The Toadcast - The Weekly Podcast From Song, By Toad

So, after a couple of slightly misnumbered podcasts - 245 coming after 243, and then 244 having to come after that to try and correct the mistake, hoping two wrongs might , if not make a right exactly, at least gloss over the original wrong somewhat - we are back on track with #246.  In the right order and everything.There's no real theme to this week's podcast, although we have a fair bit of new stuff in there - some by The Walkmen, The Douglas Firs, The Spook School, Monster Island and a couple of others.Next week I was thinking of doing The Ivorycast, with loads of piano music, and then perhaps one about freak folk next, assuming I manage to successfully tie down what the fuck that is.  Dirty, psychedelic folk music, as far as I can tell, is about the easiest way to approximate it.  Ah well, a bit of digging should do the trick easily enough. In the meantime, however, this:01. Yusuf Azak - Smile Tactics (00.22)02. Glass Animals - Cocoa Hooves (07.16)03. Stoney and Meatloaf - Jessica White (14.44)04. Elbow

Ah yes, the Hypecast, so called because some of the discussion on the Chvrches thread made me think about what it is I really dislike about the concept of hype, and why I mistrust it. It's an area where I struggle to be consistent, honestly. I abhor hype, but I seem to recall being very much caught up in the mystery and excitement around Silver Columns, for example. And I spend most of the Rough Guide to Self-releasing an Album exhorting bands to be more prepared and more organised, and yet I get funny when bands are too organised, and start wondering if they're really there to be a band or just want to get famous. And then I get annoyed at people getting too excited about the excitement itself, but would still accept that it's probably the most effective way for a DIY band on a tight budget to actually generate basic levels of awareness when they can't afford to carpet-bomb the world into submission with PR like major label bands often do. And then there's always the far more traditional and straightforward

Today I rediscovered toast.  Yes, let it be proclaimed that toast is an awesome snack and that I deserve to be booed and hissed for neglecting it for so long.  At university I pretty much subsisted on cups of tea, toast and tins of Heinz Big Soup, but for some reason despite working from home, I haven't resurrected the toast habit.  Well today I put that right, and it was awesome.Toast goes so well with jam, with marmite, with cheese and with just plain butter, and it takes a second to make and it's just so darn tasty.  So yes, there you have it, this week I shall be mostly eating TOAST! Or Toadst, if you will.Anyhow, after a couple of fine slices of toast I sit down to bring you this week's installment of songs which have been making me happy this week, starting with a new and vastly, vastly overdue single from Magic Arm.  And, well, I suppose you'll have to listen to find out where we go from there.  Toast!01. Magic Arm - Put Your Collar Up (00.27)02. The Magnetic Fields - Love is Lighter Than Air (08.32)03

The recovery in the title of this podcast is down to the fact that I actually managed to spend a full, undisrupted week in the office last week.  Whilst that is a ludicrously banal thing to be celebrating, getting things back on the rails, or at least moderately close to being back on the rails, does feel like something of a relief at this stage.The accounts desperately need doing as well, which is another little rock 'n' roll tidbit for you.  I can keep this up all day - there's loads more fascinating little insights where this came from. Did I tell you the one about how I need to move a pile of our stock from the downstairs hall to the new shelving I've assembled in the office?  Fuck me it's going to be thrilling.Actually, after all this I really do feel the need to go out and inject heroin into my eyeballs or punch a tiger in the face or something, just to resurrect some pretence of excitement for anyone (myself included) who might expect the coal face of new music production to be a slightly more exciting

Given how little time I've had to do anything recently, I certainly haven't been able to make time for new music.  So this means that this week's podcast is a little backward-facing really, looking at some of the 80s and 90s music I was into at the time - not the most famous stuff, just some of the stuff I personally liked the best, of course.Back when I was at Uni in the 90s, when 80s music was utterly reviled, I remember making a tape of 80s music I thought was good, and really, really enjoying it.  Had I made a similar tape for the 90s a few years back, when they too were taking their turn at the bottom of the pile, then bands like Arnold, The Delgados (although they straddled the 90s and the 00s), Yo La Tengo, Eels and Clem Snide would have been right in there.I can't quite bring myself to do the same for the early 2000s just yet, but they too will inevitably be hated in their turn. If you doubt me, just mention The Killers, Razorlight, The Ordinary Boys, Hard-fi or The Libertines to any self-respecting m

