Hello again from Brighton. Ian and I are down at the Great Escape again this year, and will be joined later in the week by Mrs. Toad. I like The Great Escape. Brighton is an awesome place to be, which is important if you're going to try and lure Mrs. Toad to a music festival. In some ways I prefer it to SXSW, because they don't really focus on big-name headliners here, meaning that it really is all about new music and up and coming bands. At least, that makes it more fun for me personally, [...]
Alright, this can't really be an album review, as such, mostly because even by my standards it would be unusually late for an album released back in 1970 - five years before I was even born. It's an album I've listened to more than any other recently, however, so as I sit down to write something about music today it's hard to get away from this, and eventually I just thought fuck it, why not. It's my blog after all, and it's not like I have advertisers to disappoint. After the early days of leaving crisp [...]
A little while ago Coda - the music shop on The Mound which specialises mostly in folk and roots music - got in touch with me to ask about stocking some of our records in their new vinyl room, which they opened on Record Store Day. I was running around like a blue-arsed fly on Record Store Day itself, so I didn't get the chance to pop up and have a look, and due to parking in that part of town being mental I had to stay with the van and didn't even get [...]
As you may know by now, every year Mrs. Toad manages the lifeboats collection in Stockbridge, and every year we try and bribe you into coming and helping us to collect money for what rather shockingly remains a volunteer service. This year the collection is on Saturday 27th April, and we'd be really grateful if you were to volunteer to come along and help out. Whilst the goodness of your heart would be appreciated, we don't expect you to help us out for that reason alone of course, and we will bribe you with booze and food. Mrs. [...]
I think you get 9 out of 10 on the hipster scale for VIP passes to Youth Lagoon , don't you? You better, anyway, because young Ian pretty much had a hipstergasm when this happened to us yesterday. I don't even know the band that well, but everyone I know seems to love them, so I was very much looking forward to seeing them play, and they really were bloody excellent. While last year it seemed like I was kind of done with music after a couple of days, this year I've managed [...]
Well, yesterday was the last of the serious stuff, and today the madness commences. I went to a couple of talks yesterday, but they weren't that serious, and by the evening the music had kicked off in earnest and this morning I have my first official SXSW Stinking Hangover. Joyous. Firstly, I dragged myself out of bed at 10am to see A Conversation With Nick Cave . I wouldn't do that for just anyone, and for a while I wasn't convinced I was going to get in, such was the queue. Fortunately young Ian was there before [...]
So, the first couple of days of SXSW and where are we? Well, I don't really want to bore you with too much stuff, so these entries for the next few days will be pretty brief. Deep down, for me and Mrs. Toad, this is a week of holiday in Austin, one of the nicest US cities we've visited, and a mile away from the middle-American nightmares she tends to visit on business. We're here on holiday, to have some fun, to eat some amazing food, and to wander around in a pleasant sunshine a long way removed [...]
This is a press release I genuinely just received: "Band that this release is about has done nothing noteworthy, but by sending a press release, would like you to believe that they have. They’re (Choose one) [making waves, turning heads, breaking the mold, or gaining national attention]! (Please note the exclamation point as a mark of enthusiasm that you should share). "“Made up quote about the recording process,” says band member, who plays guitar. “Secondary quote with less merit than the first.” "Over the [...]
Mrs. Toad and I tend to ignore Valentine's Day. That's not to say that we are scrooges when it comes to romance, in fact I would say exactly the opposite, but for us the compulsory nature of it doesn't feel very romantic. Everyone's different, but we'd rather take our sentimentality when it naturally wells up during the normal working week, which is actually pretty frequently, so we don't exactly miss out by missing out. We also, as I suppose do most couples, have a few songs which have ended up being strongly associated with our relationship for a [...]
...aaaand finally, the top five albums which I enjoyed the most in 2012. A couple of these suffered a bit from being released neither on tape nor vinyl - the two formats to which I listen the most - and one benefited immeasurably from being in the van constantly for months. Nevertheless, these things are always subjective and in a way it doesn't much matter about the details, for whatever reason I have enjoyed these albums the most, and that's that. There are plenty more awesome records out there to which I have never even listened, I am [...]
