Okay, angry mob of the Toad readership, do your very worst.  Today, as promised, is the day we vote on our five favourite songs of the year so there will be no foolish questions as per usual, but what there will be is the chance for you to write down your favourite songs, in no particular order, and I will count them up and find out which songs the readers of Toad have enjoyed the most this year.

There aren’t any real rules, although the song should have been released in 2011.  And also, just to help me count, I’d appreciate it if you could write in in the form Artist – Song Title please.  Other than that, umm… well, do your worst, I suppose.

And, as per usual, El, Brian and myself will be live on Fresh Air Radio from about half three in the afternoon.  We have special guests this week, but they were invited by El and I have no idea who they are, what they do or why they are there.  I guess I will find out when I get there.

Live on Fresh Air Radio from 3:30pm UK time – listen here.

Now, to get you in the mood for voting for your top five songs, here’s a quick recap of last year’s winners, as well as a link to the thread itself where the voting took place.

1. The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio

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2. eagleowl – No Conjunction

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=3. Meursault – What You Don’t Have

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=3. Broken Records – You Know You’re Not Dead

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=3. Foals – Spanish Sahara

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And the playlist for this week’s show shall appear live below, as we play the songs:

1. Whirling Pig Dervish – Bawjaws
2. The Cure – The Love Cats
3. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – John Taylor’s Month Away
4. Ringo Deathstarr – Do It Every Time
5. Twin Shadow – Slow
6. Hooray for Earth – True Loves
7. DZ Deathrays – Teeth
8. Joanna Gruesome – Lemonade Grrl
9. Class Actress – Weekend
10. Shirley Ellis – The Clapping Song
11. Blondie – Hanging on the Telephone
12. Rob St. John – Sargasso Sea
13. Foals – Spanish Sahara
14. The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio
15. Diana Ross – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

As we get closer and closer to the official release of Weald, Rob St. John’s debut album, we figured one last freebie was worth offering up, and if you still aren’t into it, then frankly there’s no redeeming you, sorry.

After the gorgeous Your Phantom Limb (available to preview and to buy on 7″ here) we figured something bigger and more upbeat was in order, to showcase the full range of the album.  Sargasso Sea may start out small, but it builds to a great crescendo of harmonies, charging forward with forceful bass and drums in a rousing ending which apparently lasted longer than the song itself, until an executive decision was made by Rob and Neil to maybe fade it out at the five minute mark or so.

There’s always  part of me which secretly regrets these sensible decisions, but at least it does mean that the song is radio-friendly, and as such it is excellent to see Gideon Coe giving it a couple of spins this week.  Gideon has been consistently supportive of Song, by Toad Records since our very first release, so I really appreciate the fact that he’s continued to stick by us for so long.

Anyhow, the album is out on gatefold vinyl (with download code) on the 22nd or something like that, but if you order one from us I’ll post it out, and I gave Avalanche Records in Edinburgh a couple of advance copies too. In the meantime you can download Sargasso Sea for free from the embedded Soundcloud widget below.  Enjoy!

Rob St. John – Sargasso Sea by Song, by Toad

 This is called the Barfcast because I feel like utter, unmitigated shite this morning, after another awesome evening with Mrs. Toad getting scooshed and playing records.  I think I had Weald on at the maximum volume our amp can actually manage.  Which, for the record, is pretty fucking loud.

So now I am off to get ready for not one, but three gigs.  Firstly the Ides of Toad at Henry’s, then Lach and Viv Albertine after that, and then Flamin’ Hott Toadzzz! in Anstruther tomorrow.  When the chance to have a good sleep comes, I think I will have earned it!

Sometime this week I will figure out what the fuck to do with the 200th podcast. Or at least, I’d better!  There have been a good few calls to get Mrs. Toad back on, which is a lovely idea, but will depend very much on whether or not she can possibly be arsed, which I wouldn’t take for granted.

Direct download: Toadcast #199 – The Barfcast
Subscribe to the Toadcasts on iTunes

01. Bobby Fuller Four – I Fought the Law (00.26)
02. Evan Dando – $1000 Wedding (Gram Parsons) (04.41)
03. Easter – Damp Patch (07.39)
04. Preston School of Industry – So Many Ways (13.52)
05. Sparklehorse – Piano Fire (18.57)
06. The Black Tambourines – A Lot of Friends (26.31)
07. Ghost Outfit – Tuesday (30.47)
08. Loch Awe – I Will Drift into 10,000 Streams (35.33)
09. Lil Daggers – Dada Brown (42.32)
10. Rob St. John – Sargasso Sea (44.45)
11. Dan Mangan – About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help at All (55.56)

Malky from eagleowl asked if a friend of his could come along to Rob St. John’s album launch the other week and take some pictures.  Well he did, and despite the lighting being a bit of a challenge, they’ve turned out beautifully.  The gentleman in question is Iain Stewart, whose website is here, and here is a small selection of pics from Pilrig the other week. Thanks – they look fantastic!

