Almost a year and a half ago now my friend Craig came round to record a podcast about early blues which we, somewhat unimaginatively, called the Craigcast.

A great deal of that conversation centred around Fat Possum Records (Wikipedia), and how Matthew Johnson struggled for years to keep it trundling along, despite being near bankruptcy for most of the time.  It wasn’t until soul legend Solomon Burke decided to release his comeback record with them that they finally got out of the financial woods with some finality.

Craig’s interest in the label is based around an obsession with old blues music, but from a modern indie kid’s perspective Fat Possum are still one of the best record labels in the world – The Walkmen, AA Bondy, Andrew Bird, Sonny and the Sunsets, Band of Horses, The Black Keys, Dinosaur Jr., The Felice Brothers, Wavves and Yuck all release with them.  So this is absolutely all about Fat Possum and their bands.  Sort of a tribute, and sort of a public demonstration of me being absolutely green with envy.

Direct download: Toadcast #163 – The Fat Possumcast

01. R.L. Burnside – Snake Drive (00.15)
02. Dinosaur Jr. – Almost Ready (14.11)
03. Junior Kimbrough – Meet Me in the City (21.34)
04. Andrew Bird – Plasticities (Live) (28.46)
05. Johnny Farmer – Ocean Blues (38.37)
06. Solomon Burke – Fast Train (46.26)
07. Sonny & the Sunsets & Death Cream (59.02)
08. The Walkmen – Donde Esta la Playa (61.45)
09. Cedell Davies – Keep on Snatchin’ it Back (68.03)
10. T-Model Ford – Take a Ride With Me (76.47)

God, prodding yourself back into action after Christmas takes some fucking doing, doesn’t it?  Bloody hell, I didn’t even drink that much, but my brain degenerated into mush nonetheless, aided by a constant diet of piss-poor television consumed in bed, surrounded by a sea of dreadful snack foods.  The awesome chocolate milk, strawberry laces and pork scratchings combination has done terrible things to my head.

Nevertheless, get moving we must, because there is soon to be an ungodly pile of shit to get through to crank things back into gear for 2011.  Resolutions will not be found at Song, by Toad, but new enterprises there will be aplenty.  I will write about them on Sunday for you, but for now it is time to empty the brain and shoot the breeze for the rest of the day.  Fuck it, it’s only a job.

So, to kill time between lunchtime and pubtime, here are five dumb questions for you to answer with five stupid remarks, at which point the talking of pish on Friday afternoon will officially recommence for 2011.  Happy fives!

1. Give us a New Year’s anti-resolution.
2. What was your worst vice over the Christmas period?
3. What time did your New Year’s Eve actually end?
4. What percentage is your brain functioning at so far in 2011?
5. How long to get back to its regular capacity?

And here are five songs from the Big Bad Love soundtrack, to keep you going for the next five hours:

R.L. Burnside – Come On In (Live)

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T-Model Ford – She Asked Me So I Told Her

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Robert Belfour – My Baby’s Gone

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Junior Kimbrough – Junior’s Place

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Long Way Home

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