At some point in the late Aughts, I stopped buying new music. It wasn't really by choice, and it definitely wasn't any fun. Lately, though, I've been back in the swing of buying new records. A few years ago, I started having an obsession with Canadian indie rock, and for the first time, I'm going to make a list of my favorite Canadian records of the year.
Not much has changed in the last 20 years. I still prefer stuff with a female front. This Canadian list is more folky than I've leaned in the past, but it is what it is.
Without a whole lot of ado, I'll just get to it.
15. Broken Social Scene -- "Forgiveness Rock Record"
This was probably my most anticipated record of the year, but a bit of a disappointment. I still like it, but it didn't hit me at all like their previous records did. I was doubly disappointed when they played in Raleigh on September 10 as part of the Hopscotch Music Festival. The band looked like they didn't want to be there, and it just wasn't any fun. To be fair, I was in a terrible head space at the time, but my opinion of the show was shared by music geek Bill Purdy, who is largely responsible for getting me back into the swing of listening to and buying new music. Despite not meeting my expectations, it's still good enough to have been shortlisted for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize and good enough to make my short list, too.
This video of them performing "World Sick", which is a standout song on the album, is a good example of how much fun they're not having:
14. Woodpigeon -- "Die Stadt Muzikanten"
This Calgary band is new to me this year, and I really like what I've heard. In 2009, they were long-listed for the Polaris Prize for their "Treasury Library Canada c/w Houndstooth Europa", but that somehow escaped me. They remind me of what I used to like about Belle & Sebastian. Sometimes they remind me of what I used to like about Sufjan Stevens (There. I said it. I used to like Sufjan). In some strange way, it reminds me of what I still like about Galaxie 500. Like many of the bands on this list, they're comprised of about eight core members and a few rotating members. This is their third proper album, or to hear them tell it, it's number two-point-five. Either way, it's fun and folky and rocky and I like it.
Here's "My Denial in Argyle", from the new record:
13. Jason Collett -- Rat a Tat Tat
The Broken Social Scenester put out two full-length albums in 2010, and this is the one that people talk about. It's his sixth solo record, and I've found most of his oeuvre to be a little hit-and-miss. This one is mostly hitting, and I can keep coming back for more. Here he is, channeling T. Rex a bit with the song "Lake Superior":
12. Karkwa -- Les Chemins de Verre
This Montréal band was the winner of the 2010 Polaris Music Prize for Best Canadian full-length album. Like a few of the artists on my own list, I hadn't heard them before, but it's their fourth proper album. This was the first French-language album ever to win in the five year history of the award. I don't have the faintest idea what they're singing about, but I love the music. On some tracks, particularly "Marie, Tu Pleurs", they're so folky that it sounds just like Bon Iver. On others, particularly the title track, they're reminiscent of Broken Social Scene. On "L'Aurore", they sound like The Antlers. This is pretty good company to be in.
Here's "Marie, Tu Pleurs":
11. Hannah Georgas -- "This is Good"
It takes balls of steel to title your debut record "This is Good", but Vancouver newcomer Hannah Georgas pulls it off pretty cleanly. When you're a reasonably attractive Canadian female singer-songwriter and your record generates any momentum at all, there's going to be the inevitable comparisons to Leslie Feist. That's not a bad thing. Like Feist, Georgas' songs straddle the fence between commercial pop and indie pop, but whatever you label it, this is good. I can see almost every one of these songs ending up in an iDevice or Volkswagon commercial, prompting people to wonder "Hey, what is that pop song? I don't want to like it, but I do. A lot". On "Bang Bang You're Dead", she's dangerously close to beating Amy Millan at that Amy Millan game of indie-pop perfection. Overall, it's a bang-up effort from a rookie.
