The Twilight Sad were one of the first under the radar Scottish bands I ever  really ‘discovered’ for myself, although oddly enough it was actually American blogs where I first started to hear about them, despite their being from just down the road, relatively speaking.

This is their third album, and despite a subtle shift evident in their second, represents by far the most decisive move yet away from the walls of squalling guitars which played such a part in the making of their name.

They have adjusted from a devastating combination of heart-rending vocal and relentless crescendoes of giddying racket, to something which you might perhaps describe as being more closely related to the hypnotic thrum of someone like Lower Dens, not that I’d directly compare the two, exactly. With the synths they’ve added to their sound there are actually moments which border on Depeche Mode as well, although I am sure that if I knew more about that kind of music I could make a more appropriate comparison.

Despite the change of pace, if one thing remains the same, it’s the quasi-spiritual feel to the Twilight Sad’s music.  The very first time I ever saw them, back at Bannerman’s of all places, years ago, I remember thinking that singer James Graham seemed to be twitching and howling his way through a particularly disturbing religious vision.  A similar feeling permeates No-one Can Ever Know, but it is more trance-like and a little less like a demonic possession.

Pre-release songs like Kill it in the Morning and the phenomenal Sick still stand out, but the rest of it is still strong, with perhaps my favourite beyond these two being Another Bed, which I chose for this week’s podcast. The fact that this song comes late in the album shows once again that these lads, for all they do write pop songs, still clearly put together whole albums rather than front-loading a couple of crowd-pleasers and making up the rest with whatever else they had lying around, as has been happening a lot recently.

Having seen them recently at the Bongo Club, I must confess that I still find a lot of their most thrilling material comes from their first album.  Since then they’ve released two more records, including this one, and both have contained songs I have loved, and a few to which I have never really warmed, I have to confess.

Again in this case, there are a couple of songs here and there which, whilst they are by no means bad, don’t quite thrill me as much as they might.  But then, some of this is just fucking great, and if I recall it was the lure of a handful of favourites which pulled me slowly into their debut album as well, so I will be sure and give this record the time it needs to sink in properly.

The Twilight Sad – Sick

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The Twilight Sad – Another Bed

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Website | More mp3s | Buy direct from the band

Ah, Tartan Shortbread, that most wonderful of sardonic Scottish put-downs.

For those unfamiliar with the term, this is the offhand dismissal used to describe the sort of mawkish, clichéd tourist tat which masquerades as Scottish heritage and culture for those with woefully little imagination.  Alternatively, I suppose you could say that Tartan Shortbread is a blanket term for Scottish heritage as a sort of motorway service station take on national identity.

Anyhow, given I work very much at the coalface of the DIY music world in Scotland, I find that I have been oddly unsupportive of a large number of Scottish bands who have emerged in the last couple of years to considerable enthusiasm from the Scottish music press, both professional and amateur.

For some reason, the recent bands who have shown some likelihood of cracking an audience wider than the relatively narrow confines of the five million or so people in Scotland itself just haven’t appealed to me, with a few notable exceptions.  However, sitting down to assemble the playlist for this week I noticed that there were something like seven of the ten songs which happened to be by Scottish bands.  Oh, I thought to myself, I appear to be Scottish again.  How nice.

Direct download: Toadcast #212 – The Tartan Shortcast

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01. Django Django – Default (00.17)
02. Andrew Bird – Eyeoneye (08.41)
03. Lower Dens – Brains (12.47)
04. Randolph’s Leap – Bile (26.17)
05. Clean George IV – XP Avenue (32.51)
06. Dumb Instrument – Reverse the Hearse (35.57)
07. The Occasional Flickers – When the Sky Looks so Grey (41.11)
08. R.M. Hubbert – Sunbeam Melt the Hour (with Marion Kenny & Hanna Tuulikki) (50.20)
09. The Twilight Sad – Don’t Move (55.49)
10. Brown Brogues – Anyone But You (62.04)

Well here we are again, with lists this time generated by yourselves rather than me.  With one exception none of these songs would have been anywhere near my personal Festive Fifty, and the one which would have made it is forbidden due to an obvious clash of interests.

