Video: Vimeo – YouTube
Photos: Flickr - Blueback Hotrod
Audio: zip download (right-click, save as).

Lach is the man behind the Antihoot, the New York open stage which gave rise to the term and the movement called Antifolk.  People bandy the word about so much these days it’s almost become as nebulous as the term ‘indie’, but it had a very specific origin and a very specific meaning back at the beginning.

Last year Lach brought the Antihoot to the Edinburgh Festival, and we recorded a Toad Session with him while he was here.  When we figured out that we would actually be releasing his new album as well, and that he would be returning to Edinburgh this year – running both the Antihoot at the Gilded Balloon as well as a free fringe show called Lach, the Waitress, the Walls and the Weirdos in The Speakeasy at Cabaret Voltaire – I figured we might as well wait a little while to publish this session.

Well Lach is back now, his album comes out on Song, by Toad Records on Monday and we are starting to get ready for both the one-man show at Cab Vol, and also the return of the Antihoot (tickets).  If you want to play at the Antihoot yourself, then just get in touch: info@antifolk.net.  The rules are that you get either two songs or eight minutes, whichever is shorter, and that has to include your setup, so best keep it simple, but otherwise pretty much anything goes.

Also, this year we’ll be picking a semifinalist each night, by a combination of audience acclaim and executive decision, and inviting them back to the Anti-idol on the last three nights of the show.  Those three nights will be recorded, with the best dozen or so performances being released on a Best of the Antihoot album on Song, by Toad Records.

As per usual with the Toad Sessions, the full interview podcast is immediately below, followed by free mp3 downloads of all the session tracks (zip file here), videos of the individual tracks themselves (all video here), and finally the tracklist for the podcast.  There aren’t as many pictures as usual, but that’s because we were a little short-staffed this time, and Dylan was too busy with the video camera to produce the usual number of pretty pictures.

Direct download: Toadcast #183 – Lach Toad Session

Lach – A Quiet Distance (Toad Session)

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Lach – Ambition Burns (Toad Session)

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Lach – Another Night Without You (Toad Session)

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Lach – Coffee Black (Toad Session)

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01. Lach – A Quiet Distance (Toad Session) (12.40)
02. The Love Gestures – Hey Man (16.40)
03. Phil Ochs – Small Circle of Friends (20.31)
04. Lach – Ambition Burns (Toad Session) (32.41)
05. Kirk Kelly – Stephen Foster (37.42)
06. Roger Manning – Pearly Blues (41.14)
07. Lach – Another Night Without You (Toad Session) (55.31)
08. Neil Halstead – Might Engine (62.05)
09. Lach – Coffee Black (Toad Session) (75.06)

Ruth and I are back on Fresh Air Radio once more this evening, live from 8pm for an hour and a half.

Ruth now has her own blog as well, so for those of you who tire of my wittering and crave a little bit more eclecticism in your world, then go and have a gander at Find Me in the Archives.

This week I have some songs from my Manchester post this week, and will be scarpering immediately afterwards to try and catch what I can of the FOUND album launch at the Voodoo Rooms.  Factorycraft is out on Chemikal Underground right about now.

Live on air from 8pm UK time – click here to listen.

As per usual, the playlist will be updated live below as we go along, and the comments will be open for your heckling and chattering and general talking of pish.  So feel free to chip in.

1. Devotchka – All the Sand in All the Sea
2. Golden Ghost – Plain Sight
3. Emit Bloch – Dorothy (a bit of the old version)
4. Emit Bloch – Dorothy (and the whole new versions)
5. Thao & Mirah – Eleven (feat. Tuneyards)
6. Powerdove – Sickly City
7. Moldy Peaches – Anyone Else But You
8. Roger Manning – Pearly Blues
9. Girls – The Oh-so-protective One
10. Brown Brogues – I Just Don’t Know
11. The Louche FC – Back Bedroom Casualty
12. Dum Dum Girls – He Gets Me High
13. Psychedelic Horseshit – Unseen Voids
14. Active Child – When Your Love is Safe
15. The Red River – Apple Valley
16. Husband – Feelings