Here's an amazingly artistic and almost creepy video for "Thick Skin"
10. Rae Spoon -- "Love is a Hunter"
This trans-gender singer-songwriter from Calgary was long-listed for the 2009 Polaris Prize with "superioryouareinferior", and will most likely be listed for the 2011 prize with this album, which was released in August of 2010. This is his fifth solo record, and maybe the most beautiful. The songs are all about love, and come from different angles and different styles. There's country-western, there's indie-rock, there's eighties-style dance music, there's a lot of good. I'm particularly drawn to the song "Lighthouse", and the changing chorus "Do me a favour and take all day to build a lighthouse so I can stay out of your way/know where to stay/find you again"
Here he is with a live performance of the title track:
9. You Say Party! We Say Die! -- "XXXX"
This Abbottsford BC quintet dropped the "We Say Die" part of their name after their drummer dropped dead during a show in promotion of this album. After a few months off, they got right back to it. The album was originally released in Canada in late 2009, but the rest of the world didn't get it until early 2010, so it's eligible for this list. It's not exactly my type of music. It's too dancy, too upbeat,and "too" lots of other things. But holy shit, is this a fun record to listen to! Right out of the gates, I was smacked by the lead track "There is XXXX Within My Heart", and I was completely sold. It could easily be on the mind-numbingly good record by Warpaint (I'll get to that in a few days), and it's hard to even let track #2 play since I wear out the "replay" button. Happily, the second track "Glory" keeps me interested with its spot on send-up of Blondie. Overall, it's just too damn fun. Here's a video of "Dark Days":
8. Land of Talk -- Cloak and Cipher"
This is the second full-length record from the Montréal trio after their self-titled debut was long-listed for the 2009 Polaris. It was produced by Besnard Lakes mastermind Jace Lasek, who forced frontwoman Lizzie Powell to take a different approach. She had a bit of a scare a couple of years ago when, due to overexertion and stress, she developed polyps on her vocal chords. She didn't have surgery, but she did reevaluate the way she exerts herself. The result is that she's found herself and her role as the frontwoman of the band. Nothing seems forced. I was a big fan of the last album, and I like this one almost as much. Here's the standout track "Swift Coin":
7. Kathryn Calder -- "Are You My Mother?"
The first solo record from New Pornographers and Immaculate Machine collaborator Calder is a pretty good debut and was met with warm reception across the board. Incidentally, both this record and the New Pornographers' "Together" were dedicated to Calder's mother, who died from ALS while Calder was recording this album.
On the lead track, "Slip Away", it starts off with very simple single piano notes and an egg shaker. Slowly, it builds until it reaches a full-band crescendo and a stunning chorus of non-vocal singing. It took a little while, honestly, for this record to take hold with me, but once it did, it was a big hit. It's mostly low-tempo with sparse instrumentation to accentuate her wonderful singing voice, and in a weird way, this makes me think fondly of Ida. I think the bigger songs are a bit forced, but I can't find a song on the album that I don't like.
One of the standout tracks is "Arrow", and I'll highly, highly recommend that you view this live acoustic performance of it here as well as the official video below:
6. Forest City Lovers -- "Carriage"
This is another one that I didn't find until very, very late in the game, but it skyrocketed up the charts in my house and nestled into the #6 spot. It's the third release from this Toronto band, but it's all new to me. The pop goodness oozing from this record is sort of like if Club 8 and Camera Obscura were having a party on the front lawn. And then Leslie Feist showed up unexpectedly. You know... To make it Canadian. I'm a grouchy old curmudgeon, but this record makes me really happy.
Here's a video for the standout song "Tell Me, Cancer". It looks like they had a total blast making this video. Stick with it to the end because the last 1:15 of the song (and video) is the fun part.
5. Dan Mangan -- "Nice, Nice, Very Nice"
There's not much male representation on this list, but here's a dude from Vancouver. Like a lot of the stuff on this list, he's pretty folky. And sad. I think I might be cheating a bit here, because this record came out in 2009, but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't available in the US until sometime in 2010. Either way, it was shortlisted for the 2010 Polaris. This (specifically the song "You Silly Git") should find a place in the catalog of Andrew Bird fans. A lot of the stuff on the record is themed around leaving home and dealing with that trauma.
The video for "Road Regrets" is directed by the same dude who did that Kathryn Calder video, and it won the 2010 Leo Award for best Canadian music video.
