5 Minutes To Midnight

The entirety of my music collection and all of my various musical equipment are to be split wisely amongst John Skrbina, Kyle Landstra, and Sean Ronan. My books and DVDs go to Peter Barlow. Aaron Miller may have my clothes, if he so desires them, but Pamela Satchwell gets first pick on the sweaters. Jes Palace may have whatever she finds in my jacket pockets (search them thoroughly). It is my wish that John collects all of my music off of the Fostex (I will leave it to him to decide how best to mix all of the unfinished tracks) to be put up on the internet in some form. Also to Pamela Satchwell, I leave a crushed penny, a memento of little significance to anyone but myself, a reminder of why I was given life in the first place. You will find it on my nightstand if my body is found as well. To my friends, please play my music for my parents. It is a side of me that they are aware existed, but knew too little about.

Songs to be played at my funeral:
"Song to the Siren" by Tim Buckley (the acoustic version would be nice)
"Sometimes" by My Bloody Valentine
"One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong" by Leonard Cohen
"Anywhere I Lay My Head" by Tom Waits
"I Couldn't Say It To Your Face" by Arthur Russell
My friends should feel free to perform some sort of improvised jam in my memory.

If you can afford it, turn my body into diamonds and give them to the Satchwells.

I'm sure anything else you can come up with would be most satisfactory.

Xmas und Merriweather

Well, I got the leak of the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavilion. The first listen went pretty well, but I'm thinking I need to try it out on headphones before I can form a more solid opinion. Seems better (or at least more interesting) than Strawberry Jam, so that is a good sign.
In other news, I recorded a cheesey Christmas song complete with an off-key melodica solo and I may be uploading that little gem pretty soon, so check back.
Merry Christmas,
Toad

oh nothin'

in the spirit of fun songs with ridiculous videos...

Video of the Year

Here's my vote for music video of the year: "Jackie O" by A Faulty Chromosome

Update

Hey there few people who read this blog on occasion,
It's been awhile since I've given you the scoop on recent Toad affairs. There has been a lot going on lately and I've been very busy with both my artistic and academic endeavors. First off, a few months ago I emailed noise deity Dom Fernow (aka Prurient) asking for a critique of the copy of In Secret Winter I gave him at his show back in September. He finally got back to me a few days ago, and I must say, I was more than delighted to hear what he had to say. Embarrassingly enough, only a day earlier I had tried to get in touch with Mike Connelly of Wolf Eyes/Hair Police, whining like a little bitch and asking his permission to send him some Toad stuff for critique (I met him at the same show). Anyways, thanks Dom, and sorry Mike.
Sometime last week I decided to reboot good ol' Livonia Records, this time on wordpress. The site is practically fully functional, all I need to do now is make the catalog available for download. Everything will be free and juicy and worth your while. Check it out: http://livoniarecords.wordpress.com
Finally, Wise Owl Records was kind enouogh to release Screech Tax. It's a web label with a simlar M.O. as Livonia Records, but unlike Livonia Records, it actually gets some traffic. Check that out here: www. wiseowlrecords.com