Song, by Toad

It’s freezing outside and (just slightly) covered in snow (about half an inch) so naturally the entire nation has ceased to function.  Erm, okay, it really isn’t that cold and the snow really isn’t that big a deal in all honesty but of course given the worst weather conditions we usually have to deal with are constant and life-sapping drizzle it seems that it’s all come as a bit of a shock to the nation as a whole.

We live in a city by the sea of course, which means that we never get the sunshine which is promised and sadly, during the winter, we never get the snow or the cold either.  In the countryside it may occasionally be dangerous, but in the city it’s never much more than a stunningly picturesque inconvenience, and the bastard stuff will all have melted by next week anyway, so we might as well enjoy it while we still can.

This week the podcast is not themed at all, it’s just new and interesting stuff from my inbox.  I tend not to just slap up promo tracks emailed to me by PR chappies on the blog because, frankly, I really have nothing to say about them yet and I don’t really like firing out posts on the site when I don’t really have an opinion, right wrong or otherwise, to accompany it.  Podcasts, on the other hand, are a bit more spontaneous so they seem like a more suitable place to put new and interesting stuff before I have any real chance to figure out whether or not I actually like it properly.

Toadcast #103 – Baby, it’s Cold Outside

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01. Timber Timbre – Magic Arrow (Daytrotter Session) (01.47)
02. Drew Danburry – Many are Cold, but Few are Freezing (11.11)
03. Barton Carroll – The Poor Boy Can’t Dance (14.57)
04. Kid Canaveral – Good Morning (21.50)
05. The Middle East – The Darkest Side (28.19)
06. Eluvium – The Motion Makes Me Last (38.04)
07. Final Fantasy – Lewis Takes Action (43.12)
08. Rachael Dadd – Table (50.13)
09. Woodpigeon – Music Belongs to Those Who Make It (56.15)
10. Samamidon – How Come That Blood (62.32)

1.Timber Timbre – Timber Timbre
This record is ghostly and weird.  I hate to keep going back to the Bon Iver thing, but reading the Bon Iver press, including the superlatives, lead me to expect an album as good as this, only to be massively disappointed.

Then, months later, I took a chance on this record, which turned out to be the album which matched the breathless accolades – to my mind anyway.  The ghostliness, the creepy sense of the macabre, it just all works so incredibly well – almost like the tales of some lost animalistic religion from an isolated community out in the wilderness somewhere.

It is also perfectly judged in terms of when to stay quiet and bare, and when to drag the sound up from the grave to dance around the odd figures the song has conjured up out of the dark.  Brilliant.

Timber Timbre – Lay Down in the Tall Grass

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2.Navigator – Bad Children
For an album this high on my list to have been released as a free download from a micro-label based in Bone Valley, Utah.  Even more surprising, then, that other people in and around Edinburgh had already heard of him.

This record is astoundingly good though, a ferocious mess of overloaded channels and twisted distortion, delivering pain and anger and the occasional, fleeting glimpse of something a little more tender.  And somehow, underneath all this tangled mess, there are pop songs.  Braden McKenna actually writes amazing tunes – he may batter the living shit out of them afterwards, but he really does write cracking pop songs first and foremost, and that combination is what makes this such a great album.

Navigator – Work is Done

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3. Withered Hand – Good News
It’s hard for me to judge this album, given I knew pretty much all of the songs beforehand either from his superb Religious Songs EP or from live performances.  Somehow that just didn’t seem to matter, because Dan’s delivery, the superb performances of his band and the brilliant job Pete and Neil did of recording this have managed to capture one of the unlikeliest heroes of Scottish underground music you could imagine.  In a really odd way, Dan just oozes a kind of reticent charisma, and the album is a lovable as it is devastating.

A brilliant piece of work by a fellow not one person in the music press would ever have tipped to write one of the great Scottish albums of the last five years, and yet that’s exactly how I would describe Good News.