4. Stars -- "The Five Ghosts"
This is another record that I anticipated for a long time. Unlike the new one from BSS, this didn't disappoint at all. It wasn't met with warm reception by the press, but I'm a big fan of the dark dark theme and the tidier production. There's no doubt that Torquil Campbell has the charisma, and if you've seen them live, you know that he relishes the spotlight and knows how to put on a show. However, while he's the brawn, Amy Millan is the beauty and the brains of the outfit. With this album, they seemed to get that. When they toured with it, they missed it a little bit, though. The show was really big and extraordinarily well-lit, and as full of feathers and bubbles and flower petals as a Flaming Lips show. This sort of contrasts the death theme running through the new album. I Think "Fixed" falls short as a smash single and doesn't sit on level footing with songs like "Elevator Love Letter" or "The Night Starts Here" or "Ageless Beauty", and that's because this record is probably designed to be listened to in one big chunk rather than dissected. While those big, anthemic songs are great, I've always appreciated full albums more than individual songs.
All that said, here's the big single "Fixed":
3. The New Pornographers -- "Together"
Again, a highly anticipated record. I stubbornly refused to listen to leaked versions and early sneak previews, waiting for the release date. I was, without hesitation, impressed. I can't say that it's my favorite album by the Vancouver supergroup, but it's still dang good. Kathryn Calder joined this band a few years back as a touring member, and her role is pretty significant on this record. I can dig that. Neko Case's role has been diminished slightly, and it's getting harder to identify which songs are hers. The first half of this album is all stand-out tracks, and it loses a bit of steam somewhere in the second act, but it builds back up to a nice album closer in "We End Up Together". I got to see them in the summer and I enjoyed the show very much.
Here's my favorite song from the album, with a Busby Berkely-themed video. "Crash Years"
2. The Arcade Fire -- "The Suburbs"
The Montréal band blew everybody away with "Funeral" in 2004, then took a big dump on us in 2007 with the disappointing "Neon Bible" (which amazingly was shortlisted for the 2007 Polaris). I, like thousands of other people, had written them off. It was a very pleasant surprise when "The Suburbs" was an incredible record. I was a little worried that they were going to head down a dirty path that Bono has been on for the last 17 years -- one of self-aggrandizement and off-putting ego. Instead, they bounced back with an earnest, breathtaking album. Like "Funeral", it's much better when listened to as a whole, and I don't like separating songs from the whole work, but "Half Light II (No Celebration)" is probably my most favorite of many favorites on the record.
I think it's safe to say that this is already a prohibitive favorite to win the 2011 Polaris, even with five more months for new releases to qualify.
Here's the amazing video for the title track, directed by Spike Jonze:
1. The Besnard Lakes -- "The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night"
This record socked me in the jaw and knocked me down. The Besnard Lakes are a band I'd heard about, and maybe hundreds of times they'd been suggested to me by real people and by electronic "you might like this" means. But since their critically acclaimed "...Are the Dark Horse" came out during that period of time when I wasn't buying new music or taking on new bands, I never got it. It took me a few months to finally come around after "...Are the Roaring Night" was released, but when I finally got around to it, I was amazed. I like everything about this record. I like its crunchiness. I like its chewiness. I like the tartness and the sweetness. And, yes, the sexiness. Make no mistake. These are not sexy people, but their music is sexy as all get out.
Like "...Are the Dark Horse" in 2007, "...Are the Roaring Night" was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize this year. It was a tough decision to put this one in the #1 spot, but at the end of the day, it got the upper hand. Remember... This isn't science. This is just one man's opinion.
Here's the fantastic video for "Albatross"
So that's it. Those are my favorite 15 Canadian records from 2010.
At some point in the not too distant future, I'll do a similar write-up for the "non-Canadian" albums, and then a composite list. With any luck, by the middle of January.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
It's so much brighter than the sun is
First, enjoy the videos for "Heaven or Las Vegas" and "Iceblink Luck". Then read my commentary on the album.
Heaven or Las Vegas:
Iceblink Luck:
I'd like to say that on September 18, 1990, I waited outside the record store for the doors to open that Tuesday morning. However, I don't think that would be true. On that day, I probably didn't know about the Cocteaus well enough to anticipate the new album. I'd heard "Carolyn's Fingers" (from the 1988 album "Blue Bell Knoll), but that was about it. I can't be sure when I bought my first copy of "Heaven or Las Vegas", but I know that over time I've bought at least three hard copies of the original recording. I've given at least one away and had at least one stolen. It's the kind of thing, though, that makes me happy to buy another copy if it means that someone else in the world has one of mine.
