Saturday, December 13, 2008

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the Spill…



I recorded this last weekend and, listening back to some of it just now, I realise that may have been a mistake as I was suffering from a bit of a cold at the time, as a result of which my usually crystal clear voice is rather more muffled than I’d like it to be.

Anyway, this is ToffeeBean 2 in all its glory. The more observant among you will have noticed that there are three parts to this particular Bean – two half-hour long helpings of music and chat, with a quiz thrown into the mix for good measure, forming the meat in a Toffee-flavoured sandwich.

Hopefully, those of you who don’t want to listen to the podcast will at least join in the fun by taking part in the first ever ToffeeBean quiz.

Let me know what you think...

33 comments:

TracyK said...

I know loads of these, plus I can identify several singers but not the songs. However, I'll do the middle section and give everyone else a sporting chance!

6: Placebo doing Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill
7; Gene doing REM's Nightswimming
8: Flaming Lips' Version of I Just Can't Get You Out Of My Head, by Kylie

Now to listen to the cast itself: ooh, cracking Ben Folds starter...I like very much!

TracyK said...

Listened to the whole thing now, albeit in completely the wrong order (quiz, part 2, part 1) and thorughly enjoyed every moment. That Little Feat track was an eye-opener, especially and I loved the doo wop track too. And it wasn't DsD recognising James, that was me. VERY dark in there indeed! It's very rare to find someone who knows about early James: weren't they strange? Anyhoo, top notch work Toffee!

sourpus said...

Here's my shout for the Toffee quiz:

1) Orange Juice's Felicity by The Wedding Present
2) Morrissey's Everyday is like sunday by 10,000 Maniacs
3) Tom Wait's Downtown Train by Everything but the Girl
4) Bjork's Venus as a Boy by (I think) Corinne Bailey Rae
5) Jim Reeves' He'll have to go by Prefab Sprout
6) Kate Bush's Running up that hill by Placebo
7) REM's Nightswimming by Gene
8) Kylie's Cant get you out of my head by The Flaming Lips
9) Al Green's L.O.V.E by Orange Juice
10) Oasis's Wonderwall...hmmm...its only a vague guess but is this the infamous Paul Anka version?

How'd I do?

Blimpy said...

OOOOOOOOOOOoooooh quizzles!!

Let's have a shot then!!

......Bugger. I know most of the songs, but not the cover artists. Unless the last one is Mike Flowers Pops?

Blimpy said...

Oh, and Yay! for another Toffeebean!! I love Spillers' podcasts the most!

And also, a Ben Folds song I like! That's a first for me!!

Also also I didn't know the Spinners originally did "it's a shame". Shame on me indeed....

Blimpy said...

Talking of covers, grimey cheese monger Lethal Bizzle has a pop at "it's a shame"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErVtKoHbe6w

ToffeeBoy said...

@ TracyK - glad youy liked it - and congratulations on getting 9 out of 9 on the quiz answers plus the early James identification. My little crowd of friends were big fans of James - particularly the first two EPs - and the band I played in at the time were heavily influenced by them. It was a surprise to all of us when they became such huge indie-pop stars.

That Ben Folds song is one of my favourites of his but I love the whole Songs for Silverman. Have you got the new album yet? It's on my Christmas list...

@ sourpus - you are hereby banned from all future Toffee quizzes. 28 out of 29 for you - and blimpy has provided the 29th answer. I'll just have to make the next one a bit harder. Do you have access to my iTunes?????

@ Blimpy - thanks for the encouragement. I genuinely wouldn't/couldn't have done it without you. I've always loved the idea of doing radio shows (I even toyed with hospital radio many years ago but didn't get anything off the ground) so the 'Spill has given me an opportunity to fullfil one of my life ambitions. Before I get too gushing (and I guarantee that I am not drunk at 10 o'clock in the morning!), I'd just like to say 'thank you' for the 'Spill - it has added so much to my life this year. Readers Recommend is, of course, a wonderful thing but the 'Spill is something special. There, I've said it...

TracyK said...

I would have got 23 points in total, though I thought Wonderwall was the Mike Flowers version? Again, a fab podcast, I'm in awe of people what can work technology and everything.