 There will be a bit of a change to the format of the Friday Fives for the next few weeks, as I combine it with my radio show on Fresh Air, which is the student radio station here in Edinburgh.

I will be joined by Brian Pokora, who plays guitar for The Last Battle, Loch Awe and Trapped Mice (and probably three or four others), and was selected for this role by virtue of having been stood next to me in the pub when I decided that Friday afternoons would be the best time for the show.

To reduce the middle-class white boy/tedious blokey pub banter factor just a little we are looking for someone else to join the team.  Specifically, someone who is not a nice, polite middle-class white boy. You’d need to be available from 3-5pm on Fridays, and have a rough, but please not exact, agreement with the kind of music we are likely to play.  Get in touch if you’re interested.

Live from 3:30pm – listen here.

As for the rest of the Friday Fives, well they will hopefully proceed very much as per usual I would think.  Five stupid questions, an afternoon to waste by answering them and then talking pish with everyone afterwards, and only one rule: fives first, pish-talking after.

So, for starters, this week’s Friday Five:
1. Which muppet best represents you (Fraggles and Sesame Street ones count too – Yoda does not).
2. What one thing best represents the really early days of the internet to you?
3. Technology you could happily do without.
4. Do you cross the road at the lights or absolutely wherever the fuck it occurs to you?
5. Say you were in a coffee shop trying to get some work done.  Say a sprawling infestations of yummy mummies and copious living evidence of their inability to keep their legs clamped shut came spilling into the place and proceeded to turn the whole fucking cafe into a writhing, squealing, cavorting cacophony of horror.  How many of the little fuckers do you think you could cheerfully batter to death with a fucking cricket bat before it stopped being fun?
Sneaky bonus research question: did Song, by Toad or Fresh Air bring you to these parts?

The playlist will appear live below from 3:30pm:

1. Bon Iver – Bloodbank
2. Rob St. John – Sargasso Sea
3. Tom Lehrer – Bright College Days
4. Randolph’s Leap – Cassie O’Tone (Fresh Air Session)
5. Cub Scouts – Evie
6. eagleowl – Sleep the Winter
7. Bob Seger System – 2+2=?
8. PAWS – Winners Don’t Bleed (Toad Session)
9. The Ukrainians – Polityka
10. The Moth & the Mirror – Fire
11. Evan Dando – $1000 Wedding (Gram Parsons Cover)
12. Yoofs – Sidewalk
13. We Were Promised Jetpacks – Medicine

The above photo is of the Palm House in Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens, and was taken and passed on to me by Dylan, of Blueback Hotrod legend.  And given that the weather outside is all kinds of shit I thought there would be a sort of bitter irony in using it today.  See – that’s how nice Edinburgh can be, so what the fuck is this pissing rain all about?

Anyhow, traditional British whingeing aside, it’s going to be a pretty bloody mental week this week. Thursday is going to be a particular swine, what with the awesome David Dondero going up against the Fruit Tree Foundation night in Leith, as well as the Travelling Band/Jonnie Common show at the Electric Circus.  Then it’s Oxjam takeover time on Friday.  Then Rob St. John’s album launch on Saturday.  Fucking hell, I’m going to have a liver like a cricket ball  by Sunday.

Wednesday 19th October 2011: This is Music presents Denis Jones & Adam Stafford at Sneaky Pete’s.

My pal Howard, who runs Humble Soul Records down in Manchester, absolutely raves about Denis Jones, as does Jonnie Common, and I can’t imagine two people whose recommendations I would take more seriously.  Apparently Mr. Jones does a lot of looped vocal stuff, but everyone who has told me about it has qualified that with ‘yeah, but it’s nothing like you’d expect’.  Intriguing.

Denis Jones – Elvis

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Thursday 20th October 2011: David Dondero at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.

David Dondero is kind of under the radar, I suppose, but from the relatively little I know about him, he can be fucking spectacular.  Rothko Chapel was one of my songs of the year a couple of years ago, and his sparse, acoustic Americana is really gorgeous.

David Dondero – Rothko Chapel

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Thursday 20th October 2011: The Fruit Tree Foundation presents James Yorkston, Rod Jones & Withered Hand at Nobles, Leith.

