to maintain genuine enthusiasm for the whole business and have been to see loads of bands. Foxygen are hip as balls and rubbish, Wampire are hip as balls and excellent, as were some Sudanese band from New York called Sinkane, to whom I was dragged to by Vic Galloway… in fact, I think getting dragged to stuff by your pals is probably the best way to treat music festivals. Even pals who drink cocktails which look like this:

SXSW just gets bigger every year, too. When I first came out East Austin was pretty quiet, and now it’s absolutely rammed with stuff. Even last year Rainey Street was the chilled place to go for a drink, and this year it too has been absorbed into the madness.

South Congress has always been busy of course, and yesterday myself and Ian went out there with Paddy and Andy from Gerry Loves Records too see Paws play at Home Slice. It was the second time I’ve seen Paws this week, and something like the fourth for Andy and Paddy – something which highlights one of the absurdities of SXSW – that you travel thousands of miles to see bands from home.

The other enduring truth about SXSW of course, is that there are times when you simply have to walk away. Vic and myself balked at queues for Surfer Blood and the Secretly Canadian showcase before heading out to Rainey Street to see Sinkane, but you usually get a chance to see people you want to see at some point. Suuns, for example, may have been impossible at their official showcase, but they turned up at a Planet Quebec show later that night and so I got the chance to see them then, courtesy of a tip-off from Vic and Huw Stephens, who were taking advantage of one of those rare breaks in the slog for people who have to work here, and actually seeing some bands.

Oh, and given I was in desperate need of hipster points, after missing out on the Jagjaguar showcase and not being entirely familiar with the entire Youth Lagoon back catalogue, there was, erm… well there was also this.  My mum is going to go fucking mental. But let’s be honest, it was either that or buy a pair of paedophile shorts, and frankly I couldn’t really have lived with myself if I had chosen the latter.

Oh, and Thee Oh Sees were fucking incredible at the Panache Booking showcase. Really brilliant.

 Don’t ask me why Ron Burgundy, it’s just because, alright? This really is just one of those days, a real blue Monday, and I have no idea why because the sun has been shining, the label is ticking over nicely, we have a fine Toad Session to publish this week, the gig on Saturday went really well, and basically, in short, things are just dandy.

Still, sometimes these things happen I guess. Maybe some Mongrels will cheer me up. Actually, as I’ve been going on about Archer for the last little while, Chris Devotion and the Expectations collared me on Twitter and told me about Frisky Dingo, which I think I might spend my evening watching.

Anyway, musically speaking this week there is some interesting stuff knocking around, although few marquee gigs, such as the Liquid Room or Cabaret Voltaire used to put on, before they gave up on music altogether.

Still, there’s one big shiny show this week, and that is Randolph’s Leap, Snowgoose and Jo Mango at the Queen’s Hall. I assume Randolph’s Leap will give it everything, with full brass section and so on, to accompany Adam Ross’s inspired lyrical meanderings.

In terms of other regular meat and potatoes gigs, Gallops are at the Electric Circus tonight and for a moment I thought they were being supported by Portishead and Birdsound, but it turned out to be Portasound and Birdhead which, er, isn’t bad by any means, but a little different to what I first thought.

Also, there will be Big Ned, Zed Penguin and the Rosy Crucifixion at the Wee Red Bar on Friday. This one might be a tad less hypnotic than the Gallops gig tonight at the Electric Circus, but the abstract noise elements probably have a thing or two in common here and there.

And finally, Paws will be playing the Wee Red as well, but on Sunday as part of their UK tour.  Do I need to tell you anymore about Paws? Probably not.  Here’s their Toad Session if you’re a bit late to the party.

Also, there are a couple of things which might interest music lovers, but which aren’t straightforward gigs.  Two instores are happening – Phil from Paws is playing an acoustic set at VoxBox on St. Stephen’s Street on Sunday, and Steve Adey is at Elvis Shakespeare on Leith Walk on Saturday.

And finally on Friday there is a feature documentary on composer John Fahey being screened at Summerhall.  And there you go, that seems to be about it, although doubtless I will have missed something really obvious because I always fucking do.

…aaaand finally, the top five albums which I enjoyed the most in 2012.  A couple of these suffered a bit from being released neither on tape nor vinyl – the two formats to which I listen the most – and one benefited immeasurably from being in the van constantly for months.

