The Toadcast - The Weekly Podcast From Song, By Toad

 Yep, not gin anymore, these days I drink coffee with my podcasts. Nostalgia really isn't what it used to be, is it. I remember when I was wild, rude, inebriated, etc. etc... Mind you, seeing as I am driving through to Glasgow once I finish this to engage in sensitive negotiations with a 'hot new band'*, I think half a bottle of gin might not be the wisest preparation, even by my rather slapdash standards. So it's a pot of coffee and some fine new music, and you know, I may even keep the nonsensical rambling to a minimum if I can manage it. It's going to be weird driving through to Glasgow actually, because I will be taking a friend's car instead of Bette, because it has a working tape player while Bette's is currently out of action. It's still a Volvo estate, but just a normal one, and I have to confess it feels kind of weird that no-one does their 'what the fuck is that?' stare when I drive past. I've kind of grown used to that over the last year or two with the old girl. 01. Becky Becky - I Remember, I Rem

This is called the Crumbscast for no better reasons than that I like the name and that it starts with a song called Crumbs, the new single by Jonnie Common. Given I've had to try and think up unique names for all of these bastard things anything which sounds good and has at least a tenuous link to the topic at hand will do. I've not done a podcast for ages actually, but the last one was the one just before the independence referendum, and I still feel so utterly let down and disappointed with how that went that I've been unable to really talk about it since. On you go, Westminster, you're doing a decent enough job really - at least a better one than we could ever hope to do on our own. Is that really the message we just delivered to the world? Yes, yes I think it is, at least to some degree. How sad. So you see, probably a good thing that I waited at least a couple of weeks for the worst of the depressed bitterness to wear off. I almost get dragged into it at the start of the podcast, but like a champ I manag

 This podcast is not really all that referendumy, I thin... actually, I suppose it is kind of. I'm sorry to do this to you, but it's more or less unavoidable at this stage because if you're in Scotland it's impossible to think of anything else. I started off trying to make it apolitical and just play some tenuously connected songs, but fuck it, in the end it inevitably seeped in. In the words of the utterly obscure (but excellent) MC Quake: "It feels good to be in Scotland; it feels like home." I have no idea how it's all going to go of course, and I am not the sort of ideological idiot who thinks it will be fucking amazing or fucking disastrous either way. I am looking for a marginal improvement, and that will be good enough for me. It's become my home, Scotland, almost by accident. I ended up studying here and then entirely coincidentally fell in love with a Scottish girl and found myself back, some five years after graduating.  And now I'm here. Possibly permanently. Which is a strange thought, given I had

 So, here we are on August 28th and I have neeeeearly made it through another Pale Imitation Festival. Nearly. We still have tonight's awesome show with eagleowl, Ian Humberstone and Smackvan, and then the closing party on Saturday with PAWS, Halfrican and Et Tu Brute! and then I will sleep for a week, and lock the doors and the shutters to the house so I don't have to speak to people until I am good and ready. That sounds like a moan, and it is I suppose, but it doesn't mean that I don't love the festival we've put on. I've loved every gig so far, and I'm incredibly proud of how well it has all gone and how well it has all been received, it's just that it's kind of exhausting and rather gets in the way of all the other things I have to be doing at the moment. Anyone who does this kind of shit knows, I guess, it's amazing but exhausting, and at the moment I am knackered. Anyhow, I recently received a most excellent package from Norman Records of about five or so new albums, and a lot of them get a spin here.

 So, a little over halfway through the Pale Imitation Festival, and here we are. There are still four gigs to go, with Rick Redbeard, LAW, eagleowl and PAWS headlining (tickets and full details here), and the gigs are only a fiver to get into, which in Edinburgh in August represents a monumental fucking bargain. We also have a new single out on Song, by Toad Records, from David Thomas Broughton and Juice Vocal Ensemble's new collaborative album Sliding the Same Way which is now available for pre-order so I've popped that on the playlist as well, along with a Passion Pusher song from our first cassette release which is due in October or November or something like that. Other than that, there are a couple of new Scottish singles, some live gig plugs and a couple of Song, by Toad recording alumni with some bits and pieces, so it's all quite local music for local people this week. Phew. I am finding the Festival heavy going, I have to confess. Not that I'm not enjoying it, just that it does kind of wear you out,