The Fruit Tree Foundation was set up by former Idlewild gentleman Rod Jones and former Delgado Emma Pollock to raise awareness for the Mental Health Foundation. My personal knowledge is a little sketchy, but I think musicians have volunteered to act as mentors for young songwriters, and together to create new music, and I think it is this which will be performed in Nobles on Thursday. Given the calibre of the musicians involved, it should be really good.

Thursday 20th October 2011: The Travelling Band & Jonnie Common at the Electric Circus.

Jonnie Common actually worked on a track by Adam Gorman of the Travelling Band for his recent Deskjob project, so this pairing makes plenty of sense from that perspective.  As to how the rousing Americana of the band and Jonnie’s idiosyncratic electropop will go together musically, erm… well, remains to be seen.

Adam P. Gorman – Hitchhiker (from Jonnie Common’s Deskjob)

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Friday 21st October 2011: Oxjam Edinburgh Takeover (Facebook link).

This is a beast of an event, with gigs happening at the Electric Circus, Cabaret Voltaire, Sneaky Pete’s, The Banshee Labyrinth and the (recently resurrected) Left Banke.  The full list of bands thus far confirmed as playing is as follows: As In Bear, Black International, Broken Records (solo), Citizens, Dead Boy Robotics, Endor, Esperi, FOUND, French Wives, i build collapsible mountains, The Last Battle, Letters, Loch Awe, The Machine Room, Meursault, PAWS, Sebastian Dangerfield, The Spook School, Trapped in Kansas, Trapped Mice, Vasquez and Verse Metrics.  It’s going to be a beast of a night, I suspect, but you’re own your own with this one, I am not digging out links for all those bands, nor attempting to describe them.  Just go.

Saturday 22nd October 2011: Rob St. John album launch with Meursault, eagleowl & Viking Moses at Pilrig St. Paul’s.

Personally, I think this is damned close to being the lineup of the year.  I’d like to see anyone else top it, in any case.  This is also, the header implies, the launch show for Rob St. John’s gorgeous debut album Weald, out on 12″ gatefold vinyl at the end of November. We have partnered with John Truckasaurus to add Viking Moses to a bill already bursting with goodness. Tickets are available at Avalanche Records and online, here.

Rob St. John – Your Phantom Limb by Song, by Toad

Saturday 22nd October 2011: Patrick Wolf at the Liquid Room.

Alright, alright, a few of you might well raise an eyebrow at this one, but I remember when Patrick Wolf first broke through.  His brand of flamboyant, baroque pop was a bit over the top perhaps, but it certainly had a certain element of fascination.  So I may of course be personally endorsing Rob St. John’s album launch, but this one still kinda caught my eye.

I mentioned this a few weeks ago when I told you about Ian Humberstone’s half of this gorgeous split 7″ single.  Well the vinyl itself comes out today, although those who pre-ordered theirs should already have them, so I thought I might take the opportunity to share Rob St. John‘s side with you as well.

Both the songs were recorded by Ian on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and the artwork for the single itself uses photography by the two artists.  Ian and Rob have been friends and collaborators for years, so there’s something really nice about being able put out a release by the two of them.

For Rob, of course, this also serves as the first single from his forthcoming debut album Weald, which we are releasing on gatefold vinyl at the tail end of November.  For those who want a copy earlier than that, however, you can order a copy online or buy one at his album launch shows, which are as follows:

14th Oct London – King’s Place with Viking Moses and Birdengine
15th Oct Oxford – Modern Art Oxford with Viking Moses and Petrels
22nd Oct Edinburgh – Pilrig St. Paul’s with Meursault, eagleowl & Viking Moses.

Tickets for the Edinburgh show can be bought at Avalanche Records in Edinburgh, or online at Brown Paper Tickets here.

And, after reading all that faff I suppose it’s only fair that I give some music, really.  So without further messing here are the two songs in question, along with videos composed of archive footage, all sourced from the Creative Commons licensed stuff at archive.org.

Rob St. John – Your Phantom Limb by Song, by Toad

Ian Humberstone – House On The Hill by Song, by Toad

On 10th October Song, by Toad Records will be releasing a split 7″ by Rob St. John and Ian Humberstone (who formerly recorded under the name of Tissø Lake).

House on the Hill is Ian’s side of the record, which he recorded to half inch tape on a whirring old Tascam reel-to-reel recorder over the course of a handful of fog-strewn days in a frozen Cambridge kitchen in winter 2010.

