It’s bluesy, punky, politically raging and Glaswegian – I should love this record, but I don’t.  In fact, I am not sure I even like it particularly.  I have loved some Sons & Daughters songs in the past, most notably from their debut EP, but I wasn’t keen on The Repulsion Box really, and despite the less choppy, brutal approach I don’t like this very much either.

I don’t think this is indicative of there being anything wrong with the music, and I am not trying to say that they are shite, but I seem to be forever on the verge of loving Sons & Daughters and just never quite end up doing so.  The elements are all perfect, there’s no reason I shouldn’t love it, it’s exactly my kind of music I just have never managed to click with it.  Abrupt, punchy blues with an angry garagey edge is generally right up my street, and this is how they began their career.  With This Gift they have mellowed a little and there is a little bit more pop smoothness to the music but it still isn’t floating my boat entirely.

The lyrics are even a blistering attack on modern cultural vapidity and even that doesn’t help.  I don’t know what they could do that would make me fall for this a little more, but I’ve been asking myself this since their very first release.  At some point I am just going to have to face up to the fact that I don’t actually like Sons & Daughters very much.  But I doubt I will ever understand why.

Sons & Daughters – Gilt Complex
Sons & Daughters – This Gift

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Back at long last, would you believe. After the abortive attempt at a Christmas podcast and then the IT disaster in Toad Hall – when my retarded computer ground to a halt and had to have its entire operating system reinstalled – I have finally managed to record the 19th Toadcast. Sorting out the IT department was not at all as easy as it should have been, so it’s taken ages to get to the point where I could record one again.

So, excuses over and done with, what am I going to inflict on you this time? The bloody Scots, that’s who. The Scottish music scene is an amazingly fertile one, so I thought I’d review 2007 and have a bit of a look forward to 2008. So I’ve pulled together some of the big guys like Malcolm Middleton, Emma Pollock and King Creosote and interspersed a few of the lesser known acts from around here to give you a nicely rounded look at what’s going on musically in the land of Buckfast and deep-fried Mars bars.

Toadcast #19 – The Scotchcast[audio http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo19.mp3]

01. Sons & Daughters – Gilt Complex (1.01)
02. Glasvegas – Daddy’s Gone (5.55)
03. The Low Miffs – Also Sprach Shareholder (13.58)
04. Malcolm Middleton – We’re All Going to Die (17.24)
05. Aidan John Moffat – The Boy That You Love (23.37)
06. Gerry Mitchell & Little Sparta – The Empress (28.00)
07. The Pendulums – Greenhat (34.38)
08. Broken Records – Kathy (40.49)
09. Rob St. John – Wooden Rose (45.44)
10. Found – Some Fracas of a Sissy (53.28)
11. Kid Canaveral – Smash Hits (58.49)
12. Popup – Lucy, What are You Trying to Say? (61.38)
13. Emma Pollock – A Temporary Fix (68.28)
14. King Creosote – Church as Witness (76.04)
15. Mother & the Addicts – Roll Me on Over (79.37)
16. Frightened Rabbit – Be Less Rude (88.09)
17. The Twilight Sad – Walking For Two Hours (94.37)

Bugger me, what fun! How about a podcast! By Me! With mandatory exclamation marks! Lots of them!!

Sorry about this chaps, but in truly characteristic all-or-nothing fashion, instead of getting my miserable arse in gear to record a meagre intro for the splendid Contrast Podcast I have, on my first outing, gone right out and recorded an entire podcast of my own. Bloody typical. I tell you what, if I don’t finally get off my lazy, disorganised and generally fucking useless arse come the next Contrast Podcast time then I deserve to be tarred and feathered, so please hold me to that, I bloody deserve it.

And you’ve got to tell me what you think too, because believe me this is far more personal than blogging – shit, my own actual voice! The shield of a computer screen and four thousand miles’ distance is some insulation believe me, whereas all you lot listening to me talk idiotically to myself in the middle of my own living room, well quite frankly it scares the shit out of me. So let me know – good? bad? indifferent? more? never again? It’s in your hands, people, so make your voices heard.

Fancy a listen? Well click like fiends, Toadlets, like fiends!

Toadcast #1, June 2007

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Here’s the tracklisting:

1. The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic (01.22)
2. Bishop Allen – Like Castanets (07.10)
3. Jet – Lazy Gun (10.21)
4. The Sequins – Patients (17.40)
5. Grandaddy – Broken Household Appliance National Forest (25.53)
6. The Wedding Present – Corduroy (30.25)
7. The Sequins – Nobody Dreams About Me (35.22)
8. The Shaky Hands – Whales Sing (38.30)
9. The Scottish Enlightenment – Eyes (44.02)
10. Sons & Daughters – Johnny Cash (48.55)