Song, by Toad

This Toad Session has been a wee while coming, but frankly I think it’s fucking superb.  The videos have turned out wonderfully, Neil and Gav have done an amazing job with the sound, Fee and Dylan have taken some great photos.  I’m happy as a pig in shit, quite frankly.  Johnny Lynch (Mr. Pictish Trail) had plenty of time to kill, so we drank some beer, took our time and talked a monumental amount of shite.  The podcast is really strong this time around, I think.  We talk a lot but I think it’s pretty decent stuff for the most part, not random blather, so I really think it should be an enjoyable listen.  Hopefully, anyway.

Johnny picked really nice songs, too.  He’s recorded a couple of unreleased ones, and a Lone Pigeon cover, as well as his Top of the Pops hit single Winter Home Disco.  It makes for a really nice mix.  As per usual the songs are all available for downloading, hotlinking and sharing around, the videos can be watched below, on our YouTube (yeuch) page or our Vimeo page, and the photos are all to be seen as a slideshow here or on the general Song, by Toad Flickr page here.  Go to Blueback Hotrod for more of Dylan’s live music photography.  And enjoy the podcast – it can be played below, and the tracklisting is at the bottom of the page.  I’m really proud of this, people, so I hope you enjoy it.

Toadcast #62 – The Pictish Trail Toad Session

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The Pictish Trail – Winter Home Disco (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – I Will Pour it Down (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (Toad Session)

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The Pictish Trail – Won’t You Take Me Back (Lone Pigeon Cover) (Toad Session)

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And now the videos, starting with the overall session video, and then the ones we made for the individual songs:

01. The Pictish Trail – Winter Home Disco (06.04)
02. Bonnie Prince Billy – Today I Started Celebrating Again (17.33)
03. Adam Beattie – Bank Street (22.12)
04. The Pictish Trail – I Will Pour It Down (34.37)
05. Judson Claiborne – Song For Dreaming (38.30)
06. Amadou & Mariam – Sabali (43.35)
07. Why? – The Song of the Sad Assassin (48.51)
08. The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (62.31)
09. Preston School of Industry – Walk of a Gurl (69.03)
10. The Pictish Trail – Won’t You Take Me Back (Lone Pigeon Cover) (76.42)

Thanks folks, hope you enjoyed that.

Hrrgh.  I left a gig early last night because I was so tired from constant late nights this week, editing Samamidon session videos (3am every night, and one early morning meeting at Proper Job thrown in for good measure).  The plan was to head home and get some sleep, but it didn’t work.

What are your plans this weekend then, Toadlings?  Since the session our house has gone to hell, because I have been too focussed on the videos to do things like clean or tidy, and Mrs. Toad does fuck all unless I particpate.  And, frankly, who can blame her.  We need a wife.  Then on Sunday there will be football and some music plotting with a couple of friends of mine.  Not very exciting, I have to admit.  There probably won’t even be much drinking because, honestly, I’m too tired.

I am currently listening to the new albums by Antony & the Johnsons, Animal Collective and Andrew Bird, all which are no better than okay.  I’ve not listened to them all that carefully yet, nor, crucially, in the right order.  My phone is old and has a bizarre quirk of only playing songs in alphabetical order, which can be good for albums, but often just messes with the artist’s intent.  So I am not writing them off just yet, and will almost certainly review them once I’ve given them a proper chance.

So, please de-lurk and chip in with your Friday Five, and if you want to suggest next week’s five email me at the address on the contact page.

1. Best work hangover coping strategy.
2. When you give your house a ‘mother-in-law clean’, just how clean does it get?  If there’s no mother in law, who is your closest approximation?
3. Most trendy/haircutty band you actually like.
4. Most famous/stadiumy band you actually like.
5. Most annoying word people add ‘y’ to because they can’t be arsed thinking up a suitably adjective.

These all come from my time living on a fantastically cool Humber Keel Barge on the Thames, during my wild youth.  They look a bit like this, but without the mast and are deceptively large on the inside.  It was very, very cool.  This is a compilation I made of albums I wasn’t all that into, but which had some very good songs nevertheless.  I like that kind of mix – they make you remember an album quite fondly when otherwise you might never play it again.

Preston School of Industry – Straits of Magellan

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Obi – Incredible Jack

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Dan Bern & the IJBC – Crow (IJBC apparently stands for International Jewish Banking Conspiracy – the card)

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Lucinda Williams – Ventura

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Day One – Ordinary Man

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And, just to send you off into your weekend with a snigger, try this little snippet on for size. Barack Obama might be cooler than I thought – the dirty little pervert: