ok, uhhhh…i know i already sent this out, like, six months ago. but i should really have known better than to do so when music from 2001 was still rolling in. so, now…the revised list. some cds have changed position, some have fallen off the chart altogether. and so, without further ado:

10 . revolt against tired noises . stratford 4 . brmc (who you’ll read about in roughly 60 seconds) de-fuzzed, in an echo chamber, with a female voice or two.

09 . y’all get scared now, ya hear? . the reindeer section . supergroup. members of mogwai, snow patrol, belle & sebastien, astrid, arab strap and others get together and cut a cd after meeting up at a folk implosion show. you can hear barlow’s influence throughout. there’s some gorgeous mellow music here.

08 . brmc . black rebel motorcycle club . imagine the jesus and mary chain on a 70s revival tour, but with more hooks.

07 . amnesiac . radiohead . spotty. brilliant at times (“packt like sardines in a crushd tin box”, “you & whose army?”, “knives out”, “dollars and cents”, “spinning plates”), but for shit at times as well.

06 . those who tell the truth shall die those who tell the truth shall live . explosions in the sky . i don’t know how to describe them. instrumental. cinematic. something midway between those two.

05 . asleep in the back . elbow . this is what i wrote before: “take radiohead. extract thom yorke and replace him with rob dickinson from catherine wheel. add jordon zadorozny from blinker the star to do some guitar canoodling and maybe even a little bit of gomez’s pseudo-latin influence, mix well with a bunch of anti-rockstar pixie dust and you have elbow.”

04 . let it come down . spiritualized . the best live show i’ve seen since…well, since trail of dead back in march. but one of the top five i’ve seen, i think. space rock? nah. call it taking a therapist’s-eye-view via the music of someone in the nth stage of self-destruction. or brilliance. or something midway between those two.

03 . mass romantic . the new pornographers . another ‘supergroup’. quite possibly the catchiest songs this side of the charlatans uk or the beta band, and with the strangely captivating voice of neko case too. you can’t go wrong.

02 . white blood cells . the white stripes . garage rockers in the guise of saviours. they appeal to the minimalist in me. they’ve shed a lot of the blues that showed up in their earlier music – usually a bad thing – but they’ve pushed it a little closer to punk and it works, goddammit. take my advice: throw the entire ouevre of the strokes into the toilet and use it for target practice. this is it.

01 . agaetis byrjun . sigur ros . [insert standard dan gushy-gush explanation of the word “genius” and how it applies to sigur ros here]

honorable mentions:
bardo pond . dilate
beta band, the . hot shots ii
dylan, bob . love and theft
guided by voices . isolation drills
harcourt, ed . here be monsters
kim band, the . girlology
muse . origin of symmetry
phillips, grant lee . mobilize
starsailor . love is here
tielli, martin . we didn’t even suspect that he was the poppy salesman

award for ep based solely on interpretation of old jewish folk tune
mogwai . my father, my king

uhhh…more honorable mentions
Clairvoyants . Your New Boundaries
Crystal Method, The . Tweekend
Eels . Souljacker
Farrell, Perry . Song Yet To Be Sung
Good, Matthew . Audio Of Being
Pedro The Lion . The Only Reason I Feel Secure
Silver Mt. Zion . Born Into Trouble As Sparks Fly Upward
Super Furry Animals . Rings Around The World
Toadies . Hell Below / Stars Above
Tool . Lateralus

ok, that’s it, honest. i bought another 20 cds last year, but i won’t mention those. go. god be with you.

ok, so the habs decided to lay down and die last night. really, from the third period of game four on, they looked like they’d thrown it in. they were up two games to one, with a three-goal third period lead. then came the bullshit cross-checking call, then the bench minor. then came the folding of the tents.

after the sting of lost opportunity passes, the canadiens and their fans will reflect on the season, and how improbable their playoff run really was. saku koivu, their captain and best forward was diagnosed with cancer, for christ’s sake. they traded for donald audette to add offensive spark, and he promptly placed his arm under a skate and was lost for most of the season. also lost for an extended period was sheldon souray. doug gilmour, their leader in the second half, was unofficially retired a year earlier. and then there was the hero, the saviour, the bedrock…jose theodore, whose playoff experience was next to nil but whose regular season earned him nominations for both the hart and vezina trophies. this team should never have made the playoffs, let alone upset the goliath bruins in the first round. they were better than anyone could have expected.

which is why it now feels so raw to think of what they had by the throat…and let slip away.

go see the last waltz. it’s been re-released to theatres now that scorsese has finally recovered from the high we was on during the filming. if it’s not playing at a theatre you can get to, rent it. wait for the dvd if you can, though; it’s out may 7.

one of the best rock documentaries ever made, without a doubt. it’s worth it just to see muddy waters show the world how blues and rock are children born of a common mother.

