The Toadcast - The Weekly Podcast From Song, By Toad

 This is another chatty podcast, recorded in the hostel room of the lovely (and somewhat creepy) Lloyd from Peenko and Ian from Have Fun at Dinner on Friday afternoon at GoNorth. In terms of creepy, we were all kind of  creeped out by the industry reacharounds which seemed to be going on left right and centre though.  Who do you know, who likes who best blah blah blah blah blah. I think that me and everyone I know have all decided to just fuck all this industry bollocks and do what the fuck we please.  Honestly, it's all just far far too much eating of crow for me.  Fuck.  Right.  Off. Toadcast #126 - The Schmoozecast 01. Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers - Draw a Line (03.49) 02. Fiona Soe Paing - Deep Song (14.45) 03. The Seventeenth Century - Roses in the Park (17.40) 04. Kid Canaveral - And Another Thing!! (24.58) 05. Miaoux Miaoux - Snow (34.23) 06. Admiral Fallow - Subbuteo (38.18) 07. Mitchell Museum - Tiger Heartbeat (48.45) 08. Randolph's Leap - Squeamish (57.53)

This is a not entirely accurately-titled podcast, in that the whoring only takes place over a couple of songs at the tail end and does not at all influence any of the rest of the playlist. What am I talking about, you ask?  Well when I played a few trendy songs a few months back the listership of the podcast doubled over the course of a few weeks.  I noticed this back when I was a bit more rigorous about the blog in the early days: if I reviewed high-profile new releases in the week of release it generated a large spike in readership. So I've dropped a couple of very hype-friendly songs into the end of this podcast to see if that actually has any influence on anything at all.  I found nice ones - ones I actually like, I mean - so don't worry, your normally glittering listening experience will not be tarnished one bit.  But bear in mind that this week we are all the guineau pigs in a silly internet hit-whoring experiment.  Sorry. Toadcast #125 - The Whorecast 01. Burnt Ones - Sunset Hill (03.46) 02

This is called the Dolecast for... well, for obvious reasons.  I am on the downward slope to imminent joblessness, with my last day at Proper Job now pencilled in for the 23rd of June - the day before Glastonbury, rather handily. Actually festivals are something of a feature this Summer, as there's that one, Kelburn, Rockness, Fusion out in Germany, and then Knockengorroch, which I will be driving out to the very second I hit 'post' on this.  We're also looking at going out to Musicfest Northwest this year as well, and of course the rather splendid Fence Away Game. So erm, yes, maybe I should have called this the Festcast or something like that. Toadcast #124 - The Dolecast 01. The Wave Pictures - I Shall be a Ditchdigger (03.09)02. Fur Hood - Tweetle Beetle Battle Beetles (12.27) 03. Fear the Fives - Devil's Tongue (15.39) 04. Southern Tenant Folk Union - South Ythsie (20.19) 05. Benni Hemm Hemm - Retaliate (29.11) 06. The Douglas Firs - Grow Old and Go Home (33.09) 07. Magic Bullets - Lying Around (37.

Having spent the week driving Loch Lomond around the country I figured that some sort of driving-themed nonsense would be in order for this week's podcast. Driving music (NOT in the Top Gear sense) tends to stick in your head, probably because when listening to it there is nothing else to do but sit and absorb the whole album.  I know most musicians would probably blanche somewhat at the idea of having their work enjoyed over the thrum of wind noise, tyre noise and a grumbling engine, but a long drive is still probably one of the best places to listen to music. Oh, and the 'character'is supplied by all the fuckers outside having fun while I DO FUCKING WORK FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF YOU UNGRATEFUL INTERNET BASTARDS.  Erm, sorry.  I'm tired. Toadcast #123 - The Drivecast 01. The Twilight Sad - The Wrong Car (01.53) 02. Bear Driver - A Thousand Samurais (09.12) 03. The National - Terrible Love (14.37) 04. Band of Horses - Infinite Arms (19.11) 05. The Wedding Present - Drive (25.07) 06. The French W

