Ruth and I are back on Fresh Air in a couple of hours, so it is naturally time for much rejoicing on the airwaves of the interwebs. In fact, I am sure the internet could barely be more excited about the prospect than it clearly is already. Can’t you see it trembling with anticipation?
While we’re indulging in hyperbole, incidentally, last week the unbelievable happened: Ruth was genuinely impressed with one of my music choices. I think it was Do It Every Time by Ringo Deathstarr, but the shock when she raised her eyebrows and said ‘this is really good’ rather than just rolling her eyes and letting out a weary sigh almost knocked me clean out of my chair.
As per usual, if you have any trouble with the audio stuttering (a problem which seems to be solved now) just pause and un-pause the player, or find us in the ‘College Radio’ section on iTunes.
The playlist will appear below, as we play it, so feel free to stop by and heckle.
1. TuneYards – Bizness
2. Joni Mitchell – Little Green
3. The Honey Pies – Get it Right
4. Dr. Dog – Breeze
5. The Leg – Twitching Stick
6. Zed Penguin – This Town
7. Dusty Springfield – I Thing it’s Gonna Rain
8. Leonard Cohen – Hey, That’s No way to Say Goodbye
9. Seefeel – Dead Guitars
10. David Byrne & Dirty Projectors – Knotty Pine
11. Wolf Eyes – Track 1
12. Active Child – Body Heat (So Far Away)
13. Virgin of the Birds – Love Among the Cannibals
Jon Rooney from Virgin of the Birds (and Abandoned Love Records) goes about his business pretty damn discreetly, from the distinctly laissez-faire tone of his publicity emails, to the gently confident nature of his music.
This, as will be immediately obvious from the very first note, is not the sort of music to get a stupid haircut and demand attention for its greatness. It reminds me of the Scottish Enlightenment in some ways; particularly in the slow-burning, lush confidence with which it so unhurriedly goes about its business.
Jon now has four of these beautiful little EPs available for free download from the Abandoned Love website, and they really do need to become a collectors’ boxset, if you ask me. His lyrics are not just clever, but composed with that combination of intelligence and carelessness which makes it not only incredibly satisfying to listen to, but also makes it all seem so easy.
The music has a similar laid-back air to it, as if he could write and arrange these songs all day long, all the while playing a game of cards and mixing a fine gin and tonic. Once, Before Annette has the lush strings, again wonderfully subtly done, while We Broke Blue Laws shuffles along with nothing much more than a bit of organ and a shaky egg. Love Among the Cannibals ended up being the song I chose to share though, and I have no real reason for it, honestly – they’re all great.
“You held your sword like a dancer, and you fought like the girl I love.” Virgin of the Birds, eh? Fucking awesome.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Umm.. nada, absolutely nada this week. Not one single gig I would be likely to go to myself, which is a bit unusual. Still, I am going to Glastonbury for the first time, so this not entirely a bad thing from my perspective. As a good friend of mine pointed out: ‘Giving up your job and then off to Glastonbury – it’s like the end of your adulthood’. And he’s not far wrong.
Oh yes, giving up my job, did I mention that? Well yes, as of Wednesday I will be a full-time Toad. Or ToadPRO as someone called it, not that it will entail being much more professional I wouldn’t have thought. Still, I am hugely fucking excited, not to be giving up my job actually, which I have always enjoyed, but the idea of being able to tackle all this Toad bollocks head on and really do it properly is a really exciting prospect as far as I am concerned. More on this later, though.
Last week I strayed wildly outside the list format for my Monday listings, which caused howls of upset from the cheap seats, and this week will be no different. There are a couple of interesting things happening, notably a Great Junction Street Music Studios showcase at Henry’s Cellar Bar on Saturday 26th. I know nothing at all about the bands involved, but I really think this kind of event is a good idea. If you are looking to get your band off the ground and start finding an audience, club together with your mates, put on a gig, invite all your friends and give it a go.
Alternatively, there’s the Penguins Kill Polar Bears EP launch tour passing through Scotland this week. I may not like the music myself, but these guys are doing a really good job of getting themselves noticed on an entirely DIY basis, and the more of that that happens around here the better. I always admire people who just get on with it, rather than whining about what other people should be doing for them, and this band certainly deserve your support.