Withered Hand – Cornflake

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4. Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers – Songs in the Night
Instead of being the alt-folk record her Confiscation EP seemed to be preparing us for, Songs in the Night came out as more of a folked up rock ‘n’ roll album.  Instead of ruining the delicacy, this gave Sam Crain a really strong platform for her stunning voice, and the resulting record has energy, guts and pathos absolutely all over it.

Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers – Long Division

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5.Trembling Bells – Carbeth
Carbeth, amazingly, has almost entirely retained its ‘What the fuck is this?’ impact ever since the first time Ruth from the Bowery passed me a CD-R of it way back in March.  It’s wild, preposterous and… well in all honesty it’s a completely mental psych-folk anachronism.  But it’s still utterly engrossing and giddily brilliant, and despite still being a bit baffled by it, I love this album.

Trembling Bells – I Took to You (Like Christ to Wood)

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21.FOUND – Enough About Human Rights
I’m not sure if anyone, not even the band themselves, likes Enough About Human Rights best from their excellent Let Fidelity Break EP, but I do.  There’s just something unexpected about this song, for some reason.  The fact that it is in fact a Moondog cover probably has a lot to do with that, but the hectic, percussive energy FOUND pile into their version just makes me grin every time I hear it.

22.Timber Timbre – Demon Host
The ‘ohs’ in this song take the spectral folk of Timber Timbre and give it a pleading, forlorn quality which imbues it with just a little more pathos than some of the others on the album, and this makes it extra special, in my view.

23.FOUND – You’re No Vincent Gallo – Toad Session
Honestly, I could put pretty much their entire session in the top ten of this list quite easily.  It was one of the best things I have ever seen, I think it’s fair to say.  Without all the stuff added by the full band I found myself so much more impressed with Ziggy’s voice, with the gorgeous tones he got from his banjo… with pretty much all of it, honestly.  Gorgeous.

24.Broken Records – Lessons Never Learnt
This may have been on an earlier release, but it was on this year’s(ish) Out on the Water EP, so I am putting my foot down and saying that it counts.  In any case, a really surprising song to come from a band like this, and I think that little down-up of the cello absolutely makes it.

25.Trips and Falls – Breaking Up With My Mormon Missionaries
These guys were pretty much the revelation of the year for me, in all honesty.  So much so that we’ve offered to release He Was Such a Quiet Boy on Song, by Toad Records, and it should be coming out in early March.  Their music is just fucking creepy, to be honest, and the male/female vocal interplay on this track in particular really is odd.  Add that repetitive descent on the strings and this really is an unsettling song.  And a brilliant one.

26.Jesus H. Foxx – Elegy For the Good Times
It didn’t grab me as my favourite track from Jesus H. Foxx’ debut EP Matter right off the bat, but I think it is.  The cornet, the harmonies, and that simple, repetitive rhythmic underpinning for the whole thing… it all just works incredibly well together, and there’s a sophistication to it which never ceases to surprise me when I think that this is the band’s first release, with their current lineup that is.

27.The Pictish Trail – You Covered the Earth With Your Thumb (Toad Session)
I love the Toad Sessions.  They really can provide some amazing recordings, and with Neil so kindly recording and mixing all of the ones we’ve done so far this year we really have had some incredible stuff.  Johnny Pictish is about the nicest guy ever to set foot in our house, and his session really was good.  The slow build of this, and the prominence of his vocal really are gorgeous.

28.Navigator – Change
An oddly melodic tune from one of the most belligerently low-fi albums I think I have ever heard.  It took a while for the sense of ‘whoooah, what the fuck?’ to subside when I first heard this record, but it is absolutely brilliant.  Fuzz or not, this is just a stone-cold pop gem and one of the most catchy riffs of the year.

29.The Builders and The Butchers – Golden And Green
Mental and ferocious brilliance.  When these guys hit their stride their ramshackle old jalopy threatens to shake loose its wheels altogether and crash into a ditch, and those are almost without fail their greatest songs.  This is just like that.