‘one of those bands you just have to see live’ is the tag assigned to spiritualized. armed with frequent spins of the last two albums (ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space and let it come down) and a review from my brother of a show a few weeks back in the uk, i set out for the opera house to catch the travelling jay spaceman show, wondering if the talk could be true.

the dears opened for them…i only caught a few songs, and i wasn’t paying attention to anything other than the bartender next to me, and the logistics of the route to the bathrooms at the opera house. if there were ever a fire, all those relieving themselves would die. so i’ll not say much about the dears. sorry dears.

spiritualized hit the stage around 10:25, bless ’em. i was out taking part in drunken foolishness the night before and i was a bit tired, so i was glad they didn’t wait ’til midnight to get on with it. thanks opera house. they opened with “electricity”. boy did they ever. good, punchy song to get it off the ground, and the light show came right along with it…that song kicked off the trend for the rest of the evening (which i was expecting, given what tim’d told me) of the back-lighting making the guys silhouettes. jason just stood on one side of the stage, near the front but facing back toward the centre, ninety degrees to the crowd. that seemed a bit odd, but i knew they weren’t big on connecting with the audience like that. in fact, not one word was spoken into a mic other than lyrics.

i actually didn’t recognize the next song, nor a lot of what they played for the rest of the set. a lot of the material came from pure phase and lazer guided melodies and even spacemen 3 i guess. but song #3 showed me why jason was standing like that; the song was instrumental and started off slowly and very, very gradually (like, 6-minutes-later-gradually) sped up – very hard to do – and they seemed to be watching jason and letting him control the tempo and acceleration. he was conducting.

now then, i’d like to point something out, to anyone who may read this: no matter how cool you think it is, and how very traditional and deep-seated in your concert-going psyche it may be, holding up your lighter during a slow song (i don’t care that is was during “shine a light”) is idiotic. don’t do it. ever. not even if you’re wearing a tank top and mesh hat at a creed concert and the toilet brush next to you is doing it. not even then. rise above your breeding, toilet brushes. jason believes in you, even in that state. repent, toilet brushes.

i really wish i could remember the set list. i remember “on fire”, “out of sight”, “i think i’m in love”, “walking with jesus” (a spacemen 3 song), and a kickass rendition of “come together”, one of my most favouritest. that was the second-to-last song, i think. i didn’t recognize the last song, but it built up with the lights and we were left winded. they came out for one encore – “lord can you hear me”, which couldn’t have been more perfect – and then they disappeared for good. they played for 1:45, plus the encore; not bad at all.

listen to spiritualized. i didn’t even get into the biggest (studio) appeal of the band, which is observing pierce’s dichotomous relationship with himself and the drugs he keeps ingesting…he loves them, but they kill him. he knows it, but he doesn’t really want to stop. or he does, but not enough. either way, it’s a fascinating thing to hear put to music, but it’s not why you see them live. live, they stand stock-still and appear otherworldly on the stage, wreathed in strobe and holding forth from their stacked marshall pulpit. it’s the power in their preaching that gets you, the force of their bible-thumping. i know, somewhere in that crowd last night, was a kid who didn’t know much about spiritualized and just went to a concert with his buddies not expecting to hear this. not expecting to get religion. and when he went home he probably set aside $20 to go buy let it come down the next morning. or maybe he just got really high. both would be fitting.

thanks spiritualized.

i miss the sun.

i just got back from a week in barbados, and not only is it cold outside, it’s quite grey. yuck. i miss waking up at 8 AM and walking straight to breakfast in shorts and sandals, then hitting the beach or the pool or a 50-foot catamaran with a drink in my hand. i don’t miss the 5-hour flights there and back, nor the inevitable sunburn.

the silver lining: the raptors and the habs both made the playoffs, and i’m back in time to watch them.

jesus, marney’s married.

jesus, marney’s moving away.