This podcast is called the Greencast because we have the most hobbled government in recent memory - Cameron has kinda, sorta, maybe won, in the sense that he is actually the PM. On the other hand Clegg, having been butchered at the polls, after a promising campaign, is now in a position of more influence than he was ever likely to gain from the election alone. And yet Labour, despite being deposed, seem to have come out of it all better than anyone.  They may be out of power, but they are free from the millstone of the next few years of cuts, they can sit back and watch the Tories and the Lib Dems squabble for a couple of years and achieve nothing at all, and once the coalition has made fools of themselves for a couple of years Labour can pop up again with a new, smooth, television-friendly leader and trade on the inevitable failure of the preceding government. So, as read in the Guardian, Labour may actually have won by losing.  And here are some tunes.  Utterly unrelated tunes! Toadcast #122 - The Greencast

I will be in Macclesfield at Unconvention, pretending to know what the fuck I am talking about when it comes to new music business models when you come to listen to this. I do get a shiny new pair of Converse, courtesy of the sponsors, which is cool.  But above all, me, the chance to talk shit... well, it's just a match made in heaven isn't it. My Granddad lives in Manchester too, which is rather convenient, so on Sunday I will go round to his house and say hello.  Who knows, it might even shunt me slowly out of the Bad Son status I have been occupying for all these years. This playlist is largely composed of new stuff which has appeared in my inbox recently, and a couple of bizarre wild cards - two covers, Toadcast #121 - The Votecast 01. Yusuf Azak - Turn on the Long Wire (06.23) 02. Micah P. Hinson - 2s and 3s (12.50) 03. Nina Nastasia - Cry, Cry, Baby (17.58) 04. Emit Bloch - Milkshake vs. Passenger (Kelis & Iggy Pop) (23.50) 05. Run on Sentence - Out in the Woods (30.16) 06. eagleowl - Morpheus (33.4

We have been collecting for the lifeboats today and as usual we have had a massive, lovely meal prepared by my darling Mrs. Toad.  It was fucking awesome, I have to tell you, and anyone who wasn't here truly did miss out. We, and the RNLI, owe a massive debt of thanks to Sharon from the Wirral, Euan from The Kays Lavelle (and many other things), Peter from next door, Matthew from Glasgow (as of last week), Ella from the Last Battle, Lucy and Catherine from Mrs. Toad's Finance Corp., Jamie from Broken Records, and Dylan and Ed who turned up and were nice but didn't really do much. In terms of actually making a difference, it's worth pointing out that the collection in Stockbridge has hovered around the £200 mark for about the last thirty years, but since us young 'uns have been involved that number has almost tripled, which is sort of nice.  It actually does make a big difference when you all turn up and show some enthusiasm and commit even just a few hours to helping out.  Charity people can be a bit pushy at

Tomorr... yesterday I flew out to Paris to see Mrs. Toad, who has been stuck in God Bless America for the last two weeks because of Iceland's seismic indiscipline.  We are going to have dinner and walk together and hold hands and generally act like a couple of idiots.  More or less like we always do.  For a couple of curmudgeonly old fuckers who spend their entire lives swearing at one another, we are a pretty sentimental pair, really. This podcast is mostly based around my Dad and his music.  For my early years I was well into my Mum's stuff, but as I got older I got more into my Dad's kind of stuff - Tom Waits, Dylan, Neil Young and all that.  When I really, really got into music it was never into contemporary, modern or trendy stuff, it was always the old shite my parents were into. I repay them the favour nowadays, or at least, I try to, but I never really picked up on music from my peers, it was always from my folks.  Hence this podcast. Toadcast #119 - The Popcast 01. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road (0

Mrs. Toad has been stranded in God Bless America by that infernal cloud of Icelandic ash, so I am home alone for the last week and all of the next one.  This is very much Not Fun, because as much as she's a mean old bitch, I do seem to have developed a grudging affection for the silly old mare so a fortnight apart is very much unappreciated.  It's about time those Icelanders re-established some bloody discipline, honestly. Anyhew, there is some excellent stuff on this podcast, even though it really doesn't hang together around a particular theme as they sometimes do.  In actual fact, I don't think I've done a themey one for a while - might give that a go next week. Toadcast #118 - The Ashcast 01. Johnny Flynn - Kentucky Pill (4.11) 02. Burnt Island - A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (10.51) 03. Draw Me Stories - Becomes the Hunted (18.25) 04. Haunted Stereo - Lock the Doors (22.29) 05. Ragged Claws - Lamed Wufniks (30.44) 06. Fleet Foxes - Silver Dagger (36.07) 07. Hezekiah Jones - I Love My Family

