Song, by Toad

16.Richard Hawley – Truelove’s Gutter
There’s something incredibly intimate about Richard Hawley.  See him perform, and he’s a lively, witty raconteur, but on record that is all dialled back to a deep, comfortable and incredibly domestic sort of warmth.

Richard Hawley – For Your Lover Give Some Time

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17.AA Bondy – When the Devil’s Loose
AA Bondy has similar qualities to Richard Hawley, in that he conveys a confidential sort of intimacy, but there is a lot more weariness about this stuff. It didn’t really make much impact on me the first time around, I have to confess, but the general aching sadness of this record is just inescapable.

AA Bondy – False River

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18.The Flaming Lips – Embryonic
I confessed in my review that I don’t love every song on this by a long shot, but the almost confrontational refusal to be inhibited or even all that disciplined has resulted in an album with a real feeling of integrity and individuality.

The Flaming Lips – See the Leaves

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19.Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard – Em Are I
Jeffrey Lewis has a lovely turn of phrase, and a habit of simply following his trains of thought wherever they might lead.  I’d maybe call this album a little inconsistent, but when it’s good it really is excellent, and Lewis himself is so personable as a narrator that it’s hard not to warm to his music.

Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard – Whistle Past the Graveyard

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20.Ambulances – The Future That Was
I really enjoyed their live performance at Sneaky Pete’s in August, and I realised then what I like so much about this band: restraint.  There are an awful lot of them, but they keep everything really tightly under control.  The album is like that too – an economically assembled and really well executed record of guitar-based indie music.

Ambulances – Cease to Exist

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The Excast is so named because I am playing a lot of people’s former bands.  There’s Shane MacGowan’s Nipple Erectors, Phil Chevron’s Radiators, Shilpa Ray’s Beat the Devil and Billy Bragg’s Riff Raff.

I concentrate so much on new music these days that I often decide whether or not I like a band on the basis of a handful of demos, maybe a single, sometimes a debut EP, stuff like that.  And of course, bands don’t stumble into the world fully-formed, it takes some of them ages to become brilliant, and a lot of the time the initial forms of a band can be really strange, presumably because the people in question were still casting around a bit for their sound.

So there’s a bit of that here, but it’s not all that rigid a theme, and the playlist is a bit messy but, erm, well never mind.  There are some great songs, so enjoy!

Toadcast #96 – The Excast

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01. Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers – Beating St. Louis (04.07)
02. Beat the Devil – Plea Bargain (11.09)
03. Bright Eyes – Neely O’Hara (19.56)
04. Richard Hawley – Naked in Pitsmoor (26.16)
05. The Young Republic – The Alchemist (33.20)
06. Construction & Destruction – The Signal (41.24)
07. The Nipple Erectors – Nervous Wreck (48.34)
08. The Radiators – Walking Home Alone Again (50.39)
09. The Pogues – Lorca’s Novena (56.37)
10. Riff Raff – You Shaped House (63.33)

It’s a rather varied week of gigging this week, with Richard Hawley at the Queen’s Hall at one end of the spectrum and the Japanese War Effort at the Traverse Bar tonight at the other.  There are a few side-notes worth mentioning as well – like the vanishing Whispertown 2000 gig at Sneaky’s on Saturday which I would have liked to go to, but which I assume was cancelled and the appearance, for free, of 4AD’s Big Pink at Sick Note, late at Cabaret Voltaire on Thursday.

I think I can manage maybe a couple of these shows, but probably no more because if I don’t start showing Mrs. Toad some proper attention pretty damn sharpish there may end up being a little jar of pickled toad testicles on a shelf somewhere in our house.

Monday 12th October 2009: Japanese War Effort at the Traverse Bar.