13 hours from now, i’ll be boarding a plane for barbados. some suggestions for anyone reading this (as if anyone ever does…):

• if you or your friends get married, convince them to go to barbados.
• it may sound hot, but really, this is no hotter than toronto in july.
• don’t book the trip for you and your girlfriend and then break up with her. change penalties = hernia-quality pain. the travel agent joked that it’ll be nearly as expensive for me to dump her as it will be for my friend to get married.
• just because you saved a bunch of money by shopping at the bay instead of harry rosen for your clothes, does not mean you should then go to cole-haan and buy these.

i’m listening to mp3s from modulate by bob mould. bob! what’re you doing, man? c’mon! you’re brilliant, you helped completely change punk and you nearly invented ‘alternative’ music…so what the hell are you doing? black sheets of rain? now that was brilliant. last dog and pony show? brilliant. workbook? brilliant. every sugar cd? brilliant. your self-titled cd from a few years ago? ummm, not bad. but this?

i can’t do it. i can’t go see you at the phoenix next month. sorry, dude. i saw you last time, it was tremendous, a concert to end all concerts, but…i just can’t stomach the idea of watching you roll this big hunk of manure off the stage and onto the crowd. i can’t.

sorry.

get well soon.

hold me.

the two funniest scenes in moviedom, i have decided, both feature john cusack and jeremy piven.

1. say anything: when jeremy piven tackles john cusack after the party, demanding his keys, and cusack grabs him by the collar and yells “you must chill! you must chill! i have hidden your keys!”, it kills me every time.
2. grosse pointe blank: again, it’s these two in a car, when in the middle of a conversation – with no warning – jeremy piven just smashes his hand down on the horn and yells, “ten years!”. i watch it, i laugh, i back it up, i watch it, i laugh. repeat ad nauseum.

it’s almost enough to make me watch serendipity, just to see if another scene like that occurs. the fact that kate beckinsdale is in it, though, just puts me right off the idea.

10. mobilize by grant lee phillips
yes, this guy used to be the singer of grant lee buffalo. yes, you can tell by the name. yes, you can also tell by the music. you my have heard “spring release” pop up on the radio once or twice, but you won’t hear the better songs like “mobilize” unless you get the cd. alternative rock lite. michael stipe loved glb (he sang backup on their last release, jubilee, also definitely worth picking up), and they sound a lot like rem would if they’d never gotten greedy and recorded “stand”.

9. girlology by the kim band
a canadian entry! actually, you needn’t get too excited, there’s another one up the list a bit. ever seen the video for david usher’s “alone in the universe”? notice the hottie guitarist? this is her. kim bingham used to be in a toronto band called mudgirls, now she’s doing her own thing when she’s not in usher’s oxymoronic solo band. imagine matthew sweet with (ironically) more balls…smart lyrics and a good crunch make this unique and almost interestingly boring.

8. love and theft by bob dylan
i don’t know how he keeps doing it. his last disc, time out of mind, was one of the best he ever did, 40 years after he started out. the album switches between old-style folk jazz/blues and the darker, harder stuff that made time out of mind so great (although this one doesn’t compare to time out of mind…that’s one the three best he’s ever done, along with bringing it all back home and oh mercy). the banjo on “highwater” kicked my ass. not the best dylan, but bob at 60% is still better than most musicians can ever hope to be. see ‘tom waits’ under songwriting for more details.

7. brmc by black rebel motorcycle club
i hated the big 70s arena-rock revival you saw in the last year or two, bands like supergrass and sloan and thrush hermit trying to impress on us that the bay city rollers pushed through a fuzzier amp is worth a listen. bullshit. listen to this, or the dandy warhols. it strays into the land of cheesy sometimes, but the dark stuff (“love burns”, “spread your love”, “salvation”) is worth it.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/b/black-rebel-motorcycle-club/brmc.shtml

6. hot shots ii by the beta band
i can’t tell if their lyrics are supposed to be cleverly intelligent or just clever. all in all, the music isn’t something i’d call brilliant, but rather so solidly good that the whole cd (with the possible exception of an odd last track) becomes a big 8 out of 10 the whole way through…which actually makes it quite exceptional.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/b/beta-band/hot-shots-ii.shtml