Well as you can probably tell from the graphics and indeed also the title, this is going to just be one long plug for our August antics at the Pale Imitation Festival this year. But, as you will hear me rattling on about, I suppose the label and the gigs are essentially the same as the blog really aren't they, in that it's basically just me having a massive tantrum that the entire world doesn't completely agree with me about music. So in that sense plugging label releases and our live shows on here isn't me compromising the integrity of the site, is it, it's just an extension of the original purpose of the site in the first place isn't it? ISN'T IT? I hope so, anyway. In any case, for those of you outside Edinburgh you can't actually attend this festival but that won't really matter because basically this is just a podcast full of absolutely fantastic Scottish bands, so for a change I am being Mr. Scotland tonight, although as you will hear, I'm not all that gracious about it! 01. Adam Stafford - Vanishing Ta

 As you should well know by now, this is not the Bett-cast, it is the Bettycast, as our ridiculous car is named after Bette Davis, who spelled it Bett but pronounced it Betty. So there. Once again this is a bit of a Rust2Rome retrospective, with ruminations on brake fade in the Alps, grown men sporting mohicans, driving far too fast and complaining about things not being entirely predictable when on holiday in a car which cost lest than £500. There may also be a little teeny-tiny bit of ranting about stupid people, but y'know, there usually is on these things isn't there. Also, I think some of my Rust2Rome pals might end up listening to this, which is going to be weird, because they'll get to realise what depressing taste in music I have. Generally when you tell someone you work in music they think 'oh, that's interesting' and you can pretend to be cool for a bit. Then they hear the kind of music you're into and the illusion is shattered. Ah well, they had to find out sooner or later. 01. The Wedding Present

Wow, our 300th podcast! But honestly, I celebrated the 200th and the 250th I think, so celebrating again, a mere fifty podcasts later, seems a bit hollow. So Yay Me! for sticking at it, and Yay You! for continuing to listen to this pish, but I guess I should really keep quiet now until number 500. Also, OH WOW TEH WURLD CUPZ! Except for the fact that England are effectively out, by this stage, and so I suppose I should just appreciate the fact that now I get to pull for whoever plays the best football. So far I guess that might be Germany, Holland and Chile - at least they're the only teams who have really convinced so far, in my opinion. And finally, Woo Hoo, the first free-play podcast in ages. The last few have been strongly themed, so this is the first time in a while that I've been free to just sit down at the computer and pick whatever the fuck I want to play, which is fun. Enjoy! 01. The Victorian English Gentleman's Club - Ban the Gin (00.56)02. Siobhan Wilson - Dear God (06.02)03. David Thomas Brough

I first found Clem Snide back in around 2000 or 2001 when they released Ghost of Fashion, and have followed both the band's releases and Eef Barzelay's solo work ever since. I certainly never though back then that he'd end up staying in our house and that I'd interview him and record his songs in the living room one day. For someone really quite shy in person Eef because incredibly chatty as soon as we turned the mics on, and the interview itself is probably one of the longest and most interesting of any of the Toad Sessions we've published yet. Fiona, who both filmed and photographed the session also made the most amazing cookies (see the front panel of the video above), and we fed them pheasant, of all things, before the Edinburgh show. Not your usual tour food, I have to confess, and I felt just a little embarrassed, but it was tasty, and at least better than the usual service station sandwiches. As per usual we have the interview podcast below, freely downloadable mp3s of the session tracks from the Sound

 A follow-on from (unsurprisingly) The Routecast Pt.1, this week I am playing songs which namechecks towns Mrs. Toad and I drove through on our way back from upstate New York to Phoenix to return the van, after the Meursault tour.  Due to not wanting to just barrel down the motorway we tried to stay off the main roads as much as possible, and that did two things: firstly, it meant we went through some amazing countryside and down some unfeasibly small, picturesque roads in an unfeasibly large, ridiculous RV; and secondly it meant that we ended up having to spend more or less ten hours per day on the road to make up for the extra miles and rather lower speeds this particular plan entailed. It meant that there were some pretty epic drives, but I don't mind driving, in all honesty. The scenery alone made it worthwhile, and I find sitting in a car chattering away to Mrs. Toad whilst listening to awesome music to be a very nice way to spend a day. Especially if you have the Radio Alan app for your iPhone. Seriousl

This podcast is composed of songs which namecheck towns I drove through on my rather epic 7500 mile drive across American in March and April of this year. Part 1 is places I drove through between collecting the van in Phoenix, collecting Meursault in Texas and then driving up to New York on their East Coast Tour. Part 2, which is coming next week, will be songs about places I drove through with Mrs. Toad on our way back to drop the van in Phoenix again. Most of the connections are a little tenuous, honestly, tending to concentrate more on the fact that the song name-checks the town in the title rather than provides a touching insight into real life in that town, but you know, superficial is kind of what we do best here. 01. Bob Dylan - Romance in Durango (Live) (00.22)02. Willard Grant Conspiracy - Christmas in Nevada (11.00)03. Samantha Crain - Santa Fe (14.55)04. Sleepy Horses - Lubbock Love Song (21.50)05. Fastball - Sweetwater, Texas (29.47)06. Micah P. Hinson - On the Way Home (to Abilene) (33.17)07. REM

Video – Vimeo – YouTube Photos – Flickr Session tracks - Soundcloud – zip download (right click – save as) Interview podcast – mp3 – iTunes – Mixcloud (playlist at bottom of page) Well if we can handle the racket of PAWS and the sheer numbers of Broken Records then fuck it, we can do Brown Brogues. In the two or three years since Mrs. Toad and I first saw these lads playing at an Irish pub in Austin at SXSW a couple of years ago they have become good pals, as well as DIY inspirations. Although totally fucking incapable of taking an interview seriously. For this one I handled the audio a little differently. Instead of mixing everything in Logic I actually mixed it on the live recording desk and then played it back through our reel-to-reel tape machine, overloading both channels slightly, and then recording the results into my laptop. It's the first time I've used the reel-to-reel, so I am still finding my way, and the results may be nasty as fuck but I really like them. One thing which doesn't sound so great,

I will preempt your question: what the fuck is this? Well, on the Sunday of SXSW this year, the Sunday of our traditional and traditonally chaotic SXSW podcast, I went off to record this podcast instead, with the awesome Draught Punk gents. WHAT? Ignoring our awesome annual podcast in order to hang out with new friends? Isn't that what happens just before massive comeuppance in every high school movie in history? Have you learned NOTHING from shallow, saccharine, moralistic cinema? Well, as every cheating boyfriend ever would say, wait, I can explain. I didn't realise at the time that it would be an either/or situation, but after discussing excellent beer over the course of six or seven pints during the afternoon I got back to Peej's house and realised I was far, far too drunk to try and record anything at all. So I drank more margaritas instead, because of course I did.   Fortunately Peej stepped in to rescue matters and recorded this for us. Bless him. Although one or two bits had to be beeped out. Mostly m

Umm, perhaps not as slick as the usual ultra-professional fare you’ve no doubt come to expect here at Song, by Toad, this podcast is nevertheless at least not quite as howlingly mental as our usual SXSW podcast. Instead of recording the usual podcast, drunkenness compelled me to put it off, so we ended up recording one in the tour van a week later. I say ‘tour van’ but what I really mean is 30ft RV, which is what we’re actually travelling around the in instead. Late confirmations meant we couldn’t confirm the trip until the last minute, so booking hotels would have been an expensive nightmare, and a regular van was looking to be twice the price, so we, er, ended up with this. Fuckwit caper of a lifetime! 01. Meursault - Was ist Das? (00.24)02. Gary Numan - Are Friends Electric (19.04)03. Fat White Family - Wet Hot Beef Pt.1 (24.25)04. Mark Kozelek and Jimmy LaValle - Gustavo (37.41)05. Nirvana - Love Buzz (Live at the Milestone, Charlotte) (49.11)06. Adam Faucett - Melanie (58.08)07. Kevin Ayers - Religious E

Adam Stafford Toad Session from Song, by Toad on Vimeo. Video – Vimeo – YouTube Photos – Flickr Session tracks - Soundcloud – zip download (right click – save as) Interview podcast – mp3 – iTunes – Mixcloud (playlist at bottom of page) Adam Stafford released his fantastic album Imaginary Walls Collapse on Song, by Toad Records early in 2013. You can buy a copy on vinyl here if you like, but it won't tell you quite as much about Adam as I am hoping this session might. Adam is a film-maker as well, and has a genuinely eclectic taste in music, of the sort that makes me feel really rather ashamed by my own tunnel vision. He made a rather fantastic mixtape for the excellent Gold Flake Paint a while back called Magnatory Baws Prolapse which (despite its rather rotten name) reminded me all too strongly of everything that is wrong with my own taste in music - as well as being brilliant to listen to, dammit! This session was recorded by myself, with photos by the ever-awesome Nic Rue, with the filming done by Gavin W