The Japanese War Effort are one of my favourite bands (well okay, we all know it’s just Jamie) in Edinburgh at the moment.  I personally think his recorded stuff has been a little variable, if I’m being honest, but if you’re prepared to pay attention, Jamie is an engaging live performer whose live assembly of his loops and beeps, and the occasional emergence of an actual song from in amongst them, is always worth seeing.
Jamie says it’s somewhere under the Usher Hall, and when I Googled I got this, so good luck to you.

Japanese War Effort – Chocolat Froid

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Tuesday 13th October 2009: Richard Hawley at the Queen’s Hall.

Richard Hawley is one of the best live performers you’ll see.  Charming and witty without being in the slightest over-bearing, he brings his domestic, heartfelt crooning to life on stage to extent he doesn’t always quite manage on record.  It’s fucking expensive though – £21 quid, are they mental?

Richard Hawley – Born Under a Bad Sign

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Wednesday 14th October 2009: Girls, Swanton Bombs & St. Jude’s Infirmary at Sneaky Pete’s.

The band intent on making themselves utterly un-Googlable have named their band Girls and their album Album.  Fuckwits.  It doesn’t matter though, I still really like their music, which is scratchy and rough low-fi indie – breaking back and forth to something warmer from time to time, which makes for a nice dynamic, if you ask me.  I’m still listening to their album, but there will be a review on the site fairly soon.

Girls – Headache

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Wednesday 14th October 2009: Glaciers at the Bowery.

This is rather experimental and peculiar, apparently, so I can imagine it moistening the gussets of a fair few of my readers.  Have a listen on the MySpace link, but it sounds really rather interesting to me – very mysterious and atmospheric, which rhythmic, looping vocals and wheezing backdrops.

Thursday 15th October 2009: Meursault & the Red Well at Cabaret Voltaire.

This is a Mill gig, so you may have to drink unspeakable beer all night.

Friday 16th October 2009: Stricken City, North Atlantic Oscillation and My Cousin I Bid You Farewell at Sneaky Pete’s.

I know next to nothing about these bands, but Stricken City seem to be doing a nice job of re-interpreting female fronted 90s Britpop bands.

Stricken City – Tak O Tak

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Friday 16th October 2009: Panda Su & Last Battles at the Bowery.

Last Battles are about as fresh out of the box as it gets, I think, and I have yet to see them live, but it all sounds very promising if you have a listen to the MySpace stuff.  Male/female duets do it for me every time!

Sunday 18th October 2009: The Wave Pictures, Stanley Brinks & Freschard at Cabaret Voltaire.

I fucking love the Wave Pictures, and I fucking love the Wave Pictures live as well.  The roughness of their recordings translates really well into a free and relaxed live show, and the band generally seem to be really enjoying themselves.

The Wave Pictures – Your Heart is on Your Sleeve

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We know what to expect from Richard Hawley by now – lovely old fashioned guitar sounds, unhurried riffs and a laid-back, soothing voice which puts a wall between you and the real world with the first silken syllable.

If ever music embodied that feeling of being at home late with a cuppa on a rainy winter’s night, with traffic swishing past outside and the city’s thousand lights scattered across every wet surface then Richard Hawley is it.  I remember the Pogues writing a song after Shane MacGowan left (I think Jem Finer wrote it actually) called Small Hours.  It’s not the greatest song they ever recorded, but it was about the comfort and pedestrian, everyday intimacy of finally closing the door on the world at the end of the day.  In fact, For Your Lover Give Some Time is a gorgeous take on almost the exact same sentiment, and one of the standout songs on this album.

Almost every song Richard Hawley has ever sung evokes that kind of feeling in me, sometimes so strongly that it overwhelms any other reaction to the music – it’s just nurturing and reassuring, irrespective of the character of the individual songs.

His last couple of albums have been pop albums and no mistake.  The swell of strings and easy but unmistakably danceable shuffle of drums have permeated both Lady’s Bridge and Cole’s Corner, and so when I first began to absorb the glacial pace of this album I experienced something of a false start – my expectations were set to a slightly quicker pace and consequently I rather overshot the record on the first couple of listens.  This typically well-phrased review on the Daily Growl, however, ensured I went back again.