The Stagcast is a confused, late and distinctly creepy podcast.  There are a few reasons for this, and they all sound vaguely like the making of inadequate excuses but umm… well, I hope you'll hear me out.Firstly, and most creepily, this was recorded in a small flat in Holland surrounded by sleeping people.  So to avoid waking anyone up I ended up speaking largely under my breath.  The result, instead of the tact and sensitivity for which I was hoping, was pretty much the radio debut of the Toad Paedo Voice.  Hooray.  Super. And on top of that, just to make things even more awkward, there is some Bon Jovi.  I think - or at least I dearly fucking hope - that this is a first for the Toadcasts, but nevertheless you can believe me when I say that this makes me as uncomfortable as it does you.  Want to know who to blame?  The fucker getting married next weekend who will probably prevent me getting next week's podcast done punctually as well.  What a bastard. 01. The Pixies - Where is My Mind (00.16)02. Ryan Adams

Yes, mosherama!  This podcast draws its name, slightly sadly, not from the fact that I have been in one insane moshpit after another this week, which might have been quite cool, but from the rather more mundane circumstance that I have simply been to quite a lot of gigs. I did mosh, in a sense. In the fat, sad old man sense that I stood sort of in the middle and nodded my head vaguely in time to the music.  I know, I know, who will save society from such excess? This must be a job for Carol Vorderman. Defeatist self-mockery aside, I genuinely did see three fantastic gigs one after another this week, so the podcast is going to reflect this.  Once again we have multiple Grandaddy songs, which means my fandom is probably tipping the balance into sad, slavering fanboy territory but umm... well, it's too late for me to make a last-minute scramble for dignity anyway, so fuck it, they were absolutely fucking amazing and you are just going to have to sit through it and pretend to love them as much as I do. 01. Granda

The Curiocast because there are indeed some odd little bits and pieces on this week's podcast.  Listen to it and you might not notice much different - it's not exactly shocking or all that strange or anything like that, but there are most certainly a few odd little things here and there.Geographically, we have music from Karachi, Vienna and Novosibirsk.  Genre-wise, we have some of the first R&B(ish) music ever to appear on a Toadcast and then we end with seven minutes of choral folk singing performed in Hamilton Mausoleum, reputed to have the longest echo of any building in the world.  So none of it will knock you off your feet in a 'what the flying fuck is that?' sort of a way, but there's definitely some odd little bits and pieces on this week's podcast.  Which I like.01. Toy - Motoring (00.27)02. Angel Olsen - Tiniest Seed (08.14)03. Bagel Project - Back and Forth (15.44)04. OverUnda - She Falls to the Floor (17.35)05. Sun Stains - Fortify Perfect (24.09)06. Menomena - Heavy is as Heavy Does (28.59)07

This weekend I was dragged down to the Beacons Festival in Yorkshire because pals of mine had spare tickets and umm... well, I figured why the fuck not.  Also, go to the website and take a look at that lineup. Amazing!So yes, at five o'clock on Friday morning, five lads all over six feet tall squished  their way into a Ford fucking Focus and pootled on four hours down the motorway into deepest, darkest Yorkshire. We even got the 'Ee, ba gum' treatment in the café we stopped at for a bacon sarnie on the way down.Anyhow, this podcast features bands we saw over the weekend, and given the hipster-friendly lineup at the festival should prove to be a rather hipster-friendly podcast as well, after the relative (and shameful) lack of interest show in last week's comedy, I reckon this should prove rather more successful.  My inner hipster is certainly excited.01. Fawn Spots - Spanish Glass (00.05)02. Juffage - Small Fires (Viola Version) (06.57)03. Best Friends - Break My Neck (14.22)04. King Krule - The Noose of Jah

This podcast, I suppose I am going to have to accept from the start, really isn't going to be for everyone, is it.  There is plenty of music in here, but not all that much which would make it onto a regular Toadcast. Mixed in with those few more traditional tunes is a little musical comedy, a genre with which I have a very patchy relationship indeed, and also some outright stand-up. It's the Edinburgh Festival and some friends and I were talking about how we generally avoid the whole boiling pot of shit, but that there were some comedians we would make an effort to see nevertheless. Because, with the exception of Stewart Lee, I don't have any of their stuff this isn't about people I may or may not see here in August just some stuff by comedians I happen to a/ like and b/ happen to have handy (because I am lazy).  So it may not be the usual cutting edge hipster tunefest, but it's still a very good podcast if you're into this sort of shit.  Plus it's a nice change.  So deal with it.01. Richard Cheese - Rape Me