Can you call a list comprising one single item a list at all? And it’s not really a gig either. Ah well, to soothe the agitation of those I upset last week, here is my list for this week:
To say that Nick Cave is one of my heroes would be something of an understatement, and I am grinding my teeth down to fucking stumps with frustration at the fact that I will be in out of town on Thursday night when he comes to do a reading down at the Roxy. Arse monkeys.
And to make up for the lack of giggage, I have a special present for you all, courtesy of Jon from Virgin of the Birds. He played the Toad New Year’s House Gig this year, and seems to have developed a bit of a taste for Meursault, to the extent that he is one of the first people in weeks to actually bother to spell the band’s name correctly. Anyhow, Jon sent through this rather lovely cover of Crank Resolutions last night, and it’s great, so I thought I would share it.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
There’s almost a jazzy kind of ballroom shuffle to this record, the latest in a series of freely downloadable EPs from Seattle’s Virgin of the Birds. I don’t quite know what I mean by that, but it’s the best way I can think to describe the pace and feel of Banquet Years.
I can almost picture Jon Rooney singing this stuff in a near-empty working men’s club which hadn’t been redecorated since 1972, dressed in a white tuxedo with a cigarette hanging out the corner of his mouth. Again, don’t ask me why, it’s just an impression.
It is indie music though, in the most generic (and hence borderline meaningless) sense of the term, but the laid-back basslines and shaky egg give the music a very louche feel, while the piano played like raindrops brings a little mystery, like the occasional glint of reflection from a badly-lit glitterball.
This series of EPs is an odd one, in the sense that they all retain their own identity, whilst still coming across as a single body of work. It’s almost like they’re chapters in the same story, because whilst you could easily transplant any song from any EP to another without breaking anything, the way they are arranged definitely has the feeling of being the right way to do it.
Jon was a little despondent, when he played our New Year’s party (see video below), about the prospect of being able to sell enough records for it to be worth even making them, which is one of the reasons why these EPs are all free. Personally, though, I think it’s a bit of a travesty in all truth, because these knock seven shades of shit out of a lot of stuff I’ve happily paid full whack for in the past and would happily pay for again. Sometimes all the free this and free that in the internet age saddens me a little, because it seems to force artists into the position where they end up feeling they have to accept that that is all that their work is worth, which is blatantly not the case, particularly not here.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Hooray for us – possibly the vilest and least romantic Valentine’s Day Podcast yet! And before anyone whinges about that picture, go to fucking Wikipedia and complain, because that’s where we bloody got it from. I know! Scandalous! Someone should complain.
So erm, yes. I don’t think we left anyone unoffended this year. I sincerely hope not because I don’t like to think of people out there nurturing an anticipated false outrage complex only to be let down.
We do not like romance, we do not like being told when to have fun by people who are simply hoping to exploit our disposable income, we do not like it being implied that being single is some sort of failure, we do not like people measuring their self-worth by how much their partner can be emotionally blackmailed into spending on them, we do not like having to live up to commercially defined standards to demonstrate that we love one another, we do not like having to skip the football just cos we’re supposed to behave one some particular day or other, we do not like fucking teddy bears or fucking chocolates, we do not like sitting in tumbleweed-infested restaurants whilst people glance nervously around them wondering if they’ve done it right, and we do not like having a list of things to live up to before our relationship is considered functional thank you very fucking much.
We do like lazy Saturdays in the garden, swearing at the fire for twenty minutes trying to get it to light with damp logs, meals with friends, new places, listening to vinyl so loud the floor shakes, a bit too much to drink with people that we really like, laughing/shouting at films, arguing about the side of the bed, swearing blind it’s not your turn with the chores when you know damn well it is, drinking coffee in the garden when it’s sunny, slagging off almost everyone, shouting at reactionaries on TV, emailing one another stupid stuff all day, insulting the cat, surprise cups of tea, buying shit on the internet when we’re drunk, only coping with the washing mountain when it threatens to start a SARs epidemic, watering the plants mere minutes before death and walking hand in hand through the park and peering at cool old dudes chuntering around at the allotments or sailing model boats in the park pond.
Oh, and getting pished and recording offensive podcasts for Valentine’s Day… enjoy!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
01. Cracker – Mr. Wrong (03.10)
02. Billy Bragg & Wilco – Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key (09.57)
03. The Smiths – Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (17.11)
04. Eels – Love of the Loveless (20.16)
05. The Clash – Brand New Cadillac (29.40)
06. Bill Hicks – Pussywhipped Satan (31.41)
07. Evan Dando – Hard Drive (44.33)
08. The Coathangers – Nestle in My Boobies (48.11)
09. Virgin of the Birds – She’s in the Moon Again (59.10)
10. David Cross – Your Baby is FUCKING BORING! (65.59)
After Sunday’s Virgin of the Birds videos, these are the Broken Records songs from the New Year’s Eve house gig. Â The stunning Aleko, above, is an exclusive (ZOMG!!!1!), and will be the b-side to their next single.