Video: Vimeo – YouTube Photos: Flickr – Blueback Hotrod Audio: below This was without a shadow of a doubt the most scary level of military efficiency that anything even slightly Toad-related has ever achieved.  Mumford & Sons were playing to a sold-out Queen's Hall in the evening, so we had to have them in and out of the door within an hour and a half, and we actually bloody managed it!  As the like of the Pictish Trail, who left Toad Hall completely plastered after his session, can testify, this isn't really what we're good at around here. So, not only did they go to extreme lengths to actually make time to record this, they did a fucking lovely job of it as well.  If you watch the video for Untitled, embedded below, you'll see that they rattled our floors so hard that something actually falls off the shelves behind Marcus at the end of the video.  Gavin has done a lovely job of the recording and mixing, and many thanks to Dylan for the photography and Matthew for help with the filming. As usual with th

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 Calmcas 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

The Toadcasts stumble from one clusterfuck to the next, each one more incoherent than the last.  This, I think it's fair to say, makes the Homegame one look good by comparison.  Not that the songs aren't good, just that the instances of people talking over one another and two conversations going on at once and so on and so forth are notably worse on this. However, the music is excellent, and surprisingly up to the minute by my standards.  We even managed to sneak the new National song in there, which they only released on Thursday - how's that for happening and newsworthy and so on and so forth. We have some new Sam Amidon as well, a track by Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti which dropped through my letterbox while I was away in Austin, and some splendid stuff by Harlem and Clogs.  If only it wasn't for the pish chat, this would be a great podcast, actually. Toadcast #115 - The Messcast 1. Trevor Moss & Hannah Lou - Ruth Drink My Whisky (05.12) 2. The National - Blood Buzz Ohio (13.40) 3. Loch L

Another stunt podcast for you, this was recorded on Sunday night after and afternoon of beer and Margaritas on South Congress in Austin - probably the most enjoyable day of the whole festival for me actually, and one which involved no more music than walking past the queue for an Alejandro Escovedo show. What it did involve, however, was breakfast tacos, a splendid Mexican tat shop, a Western supply shop full of incredibly cool cowboy boots and shirts and so on, and then an afternoon sitting in the sun and shooting the breeze with Peej, Vic, Alex from Fatcat and Ben from Instinctive Raccoon.  Oh, and repeatedly having people spill beer on my jeans, there was that as well. Anyhow, in the evening we were joined by Stuart from the Scottish Arts Council (who does a highly passable impersonation of Groundskeeper Willie from the Simpsons) and recorded this rather messy podcast before, erm... going bowling with Broken Social Scene and We Were Promised Jetpacks, sort of.  Actually, that's rather an exaggeration.  We

We're in Anstruther this weekend for Homegame, and so we got incredibly pissed late at night and recorded a podcast for you all, just as a special extra Sunday Supplement. This should give you a taste of our Homegame fun and, sadly, also an idea of just how much of a wreck we all make of ourselves in Fife once a year. Honestly, this is my favourite festival in the fucking universe, possibly only equalled by Pickathon, which is incredibl e. Toadcast #113 - The Rhubarbcast [audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo113.mp3] 01.Withered Hand - No Cigarettes (01.34) 02.Silver Columns - Yes and Dance (Silver Columns Remix) (08.31) 03.Findo Gask - Wrapped in Plastic (Live) (14.00) 04.Adem - Everything You Need (20.02) 05.Django Django - Love's Dart (29.52) 06.FOUND - Freaky Freaky Chancer (33.37) 07.Cold Seeds - The Perfume of Mexican Birds (43.43) 08.Love.Stop.Repeat - The Ghost of What You Used to Be (50.52) 09.FOUND & eagleowl - Some R. Kelly Cover (58.52)