 I have named the Nursecast in honour of the fact that Mrs. Toad has been unthreateningly but rather inconveniently ill for the last few days and I have been nursing her gently back to health.  And by nursing of course I mean taking the opportunity to lounge around in bed next to her and watch stupid videos while she suffers.  I know, I know, I'm a gem.We have a couple of new and exciting announcements from Tom Waits and Jason Lytle on this podcast, as well as a rather interesting-sounding new band from about as far North in Scotland as it is possible to get before you fall into the sea and have to paddle frantically for Iceland.And, just to cheer us all up, the sun has finally come out, which is at least some consolation for the fact that the Edinburgh International Festival of Overpriced Shit landed on us last week, and will have to now be studiously avoided for the next month01. Texas Tea - Heart Says Yes (Head Says No) (00.26)02. Tom Waits - I Breathe Better Underwater (05.40)03. Jason Lytle - Dept. of Di

So, as I said last week, we should now be stumbling back to something vaguely resembling equilibrium here at Song, by Toad.  The releases are out, nowt else has a fixed date, we're cruising into Summer and dammit I better find something to do soon before I get a fit of the lazies.  Which is what happens to me when I have too little to do.So this podcast is a fairly normal trip through a pile of shiny new songs, with a brief detour to mark the occasion of Mrs. Toad and I celebrating our sixth anniversary, which we did this weekend just past. Dress Sexy at My Funeral may sound like a rather inappropriate song for an anniversary, but I like it nevertheless.  The sentiment has a certain degree of 'fuck you' to it, which is one of the things which makes our relationship rather fun to be in, from my perspective. And as I said when introducing the Billy Bragg song, it's a funny thing to think that Mrs. Toad and I first met at school as fifteen year olds.  And presumably back then we were just normal high school kids

Wow.  I am just - only just, mind you - about back in my right mind after the Fence Collective's awesome Away Game Festival on the Isle of Eigg.  After spending three days in the Inner Hebrides, embracing Scotland's talent for wildly variable weather to its absolute fullest, we journeyed back yesterday, stopping off to record a Vic Galloway session for BBC Radio Scotland.That meant we got back in around one in the morning, and after eight hours' kip and a very long, very hot shower, I now feel just about ready to face the world again.  Not to take in on in a carpe diem, up and attem boy sort of a way, just ready, just about, to handle real life once more.This podcast is, as I assume you will have noticed by now, going to be all about Away Game, with all but a couple of the songs by bands I saw play at the Festival.  And what a fucking awesome festival it was.  Well played Eigg, and well played Fence. 01. Water World - Catch Yrself (00.26) 02. King Creosote - Not One Bit Ashamed (07.09) 03. OLO Worms - Strays

Delivered to you live(ish) from Istria, welcome to Toadcast No. 233, the Crocast, recorded whilst travelling some of Europe's prettiest coastline.Or sort.  Actually it is recorded in one of the most horrendous resort complexes either of us has ever seen, but this is just a mere stop on the way; tomorrow we shall be travelling some of Europe's prettiest coastline! We even managed to turn up at the rent-a-car place with an expired driving license and credit card which didn't actually work, and they still gave us a car without so much as blinking.  This is an awesome holiday!  Tonight: buttery, garlicky grilled fish and dry white wine.  And actually, the local dry whites, despite us hearing awful reports about Istrian white wine, have been really good so far.  As you can probably tell from this podcast.01. Vadoinmessico - Archaeology of the Future (00.45)02. Murals - Eyes of Love (09.20)03. Sharon Van Etten - Kevin's (20.49)04. The Lovely Sparrows - While Sailing (24.55)05. Errors - Relics (33.24)06. Buttonhead

This was originally supposed to be called something vaguely phlegm-related, due to the amount of hacking and coughing I have been doing over the course of the last few days.  It's the reason this podcast never appeared on Sunday or Monday, that's for sure, and had I tried to record it then you'd have just heard me growling my way through links like I was auditioning to replace that guy who does the voiceovers for all those macho trailers in Hollywood."Forced to choose between his old ways and the family he would do anything to protect" - that kind of shit, y'know?Anyhow, sitting in muggy Edinburgh while rain interrupts play at Wimbledon, and with a rather odd tennis-themed song on this week's playlist I figured The Ballscast would be more suitable.  I am not fussed about tennis at all, but being back at my grandparents' house in Manchester during the Summer holidays and watching Wimbledon is a rather significant childhood memory for me. As was then going out to play tennis on my Granddad's carefully cultivate