There's an important distinction here. I specifically mentioned "hard copies" of the album. Anyone can download a digital copy of original or even the 2003 re-mastered version. They can get the fancy lossless files so it's "just like the album". But it's not. In the 1990s, it was a real treat to buy an album on the 4AD label. The jacket artwork was always amazing, and worth the price of the album itself. The liner notes were usually pretty minimal, but who needs a lyric sheet, a photo of the band and a list of acknowledgements when you've got a stunning piece of jacket art? I'll admit that I have started buying digital downloads of music, but I still buy hard copies because I refuse to let go of certain things. It may be juvenile, but I get a rush out of tearing open the cd wrapper and holding the jewel box in my hand as I listen to the music for the first time. I like to admire the artwork and look for the connections between the artwork and the music within.
With digital downloads, we're seldom even aware of what the album cover looks like. And downloading the pdf version of the artwork isn't the same. It doesn't have the smell and tactile feel of real liner notes.
I could go on a tangent about how ebooks and digital downloads are horrible for our local economies, but I'll leave that for another day. I could also go on a tangent about the parallels between 4AD records and Factory Records, but I'll leave that for another day as well.
To get back on track... "Heaven or Las Vegas" was a smashing success for the Cocteaus. It reached #7 on the UK charts and #99 in the US. It was their sixth proper album and by far the "cleanest" to that point in time. The first three records were dark, muddy and dense. They were great, but they were definitely born out of goth and post-punk. The next three, starting with 1986's "Victorialand" started to get that "lighter than air" feel, the production was cleaned up and the overall vibe was getting a bit brighter. Still, there was always a deliberate use of confounding "lyrics". With rare exception, Liz Fraser's singing bordered so much on glossolalia that people wondered if there actually were lyrics. Since the liner notes were sparse and we didn't have internet for that kind of thing, we were left to assume that it was all part of the mystery of the Cocteaus.
The common (mis)conception about "HOLV" is that, for the first time, we could discern the lyrics. They still didn't make a bit of goddamned sense, but at least we could assume that it was English that she was speaking. I've listened to that album probably 2500 times in my life, and I can safely say that I can only pick up about two dozen words in the whole thing. I'll dismiss the claim that the lyrics are more clear. Even using a lyric finder cheat sheet, I still can't pick anything out. What is clear, though, is that the music was getting better. I would argue that "Blue Bell Knoll" (1988) has more lush production and cleaner sound. I would also argue that the "lyrics" are more discernible on that album than on "HOLV". There's still a noticeable shift to something bigger and better. Anyway, "HOLV" was the album that finally put a record in the top 100 in the US and got them on MTV (even if it was only on 120 minutes with Dave Kendall).
At that critical time, 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell, who was notoriously difficult for bands to work with, decided to go in a different direction. Despite the success of "HOLV", he and the band both cited personal and artistic differences, and it was the last 4AD record by the Cocteaus. They made two more records, which were both much more commercially accessible before they themselves called it quits in 1996.
The Cocteaus may or may not have been the most profitable band on the 4AD label, but they're absolutely the band that defined that label. Watts-Russell would later say that "Heaven or Las Vegas" was the best album his label ever put out.
It remains in my desert island list, and it always will.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
The snoopy snow cone machine
It baffles my mind sometimes when I think about the things we were allowed to do when I was a kid and the things that we were forbidden. I guess this thought was fueled when I was playing an arcade game version of lawn darts a week ago. The real thing, of course, has been banned in the United States and Canada since the 1980s, but this is the kind of toy that children were allowed to, and even encouraged to play with when I was a kid.
This is absolute lunacy. Give a handful of kids some sharp metal pointy projectiles, and it's only a matter of nanoseconds before they're throwing them at each other. It doesn't matter whether the object is a lethal weapon or a nerf ball: kids throw things at each other.
I never had lawn darts, but one Christmas I got a pub darts board and a ping-pong table. I resisted the urge to throw the darts at my sister, but within a couple of days, the ping-pong table was perforated by dart hits. Intentional hits. My mother, being the both the disciplinarian of the family and a very crafty person, proceeded to give me a well-deserved beating with one of the ping-pong paddles. It, too, had taken on more dart hits than the dart board had. Her preferred weapon of choice was a wooden spoon, and she broke more than a few administering punishment on me. Her instrument in this instance, though, was the ping-pong paddle. The significance of that deliberate choice was lost on me at the time, but it was brilliant.
