It’s been a very, very long time since we had a nice simple podcast of me just chattering about music without extraneous distractions of various drunken people babbling to one another over the top of it.

Last week was Ruth, Michael and Dylan, the week before that was Vic and Peej, then me and Mrs. Toad and then there was the one from Homegame, which was nuts, so this one is just calm and sensible and plain vanilla and basically just me playing some songs, wondering how to pronounce names like Borcherdt, and talking pish like usual.

Next week will be the Mumford & Sons Toad Session, which is nice.

Toadcast #116 – The Dead Calmcast

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01. The Van Allen Belt – The Way You Look (02:14)
02. Songdog – Gene Autry’s Ghost (08.50)
03. Over the Wall – Settle Down (16.56)
04. Deathpodal – Squirrel and the Fox (20.55)
05. Brian Borcherdt – While I was Asleep (28.27)
06. Emit Bloch – Dorothy (34.34)
07. David Thomas Broughton – Perfect Louse (40.49)
08. Mat Riviere – FYH (43.09)
09. Member of the Wedding – New Century (51.37)
10. The Sequins – Offside & Beautiful (57.09)

Well I am Ruthless and bandless to begin this term’s broadcasts, so you’ll have to wait until next week for the first Toadly Fresh Air Session I’m afraid.

Having said that, however, I have a shiteload of excellent and very shiny new material to play tonight, so people wanting the pop hits are likely to be rather disappointed as there are few old favourites and lots of new demos which I am very much hoping will end up on albums before the end of the year.

Ruth will be back with me as of next week, but she’s currently nursing Michael H. Foxx, who is in hospital with the nasties.  So best wishes to both of them, but we’ll be back in the normal swing of things from next Monday onwards.

Live on Air 8pm-9.30pm – Listen live here.

Incidentally, if you know anyone who you would recommend for a live session, just get in touch in the comments or by email (see the contact page above).

This evening’s tracklisting (updated live):

1. Django Django – Storm
2. Liars – No Barrier Fun
3. Gobble Gobble – Lawn Knives
4. Robin Grey – I Love Leonard Cohen
5. Leonard Cohen – Avalanche
6. REM – First We Take Manhattan (Leonard Cohen Cover)
7. The Burns Unit – Since We’ve Fallen Out
8. The Van Allen Belt – The Way You Look
9. Trips and Falls – That is a Big Door!
10. Sarah Lowes – Night Time
11. Findo Gask – Full Five (Demo)
12. Yusuf Azak – Eastern Sun (Demo)
13. Meursault – All Creatures Will Make Merry

Meursault – Fresh Air Session

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Meursault – Love or Limb (Live on Fresh Air)

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Meursault – Untitled Triptych (Live on Fresh Air)

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Meursault – What You Don’t Have (Live on Fresh Air)

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Meursault – Heaven Waits (Live on FreshAir)

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11. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – vs. Children
Owen Ashworth has a sort of shambolic charisma to him which translates pretty neatly to his music.  It’s unhurried, thoughtful and has the air of a good friend, right from the first moment you hear it.  This may be a fuller sound than his older fans are used to, but I think the extra instrumentation is used very carefully, and never smothers his songwriting.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Man ‘o War

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12. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
This record suffers from a bit of earnestness and the distinct whiff of adjectives like ‘soaring’, but nevertheless there are so many great songs, so much much energy and such euphorically infectious tunes that you just can’t help but love this album.  It is folky, but if anything there’s more of a gospel-style, rousing feel to this record than anything I would call folk.

Mumford & Sons – Dustbowl Dance

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13. Kurt Vile – Childish Prodigy
Childish Prodigy is a rough, loose album which I pretty much liked right from the start.  It swings from rough garage rock to plucked acoustic music, always full of grumble and distortion though.  For an album with little extra instrumentation, this is still really varied both of pace and mood, and manages to keep shifting all the way through the record.

