The Toadcast - The Weekly Podcast From Song, By Toad

Yep I feel a bit like I'm emerging from hibernation at the moment. Something about the way Christmas and New Year fell this year completely obliterated two weeks, and this week has been spent mostly trying to slow the levels of alcohol intake from Oliver Reed levels down to about George Best ones. I've also been trying to force my sleep patterns to return to something vaguely resembling normality as well. I have been an absolutely appalling weakling in the face of that 'oh just one more episode' syndrome you develop when you have access to entire series of TV shows at once, so I've been staying up until five and six in the morning watching one absolutely terrible TV show after another.  I can't even claim it was something decent like The Wire or Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad, it's all been absolutely dismally shallow and repetitive crime and supernatural series. Fucking dreadful. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY BRAIN? Anyhow, you can see how I am having a little bit of trouble getting back into gear for the new yea

Yup, as you know, Song, by Toad Records is five years old so I thought a brief spin through the history of the label would be in order because, well, why the fuck not. There's quite a lot of stuff in the vaults here which has long since vanished into the mists of time, and it's interesting to look back at how we started, in two senses. Firstly, the roster was very obviously unrecognisable, primarily because it didn't really exist yet. We had a couple of pals who were willing to let us try and help promote their self-recorded bits and bobs, and some folk we thought were talented and knew were unsigned, but had no idea what they would make of us suggesting we try putting out their music for them. And secondly, there is the ambition. We started out expecting to do little more than assisting people with a self-release. We assumed we'd be working with scrappy little demos and bits of home-recorded EPs and things like that - just trying to get the bands a little bit of extra publicity which they didn't necessarily

Video – Vimeo – YouTube Photos – Flickr Session tracks - Soundcloud - zip download (right click – save as) Interview podcast – mp3 – iTunes – Mixcloud (playlist at bottom of page) Wait a second, haven't we already done a Sparrow and the Workshop Toad Session? Why yes we have, and it is here. But if you follow that link you may well understand why we've recorded another one. Basically, back then I didn't really have any idea how to record and mix things, I had no idea how to export video properly, and YouTube was in a 640x480 format, meaning that everything looks like it should have been embedded on a Geocities site, not a swish, modern music blog. So we sat down with Broken Records, Meursault and first Sparrow and the Workshop and did whole new Toad Sessions with them because, well because they live locally and we're all friends and fuck it, we can. So this is the second Sparrow and the Workshop Toad Session. The photos were by Nic Rue, as is becoming increasingly traditional, and her fella and fellow long-t

I was in Aberdeen this week, and I happened to leave town at about half three, on my way home, at which point it was pretty much fucking pitch black already. Because the Gulf Stream keeps the UK cool in the Summer and warm in the Winter you tend to forget just how very, very far North we really are. Anyhow, between that and the cold which overtakes my office during the day because it feels indulgent to have the heating on I am definitely in my Winter mood at the moment. I like Winter, though. I like the dark and the cold and the whole 'nights drawing in' thing. I suggests time with the record player and lots of red wine, and maybe a fire as well. All good things. So yes, I am uploading this and then going off to do just that. A new restaurant has opened just down the road from us and Mrs. Toad and I are going to toddle along and try it out tonight. After some gin and records, of course. Go us! 01. Absolutely Free - On the Beach (00.06)02. Min Diesel - Mother (11.39)03. Pinact - Beauty Freak (16.13)04. Tarsier

I can't believe I've never recorded a Lovecast before, but honestly, I looked back through the old titles and it didn't come up. So here we go, the counterpoint to last week's Hatecast is this. I am full of the joys of life, relaxed and happy. Would you believe it? Actually, the reason this podcast exists is not because I feel some need to eradicate the rage of last week. I like to live by the words of Clem Snide: "don't be afraid of your anger". I am not afraid of my anger. I actually love my anger. My anger, inner rage, permanent sense of simmering resentment - whatever you want to call it - is what makes me who I am, what drives me on, and what makes me enjoy what I do. Fuck it, you can deal with my anger. Instead, this podcast simply exists because last week's ragefest has genuinely lifted the black cloud which it represented clean away from my life. I feel refreshed and released by having got it off my chest and am in a genuinely good mood these days. Who'd have thought it! 01. Plastic Animals - Sheltere