It’s weird, but it does at the very least go to show that the idea of the blogosphere being just a great big mutual back-slapping exercise, with everyone telling everyone else just how awesome they are most of the time, isn’t entirely accurate.  Still, just because I am an opinionated fucker doesn’t mean I don’t want to be disagreed with – just the opposite in fact, because it’s generally much more fun.

Honorable mentions must also go to FOUND and Adam Stafford, who managed an awful lot of votes as bands, but not consistently for the same song, resulting in them missing out on the top five, despite having a lot of votes in total.

So, without further ado, I hereby present the Song, by Toad Readers’ Top Five Songs of 2011:

=3: King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Bats in the Attic Despite being one of my favourite artists, and previous remix work by Jon Hopkins being some of my favourite KC stuff, this album didn’t personally grab me as much as it seems to have everyone else, but this is most certainly my favourite song on it.  I included votes for the ‘Unravelled’ version from their EP as well, partly because it only seemed fair, and partly because I too preferred it.

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Bats in the Attic

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=3: P.J. Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder Alright, I’ll admit, I just don’t get P.J. Harvey.  She won the Mercury Prize though, she’s on every damn end of year list I’ve read, and some of my best friends and favourite musicians think she’s awesome.  So I guess I just have to shrug and let this one pass, and confess that I must just be missing something.

P.J. Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder

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=3: The Twilight Sad – Sick This is a very good song, but I’ll admit it ain’t in my personal Festive Fifty.  They were fantastic at the Bongo Club a couple of months ago though, and I have really high hopes for the album.

The Twilight Sad – Sick

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2: Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – The Copper Top The only song which came even close to giving the winner a run for its money. This is from another album which hasn’t really captured my imagination anything like as much as it seems to have with everyone else.  Nevertheless, of all the songs I heard on it I will agree that this was my favourite as well.

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat – The Copper Top

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1: Rob St. John – Sargasso Sea Part of me thinks that this poll would look more genuine if one of our own acts hadn’t finished at the top, and part of me knows full well that if no-one had voted for any of our bands then I would have had a gigantic sulk to myself, so I guess there’s no winning, really.  And oddly enough, I might have picked Domino, Stainforth Force or maybe Vanishing Points ahead of this, if I were picking favourite songs from Weald. Nevertheless, this is a stunning record, and I am glad you voted for it, because I obviously can’t do so myself and it clearly deserves some sort of bloody recognition!

Rob St. John – Sargasso Sea

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 Having been sick all week it is a bloody miracle there’s been anything written on this blog at all, never mind the fountain of insightful commentary we have seen since Monday.  Pulitzers, here we come!

“And the Nobel Prize for Gin and Swearing goes to…”

Anyhow, I am having one of those ‘what the fuck kind of a world do we fucking live in?’ weeks, which I generally dismiss as the indulgence of old people who forget how shit things actually were in their youth.

But this week we have seen the forcible suppression of peaceful protesters in the States, the criminalisation of the equally peaceful Fortnum & Mason’s protesters in the UK, the classification of pizza as ‘a portion of vegetables’ in the guidelines for providing balanced meals in US schools, Sepp Blatter suggesting that racist abuse can be laughed off with a handshake (to howls of outrage from the English press, whose own national football captain was caught on film recently calling someone a ‘fucking black cunt’) and our government subsidising the private sector by sending them slave labour in the form of the jobless, whose benefits will be withheld if they don’t obey.

My taxes may well be spent on some dubious projects, but damned if they should be spent paying the wages of fucking Tesco employees, thank you very fucking much.

So, swearing over with.  As I will be on the radio later I needed to get that out of my system now, lest I sully the ears of Edinburgh’s sensitive student population with naughty words.  I will be joined, of course, by El Parks and Brian Pokora on Fresh Air radio at 3:30pm, and for those of you who are out and about on Saturdays when our pals from Live From the Latin Quarter are broadcasting, then you can always listen to them again on Mixcloud here.

On air from 3:30pm UK time – listen live here.

And in the meantime, here are five silly questions for those of you with an afternoon to waste.  Friday is of course de-lurking amnesty on Song, by Toad, so if you’ve been reading for a while but never quite been arsed to chip in and say hello, why not do it today.  Let’s face it, nothing you say can possibly be as inane as what the rest of us will be coming out with for most of the afternoon.