30.Titus Andronicus – Fear And Loathing In Mahwah, NJ
I don’t know whether I just like how raucous this song gets, or whether I like how quiet it is half the time, compared to how raucous it gets when it cuts loose.  Either way, this is one of the best play it loud soungs of the year.

31.Sparrow & the Workshop – Into the Wild
I heard this EP so close to doing this list that Horse’s Grin could as easily have been here instead, but such is the slightly arbitrary nature of these things that you’re getting this one.  Maybe it’s something about the storming ending which gets me – Nick is getting to really have a right bloody go on his guitars these days, and Jill is proving that her voice is easily powerful enough to step up and match it.  This is full on rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s superb.

32.Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (I)
Yes, more Wild Beasts.  I don’t know how this happened – it wasn’t exactly deliberate, I just kept ordering and re-ordering my list and their songs kept on sticking in there, often at the expense of stuff I thought I liked better.  This one’s more downbeat, but again that guitar sound and gorgeous voice produce something atmospheric and yet still insidiously infectious.

33.Alela Diane & Alina Hardin – I Have Returned
This whole EP is simple and absolutely gorgeous.  Again, I could have picked pretty much any of the songs from it, but there’s something about this one which seems to have captivated me just that little bit more.  The vocal interplay between the two is as lovely as with any song on the EP, but maybe there’s something in the roll of the verses which does it.  Then again, maybe it’s just arbitrary and I might pick a different one this time next week.

34.Meursault – Nothing Broke
A different version of this was on the band’s MySpace page the first time I ever heard them and it made a really strong impression on me.  They recorded it for their Toad Session back in August last year, and now this gorgeous piano and harmonium version for the truly stunning Nothing Broke EP.  If anything, the only reason this song is so low on this list is down to the fact that it’s so familiar by now.

35.Timber Timbre – Lay Down in the Tall Grass
This song shows just how simple most of this album is – the barest hint of percussion doing nothing very complex, a simple organ riff repeating throughout the song, and vocals.  There’s other stuff there too, but really very little of it, and that kind of subtle touch is what makes this such a special album.

To download all these songs in one big zip file, click here.

1-10 / 11-20 / 21-35 / 36-50

36.Wild Beasts – All The King’s Men
The vocals are weird, but there’s something about a large chunk of this record which I find absolutely compelling.  I love Ben’s voice, for starters, and this song probably highlights it better than any other.

37.Virgin of the Birds – Ilona, You Should Still Be My Vampire Attendant
Quite apart from the weird start, this is just a song based around a single, simple, brilliant hook.  So infectious I simply can’t stop humming it to myself.  And he’s playing a gig at our house on New Year’s Eve, if you fancy seeing him live.

38.Meursault – William Henry Miller Pt.2 (EP Version)
Meursault releasing their singles so late in the year has really fucked with my lists.  I love Nothing Broke, and both of the Williams Henry Miller on it, but the single version just blows this clean out of the water and the poor little acoustic version has ended up exiled to No.38.  It’s non-lyrical vocal bits which make this – the sort of deflated sigh of dismal unhappiness in between verses – just brilliant.

39.Withered Hand – Providence
Erm, nothing to say about this actually.  It’s just ace.  Dan’s slightly peculiar lyrics, the borderline-Hawley guitar strums, the vocal harmonies… who knows what makes this song so good.  Like all his music though, it just makes you like the guy.

40.Timber Timbre – Magic Arrow
Spooky and weird.  That kind of describes the whole album, but the repeating bassline and the insistent rhythm give this one a sort of sinister purpose of its own.  One of the discoveries of the year, as far as my ears are concerned.

41.Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard – To be Ojectified
There are a lot of songs about ageing and mortality on Em Are I, but this is one of the saddest and most resigned.  It’s like a cross between a stream of consciousness and the gradual deflation of an airbed, and ends up being both maudlin and comforting.  Which is to say that the lyrics are a bit on the horrible side, but the delivery is sympathetic and warm.