I am pretty pissed off at the moment. It's not particularly obvious - in fact it tends to manifest itself more as a smouldering sulk than any sort of rage, but you may believe me, the anger is under there somewhere. Y'see, in the music industry, you're always supposed to maintain some sort of level of politeness - never burn any bridges, never lose your rag, you never know when you might need to be friends with someone. But you know what, bollocks to that. I spend so many hours of my life working on making things good - artwork, endlessly repetitive PR stuff, designing posters for gigs, trying to drum up some sort of interest in our gigs, our releases, our bands, and you know what - FUCK PEOPLE. People are just fucking wrong about music. They approve of shite bands, they listen to garbage they're too lazy to move beyond, they write about bands they already know are popular rather than ones which are new and might be interesting, and they generally just don't give a shit and then pretend that it's your fault f

This is called the Unioncast because I have had a really bad habit of working into the evenings recently, as well as all bloody weekend, and I am starting to thing I need a union representative to protect me from my own boss. Who, rather sadly, happens to be me. Stand up against myself for the downtrodden worker! I had no idea what I was going to play this week, but it turned into a surprisingly good playlist, including personal highlights from SWF and the awesome new EP by Shilpa Ray. Right, enough blabbering about this one, I am off up to the Pleasance to see Rob St. John, Adam Stafford and Ian Humberstone. It's an amazing venue, so I am really looking forward to it. And there's the mega double-blowout label showcase next week as well, so all sorts of musicfuns for you to take advantage of. 01. Lambchop - Hey, Where's Your Girl (00.22)02. Basketball Shorts - The Reaper (06.56)03. Vikesh Kapoor - The Ballad of Willy Robbins (13.45)04. Lesley Riddle - John Henry (18.30)05. Temple Songs - I Can't Look After Yo

Video – Vimeo – YouTube Photos – Flickr Session tracks - zip download (right click – save as) Interview podcast – mp3 – iTunes – Mixcloud (playlist at bottom of page) This session was recorded back in March, so once again I find myself apologising to the band for taking so long over it. I blame Beer vs. Records, Sparrow and the Workshop and the Pale Imitation Festival for taking such a lot of time and work that I ended up distracted. The same old disorganised shite as usually happens, in other words. The Yawns emerged late last year when they released their debut album as a pay-what-you-want download to pretty much no fanfare at all. Slowly but surely, however, word seemed to spread around the internet and it turned out that a lot of people were really into the record. I was released on tape by one label, then vinyl by another and actually ended up doing better than loads of stuff people put all their time and energy into promoting. I loved it too, of course, so I asked them to play in Edinburgh in January,

Smash as in smash hits, of course, we don't condone vandalism here at Song, by Toad! No, this week we have a podcast full of what can really only very tenuously indeed be described as banging number one smash hits. Or, perhaps more accurately, a lot of single releases. We've the next 7" from Gerry Loves Records, some new stuff by Vadoinmessico, the new single from local favourites Honeyblood and Halfrican, and the something off the new Black Tambourines album. I add to the smash hit single vibe by including a couple of absolute corkers from varying degrees of yesteryear, in the form of The Animals and the Shout Out Louds, largely because they've been on tapes in the car while we were driving to France and back to visit Mrs. Toad's family. While I was there I took the opportunity to mix a whole pile of new Toad Sessions, and they're all awaiting editing now, so I thought I'd also include one from the recent Old Earth Session as well. I think you've heard stuff from The Yawns and Sparrow and the Workshop alread

It's, erm, okay to make fun of old people injuring themselves isn't it? I mean on the internet, not in real life of course, that would be barbaric. But on the internet this shit is okay, right? I mean, we even let the Daily fucking Mail on here, we can't be that picky. I only ask because the reason this is called the Ribcast is in salute to my cantankerous old father, who managed to fall off a ladder the other day and break a couple of ribs. This, like most rib injuries, has proven to not be all that dangerous, so all we have is a bad tempered old man in lots of pain, unable to laugh, roll over in bed, cough or - heaven forbid - sneeze! I've cracked ribs myself, before, although never broken them, and it really is an incredibly painful injury. Coughing and laughing are everyday occurrences, but holy shit you fucking notice them when this happens to you. Sneezes are terrifying, because holy crapsticks they fucking hurt! But as long as it's not life-threatening then pain is quite funny, right? 01. The Leg - Chi

