The PR blurb for this states the following: “BioFresh is a European Union project which is putting together the scattered pieces of information about life in our rivers and lakes, to better understand, manage and protect our freshwaters for generations to come.”

In essence, that’s all you need to know, I suppose.  This is a music blog, so I guess some of you will find this a compelling reason to investigate further and some will not. I hope you do though, because it looks like a very interesting project.

Rob St. John and FOUND‘s Tommy Perman were part of the team which put together the video above, however, and it’s so nice that I really did have to post it.  Click through to either the Vimeo page for the video itself or to the homepage of BioFresh if you want to find out a bit more.  And if you don’t then just admire the animation, the wonderful delivery of the poetry and the lovely grumble of the music in the video.

It’s Christmas Day, we have had our breakfast of smoked salmon and poached eggs, and I decided I might as well settle down with a bottle of fizz and talk shite on the internet.  Given we opened all our presents and had a big meal when my parents were visiting last week, I figured I was obliged to do no more than get pissed and slowly waste away the day today, stopping only to gorge myself on roast lamb at some indeterminate point in the evening – whenever Mrs. Toad gets over last night’s hangover I suppose.

I am lining up my stupid movies for tonight, as well, because that is all I intend doing this evening: watching intellectually vacant films whilst lolling about on the couch like a beached whale.  This, as far as I am concerned, is the True Meaning of Christmas (TM).

Direct download: Toadcast #154 – The Couchcast

01. Stephen Malkmus – Baby C’mon (00.16)
02. Sylvain Chomet – L’Illusioniste (05.02)
03. Bloody Cassette Boy – Nigella’s XXXmas (12.03)
04. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Cold White Christmas (13.50)
05. Kung Nai vs. Cambodian Space Project – Women (22.16)
06. King Koyote – La La La (27.33)
07. LY and SO – One Day This’ll All be Fields (33.55)
08. Tommy Perman – Drive My Car (36.19)
09. Stoney & Meat Loaf – Jessica White (42.30)
10. The Wind-up Birds – In a Yorkshire Call Centre I Knelt Down and Wept (49.19)
11. The Mountain Goats – Tyler Lambert’s Grave (54.35)

Yes, it’s that soon.  And it will be bloody good.  The Bowery is closing over the Festival to be taken over by the usual commerical shitfest which swamps any semblance of culture in this city during August, and next Saturday will be its last night until the Autumn so help us celebrate the amazing work they’ve put in this year in some style.

As it’s the Summer and is allegedly (stop sniggering in the cheap seats) going to be a good one for a fucking change I thought we could all dress in flowers to celebrate.  In fact, I thought it would be such a good idea that I am going to buy a shitload of weird flowery things from charity shops and make you wear them if you turn up without anything floral on your person at all.  So you’d better make an effort, if just to deprive me of the opportunity to embarrass you.

For the open mic bit at the beginning – strictly 7pm-8pm – we have some splendid treats lined up, including a couple of Meursault songs played entirely on the omnichord and a couple of other special musical treats I am currently still working on.  As per usual, if you want to take part in the open mic bit email me on the address shown on the contact page.

For the main bit we have the truly outstanding Yusuf Azak coming through from Glasgow.  I am trying to prize him away from a sexier and more glamorous record label and persuade him to release on Toad so you shower of bastards had better be nice to him.  And headlining, we are going to have Tommy and Ziggy from Found reprising their Toad Session set which they recorded a few weeks ago for us because it was bloody brilliant and I think lots of people should hear it if they possibly can.

So there you go, a finer evening’s entertainment you couldn’t possibly wish for, so get yer jacksies down to the Bowery next Saturday and watch me make a tit of myself because of too much gin once again.  You know it’s bound to happen.

Yusuf Azak – The Key Underground

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Haggard the Listener Group – Anti-Climb Paint

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