1. What would you set the jobless to do, if you had them at your disposal?
2. Most spurious ‘portion of fruit or veg’ claim you can imagine.
3. Most hateful athlete.
4. Worst old people moan.
5. Worst old people moan you find yourself letting slip occasionally.

And the playlist for the radio show will appear live below from half three.

1. Yo La Tengo – Tom Courtenay
2. Adam Stafford – Shot Down You Summer Wannabes
3. P.S. I Love You – Facelove
4. The Twilight Sad – That Summer at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy
5. Jonnie Common – Hand-Hand
6. Phoenix – Fences (Friendly Fires Remix)
7. Weird Era – Garage Honeymoon
8. The Pixies – Where is My Mind (Bass Nectar Remix)
9. Wounded Knee – Hares on the Mountain
10. Sugar Baby – Dock Boggs
11. Clarence Ashley – Cuckoo Bird
12. The Black Keys – The Only One

 I remember the first time I saw the Twilight Sad.  They played in Bannerman’s in August 2007, with Popup and Dumb Instrument, and I remember bumping into at least half a dozen people from different bands, all excited to hear this new Scottish band who most of us happened to have heard about first from American blogs, oddly enough.

It was similar last night actually, in the sense that having gone along with Ian, we ended up bumping into loads of local music people. Clearly something about the Twilight Sad excites music people.

Before we get into that though, fucking hell, Adam Stafford! Now, I enjoyed his latest album Build a Harbour Immediately, but live was something else. And, without wishing to hurt anyone’s feelings, I can’t understand how it wasn’t utter shit.

This is a man building up his songs with looped and layered beatboxing.  He adds just a little guitar here and there, but for the most part the actual substance of the music is built from layer upon layer of… and I am going to have to say it again here… beatboxing!  To explain myself, beatboxing is a little like rapping, in the sense that the mere mention of it gives me the fucking twitches. I am sure that in the right environment, done by the right people in the right context, it can be awesome, but it is very much Not For Me.  I even get the cold shakes when Tom Waits mentions beatboxing, and he is a musical deity who can do exactly what he pleases, as far as I am concerned.

So if you had described a man in a shirt and tie layering (and I kid you not) bow-chkka-wow-wow and deedy-n-dee-diddy and stuff like that, there is nothing I can picture being made with those ingredients that isn’t utterly embarrassing, unlistenable shit.

But he was brilliant.

As I said, looking at the actual mechanics of what Stafford does, it shouldn’t be great, but it really was.  It helped that he played it absolutely straight, but more than anything, despite what they were assembled from, the songs themselves were absolutely great. The performance was fantastic too.  The whole thing was fucking awesome.  I have no idea how he did it. I have got to go back and listen to that record again.  And I am damned if I am not going to see him again tonight, with Jonnie Common at the Electric Circus.*

Adam Stafford – Shot Down You Summer Wannabes

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Anyhow, now for the Twilight Sad.  A new bass player and the added keyboard ensure that they sound a little different these days, but the cacophonous wall of ear-blistering noise hasn’t changed.  Neither has James Graham’s impassioned howl.

Watching Graham front this band is wont to give you the impression that songs were written by the devil, and the only he could think of sneaking them into heaven is to send them up through the soles of Graham’s shoes, twisting round his spine until he is so possessed he tilts his head back and bellows them into the heavens.

His tortured convulsions and menacing, delirious and yet oddly blank stare embody the effect on the listener.  This isn’t dance music, obviously enough, but it has a spiritual side to it.  It’s hypnotic, visceral and overwhelming.  Tonight, like the first time I saw them, all I could do was stand directly in the path of the deluge and accept the impact, tilt my head towards the sky and let them do their thing.

I do have to confess however that when, towards the end of the set, they played a handful of songs from their incredible debut album Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, I was reminded of the fact that they have yet to really do anything that has thrilled me quite as much as those early songs.  Mind you, live is often not really the right setting to judge new material, and with their promises that the new album is going to be unlike the previous two I find myself genuinely intrigued to hear what they are up to now.

The Twilight Sad – That Summer at Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy

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The Twilight Sad – I Became a Prostitute

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The Twilight Sad – Kill it in the Morning

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*Cue much I Told You So-ing from Peenko and Ayetunes.

