Category: Music

My favourite songs of the year so far (IV)

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As of August I’d picked off my 18 favourite songs of the year so far:

  • neko case . middle cyclone
  • von bondies . chancer
  • dan auerbach . heartbroken, in disrepair
  • john frusciante . unreachable
  • heartless bastards . be so happy
  • and you will know us by the trail of dead . ascending
  • and you will know us by the trail of dead . fields of coal
  • ume . the conductor
  • thermals . when i died
  • william elliott whitmore . old devils
  • yeah yeah yeahs . heads will roll
  • japandroids . heart sweats
  • great lake swimmers . still
  • rural alberta advantage . the dethbridge in lethbridge
  • antlers . two
  • antlers . kettering
  • lightning dust . i knew
  • now, now every children . everyone you know

Five more have made the grade:

  • wye oak . tattoo
  • wye oak . mary is mary
  • drummer . mature fantasy
  • drummer . diamonds to shake
  • xx . crystalised

I suppose this means my ‘best songs of 2009’ list won’t really be a surprise when I post it in December.

Right here what we've had is a good thing and it will last

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Friday night Nellie and I went to see The Rural Alberta Advantage (site | myspace) at Lee’s Palace with Joe and Sheila (who must be gold member frequent RAA concert miles collectors by now). I’d heard loads about their shows, as they play Toronto a lot, but decided I had to experience it for myself.

Because of a birthday dinner we were late getting up to Lee’s and showed up at the tail end of the set by second opener Bahamas (myspace), just in time for a singalong cover of “Purple Rain”, which I did not see coming from a guy wearing a mesh-back Larvacide hat.

Then, the main event. As I said, I’d already heard about RAA shows: even more rapid-fire than their album, with a surplus of sweat and emotion. The benefit of actually being there, though, is the little extras: understanding how it is that Paul Banwatt’s drum sound is so tight, seeing all the blood rush to singer Nils Edenloff’s face and neck as he wailed through some of the more challenging choruses, realizing how Amy Cole makes accent and harmony core to the songs instead of just adding bells and whistles.

Of course they ran the table on Hometowns, but played some new stuff as well. There was even a cover of the Littlest Hobo theme song, cementing my assertion last month that they’re the most Canadian band playing today. The set was short, but I was still sweaty and happy when they closed with The Dethbridge in Lethbridge after an hour or so. I also somehow found myself missing Alberta terribly, even though I’ve only been there twice. I came home and started flipping through travel books about Peter Lougheed Provincial Park and mapping the route to Frank, AB.

Great show, great time. I feel more Canadian now than I did when I woke up Friday morning.

[all linked photos by Chromewaves, who I finally met on Friday and thanked, essentially for being my personal radio station for several years]

Every nineteen minutes

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Have you heard of Drummer? As in, the band made up of five drummers from Ohio? Most famous of which is the Black Keys‘ drummer?

No?

Well, you should. Legally, as a former drummer, I’m required by international statute to like them, but I think they’d stand up to an objective examination by others. I keep hearing Pavement references, which is odd, ’cause I never liked Pavement, but I do like this. Check them out. Buy their new album Feel Good Together.

(myspace | pitchfork)

The cool thing is, there's literally a field below his house

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As I have so many times before I made my Dad a CD yesterday. Or, rather, I compiled a playlist; I neglected to get a CD writer in my lastest computer — I simply never burn anything anymore — so my brother had to burn the CD. Thanks Andrew!

Here’s the playlist:

  1. Holly Golightly . “A Length of Pipe”
  2. Angels Of Light & Akron Family . “I Pity The Poor Immigrant”
  3. Dan Auerbach . “Heartbroken, In Disrepair”
  4. Elliott Brood . “Jackson”
  5. Damien Jurado . “Everything Trying”
  6. William Elliott Whitmore . “Johnny Law”
  7. Avett Brothers . “The Ballad Of Love And Hate”
  8. Detroit Cobras . “The Real Thing”
  9. Regina Spektor . “Field Below”
  10. Rural Alberta Advantage . “Rush Apart”
  11. Great Lake Swimmers . “Still”
  12. Bishop Allen . “True Or False”
  13. Alela Diane . “White As Diamonds”
  14. Metric . “Gimme Sympathy (acoustic)”
  15. Wye Oak . “For Prayer”
  16. Neko Case . “Middle Cyclone”

He will, as usual, love the Damien Jurado and William Elliot Whitmore songs. He’ll probably like the Dan Auerbach, Neko Case and Angels of Light & Akron Family. Not sure how he’ll feel about the Wye Oak or Bishop Allen, but I can’t just lob him softballs all the time, even if he is a senior now.