5. dilate by bardo pond
one of the leading members of the psychedelphia music style, these guys are trippy with a capital t. the singer sounds like hope sandoval after taking a handful of the red ones and being punched in the throat. one of their earlier cds, lapsed, is terrific as well, but this one has “inside”, which floored me. if you like instrumental-ish, psychedelic-type stuff, you’ll love this.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/b/bardo-pond/dilate.shtml

4. mass romantic by the new pornographers
the other canadian contribution on the list. this is sort of a supergroup, for lack of a better term, made up of members from other bands like limblifter and destroyer, and with neko case singing on a few songs. while there are one or two skippable songs, there are some really great ones as well: “mass romantic”, “the slow descent into alcoholism”, “centre for holy wars”, etc. it’ll probably take you a few listens to really get into it, but believe me, you will. “letter from an occupant” is one of those songs i listen to over and over again when i’m having a bad day. with the possible exception of the rheostatics (i’m biased; saw them live again last weekend), this is the best canadian band going.
http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/n/new-pornographers/mass-romantic.shtml

3. amnesiac by radiohead
no doubt i’ll take some flack for depositing this one at #3, just as i did for leaving kid a midway down last year’s list. i actually think amnesiac is a better disc…they’re pretty comparable as far as number of really good songs and throw-aways, but “pyramid song” is the reach advantage that amnesiac has over kid a. as i said, the guys do their usual thing here with spots of brilliance (“Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box”, “You & Whose Army?”, “Knives Out”, “Dollars And Cents”, “Spinning Plates”) and some rot (“Morning Bell / Amnesiac” — the destruction of a perfectly good song, “Hunting Bears”), but the good is *so* good that they get away with more. see bob-dylan-60% rule for more details.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/r/radiohead/amnesiac.shtml

2. asleep in the back by elbow
take radiohead. extract thom yorke and replace him with rob dickinson from catherine wheel. add jordon zadorozny from blinker the star to do some guitar canoodling and maybe even a little bit of gomez‘s pseudo-latin influence, mix well with a bunch of anti-rockstar pixie dust and you have elbow. this was another cd i bought blind, just on a recommendation on some website (hmv.com’s magazine, i think) and manoman, was i impressed. when the first song (“any day now”) started playing, it was as if i was hearing what would’ve happened if radiohead had kept the weird-meter on 4 after ok computer instead of putting it to 9 and producing kid a. if you’re looking for creativity and long, loud rock songs in the same box, get this. now.

1. agaetis byrjun by sigur ros
i don’t know what i can say about this cd that i haven’t said already. most of you have read my review of the concert. it’s the most brilliant band i’ve come across in…well, maybe ever. i check the website every day for news about the next cd. i’ve downloaded every song i can find from their earlier albums which aren’t available here. i’ve used the words ‘brilliant’ and ‘miraculous’ more than once when describing them. this disc still crushes me every time i listen to it, and it’s surely one of the greatest arguments for rock music to be held up as a true art form.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/s/sigur-ros/agaetis-byrjun.shtml

***should be on the list, but didn’t really qualify***

madonna by and you will know us by the trail of dead
it came out last year and i didn’t get it until a few months ago, dammit. it’d be at #2 for sure.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/a/and-you-will-know-us-by-the-trail-of-dead/madonna.shtml

my father my king by mogwai
an ep, so i didn’t feel right including it, especially since it’s just one song (albeit 20 minutes worth). it’s far better than mogwai’s full-length offering earlier in the year, rock action. the song, or at least the central theme, is based on an old jewish hymn. classic mogwai: no lyrics, whispered, savage, rambling, more than we deserve.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/m/mogwai/my-father-my-king.shtml

***honourable mentions***

a silver mt. zion (born into trouble as sparks fly upward)
eels (souljacker)
perry farrell (song yet to be sung)
the matthew good band (audio of being)
tool (lateralus)
explosions in the sky (those who tell the truth will die…)
guided by voices (isolation drills)
varnaline (songs in a northern key)
buddy guy (sweet tea)
crystal method (tweekend)

(update: I can’t believe I left Explosions In The Sky down in the “honorable mention” category. If I’d done this list over again after I’d really gotten into the CD I’m sure it would be 4th or 5th. Mass Romantic would likely move up as well.)