My friend, a music teacher, is a fellow Ben Folds fan and is, ahem, wishing me a copy for Xmas. I never 'got' him till I saw him supprt The Divine Comedy at Shep's Bush Empire when me and Jon were 'courting' and the live version of Army just did it for me. He and Neil covered The Falming Lips Race For The Prize and Careless Whisper at the gig, excellent stuff, though I was very disappointed in DC otherwise. One of my few big gig letdowns. I bought James' Stripmining and Hymn To A Village from the tiny record shop in Aberystwyth when I was a student and love them. I still get snotty about the reissued Goldmother and a continue my crush on Tim Booth. Have you got their Hey Ma! lp? I can really recommend it, Andy Diagram is all over it, and it's a very strong contender for my lp of the year.

sourpus said...

Toffee, Perchance, i'd heard (or read somewhere about - im a big Uncut/Mojo/Word reader, with a subscription to all three here in Hungary) most of the songs before - I also recognised (all but one it seems) of the vocalists. After that it was just putting the pieces together.

Before you ban me from your terrific quizzes in future though, i'd ask you to consider that we may have a certain taste overlap. I have ever been a fan of the Prefabs, Morrissey, 10,000 Maniacs, Orange Juice, Tom Waits, REM, Bjork, Kate Bush and Al Green - maybe an age thing too, although (as I think I mentioned elsewhere) I didnt have such a positive view of the 80's myself and ended up having no real 'era' of my own - just a bunch of them. The music of the 80's though, I loved as you.

Listening to your podcasts though, I can tell there is a lot you can teach me (to paraphrase The Name of the Game).

My advice would be to set a quiz which explores the real back woods of the 80's (so many of us eschewed the mainstream during that decade) and preferably the best of the Noughties. There was quite a chunk of Noughties music (pre-YouTube, although im catching up daily) which I never got round to hearing and only read about.

Give me a second chance! Remember where I am - stuck out here with no decent live music at all! Hungarians dont seem to have much interest in it.

Take pity, sir. (sourpus)

Anonymous said...

Frustratingly, I haven't been able to get PodBean to play anything all weekend.

Obv too late for quiz, but still trying to listen, TB.

Anonymous said...

Finally finished fighting with my PC and listening to TB2. As Tracy said, it definitely WASN'T me lurking in the dark corner muttering "That's James, that is." I'm afraid I only became a fan with their conversion to singalong festi-pop anthems. I have supposedly seen them once - supporting The Smiths - but we spent too long in the bar, and walked in to the auditorium just in time to see Tim Booth walk off as they finished!

:o(

Oh, and you're a braver man than I re the totally-random TB3. If I ever do master Audacity, I'll probably spend longer sweating over which tunes to include (on my podcast debut) than Blue Nile do over recording&releasing entire albums!!! ZERO chance of me [honestly] committing to playing whatever my player throws out.

Blimpy said...

@toffeeboy - thanks for the kind comments; i agree with them entirely - but from my perspective towards the other spill members. i wouldn't be writing about music or doing podcasts if it wasn't for the other spillers reading/listening. and god knows i love it. the spill has been bloody fantastic all year, and never ceases to surprise and amaze me.

@DsD - get a mac, please, it's nearly 2009 for crying out loud!!

ToffeeBoy said...

@ TracyK - sounds like a gig and a half! I don't suppose there's a live recording around somewhere...

@ sourpus - OK - consider yourself rehabilitated! You've given me some good ideas for a future 80s-based quiz...

@ DsD - I'm very worried about the next ToffeeBean - I did a dry run the other day and my iPod let me down badly - I may have to introduce some rules and regulations - i.e. cheats! Perhaps everyone on the Spill should get together and contribute to new technology fund for you - alternatively, you could give up on your Sinclair ZX80...

@ Blimpy - are we approaching the 'Spill's birthday? If so, do you have any ideas about how to celebrate it?

Blimpy said...

Yes indeed, the 'Spill's first birthday should be the 8th of January, and we should PARTY!

steenbeck said...