eagleowl Toad Session from Song, by Toad on Vimeo. Video: Vimeo - YouTube Photos: Flickr - Blueback Hotrod Audio: below A large part of me thinks there should be an Eagleowl Interviewers' Support Group.  They are some of the loveliest people you will ever meet, but getting them to talk is like trying to learn Kung-Fu in an afternoon.   I've been down the pub with these guys, so I know it's not like they don't have anything to say for themselves, it's just that teasing it out of them with cameras and microphones present requires a black belt in interviewing people which I quite simply do not have yet.  Next time I will be prepared.  Possibly no more successful, but prepared nevertheless. The music has come out beautifully, recorded by Neil Pennycook and Gavin Tarling, and mixed by Neil - eventually.  Dylan took the pictures, and I have a Song, by Toad set on our Flickr page, but Dylan's full set can be found on his own site at Blueback Hotrod.  I've made videos of the songs themselves and there is of course t

Well in all the chatter about the Beeb this week I was strongly considering ignoring it completely in this podcast and giving everyone a welcome break from the wailing and gnashing of teeth... but naah, that was never going to happen, was it. So there's a lot of railing against the Beeb and the threat to 6Music and yaddah yaddah you know the script don't you.  Sadly, and somewhat ironically, we spend so much time talking about the state of the Beeb and the loss their support of small bands will represent, that we actually forgot to talk much about the small bands we ourselves put on the bloody podcast. Toadcast #111 - The Beebcast [audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/songbytoad/ToadcastNo111.mp3] 01. Ballboy - All the Records on the Radio are Shite (03.21) 02. Love is All - Bigger Bolder (13.02) 03. Fredrik - Vinterbarn (15.53) 04. Exrays - Everything Goes (27.16) 05. Phil Ochs - Automation Song (34.33) 06. Ghostkeeper - By Morning (37.26) 07. The Light Footwork - Carlsbad Irrigation Project (47.54) 08. Mondr

You know, I'm not exactly naive when it comes to the internet.  I've done perfectly innocent Google image searches at work and then hurriedly had to cover up or stove in my monitor as all manner of filth made its appearance, irrespective of the tame nature of the search terms. So I was up quite late recording this podcast and because only pervs and loonies seem to be up late* using the internet I reckoned that this should be called the Pervcast.  Particularly as I recorded most of it with a glass of wine in one hand and my nuts in the other - hey, it's just comfortable alright, stop being so judgmental. Anyhow, the minute I hit return on the search for a banner image for this Toadcast... well, I realised my mistake pretty much immediately.  I didn't even realise most of that shit was even physically possible, never mind sought after.  Yeauch.  You internet people - you're all wrong 'uns, that's what you are! Toadcast #110 - The Pervcast 01. The Silver Columns - Brow Beaten (04.50) 02. The Morning Benders - Pr

I don't know what the damn hell it is about dressing formally which makes me feel so uncomfortable, but it does.  Presumably just because I'm such a scruffy fucker for the entire rest of my life, those few hours every year I spend in a (vaguely) ironed shirt and pair of proper shoes just seem so completely out of character as to be really quite discomfiting. Still, at our age everyone we know seems to be either getting married or breeding (and not infrequently both) so the old whistle is going to have to get used to seeing a little bit more action over the next few years, it seems.  The ludicrous thing is that I actually have a couple of really nice suits, but I never get round to wearing the fuckers because it just all seems too much like hard work. This weekend, people.  In a suit.  Me!  Would you believe it.  I really should thank all these marrying bastards for saving my investment in suits from being complete waste of money it would be if I actually was left to my own devices. Toadcast #109 - The Suitcas

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

Erm, really sorry that this is so very, very late, but life rather caught up with me this week.  So I never quite managed to find time to get my shit together until this evening, unfortunately. It's surprising how much of my time these weekly podcasts seem to take up - it can be quite hard to find an evening every single week to record these things.  What I find amazing is that I don't run out of blather.  I don't recall ever saying anything profound or all that intelligent either, so this little collection must represent hours and hours of inconsequential rambling. On Friday a nice young lady in the pub asked me "Has anyone ever told you that you talk loads and loads."  I suppose, looking back at a hundred and some podcasts the miracle is that actually the answer to that question is 'no, not really, not that I can remember'. Oh, and yes, that is Tina Turner and Kim Carnes you see there.  Suck it up, hipsters. Toadcast #107 - The Tardicast 01. The Walkmen - This Job is Killing Me (03.30) 02. Grandaddy - Hey C