Despite this being called the Applecast (imaginative, don't you think?) and being recorded in New York, it has preciously little to do with anything American.  We just happen to be here at the moment. As soon as I record and publish this I will be heading out to watch England's inevitable hard-luck story as we go out of the Euros to Italy in the quarter finals, as seems to be traditional with England. And then I get on a ferry to the Governor's Ball, which is a music festival on Randall's Island, which looks like it will be rather fun. Mrs. Toad might actually be able to get a three-month secondment out here, which might be fun.  We'd have to find some way of making sure the cats were fed in our absence, and that the house was looked after in general, but given I can basically work from a laptop pretty much anywhere, it seems like it would be a really rather fun thing to do, don't you reckon? The Song, by Toad Records New York office! 01. Milk Maid - Stir So Slow (Toad Session) (00.16)02. New Fabian Society -

So, I know what you're all thinking (well, those of you that give a shit anyway).  Yes, that's right, last week, for the first time in about three years, I missed a weekly edition of this podcast.  I can whinge about excuses all I like, but you don't really care do you?  Suffice to say that I genuinely was too busy. Or, I suppose, too hungover. Because there was a window - one, tiny, podcast-recording-shaped window of time - where I could actually have got the damn thing done, in the middle of the afternoon in Iceland, before the England game I suppose I might have been able to squeeze it in but you know what?  Yes, I bottled it.  I bottled it because I was hungover. I know.  I feel the shame. So there you go, whinging out of the way, let's get on with this week's music choices. 01. Adam Stafford - Vanishing Tanks (00.07) 02. Kate Nash - Underestimate the Girl (10.37) 03. Glass Animals - Cocoa Hooves (18.11) 04. Eagulls - Coffin (22.25) 05. David Byrne & St. Vincent - Who (27.35) 06. Loch Awe - The Diamon

It's Jubi-fucking-lee weekend, so whilst we are all engaging in various levels of plotting against the Royal Family and being resentfully grateful for a couple of days off.  Although given we've had this fucking pantomime and that grotesque carnival of obsequiousness and vulgarity of a Royal Wedding, surely we wouldn't have to be pillaging old people's pensions if we'd just made the fuckers pay for it all themselves, and kept the people's money in the people's coffers. Mind you, given that their hands are permanently in the fucking public purse anyway, the idea of 'their money' and 'our money' is a little blurred.  Burn the fucking lot of them I say.  Burn them alive and do it in public. Why?  Because having done away with inherited rule, we now have another stratum of unelected persons running countries, in the form of the pornographically super-rich.  Burning the Royal Family alive might just serve as a warning to the bankers that we like the people who run the country to actually be fucking accountable, th

The Philcast is named after the detestable little Tory weasel Phil Collins, as a result of this comment on this post by James who writes Appetite for Distraction.  So you can all blame him. In addition to Phil Collins, we have some Phil Spector, Phil Ochs, Phil & the Osophers and, somewhat more tenuously, Esther Phillips.  Also, for some utterly inexplicable reason, the Spider Man theme song came up when I searched my iTunes library for 'Phil'.  Any ideas?  Was it written by Phil Phillips from Philadelphia? Also, we have the first 'Fucking Preposterous Song of the Week', in the form of Phil Collins' Easy Lover.  For reasons of being a fuckwit, mostly, I suppose, I'd quite like to make this a regular feature.  Next week Turn Around Bright Eyes by Bonni Tyler or Hello by Lionel Richie - whaddaya reckon! 01. Billy Bragg - I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night (01.20) 02. Phil Ochs - Jim Dean of Indiana (08.20) 03. Pet - Black Arts (15.49) 04. Money - So Long (God is Dead) (20.10) 05. Phil Collins - Easy Lover

Seeing as we are in Canada for the weekend (dear thieves, the house is not unoccupied, and the lad staying there is a fighty little fucker), I figured some Canadian songs might be in order.  I am actually half-Canadian, which is a bit odd, because I've never actually lived there.  So it's always weird coming here, to a country I'm technically from, but which I really don't know at all. Given we played Born Gold, Odonis Odonis, Slow Down Molasses and Hot Panda on last week's show, however, I figured that was probably enough new Canadian bands for the time being, although the excellent Hooded Fang did sneak on this one at the beginning. But mostly, apart from the more usual new stuff I tend to play, I've included a handful of nostalgic songs by Canadian bands, most of which I haven't listened to in quite a long time.  And I must say it was sort of nice to look this stuff up again, after so long. 01. Hooded Fang - E.S.P. (00.44)02. The Tragically Hip - Ahead By a Century (09.26)03. UMA - Drop Your Soul (feat. Si