The video below was assembled from archive footage of the Telstar satellite, which receives signal from Andover Maine, and retransmits to Cornwall in England.  It was launched on a Delta rocket for ATT at a cost of $50 million in 1962, footage used under a Creative Commons license from Archive.org.

Ian Humberstone – House On The Hill by Song, by Toad

So, after the chaos of the Festival, we are back to normal service here in Ides of Toad HQ (which looks suspiciously similar to Song, by Toad HQ and bears a more than passing resemblance to Song, by Toad Records HQ).

Actually, I thought I managed to get myself horribly waylaid by the Festival, but it turns out I have most of the Autumn’s lineups already filled and ready to go, with only a few gaps here and there.  This level of organisation rather shocks me, I have to confess, but I am sure I will find some way to have a last-minute panic in the end.

Anyhow, apart from next week’s Japanese War Effort, Animal Magic Tricks and Yusuf Azak gig, on Saturday 17th at the Wee Red Bar, we have the following:

Saturday 1st October, just confirmed: John Knox Sex Club, Plank! and Easter at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
This is going to be a cracker.  JKSC have a new album to promote, which sounds amazing, and Plank! and Easter are coming up from Manchester.  It’s going to be one of those evenings where none of the bands have that much in common exactly, but I still think the lineup will work really well.

Saturday 22nd October: Rob St. John album launch, with Meursault and eagleowl.
The venue is TBC on this one, but we are looking for somewhere a bit interesting, rather than your usual gig club bar venue thingie.  And I would imagine that readers of this site need little introduction to eagleowl or Meursault, but as Rob plays in both those bands as well, I do find myself wondering if he’s given any thought to just how much work he’s going to have to do on the night.

Saturday 5th November: Dad Rocks! and Shoes and Socks Off, with one more TBC, at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
This will be an evening of smart acoustic pop, and we have one more band still to add to the bill. I may try and add a full band to the headline slot though, just to make sure everyone stays on their toes.

Saturday 19th November: at the Wee Red Bar, and it’s my fucking birthday as well!
The whole lineup for the 19th is TBC, because I am trying to get Manchester’s Weird Era and Glasgow’s Battery Face onto the same bill, but we are just in the process of juggling dates, so none of this is confirmed yet. I am confident it will work out though, because everyone involved is keen to make it happen.

Sunday 27th November: Withered Hand, Samantha Crain and Michael McFarlane at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
I think Withered Hand will be playing solo acoustic, although I’m not sure, and I am absolutely thrilled to get Samantha Crain here for a gig, some three years after regular commenter and sometime contributor Campfires and Battlefields introduced me to her music. And finally, Michael McFarlane is someone I knew absolutely nothing about, but he’s a local lad who played Lach’s Antihoot this Summer and I thought he was bloody excellent, so I asked him to open.

Saturday 10th December: Song, by Toad Records Christmas Party.
This entire thing is TBC, but I think this is the best date for it.  It should at least give us time to clean up the house in time for the New Year’s House Gig, in any case.

So, umm… there you go.  I have to confess I never thought ‘putting on the odd gig’ would lead to this, but er, they should be really, really good shows.  And it would be nice if you all came to them too, otherwise I am going to be in all sorts of money trouble!

 Sometimes the Edinburgh weather frustrates me, but sometimes it genuinely makes me laugh – like today.  It pissed down with rain all the way through the Festival and now, the minute the tourists leave town, blazing sunshine!  Excellent.

Sadly the joke is on me as much as any tourist, because all I’ve really been able to do with the sunshine is sit in my office and stare out the window at it, which is hardly very inspiring, but umm… well, there you go.

Anyhow, I am really not certain there’s all that much on in Edinburgh this week actually.  Which is probably a good thing, because a nice easy week would be very welcome as I have a lot to catch up on after the Festival.

Saturday 10th September 2011:  ‘Rebel Landscapes’ : An evening of film and folklore, Pilrig St Paul’s Church.

This one looks rather interesting.  Screen Banditas have selected some footage from the Scottish Screen Archive, and these films will be shown in the church hall and, to quote their blurb: “Projecting the films from archival 16mm prints, live accompaniment will be provided by Alasdair Roberts, Cath & Phil Tyler, Rob St John and Wounded Knee.”  Count me in.

Saturday 10th September 2011: Roy’s Iron DNA at the Electric Circus.

I know little about Roy’s Iron DNA, but from a quick listen to the Soundcloud samples on their website they sound pretty good to me.  It’s electronic pop music, at times synthy and at times more atmospheric, but in general they have good tunes and if Rebel Landscapes ain’t your thing I reckon this would be well worth a punt.

Roy’s Iron DNA – Silent Majority

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