The Treecast is so named because we purchased and decorated our Christmas tree this afternoon.  It is an incoherent mess of all sorts of shite, stupid garish baubles, a weird peacock thingy and some foolish attempts at being tasteful which have been utterly overwhelmed by the utter cack which surrounds them.

My parents always did seriously tasteful trees actually, so I would imagine they will be downright ashamed of the half-arsed mess we have managed to create.  Actually, my dad is the world’s biggest Grinch, so he won’t give a shite, but my mum might be silently disappointed.

Nevertheless it now feels like Christmas has properly started.  We have orded a keg of beer for our Christmas party (our own one, not the label one) and for the New Year’s piss up as well.  We’ll have Jonnie Common, The Japanese War Effort and Neil fae Meursault playing a house gig that evening, and there will, it now appears, be shitloads of very tasty beer too.  Why the fuck would anyone bother with town?

Direct download: Toadcast #151 – The Treecast

01. Grandaddy – Now It’s On (00.21)
02. Jason Lytle – D.U.I. BBQ Checkpoint (07.39)
03. Twilight Hotel – Mahogany Veneer  (12.25)
04. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Heart in Your Heartbreak (18.44)
05. Wolf Parade – Semi-precious Stone (22.36)
06. That Ghost – Older (30.17)
07. Grandaddy – Band Synergy (A Peek Inside the Magic) (35.34)
08. Grandaddy – You Know You’re Fucked Up (38.50)
09. Crystal Stilts – Shake the Shackles (43.54)
10. The Monochrome Set – Jetset Junta (Remix) (48.19)
11. Gobble Gobble – Wrinklecarver (51.20)

This may be the limpest of all excuses I’ve ever had for naming a podcast.  You know why it’s called the Jeffcast?  Because I kinda mention Jeffrey Lewis a couple of times.  Oooh, yes, that makes sense.  Still, sorry, I couldn’t think of anything else really, off the top of my head.

I suppose I am off to see Jeffrey Lewis directly after recording this, so I guess it sort of counts.  He is playing a secret gig at Henry’s Cellar Bar after sneaking out of the Beggars Banquet Christmas Party at the Picture House over the road.  It’s one of the things I love about the anti-folk crowd: you genuinely get the impression that they’d rather be playing to an appreciative crowd of their mates, rather than a bigger crowd of anonymous punters who may stand there and demand entertainment.

So there you go, that’s the deal for tonight.  For the rest of the weekend we’re putting together Meursault albums, ready for the official (re)launch of their record next Friday at the Song, by Toad Christmas Party.  So, after folding and screen-printing a thousand of the bastards we’ll all be well ready for Gimme Shelter in the Caves on Saturday and a spot of Candythief action in the Jazz Bar on Sunday.  Enjoy the 48th Toadcast.

Toadcast #48 – The Jeffcast

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01. Yo La Tengo – Double Dare (04.12)
02. Wolf Parade – Call it a Ritual (07.29)
03. Modey Lemon – Loch Ness Monster (11.25)
04. Sly & the Family Stone – Life (17.09)
05. The Velcro Quartet – The Love Song of Little Cosmo Nostradamus (20.03)
06. The Pernice Brothers – The Ballad of Bjorn Borg (25.57)
07. Caramel Jack – The Lincoln Jackson Incident (34.37)
08. The Magnetic Fields – All the Umbrellas in London (38.29)
09. Sparklehorse – Happy Man (Memphis Version) (44.46)
10. The Veils – Birthday Present (49.44)
11. Grandaddy – Miner at the Dial-A-View (54.24)

I really wasn’t keen on the last Wolf Parade album, but I like this one much better.  The first was released about the time that Broken Social Scene, the New Pornographers and various others were leading something of an explosion of Canadian bands onto the scene, and all the talk was of these loose-knit collectives which seemed to spawn endless musical projects with a variety of combinations of members.

Wolf Parade themselves came from situation in Vancouver that was lumped into a similar box, although despite comprising former members of Frog Eyes and Hot Hot Heat, I never got the impression that it was quite the same thing.

The sound is very much what I would describe as characteristic blog rock.  Yelping vocals, delivered with a bit of spirit, with a sort of crunchy, awkward guitar sound underneath, and a spot of synthy organ for good measure.  It’s not my favourite album of the year by any means, but songs like Call it a Ritual and California Dreamer really are excellent.  Others might not quite hit the spot as much, but there are a lot of things on this album that I really like.

Without meaning to be derogatory, I get the impression that this is a record that will provide me with a lot of fodder for mixes and playlists, without necessarily being one that I play in its entirety all that often.  I like it a lot more than the last one though, which seems like a good sign to me.

Wolf Parade – Call it a Ritual
Wolf Parade – California Dreamer

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