The band everybody (especially Canadians) should be listening to

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Since the demise of The Rheostatics, the door has been open for the title of most quintessentially Canadian band. I was tempted to say The Constantines but they don’t have the same quirk to their lyrics that made the Rheos part of Canadian culture, and which once made The Tragically Hip interesting. So here’s my vote for the new flagbearer.

I’ve been listening to The Rural Alberta Advantage for a while now, and the more I listen to their finally-released-this-year full-length Hometowns, and the more I really absorb the lyrics, the more they sound like Canada. They sing about perfectly Canadian things, like leaving their homes to drive to Ontario for their careers, or getting out of towns like Lethbridge, or the Frank Slide. And, most importantly, their music is awesome. Super, super awesome and catchy as balls.

Check out their site or their MySpace. If you’re in Toronto they’re playing Lee’s Palace on Nov 20; check out their site for other tour dates.

My favourite songs of the year so far (III)

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Back in June I dropped my twelve favourite songs of the year so far:

  • neko case . “middle cyclone”
  • the von bondies . “chancer”
  • dan auerbach . “heartbroken, in disrepair”
  • john frusciante . “unreachable”
  • the heartless bastards . “be so happy”
  • …and you will know us by the trail of dead . “ascending”
  • ume . “the conductor”
  • the thermals . “when i died”
  • william elliott whitmore . “old devils”
  • the yeah yeah yeahs . “heads will roll”
  • …and you will know us by the trail of dead . “fields of coal”
  • japandroids . “heart sweats”

And now, here’s the latest hotness:

  • great lake swimmers . “still”
  • the rural alberta advantage . “the dethbridge in lethbridge”
  • the antlers . “kettering”
  • the antlers . “two”
  • lightning dust . “i knew”
  • now, now every children . “everyone you know”

I’m counting the RAA song even though it came out ages ago because their official album release was this year.

"Remember it was me who dragged you up to the sweaty floor"

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Last year Frightened Rabbit (myspace) kind of appeared on my radar from out of nowhere with The Midnight Organ Fight, an album I loved instantly and which landed in my top ten of the year. When I heard they were coming to town I thought I’d better get on it, Ticketmaster service charges be damned.

And so it was that last night Joe, Sheila, Nellie and I went to see them at the Horseshoe, stopping first for dinner at the Adelaide St. Pub…which isn’t quite a pub, but whatever. It’s a decent spot that serves decent beer in the decidedly indecent entertainment district, and such things are not to be taken for granted, especially when they have a decent patio.

We missed the first opener entirely (almost as if we planned it that way) and arrived just as The Antlers (myspace) took the stage. I was actually pretty impressed, enough so that I came home and downloaded their newest album from eMusic. I have to say, though, they’re a band that sounds very different live than they do in the studio. Watching them live I thought they were about 70% Walkmen, 20% Wolf Parade, 5% Jeff Buckley‘s voice and 5% bombast from This Will Destroy You or Explosions In The Sky…certainly a winning combination for yours truly. Listening to their music right now, though, it sounds nothing like that. It’s over-engineered, over produced. The singer’s voice loses all emotion and the drums might as well not even be there. It’s too bad…I really enjoyed their set, and was hoping it would translate off-stage. It’s not bad, mind you, just less impressive than I found them last night.