Slow yourself down to the pace at which Truelove’s Gutter demands that you move, however, and you’ll find this as richly rewarding as any album Hawley has released.  It’s gorgeous, intimate and heartfelt, but you yourself really do have to be on the right setting or you’ll shoot right by before you even notice it’s there.

Richard Hawley – Ashes on the Fire

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Richard Hawley – Don’t Get Hung Up in Your Soul

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And a little bit of a bonus for you:

The Pogues – Small Hours

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Yes, another podcast dedicated entirely to the End of the Road Festival. I did the very same last year because I do rather love this festival, and the sheer quality of the lineup easily merits a podcast to itself.

Unlike last year, Mrs. Toad actually came with me this time around. We drove this stupid old 1960s VW camper van down there, and Christ knows how we didn’t die in the process. The fucking thing steered like a bathtub full of water, there were no brakes at all and the only crumple zone was us. The other disconcerting thing is the fact that VW campers are something of a community, so everyone who passed us in one would flash their lights and wave with the sort of sincere enthusiasm that made us mortally ashamed to be mere renters – mere passengers in a club full of such obviously devoted members, Christ we felt like charlatans.

Anyway, ignore our guilt and enjoy the podcast. There’s some fucking great music on this one. And why is it called the Deathcast? Because that blasted camper van we drove down in was an absolute death trap. Honestly, want to die in a nasty accident? Try driving a 60s VW camper van around the English countryside in the middle of the night in the pissing rain.

Toadcast #38 – The Deathcast

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01. Micah P. Hinson – Patience (03.17)
02. Nick Cave & the Dirty Three – Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum (09.41)
03. The Young Republic – Shiloh (20.19)
04. Over the Wall – Thurso (23.22)
05. British Sea Power – Carrion (29.40)
06. The Pictish Trail – All I Own (36.50)
07. Shearwater – Levithan, Bound (41.31)
08. Jeffrey Lewis – Do They Owe (45.50)
09. The Wave Pictures – Leave That Scene Behind (50.39)
10. Richard Hawley – Coming Home (53.21)
11. Calexico – Minas de Cobre (For Better Metal) (59.55)

Well only one: this wonderful website *cough cough*. Well, while Mrs. Toad and I are either sloshing about in the mud or, and I am hoping this is the case, lazing about in the sunshine at the End of the Road Festival you will presumably all be at work, shuffling paper in some lame pretence of productivity.

Sigh exhasperatedly at your computer, never walk somewhere when you can march purposefully, suddenly search briskly through that pile of shite on your desk, rub your chin thoughtfully, anything but let them know that you don’t give a flying fuck about their shitty job and that really you are just there for the money and want to be left alone as much as possible to prat about pointlessly on the internet.

Or maybe you’re one of those fulfilled people who does an interesting job surrounded by people he likes and respects and…  nah, not if you’re reading this I wouldn’t think.

Anyway, fuck the day job, here’s our Five for Friday, as shamelessly stolen from the GUT boards.  Please use this as an opportunity to de-lurk and jump in.  You don’t need to explain or justify your choices, just go for it and get stuck in:

1. Worst mobile phone etiquette.
2. Link to favourite lolcat (if you don’t know, I suggest emplying the GiYF* technique).
3. Your biggest phobia.
4. Something really shit on telly that you like to watch anyway.
5. Alcoholic jelly recipe.

Adam & the Ants – Prince Charming
Richard Hawley – Coming Home
Stephin Merritt – The Meaning of Lice
The Folk Implosion – Free to Go
Ben Folds Five – Don’t Change Your Plans

*Google is Your Friend.

That’s rhetorical. The answer, presumably, is yes. Richard Hawley is an odd man to be slowly turning into an indie hero, but it appears that this is just what he is doing.