Toffeeboy, I haven't had time to listen, but I intend to. And I keep forgetting to say that I heard most of your first podcast (I've said it before and I'll say it again, with 2 little ones I can't stay in the same room for any length of time, so "most" is quite an achievement) and really enjoyed it. I liked your voice and your musical selection. Hopefully tomorrow for the next.

Maybe the 8th can be our 'Spill holiday party. It's a Thursday so many people over there are up late and online anyway. And I'm always glad of an excuse to start drinking early...

Luke-sensei said...

More good stuff Toffeeboy. Will be definitely be investigating Mcarthy (? Macarthy??) , liked what I heard and loved the description of them...

Luke-sensei said...

oh...forgot to say, keep the podcasts coming!

Abahachi said...

Sorry for the delay in getting round to listen to this; flood waters finally receded, so we could deposit cats and head over to Surrey for a deeply uncomfortable weekend with Aged Parents... so this is a nice palliative, esp. the wonderful Divine Comedy. And I have told Amber that she now has serious competition in the noisy podcast interruption stakes.

Abahachi said...

Oh yes, 1 of 3, all boys. Didn't mean to say anything disparaging about middle children; my (obviously highly subjective) view was that 'middle child syndrome' was trotted out as an excuse for my brother's behaviour, whereas in practice I was largely left to my own devices while he got the lion's share of attention. Oh, the joys of family holidays, and obviously this is why I regard all impending festivities, Christmas included, with a sense of dread.

ToffeeBoy said...

@ Japanther - glad you liked McCarthy - ironically named after the Senator of that name. Their greatest hits album, That's All Very Well But... is well worth checking out.

@ Abahachi - yes, Dumbo causes me all sorts of imaginary trouble. Actually, we have a cat, called Misty who is very much of the Bagpuss school.

I suppose we all feel that we suffered as children, to the benefit of our siblings. I actually got on very well with my older brother (16 months older) whereas my younger brother (four years younger) tended to be left out of things. In fact we were always referred to as the boys and John - which somehow, never seemed odd at the time...

ToffeeBoy said...

@ steenbeck - hope you've had a chance to listen to ToffeeBean #2 by now. My two are now aged 16 and 14 and don't need me at all! Make sure you enjoy and appreciate every golden moment.

ejaydee said...

I'd been looking for the song in the "Would You Like Some Cheese?" segment. What is it?

ejaydee said...

Oh, you just answered by question. Hold on, I didn't catch the title.

ToffeeBoy said...

@ ejaydee - it's What A Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers. Enjoy...

ejaydee said...

Here's why I was looking for it Toffee:
http://www.last.fm/music/MF+DOOM/_/Arabic+Gum

ToffeeBoy said...

@ ejaydee - lovely. Thank you...

steenbeck said...

I finally had time to listen and I loved every minute. Wonderful music and Smooooooooth narration. Thanks, ToffeeBoy.

ToffeeBoy said...

@ steenbeck - And thank you too. Just in case it wasn't entirely clear, when I said "Make sure you enjoy and appreciate every golden moment." I was referring to parenthood and not the ToffeeBean!!!!

steenbeck said...

I knew what you meant, ToffeeBean, and I do try to appreciate every moment. It's already unbelievable to me how big my 6-year-old is. Speaking of children, I liked the Ben Folds song in your podcast. I have an album of his on my iTunes, but I don't listen to it very often. Not sure why.

ToffeeBoy said...

@ steenbeck - tee hee - you called me ToffeeBean!!

steenbeck said...

Oops, TB (to be safe) AND that was before I'd had two glasses of wine and no food, which is where I am now...

Mnemonic said...

I got to this very late and just loved that Richard Sinclair track. What would you recommend as a good starter album?

ToffeeBoy said...

@ Mnemonic - there are only two Hatfield & The North albums - Hatfield & The North and The Rotters Club. Both are equally good but I couldn't say hand-on-heart that the track I played is at all typical of them. They're a strange mix of prog-rock, modern-jazz, distorted-guitar-noise and, of course, pure pop - I wouldn't want to mislead anyone into thinking that It Didn't Matter Anyway was a good example of what they were all about. Richard Sinclair was also in Caravan and The Land Of Grey And Pink has lots of his contributions on it.