42.Broken Records – Wolves
Broken Records (and many of my other friends, like Sparrow & the Workshop and Withered Hand) suffer a bit in this year’s Festive Fifty because many of my favourite songs on their album, like A Good Reason, were actually featured in demo version on previous year’s lists.  This song, however, did not, and is one of the highlights of their album for me.  By the time everything gets going it’s just a fury of a song, and cannot fail to remind of how brilliant these guys are on stage.

43.Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Tom Justice, The Choir Boy Robber
It’s an odd subject, and the story is almost as compelling as the music itself.  There was a bit more full band stuff on vs. Children, and I’ve heard older fans complain about this, but the drum beat and the repeated, yet unintrusive chime of the piano in the background of this song are both lovely.

44.Alela Diane – White as Diamonds
This is fucking stunning and would have been in the top five had it not been for those goddamned bastard cymbals, which time has done nothing to soften.  The acoustic Daytrotter version of this song is one of the loveliest things I’ve ever heard.

45.Broken Records – Out On the Water
Hmm.. am I allowed to include this, given it was out last year?  Fuck it, I love it when a band whose live set is mental and reckless suddenly slow it down and play something surprisingly gentle. Here this is performed live at the Bedlam Theatre early last year – bloody great:

46.Wild Beasts – Hooting And Howling
A bit like other songs of theirs on this list, I don’t know whether I love the vocals, the laid back but nevertheless quite danceable beat or that really nice guitar sound they have.  Cracking album.

47.The Leisure Society – The Last of the Melting Snow
The Leisure Society made a bit of a rod for their own backs with this song.  By virtue of its Ivor Novello Award nomination it shot a tiny band on a tiny label right into the limelight, and infortunately the rest of their material just didn’t cut the mustard.  The album was just plain weak, and I found myself forgetting about this song because of it, which is criminal because it is absolutely brilliant.  There is a reason it got them so much attention.

48.Jesus H. Foxx – I’m Half the Man You Were
For a band with two drummers and four guitarists to make such nuanced and subtle music is downright weird.  This is probably ‘the pop song’ from their fantastic Matter EP, and that head-nodding rhythm and the gorgeous vocal lead out make this one of my favourite songs of the year.

49.Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers – Beating St Louis
Shilpa Ray’s voice plus accordian.  Job done.  Honestly, for someone with pipes like these to be accompanied by the macabre accordian moaning which dominates this song is simply a cast-iron recipe for Toad-pleasing.

50.The Smiles and Frowns – Mechanical Songs
Another song which sound like it would be drifting around the abandoned site of a funfair which had gone horribly wrong, this song is from the band’s excellent debut, and also available on eminently desirable white vinyl 7″.  Buy one, and make your friends slightly nervous by playing it all the time.

Download the all these songs as a zip file by clicking here.

1-10 / 11-20 / 21-35 / 36-50

I am back on Fresh Air Radio this evening, although unfortunately not accompanied by the lovely Ruth, as she’s not feeling well. However, to keep the loveliness quota nice and high, the extremely lovely Diana de Carrabus from Candythief will be playing live in session for us this evening.

She may be named like a dastardly Bond villainess, but Diana’s music is theatrical pop joy.  A somewhat stripped-down set is required in the tight confines of the Fresh Air studio, however, so it will be just herself and an acoustic guitar, accompanied by violin.

On air 7pm-8.30pm GMT – listen here.

The tracklisting will be updated live below, so feel free to add your comments in as we go along.

1. Eef Barzelay – Make Another Tree
2. Elbow – Station Approach
3. Candythief – Bargains (Live in Session)
4. Son Volt – Sultana
5. Alex Ward – Sounds Like Someone We Know
6. Timber Timbre – Magic Arrow
7. Candythief – Pass It On (Live in Session)
8. Betty Harris – Mean Man
9. Seasick Steve – The Letter
10. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (I)
11. Candythief – Amnesty (Live in Session)
12. King Charles – Beating Heart
13. REM – Disturbance at the Heron House
14. Felix Lighter – The Rational Pedestrian
15. Candythief – Junk (Live in Session)