 As the more cunning of you might have noticed last week, Song, by Toad’s Friday Fives is now a radio show on Fresh Air, as well as just a means for you to waste your time on the internet on a Friday afternoon.

This means that from 3:30pm Brian Pokora and myself will be live on the radio, with some sort of attempt made to avoid the dreary old pish I would usually pick, out of respect for the fact that this is officially pre-pub radio and you probably want cheering up rather than bringing down.

Live on air from 3:30pm – listen here.

Also, there are a couple of live gigs to remind you about this weekend, including some late news which will hopefully be rather interesting for you.

Firstly, we have The Last Battle, Dad Rocks and Shoes & Socks Off at Henry’s tomorrow night.  It is only a fiver in, and those who come along will also be able to get into the second show of the night, which is as follows:

Secondly, Lach is opening for Viv Albertine (of The Slits) at Henry’s after our gig there on Saturday, and anyone who is there for the Ides of Toad night will get in for £4.

Thirdly, on Sunday in Anstruther we’ll be hosting a Song, by Toad all-dayer called Flamin’ Hott Toadzzz! at the Hew Scott Hall.  The lineup will be Avital Raz, Dan Mutch, Yusuf Azak, Jesus H. Foxx, Jonnie Common and Meursault, and tickets will be available on the door.

And on Monday I will sleep.

Today’s pointless questions for the internets.  Remember, fives first, pish-talking later.

1. Most shameful album you’ve seen your parents buy.
2. Coolest album you’ve seen your parents buy.
3. Most embarrassing gig you’ve been to.
4. Favourite type of weather.
5. If you had a parrot, what would teach it to say?

Playlist for Song, by Toad’s Friday Fives will appear below as we play stuff:
1. The Piranhas – Getting Beaten Up
2. Dad Rocks! - Aroused By Hair
3. Youth Lagoon – Posters
4. Tom Waits – Goin’ Out West
5. Easter – Somethin’ American
6. Dolfinz – Hot Pants
7. The Twilight Sad – Kill it in the Morning
8. Dead Kennedys – Holiday in Cambodia
9. John Cooper Clarke – Gimmix
10. Yuck – Holing Out
11. Lil Daggers – Dada Brown
12. Horsecollar – Christopher
13. Other Lives – For 12
14. Blur – To the End (with Francoise Hardy)

 This is called the Changecast because, in an absolutely stunning turn of events, it is not packed full of lo-fi garage rock for a bloody change.  Considering the racket you’ve had to put up with for the last year or so, it seems I have kindly granted you the respite of three songs you’d probably vaguely describe as Americana and a couple which are most unmistakably pop!  I know! Get me!

Tonight is of course the Rob St. John album launch down at Pilrig St. Paul’s in Leith.  He will be joined on the bill by Viking Moses, Meursault and eagleowl, the latter of whom just happen to be recording their debut album at the moment, which is rather exciting.

So, I will post this, attempt to get some nice lunch somewhere and then commence that uncomfortable ‘no-one’s coming no-one’s coming no-one’s coming… oh thank fuck’ dance I inevitably end up doing whenever I am promoting a gig.  Why I put myself through this all the time I just don’t know.

Direct download: Toadcast #197 – The Changecast
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01. Cub Scouts – Evie (00.20)
02. Horsecollar – The Thrill of Never Being Satisfied (06.53)
03. Yoofs – John Actor is Monkfish (14.39)
04. Youthfall – Guard it Like a Fortress (18.01)
05. Rollor – Jekyll Island (22.37)
06. The Lovely Sparrows – National Monuments (33.07)
07. Ohbijou – Niagra (39.42)
08. Milk & Biscuits – Rivers (44.10)
09. First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar (50.45)
10. The Twilight Sad – Sick (58.25)

Please note that this is called the Remmcast, rather than the Ariyemcast, for little better reason than that it sounds better.

R.E.M. split up this week, which is sort of like the death of an elderly relative: you know it’s sad, and you mourn the loss, but they hadn’t been themselves for a while, everyone knew it was probably coming, and maybe it’s for the best after all.