Well, after illness has kept me away from the internet for a few days, I am finally back to finish off this particular list. I had my first ever bad oyster, would you believe. Given the long and happy relationship I've had with oysters over the years, I feel personally offended - how dare you do this to me after I have so lovingly scarfed down hundreds and hundreds of your slippery, salty brethren? Have you no sense of gratitude? Apparently not. Anyhow, back to the list of the twenty albums I enjoyed the most [...]
Four years ago today we launched our recurring God Street Wednesdays column with the title of "Bring Back God Street Wine" begging for the band's return after ten years of retirement. It's been unbelievable that since the launch of the column the original members of the group have played a total of seventeen shows and performed with the likes of Leo Nocentelli, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh. The last of these performances took place last night at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, Calif. where GSW and Phil and Friends finished a three-night stand of West Coast Rambles. [...]
We hereby begin the very belated countdown of Song, by Toad's favourite albums of 2012. As I alluded to before, family issues prevented me publishing this in my usual slot between Christmas and New Year, so the end of January will have to do. Actually, if I were to try and spin this I think I'd make a play for the moral high ground by pointing out how ludicrous it is to publish a Best Of list in early fucking November, and that therefore my list must be far superior because I have sensibly waited until the year [...]
Well by now you presumably know that HMV called in the administrators the other week, meaning that they stumble ever closer to their demise. You may well also know that apart from the major entertainment companies desperately trying to keep them alive , there are a number of interested bidders eyeing up parts of the company , so HMV probably won't die altogether, but so what if it did? Believe me, I have a lot of friends working there and our label sells a lot of records in HMV, so when I say 'so what?' I [...]
Well well well, the voting for the song of the year was indeed done by a rather hometown audience, with the new Meursault album dominating, and only one song in the top five coming from outside our own wee corner of the Scottish music scene. The votes were genuinely all over the place as well. The Walkmen deserve some sympathy for having loads of songs in the voting, but not enough going to one specific one to register on the leader board, and it was the same for a lot of stuff, as votes didn't seem to really [...]
Apologies for my tardiness in publishing this, but we've had some family difficulties around these parts recently, which has rather disrupted the normally relentless efficiency with which this operation normally functions. Anyhow, the annual Toad Cup has been awarded this year by our readers, to their favourite five albums of 2012, and here are the lucky winners. It's worth noting a couple of things first though, just out of interest. Firstly, despite my considerable interest in what I suppose you could call hipster guitar music, there is very little of this sort of stuff on the [...]
Har brugt lidt tid her til formiddag med at uddele stjerner i bunker på Spotify …med lidt assistance fra min last.fm profil , hvor jeg har efterladt digitale fingeraftryk siden februar 2005! Mere end 100.000 streams er det blevet til og jeg må nok erkende, at der blandt mine 500 "overall top tracks" er en enkelt eller to, jeg har glemt alt (ALT) om. I nogle tilfælde føles det næsten skandaløst at jeg har kunnet glemme dem (som fx nedenstående (nedenpostede?) popperle fra svenske Moonbabies [...]
Every year the BBC announce an unspeakable abortion of a list of bands who they tip to 'make it' in the coming year, and with a very few exceptions the contents of that list can be summed up in the phrase 'where music goes to die'. Ask people like me, however, and what you get is indubitably the Right Answer. After all, I wouldn't bother writing this blog if it wasn't obvious that I am the only person in the world who knows what good music actually is. Or, erm, something like that anyway. Or, to [...]
Well umm... that was fun! As you know, we were down at the Independent Label Market in London this weekend - the first time we've been asked. Our label was founded on the back of a blog, and I live in Edinburgh, so our fans and customers have tended to be a combination of locals and people who exist solely 'on the internet'. Going to a new place like London and expecting anyone to give a shit wasn't exactly a cast iron recipe for success. Between Rob St. John and Meursault, however, as well as the tour to [...]
I am very, very pleased with these! For those of you in London, come and get some of the cupcakes above and the beer pictured below at the Independent Label Market tomorrow where we will have a stall. I think we are sort of the Fanny Price of the event however, as the song we were asked for was cut from the promotional compilation and they never published the Q&A with us either, but if you all turn up and buy records tomorrow (which you will, WON'T YOU?) then that won't matter at all. So for those even [...]
Song, by Toad
Hidden Track
Hits In The Car
Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull 'Live It Up': video ufficiale e testo
The National – Graceless
Camera Obscura - Fifth In Line To The Throne free MP3