 Epicast because this is indeed epic. A double-length podcast - well, almost - and all for the reason that I simply have to clear the decks a little. Next week I go away to the States for SXSW and after that I shall be driving Meursault on their first US tour. With next week's podcast being the Adam Stafford Toad Session, the week after that being our traditional SXSW one in Peej's back yard, and fuck knows what I'll manage whilst on tour, this means that anything not played this week will be both woefully out of date and quite possibly (shamefully) forgotten by the time I get back. Besides, my inbox will build up so much after a month in the States that I'll be overwhelmed with new things by that point and barely able to process anything else. So yes, an epic podcast, almost two hours long, but if you have the patience for both the length and my drunken rambling, then one which will reward you with some truly excellent new music. This really takes me back to the early days of the podcasts, back when I would

 God we're shit at this. Even the most romantic thing Mrs. Toad and I can usually bring ourselves to do on Valentine's Day - i.e. get pished and do a ranty podcast together about how we hate Valentine's Day - didn't work out this year for, erm, somewhat predictable reasons: we got a bit too jolly before recording it and it was a bunch of rambling, tedious nonsense. So a week too late you get me by myself instead, recording a podcast stone cold sober in the middle of the afternoon. Romantic, isn't it. Ah well, never mind, I never did much like Valentine's Day anyway. Anyhow, Mrs. Toad is off in the States at the moment, being all important and financey, and in actual fact by the time she returns I won't have seen her for about ten days, which is loads. It'll be worse when I go to SXSW with Meursault though, because that will involve us being apart for three fucking weeks, which is the most we have ever managed since the time when I lived in London and she lived in Edinburgh. Sigh. 01. The Divine Comedy - Geron

Video – Vimeo – YouTube Photos – Flickr Session tracks - Soundcloud – zip download (right click – save as) Interview podcast – mp3 – iTunes – Mixcloud (playlist at bottom of page) Todd Umhoefer from Old Earth came to Scotland on a sort of holiday/tour late last year and Song, by Toad collaborated with his UK label Mini50 Records to put on shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and we also took the chance to record a Toad Session as well. Old Earth were actually spotted by Mini50 because of a post on Song, by Toad so it seemed rather fitting to work together to make the tour and the session happen. This was another one of those sessions which ended with Mrs. Toad making an amazing meal, and with us all drinking an absolute shitload of wine and playing records late into the night. There was something of a skeleton crew this time around, with Rory Sutherland helping me out with recording and cameras, and extra video help by Steven Tonge. Rory also edited all the video for us this time, which is why it looks rather mor

 Tomorrow morning we start recording the new Meursault album: The Organ Grinder's Monkey. The only problem is, we have no idea whatsoever what's going to be on this album, just yet, but we're going to have a go nevertheless. The album is actually being fan-funded, so we thought it should probably also be fan-chosen, so if you buy a copy of the album from our Kickstarter page, you then get to vote for five songs, Meursault ones or covers, and we'll record the most popular ones for the album - hence the title. Anyhow, picking an album involving so many potential covers is a nightmare. So many great ideas, so many awful-but-brilliant ideas, so many just plain awful ideas, and you just don't know where to stop! So this podcast is a combination of the most popular tunes, the most popular bands, and some brilliant covers by bands who have already done an amazing job of this kind of shit. As to the final album - hell, who knows, you've about as much idea of how it'll turn out as I do! 01. The Flaming Lips - I Just C

Welcome to our sneak preview of Song, by Toad Records' plans for 2014. For the most part this is the exact track listing in the exact order of the free sampler we'll be putting up for download soon, although there are a couple of little tweaks. I've even snuck in a special wee preview of Bastard Mountain - a tune which won't be on the sampler - primarily because that spot will be taken by The Leg, but I've played quite enough from Shrunken Tina Turner in the last few months, so I thought I would give you an exclusive treat, seeing as you're one of the 4-500 people who download this thing religiously every week. Actually, I suppose far fewer actually download it every single week - maybe you're one of the 8-900 people who download the podcasts 'when they think about it', which results in that regular listenership of about 500. Who knows how many 'kinda' fans you have to have to regularly get 500 listeners in the first week, but I bet it's a fuck of a lot more than 500. Anyway, however many of you there are, it