Kurt Vile – Dead Alive

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14. Broken Records – Until the Earth Begins to Part
This album received some of the most scathing 3/5 reviews I’ve ever read, but I still think it’s fucking great.  The old songs like A Good Reason and Eilert Loevborg are raucous as fuck and some of the newer material gives us hints of new directions for the next album.  Maybe the production wasn’t all that sympathetic and maybe the album could have done with some quiter moments to offset the louder ones, but that doesn’t matter because Jamie has a great voice, and this record just thunders along at pace from start to finish and that’s how I enjoy it best.

Broken Records – Ghosts

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15. The Van Allen Belt – Meal Ticket to Purgatory
Erm, well, this is just a bit weird.  It stops and starts, leaps all over the place and is generally just a weird and wonderful box of treats.  It’s been a really good year for Indiecater Records, but this is probably my favourite of the lot.

The Van Allen Belt – Dr Layman’s Terms/The Hills are Alive

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Spring makes a fucking colossal difference, doesn’t it.  People have been tripping around Edinburgh with a spring in their step for the last week, when the sun has come out and the air, whilst it may still be a little chilly, is notably warmer.  It’s gentler, I suppose, is the main difference.  There’s something of a release about Spring, as if all the uncomfortable restraint of Winter no longer has to be acknowledged.  Does anyone remember that episode of Northern Exposure when the ice melted?  Everyone went nuts, and the relieved exhalation we all express on the coming of the sunshine does remind me in many ways of a tame version of the exact same mania depicted in that episode of, erm, a serialised drama from the, er, mid ah nineties…  anyone still reading?  Never mind.

In any case, this is a purposeless but musically excellent podcast which is something of a lazy one, if I’m honest.  Frankly though, I think I deserve it after the effort put into the Pictish Session, so fuck you if you have an issue with that.  Tee hee.  There’s a lot of new release stuff on here, a couple of bands reviewed recently on the site, and a couple who are going to be reviewed later this week.  Next week I’ll think of a theme. Promise.

Toadcast #63 – Sprrring is Here!

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01. The Soft Pack – Right & Wrong (01.33)
02. Maxwell Panther – A Shade Away (08.24)
03. Phil & the Osophers – They Threw a Shoe at You (11.16)
04. The Felice Brothers – The Big Surprise (15.34)
05. The Empty Set – Alice & Bob (Forlorn Photo Love) (24.01)
06. The Van Allen Belt – The Revolution Will be Merchandised (27.24)
07. Meursault (no, not that Meursault) – Blindfolds (33.31)
08. Outlaw Con Bandana – Rainy Season (37.16)
09. Dame Satan – Ghost Dance (39.25)
10. Peter Doherty – 1939 Returning (49.30)

There are times when this album sounds like a deranged operetta.  There are times when it sounds like experimental lounge pop.  There are times when it sounds like a straightforward twisted indie.  It crashes about all over the place, is riddled with imperfections when the melody doesn’t quite catch, when a couple of songs get lost in one another and so forth, but in general this is pure mental brilliance.

It does feel incredibly familiar – it’s reminiscent of a great many recent bands, but rarely of the exact same ones for all that long.  The Revolution Will be Merchandised is an example of a pure pop song: Broadway choruses, sharp lyrics and jaunty brass.  There are plenty of these moments in this album, which is a very good thing, because this kind of easy enjoyment anchors the more bizarre moments – it just keeps the record from becoming disorientating, which would certainly be possible.

It’s a fucking smart album as well.  Songs called Baby Boomer Backstroke will tell you about the sense of humour of this band, although the wit of the lyrics can be somewhat obscured by their obliqueness and the swirl of the music around them.  I agree with Kevin, head* of their excellent label Indiecater, that this really is a album for multiple listens.  Great stuff.

The Van Allen Belt – Dr. Layman’s Terms/The Hills Are Alive

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The Van Allen Belt – Way Up

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* By head, I mean CEO, head of A&R, cleaning lady, canteen staff and work experience teenager.  Bascially, there’s just him, as far as I’m aware, so whilst he is the head of the label, strictly speaking…  well, you know what I mean.