Well we’ve heard back from the lifeboat lady, and apparently our efforts (here, and the aftermath here) have managed to raise pretty much double the amount of previous years.  This, frankly, is fucking brilliant news so massive thanks to everyone who came along – Dave & Michael from The Stormy Seas, Neil from Meursault, Dylan from Blueback Hotrod, a random hot chick from Mrs. Toad’s work, Morgan from, er, Glasgow and Ed from 17 Seconds (& 17 Seconds Records).  Brilliant stuff – same again next year?

In other slightly random news, Mrs. Toad is getting all excited about the possibility of us doing house gigs.  We have most of a PA system which we use for the Toad Sessions, the living room is pretty big, and we have a massive fridge for beer.  The nice thing about this is that in the absence of paying a sound guy and room hire, we could easily ask for a fiver donation, all straight to the band, and it could actually turn out way more lucrative for a musician.  It would also be a really nice atmosphere, because our living room would look full with twenty people in it, never mind fifty, so if we were taking a chance on someone interesting but not at all famous, that might be a good way to do it.

We’d have to think of someone good to start with, I think, and be careful to keep it kind of low key at the beginning.  I was a little skeptical at first, I have to confess, but I have yet to speak to anyone who thinks it’s a bad idea, so we are likely to go ahead with it sooner rather than later.

And with that, maybe it’s time to start this Friday’s Fives.  This is everyone’s opportunity to get beyond the same old smart-arsed muppets in the comments section, de-lurk, and have their say, so lets go for it, people.  There’s no need to worry about not being the funniest or the cleverest (although, lets face, the bar is set pretty fucking low if you’re the competitive sort), but you will be mocked for your opinions.  Kindly, of course, but mocked you will be, and once you’ve written your five you can mock back.

So get going, you fruitcakes, it’s fucking Friday and I am going to some sort of crazy executive dinner part tonight with Mrs. Toad’s work.  She wants me to get my beard trimmed (which I won’t do), get my hair cut (which I might do) and actually iron a shirt (which, alright okay, I will do).  So while you’re out getting pickled out of your tiny little minds, spare a thought for me surrounded by braying yahoos from the financial services sector.  I’ll try not to get too pished and tell everyone to fuck off.  Try.  I’m making no promises.

1. Science Fiction – a good thing or a bad thing?
2. Your most inappropriate behaviour at a formal event.
3. Ever spent an evening as a trophy wife/husband/boyfriend/etc..?
4. Most painful first date activity.
5. Least favourite TV presenter.

Jeffrey Lewis & Laura Marling – Brain Damage (An Eminem cover, apparently – for more info and some ace Jeffrey Lewis movies see here.)

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Richard & Linda Thompson – Withered and Died (Thanks to Campfires & Battlefields)

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The Thermals – When We Were Alive

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The Mummers vs Passion Pit – Sleepyhead (Isn’t this one of those remix/mashup things?  Have I sunk this low?)

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The Sailplanes – The Bridge (New album coming soon, and they sound promising.)

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‘iya, as my Kairdiff accented friend would say; only me.

Here it is, then. The last show before the last show before Christmas. Hasn’t the year simply zipped?

To assist the remainder of 2008 pass through you like last week’s Chinese takeout omlette, re-heated using only the breath of a cider-drunk Deutscher Schäferhund, this week’s offal will be spat out in the same manner as you coming across a crust of dead flies stuck to the bottom of a glass of home-made lemonade mid-swallow.

As per, then, I & TWoTH will stain the airwaves with jibber jabber not heard since Brendan Fraser, the actor, was asked to explain ‘irony’ during a press conference for his broken bottle rape of the celluloid artform via the medium of “Monkeybone”.

Once you’ve recovered from that delightful triple image donkey punch you’ll be able to tuck into such aural delights as: The Great Lake Swimmers, Delta Spirit, Ane Brun, The Thermals, Mitchell Museum, Bosque Brown, SoKo, The Strange Boys, The Duchess & The Duke, Meaghan Smith, Lex Land, Lindi Ortega, Mercy Choir, & the Spanish Inquisition that are the many, many more.

Thanks are due, once again, to Mr. Toad for allowing us to park our wide load in his driveway. Plus a big nod, elaborately crossed arms & a suck on the teeth stance to all of youse out there in listeningland what are coming back week on week. Ta very, muchly appreciated, thanks.

We don’t yet have a plan for our Christmas Eve show, but the New Year’s Eve 3hr bonanza will essentially be a run down of our favourite bits of musicary we’ve played throughout 2008. We’re hoping to feature a number of our friends (The Lord Dog Dylan, being one), between each track, talking about whatever comes to mind.

