Not only do I have a cold, and that invincible drowsiness which comes with it, but being self fucking employed I can’t even have a bloody skive!  God dammit! I feel like Kevin the Teenager from the Fast Show, it’s just so unfaaaaair!

Anyhow, to explain myself, yes that really is an armoured dinosaur up there at the top of the page.  I did a Google image search for ‘heavy cold’ and apart from a bewildering array of machetes, that image featured quite prominently.  And it’s an armoured fucking dinosaur for goodness’ sake!  More such mental (and rather cool) illustrations can be found on the site whence I pinched it.

I remember a lot of friends of mine at school were very keen on their fantasy RPGs, but I never really got into it myself.  And, a little like being a music obsessive, I suppose it can come across as a bit sad and nerdy from the outside.  But whenever I walk past Forbidden Planet on the Royal Mile, particularly on a Winter evening when it’s cold and rainy outside and warm and light inside, and all the fantasy fans are in there with their figurines and dice and cards and whatever other accoutrements they have, then it really does look like a very sociable and very enjoyable thing to be doing.  I guess I just got nabbed by records instead.

So, as Winter slowly approaches, coughs and sneezes abound and the Scottish night becomes dramatically longer, why not pretend it’s not cold and shitey outside, delurk for a change and chip in five silly answer to five silly questions on here, and then blether away talking shite with other skivers and slackers for the rest of the afternoon.

1. Name your armoured dinosaur.
2. Pick one crucial feature an armoured dinosaur must have in order to be truly fearsome.
3. What is its secret Achilles Heel?
4. You know those really cool half and half animals in fantasy stories?  Which two would you mix?
5. Do you actually like fantasy stories or films or whatever, or do you just find it childish nonsense?

Navigator – Danger Dragon

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Dragons – Here are the Roses

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E.S.L. – Princess vs Dragon

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Sunset Rubdown – Dragon’s Lair

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Hot Lava – Blue Dragon

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This podcast is unconscionably late once more and again I am going to plead that there is a perfectly good reason for this.  Today has been taken up with constant recording here at Toad Hall, and I myself have been finishing the video for the Honeytrap Toad Session which finally, finally will be making an appearance this time next week.  My job is virtually finished, and it’s messy, but it will be a corker.

This podcast has no real theme, but I did let Neil choose most of the songs, so that gives the podcast something of a character of its own.  I did make him be on a podcast with a Noah & the Whale song on it though.  Ha haaa!  That’ll teach the trendy little bastard!

Toadcast #89 – The Latecast

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01. Sunset Rubdown – I’ll Believe in Anything You’ll Believe in Anything (02.09)
02. King Creosote – Homeboy (09.14)
03. Rob St. John – Domino (Live) (18.13)
04. Noah & the Whale – The First Days of Spring (23.05)
05. Melanie – What Have They Done to My Song, Ma (31.35)
06. The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir – Stop! (39.42)
(Interlude music: The Divine Comedy – Theme From Casanova)
07. The Notwist – The Devil, You & Me (45.53)
08. Mum – Green Grass of Tunnel (49.26)
09. Sol Seppy – Hafiz, a Mime (60.18)

I am not, I have to confess up front, much of an expert on Sunset Rubdown.  I understand they have something of a long-standing and fairly devoted fanbase, but this is the first of their albums I have voluntarily sampled for myself, the previous times being recently, at the insistence of friends appalled at my ignorance.

The vocals are quite Interpoly, actually, as are some of the rhythms (I mean early Interpol here, not the pale shadow of their former selves they have become).  Other touchstone indie bands from about five years ago are also represented, in that there are shades of Wolf Parade (hardly surprising, as it started as a Spencer Krug’s breakaway solo project), Arcade Fire, New Pornographers and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to be heard as well, so it’s hardly unfamiliar soil which is being turned here.

Does that ruin it for me?  No, not at all, because this music, whilst familar, still has a lot more of the edges left on it than the aforementioned bands tend to have these days.  The guitar solos are messier, the growl of the playing more pronounced, the keys more aimless and in general the music feels less tightly constrained than a lot of the bands who emerged with such a bang in about 2004 or so.

Due to the somewhat relentless nature of this borderline discordant, sloppy, somewhat antagonistic style, Dragonslayer can become something of an assault by the time you’re three quarters of the way through.  I did, I have to confess, find myself starting to hanker after something more slow burning and broody, but maybe that was because I was becoming increasingly aware of the fact that Mrs. Toad was present and perhaps not as entranced as I was by some of the harsher edges of this album.

All in all though, I am really enjoying this album.  And the best thing about discovering a band this far into their careers – back catalogue!  Woo hoo!

Sunset Rubdown – Silver Moons

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Sunset Rubdown – Nightingale/December Song

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