And here, for those who missed it, is last week’s session with Thomas Western.  The sound is rather scratchy unfortunately, but I am still getting used to the desk.  To those who care, I think it’s his guitar mic which was clipping, not the vocal one, because the two were very close together:

Thomas Western – Fresh Air Session and Interview

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Thomas Western – The Worm Forgives the Plough (Live on Fresh Air)

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Thomas Western – Your Front Door (Live on Fresh Air)

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And the accompanying videos:

Bloody hell, this is excellent.  In terms of my own perception, it’s appeared pretty much from nowhere, although Taylor Kirk is in fact three albums into his career now.  Spectral and sparse, this record pretty much achieves everything I thought Bon Iver failed to.  Not that the two sound all that similar, it’s just that listening to all the press fluff for Bon Iver what I ended up imagining was something more like this gorgeous album, rather than the dull and rather anaemic results with which we were actually presented.

Kirk uses organ and restrained vocal harmonies to create an extremely evocative sound, somewhere between grisly folk tale and macabre, magical movie soundtrack.  The guitar riffs are minimal, and the organ chiming and disconcerting.  I am not sure if this unsettling, magical quality is entirely due to the lead vocal of Kirk himself, or the accompanying organ noise, or maybe just due to the fact that the whole record is so restrained, but this does sound like the soundtrack to your descent into hell.

Usually that sort of thing is soundtracked by something a bit more fire and brimstone, and this doesn’t really have that, although there’s a definite shade of Nick Cave’s Red Right Hand.  For the most part though, it’s just eerie.  Kirk himself was raised on a farm in Ontario, and I don’t know if this is one of those things the press make a huge play of because there just isn’t that much other information out there, but the sound of the music could easily evoke the simmering fear of misty farmland at dawn, just as the breaking light brings the shadows in the mist to life with menace.

The violin brings some welcome decorative flourishes to this potentially oppressive mix, with just enough of a blend between familiar folk flourishes and the tension of the rest of the instrumentation to bring a touch of reassuring warmth to the music.  I particularly like the way that the whole unsettling journey is brought to a close by the most friendly and accessible arrangement on the album, the gentle and sympathetic No Bold Villain.  The fiddle in particular is rather old-timey on this, which is a style it flirts with throughout the album, without ever quite coming good until this tune at the very end.  Which is nice, because it provides a comforting happy ending to an album which threatened for a while to be one harrowing horror story after another.

Timber Timbre – Demon Host

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Timber Timbre – Magic Arrow

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Website | More mp3s | Buy from Gallery AC

Howdy folks & apologies for (a) busting in on Mr. Toad’s podcast post, & (b) being late. Again. There’s a very good reason for that, namely I’ve been busting my orbs getting stuff & nonsense sorted out ready for our new station premiere — which, frustratingly, I still can’t say anything about.  All I can say is it’s happening very soon indeed.

One of the things I’ve been doing, sleeplessly, for the past week, is giving TWRHQ a bit of a tart up creating & adding new graphics, links, & building an entirely new add on site (TWR 2.0) that hosts all our interviews & sessions.  Finally, long after a number of people asked for it, you can now listen to/download all the individual interviews, minus the rest of the shows they were originally docked within, that we have conducted on the show.

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Mary Mother of Jesus up a pole. The nightmare continues.

This week’s well on time (as in assembled & ready) show was marred only by DCHQ’s onboard navigational equipment. During the process of uploading the podfile to this here podpage the hard drive of the studio computer had a fit & went to sleep. Then it wouldn’t wake up. Why won’t you wake up Mr. Drive? we sobbed. But he never did say, for he were asleep.

Turns out we’d fragged something pretty major in the configuration some time ago (something to do with me pissing about in the System files & deleting suspected virus strains) & over time/use Mr. Drive slowly grew sleepier & sleepier until he could keep his eyes open no more. Unfortunately that meant the show was stuck fast in the dreams of the comatose Mr. Drive. Boo! Hiss!

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