Due to not really wanting to pontificate too much, I haven’t really produced what could be in any way described as a ‘career retrospective’ or anything, nor have I really gone into much about their contemporaries or influences nor indeed the enduring influence they themselves have had.  Nope, I have simply recorded a podcast as per usual, but with three R.E.M. songs in it because they were fucking brilliant.

Direct download: Toadcast #193 – The Remcast

01. Ezra Furman & the Harpoons – Hard Time in a Terrible Land (00.26)
02. Burning Yellows – False Horizons (04.33)
03. R.E.M. – Perfect Circle (11.44)
04. The Twilight Sad – Kill it in the Morning (17.52)
05. Niwel Tsumbu – It’s All Vibrations (23.35)
06. R.E.M. – Star Me Kitten (33.03)
07. The Fair Ohs – I’m a Woman, I’m Your Wife (38:15)
08. Zoey Van Goey – You Told the Drunks I Knew Karate (GRNR Remix) (39.10)
09. The Whines – Electric Current (45.02)
10. Youthfall – Secular Child (49.01)
11. R.E.M. – Parakeet (59.47)

The Floydcast is named after that furry fuckwit in the picture: the Song, by Toad house cat and Mrs. Toad’s imbecilic companion of the last seven years.  Last night we had him killed.  I know you’re supposed to say ‘put to sleep’ or whatever, but when the poor wee fucker is looking plaintively at you because you’re the only person at the vet’s that he actually trusts it really does feel like execution.

We think he had lung cancer of some form or other.  His lungs had clouded up, the vet had tried more or less every trick they could, and he was still battling for every breath.  In the end we had him put down because his poor wee lungs were so fucked that even in the off chance we could have found what was wrong and put it right, he would still have been limping his way through what remained of his life on half a gulp of breath.

Anyhow, as much as a nuisance as I found the wee bastard I really will miss his idiotic presence, capering about the house like an arse and getting in the way whenever you try and do anything.  He would come and sit in my lap when I was trying to write this and try and lick my fingers as I typed, and that’s the least of it.  Fucking pain in the arse, he was.  And I really, really will miss the wee fucker.

Direct download: Toadcast #175 – The Floydcast

01. Bombadil – So Many Ways to Die (00.09)
02. Yaj̩ РTrue Love Will Find You in the End (Daniel Johnston cover) (09.24)
03. The Douglas Firs – A Military Farewell (13.31)
04. Sebastian Dangerfield – Morris (22.05)
05. Glass Animals – Drips (28.14)
06. The History of Apple Pie – Tug (33.40)
07. The Twilight Sad – Suck (Wedding Present cover) (39.50)
08. U.S. Girls – If The Walls Could Talk (45.42)
09. BITCHES – Wallet (47.53)
10. Tied to the Branches – Backwards (50.56)
11. Cold Seeds – Leave Me to Lie Alone in the Ground (57.59)

Apologies for the lateness of this week’s podcast, but inevitably the chaos of SXSW nudges schedules into the background a little.

Last year, several margaritas the worse for wear, we sat down with Ben from Instinctive Racoon, Stuart from Creative Scotland, Vic Galloway from BBC Radio Scotland and Peej from Dear Scotland, and recorded a ramshackle, lurching podcast about the fun of the week.

This year, perhaps goaded into something bordering on professionalism by the presence of the BBC camera crew who have been following Vic around all week, things were a little smoother.  Although this may also have been related to the fact that the margarita-hoovering didn’t actually start until afterwards this time. Ben wasn’t here this time, but we did have myself, Peej, Vic and Stuart sharing a beverage on Peej’s back porch and talking something approaching the usual gubbins.

Oh, and the Detour Scotland Big Walk video we mention in the podcast can be found here.

Direct download: Toadcast #166 – The Tequilacast

01. Admiral Fallow – Squealing Pigs (00.37)
02. Withered Hand – Religious Songs (10.40)
03. Menomena – Taos (23.02)
04. Clock Opera – A Piece of String (28.13)
05. Ringo Deathstarr – Imagine Hearts (35.32)
06. The Twilight Sad – Cold Days From the Birdhouse (48.50)
07. Josh T. Pearson – Sweetheart I Ain’t Your Christ (62.27)
08. Erland & the Carnival – My Name is Carnival (74.19)
09. King Creosote – Grace (Jeff Buckley cover) (82.49)