Sparkcast? Spark?  YES, any kind of fucking spark whatsoever will do the trick.

I remember getting in trouble at my former day job a couple of years ago for writing something rather negative about that awful sensation of being back at your desk after the excesses and indolence of Christmas.  I am not feeling negative about it now, which is good given I am self-employed, but I am certainly struggling to spark my brain back into something resembling life at the moment.

So yes, I have two new releases to get moving, by Jesus H. Foxx and The Leg, and I have five Toad Sessions to get edited and published, and a split 12″ to record (starting in about a week), so whether or not it proves to be a challenge, the old grey matter has to be brought back to life somehow, be it kicking and screaming or otherwise.

Direct download: Toadcast #207 – The Sparkcast

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01. Jesus H. Foxx – So the Wind Won’t Blow it All Away (00.13)
02. The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop (07.47)
03. Post War Glamour Girls – Suburban Barbarian (14.40)
04. Now Wakes the Sea – Another Pair of Hands (18.32)
05. Orienteers – Do You Hear What I Hear? (23.23)
06. Damon Moon & the Whispering Drifters – Seasonal Suite No. 62 (32.40)
07. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Is This Love? (41.27)
08. The Specials – Gangsters (44.30)
09. Simone Felice – New York Times (48.59)
10. Spectral Park – The Thief’s Journal (57.04)

Bleerch, bleurgh…  I feel completely disgusting. I had a really good sleep last night, but that translated into a day spent wasting my time fannying about and just lolling in that way that seems like a good idea at the time, but invariably ends up making you feel completely disgusting by the end.

Also, to make matters worse, we ordered pizza, which is something we hardly ever do and something which we absolutely always regret.  So here we sit on a Friday evening feeling bloated and slightly soiled and wondering whether at this time of the night there’s any point really trying to redeem the day, and perhaps it’s best just to forget it and wait for tomorrow.  Bleuch.

Direct download: Toadcast #203 – The Lardcast

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01. Joanna Gruesome – Madison (00.27)
02. The Mutton Birds – Anchor Me (06.36)
03. Monster Island – Pilot Whales (14.42)
04. Former Bullies – It Might Be Okay (17.36)
05. Video Thrills – Our Plush Selection (21.05)
06. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Some Candy Talking (Peel Session) (25.16)
07. Bottle of Evil – I Can See Your Face (31.20)
08. The Black Tambourines – White Album (39.37)
09. Dolfinz – Teenage Doom (42.47)
10. The Ramones – Psycho Therapy (48.50)
11. Samoan Punks – Everyday (51.42)
12. Waiters – Black Stuff (59.27)

I took a real physical roll of camera film to be developed yesterday. Haven’t done that in a while. Unfortunately the photos it contained were a series of rather grisly images taken with a fish-eye camera at a late-night after-party back at ours last weekend at Homegame.

The guy in the camera shop did look at me a bit funny when I went back in to collect them.

I didn’t bother getting real photo prints, though. I figured the photos were only going up on Facebook for a bit of a giggle, so they might as well just go straight onto a CD. There was no point paying extra for a pack of prints. Which struck me as very revealing about how we interact with photos now in the Web 2.0 world, populated with Facebook, Twitpic and Flickr. It’s like the old joke that asks when was the last time you played Solitaire with a real pack of cards.

When was the last time you looked through a real set of photos?

Matthew only asked me to compose this Friday Five late last night, and I had a panic on the bus this morning because I realised I hadn’t copied five MP3s off my hard-drive at home to put up on the post.

Then I remembered that I had meant to take a compilation CD to the Homegame mix-tape swap bin; (You drop a compilation CD off when you arrive on Friday, then return on Saturday to collect a random CD of someone else’s in return. A bit like a mix-tape Secret Santa.) but I managed to leave the CD itself at home after compiling and burning it. Luckily for us today I still had all the tracks for my compilation on my portable USB hard drive that lives in my bag.

So that has ended up giving today’s chioce of tunes the same theme as my compilation CD was going to have; classic ‘Side One: Track One’ songs.

So here’s today’s test:

1. Tell us a fishing story. Come on, everyone’s got at least one fishing story.

2. What embarassing things tend to happen around you when you stay up late?

3. What was on the last real camera film you had developed?

4. What do you do with photos you take nowadays?

5. Best Side One: Track One ever.

And here are the choons:

Beck – Loser

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Blur – For Tomorrow

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Grand Champeen – Cottonmouth

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Mercury Rev – Secret for a Song

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Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop

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Christ, I get back from a long (and, frankly, really rather interesting) meeting and find the website suffering somewhat from the last post being just a little serious. Stop it, people, there will be no meaningful discussions on Friday, particularly not after lunch, it’s just not right.

On the radio show last night I played a song by a band called National Beekeepers Society, and it occurred to me afterwards that they have a sound very reminiscent of a lot of 90s indie rock.  In fact, there’s been a fair amount of that kind of stuff surfacing recently, even down to the likes of the excellent Sholi who I reviewed a day or so ago on this very site.  It’s about time for the 90s revival, I suppose, given that we’re about a decade away from them now, and I suppose these are the first green shoots of that very re-evaluation.  I can’t personally imagine what the 90s revival will be like really, having been a bit too involved with the real thing to guess what it will look like when viewed through uber-ironic teenage eyes.

On the subject of green shoots, I am gazing out the window into the sunshine, desperately hoping that tomorrow is at least vaguely like today.  Our garden has been neglected pretty much entirely since October, and there is something absolutely fucking amazingly wonderful about sitting out in the garden with a cup of tea.  Or a fucking great big gin and tonic.  It actually feels like spring is here – this has been a very pleasant week indeed, long may it continue.

1. Thing you are most looking forward to in the 90s revival.
2. Thing you are least looking forward to in the 90s revival.
3. Most embarrassing thing you allowed yourself to revive during the 80s revival.
4. Has Spring hit where you live yet?
5. Do you grow things or have plants or a garden or something? (What a well-constructed sentence that is.)

National Beekeepers Society – Lazy

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The Ramones – The Garden of Serenity

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The Lemonheads – Confetti

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The Wedding Present – Gazebo

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Echobelly – Natural Animal

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