Spells playing guitar with The Longpigs and Pulp add indie heft to his past, but it is definitely as a songwriter that he has slowly but surely made a pretty significant mark on the music world. Mrs. Toad spends a lot of time ferreting about on the Guardian website and she assures me that the Graun writers froth over the man with an enthusiasm bordering on indecency. Micah P. Hinson covered one of his songs on his last UK tour, which I thought was really odd for a tortured Texan troubadour. How on earth had he come across Richard Hawley?

Then here I was listening to an Arctic Monkeys song which popped up on my randomiser and what do I hear but tones of Richard Hawley’s unmistakable 50s guitar sound. The Sheffield scene is buzzing at the moment, with the likes of The Long Blondes, The Arctics and Milburn in recent years all adding to the rock solid cred of legends like The Wedding Present and Pulp. That said, although the indie rock scene is well represented, I was considering doing a bit of a post on the likes of Hawley and the brilliant Monkey Swallows the Universe to highlight the slightly alternative side to this boom in Steel City music. Wrongly, it appears, I got the impression that everyone thought Sheffield was rock and that these more interesting groups were not quite being given their due.

It appears I was a little out with that assumption and, rather wonderfully, there seems to be a growing interest in genuinely eccentric music that makes a real effort to follow its own course. Music that isn’t railroaded into the classic indie 3-4 minute guitar track with as good a hook and as catchy a chorus as you can write. Not that I don’t enjoy a lot of the radio fodder, but it is really nice to see The Arctic Monkeys paying homage to Hawley and not vice versa and reflects well on both bands. Viva iconoclasm!

Arctic Monkeys – The Bakery
Richard Hawley – Just Like the Rain
Monkey Swallows the Universe – Sheffield Shanty

Given the rude health of the Sheffield music scene and the more celebrated representatives thereof, it seems downright incongruous to see Richard Hawley as being part of the same beast. And I suppose he isn’t, really, despite his music being so rooted in the geography – both physical and emotional – of the place.

No, Hawley is a genuine iconoclast. Not that his music is all that original – it’s basically just a straightforward re-interpretation of 50s lounge croon with a little country mixed in for good effect. Also, he’s not really changed his template since his wonderful six-track debut EP back in 2001, so given he announced prior to the release of this album that he wasn’t really interested in trying to re-invent the wheel, why is it so satisfying?

As I see it, it’s simply because over the years Richard Hawley has been honing his craft and he is now very, very good at what he does. I was not all that taken with his first album proper, and I found his follow up, Lowedges, downright soporific. But one dazzling performance at the Liquid Rooms last year and a belated purchase of Cole’s Corner later, and I was converted all over again.

Ultimately, the difference for me was the liveliness of the music. Live, he brought so much more glow and charm to songs which I had begun to find increasingly one-paced and flat on record, so I thought I’d go and give Cole’s Corner a try. Well, it wasn’t just live, the whole album was a vastly more engaging collection than anything he had produced since that debut EP five years ago. There was variation, a bit more pep, more hooks and melodies, and less morose monotone. It was like, after several years of trying, he had finally cracked what it was he was trying to achieve in the first place.

Now that’s probably nothing like how Hawley himself would tell it, and it may offend the hardcore fans, but that’s how I grew into his music. Lady’s Bridge is very much ‘as you were’ after the increased commercial success of Cole’s Corner, with a wonderful sweeping trajectory from the rich, intimate ballads to the anachronistic rock ‘n’ roll – emphasis on the roll – of I’m Looking For Someone to Find Me or Serious. Tonight the Streets Are Ours is an absolutely archetypcal Hawley anthem, all mandolins (I think) and soaring strings – grandiose even, in its own way. And on it goes – it’s all classic Hawley, just brighter and better.

For my money, Hawley may not change much, but he just seems to keep improving.

Richard Hawley – Serious
Richard Hawley – Sun Refused to Shine

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