Well, only if you are Nicolas Cage.  And actually, if you were Nicolas Cage, then some of the films you have made in the last ten years or so might well merit a rampaging witch-hunt by some of the more embittered members of the acting community as you comically jam your two facial expressions (grim determination and spastic incomprehension) into one tedious, one-dimensional character after another for millions of dollars in reward, while they subsist on the breadline only by waiting table and selling their tender little chocolate blossoms in the backstreets for an insulting pittance.

Actually, maybe Song, by Toad should be looking to start some sort of ‘Burn Nicolas Cage campaign’.  It would be a righteous mission and I think we could get a lot of people on board.

Erm, not sure how that started.  Oh yes, Wickerman.  Myself, Mrs. Toad and several of Scotland’s finest young bands will be heading down to the Wickerman Festival this weekend (that’s why I was thinking of burning Nicolas Cage).  I am trying not to work too hard, so I haven’t arranged an awful lot of interviews, and I will not be taking the video camera with me.

What I will try and do though is record a podcast, or maybe two, while we’re there.  I’ll be taking our wee Tascam voice recorder and my Blue Snowflake microphone and will try and get some bits and pieces from the bands and some chat and so on and upload it all on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  I have no idea about the press facilities though, so god knows how successful this little plan is likely to be.  If it all fails, I will simply upload a podcast on Sunday afternoon when we get back.  So you’ll have to wait, but it will happen, promise.

In the meantime let’s get Five-tastic… no, sorry, that’s a disgraceful turn of phrase, I can’t countenance that sort of garbage.  Come on then, spit out your Friday Fives and remember that Fridays are de-lurking amnesties, open to all and sundry and especially encouraged for those who have never commented before.  Could this be your day?  Go on, there’s nothing to be afraid of.

1. Most hated pointless remake of a classic film.
2. Mostly guiltily loved pointless remake of a classic film (no, Star Wars as a remake of The Fortress does not count).
3. Favourite Nic Cage film.
4. Most abysmal Nic Cage film.
(I’ll even help you with those – no need to know much, or even to care, just click here.)
5.Name another wooden beefcake actor who irritates the living shit out of you.

Is this post sexist?

Bonnie Prince Billy (fuck his fucking quotation marks) – You Will Miss Me When I Burn

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Sargasso Trio – It’s Hot in Hell

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Bruce Springsteen – I’m On Fire

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The Men They Couldn’t Hang – Hellfire & Damnation

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Fortunately, the festival will be over by Sunday, but rain is never a bad bet in Scotland:
The Groove Farm – It Always Rains on Sunday

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Well I’ve come something of a roundabout route to loving this album, but love it I do.  From the sounds of it, this lot went a slightly roundabout route to becoming a band as well.  According to their MySpace blurb they met whilst playing salsa.  Yes, salsa.  What is the fucking world coming to, I ask you.

Myself, I found them on the exceptionally nutritious Boy Scout Recordings sampler handed out at last year’s (brilliant) End of the Road Festival, and approached the album expecting some unusually melodic but nevertheless gently pastoral folk pop.  This is not quite what I got, but once I adjusted I realised that I still loved it, however the hell you might describe the stuff.

Synth-folk is their own term, and I think that fits.  There’s a lot of sunny pop in there too, but for all they are playing what I guess you might term acoustic folk for the most part, this does indeed owe many a nod to the indie synth pop that is so popular at the moment.  There’s the synth flourishes themselves, of course, which although they are used pretty sparingly still make a fairly indelible impression on the ambience of the record.

The most unusual element of synthyness is actually nothing to do with synthesisers themselves, more in the vocal delivery that tends to accompany it.  That back-and-forth, slightly shouty vocal exchange that modern synth-pop groups seem to love makes a slightly unusual appearance on a couple of the songs here, surprisingly so, I’d find.

All three of the Sargasso Trio write songs, which seems to make a little more sense of these stylistic juxtapositions, but for all they are odd when laid down in black and white the surprises are all pleasant when listening to the album.  It’s a lovely, friendly listen, jaunty and poppy, but with enough of that folksy sadness to tinge the playfulness with pathos and give the album some real emotional grip.  Lovely.

Sargasso Trio – The Drum
Sargasso Trio – It’s Hot in Hell

myspace | hype | buy from tummytouch

There’s only time for a real quickie this week as I am working my hairy little buttocks off on the Broken Records stuff at the moment.  Still, in your insatiable thirst for pointless, self-indulgent rambling I was sure you’d want to listen to something splendid in the meantime.

There’s no underlying theme to anything either I’m afraid, just me rattling on about some current and very interesting music, as well as a couple of confessions so shocking you may never come back here again.  Looking at the playlist, I’m sure you can guess which ones they are.

So good luck with this, and I am already looking forward to the next one.

Toadcast #25 – The Quickcast[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo25.mp3]

01.  The Futureheads – Broke Up the Time (02.02)
02. Tapes ‘n’ Tapes – Hang Them All (05.05)
03. Meursault – Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues(13.21)
04. The Byrons – Azerbaijan (19.13)
05. The Fire Engines – Candyskin (26.04)
06. The Close Lobsters – Firestation Towers (28.53)
07. Mighty Mighty – Law (34.21)
08. Kim Carnes – When I’m Away From You (41.14)
09. Meat Loaf – Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (44.32)
10. Dirty Summer – War is Bad, Bono is Great (50.02)
11. The Low Lows – Dear Flies Love Spider (53.40)
12. Sargasso Trio – It’s Hot in Hell (58.32)
13. The Extraordinaires – High Five the Cactus (63.11)
14. Modernaire – Distraction (69.40)
15. The Indelicates – Point Me to the West (75.47)
16. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Night of the Lotus Eaters(83.47)

Yes, you did read that correctly.  Meat Loaf.  Fuck off.