I don't mean, even for a second, to paint my mother out to be some beast like Joan Crawford. On the contrary; my mother was and is a wonderful woman. This was, after all, the 1970s, when it was perfectly fine for parents to beat holy hell out of their children when they were acting like little assholes. Even in the middle of the Big Star grocery store. It's not like we were hit with lead pipes or barbed wire, but it's not like we were put in "time out" either. Punishments were fair and just. Sometimes, I even learned a lesson. Most often not, though.
That's not the point here, however. I'm supposed to be talking about the Snoopy Snow Cone Machine. And I'll get there. Trust me.
Parents were allowed by cultural standards to issue physical punishments to their children. Children were allowed to have toys that could easily become deadly weapons. We were encouraged to play tackle football in the street. We were encouraged to play around on open construction sites. Kids didn't wear helmets when they rode their bicycles. Somehow, most of us survived childhood unscathed.
For all the things we (and I've been using "we" in the editorial sense) were allowed to have and for all the things we were allowed and encouraged to do, it sometimes blows my mind what my sister and I were not allowed to have.
My sister, who is almost four years older than I, really really wanted an Easy-bake Oven. All little girls did. The modern easy-bake oven uses different technology and lots of safety features. It's pretty much foolproof and accident-proof. Back in the early days, though, this was a dangerous toy. The original oven resembled a real oven, but used a high wattage incandescent light bulb instead of a heating element. Although the light bulb as heat source was marginally less dangerous than a heating element, there were no safety features. This meant that a clumsy, uncoordinated, or overly-curious little girl had a very good chance of putting her hand directly onto the hot-burning 100-watt light bulb. My mother forbid Laura to have one, saying "If it can cook a cake, it can cook your hand". Again, the modern oven has a tiny slot into which the cake pan is shoved and a tiny slot to pull it out; there's no chance of coming into contact with the heat source. I'm pretty sure that even today, my sister, now aged 42, would be excited about getting an easy-bake oven. If for no other reason, than for the sake of nostalgia.
I usually got what I wanted, and I never really wanted much. Footballs, magic kits, digital watches. Things like that. Although there wasn't really a safety issue (maybe there was, but I can't remember), I wasn't allowed to have a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine. I was obsessed with Snoopy for a while, and while I got things like Snoopy dolls and Peanuts books and Snoopy lunchboxes and Snoopy Halloween costumes, I never got the one thing I wanted the most.
While other kids were getting expensive birthday presents like a trampoline or an Atari 2600, I just wanted a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine, which probably retailed at $7.95. I know I liked the commercial:
Apparently, the folks at Hasbro were merely cashing in on the late '70s pandemic that was Snoopy Fever. They already had a similar snow cone machine in the market with a similar ad campaign. It looks like they simply rebranded it with an iconic namesake. Check out the Snowman Snow Cone Machine commercial:
Until I started writing this post, I'd never heard of the Snow Man Snow Cone machine, and I probably wouldn't have wanted one of those. Proof that this toy is all about the celebrity name. In any case, I never got the machine, and there was never any parental commentary like "If it'll crush ice, it'll crush your fingers". There was just flat refusal. I spent the better part of my late childhood and adulthood resenting the fact that I never got the sought after piece of cheap plastic.
It's come to my attention that I was far from being alone there. Whether they've been re-introduced to the toy market or they never left the market, you can still get them. I've seen a few youtube videos of adults my age unboxing their very first Snoopy Snow Cone Machine and making their delicious treat. All with lukewarm reception. I think this one is a fairly good example of a grown man actually struggling to get the thing to produce one paltry cone.
If it takes that much work from a 30-something man, I hate to imagine how much effort it would require from a seven-year old kid. And now I'm glad that I never had one.
This is absolute lunacy. Give a handful of kids some sharp metal pointy projectiles, and it's only a matter of nanoseconds before they're throwing them at each other. It doesn't matter whether the object is a lethal weapon or a nerf ball: kids throw things at each other.