Nevertheless, these things are always subjective and in a way it doesn’t much matter about the details, for whatever reason I have enjoyed these albums the most, and that’s that.  There are plenty more awesome records out there to which I have never even listened, I am sure, but that’s not how these things work, is it.

If you want a definitive list go to Metacritic or somewhere like that and get an average list of the average of everyone’s taste averaged out across the year. The result will be average, of course, but it’s hard to argue that it isn’t in some sort of way definitive in terms of what ‘best music’ might mean.  Anyway, whatever, none of us really want that shit anyway, do we. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »

Grinch, not because I am being deliberately all Scroogey and slagging off Christmas, just because I am somehow entirely failing to find any Christmas spirit at all.

I like Christmas actually. Although, I suppose, to be fair, like a lot of people I despise the hysteria of the presents and all that shit.  Particularly the way the shops start punting it in late September, and the fucking adverts ladel on the emotional blackmail to imply that anything less than an entry-level mortgage spent on presents is some sort of horrendous slight on your loved ones.

Fairly standard anti-commercialisation moaning aside, though, I like the cold and the darkness and the time spent quietly with family doing next to nothing. I also like the ritual preparation of a huge meal, and then lying on the sofa watching Back to the Future or Star Wars or Indiana Jones all evening because you’re too bloody full to do anything else.

But I’m not doing that this year, am I. No, I am doing the accounts and editing sessions.  Because I’m a dick.

#254 – The Grinchcast by Song, By Toad on Mixcloud

Direct download: Toadcast #254 – The Scroogecast

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01. Eddie Izzard – Covered in Bees (00.26)
02. Onions – Christmas (Not as Much as We Would Like) (02.47)
03. The Pictish Trail – The Handstand Crowd (08.47)
04. Kid Canaveral – Low Winter Sun (13.47)
05. Eeek! – Down and Out in Harrison Fjord (20.16)
06. Adam Balbo – Do What You Do (23.50)
07. Yo La Tengo – Ohm (30.09.)
08. Paws – Asthmatic (Laptop Demo) (39.36)
09. S.E. Land Otter Champs – Wolf Like Howls From the Bathhouse (43.27)
10. Kiki Pau – Tomte Mars (48.24)
11. Bob Dylan – Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You (59.37)

 There’s an awful lot of Song, by Toad Records stuff going on at the moment, and a lot of people have been very kind about our recent releases so I thought I would round it all up for you in one quick post.

The Leg

Their last single An Eagle to Saturn is getting a spin on Chris Hawkins’ breakfast show from 5-7am tomorrow morning on 6Music. If you miss it tomorrow, then just follow that link to to listen again anytime in the next seven days.

See the video | Buy their album

Meursault

As you may or may not know, Meursault have been touring Europe for the last three weeks.  While away they did a session for Planet Claire radio in Paris, which you can listen to again here.

The band are also heading off around the UK soon, including a couple of gigs with a full string section, one in London on the 6th November at the Islington Assembly Hall (tickets here) and one in Newcastle at The Black Swan, Newcastle Arts Centre, on the 22nd November.

Dull Spark video | Buy their new album

Rob St. John

A free CD of Weald remixes is available from independent record shops when you buy the full album on CD. The album is composed of six remixes by pals of Rob’s like The Japanese War Effort, FOUND and Jonnie Common, as well as a cover of The Acid Test by Jesus H. Foxx.

Listen to the remix album here | Buy a copy of Weald

Also, Rob just recorded a session for Simple Folk Radio, which you can listen to again here:

Split 12″

The first Song, by Toad split 12″, which you can buy here, has been featured on Tom Ravenscroft’s show on 6Music four weeks running, now which is absolutely awesome.  You can listen to Friday’s show again here, where he plays Cherry Blossom by PAWS.  And if you’d rather read about the album instead, why not check out Incendiary Magazine.

Yusuf Azak

Yusuf’s new single Smile Tactics can be heard below, or on our Soundcloud page. As luck would have it people have been most taken with it, which is awesome.  He was featured twice on Amazing Radio this weekend, once on Bethan Elfyn’s show (listen again) and once on Charlie Ashcroft’s (listen again).

Pre-order Yusuf’s new album