Yep, a couple of days into September and Scotland really has decided that it's Autumn now, all of a sudden it's fucking Autumn. Cold, crappy rain, wind, all the usual fun and games. Season OVER! We are into shitty territory now, just you accept it! Anyhow, I have never figured out whether good (more likely to leave the house) or bad weather (more likely to want to be inside in a venue) weather is more likely to lead to good gig attendances, but I suppose it's always nice to have the excuse either way if no-one turns up to your gig. One nice thing about the weather turning shitty, of course, is that the fucking builders who repaired our roof - Traditional Roofing and Building - whilst excellent in every other respect, managed to paint my office windows shut and are ignoring my requests to come out and fix them. So at least if it's cold I won't just be sat up here fucking sweltering all day. Enjoy the tunes! 01. Temple Songs - Passed Caring (00.16)02. John Murry - Southern Sky (07.45)03. Sparrow and the Worksho

August is traditionally the month where my slender grasp of Song, by Toad Records admin is finally broken and everything collapses into a massive pile of shit. And that is just what has happened this year: I am behind on the accounts, haven't opened a single envelope which has been delivered to the house for about two months, and my inbox is a sprawling, out-of-control mess. Boo fucking hoo. Nevertheless it all has to be smartened up by September. I have a new accountant, having been kicked to the kerb by the previous one for being too disorganised to be worth the hassle, so I can't fuck this one up or I really am in trouble! So August gets to be messy, and then I have to get my shit together for real and get this whole nasty mess under control again. There are plenty of old favourites on this podcast - blog-era favourites, not real oldies, but nevertheless, some artists I haven't played for ages. There's also a wee taster from the new batch of Toad Sessions we're working on, to give you a taste of the new st

As the run of dates gets into full swing, I figured The Palecast was a tediously inevitable name for a podcast but for all the predictability, I honestly couldn't come up with anything else, sorry.  Although I hope I'm not being too annoying about it (and I'm beginning to suspect that I am), I do take the opportunity to plug this week's Pale Imitation Festival gigs, but there's other stuff too. There is the by-now-mandatory song from the car, picked from whatever tape I happen to be listening to a little too much at the moment. In this case it's Texarkana from REM's far-from-classic early nineties album Out of Time. It may not be a classic, but there are some really good tunes on there, mostly on the second side, and it's been fun to hear them again for the first time in ages. Then we have a couple of new unsigned bands for you, and someone else's selections from my vinyl collection. Job's a good 'un. 01. R.E.M. - Texarkana (00.22)02. Deathcats - Danny Dyer (07.07)03. Tangles - Can't Take My Eyes Off of You (

The Rustcast is of course dedicated to the Rust2Rome adventure we returned from last week. We went with a bunch of tapes, and all the tunes on this podcast come from those tapes. In fact, these come from a relatively narrow selection of the tapes, because I took a few fairly downbeat tunes along and we never listened to them. I love listening to quiet music when I drive, but generally only at night, and there was no night driving on the trip, so those tapes tended to stay in the bottom of the box, unlistened. In fact, you may not believe me, but there was plenty of time when we actually listened to nothing at all. We have no air-conditioning in the car and it was so hot we had to drive large chunks of the way with all the windows rolled down, and when the car picked up any speed at all the noise made it pretty much impossible to hear anything unless it was being played at uncomfortably loud volumes. Nevertheless, there was plenty of music to be listened to and this is a collection of my favourite bits.  01. E

Video – Vimeo – YouTubePhotos – FlickrSession tracks - zip download (right click – save as)Interview podcast – mp3 – iTunes – Mixcloud (playlist at bottom of page) Charles Latham has been something of a legend in Edinburgh ever since his song Hard On became something of a staple in the Withered Hand live set, and also occasionally appeared when other bands, like our own Meursault for instance, played live as well. The Withered Hand version proved so popular that it actually made its way back across the pond, when Toad Session alumnus Samantha Crain covered it a year or two ago. Funnily enough, though, he's never actually been to Edinburgh, at least until November last year, when he came over here on tour, played a gig in the city and popped by to record a Toad Session. And the Withered Hand version had made such an impact that Charles himself didn't even want to play it! Nevertheless, we have four excellent songs for you, a genuinely interesting interview, and a night which started with beer and ended with