I never had lawn darts, but one Christmas I got a pub darts board and a ping-pong table. I resisted the urge to throw the darts at my sister, but within a couple of days, the ping-pong table was perforated by dart hits. Intentional hits. My mother, being the both the disciplinarian of the family and a very crafty person, proceeded to give me a well-deserved beating with one of the ping-pong paddles. It, too, had taken on more dart hits than the dart board had. Her preferred weapon of choice was a wooden spoon, and she broke more than a few administering punishment on me. Her instrument in this instance, though, was the ping-pong paddle. The significance of that deliberate choice was lost on me at the time, but it was brilliant.
I don't mean, even for a second, to paint my mother out to be some beast like Joan Crawford. On the contrary; my mother was and is a wonderful woman. This was, after all, the 1970s, when it was perfectly fine for parents to beat holy hell out of their children when they were acting like little assholes. Even in the middle of the Big Star grocery store. It's not like we were hit with lead pipes or barbed wire, but it's not like we were put in "time out" either. Punishments were fair and just. Sometimes, I even learned a lesson. Most often not, though.
That's not the point here, however. I'm supposed to be talking about the Snoopy Snow Cone Machine. And I'll get there. Trust me.
Parents were allowed by cultural standards to issue physical punishments to their children. Children were allowed to have toys that could easily become deadly weapons. We were encouraged to play tackle football in the street. We were encouraged to play around on open construction sites. Kids didn't wear helmets when they rode their bicycles. Somehow, most of us survived childhood unscathed.
For all the things we (and I've been using "we" in the editorial sense) were allowed to have and for all the things we were allowed and encouraged to do, it sometimes blows my mind what my sister and I were not allowed to have.
My sister, who is almost four years older than I, really really wanted an Easy-bake Oven. All little girls did. The modern easy-bake oven uses different technology and lots of safety features. It's pretty much foolproof and accident-proof. Back in the early days, though, this was a dangerous toy. The original oven resembled a real oven, but used a high wattage incandescent light bulb instead of a heating element. Although the light bulb as heat source was marginally less dangerous than a heating element, there were no safety features. This meant that a clumsy, uncoordinated, or overly-curious little girl had a very good chance of putting her hand directly onto the hot-burning 100-watt light bulb. My mother forbid Laura to have one, saying "If it can cook a cake, it can cook your hand". Again, the modern oven has a tiny slot into which the cake pan is shoved and a tiny slot to pull it out; there's no chance of coming into contact with the heat source. I'm pretty sure that even today, my sister, now aged 42, would be excited about getting an easy-bake oven. If for no other reason, than for the sake of nostalgia.
I usually got what I wanted, and I never really wanted much. Footballs, magic kits, digital watches. Things like that. Although there wasn't really a safety issue (maybe there was, but I can't remember), I wasn't allowed to have a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine. I was obsessed with Snoopy for a while, and while I got things like Snoopy dolls and Peanuts books and Snoopy lunchboxes and Snoopy Halloween costumes, I never got the one thing I wanted the most.
While other kids were getting expensive birthday presents like a trampoline or an Atari 2600, I just wanted a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine, which probably retailed at $7.95. I know I liked the commercial:
Apparently, the folks at Hasbro were merely cashing in on the late '70s pandemic that was Snoopy Fever. They already had a similar snow cone machine in the market with a similar ad campaign. It looks like they simply rebranded it with an iconic namesake. Check out the Snowman Snow Cone Machine commercial:
Until I started writing this post, I'd never heard of the Snow Man Snow Cone machine, and I probably wouldn't have wanted one of those. Proof that this toy is all about the celebrity name. In any case, I never got the machine, and there was never any parental commentary like "If it'll crush ice, it'll crush your fingers". There was just flat refusal. I spent the better part of my late childhood and adulthood resenting the fact that I never got the sought after piece of cheap plastic.
It's come to my attention that I was far from being alone there. Whether they've been re-introduced to the toy market or they never left the market, you can still get them. I've seen a few youtube videos of adults my age unboxing their very first Snoopy Snow Cone Machine and making their delicious treat. All with lukewarm reception. I think this one is a fairly good example of a grown man actually struggling to get the thing to produce one paltry cone.
If it takes that much work from a 30-something man, I hate to imagine how much effort it would require from a seven-year old kid. And now I'm glad that I never had one.
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