Song, by Toad

We both hate Valentine’s day and have no desire to take part in its consumerist pantomime.  It seems to have created its own little rituals in our house though: we have an annual Valentine’s hate-fest, which lasts a couple of days, where we pour scorn on both the event itself and anyone who takes part in it.  The problem is, in doing so, we have sort of made ourselves part of what gets on our own nerves.  Fucking people and their fucking stupid valentine’s traditions like, er… this one.

This is only the second in what will probably become an annual Valentine’s Scorn-o-rama, but it already feels like a time-honoured tradition.  So if you’re single, generally antagonistic, miserable, lonely or just plain indifferent then this is the podcast for you.  We even have an odd conversation where we wonder what the point of marriage is – a slightly bizarre thing for a married couple to start wondering about.  But that’s the Toadcasts for you.

Toadcast #56 – Valentine’s Schmalentine’s

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01. Nirvana – Rape Me (00.57)
02. Weeping Willows – Failing in Love (06.39
03. Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – When I Change Your Mind (13.36)
04. The White Stripes – Conquest (16.04)
05. Tammy Wynette – D.I.V.O.R.C.E. (22.38)
06. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – She’s Leaving You (25.32)
07. Yo La Tengo – Stockholm Syndrome (35.26)
08. Aidan Moffat & the Best Ofs – Oh Men! (42.33)
09. The Avett Brothers – The Ballad of Love & Hate (45.36)
10. Arab Strap – There is No Ending (59.09)

Ah, mates.  Can’t live with ‘em, can’t kill ‘em.  Mrs. Toad’s best friend from her reckless yoof is visiting us here in Edinburgh with her gentleman friend, and consequently I got to thinking about my own old friends, and all the people who, over the years, have introduced me to so much brilliant music.  So I started to patch together a playlist of all the important friends who have added a lot of music to my life.  The problem is that it became way too long for my one hour restriction, so for this week I cast that aside, and allowed myself an extra ten minutes.

Honestly though, old friends are so important, this could have gone on for two hours, easily.  Every one of the people I mention here has a whole story of their own, and it was quite difficult to resist telling all of them in proper detail.  It seems such a shame, actually, to reduce all of these people to a two-minute link.  I could almost do a whole podcast for any one of these scenarios really, and maybe I’ll do that in future.  For now, though, you’ll have to make do with this.  It may be shabby, but it really could have been so much worse.  Meanwhile, Mrs. Toad is fucking plastered.  Oh good.  Enjoy!

Toadcast #50 – The Friendcast

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01. Pink Floyd – On the Turning Away (02.27)
02. Pearl Jam – Black (11.23)
03. The Tragically Hip – Wheat Kings (18.30)
04. Gene – Her Fifteen Years (25.23)
05. Radiohead – Black Star (28.04)
06. Verve – Lucky Man (34.41)
07. Weeping Willows – Eternal Flames (39.19)
08. Billy Bragg – Days Like These (DC Remix) (45.41)
09. Bob Dylan – Po’ Boy (49.42)
10. Elbow – Newborn (55.46)
11. Blanche – Do You Trust Me? (63.19)
12. Maximo Park – Apply Some Pressure (69.07)

If you thought The Last Shadow Puppets were a bit swingin’ camp-O-rama for me, try this lot.  This is an album from the year I got to spend in Holland as part of my Master’s degree.  I met a couple of really good blokes while I was there, Andy from Middlesbrough and Andreas from Sweden, and I pinched loads of good music from them, but this album probably stands out from that era due to sheer silliness.

The high camp swinging drama of this stuff, apparently entirely sincere, is so utterly, guilelessly exuberant that there is just no way not to love it.  Seriously.  And apparently they’re still going too.  Given that I spent most of that year listening to Echo & the Bunnymen, Supergrass, Blur, Finley Quaye, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and The Verve I have no idea how I managed to find myself adoring this utter silliness, but I did, and because I never took a copy of it when I left this music is now irreversibly associated with that crazy year of drink and fornication in Groningen.

Ironically enough, Mrs. Toad’s best friend lived there at the time (I’m pretty sure, and heartily relieved, that I never shagged her – now that would have been uncomfortable) and apparently Mrs. Toad visited her there on a couple of occasions at the same time I was there.  That was about three years after we’d last seen each other and six before we’d fall in love at first sight, eventually, about five years ago.  So some say we might have saved ourselves six years of inadequate relationships and just got things over with then and there.  Myself, I think it might have been a disaster – as the Dutch apparently say: this marriage isn’t ready yet.

Oh yes, and, erm, Weeping Willows.  They’re still going apparently. And as for this album, well it’s completely preposterous, entirely ridiculous and utterly fucking brilliant!

Weeping Willows – Under Suspicion
Weeping Willows – I’m Failing in Love
Weeping Willows – Eternal Flames
Weeping Willows – Louisa