After writing about the SAY Award, I thought I might well do a podcast about it, given there are more than enough ace bands and ace records on that list, last year's list and I assume next year's list to make a couple of podcasts. I play a couple of shocking, scandalous omissions from this and last year's long- and shortlists, and stamp my little foot about them. I play a couple of tracks from bands who I reckon should be in with a very strong shout of making next year's shortlist.  And I play a random tune by David Thomas Broughton because he, along with Rick Redbeard who I tip for next year's shortlist, is playing a show in Edinburgh this week.  David on Thursday with Rachael Dadd and Ichi, and Rick on Saturday with the awesome Ian Humberstone.  And again, I try and remind people not to get too worked up about this kind of thing, because, well, if no-one agrees with you that something is excellent, it should hardly make you love it any the less, should it. And equally, being told that yes, you are right, th

 Welcome to the Autocast. The Autocast? Yes, we have a new car. So exciting! It is, much in the style of pretty much every car I have ever owned in my life, a bit of a shit-heap. In fact, it's a total shit-heap: a 1992 Volvo estate. I will be driving it up to GoNorth in Inverness this week, to see if it's going to prove to be reliable in the long run. It made it all the way from Oxford to Edinburgh a week or so ago though, and that was seven hours, so I reckon it should be fine. Hopefully. The thing about spending £350 on a car is that you can be pretty much certain that something serious must be wrong with it. A properly functioning car is worth more than £350, more or less whatever it is. Anyhow, GoNorth should be fun. It usually is, and now that we are a bit more established within the Scottish music community it's a nice chance to catch up with pals who I might not necessarily see that much of because for some reason Glasgow seems too far away most of the year. Ridiculous, really. 01. Book Group - Year of

 Yes, the Sousedcast, mostly because I am fucking steaming. Getting shitfaced and swearing at the internet about music may sound irretrievably sad, but it is one of the great pleasures in my life. Seriously, listen to this shit, is it not completely brilliant? I don't listen to my own podcasts again and again - that would be a bit like wanking with a fistful of your own toothpaste - but I listen to the playlists for these things all the time, because even if my chat is shit, the playlists to our podcasts are brilliant. They really are, aren't they. Anyhow, Mrs. Toad is away at the moment, which is why I am getting shitfaced and shouting at you on the internet. IN ALL CAPS! But this week we have the best possible balance between hipster pop shit and genuinely weird bollocks. Go weirdos! GO! 01. Le Thug - Swam (00.26)02. Temples - Colours to Life (11.12)03. Big Deal - Dream Machines (15.24)04. Wooden Wand - No Bed For Beatle Wand/Days This Long (23.26)05. Magic Arm - Is History (37.12)06. The Yawns - Butterfley

Welcome to The Schoolcast wherein I acknowledge a few of the people who have educated my music taste more than most. Without a Musical Big Brother figure in my life I have relied on a motley crew of people from all over to get me into music to which I might otherwise never have been exposed, and the process continues today of course. For someone who is an accidentally self-appointed arbiter of taste* I actually know relatively little about music, and particularly the history of pop music. I don't know much Neil Young, for example, I don't know much Pink Floyd, I don't know much Dinosaur Jr. or Guided By Voices, or even Can - and those are just the ones for which I have been directly chided. Anyhow, I am making inroads into some of this ignorance, and it's actually a shitload of fun, as you can imagine. As with last week's Neil Young write-up, I think I'll start covering some of these records on the blog a bit more often, as I think the blend of brand new stuff and older music will work really nicely. Enjoy! 0

Salford is to Manchester pretty much what Leith is to Edinburgh - the scummy port town which is close enough to be pretty much part of the city, but still maintains a separate identity. And indeed Salford may be a good way behind Leith in this aspect, but it too seems to be slowly becoming nicer and nicer, and shrugging off some of its rough image. Salford has a very long way to go I suppose, but there does seem to be a fair bit of decent arty stuff happening down there at the moment, which tends to be how these things start. Anyhow, on Sunday I am going to down to Salford for the Sounds From the Other City festival.  There will be stages booked by all sorts of excellent Manchester promoters, like Comfortable on a Tightrope, Underachievers, Now Wave and Manchester Scenewipe, and plenty of people knocking around who I haven't seen for a while, so I am rather looking forward to it.  I also get the chance to see my Granddad and have a wee whisky together on Saturday night, which will be excellent. My Granddad an