The lads have also begun work on their second album, which will be out on 4AD some time this year, presumably, and we were treated to an exclusive preview of a song from that album, but I am not allowed to show you that on the internet because it’s a secret. Â See – that’s why you should come to the house gigs.
This performance reminded me an awful lot of Broken Records’ rather gorgeous Toad Session (the first ever Toad Session, in fact) because it’s not often you see Jamie with no more than violin to flesh out the sound. Â In fact, they played If the News Makes You Sad and Wolves on New Year’s which also featured on that session, and I had a lovely little nostalgic moment all to myself.
For those of you who are interested, the rest of our videos (and there are an awful lot of them these days) can be found here.
On New Year’s Eve 2009, instead of fighting the crowds in the centre of Edinburgh, we decided to take it a little bit easier and stay back in the house. By sheer coincidence Jon Rooney from Virgin of the Birds got in touch to say that he would be visiting Edinburgh and to ask if there was any possibility of doing something, like a live show or a Toad Session while he was over. We were somewhat restricted by the fact that Mrs. Toad and I were only getting back from visiting the Toads -in-Law on New Year’s Eve itself, so we thought that a house gig would be the perfect solution.
Jamie and Rory from Broken Records also agreed to play, giving us a really strong lineup, and their videos will be going up later in the week. We actually broadcast the gig itself live on the internet, and have now figured out how to do it using the really posh camera we use for the Toad Sessions, so in future the live stream should genuinely be worth watching.
These are the four videos we made of the Virgin of the Birds set. The photos used for the titles were taken by Dylan from Blueback Hotrod, and the full set can be viewed over at his site. Virgin of the Birds’ last two (brilliant) EPs can be downloaded from Abandoned Love Records, and their previous album can be bought there as well. Enjoy.
Welcome to the live broadcast of the third Song, by Toad house gig. Â This will go live from about eight or nine pm UK time on New Year’s Eve 2009, and there’s some sort of chat wotsit to be found here, which Mrs. Toad will be using for the duration of the gig.
To find out more about the bands, go to the respective MySpace pages for Broken Records and Virgin of the Birds. Â The player is below the fold, because it slows the whole page down apparently, so to watch the click click on the read more thingy. Read the rest of this entry »
I suspect there’s probably loads of stuff going on in Edinburgh this week, but I am in the middle of France, and I will be cooking mixed clams with some fennel and Pastis and star anise in a moment or so, so frankly I can’t be bothered looking gigs up for you. Â You might try this, if you’re really keen.
As far as I personally am concerned, there is only one real gig this week, and that is our New Year’s House Gig on the 31st (no shit, really, the 31st?).  Playing will be Virgin of the Birds and Jamie from Broken Records, both doing solo sets.
We’ll be getting the music on relatively early if we can, so that people determined to wrestle the masses at the fireworks up in town can do so. Â Alternatively you can just cross the road from ours and watch them from Inverleith Park if you’re that fussed. Â Also, Jon and Jamie are both coming for a bit of a piss up as well, so we don’t really want to keep them on the clock for too long if we can avoid it. Oh, and we’ll have the webcam active again, for those of you who want to watch on the internets.
Because it’s new year and because it’s our house, we’d really appreciate it if you could buy tickets in advance. Â We aren’t a venue, per se, so it would help if we could have some idea of numbers and try and keep them under control. Â I’ve no idea if it’ll turn out to be jammed or not, but we won’t let more than forty people in so do try and let us know if at all possible.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
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.
I cognize that doing of emergent essays or narrations is ponderous and valueless process wholly. I don’t require routing uncommon literature, to tackle varied quotes and definitions, guiding to these operates. It is edit for me chiefly to trace essay writing service underground. The fascinating ordered projects are educated. I am precisely amazed and principally I have prepared marks.
Ruth and I are back on Fresh Air in a couple of hours, so it is naturally time for much rejoicing on the airwaves of the interwebs. In fact, I am sure the internet could barely be more excited about the prospect than it clearly is already. Can’t you see it trembling with anticipation?