A few minutes later Frightened Rabbit was up to do their thing, and it was just what everyone wanted. They blasted through just about all the songs on Midnight Organ Fight (except “Floating In The Forth”, dammit) and a few from their debut (“Mu! Sic! Now!”), then came back out for an encore, which was pretty cool: first Scott Hutchinson led a singalong of “Poke” without a mic, and then did a blazing “Keep Yourself Warm” to end the night. They seemed to enjoy it, the crowd loved it. We loved it too. $16 well spent.

A few miscellaneous observations:

  • The bouncer dug my The Suburbs Are Killing Us tshirt.
  • My hearing is just now returning to normal. We were a little close to one of the speakers. They’re no Mogwai, but locations counts for a lot in a place like the ‘Shoe.
  • It seems wrong, somehow, that the Horseshoe would carry Mill Street Organic beer.

The only thing that I got's been botherin' me my whole life

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Ugh. I sat down, all ready to write a nice long blog post about something frightfully interesting, but my brain is so foggy from this cold and all the DayQuil* I’m taking to deal with it that I can’t string together a coherent sentence. I’ll get back to you on…whatever it was I was going to write about and have already forgotten.

In the meantime, I can muster some thoughts about the two books I just finished: Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk was one of his better ones, I thought. It took me some time to get used to the writing style, but once I did I flew through it. I actually wish it had gone on a little longer, a rare sensation for me with books. I then whipped through Deliver Me From Nowhere by Tennessee Jones, ten short stories written as companion pieces to each of the songs on Bruce Springsteen‘s excellent Nebraska album. Some were good, some were tedious, but only the first two felt like they added to the songs that inspired them. Still, a worthwhile (and quick) read for fans of the album.

* By the way, is it no longer possible to get DayQuil in liquid form? I stumbled out to a drugstore yesterday for provisions, and can find lots of liquid NyQuil, but DayQuil seems to only come in capsule form now. I have to take 2 or 3 just to feel anything, whereas a little gulp of the liquid stuff and I was giddily altered for a good four hours.

"What once was innocence, has turned on its side."

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I don’t know much about Joy Division. I was too young to have known about them when they existed, and the place I grew up wasn’t exactly a thriving centre of post-punk, so I wasn’t exposed to them after the fact either. I didn’t know much of their history either, but after watching 24 Hour Party People I knew a little.  What I did know was that they were — and continue to be — very influential, and that their singer Ian Curtis died very young.

Watching Control (imdb | rotten tomatoes) gave me a better lens on the man, as seen through the eyes of his wife Deborah and director Anton Corbijn, who before he premiered this film at TIFF two years ago had only done music videos and rock photography, some of which had featured Curtis and Joy Division years before. It was shot in a black and white that was achingly beautiful, as you’d expect from someone with Corbijn’s eye. I’d also heard that relative newcomer Sam Riley did a bang-on impression of Curtis, not that I’d know. I don’t think I’d ever seen footage of Joy Division before, or couldn’t remember if I did, but watching a few YouTube clips later proved that Riley nailed it.

Biopics are tricky things, especially about someone who’s become posthumously idolized like Curtis, but I thought this one worked well. It skipped the usual formula of tortured childhood + addiction/hardship = triumph over adversity, and it showed the weakness of Curtis’ character while never quite making him seem pathetic. I had no particular emotional interest in Ian Curtis or Joy Division, but I still found the story interesting and the method skillful. If you haven’t seen it it’s worth a look.

My favourite songs of the year so far (II)

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Back in April I listed my six favourite songs of the year so far:

  • neko case . “middle cyclone”
  • the von bondies . “chancer”
  • dan auerbach . “heartbroken, in disrepair”
  • john frusciante . “unreachable”
  • the heartless bastards . “be so happy”
  • …and you will know us by the trail of dead . “ascending”

Now, a couple of months later, I have a few more for you. If you haven’t heard these, copy and paste them into your favourite music retrieval implement.

  • ume . “the conductor”
  • the thermals . “when i died”
  • william elliott whitmore . “old devils”
  • the yeah yeah yeahs . “heads will roll”
  • …and you will know us by the trail of dead . “fields of coal”
  • japandroids . “heart sweats”

The only unknown right now is whether Grizzly Bear is going to add to this list. Did I miss anything else?