But that’s the almost immediate future. The very immediate future is pretty much right about now. Click on, then, fair fellows, click on.

The Waiting Room: 10th December 2008

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I received this email in response to my post about herd reactions to political arguments and, at times, facts themselves.  It was thoughtful and well-written so I thought it deserved elevating to post status.  The other reason is that for all I am very anti-religious myself, I have plenty of religious friends who I like and respect, and I’m always slightly fearful when I lurch into one of my rants that I might be mortally offending them, or at least taking great liberties with both our respect and friendship.  So it’s a relief to hear a complete stranger not just react with something along the lines of ‘fuck you, you Jesus-hater’ or something else equally angry.

So I apologise for the just everso slightly facetious picture and leave you in the hands of the lovely LS:

Okay, so first of all I should say that I’m one of those Christian types. I know, I know, venomous antipathy coming at me from the house of Toad, but I also love Broken Records (amazing Toad session btw) and am currently about 47% gin so don’t judge me too harshly just yet. The reason I wanted to comment on your post is, as you seemed to be suggesting, the idea that Christianity and conservative capitalist politics are cut from the same cloth is clearly misguided, their incompatibility should be completely self evident. But obviously this isn’t the case, in the States at least.

A cursory googling of Christianity+Socialism brings up a huge number of anti-liberal diatribes by rattled Republicans, clearly feeling the need to remind their readership that any left-leaning ‘Christians’ out there are clearly in the thrall of their Satanic overlords (some are truly terrifying, viz. ’60 Hard Truths about “Liberals”‘ http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/Articles/Liberals.htm).

The ‘vote for me because I’m a Christian’ campaign tactics of so many Republican candidates is genuinely repugnant, appealing to just that kind of tribal, herd mentality that you’re talking about, perpetuating a Them and Us way of thinking. What they’re really saying is you’re not a Christian if you don’t vote for me. In fact you’re not an American either, or a human being at all – off to Guantanomo you terrorist-loving, child-murdering, communism-causing, mp3-downloading scum. And then there’s the “family values” mantra, a term that means precisely whatever the user wants it to. Jesus was a single man rejected by his own family, without property, who made his home among prostitutes and tax collectors – the most despised elements of society.

Most evangelical Christians I know in the UK would probably lean more to the left, and I’m tempted to suggest that the emergence of the evangelical right in the States is much more of a cultural phenomena. The American emphasis on the unassailable constitutional rights of the individual is so often twisted out of shape into a dogmatic, self-righteous advocacy of personal responsibility – to the point where the Right seem to believe that people either choose or deserve to be poor, or exploited, or made redundant or whatever; that if they just tried a bit harder to be proper Americans then they could have nice big houses in the suburbs too. Whereas a left-leaning perspective acknowledges that there are systems and structures that entrench and perpetuate poverty, and that social reform is the responsibility of those who have power in society. Those who selectively choose parts of the bible to support a particular political position ignore the simple fact that the bible advocates both personal responsibility and social responsibility, to ‘love my neighbour as myself’. The capitalist model of social Darwinism that promotes avarice and exploits the weak couldn’t be further from the biblical emphasis on the importance of community, of economic justice and responsible stewardship of the environment. It teaches us that we cannot serve both God and Mammon.

As much as I agree with your opinion that much electoral activity is determined by a mentality in which the individual seeks to align themselves with the group in which they feel most comfortable, I also think that the way politics is reduced to black and white one-issue campaigns is equally significant. Voting for someone simply because of their stance on Iraq, or abortion, or wind farms is just lazy, the voter picking what issues affect them personally and ignoring the wider implications of what a candidate represents. The idea that if you disagree with a party on one issue you thereby must support the opposition by default is patently ludicrous. Surely no one can wholeheartedly subscribe to every single issue or policy that any political party espouses? Parties constantly shift stance on issues, and change can be effected from within. Obviously some issues are more important or personally relevant than others, but voters need to look beyond individual policies at what lies behind a party’s decision-making, even if that means choosing, as it were, the lesser of two evils.

Yikes. Did I really write all that? I know, get myself a blog already. I think I win hands-down in the portentous pomposity stakes, and I’m sure I will hugely regret sending this in the morning! I blame the gin.

Hoping that the next Toad post won’t be something along the lines of ‘Crazed Fundie Evangelist tries to Convert the Toad with Poorly Thought-Out Polemic’. [snigger - Toad]

You’d probably better go off and listen to something loud and blasphemous right away.

All best,
LS

I think, actually, that I can oblige there:
The Thermals – Pillar of Salt

And there’s more good stuff where that came from too:
The Thermals – Here’s your Future
The Thermals – How We Know